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and-stir-the-stars · 1 year

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(I dislike arguing so please dont think im try to do that!) I was just wondering why you think the funtimes were created while evan was alive? I'm pretty sure fnaf 4 was made when scott was trying to made dream theory a thing, which explains mangle. Obviously we're not longer going down that route but there was a point where scott was steering us there. And i was always confused on why the funtimes were made to kill kids so far ahead, idk though

(Oh no this is very long my apologies! Also i do genuinely want to hear your opinion! :D!!)

-theorist anon

oh, the genuine answer as to why I think the Funtimes were already created while Evan is alive is because I think it's more interesting that way. It's not rooted in canon whatsoever; I just think Evan and Mike's story is more interesting if Liz's death caused a rift between them and if William was a killer from the start, rather than Liz dying later after William was "triggered" into being a killer by Evan's death.

I get the feeling this ask is in response to this post tho:

I don't get why people argue the Funtimes weren't created until after Evan died if there's literally a Mangle toy/prototype in Elizabeth’s room while Evan is clearly still alive

I've seen people say that there is "no possible way" Elizabeth could have died first because the Funtimes weren't made until after Evan died, since Evan's death is what made William want to get Remnant, and I don't think that's necessarily true.

I 100% agree with you that the toy in Liz's room was originally meant to be another clue to dream theory. That's what the original intent was, but like you said, the story Scott wanted to tell has changed and dream theory is no longer the "Right" interpretation (if it ever truly was; having a "Right" interpretation is a pretty subjective and meaningless concept in a fandom like fnaf).

So, taking the "Evan saw a couple of broken toys in Liz's room, including a broken Funtime Foxy, and his brain created The Mangle as a nightmare in fnaf 2" out of the mix, then other (all equally valid) interpretations include:

similar to the Toy animatronic models, the Funtimes first existed as toys. Then sometime after Evan's death, William recreated those toys as actual animatronics for CB Pizza World

The Funtimes already existed and had their own line of toys before Evan died

William was still in the planning phase for the Funtime animatronics during 1983, and they were still being created at the time of Evan's death. We do see the Funtimes blueprints, but we don't necessarily know whether the blueprints we saw detailing their murderous features were the originals (as in the Funtimes were always designed to kill even before Evan died) or if they were redesigns with tweaked modifications William put in later (as in William added the murderous features after Evan died, but the Funtimes weren't originally intended to be Death Machines).

or some other theory that i haven't thought of or seen others talk about

So, since dream theory is no longer the direction the story is heading in, I think the existence of the Mangle toy in Liz's room shows that it IS possible that the Funtimes already existed while Evan is alive, though I'll admit that the Funtimes only being toys or William still being in the planning phase for building the Funtimes in 1983 are also valid options to explain why Liz would have a Funtime Foxy/Mangle toy in 1983. It just so happens that "the Funtimes already existed" is the most interesting option to me, so that's what I'm going with :)

#also i vaaaaaastly appreciate you taking the time to point out that you just genuinely wanted to hear my thoughts /gen #tone can be difficult to interpret in text and i have a tendency to get defensive so that meant a lot to me anon #definitely saved me a lot of anxiety and stress and i cannot thank you enough for that lol #i've just seen a lot of people (mostly youtubers tbh) completely toss aside the idea that the funtimes could #exist so early in the timeline and it's like?? maybe? but there's other equally valid interpretations out there my guy #it honestly just depends on where you fall on the ''william was a killer from the start'' to ''william became #a killer specifically after evan died'' spectrum ig

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aingealcethlenn · 3 years

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Finding Home Chapter 1

Intro

*Flashback Chapter*

1982 I was born in the early parts of 1982 in Russia. My family was indebted to Hydra - or, more specifically, Wolfgang von Strucker. The Leader of Hydra.

Because of this debt, von Strucker took me. He brought me to his home and raised me for the first five years of my life.

Though I didn’t realize it at the time, for obvious reasons, this was when my programming began. It was small, simple, but it was training nonetheless. Learning to recognize multiple languages, speak three by the time I was four years of age. Praising only Hydra and its work, only allowing approved literature inside the home, minor things most would overlook.

1987 Once I reached the age of five, von Strucker passed me off to another one of his agents. A Russian soldier by the name of Ivan Petrovitch.

Ivan had another young girl, only about two years younger than myself, that he was raising.

Natalia Romanova became like a sister to me. I watched over her. I protected her. She may not have known it at the time, but I recognized that we were all we had from very early on.

Petrovitch continued with my training and early education alongside Natalia’s. Before long, I spoke fluently in seven different languages and understood dozens of others through speech and text.

We learned the basics, reading, and writing, but we also learned so much more. Through the years, as we got to certain ages, Ivan made sure that we could wield small weapons. Knives, daggers, I was even taught the proper way to handle and shoot a small nine-millimeter Glock handgun.

I knew there must be something to our form of learning, something different from typical children. Surely it wasn’t common practice for a child under the age of ten to know so much about weapons, language, how to defend themself, or even how to kill another human being - right?

Not only did I have our regular learning throughout the day with Natalia, but I also was taken each night for more, I suppose you would call them classes, at some strange facility run by Hydra. My personalized training focused on more specific things - stealth, marksmanship, hand-to-hand combat. Yes, I was young, but my size and innocence only worked to my advantage in most cases.

1992 At ten years of age, von Strucker informed me that I was going to be starting school.

I was young, not stupid. I knew this wasn’t going to be some ordinary school that normal children attended. Hell, I’d already been going to whatever classes and training he felt I needed to attend for the past four years. There was no denying this school would be no different.

Having heard von Strucker and Petrovitch talking in the past, I knew I would never be an average child. They were grooming me to be something else.

I had it in my head that I was not only going to be whatever they intended me to be, but I was also going to surpass their expectations; I would be better.

1994 For two years, I had been without my sister. Not since the day von Strucker took me from home and dropped me off at the god awful Academy. When Natalia walked through the doors with Petrovitch, I felt a short-lived sense of relief.

I'm not sure what I expected to happen to her while I was gone, don't get me wrong, our 'home' life wasn't rough, not by any means. We were as 'typical' as we could be, even with all the extra training, but still, a part of me hoped for something more for her - something that resembled a 'normal' life.

Throughout the following years, I helped Natalia, working with her any chance I could.

Though our schedules didn’t leave much ‘free time.’ I made sure she knew the importance of the training, the importance of being the best at what we did. We would skip meals on occasion or stay awake after lights out. Though we couldn’t leave our beds, we made do how we could.

Natalia and I were inseparable when the opportunity presented — trying to offer any ounce of normalcy that we could into our lives.

When I wasn’t in classes, I was with Hydra agents in a separate area of the school. Though it was never explicitly explained to me, I knew it was an area designated just for the agents and myself. Strucker told me it was because I needed extra training, training that the Academy didn’t offer.

I didn’t realize that they were conditioning me even further for my future, forming me into what von Strucker wanted most. Implanting trigger words to all but guarantee he got what he sought after.

“Моя прекрасная темнота. Скоро вы будете свободны. (My beautiful darkness. Soon you will be free.)” he used to say to me, though I didn’t understand it at the time.

2000 I was at the top of my class. The best that the Red Room had ever had passed through its doors.

Strucker had a goal in mind, though. I was to be more. Much more. I understood that, then.

Natalia took over my spot at the top of the list. She became the Widow prodigy. I knew then that I no longer had to worry about my best friend, my sister. She could hold her own and take down just about anyone if they crossed her.

After my ‘graduation’ ceremony was complete, von Strucker sent me to a new location.

Siberia.

Little did I know that would be the last time I would see my sister until many years later.

2002 I had been a Winter Soldier for two years. The only other successful soldier created under Hydra. My training was complete. I was the very best that Hydra had.

I was the perfect creation, according to von Strucker. Strength beyond measure. Impeccable eyesight - making the task of being a sniper that much easier.

I surpassed the original Winter Soldier early on and continued to get better as training progressed. There was now no one on the planet better than I.

The Soldier was now my ‘partner’ as it were. We would go on undercover missions together, acting as cover for each other when needed. They knew we would take care of each other. Make sure we both returned unscathed.

2009 Nine years had passed since I became the perfect weapon for Hydra.

Following the Soldier on what I thought was just another mission, Hydra sent us after a scientist.

They never gave a reason, just an expected result required. “Убей ученого. Не оставляйте свидетелей. (Kill the scientist. Do not leave witnesses.)” That was all the instruction we needed.

After shooting out the tires of the vehicle he was in, we watched as it lost control and went over the cliff. The task was never complete until we could confirm the death.

As we were scanning the wreckage, we saw a companion pulling our mission's lifeless body from the vehicle; we realized this would be more difficult than initially imagined. He had help. That was when I saw it was no ordinary companion that was accompanying the man.

Time slowed, the Soldier lined up his shot, ready to pull the trigger to take out both of the people below.

“Солдат! Нет! (Soldier! No!)” I called out. Nudging the weapon enough that he missed the shot he wanted.

I watched as both figures below fell to the ground.

She was doing her job and had been covering the scientist. The shot went straight through her stomach, killing the man she was to protect.

“Почему ты остановил меня? (Why did you stop me?)” He growled, gripping my arm tightly.

“Женщина не была целью. Пожалуйста, пощадите ее. (The woman was not the goal. Please spare her.)” It was a muted demand rather than a question, and that was enough to have him release my arm and walk away silently.

Once he was out of sight, I made my way down to her.

Pulling her close, I put pressure on her stomach to try to do what I could to slow the bleeding.

“У тебя все будет хорошо, Наталья. Я обещаю тебе. (You'll be alright, Natalia. I promise you.)”

Once I had her stable enough that I felt she would live, I used her phone in the mangled car to send a message to whoever sent her.

Despite what Hydra turned me into, I would not allow my sister to die.

2010 Nearly a year later, seeing Natalia alive and sitting alone at a small table outside a local coffee shop in New York was the best feeling in the world at the moment.

I had lost everything. My ‘family’, my life… my home.

Now, here I am, watching my sister from afar. Unaware of how much she knew of my life after the Academy - frankly, I didn’t much care. She was the only one I could count on right now.

I knew she was on the hunt for the Soldier. I knew she’d never find him.

I also knew she was alone. So I cautiously approached her.

We talked. We got caught up on important events that had happened in our lives, and I was proud Nat managed to get out of Hydra by herself.

I was thankful she didn’t know all the details of her ‘accident’ as well. She had no idea of the part I played. She had no idea that I had even been there.

I never told her what happened to me. I never told her the truth about how I knew the Winter Soldier.

When she asked for my help to find him, I didn’t tell her where he was. Though, I told her I could very easily track him.

I wanted to offer my sister my assistance desperately, but I had to protect the Soldier - my Soldier. Sure, he had a new mission, and he was technically back on ice for now, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt to tell her where they kept him? She’d realize he was too far away and give up, right?

No.

I couldn’t risk it. Instead, all I offered her was that she should end her search because he was gone for now.

I couldn’t tell her the truth. Not yet, anyway.

Chapter 2 - Masterlist - Tag List

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forcharms · 3 years

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𝔻𝕒𝕡𝕙𝕟𝕖 𝔹𝕝𝕒𝕜𝕖

♡ ( ryan destiny, she/her, 21) - is that DAPHNE BLAKE seeking shelter in mystic falls ? i heard that SHE is from SCOOBY DOO. they’re usually known as COMPASSIONATE & INSECURE. people often associate FABRIC STREWN EVERYWHERE, STUMBLING WHEN THEY WALK, & PUZZLE SOLVING when they look at you. whispers around the town say that they DO NOT remember who they are.

biography

while daphne blake may not remember her whole life back in coolsville she certainly retained a whole bunch of those personality traits and a bit of the bubbly backstory too. daphne blake back in coolsville is an only child to rich absentee parents who let her go off and solve mysteries when she was in middle school with her best friends, and that whole thing stuck and then it became her life plan. while daphne doesn’t technically remember all of that, she does know that she’s really good at puzzles and she loves a good mystery. however, daphne has always, always, loved fashion. it’s probably her second love in life ( after the mystery inc crew, obvi ). fashion and design has always been a passion of hers, and she intends to put it to good use, always sketching her designs or working with fabric and clothes she’s already got to make something new. a daphne blake original is her true plan for the world, honestly. but she’s not exactly sure how well that would work out, or how she’d fund it all. so for now she’s doing it on the side and working to get by.

statistics

age: twenty-one

sibling(s): n/a

also called: daph, danger-prone daphne

occupation: aspiring fashion designer, but in reality she just works as a receptionist at mystic gym

fandom: there’s so many scooby doo iterations that daphne is kind of a mangled mesh of a bit of them all? i draw a lot from the cartoons ( specifically a pup named scooby doo & the four movies starting with zombie island from the 90s-00s ) as well as the live action 2002 daphne

factoids

sketches constantly with ideas for designs

they don’t call her “danger prone” for nothing! she’s a bit of a klutz, folks.

but she also tries to counter act the klutz in her by training at the gym. ha. sure daph.

always wears something purple. be it her clothing, her shoes, or even an accessory. purple is truly her signature color.

92% of time has her makeup done. like....it’s unreal if she doesn’t, or she’s working out. thems the facts.

can pick a lock.

has always wanted a dog.

read more about her on her wikipedias here or here.

#mhqsintro #❥ db: speaks #❥ db: photographs #❥ db: aesthetics #❥ db: musings #❥ db: canon #❥ db: relations

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askfnafcast · 3 years

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A ramble about voices

((OOC: Thinking on how voices can help shape an otherwise baseless character...

Fnaf has a funny distinction wherein the original games did not offer voices to help mould the characters. Certainly Foxy and Chica were kind of obvious as to what they would be: a southern chicken and a pirate. Freddy and Bonnie were more open ended as you could go off any sort of animatronic place in life to take inspiration. For me- Freddy will always have a deeper and more showman voice because he’s a dapper bear in a top hat. Bonnie is 50/50, sure I know how he sounded in the Showtime song, but the way I hear him is based solely on my characterization for him that would make no sense for anyone else.

I’ve had my designs for a majority of the animatronics fairly set in stone for a while so even when voices did come out for them, nothing changed. Some honestly worked very well for the image I already had for them, such as Mangle, Toy Chica or the nightmares that actually got voices. Then there were some I couldn’t possibly imagine my characterization suiting such as Toy Freddy. What did however work for me was not how he sounded but what he said: the gamer shtick. I freaking LOVE it! It gave me more to work off of! This was similar to Mr.Hippo (Gay grandpa) who I had a vague idea what he originally was to be but ultimately changed up my design (slightly) and direction based off of this lovely old man we were presented with. Rockstar Freddy is a slight example of this, I love the tone of the voice but besides that he’s got nothing. What I was able to take was the vocal quirk I’ve worked into him and a general fondness towards currency…plus his fanny pack.

There were some that affirmed my directions (and that’s a good feeling) such as Toy Bonnie. Now he’s a funny one in the sense his voice came from AR not an actual main story game. Now much like Bonnie his voice isn’t typically what it canonically is, rather he masks it for comfort and to be taken a bit more seriously. What really worked out for me was the voice lines. “Ladies and gentlemen, the stage is now mine.” That works so well for my smarmy little snot! “Clear the stage, for the star of our show is now here” This little creep wants everyone to know he thinks he’s the best Bonnie. Another who hardcore affirmed what I already had was Funtime Foxy. His voice is flawless. I had him written out to be a dandy show fox and that voice certainly lended itself well to it. Pigpatch also affirmed my look for him with his gravely tone.

However, as per my take Puppet and Lefty are the only voices (that I can think) that I’ve not even remotely touched. For canon purposes they’re perfect, but for me it would look frightfully peculiar giving a masculine presenting bear a soft child voice now wouldn’t it? What I did take from both instead was the softness. My Lefty speaks in whispers and hushed tones, as Puppet soft as well.

I’m still waiting to hear from our dear Glamrocks to see how they’ll change. Even, as it stands, the deep voice we assume was Glamrock Freddy changed my initial jock persona for him. I have voice head canons for the rest but am ready to drop them when I hear their canon ones. I am sincerely hoping the girls do not end up with squeaky voices, no disrespect intended to those who like the voices of Funtime Chica, Happy Frog and Toy Chica but to me, they’re not interesting (also no disrespect to the talent of the voice actresses). I keep listening to female Glamrock singers and love the idea of Roxanne with a huskier voice. Glitchtrap will be fun, assuming we get more of the bug eyed creep. The voice that we know from Princess Quest, assuming that’s going to be his voice, presents an interesting thing! I always envisioned him with a ridiculous almost tone, somewhere between Him from Powerpuff Girls and Gregory from Gregory Horror Show. What we got makes sense of course and I do genuinely enjoy.

To summarize my ramble here, voices are an important thing to me. They help me shape and envision what I’m working with. That’s why I have my singing head canons for these lovely weirdos. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

#long post #text post #fnaf headcanon #askfnafcast #fnaf

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doneses · 4 years

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Who were the Schnee’s meant to be?

So with V7 having drawn to a close, I wanted to try and sort out my thoughts on how the Schnee’s that we know in the show today, might not be the one’s that Monty had originally intended to make.

This is not meant to be a dig at CRWBY or to say that CRWBY are mangling Monty’s vision. Monty was constantly introducing different ideas to RWBY (like the Maidens) so it is entirely possible that the Schnee’s we got are one’s he would have ended up making, it’s impossible to say for certain.

But looking over V1-2, some behind the scene information involving Monty, and later volumes, you begin to see evidence of where things appeared to have been... reshuffled.

The Winter Issue

Most of the ‘changes’ that occured in the Schnee family can be traced to a single character; Winter Schnee, as what we are presented about her character and her relationship with Weiss in the first two volumes is wildly different than V3 and onwards.

In V1/2, what Weiss mentions about her home life is vague and she generally tries to avoid that subject due to unhappy memories. In V1, after seeing how serious about leading Ruby is, Weiss brings up how she wanted to have bunk beds as a child, but what’s interesting is the sad look she gets before telling Ruby this.

While one could say that Weiss and Winter weren’t able to have bunk beds due to Winter being much older than Weiss, however, I think it might be less due to an age difference and more just due to a more distant relationship between the two sisters, a relationship that Weiss wished was more sisterly.

The reason I think it is due to Weiss and Winter being distant is due to one of the best scenes in V2, and arguably the entire show.

This scene in V2, and the follow up, show us Weiss’ entire relationship with her family members involved in the SDC; she’s nervous, she’s scared, she has to fake happiness and put on a face to interact with them.

Seconds before the line goes through, you get to see how awful the prospect of interacting with her family is for her.

And here is where thing’s get interesting.

Why would Winter be at an SDC building alongside her father? And as Weiss specified, it isn’t any random SDC building but

The main headquarters of the entire SDC.

Given what we know about canon Winter, she actively despises her father and arguably the entire Schnee family outside of Weiss given how distant she keeps herself and buries herself in the military. Given how close she is to Ironwood and how aware he is of her volatile relationship with her family, he most likely wouldn’t be having her do missions with the SDC, which I’m not sure what Ironwood would even need done at the SDC headquarters back in Atlas at the time of V2. On top of that the way that the secretary mentions Winter seems to imply that she works there.

The other interesting aspect of this scene, is Weiss’ face after getting the information she needed from the SDC and refused to talk with her family.

She looks miserable. Just as miserable as when she was mentally preparing herself for the possibility of talking to them.

The reason I find this so interesting, is how Weiss in V3+ is the complete opposite when it comes to Winter.

She’s excited, the mere sight of Winter’s ship sends her running from the arena and across Beacon’s campus.

And it’s here we learn Winter is part of the military, and can infer that she’s the one who trained Weiss prior to her leaving for Beacon.

So why does Winter being different matter?

This change in the relationship between Weiss and Winter is the reason why I think Whitley even exists as a character, and why Willow is an alcoholic.

Did you notice that throughout the first 3 volumes, when discussions about her family, Weiss never mentions having another sibling? A sibling who would be of a similar age to her and would be able to share a bunk bed with her?

Unless of course, said sibling was close to their father, and was rather cold and distant with Weiss.

I remember that there was a lot of confusion back when V4 first aired at who Whitley was; everyone was confused that Weiss had this other sibling who she had never mentioned before.

As we have seen, Whitley has a closer relationship with his father than he does with the rest of the Schnee family, and is more involved in the actual business aspects of the SDC than his siblings. Hmmm. Now that seems to line up a bit with what the implication for Winter was in V2.

And as we can see, Weiss isn’t as friendly with Whitley as she would be with Winter; she doesn't enjoy talking with him or being around him.

Now the next source should be taken with a grain of salt given who it is from, but in Shane’s letter, he mentions and covers a lot of things that were changed from the original script for V3 that Monty had done (Jaune seeing Pyrrha die, Yang fighting Adam before losing her arm, etc), and what CRWBY made.

V3 had begun pre-production in 2013, shortly after V1 finished airing. And the main thing to take away from that part of the letter is that the Winter that Monty had originally created, was changed. Whether it was just her design or her character as a whole is left unclear but, I do believe that this change in Winter’s character lines up with the change in Weiss’ behavior in relation to Winter, and why Whitley was not mentioned until V4. If this original version of Winter was meant to be a Whitley like character, a sibling that is groomed by their father and hostile toward Weiss, then when they changed Winter to being a military woman, they needed to create a new sibling to still fulfill that character role in Weiss’ story.

How does this affect Willow?

From Pyrrha’s voice actor, we know that a lot of story elements, like the Fall of Beacon and Pyrrha’s death were moved from V2 to V3, and that Monty was working on V3 content while V2 was airing. We know Monty was working on content for V3 due to his tweets in 2014, sharing character files that were on his computer.

Do you see it? The names listed?

Willow Schnee, and Winter Schnee.

It’s through this list of character files that we were able to learn Willow’s name prior to V7 and also how we learned Taiyang’s name prior to V3. Monty is very much a ‘pants’ style of creator, he makes things up as he goes along and tosses things in because he thought it would be cool, just look at Neo or CFVY. The entire reason that M&K were brought into to the show and help him with the writing was due to him needing people to help him with getting the plot to each of its major plot points, as he (like most content creators) just had the major plot points thought out.

Which is why I find the inclusion of Willow on the list of character files that were being worked on for V3 and shown during V2 to be interesting. Why would Willow be on that list of characters meant to show up soon or are in the current volume if Willow would be a minor character who wouldn’t appear until near the mid- to end of the show? And if Whitley is meant to be Weiss’ rival for control of the SDC as the show seems to be setting him up to be, then why is he nowhere to be found on that list of character files?

Winter in canon for the most part took over the maternalistic role in Weiss’ life after Willow fell into depression and started drinking. It can be assumed that she is the one who trained Weiss in her glyphs, swordplay, and attempted to do so with summoning, as shown in the V5 character short.

Winter helped train Weiss so she would be strong enough to leave home.

But if Winter was originally meant to be a rival to Weiss and have a strained relationship with her, then who would have been the one to have trained Weiss in her semblance and weapon?

If my theory is correct, I believe Willow was meant to have taken the role Winter had in V3, to have visited Weiss for a bit and help teach her summoning like she had done so with her glyphs and swordplay. That Willow was originally meant to have been a mentor figure for Weiss, instead of being uninvolved in her life.

But why change Winter so much?

Now this is something I do not have an answer for as I don’t work for RT, and honestly this all entirely speculation on my part just based off bits of behind the scenes info that we’ve been given and what I’ve noticed during my own watchings of the show. If I am correct and Winter’s character was changed and took the role Willow was meant to have and her own character was given to Whitley, that is indeed a pretty drastic change, and from an outside perspective seems like it’d be creating a lot more work for a writer instead of having the more simplified version that Monty had (if I’m correct).

And the only answer I can think of, is from this scene.

While it might sound nice to have Weiss be trained by her mother, and her sister be her rival for control of their family company due to them being their father’s favorite and Weiss being abused by him, it does create the question of “If Willow is so skilled at Huntsmen things, why doesn’t she defend her children, or simply get a divorce?”

And I think it’s due to that question, of how to keep Weiss being abused by her father and it playing out realistically, that led to the decision to have Winter’s character cut out and made into new character, and for Willow’s role to be grafted onto this new Winter, and the remnants of Willow being turned into a neglectful alcoholic to add more drama to Weiss’ life and make her difficult childhood even harder.

I didn’t know Monty on a personal level nor will I claim to know how his mind worked, but I do believe based off the evidence I provided that the Schnee family that we have in canon are different than what Monty might have originally envisioned and was working towards in V1/2. And that’s not to say it’s a bad thing if I am correct about these changes, as the Schnee’s are arguably the best part about RWBY and the intense family drama is something that draws a lot of people into the show.

#rwby #weiss schnee #winter schnee #willow schnee #whitley schnee

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frazzledsoul · 3 years

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Thanks for tagging me @dollsome-does-tumblr even though I haven't written fic in a gazillion years.

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 authors!

The first thing that hit Rory Gilmore when she woke up was an overwhelming sense of vertigo.

The migraine was encroaching on the borders of her skull soon followed.

Where was she?

(The Morning After, Gilmore Girls, post series, Rory/Jess, or what happens when two not-quite-stepcousins hook up and everyone in Stars Hollow debates whether they should be encouraging this or not)

The first time they tried a real relationship again, it was a disaster.

He hadn't seen or talked to her for five years. Part of him regretted that a little, but she did say no, and he knew he had to start fresh if he was going to make any sort of clean break from the family legacy that had claimed him long before he was born.

(The Dynastic Plan, Gilmore Girls, AYITL era, Rory/Logan, or Logan explains to us why he could not get his shit together with Rory during AYITL)

Luke first noticed that something was amiss when he picked April up from the airport.

It was the middle of spring and she was wearing a turtleneck, a baseball cap, and sunglasses. When he asked her about it, she shrugged and claimed she thought that Connecticut was having a late winter spell, which didn’t sound right to him at all.

(The Cactus Incident, Gilmore Girls, post-series, in which Luke learns about the avian misadventures of one of his offspring)

“This has gotten completely out of control.”

Lorelai glanced up at her husband from where she was sequestered at her usual table by the window, surrounded by her laptop, piles of eclipse glasses in various colors, assorted boxes and tubes sprinkled in glitter and confetti, and a pile of streamers that had half fallen to the floor.

“This is a major celestial event, Luke”, Lorelai insisted. “A once in a lifetime opportunity to escape the daily drudgery of life to celebrate standing in the middle of the street for two hours and looking at the sky while we are treated to the spectacle of the universe pretending to usher in the doomsday a way too significant portion of the population are eagerly anticipating at any given moment –“

Luke put up his hand. “I get it.”

(A Convergence of Fancies, Gilmore Girls, Rory/Jess overtones I guess, post-AYITL, or Stars Hollow celebrates the 2017 solar eclipse, Rory is a sleep deprived new mom, and Lorelai is concerned because her family is watching too much Game of Thrones, aka the most chaotic thing I have ever written and I'm sorry)

Richard Lucas Gilmore’s second Independence Day celebration was turning out to be a lot better than his first.

For one thing, he was actually awake for it.

Rory’s pregnancy had stretched a week and a half past its original due date, leading to the delivery of her squalling bundle of joy on a humid June morning after fifteen hours of labor.

(Independence, Gilmore Girls, post-AYITL, in which Luke and Lorelai celebrate Independence Day with their combined offspring and toddler grandson and Lorelai confronts her impending empty nest syndrome)

Lorelai had thought that sending Rory off into the adult world would make her feel like her heart was being ripped out of her chest.

She had been dreading it for days, weeks, maybe even years. Despite what everyone had told her when she was a newly knocked-up teenager, she still felt that those first eighteen years raising Rory as she grew up herself had been the easy part.

(Full Circle, Gilmore Girls, post-series, in which Lorelai and Rory go through the same major milestones at the same time)

The fall of 2017 was turning out to be quite a revelation for Lorelai Gilmore-Danes.

She had never loved fall quite as much as she loved winter. Sure, there was the crispness wrought by the change of seasons and the concurrent excuse to shop for brightly colored sweaters and boots.

(The Grandparents, Gilmore Girls, Luke/Lorelai, post-AYITL, or Rory's love triangle and parenting woes as seen through Luke and Lorelai's eyes)

Few enterprises seemed to be designed with a specific target in mind quite as much as Facebook was for Lorelai Gilmore.

It caught her a little by surprise. Sure, she knew the basics of using a computer to run her business and control her finances. She could be disciplined and organized when she absolutely needed to be, and there was little use in clinging to outdated technology.

(Boundaries, Gilmore Girls, Luke/Lorelai, post-AYITL, or Luke and Lorelai try to rebuild their relationship and are very angsty about it)

Luke and Lorelai's third Valentines Day as a married couple started in the usual way.

It was usually their tradition to spend the holiday at home, but this year they had departed for Luke's cabin on the lake to spend a few days by themselves before the rest of the family joined them on Sunday. It was a beloved, time-honored tradition between the two of them to devote this day to each other to celebrate with their own brand of fanfare. Their adult children knew to stay very far away from them during this time.

(A Season of Peace, Luke/Lorelai and Rory/Logan, post-AYITL, in which Luke and Lorelai spend a weekend in the snow with their brood and we get an update on the younger generations's relationship statuses)

"Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm pregnant."

She turned to face me. Gap-mouthed. Shocked. Disappointed. Humiliated.

This was not how I planned to share this news.

(A Simple Twist of Fate, Gilmore Girls, AU but fairly canon adjacent, in which Jess is Rory's baby daddy and Rory discovers that he has not exactly been solely pining for her in the years they were apart)

Jess didn't exactly intend to introduce his daughter to professional sports in this manner.

For the most part, he and Rory weren't quite the stereotypical thirtysomething hipster couple that they sometimes appeared to be. Sure, Rory was still occasionally breast-feeding after seven and a half months, and you could find quinoa and kimchi in their fridge stocked next to the baby food and hoagies.

(Home, post-AYITL, Rory/Jess, a "fast forward" of ASTOF in which Rory and Jess raise their daughter in Philadelphia and try to avoid admitting that they are no longer hip)

Lorelai Gilmore's journey to becoming an active participant in Stars Hollow town life was a bumpy one.

She stepped off of the bus in Stars Hollow a few months after her eighteenth birthday, freshly divorced and clutching her almost two-year-old daughter by the hand, determined to talk herself into whatever opportunity presented itself to her. She wasn't able to work on her charms on Taylor Doose at the grocery store, or Fran Weston at the bakery, but William Danes at the hardware store gave her directions to the inn at the outskirts of town and an offer to work the counter at his store if things didn't work out.

(Beginnings, Gilmore Girls, pre-series/AU, Luke/Lorelai, in which Lorelai and Luke's parenting situations are reversed: she and Christopher are divorced and he is involved in Rory's life but Luke is raising April by himself after Anna flaked out, and they start to bond)

Lorelai Gilmore Danes didn't expect to have empty nest syndrome hit her quite like this.

She'd spent much of her adult life – even long before she was technically an adult – tethered to Rory's side and not regretting a second of it. Then Rory was grown up and off exploring the world, and she was settled down with Luke in their unconventional but happily domestic manner.

(Glimpses Through the Looking Glass, Gilmore Girls, drabble series that goes all over the place based on #NationalFillInTheBlankDay)

Ted and Robin's seemingly long-awaited reconciliation lasted just short of six months.

Five months, three weeks, and two days, to be exact. Not that anyone was counting, least of all Robin.

(Making It Easy, How I Met Your Mother, Barney/Robin, post-series, in which Robin figures out that dating a widowed Ted is actually a very bad idea)

In the end, it was decided that the best way to resolve the battle for the Iron Throne was to dissolve it completely.

It had been a savage war, far more savage than any of its players had fought up to this point. Euron and Cersei were dead.

(The Calm, Game of Thrones, post-series but written halfway through season 8 so it doesn't include any of the stuff that people hate, in which I come up with a solution to the Jonerys dilemma that no one liked but it was still better than canon)

Summer finally bloomed beyond the wall five years after Jon Snow had crossed it for the last time.

Sometimes it seemed to him that everything before those five years was nothing more than a half-remembered dream. He had braced for his departure for the wall half-hopeful: at least this grand march towards kingship, the burden of unwanted responsibilities, the dread in his chest as he wondered if he would survive to the end of the latest war was over.

(After, Game of Thrones, post-series, Jon/Tormund, or in which Jon Snow is living happily ever after beyond the wall with his ginger, his dog, and a family of his own because I am in charge and I say so)

“You’re still shit at that, you know,” Tormund whispered in Jon’s ear.

Magritte snickered from the other corner of the main room of their cabin where she was roughhousing with Ghost. Alsi sighed beside her, picking up her bow from where it was lying beside her and inspecting it for flaws.

(The Line, Game of Thrones, post-series, Jon/Tormund, in which Jon is still living happily ever after but takes his family to visit Queen Sansa)

The images solidified in Jaime’s mind as he made his way through the streets.

Charred skeletons. Screaming children. Rampaging soldiers. Blood. Smoke. Mangled limbs. Chaos. He couldn’t keep any of it straight.

(The Lion and the Snow - Snapshots, Game of Thrones, AU, Jaime/Brienne, in which Jon is King, Jaime is the Hand Without A Hand, Brienne is the Lady Commander of the Kingsguard, they are all disasters, and I am not telling this story in order)

Tormund didn’t intend to get seriously involved with anyone when he moved to King’s Landing.

It had been a rough couple of years. Hell, the entire last decade had been its own special blend of unexpected pleasure and slow, turgid, relentless episodes of confusion and pain. That was adulthood, he supposed. Always one damn thing after another.

(The Dragon Heist, Game of Thrones, modern AU, in which single dad Tormund - Brienne is his baby mama - falls in love with art student Jon Snow and there are lots of coparenting shenanigans)

Patterns: Gee, I like to start these stories off with long, complicated explanations of everyone's relationship status.

Favorites: I guess that would be starting off The Morning After with Rory half-horrified at what she has gotten into. I also like dropping right in on Jonmund domesticity in The Line.

Tagging: @fineosaur, @seethemflying, @aliveanddrunkonsunlight, @janiedean, @angel-deux-writes, @littlerockerao3, @istaricelebelasse, @tormundjonthings, @sdwolfpup, and anyone else who feels like it (apologies if y'all have already been tagged)

#mine #fanfiction #thinking about writing again for the first time in ages

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howtofightwrite · 5 years

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Q&A: Resident Evil

I always wanted to know if Ada Wong could really have survived after the tyrant threw her at the control panel in the original RE2, and how could someone survive the type of fall she suffered in the remake RE2, could you answer the doubt of an Ada enthusiast?

Going in reverse order, the remake is on my to do list. It’s installed on my PC right now, but I haven’t had the time. I’ve seen Ada do a lot of things over the years that are, flat out, not survivable. So, without seeing the fall your talking about, if you’re asking? Probably not. Or at least, not without serious injuries. That’s never stopped her before, but Resident Evil has always had a “tangential” relationship with realism.

The console in the original game? No. Mr. X chucks her into that with enough force to put a huge dent in it. The thing appears to be steel, and she goes in directly against her head and spine, so no, Ada should not be able to survive that.

When you slow down the animation, (for example: Because you’re watching it in a blurry .avi to analyze exactly what happened) it starts to look even less survivable, as the first point of impact is pretty clearly, her skull.

We do find out that, as an adult, Sherry can survive those kinds of injuries in RE6. Something about the specific G-Virus strain she’s infected with (I do understand the lore explanation, but, it’s not relevant), so she should be resilient and recover from injuries like those seen. (When she’s under player control, her health mechanics are consistent with the other characters in that game.)

I’m bringing this up, because I’m not 100% sure that Ada isn’t modified to some degree. To the best of my knowledge, the games have never tipped their hand to say that she might also be a carrier for some unique viral strain. I don’t think that’s the intended read, simply because it would have become a plot point by now, but it’s one of the only ways to justify Ada’s resilience, aside from just shrugging and saying, “action movie rules.”

That is the real answer here, by the way. Ada, Leon, and Claire all run on action movie logic. They take ridiculous amounts of punishment and keep going. I do like it when a setting has justifications for that kind of durability, (again, Sherry comes to mind in RE2 & 6), but it’s genre acceptable behavior. And, as much as they are horror games, even going to the original Resident Evil, there’s action movie DNA mixed in.

Also, having kinda trashed the original game over the console damage, it is worth remembering that Resident Evil 2 came out on the original Playstation, 21 years ago. At that point in time, the technology available was limited. The game used prerendered backgrounds, because the PS1 couldn’t handle rendering the entire image in 3d. That would have been over the hardware budget. The damage we see to the console is over the top and cartoonish, because the actual game hardware had a very limited polygon budget, and needed to convey to the audience that Mr X had damaged it when he threw Ada into it. Within that context, if we assume the damage to the console is grossly exaggerated for visual clarity, not to indicate the amount of force used. It’s possible Ada could survive that. Travel distance and speed are both pretty low in the cutscene, so the force shouldn’t be extreme enough to mangle the console like that. By extension, Ada hitting it like that drifts into the territory a potential for serious injury, but, one you could walk away from with superficial damage, if you got lucky on the impact.

There’s a weird bit of trivia here, and this could be an issue with watching the .avi at 60hz, when it was originally designed to be viewed at 24hz, but there’s a frame where Ada does not render when she’s being thrown. I suspect the version held by Mr X is swapped out for the normal Ada model roughly at the moment when you get the blood spray on impact, and the console swapping out. Someone who has more familiarity with the PS1’s architecture might be better able to better explain this, and it is possible I’m simply misreading the .avi compression blur. I’m only bringing this up, because I have been digging through that video while working on this post, and saw some weird things.

So, to the original question, “Yeah, maybe?” Looking at Resident Evil and asking about realism kinda misses the point. Ignoring RE6, the games usually start from a fairly grounded point, and gradually escalate into insane antics. This is a pretty common narrative structure, but when Resident Evil goes big, it gets really crazy. I’m not mocking either, because, to the series credit, it usually manages that escalation very well, to the point that you don’t realize just how insane its gotten until you’re punching boulders in a volcano.

-Starke

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Q&A: Resident Evil was originally published on How to Fight Write.

#fightwrite answers #resident evil #Starke is not a real doctor #writing advice #writing reference #writing tips

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aingealcethlenn-archive · 4 years

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Finding Home - Chapter 1

Word Count - 1717

Join Series Tag List - HERE - Series Master list

Tags - @lilulo-12

A/N - HERE

Intro

Ch. 1

1982 I was born in the early parts of 1982 in Russia. My family was indebted to Hydra - or, more specifically, Wolfgang von Strucker. The Leader of Hydra.

Because of this debt, von Strucker took me. He brought me to his home and raised me for the first five years of my life.

Though I didn’t realize it at the time, for obvious reasons, this was when my programming began. It was small, simple, but it was training nonetheless. Learning to recognize multiple languages, able to speak three by the time I was four years of age. Praising only Hydra and it’s work, only allowing approved literature inside the home, minor things most would overlook.

1987 Once I reached the age of five, von Strucker passed me off to another one of his agents. A Russian soldier by the name of Ivan Petrovitch.

Ivan had another young girl, only about two years younger than myself, that he was raising.

Natalia Romanova became like a sister to me. I watched over her. I protected her. She may not have known it at the time, but I recognized, from very early on, we were all we had.

Petrovitch continued with my training and early education, alongside Natalia’s. Before long, I was speaking fluently in seven different languages, and able to understand dozens of others through speech and text.

We were taught the basics, reading, and writing, but we also learned so much more. Through the years, as we got to certain ages, Ivan made sure that we were capable of wielding small weapons. Knives, daggers, I was even taught the proper way to handle and shoot a small nine-millimeter Glock handgun.

I knew there must be something to our form of learning, something different from that of typical children. Surely it wasn’t common practice for a child under the age of ten to know so much about weapons, language, how to defend yourself, or even how to kill another human being - right?

Not only did I have our regular learning throughout the day with Natalia, but I also was taken each night for more, I suppose you would call them classes, at some strange facility run by Hydra. While here, my training was focused on more specific things - stealth, marksmanship, hand to hand combat. Yes, I was young, but my size and innocence only worked to my advantage in most cases.

1992 At ten years of age, von Strucker informed me that I was going to be starting school.

Having heard Strucker and Petrovitch talking in the past, I knew I was never going to be an average child. They were grooming me to be something else.

I had it in my head that I was not only going to be whatever they intended me to be, I was going to surpass their expectations, I would be better.

1994 For two years, I had been without my sister. I hadn’t seen her since the day Strucker took me from home and dropped me off at the god awful academy. When Natalia walked through the doors with Petrovitch, I felt a short-lived sense of relief, that was quickly replaced by grief.

I'm not sure what I expected to happen to Natalia while I was gone, don't get me wrong, our 'home' life wasn't rough, not by any means. We were as 'typical' as we could be, even with all the extra training, but still, a part of me hoped for something more for her - something that resembled a 'normal' life.

Throughout the following years, I helped Natalia, working with her, any chance I could.

Though our schedules didn’t leave much ‘free time.’ I made sure she knew the importance of the training, the importance of being the best at what we did. We would skip meals on occasion, or stay awake after lights out. Though we couldn’t leave our beds, we made do how we could.

Natalia and I were inseparable when the opportunity presented — trying to offer any ounce of normalcy that we could into our lives.

What I didn’t realize was that they were conditioning me even further for my future — forming me into what Strucker wanted most. Implanting trigger words to all but guarantee he got what he sought after.

2000 I was at the top of my class. The best that the Red Room had ever had pass through its doors.

Strucker had a goal in mind, though. I was to be more. Much more. I understood that, then.

After my ‘graduation’ ceremony was complete, von Strucker sent me to a new location.

Siberia.

Little did I know that would be the last time I would see my sister until many years later.

2002 I had been a Winter Soldier for two years. The only other successful soldier created under Hydra. My training was complete. I was the very best that Hydra had.

I was the perfect creation, according to Strucker. Strength beyond measure. Impeccable eyesight - making the task of being a sniper that much easier.

I surpassed the original Winter Soldier early on and continued to get better as training progressed. There was now no one on the planet better than I.

The soldier was now my ‘partner’ as it were. We would go on undercover missions together, acting as cover for each other when needed. They knew we would take care of each other. Make sure we both returned unscathed.

2009 Nine years had passed since I became the perfect weapon for Hydra.

Following the soldier on what I thought was just another mission, we were sent after a scientist.

There was never a reason given, just an expected result required. “Убей ученого. Не оставляйте свидетелей. (Kill the scientist. Do not leave witnesses.)” That was all the instruction we needed.

After shooting out the tires of the vehicle they were driving, we watched as they lost control and went over the cliff. The task was never complete until we could confirm the death.

As we were scanning the wreckage, we saw the companion pulling the lifeless body of the mission from the vehicle; we realized this would be more difficult than initially imagined. He had help. That was when I saw it was no ordinary companion that was accompanying the man.

Time slowed, the soldier lined up his shot, ready to pull the trigger to take out both of the people below.

“Солдат! Нет! (Soldier! No!)” I called out. Nudging the weapon enough that he missed the shot he wanted.

I watched as both figures below fell to the ground.

She was doing her job and had been covering the scientist. The shot went straight through her stomach, killing the man she had been sent to protect.

“Почему ты остановил меня? (Why did you stop me?)” He growled, gripping my arm tightly.

“Женщина не была целью. Пожалуйста, пощадите ее. (The woman was not the goal. Please spare her.)” It was a soft demand rather than a question, and that was enough to have him release my arm and walk away silently.

Once he was out of sight, I made my way down to her.

Pulling her close, I put pressure on her stomach to try to do what I could to slow the bleeding.

“У тебя все будет хорошо, Наталья. Я обещаю тебе. (You'll be alright, Natalia. I promise you.)”

Once I had her stable enough that I felt she would live, I used her phone in the mangled car to send a message to whoever sent her.

Despite what Hydra turned me into, I would not allow my sister to die.

2010 Nearly a year later, seeing Natalia alive and sitting alone at a small table outside a local coffee shop in New York, was the best feeling in the world at the moment. I had lost everything.

My ‘family’, my life… my home.

Now, here I am, watching my sister from afar. Unaware of how much she knew of my life after the academy - frankly, I didn’t much care. She was the only one I could count on right now.

I knew she was on the hunt for the Soldier. I knew she’d never find him.

I also knew she was alone. So I cautiously approached her.

We talked. We got caught up on important events that had happened in our lives, and I was proud Nat managed to get out of Hydra by herself.

I was thankful she didn’t know all the details of her ‘accident’ as well. She had no idea of the part I played. She had no idea that I had even been there.

I never told her what happened to me. I never told her the truth about how I knew the Winter Soldier.

When she asked for my help to find him, I didn’t tell her where he was. Though, I told her I could very easily track him.

I wanted to offer my assistance to my sister desperately, but I had to protect the Soldier - my Soldier. Sure, he had a new mission, and he was technically back on ice for now, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt to tell her where they kept him? She’d realize he was too far away and give up, right?

No.

I couldn’t risk it. Instead, all I offered her was that she should end her search because he was gone for now.

I couldn’t tell her the truth. Not yet, anyway.

Chapter 2

#marvel #MARVEL FANDOM #marvel fanfic #marvel series #marvel fanfiction #marvel family #Bucky Barnes #bucky x oc #bucky barnes fanfiction #Bucky Barnes x oc #bucky fanfic #Bucky fanfiction #bucky fan fiction #mcu #mcu fanfiction #mcu fandom #mcu fanfic #mcu family #finding home

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spacebrick3 · 5 years

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Evenfall University: Ring of Fire Part 1

So my own character of Mira Niemczyk is currently enrolled at @note-katha’s Evenfall University, and it seems that her adventures there need to be detailed! So without further ado, I present Mira’s adventures at Evenfall U!

Mira Niemczyk is brave. Foolishly, recklessly brave. She would die for her friends, and has only survived this long because she doesn’t have that many. Arrogant and stubborn, the type of person to whom warnings are no more than challenges and who very nearly launched her own satellite into orbit (it would have worked, too, if she hadn’t been ripped off with low-grade sulfur).

Mira Niemczyk also does not believe in magic.

This is despite the fact that Mira attends one of the most prestigious magical universities in the country, and perhaps the world: Evenfall University, hidden deep within the forests of the northwest United States. This is also despite the fact that Evenfall only accepts those with proven magical talent or abilities. An impressive feat of cognitive dissonance.

She doesn’t quite remember whether or not she in fact applied to the university, or if she was even aware of its existence until she received her acceptance letter. The tuition was affordable, and a chance for her to leave behind the state of Texas to cooler weather and slightly less irritating inhabitants*. She has cause to regret her decision, and cause not to, and at present rests somewhere in the middle.

Currently, she is sitting in the middle of orientation, listening to the professor drone on about their ‘circles of magic’, which honestly looks like a bootleg version of the Olympic rings. Not the most original design. There’s lots of words, none of them meaning anything - orientations are supposed to be fun, aren’t they, getting to meet the clubs and students and teachers at the school. And instead she’s sitting here, falling asleep with her head in her hands.

“Any idea when this is going to be over?” she whispers to the girl next to her, black-haired with glasses that seem too big for her face.

“No, I - stop talking!” She glares at her, pushing those same glasses up on her nose. “I am trying to listen to the professor! And you should too,” she says in a huff.

Mira rolls her eyes, dropping further into lethargy. Is there really no better way of conveying information than a lecture? A video, maybe, that she could watch in the comfort of her own home - dorm, whatever. Something with better visuals than rings stolen from one Mr. de Coubertin and someone who didn’t speak like they were giving a TED talk. “Any questions?” they ask, staring out across the assembled crowd.

Silence. “You should have lots of questions,” the girl next to her mutters. “Seeing as how you refused to listen to a word of it.”

“Actually, yeah,” she tells her with a wink, standing and trusting in her brilliant red, completely-not-dyed hair to get their attention. Or the fact that no one else wants to say anything. “Magic…-“ she coughs, already coming down with a cold. “See, magic! Isn’t! Real!”

She didn’t have to scream it. It wasn’t even a question like had been asked for. But that wasn’t going to stop her, because she is right and she knows it. It doesn’t matter if they’ve put together fancy special effects to draw circles in the air, if what they’re telling her is no more than a collection of lies.

College is supposed to be a place of learning, isn’t it? Not a place of-

The other girl drags her down, color flushing across her face. “Stop talking!” she hisses, glancing around. “I didn’t intend - you - you cannot do that!” she stammers. “Why would you do that?”

They’re laughing at her. People are laughing at her because she told them magic wasn’t real. “Because it fuckin’ isn’t. Don’t tell me you believe what they’re selling, uh-“ She jabs a finger at her, poking the lens of her glasses. “What’s your name?”

“Samantha Venera, Third Circle,” she recites as if reading it off from a roll. “But - oh, no. Did you have to say that? And now the students are all looking at us - and they’re laughing, why did you even choose to attend if you refuse to believe in magic-“ She tugs at her collar, a fancy outfit in blue and white that looks more suited to an old-timey ball than college orientation. Somebody’s looking to make a good first impression, she notes to herself.

“Not like I had anywhere else to go-“

Her voice rings out a little too loud, and she realizes it’s gotten quiet. “Please! Stop! talking!” Samantha whispers again in desperation, and this time she listens.

“The First Circle of Magic,” the professor is saying, voice low, “is extremely dangerous. I beg you, please do not look into it.” Doesn’t sound like you’re begging, she notes. More like you’re warning us. “You could lose your life by doing so. And for those who think this is a joke, that we are warning you away for our own personal gain-“ Her gaze seems to find Mira- “we’re not. Unfortunately, we’ve been warned by the APA to not disclose the stories, so I’m afraid we can’t provide more details.”

Muttering breaks out among the students. “Absolutely not suspicious at all,” she says, turning back to Samantha. Or turning to where she was, because she and her enormous glasses** have already vanished into the crowd. “…huh.”

Her roommates blur by, their names going in one ear and out the other. Harmony Washington, thespian who is already hogging the shower and slumping dramatically against the walls. Aishwarya Kamal, whose claim to the hardest name to spell is only challenged by Niemczyk, and Nitya Nair, who arrives in the dorm to sleep and that’s it.

She should get to know them, but she doesn’t want to. Just more people. That is, until Aishwarya drags her from her bed and her laptop, to the kitchen and three boxes of pizza. “Look - I didn’t know what you wanted,” she says, flipping the lids open, “so we’ve got pepperoni, cheese, and vegan. So…have some pizza!”

It’s free real estate food. “Why?” she asks through a mouthful of the pepperoni. Aishwarya’s even managed to drag Nitya in from her nigh-incessant soccer practices, though she doesn’t seem pleased by it.

“Because we are going to be friends,” she says, barely managing to keep the smile from her voice as the last of the group sits down. “Right? I mean, we’re living in the same space for at least half a year. I’d like to have that be a good relationship - and everybody likes pizza. No better way to begin, right?”

“Where’d you get it?” Harmony asks, looking at her slice in suspicion. “Not sure I trust the pizza shops around here.”

“Local place, just-“ she gestures vaguely towards the south- “down that way. Can’t remember what it’s called. It’s no, uh, Pizza Port, but - doesn’t matter. I mean, this is mostly for you, Mira, more than anybody.”

“…what?”

She rubs the back of her neck, looking guilty. “We, ah, we all know each other. We went to the same school, actually, and were in the same astronomy club and everything. So we’ve been introduced to each other a long time ago. So this is more about getting to know you, Mira…Niemczyk-“ She mangles the pronunciation, Nee-em-zeek instead of Nehm-check- “and about you knowing us.”

“Not a great start for being included in the group, is it?” she asks, perhaps a little more harshly than she’d like. “Not if y’all know each other and I don’t.”

“Well, there’s only one way around that,” Aishwarya replies, cheery demeanor refusing to be put out, “and that’s if we get to know you! So - where are you from? What’s it like? Why’d you come here?”

All more personal questions than she’d like to answer right now. “Houston, Texas,” she starts with, became that’s the easiest place to. “We’ve lived there for a while, and in Texas my whole life. Until now.” She shoots a glance outside, more to avoid eye contact than anything else, and sees that it’s pouring rain. Maybe she should have noticed from the fact that Nitya’s currently dripping water onto the carpet, but ‘noticing things’’ has never been her strong point. “Is it always this rainy here?”

She shrugs, over by the sink as she pours herself another glass of water. “I think so? That’s the stereotype, at least, but I don’t know if it’s true.”

“I wonder if it’s magic?” Harmony says, standing and walking over to the window. “It’d be fitting, don’t you think? All those stories that they can’t even tell us-“ Lightning flashes, framing her in a halo of jagged light- “and the rain pours down outside, washing away any of the evidence. Footprints, paths, light - it’s all gone, swept away by the unending torrent. Maybe it’s how they keep their secrets-“

“Monologuing,” Nitya says without even looking up. “Because maybe it’s just the damn rain.”

“Alright, alright. I’m just saying. This is literally a magical university, why couldn’t they have magic rain? There’s water witches, air witches, nature witches like you, Aisha - they could do it.” With another faux-forlorn glance out the window, she goes back to her seat - nearly knocking over her drink in the process. “Maybe they just do it for fun. Two students falling in love, they turn on the rain for the dramatic argument that leaves both convinced the other one will never speak to them again-“

“About half - 170 out of 365 - days in Seattle had rain,” she replies, looking at her phone. “So either there are lot of people having their dramatic arguments and falling out of love, or it’s just the weather. Yes, I know there are that many people here,” she says, cutting off Harmony’s counter, “but I don’t think it’s magical rain.”

At least the conversation isn’t on her anymore. Or it wasn’t, until Aishwarya turns back to her and she curses herself for tempting fate with that statement. “So? Houston have less pointless arguments?”

“Not really.”

“Any of your friends going here, too, and you weren’t lucky enough to room with them?”

“No.”

“Do you know what you’re planning to major in?”

“Not sure.”

“What circle - what magic you have? Why did you come to Evenfall?”

“Second-“ though there’s no such thing- “and…“ There’s no good way to put it, so the best she can offer is a shrug and an “eh.” There are some things you don’t start out by telling people, especially not if you want to make friends. Why she came to a magical university while not believing in magic is one of them. “You?”

Though she’s clearly less than satisfied with Mira’s answers, politeness demands she answer. “Nature - I’m studying to be a doctor - have been almost all my life, from those little doctor’s kits to interning with a lab technician. Because I don’t think there’s anything more amazing than being able to save lives-“

“We’ve all heard the spiel, Aisha.”

“Mira hasn’t!” she says, not trying to deny that there is a spiel. “And what’s wrong with trying to convince people? There’s a shortage of doctors in the world, you know, and especially a shortage of magical doctors. What if Harmony there were to get hurt, then who would treat her? Sirens can’t just walk up to any hospital.”

“A siren?” Mira doesn’t even realize she’s asked it until it’s out of her mouth. “I thought - what?”

“You don’t know?”

“Know what? I thought this was a school for people with ‘magic’?” She hates being told she doesn’t know, and hates it even more when the other person is right.

“And those from the Nevermore,” Aishwarya explains. “Magical - well, they’re…people, but with magic…more imbued in them than something they can control. Sirens, for example, don’t have control - technically - Harmony?” she asks at last, finally admitting she’s lost.

She sits up from where she’s thrown herself dramatically into the chair. “Yes? I’m a siren. And I’m studying to be an actress. I mean, it’s kind of the route you go, because we’re good at the whole-“ she gestures to her throat- “voice thing. I could show you,” she says, with the eagerness of someone who almost certainly will whether you accede.

“…sure,” says Mira.

“Alright, I think I’ve got it,” says Harmony, except it’s Mira’s voice. She has to press a hand to her throat to check that it’s not her speaking, because she can see Harmony’s mouth moving but hear her own words. “How is it? I can’t really tell if I’ve got it right-“

She nods hurriedly, just wanting her to stop. “Yes - yes, that’s my voice and I don’t like it.”

“You’re no fun,” she says again, switching back. “But, that’s what we sirens can do. It’s weird, you know, finding out you’re not wholly human. Like, I got a letter and it said “hey, you know all these people? Well, you’re not one of them. Come to Evenfall!”

“And you did?”

The look she gets for that comment - a fairly innocent one, really, given the options - feels overdramatic. Like everything about Harmony, she supposes. “Um, yeah. What was I supposed to do, go to some normal college and pretend that I didn’t have gills? No, I don’t actually-“ she adds, seeing her glance- “but shut up.”

“And that’s the story,” Nitya says. “Now I really do have to go, since I think they’re running practice late. In the rain. Nice meeting you Mira, I suppose-“ it doesn’t sound like it- “but I do have to go.” She picks up the soccer ball from the corner, spinning it in her hands and spraying everybody else with water before pushing through the door.

“That was abrupt,” Aishwarya says, frowning.

Harmony glances out the window, grimacing as a flash of lightning races across the sky. “Her fault for getting into sports,” she says, pulling out her tablet and flicking through it. “At least plays are inside, most of the time.”

The group dynamic has dissolved, and Mira takes that as her cue to leave. It’s a chance to get back to the normal world, a place where things like magical rain and sirens aren’t something she has to deal with. Not that anything at Evenfall can be called normal, not how the word is usually meant. Back to a point where she can pretend things are normal, then.

She’s always been good at that, pretending things are normal. It’s how she got here, and why she’ll stay.

*this message paid for by the State of Washington

**much like Pluto and its moon Charon, Samantha’s lenses are large enough that the two of them should be considered a binary system rather than that of a single body

I’ll use my current tag list for this, since this will be just a short AU/story thing, but please let me know if you want to be added or removed! @lady-redshield-writes, @no-url-ideas-tho, @ratracechronicler, @ken-kenwrites, @ravenpuffwriter, @cirianne, @lonelylibrary @maxbeewriting, @endlesshourglass, @thebloodstainedquill, @anip-ocs, @note-katha @dreamwishing, @incandescent-creativity, @fatal-blow, @danafaithwriting, @wri-tten, @writingwhithotchocolate, @katekyo-bitch-reborn, @klywrites and @dogwrites!

(and if you liked it, don’t forget to check out @note-katha‘s actual Evenfall University story and their stellar characters! We’ll be meeting them soon enough…)

#evenfall university #ring of fire #writing #i'm excited for this!#it's always lots of fun to write an AU with notey #and this one seems like it'll be great!#note-katha

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mazanica · 5 years

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Hey! Absolutely LOVE your "the toys caused the bite au"!!! It's gives me the feels!! Your art style is very refreshing as well. Tho I do have a question, sorry in advance if you've already answered this question: What did the toys and og fazcrew fight about after the murders? I know Bonnie was mad cause Blue didn't protect the kids but I don't understand why Freddy and Red had a falling out, same for the others. Again sorry if this was answered already. Thanks and have a nice day!

Hi! Thank you, I’m glad you like it!! <3<3 I’m happy to explain, since it’s not really spelled out in the video or any of the other things I’ve done with it. I hope my explanation makes sense, but I’m putting it under a read more because it got longer than I intended >w<; (I love talking about my stories and stuff)

**Edit: Do Keep Readings not work anymore???

Freddy never really fell out with Red; Red fell out with Freddy. You’ll notice that never once has Freddy been seen yelling at/acting harshly towards Red; Red has been the one being harsh and yelling/arguing, interrupting, glaring/baring his teeth, etc. Freddy just tried to talk to him, and watched sadly as someone he cared about just completely broke down.

Anyway, as for the why it happened, it was a disagreement over how to go about after the murders- because they’re both the Freddys of their groups, they’re both natural (designed) leaders and had always had a very equal-footing with each other- they’re not each others’ boss, they’re the bosses of their own groups. They just sorta... ran the pizzeria together (which is, undoubtedly, what led to their close relationship) and could usually agree or at least compromise, but...

But Red is still young, he hasn’t been through a lot of things that actually hurt, and in the Aftermath ‘Verse Freddy and the other OGs had already been through a set of murders (there were two different sets of murders, the one that got the OG crews’ restaurant shut down and then the one at the Toys’ restaurant) and Freddy was somewhat desensitized to it by then (Bonnie very much so was not- Freddy had come to terms with it while Bonnie was still haunted by it).

Freddy was trying to be logical about it, and Red, being driven by his emotions (rather out of character for him, as he’s usually very studious and is typically the one who keeps his wits about him), felt like Freddy didn’t care, or at least didn’t care enough to do something about it. Really it boils down to; people react differently to grief. Red let himself be consumed by it, much the same way Freddy had when the first child was murdered outside his restaurant. Freddy had already been through this and even though it hurt, he knew that Red was only going to make things worse by acting rashly.

Had Red and the others not immediately gone after the murderer, if they had given themselves time to calm down (the Bite happened the day after the murders), things would have turned out differently- Red would have come to find that, logically, Freddy was right, and Bonnie would have finally admitted to himself that there was nothing Blue could have done and apologized. But that didn’t happen.

Freddy chose to give Red the space to calm down (a choice he regrets now), believing an animatronic as sensible as Red was would calm down enough to see things logically if given time. Of course, he was wrong. But he didn’t know that at the time. Maybe if it had been any other little girl, Red wouldn’t have been so rash.

As for the others, Foxy and Mangle, and Chica and Chii didn’t actually fall out. Chica disappeared to be alone because it happened again, while Foxy went with his old friends to try and help them (Foxy was angry but not at the Toys, something he and Bonnie got into a fight about later because Foxy and Freddy both thought it unfair for Bonnie to blame them. Chica stayed out of it). None of them thought that leaving the Toys to mourn together and comfort each other would end so badly.

Now idk if you’re partly referencing my Oneshot Collection, where this idea (that the Toy Band cornered the murderer where Mangle could get him) originated, in which Freddy was the only one to not blame the Toys, that was seeeveral years ago and I’ve made several changes since then. I felt like if all of them blamed the Toys, it would diminish Bonnie’s reaction. Now they each have a unique circumstance;

Freddy tried to talk sense to Red, but ultimately chose to give him space to sort it out himself and ended up losing Red completely because of it.

Bonnie blamed Blue, leaving that night on very bad terms with words he didn’t mean, and never got a chance to apologize.

Chica chose to isolate herself, she doesn’t even have proper last words with Chii. And now she’s left wondering if she had stuck with Chii, maybe Chii wouldn’t have agreed to the Plan that was, at its core, suicide from the start.

And Foxy? Well, he chose to go after his own friends rather than stay with the Toys- or, specifically, Mangle. And six years later, when he wakes up from shutdown, he finds out his sweet, sassy Mangle was the one who took the bite.

Also, though I know it doesn’t line up with canon, it’s after the OGs wake up in 1993 just to find themselves in a new restaurant, fixed up, and discover that the Toys were scrapped (read: dead) that they begin hunting the night guards. Because 1) The murderer was a guard, and 2) The Toys lost their lives in an attempt to stop the murderer. But the OG crew didn’t know who the murderer was- only the Toys saw him. All they were sure of was, the Toys got the wrong guy (because Jeremy Fitzgerald had shoved the Murderer away, and the OG crew knew Jeremy was not the murderer- after all, the murders happened during the day, long after Jeremy had gone home. Also, the article Freddy found had a statement from an “unnamed employee” about how Jeremy jumped between the man the animatronics were cornering and Mangle...) and they decided they’d finish the Toys’ work.

Even if they have to kill every Guard who comes through to do it.

I’M SORRY THIS GOT SO LONG HHHHHHH I don’t even know if any of it makes sense bUT YOU GOT ME TALKIN AND I COULDN’T STOP.

#Ask #five nights at freddy's #Aftermath verse #Mazey tALKS TOO MUCH

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memecucker · 6 years

Link

thanks for the submission anon! not sure why the entire article was pasted but i’ll put it under a cut. i dont endorse everything said here but i think its a worthwhile read

The question remains as to whether Canadian polemicists know what they are talking about when they denounce “cultural appropriation”. I don’t think they do. I think they are misrepresenting the phenomenon and bloating it to useless dimensions, sloppily borrowing American terminology, and bending the reality of Canadian history out of shape. I also detect a familiar narrowing of the dominant vocabulary that is authorized for use by the media in public discourse, so that one term or phrase is used to do the work that previously several different concepts handled. Confusion is the inevitable result—and that is by design. It is intended that we should be confused, since that spawns endless circular debates, irresolvable conflict, parties speaking past each other—all of which works against sharing, against acculturation, and against building a stronger national society. It also works against the indigenization of Canadian society, the cultural side of the economic citizenship that I defended here. Instead we are turned into mutually hostile bands of litigants, constantly parsing each other’s statements for even the smallest sign of something which we might find offensive. We are constantly feigning fainting spells, our delicate selves being so overwhelmed by the daily outrages against our reputation (brand).

Some well-placed Canadians do not know the difference between cultural appropriation and assimilation, and the errors that ensue lead to a falsification of Canadian history. To begin with, assimilation in its most basic historical sense involves a dominant group (typically colonizers) absorbing or incorporating the dominated group (the colonized) into the social and cultural norms of the dominant group. The indigenous culture is thus meant to be extinguished, and those who once belonged to that culture now acquire a new culture—they are converted to the culture of the dominant group. The indigenous culture is in no sense “valued” by the colonizer—it has no value, it can be held in contempt, and was usually targeted for erasure. Not to be mistaken with the unidirectional process that is assimilation, acculturation involves “those phenomena which result when groups of individuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact, with subsequent changes in the original cultural patterns of either or both groups” (Redfield, Linton, & Herskovits, 1936, pp.149–150; see also Herskovits, 1937, p. 259). Both assimilation and acculturation are examples of culture contact, culture change, and more broadly, “diffusion”. Cultural appropriation, which is not as well defined as the previous terms and does not enjoy as long a history in North American anthropology, is muddled because it could mean taking over or taking from or simply borrowing. The corollary is that when a culture has been subjected to appropriation, that culture continues to exist intact: I can claim that your culture is now mine, but that does not mean you cease to have your culture; I can acquire select values, practices, and motifs, and make them my own, and again that does not mean you lose those elements; I can borrow an item, inspired by you, and you lose nothing as a result. Where cultural appropriation seems to rise to a condition of conflict, is when commerce and formal ownership are involved—but then that takes us to cultural exploitation, which is far removed from simple acts of sharing and borrowing.

Focusing just on the pair—assimilation vs. appropriation—recent evidence in Canada shows the monumental errors that are made when appropriation is used to handle the meanings of several very different concepts, all at once. Here, for example, is Jesse Wente, a Canadian Aboriginal, not a chief of a nation but a self-described “Ojibwe dude” who, not to be falsely modest, is a figure in the Canadian mass media, a self-appointed gatekeeper and culture broker, and a purported specialist on “diversity” and “inclusion”. Wente recently vented the following:

“It’s easy to say you don’t believe in cultural appropriation when it’s your culture that has been forced on many, while erasing there’s [sic]”.

He is right: it would be easy to say that, because it’s wrong. What Wente describes in that quote has nothing at all to do with “cultural appropriation” (it’s the opposite), and everything to do with assimilation. At no point does he describe the dominant culture taking from the dominated culture. This shows that Wente does not even know the meaning of appropriation. However, by accident, especially in making us correct his mistake, he points to the actual reality of Canadian history, which has been one of assimilation, rooted in utter disdain for Aboriginal cultures, expressed in a desire to beat the living crap out of those cultures and turning Aboriginals into clones of white people. Aboriginals did not “appropriate” modern, Western, Christian, individualist and capitalist lifeways: these were forced on them. There is no such thing as an involuntary appropriation. It’s the same history of assimilation that made it possible for Wente to write in English. Canadian policy was never about making Canadian settlers more like Aboriginals, to encourage appropriation—to even suggest that is a terrible perversion of Canadian history.

The history of residential schools in Canada is not a history of “cultural appropriation”: it is a history of assimilation. In 1883, Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, explained the residential schools policy to the House of Commons:

“Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men”.

(That will take us to the next section and how genocide has been conceptually mangled by deliberately and confusingly rephrasing it as “cultural genocide”). The policy of residential schooling was explicitly an assimilationist one—as expressed in the famous words of Duncan Campbell Scott, the Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs from 1913 to 1932:

“I want to get rid of the Indian problem….Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department.”

It was a policy of “taking the Indian out of the child,” and abolishing the Indian altogether. The idea was not to create a tabula rasa as an end in itself, but to erase and replace, by forcibly converting the child to the dominant, British Canadian culture. It is closer to being cultural imperialism than it is to cultural appropriation. However, since the authorized discourse in the elite-controlled media has successfully narrowed the vocabulary of Canadians, no such mention of imperialism ever surfaces, in any context.

We can conclude that the problem with the “cultural appropriation” idea, as deployed by gatekeepers, is that it either does not actually describe and explain the phenomenon to which it is assigned (and thus does not exist), or it does exist in other contexts but we are not told why that is anything other than the normal course of cultural diffusion. We also know that cultural appropriation is not a prominent part of Canadian history, which instead emphasized assimilation of indigenous peoples. Finally, in some cases, what is being marked as cultural appropriation is instead actually cultural exploitation, which is more than just borrowing. Do you get the sense then we are being told there is a cultural appropriation “problem,” when none actually exists?

As for cultural exploitation, that is not an easy issue to settle. Numerous Aboriginal hip-hop musicians in Canada borrow from US sources without apology, just as in central Australia there are Aboriginal reggae bands, playing their music without sending shiploads of tribute over to Jamaica. This is not to mention the many dozens of zombie films made over the past century, all done without paying royalties to Haiti. (Perhaps the producers of The Walking Dead were very clever in avoiding use of the Z-word.) The problem lies with the intentional spread of rules of “intellectual property” by governments and international bodies working in the service of a neoliberal political economy. An expert class of managers arrogates to itself the right to instruct and aribitrate over how we can learn from and be inspired by other cultures. So much for “market freedoms” then, and so much for “globalization,” when the very upholders of both of these are revealed to be little more than rent-seeking racketeers.

Enter the lawyer: Olufunmilayo Arewa is a professor of Law, at the University of California, Irvine, writing in The Conversation US, an online publication made possible by many of the usual giant capitalist US foundations and expeditionary philanthropists such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, and so forth. The “funders” vary by country, but are usually an assemblage of banks and foundations. The Conversation is part of a growing trend that Pierre Bourdieu warned about decades ago in Homo Academicus (pp. 112, 119, 120, 267, 268, 297): the blurring of the lines between academia and journalism which reduces the autonomy of universities, makes them answerable to market audiences, and introduces journalistic standards of renown into a field previously dominated by standards of scholarship.

Thus it is not surprising to see Arewa’s piece in The Conversation—it is not so much predictable as it is almost mandatory that it would appear there. A lawyer, writing as a journalist, based in a major US university, backed by powerful foundations, all of which gives us a glimpse into the dense cluster of special interests that have been vested in the manufactured debates around cultural appropriation. This is a field dominated by elites—academics, journalists, bankers, lawyers—not an organic outgrowth of some popular outcry existing at the “grass roots” of indigenous communities.

Not to keep the phenomenon safely out of the reach of such special interests, Arewa (in loose language uncharacteristic of careful lawyers) blurs the lines between cultural appropriation and cultural exploitation. The accent is on exploitation, an arena fraught with danger, with loud claims for compensation, restitution, reparations, profit sharing, royalties, etc. An example of this deliberate slippage is where she writes, “borrowing may become appropriation when it reinforces historically exploitative relationships” which she quickly follows with a mention of opportunities to “control or benefit” from cultural “material”. I do not mean to suggest that Arewa is careless, sloppy, or lazy—I think that the language that bleeds from one concept to another is deliberate, intentional, and vested with special interests. The aim is to produce a “problem,” a problem that can only be solved in the legal arena and the marketplace. It is a neoliberal problem of diversity management, that demands neoliberal technologies of control and capital accumulation. Culture is turned into “material” that can be “controlled” by someone. (Who? You can guess.)

There is nothing ambiguous about this: if you read Arewa’s piece you will see the words above immediately followed by a section devoted to artifacts, museums, and a bunch of dollar figures—translation: culture as property, held by institutions, sold in the marketplace. It is the finale of her piece that gives away the motive in writing it:

“An understanding of both borrowing and appropriation should be incorporated into legal, business and other institutional frameworks. In fields such as intellectual property law, greater recognition of the power structures underlying borrowing in different contexts is important. This can be an important starting point for blocking future exploitative cultural flows. And it can help prevent extraction of more cultural booty”.

This squarely places the discussion of cultural appropriation in the neoliberal zone, where everything is commodified and then privatized and thus subject to the “rule of law”. Culture—whatever that was—becomes a matter of “intellectual property law”. Luckily, being a lawyer herself, Arewa is one of those who presumably stands to benefit. And that is the trick behind all of these attempts to regulate our speech and social interactions: subject them to regulations, censure and censor violators, and create capital for specialists who appear, as if by magic, to expertly mediate the whole problem…a problem they conceptually manufactured in the first place. The final gift is that the rules and norms of capitalism can be used to heal the rifts caused by capitalism—this really is magic.

There is one more area, a critically important one, where the conceptual wizardry produces benefits for elites, and losses for those who are supposedly meant to be protected, and that is the Canadian invention of “cultural genocide”.

It was shocking to see Canadians accepting the notion that the history of residential schooling—where children were forcibly taken away from their Aboriginal parents, to school them out of their Aboriginal heritage—has been officially defined in Canada as “cultural genocide”. Conveniently, there is no such concept under international law, and it thus whitewashes Canada’s reputation for what it really is: a state guilty of genocide.

Of course, no state guilty of genocide has the political capital needed to lecture and threaten target states of the periphery. “Cultural genocide” avoids that problem, and is useful for evading any talk of UN sanctions and Security Council resolutions.

There was no conceptual need to speak in terms of “cultural” genocide—everything that is essential to the history of residential schooling is already covered by the existing UN charter on the “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide,” and has been since 1948. The key text comes under Article II, particularly point (e):

Article II

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; © Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

A lawyer quoted by the CBC, reportedly made the following points: “Schabas compares the use of the term genocide to a very hot spice that ‘transforms something from being rather old news into something that gets the headlines’. Sometimes, he says, it also makes it harder for victims to reconcile with the perpetrator groups”. That is one remarkable statement. Not only is the history of residential schooling in Canada not “old news” (it only ended in 1996), the nature of the term being like “hot spice” never stops Canada or other Western nations from liberally applying it whenever convenient, against target nations abroad. Wholesale fictions of “genocide” were invented about Libya in 2011, to justify NATO’s intervention—few, let alone in the CBC, were ever heard to say, “Hold on now, that’s a hot spice term, and if we use it then that might prevent the victims from reconciling with the Gaddafi government”. Instead, much of this CBC article, in the ample tradition of liberal hypocrisy, casts about for the appropriate legal scholar to lament about how, aw shucks, it’s too bad we do not have “cultural genocide” in international law…when the current convention against genocide already covers exactly what happened with Canadian residential schools. Such blindness is not incompetence, it is wilful. It was sad to see indigenous leaders abide by all this, as if they had won something significant, instead of acknowledging the political fraud for which their experience was hijacked. How ironic then that this indigenous “leader” should declare: “If you can’t identify what the issue is, then you really don’t know what you’re working with”.

In my book, Ruins of Absence, Presence of Caribs, the central concept and argument focused on the “reengineering of indigeneity,” where indigenous identity became vested with the interests of specialists emanating from several arenas surrounding the Caribs in Trinidad & Tobago: the national state, the Catholic church, the mass media, local businesses enterprises, local government, academia, tourism, NGOs, and international governmental organizations. We see a similar vesting of special interests in the fabrication of the “cultural appropriation crisis” and the story is not one of mendacious leftists (there are those too), but should instead be seen as reflecting neoliberal capitalist patterns.

Lawyers, professors, journalists, and other self-appointed gatekeepers: these are some of the specialists, sanctioned by the media and governments, who litigate and adjudicate the neoliberal commerce in culture, that is, culture turned into property and removed far beyond sharing, parody, mutual insults, and all the interactions that make up everyday social life. To be clear, never once have we heard any sort of popular indigenous outcry over “appropriation”—what we are made to hear instead are the voices of lawyers, academics, media pundits, and diversity consultants who show up with business cards, courtesy of the new cultural policing. We are therefore dealing with interests vested in reengineering culture into a series of specialist turfs, accompanied by calls for recognition, rewards, and fees. Regulation of culture by the rule of the marketplace generates bureaucracies, and these bureaucracies create capital for the culture brokers that arise to take advantage of the opportunity. Even better, the manufacture of conflict over “appropriation” produces the space for appointed experts to intervene, and to inevitably acquire capital. This is the path of culture that is instrumentalized, or even weaponized.

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livevsongame-tv-blog · 6 years

Text

Live Update: Column: US Open has a new way of presenting old courses

New Post has been published on https://livevsongame-tv.com/golf/live-update-column-us-open-has-a-new-way-of-presenting-old-courses/21215/html

Live Update: Column: US Open has a new way of presenting old courses

SOUTHAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) If the U.S. Open was suffering from an identity crisis, then a return to Shinnecock Hills should cure that.

But only to a point.

Jack Nicklaus was the strongest voice of concern a year ago, and it was easy to see why. The U.S. Open went to two modern courses in three years, Chambers Bay in 2015 and Erin Hills in 2017. The landing zones at Erin Hills were nearly wide enough on some holes to fit three fairways from a U.S. Open that Nicklaus grew up playing. It wasn’t necessarily a bad test, just a different one.

Article continues below …

And for those who spent the better part of four decades playing them, it was puzzling.

”I think the USGA has gotten away from their identity with what they’re doing,” Nicklaus said, though he conceded that Chambers Bay was unique and he had not been to Erin Hills or seen the way courses were set up.

He remembers a U.S. Open with narrow fairways, thick rough and firm, fast green. The ultimate test, he called it.

”I’m old-fashioned,” Nicklaus concluded. ”I happen to like what I grew up on.”

Nicklaus played two U.S. Opens at Shinnecock Hills, and he might not recognize much beyond the magnificent, century-old views.

The fairways are 15 yards wider on certain holes compared with the previous three Opens on the William Flynn design, allowing slightly errant shots to roll into bunkers that were put there for a reason. And while the course has been lengthened by about 450 yards since the Open was last held at Shinnecock in 2004, the real change when the discussion turns to ”bigger” is the greens. They have been restored to their original size.

The rough off the fairway is thick and dense enough to be a half-shot penalty, if not more. But around the greens? Gone. That’s largely replaced by closely mown areas that will send the ball 20 yards or farther away – for really bad shots, far away enough to find mangled grass.

The history and old-school look of Shinnecock will make it feel like a traditional U.S. Open.

Mike Davis, the chief executive of the USGA, likes to think in different terms. One message from Monday’s preview of the 118th U.S. Open was a stronger effort to stay true to the architecture. In other words, allow the course to play the way the architect intended and remain what the USGA endlessly calls the ”ultimate test.”

Davis conceded that the identity of the U.S. Open is more closely linked to the historic nature of the course more than how it is set up.

”Jack played it more as a cookie-cutter setup,” Davis said. ”What we’ve tried to do is more respectful to architecture, so we’ve done that here. In `04, some of these fairways were so narrow that you had fairway bunkers 10 yards out in the rough. That doesn’t make sense.”

He referenced the 1950s, when Joe Dey was running the USGA and Richard Tufts was the president, and there was a blueprint for the U.S. Open.

”It didn’t matter if it was Oakland Hills or Winged Foot,” Davis said. ”There would be fairways a certain width, thick rough, fast greens.”

But it was the toughest test in golf. More times than not, it was about survival.

The U.S. Open is not big on slogans – there is no name attached to the silver trophy. Davis says the ”toughest test in golf” was a label from years back, although the USGA certainly didn’t frown on it. He has never heard anyone at the USGA talk about protecting par, but a winning score at or above par seems to bring smiles.

The ultimate test?

Davis once denounced such an idea at Congressional on the eve of the 2011 U.S. Open.

”I think what we’ve stated over the years is that we want it to be a very difficult challenge,” he said that day. ”But I’m not sure we’ve ever used the ultimate challenge. Maybe somebody else has, but I don’t believe the USGA has.”

And then it did.

Diana Murphy first publicly mentioned it at Oakmont two years ago, and it has become a popular phrase among the blue blazers since then. Jeff Hall, the USGA’s managing director of rules and competition, explained the notion of ”ultimate test” as shot-making, course management and resolve both physically and mentally.

”Make no mistake about it,” Hall said. ”The U.S. Open is a grind.”

That’s an identity that should never change.

(function()BlackBerry()); Source by [Anando]

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thetapelessworld · 6 years

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Spitfire sprinkles SOUND DUST with second collection of unique, strange, and inspiring instruments

Spitfire Audio is proud to announce availability of SOUND DUST 2 — the second collection of unique, strange, and inspiring instruments created by the company’s collective favourite British sound designer, composer, and aficionado of all things (that sound) weird and wonderful, Pendle Poucher, the innovative brains behind boutique Brighton-based library company Sound Dust (to which the collection obviously owes its magical ‘musical’ name) — as of November 15…

Like its predecessor — originally released by Spitfire Audio as DUSTBUNDLE back in 2015, SOUND DUST 2 acts as another gateway to a playground of sonic discovery — this time to a diverse selection of five of its innovative creator’s namesake company’s most recent hybrid creations. Collecting unique oddities and eccentricities, richly sampled with Pendle Poucher’s radical recording processes and obsessive attention to detail, these range from hip-hop beats through to broken violas and rare, distorted pianos — all as they have never been heard before. Better still, these are truly expressive, intuitive left-field sounds, supremely designed to spark anyone’s imagination. Indeed, as Pendle Poucher posits, “My approach is not as a proper composer; I make organised noise. For me, the sounds are more important than the notes. I’m always thinking about the timbre and the quality of the sound, then I try to make that into a musical thing.”

The thing is, in creating an interesting Sound Dust library, Pendle Poucher does not limit himself to any one type of sound or instrument; rather the only requirements are that interesting noises are made which with he can create something that has not been heard before. By being based at The Toy Rooms Studio in Brighton, UK — a veritable breeding ground for interesting British sounds since it is a hub of renowned film composers, musicians, and producers, such as Nick Cave, Gomez, Jez Kurtswall, and UNKLE, surrounded by a multitude of rare instruments and equipment, perhaps Pendle Poucher’s obsession with strange sounds is all the more understandable. After all, this innovative individual started out by playing guitar in Rough Trade-signed art-pop band Butterfly Child before working on sound and art installations, including a permanent one for the National Trust at Avebury Manor. Meanwhile, he has also spent 10 years working as sound designer and composer for the award-winning DreamThinkSpeak theatre company, as well as writing and producing scores for the BBC and many other television entities in the UK and beyond. But for Sound Dust, Pendle Poucher mostly works alone as he prefers to see a project through from start to finish, with laser-sharp attention to detail: “The whole Sound Dust thing started by accident,” he reveals. “I bought a beautiful old Dulcitone off eBay; it was kind of knackered and I couldn’t really play it, so I decided to sample it. I then started selling the samples, which, to my surprise, were amazingly popular, and it all grew from there. Had I not started with Dulcitone, Sound Dust wouldn’t be what it is today, which is essentially me indulging in my desire to make funny noises.”

Needless to say, a clandestine, Cold War-style meet between composers Christian Henson and Pendle Poucher beneath London's Hungerford Bridge, resulted in one of the most exciting partnerships Spitfire Audio has forged in its illustrious history... history has shown, then, that the original DUSTBUNDLE — recently re-released as SOUND DUST 1 — has become a staple of Spitfire Audio’s 70-plus sample libraries to date; SOUND DUST 2 is surely set to follow suit, thanks to its integration of the following five hybrid creations — each effectively ‘mini’ magical, sample-based virtual instruments in their own right, fit for sprinkling over anything anyone cares to play with them. The FLUTTER dust module could conceivably be considered a truly 21st Century Mellotron, made using existing Sound Dust instruments with added effects and parameters. It is based on recordings of acoustic instruments — just like a Mellotron, albeit with extra functionality to transport its users to places its tape-based Mellotron counterpart’s could only over dream of! Furthering flexibility, FLUTTER dust module features two interfaces — namely, Looper, offering controls on a per-note basis, and Wavetable, with edited, mangled, morphed, and reversed sounds from Sound Dust favourites (such as Autoharp, Cloud Viola and Cello, Dulcitone, Ghosts Piano, Hammr+ and Rubber Bass, Hogwarts Piano, Orgone, Pendleonium, Plucked Grand Piano, and Ships Piano) providing long and complex, multi-sampled acoustic wavetables that can scan in real time to create beautiful, evolving, and unexpected new sounds. Meanwhile, moving the mod wheel results in instant, live fluttering/glitch/jitter effects; playing the coloured key switches produces realtime gating effects. Either way, clicking the chaos button simply serves up a totally different sound each and every time! That said, moving the playhead position or loop points can construct completely new sounds — from delicate ‘flute-otrons’ to majestic organ-celestes and complex polyrhythmic Philip Glass-esque soundscapes. Seeking to make music that inhabits a sonic ‘other’ space by sounding simultaneously acoustic and electronic? Enter the wonderful world of FLUTTER, a world where creating granular sounds and ghostly versions of real-world timbres clearly comes naturally.

Taking its name, naturally, from the time funnel in Kurt Vonnegut’s terrific time-leaping novel, Sirens of Titan, INFUNDIBULUM is a multi-arp workstation and three-part sequencing machine offering a playground of polyrhythmic possibilities — perfect for creating unusual textures, rhythmic textures like ostinatos and interesting cross-rhythms, and different types of sequencing. Since those three arpeggiators all run at different speeds and lengths, featuring chiming piano sounds for an instant Steve Reich vibe, the radical results can be likened to being in a room full of noise generators; bowed, plucked, or struck things; and exotic vintage synths! INFUNDIBULUM is not intended for authentically replicating any of the included sounds — some have been deeply multi-sampled, after all; instead it celebrates what happens when sampling goes too far! Furthermore, holding any chord results in different notes starting to cycle back on themselves in disjointed yet glorious, hitherto unheard ways. With the an amazing multi-arp added into the magical mix — three sounds repeating through different cycle lengths at different speeds, users are already heading halfway towards an out-of-body experience!

Elsewhere, ODDHOP — powered by modular chaos engine #3, no less; imagine, if you will, a 303 and a 909 drum machine fused together with additional quirky percussion machines — makes for disappearing down a rhythmic rabbit hole easier done than said! Since it is packed with hundreds of original acoustic and electronic sounds arranged into five octaves of one-shot kicks, as well as pre-programmed basses, pianos, and vocal samples, ODDHOP is specifically designed for electronic music production and, as such, compatible with Pendle Poucher’s other piano-based instruments for a wonky, eclectic hip-hop sound. Saying that, things get really exciting when using the new drum and bass sequencing engines, each with 12 tracks of drawable-per-note control over nine parameters and polyrhythmic patterns. Put it this way: users will literally never be sure what they are going to get!

Get this, though: PENDLEONIUM comprises six sampled source instruments, intended to create something entirely new. The instruments themselves — two Danelectro baritone guitars, two Fernandez infinite guitars (with Sustainiac pickups and built-in eBows), and a spring viola (hardwired through a Roland Space Echo, creating an endless pad) — are arranged left to right across the main panel. PENDLEONIUM creates sounds reminiscent of Twin Peaks, Radiohead, and an orchestral haze, seamlessly merging organic and electronic elements. Each instrument comes complete with enhanced editing tools to tweak to suit, with effects like dirt, eq, rotor, and reverb, together with delay send and reverb send, for gnarly, lo-fi treatments. PENDLEONIUM produces seismic shifts and deep, rich tones at lower registers, while in higher registers it can be configured to produce sounds like ripples passing through mercury! SHIPS PIANO is fashioned from a selection of three characterful pianos — namely, a ship’s piano; a ‘school hall’ grand, recorded binaurally in a Hogwarts-style school chapel; and a deviously altered home upright, reversed, fed into high-end reverb, and reversed again for a backwards attack effect. Speaking of effects, users can cunningly combine different aspects of each piano — accessing ADSRs, convolution reverb, high and lowpass filters, and vibrato to create impossible-sounding piano hybrids!

Having said all that, so intuitive is this collection of instruments that as soon as users start moving buttons and faders around, magical things start to happen! Is it any wonder, when Pendle Poucher — Spitfire Audio co-founder Christian Henson’s sampling hero — delights in taking left-field routes, resulting in inspiring new sounds and mind-bending sound design possibilities. SOUND DUST 2 can be purchased and digitally downloaded for a time-limited introductory promo price of £149.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$149.00 USD/ €149.00 EUR (inc. VAT) until November 29, 2018 — rising thereafter to an RRP of £199.00 GBP (inc. VAT)/$199.00 USD/€199.00 EUR (inc. VAT) — from here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/sound-dust-vol-2/ For more in-depth information, including some superb-sounding audio demos, please visit the dedicated SOUND DUST 2 webpage here: https://www.spitfireaudio.com/shop/a-z/sound-dust-vol-2/

Watch Spitfire Audio Director Paul Thomson’s ‘traditional’ video walkthrough of SOUND DUST 2 here: https://youtu.be/u3eTyp5bOUI

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Watch Spitfire Audio ‘composer-in-residence’ Oliver Patrice Weder’s ‘In Action’ video for SOUND DUST 2 here: https://youtu.be/JCeZy_Dovrc

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Watch Spitfire Audio Director Christian Henson showcasing the delights of SOUND DUST 1 and SOUND DUST 2 here: https://youtu.be/ox09fK1ns6w

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Watch Spitfire Audio’s An Introduction to Sound Dust documentary here: https://youtu.be/H8sJtqnrGd0

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SOUND DUST 2 needs Native Instruments’ free KONTAKT PLAYER (5.6.8 or higher) — included in the purchase — to run as a fully NKS (NATIVE KONTROL STANDARD®) supporting plug-in instrument for Mac (OS X 10.10 or later) or Windows (7, 8, or 10 — latest Service Pack, 32/64-bit), while Spitfire Audio’s free Download Manager application allows anyone to buy now and download anytime.

#news #spitfireaudio #sounddust #kontakt #samplelibraries #musicproducer #musicproduction

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hotspreadpage · 6 years

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What’s Accuracy Got to Do With Social Media?

You may be familiar with the oft-quoted line attributed to Mark Twain, “A lie will fly around the whole world while the truth is getting its boots on.” It’s cropped up quite a bit over the last couple of years in discussions about fake news and alternative facts. Twain’s words seem a particularly apt description of social media’s role in spreading misinformation faster than ever, while amplifying the confusion of who or what to trust.

Putting aside any political connotations, let’s instead consider whether marketers are guilty of inadvertently spreading inaccurate, outdated, or just plain wrong information. Sure, getting a fact wrong or misinterpreting a stat isn’t necessarily the same as telling a bald-faced lie. But neither is it trivial when our content is supposedly intended to create the impression of authority and expertise. In short, fact-checking matters just as much in a 280-character tweet as it does in a 10-page white paper. But, boy, has the bar for accuracy slipped worryingly low in this fast-paced, attention-seeking online world.

Fact-checking matters just as much in a 280-character tweet as it does in a 10-page white paper, says @kimota. Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Fact-Checking for Content Marketers: How to Protect Credibility in the Era of Fake News [Checklist]

Taken on trust

Almost all the information we consume, particularly online, is crowdsourced in one way or another. Wikis are the obvious example of the community collating, curating and certifying the vastness of human knowledge. Yet most of the information we encounter is filtered and reinterpreted through a series of books, blogs, infographics, explainer videos, articles, and, of course, social media updates.

Unfortunately, this means a lot of the information we encounter as consumers of content may be the result of garbled repetition. Error builds upon error until what may once have been accurate morphs into something inaccurate. As we are also content producers, we then risk compounding the mistake.

“A little research is precisely what many people don’t want when it comes to their digital diet … because many of the information environments we inhabit are magnificently hospitable to meme-sharing, attention-grabbing and OMG-have-you-seen-this moments – and relatively uninterested in hang-on-a-second-let’s-pause-and-think-twice,” as Tom Chatfield writes in New Philosopher.

A little research is precisely what many people don’t want when it comes to their digital diet. @TomChatfield Click To Tweet

Most social media users can’t afford to check the validity and accuracy of every factoid that crosses their feeds. How could they? Therefore, there’s a huge element of trust inherent in that relationship between publisher and audience.

But that means we as the producers of this content must continually prove we are deserving of that trust. If we’re serving up these bite-sized snackettes of information into social media, it’s our responsibility to ensure that they won’t rot the very trust and authority we hope to instill.

When serving up bite-sized #content, we need to ensure it won’t rot trust in us. @kimota #factcheck Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Democratization of Distrust Is Our Biggest Opportunity

Misinfographics?

A client once supplied me with a crucial statistic for an infographic I was creating and cited a government e-book on business as the source. I was surprised to discover that the footnote for the stat in the government e-book claimed it came from a blog post published the previous year on the client’s website. That post claimed the stat came from an earlier edition of the government e-book, which in turn referenced an earlier article on the client’s website. The two had been unwittingly handballing the same stat back and forth for years, each attributing it to the other and each giving the information a veneer of freshness by failing to include any other contextual information or mention how outdated the information actually was. To this day I’m still not clear who conducted the initial research.

I certainly didn’t continue the chain of inaccuracy by using this stale stat in the new infographic.

Don’t continue chain of inaccuracy by including stale stats in new infographics, says @kimota. #factchecking Click To Tweet

In my mind, an infographic without checkable references is just an untrustworthy set of icons and numbers. I’m not saying every infographic should undermine its visual appeal and brevity with a long list of fine print at the bottom. But you should still make it easy for readers to check each and every stat and fact. Too many sources? List them on a webpage and post a short URL at the bottom of the infographic.

Sources by themselves aren’t necessarily a guarantee of accuracy. The way in which the fact or stat is summarized and represented can also mislead. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve scrolled to the bottom of an infographic and followed the references to discover the original research is years out of date or taken out of context. And that’s if the sources are even included.

Sources by themselves aren’t necessarily a guarantee of accuracy, says @kimota. #factchecking Click To Tweet

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How Well Do You Fact-Check Your Content?

A+ for effort: D- for diligence

Having worked as a writer, journalist, and editor for many years, I’ve learned the hard way to be extremely skeptical when researching. If I can’t verify a fact or claim, it makes me nervous.

OK, I admit I’m quite the pedant. You never forget the first time a university lecturer marks you down for failing to provide adequate references (correctly formatted) to back up the claims in an assignment into which you poured so much effort.

But this is about far more than just “showing your work.” It’s about applying appropriate rigor in research. When you have to document your own references so precisely, you soon learn to distrust any source that doesn’t do the same.

So much content is published, shared, and remixed every day that checking the veracity of an individual claim can mean following a trail of bread crumbs from infographic to blog post to article and so on – stripping away each filter or reinterpretation to get back to the source. Therefore, it is extremely frustrating when – after spending an hour trying to confirm the accuracy of a statistic I desperately want to use – my journey ends at a blog post from someone I have no reason to trust and who didn’t bother to mention where the information was first sourced.

This is why the original source is all that matters – not only when fact-checking for your own sake but also for your audience who deserves the same courtesy when verifying your claims. Otherwise, you’re relying on a source less diligent than you – and then why should your audience trust anything you say? I don’t care if TechCrunch says 84% of Twitter users have developed an addiction to blancmange. If I want to use the stat in a future column (“The disturbing connection between social media and pink desserts”), I need to check and cite the original research. After all, it’s not unknown for a stat to be *gasp* made up!

Who said that?

Social media loves quotations. These days, it seems all you have to do to achieve viral gold is slap an inspirational quote onto a sunset image and spam it to every network. But while the right quote correctly attributed can lend authority and gravitas to your content, an inaccurate or misattributed quote can just as easily undermine it. (Just saying, but Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill most likely didn’t say half of the pithy bons mots commonly attributed to them.)

The level of inaccuracy can sometimes be spectacular, but most dodgy quotations aren’t necessarily deliberate. Most probably arise from poor editing, a lack of context, or unreliable sources (Wikiquote, I’m looking at you!).

A great example of how social media can mangle a quote is discussed in a 2011 article from The Atlantic, which investigates how a Facebook user’s words ended up being attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. – “mangled to meme in less than two days.”

Image source

What surprised me most about The Atlantic article was the number of people who defended the quote as legitimate even after learning of the mistake. To them, the message is the thing. People most commonly share quotations that represent and support their view of the world. Because they identify with the sentiment, it feels “right.” And because it feels right, they are less likely to question its accuracy or authenticity.

However, if the person didn’t say or write it, it isn’t a quote. Period.

Fact-checking tips

Yes, fact-checking can be both boring and frustrating, but that doesn’t mean it can be skipped or taken less seriously. Fact-checking was once the responsibility of that highly endangered species, the copy editor (something for which they were never fully appreciated). However, very few of us have the luxury of a dedicated fact-checker on the team these days, so the unshirking responsibility falls to us.

Just how does a busy content producer, infographic designer, or social media manager navigate this maze of online information to separate fact from fiction?

Always search for the most recent statistics. No one cares about a social media stat from 2010 when so much has changed in the intervening years. Use your search engine tools to restrict searches to a particular time frame, such as the last year.

Always search for the most recent statistics, advises @kimota. #factchecking Read more >> Click To Tweet

Trust no one. Even if the stat is published by a leading brand you think would be above reproach, check its sources. Wikipedia is NOT a source. But it does contain a lot of references and citations, so follow those links.

Wikipedia is NOT a source. But it does contain references and citations, so follow those links. @kimota Click To Tweet

And get a reputable quotations dictionary.

Speaking of which, let’s return to that Mark Twain quote I mentioned at the beginning. Even if you skip past the difficult fact that the quote was first attributed to him in 1919, nine years after his death, there is absolutely no evidence he ever wrote or said it.

According to the indispensable site Quote Investigator (there’s another tip for you), numerous versions of the quote pop up throughout the previous two centuries, morphing with each paraphrase to become the (disputed) Twain version we’re familiar with today. The earliest recorded version was penned by the satirist Jonathan Swift in 1710: “Falsehood flies; and the Truth comes limping after it; so that when Men come to be undeceiv’d, it is too late; the Jest is over, and the Tale has had its Effect.”

The jest is over. Check your sources.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Proofing and Editing: How to Make Your Content Less Frightening

A version of this article originally appeared in the May issue of Chief Content Officer. Sign up to receive your free subscription to our print magazine every quarter.

Get accurate quotes and great insight from the dozens of presenters at Content Marketing World Sept. 4-7 in Cleveland, Ohio. Register today for best rates and use code BLOG100 to save $100.

The post What’s Accuracy Got to Do With Social Media? appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

What’s Accuracy Got to Do With Social Media? syndicated from https://hotspread.wordpress.com

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erinfickertrowland · 7 years

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Why Custom Framing Art Is Important

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life" -Pablo Picasso

You just bought the coolest art on your recent vacation. You're home. Unpacked. Now what? You need to get that artwork off its back lying on your desk, and up on the wall. Original artwork is meant to be viewed and enjoyed. That cannot happen if it gets tucked away in a closet. It's time to visit a frame shop and talk to a designer. Fine art needs to be mounted properly, protected from harmful environmental conditions, and hung on a wall to keep it out of harm's way and within viewing range. How do you accomplish that?

Here's a quick guide to walk you through the steps!

Avoid These Pitfalls!

Here's a story of my recent experience buying a limited edition print: I was struck by the vibrant colors, bold composition, and intricate carving of an interior cathedral scene in a linoleum block print created by a student at my son's high school. It was incredible, especially for student work. The aspiring artist had an entrepreneurial spirit and was selling his prints for $20. Always looking to encourage young artists, I sent a request to purchase one print of the edition. When it arrived, I was disappointed. The edition wasn't printed consistently because my print was missing portions of the statue focal point, likely due to poor registration techniques by the artist. Young artist mistake- no problem. I am not a fan of black matting and intended to put new matting on the art to coordinate with my art collection. Upon closer inspection, I realized the student had mangled the art during the matting process leaving his art in very poor condition.

Let's look at what went wrong:

The biggest mistake here, and a huge concern for an art collector, is that the artwork was trimmed to the border of the image itself. This is a problem for three reasons: 1) There is no signature on the actual piece of art- why would anyone want a signed piece of mat board? 2) The only way to display the art now is to put adhesive directly on the paper of the image, which will damage the art, and 3) To mount the art, I will have to touch it directly on its surface which is unfortunate because oil and dirt from hands compromises artwork, especially as it ages.

"Houston, we have a problem. "

Flipping the matted art over, I have a separate issue of improper backing board size and crooked mounting. Bonus: That improperly sized, crooked piece of mat board is what has the artist signature on it. Nice. Would you put a serving tray under your tablecloth before dining at your table? Of course not. Why? Because it would be all lumpy and your dishes wouldn't sit level- spilling that nice wine all over your guests. Boo. Same applies to artwork. It needs to be layered in a level manner to keep your artwork flat so it will shine like a diamond for all to see.

I am going to take this sweet piece of art to my framing ER, and use it as a reminder of sharing the importance of framing to artists and collectors alike. Poor kid- he just doesn't know better, yet. I know because I made similar mistakes as a young artist. However, there are other artists out there that just don't put the care into the mounting and matting of their art. Buyer beware. Educate yourself on the steps of framing, and you will enjoy smooth sailing from purchase to hanging your art on the wall.

Let's look at what should happen when framing your original fine art on paper:

When buying art:

Always look for art signed on the front of the artwork by the artist. Some artists sign their name, some use initials or a trademark. If the art is signed anywhere other than the front, you won't see it when you frame it, and likely won't remember who the artist is in the future. You brought this special art into your home and will want to talk about it to your family and friends! If you are buying a limited edition block print, look for the edition number and title written on the front of the artwork near the signature. For art on paper, the artist should have left a border of paper wide enough around the image to accommodate handling and matting.

You may purchase art un-matted or matted. Artwork that is already matted eliminates one step of hassle and expense and gets you closer to raising that glass to cheers your new purchase. Whether completed by the artist or in a frame shop, the most important consideration of the entire framing process is to make sure your matting and mounting materials are acid free, or "archival". I cannot stress this enough. Your artwork should look beautiful 10, 20, 50 years from now, and not all yellow and brown with burn marks from scotch tape slapped down on the front of it. Ask the artist or gallery directly if you are buying work already matted, and insist on acid-free materials if you take the art to a framer.

Elements of properly framed art:

The primary consideration for framing your artwork will be your frame moulding and matting. Choose colors and styles that match the art and coordinate with your decor. Custom frames give you a wonderful variety of styles and colors. Mat board comes in a huge array of colors, especially whites and creams. At Elysian Studios, I offer a nice selection of wood frame moulding in natural colors, gold, silver, bronze, and black. I coordinate matting for artwork to match each color of art paper that I use for different artwork: watercolors, pastels, and block prints.

Selecting mat board:

Selecting a frame:

Notice how each choice of mat board and frame changes the look of the art? There are no wrong choices. Pick what suits you. I believe keeping framing simple is less stressful for you and keeps the emphasis on the art. A wide, coordinating mat with a simple frame is a timeless and elegant option to display your art.

Glass, mounting board and finishing materials:

Artwork is extremely sensitive to environmental conditions: sunlight, dust, and smoke. Quality framing materials will keep your special memories looking beautiful for many years. Again, acid-free materials which touch the art directly are the first line of defense. Mat board is a wood pulp paper or cotton rag product cut to same outer dimension as your backing board, and a window is cut in the center to reveal the art. The mat board serves two important purposes: 1) it creates a visual border between the art and the frame, and 2) it keeps the glass off of the artwork, preventing adhesion between the art and glass (which is lethal for artwork and photographs). At Elysian Studios, I use mat board that is 100% Virgin Alpha-Cellulose (a paper product) that is acid-free, lignin-free and meets all conservation quality standards set by the Fine Art Trade Guild.

The mounting/backing board is usually a foam core, and provides support underneath the art. The art is sandwiched between the two protective layers of mat board and foam core. At Elysian Studios, I use only acid-free foam core. I stamp "Printed by Hand" with my logo in archival ink on the reverse of the foam core for my limited edition prints. This is just an extra detail that is a nice reminder of where you purchased the art.

UV protective glass comes in a variety of protection levels and reflective styles. All art should have some sort of UV protection on its glass, especially if it will be hanging in direct sunlight. Standard reflection, premium non-glare, and museum quality reflection control options are available to suit your viewing needs.

Once the glass, matting and mounting materials have been prepped, your art should be secured with acid-free art tape, and installed in the prepared frame. The frame is then sealed with a dust cover to keep dust and debris out of the framed art. Distinguishable by its blue color, I only use acid-free dust cover paper at Elysian Studios. This is superior to brown kraft paper often used in other types of framing. Your framed art should be finished with secure hardware and framing wire (no saw tooth hangers!). I apply an Elysian Studios framing label to the back of a finished piece, and always include a Certificate of Authenticity with any original art. This certificate is sized proportionally to the art so it can be attached to the back of the framing. I suggest adhering it to the dust cover or the hanging wire, whichever you prefer. All you need now is a hammer, nail, a picture hanging hook, and a place to hang your new art!

Now you are ready to enjoy your treasured piece of art for many years to come!

Happy Collecting!

Interested in my original artwork? Please visit my shop!

Can I help you with framing? Please email me

#framing

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