If you're low on time but want to participate in activism, I highly recommend looking for local causes you align with because 1) Local politics often get heavily overlooked because only the federal U.S. election seems widely important, and 2) Local issues are often going to be lower barrier to entry for local people because you already have some experiential knowledge of the issue, so you don't have to spend as much time researching things to be informed and make a difference. Ex: I don't know much about gang violence (stopping or preventing it) because I was lucky enough to grow up in an area with low gang violence. Even though it's an issue I care about, it's a lot harder for me to become active in stopping gang violence because I do not regularly come into contact with gangs, and because of this, I'd have to do a metric fuck ton of research into ways that I can help stop gang violence in places that have them or prevent gangs from ever moving in here (i.e. through national social media campaigns, reading educational materials, donating to the right orgs, etc.). However, I did grow up in an area with a lot of poverty, and my experiential knowledge of what people need vs. what's hardest to get made me very good at helping to establish and facilitate mutual aid networks without doing much additional research. Ex: When it came time to put out my fliers for one of my mutual aid group chats, I knew where the poor areas of town were without any additional research. However, had I been trying to do something similar one town over, I'd have to do significant research on where the low-income regions of that town are located. It's easier to get involved in issues you already have some background knowledge of, and just because it's easier doesn't make it any less impactful or important.
Kirah stood in front of the hunt board outside of the Forgotten Knight, leafing through the mark bills she'd just picked up. The clan had suggested this as a way for her to earn experience as a hunter and tracker and granted her access to the first series of marks as a test of some sort. They all seemed simple enough, as she remembered seeing packs of some of the marks while assisting House Fortemps. And this would be a good way for her to try out using thaumaturgy in an actual combat situation. A relatively low stakes one, mind you, compared to some of the other things she had been handling.
Firming up her conviction to undertake the hunt and locate her quarry, Kirah picked up the staff she'd been gifted and headed off towards the chocobo stables to finally head out. Most of the marks in the bill were either in Western Coerthas or the Sea of Clouds. As she made her way through the city, she idly wondered why the clan had decided on these particular marks to be hunted. Surely there had to be some sort of logic to the hunt bills assigned to each member of the clan. Not that it was any of her business, but she remained curious.
What are your thoughts about Turning Point? If it had been given 22 minutes, do you think it would have developed better?
Okay, so my main contention wasn't the plot points, a lot of the plot points were there and they made their statements very clear. They did what the situation needed to have done, especially after what we saw with Sasha's guilt and self-loathing. Like all of it is well-done because these plot points are exactly what I wanted in a Sasha redemption turning point!
But there are two things that made my first viewing very mixed was just, like you said, the pacing and how the Wartwoodians reacted — which I shall get to in a moment.
With stories you need to give each moment in your narrative to have room to let the information settle in, you need to let the quiet moments take hold when they want to so that the audience in return could ease their observations and focus on the stuff that matters. Because on my first viewing it was hard to let the information genuinely seep into my brain because everything was going so fast, you know? The beginning was fine, it was legit fine and well-cut but the second half had these problems where they knew they had to get to the plot points or else they wouldn't have time to dive into Sasha's redemption arc in full.
With Turning Point, I actually think that if you'd just given the end of the episode a little more time and not 22 minutes (something more to the span of 2-3 minutes additional to the current length we've got) I think we would've been able to let stuff like the Journal scene hit even more. Or even the fight scene with the frobot itself.
I say the fight scene because the Wartwoodians' response to Sasha was dissonant to what we knew of them.
It's been said numerous times before that it takes a long time for Wartwood to respect and accept people into their wings, especially ones that have been portrayed as suspicious from the beginning. So it was definitely off to see the Wartwoodians still look at her with not any distrust after what Sasha had done, and after Sasha revealed the truth.
I think this could've actually been remedied with one simple change: The Wartwoodians from the beginning still remain to be suspicious of these two, gradually start to trust them when they don't do anything suspicious, but then get full-on suspicious again when Sasha outs herself.
Here's how I see it. This gives Sasha some leeway in the fact that her self-loathing is off the charts right now, especially from the beginning. She believes the suspicion is deserved since she'd broken their trust before, but is horrified to see that the lies she and Grime made are actually working and it adds to this feeling of guilt that is perpetuated before the journal scene.
Because her methods of manipulation are becoming successful again, and she doesn't want that.
She doesn’t want to lie anymore. She doesn’t want to be the person that led people on and on just because she could and for her own personal gain. She saw the consequences, the pain of betrayal, and she doesn’t want to perpetuate it again.
So then the journal scene happens. She gets to see that Anne had redone the band suits, and talked about how happy she trusted Sasha again since she has seemed to change after all the suspicion she gave her earlier. This becomes an active parallel to how the Wartwoodians are starting to believe that Sasha has changed during the midway point of the episode — and it leads to Sasha's breakdown because not only did she see the consequences in Anne's eyes now but she's beginning to see the same narrative of broken trust happen again with the Wartwoodians.
Then you get the reveal. You have Sasha actively telling the truth about the fact she wasn't here assigned to protect Wartwood, and it's all because circumstances and Andrias lead them to be here, to hide away from whatever was going on with the upcoming war.
And the Wartwoodians are quick to go 180. After all, Sasha had tried to imprison them and kill one of their own, and now she's lying to them again? It would make sense if they feel hurt and are up at arms for a moment.
However, this is where the active change begins.
The Wartwoodians are suspicious of her again, but Sasha is adamant on saying that she wants to change, that she wants to be a better person and that was why she told them all this in the first place. However, Mrs. Croaker and the gang are stubborn in saying that if she really means it, she's going to have to remember that this town is "Slow to accept, and slower to respect" so she's going to have to wait and work hard to garner their trust.
And you know what she does?
She goes "Fine. If I have to do that then I will. In fact, I'll make a bigger promise if that's what it takes." and lifts her sword into the air, saying that she'll protect Wartwood.
The town that Anne adores and loves and would be absolutely devastated if anything bad happened to them.
The town with "vulnerable" civilians open to war.
I absolutely love the composition here in this too if that were the case. For Sasha's declaration to protect the town is in front of the "Slow to Accept, Slower to Respect", and that means she is actively taking the role of someone grabbing change by the horns, and doing something good for once in her life.
Even when she knows the road shall be long and arduous. Full of obstacle.
But this also means the frobot action scene gets absolutely bombastic and works well with this context because not only do you have Sasha declaring she'll fight the frobot by herself, she realizes that she doesn't have to do it alone.
First Grime bashes into the scene. They fight, they collaborate together, and then when things get messy...
The Wartwoodians step in all their country bumpkin fashion! They claw, they punch, they scratch, they eviscerate an entire army of robots and the two ex-Toad soldiers are shocked that the Wartwoodians are actively fighting and winning.
Then the episode shall continue on like normal. You get Sasha surprised that Anne's town is actively working and protecting her even though she believed she had to work alone.
They are still here with suspicion, they still know she's done terrible things, but they are surprised at how she not only became honest about her intentions but stood up to them without even breaking a sweat.
Some trust has been created. Not much, but they are now willing to go along with what Sasha has in mind, and it's a really great start to Sasha's redemption because that means Sasha broke the cycle.
She stopped herself before the lies and fake trust could climax to something akin to True Colors, all because she took accountability by the horns and opened herself up to vulnerability when it came to the truth.
And now she and Grime have a ragtag army, ready to take on the upcoming war!
the whole team getting captured but the antagonist keeping one of them (youngest/weakest?) as a insurance sorta, while the rest of the team is sent to get something the villain wants. the villain gives them a time limit and every minute or 5 they exceed that limit, the whumpee gets hurt in some way. OH maybe the villain sends them a video or voice message everytime he hurts the whumpee
Holy moly! You guys are on fire today. This one is amazing!
So have you stopped writing? I keep waiting for some more chapters and nothing.
Hi Anon,
I updated one of my fics last week:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/14160171
It might not be the fic you are reading but I obviously am still writing.
There is a lot that goes into writing even just one chapter. I need to be inspired, in the mood to write, and I need to free time and quiet time to concentrate. Depending on the word count a chapter can take me 4 - 8 hours to complete, sometimes longer if I need to go back to add, re-write, delete, etc.
So, let me run down my weekly day: Up at 5:15 am. Get kids up as hubby leaves at 5 am for work… get me and kids ready to go, drop kids off at babysitter’s by 6:15. Drive an hour commute to work to clock in at 7:30. Work until 4. Drive home an hour so arrival at home at 5 (hubby picks up kids from babysitter’s so I don’t need to worry about that). So, from 5 –7:30 is help kids with homework, eat supper, spend a little time with the family, get the baths for the kids done. So now we have about an hour until kids are put to bed at 8:30. Sometimes it takes awhile to get kids to sleep. I finally get my own shower around 9 - 9:30. Leaves me about an hour “free time”, if I don’t pass out.
Weekends: family time, cleaning the house time, etc. Visit my ailing Dad time (which I also try to do during the week). Writing time has a very small window of opportunity. Sometimes early in the mornings on the weekends, or late at night when kids are asleep (yes, they are still little and want Mommy and Daddy time, so I am soaking it up while the getting is good). Plus I am one of those rare wives that actually want to spend time with my hubby, so…
You get where I am going? If you are still even reading and didn’t tap out from boredom, I have a busy life. My family (and work) is very important to me. Writing is my hobby, I love to write but not at the expense of ignoring my family. Getting on Tumblr and sharing some posts really only takes a few minutes out of my day where writing a really decent chapter can take the whole day. Plus my motivation to write is at an all-time low, between the crap I’ve seen on here in the GOT fandom, to the loss of interest in one my my visual muses (Richard Madden, eh, I’m not impressed anymore), to getting to the end of one of my fics and wanting it to be perfect and stressing over the direction to take it… add in the flu making its rounds through my family… it’s been a rough few months for the writing process.
So there’s a glimpse of my life (which I never post on Tumblr) and also some excuses for not updating as frequently as you would like.
I know I don’t owe you an explanation, but I wanted to answer your message.
Unwritten books, 7/? Echo week. AU day. Matchmaker/Modern fake dating AU.
Emori opened the email, laughed, and called across the office, “Are you out of your mind?”
“Maybe,” Echo called back from her office. “But if you don’t want your next paycheck to bounce we need to bring in some money. Selling a few books about the dating misadventures of these three impossible to match men might be the answer.”
“All we need to do is find the right women for them and everything will be fine.”
Echo sighed and came to the doorway of her office as she considered her three problem bachelors. Bellamy burnt through women like a hot knife through butter. Monty was sweet but shy and couldn’t hold up his end of a conversation according to the women who’d been out with him. John was… well, John was John. “Sexy felons make great stories, but the reality is a little hard to live with. We can use the books as a pre-screening tool. And income.”
Harper stopped in between the two of them and took a slow sip from her coffee cup.
“Just say it,” Echo ordered. Aware of the sharpness of her tone she added, “Please.”
“I’d go out with Monty.”
“Good. Do it.”
Emori stood up. “Really? We’re allowed to date clients now?”
“Regular, matchable clients, no. If it’s one of these three rolling disasters, yes.”
“Dibs on John.”
“He’s yours.”
Emori grinned at her. “That means you get Bellamy.”
“No.”
“Yes,” Emori and Harper exclaimed in unison.
Maybe it was worth a shot. After four dates it was considered a successful pairing and the men each owed the agency a thousand dollars. All she had to do was figure out if it was great sex or no sex that would keep Bellamy on the hook.
