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So let me get something straight before you start reading this. I don’t hate Adrien. I am more than down for a Chloe redemption as long as it is done properly. But frankly, Adrien has no business telling Marinette (and the rest) that they shouldn’t be happy the person who bullied and tormented them for years is gone. And also Marinette has no place feeling guilty or apologising for it. And this is more of an angry response at the way the show treats the characters rather than the characters themselves. So don’t @ me.

Marinette felt the rage boiling inside of her, taking over any sense of pity or regret. She was so tired of always being told to be the better person, even for people who didn’t deserve it.

“No. You don’t get to walk away from this.” she found herself saying, a muted anger clear in her tone.

Adrien turned around with a frown. “Why shouldn’t I?”

Marnette clenched her fists. “Because I am tired of you always looking the other way when it comes to Chloe. I get, we all get is, she is your childhood friend and your only friend of years, she means something to you. But aren’t we also your friends?”

He looks at Marinette in surprise. “Well, yes, but…”

“But what? You’ve seen how she treated us for months. And not only us, the rest of the people around her too. Just because she gives you a pass doesn’t mean she is a good person.”

“She can change,” he said with a frown. “She tried…”

“And we all gave her a chance when she did.” Marinette didn’t allow him to finish. She was too tired for this. “But too little too late, don’t you think? It isn’t exactly progressing if one day she tries to be a decent human being and the next day she is back on her usual behaviour.”

Never in her life did she imagine she would end up snapping at Adrien out of all people, but alas. It was about time. No matter how much of a crush she had on Adrien, she won’t let him walk away after making her feel bad about something she shouldn’t.

“If her treatment of other people, in general, isn’t worth a rat ass when it comes to your opinion of her, then fine.” she growled. “Whatever. But you don’t get to pull that holier than thou attitude with us and try to make us feel ashamed because we are happy our bully for years is gone. She always does her best to humiliate us, to get us in trouble. We have every right to be happy that the person who is tormenting us is gone. Frankly, I am going to celebrate the fact that I won’t have to walk to school, mentally preparing myself for being punished or suspended or who knows what else because we got into an argument with Chloe.”

“So you know what Adrien Agreste? If you think I should feel guilty because I am happy I will no longer be tormented, then you can take your opinion and shove it right up your ass. See you around.”

Marinette was aware everyone was looking at her like she went crazy but she didn’t care. he whipped away the angry tears that started running down her cheeks, as she kept walking home, much more at ease.

Rian Johnson, The Last Jedi — completely ignored & disregarded the 3-film narrative arc J.J. Abrams has planned out for the sequel trilogy, and instead developed his own messy narrative full of subversions for the sake of subversion, and completely disrespected the legacy of Luke Skywalker’s character (Mark Hamill himself has reported several times that he doesn’t recognize the character).

Russos, MCU — give out fake scripts, actors play against green screens and are cut & pasted together in post, show fake/edited scenes in trailers, throw away previous character development (Thor, Ragnarok vs Infinity War and especially Endgame).

D&D, Game of Thrones — throw away a decade of foreshadowing and character development for shock value, not to mention they missed a whole ass Starbucks cup in a shot in 8x03 (either on set or in post, somebody should’ve noticed this).

I’m sick and tired of this. It’s not good writing, and it’s no longer entertaining to fans when the characters they know and love become complete strangers. There’s good shock value — “No, I am your father,” for example — and then there’s ignoring years of character development and turning a kind and caring character into a murderous maniac. There’s a difference, and I think writers still know what that difference is, but they’re pressured to create an ending that fans can’t predict because of this mass panic over “no spoilers”.

This needs to stop. Give me a happy ending. Who the fuck cares if we guess what comes next? That means the writers have done their fucking jobs. If we can guess what comes next that means the writers have successfully developed their characters and foreshadowed future events as you’re supposed to do in a well-written narrative.

Rian Johnson, The Last Jedi — completely ignored & disregarded the 3-film narrative arc J.J. Abrams has planned out for the sequel trilogy, and instead developed his own messy narrative full of subversions for the sake of subversion, and completely disrespected the legacy of Luke Skywalker’s character (Mark Hamill himself has reported several times that he doesn’t recognize the character).

Russos, MCU — give out fake scripts, actors play against green screens and are cut & pasted together in post, show fake/edited scenes in trailers, throw away previous character development (Thor, Ragnarok vs Infinity War and especially Endgame).

D&D, Game of Thrones — throw away a decade of foreshadowing and character development for shock value, not to mention they missed a whole ass Starbucks cup in a shot in 8x03 (either on set or in post, somebody should’ve noticed this).

I’m sick and tired of this. It’s not good writing, and it’s no longer entertaining to fans when the characters they know and love become complete strangers. There’s good shock value — “No, I am your father,” for example — and then there’s ignoring years of character development and turning a kind and caring character into a murderous maniac. There’s a difference, and I think writers still know what that difference is, but they’re pressured to create an ending that fans can’t predict because of this mass panic over “no spoilers”.

This needs to stop. Give me a happy ending. Who the fuck cares if we guess what comes next? That means the writers have done their fucking jobs. If we can guess what comes next that means the writers have successfully developed their characters and foreshadowed future events as you’re supposed to do in a well-written narrative.

How women prepare for first dates

Bonus: How men prepare for first dates:

Wow. WOW. Look at all these sheltered people and their internalized misogyny.

The point isn’t, “NOT ALL MEN ARE OUT TO GET YOU.”

The point is, “WE HAVE NO WAY OF KNOWING A NICE GUY FROM A SERIAL KILLER.”

It’s not like they fucking wear nametags, okay? Moreover, the most awful people with the worst intentions often put on the nicest face or deliberately make themselves seem harmless and likeable, to lull potential victims into a false sense of security. (Read up on Ted Bundy sometime. It’s horrifying shit. Or read any thread on the “Let’s Not Meet” subreddit.)

In order to protect ourselves, we are forced to assume the worst of every man we meet, because statistically speaking, the biggest danger to women…IS MEN. Saying “not all men are out to get you, you’re just being paranoid” is like saying “not every car you ride in is going to crash, so buckling your seatbealt is stupid.”

When dealing with an unknown situation, in the absence of absolute proof of safety, exercising a little extra caution can be the difference between life and death. Shaming women for being what you may view as overly cautious is every bit as horrid as blaming them if something goes wrong later on.

And refusing to go to a secluded location with a complete stranger without letting someone know where you’re going, who you’re with, and how to find you is just common street sense, whether you’re on a date or just going out for business or social purposes.

If your life has been so sheltered (or your coping skills so incredible) that you see no need to distrust strangers or worry about the potential for violence, you should thank your lucky stars.

And you should also be aware that just because it hasn’t happened to you or anyone you know does not mean that it doesn’t happen.

Lemme say that louder for the people in the back.

Also, it’s story time! I’m pretty certain I saved my mom’s fucking LIFE by convincing her do this on a date with a fucking COP (which she thought was safer than going out with other men, but let me tell you, cops are the WORST partner abusers around, so pls be safe!!!!). 

She had only talked with him online and they were gonna go for a drive somewhere remote for some reason and she wasn’t going to take any precautions at all. I, being a well seasoned internet dater, was terrified by this prospect and warned her about how cops are actually much more dangerous than civilians and that getting in his car and going somewhere remote was even more dangerous. SO, I told her the best thing to do is to take a pic of him, his plates, then send it to me, and make sure you do it all right in front of him SO HE SEES IT. I warned her too that as a cop he should KNOW how dangerous this date would be for her, so if he kicks up a fuss about it AT ALL I told her to run like the fucking wind. 

So when she gets there, he is already in his fucking truck, doesn’t get out to greet her, so she takes the pics of his car, plates, and him and sends it to me and I thank her profusely. Then apparently she gets in his car, sees there’s a fucking BAT in the back, and doesn’t this fucker just kick up a damn fuss about her doing this. AND MY MOM DOESN’T GET OUT OF THE CAR!!!!!! OMFGWLJELWNLWEJFANMDS

So he starts the car and they drive away and she can already tell he’s a fucking creeper. At one point, he even tells her a truly sad story of his life and she reacts sadly and doesn’t this dickhead say “why aren’t you smiling?” as if that’s what women are FOR. She responds “You had just told me a very sad, personal story, smiling didn’t seem appropriate”, as if she’s just there for smile back at him and look pretty!!!! 

She texts me throughout all of this, telling me she’s increasingly getting uncomfortable and scared. He’s becoming increasingly hostile and unpleasant. She eventually texts me to ask me to call her and pretend to be my younger sister that lives with her saying that I’m sick (my mom’s a nurse). But my younger sis is 26, has a baby, is a personal support worker with some medical knowledge; and that didn’t seem like something strong enough to me that would make this dangerous fucker give up my mom. 

So what do I do?

I called her and pretended I was my little sister crying and freaking out because her baby is super sick and she needs her nurse mom at her side bc this is WAY beyond her knowledge or comfort level. Thankfully that worked and he turned around. But he wasn’t happy and that bat was still in the back, staring mom in the goddamn face. 

Later she called me and thanked me profusely and she STILL talks about it and how scary it was and how she is CERTAIN the real reason he turned around was bc I had insisted she send me those pictures.

Number 1: Armpit strikes.

What the HELL are you thinking? Do you honestly believe you have the strength in this position to exert any power? This chick has her body flash up against a wall, striking distance is less than her full arm length and shes using her FINGERS in the first one. Why do we NOT strike with fingers?? You ever snapped a finger in a fight before? You either die or you carry on struggling with a useless fist. Don’t do these. Please.

Number 2: Chin Strikes.

This is a bit better, but number ‘3′ in this little combo implies you still have striking ability in this position and I can assure you that is horribly false. Especially if your opponent is looming a full headheight above you. Don’t aim for the chin because lets be honest, you’re not Mike Tyson. Aim for the throat. As hard as you can. And don’t let up. Ignore number 4 because most headbutts are an opener to a fight not an ender to a combo, and chances are you’ll give yourself a concussion or atleast disorientation. Don’t do either of these.

Number 3: Kung-fu bullshit.

To fully appreciate how bad an idea this is I’ll break apart the individual movements. Movement 1: the upward palm to the chin. This is done in combination with shooting your arm above and around your opponents arm but I’ll get to that later. The upwards palm is designed to deter your attacker at best, not as a primary striking move. This strike implies two things:

1. You have the ability to force your opponent’s head backwards with arm strength alone. 2. Your opponent is not determined enough to walk straight through your wing-chun bullshit. Point 2 is important because most people have never engaged in a confrontation with someone who is DETERMINED to harm them. They don’t care that you’re punching them in the head. They will walk through it and mess you up even worse. Assume all attackers are determined and deal with them in an appropriate way, with aggression that is GREATER than that they are displaying. Sounds crazy to do, but you need to exhibit a larger urge to harm than theirs during your response. Movement 2: The arm shoot. Anyone who has done wrestling, jujutsu or BJJ will tell you that trying to manipulate a larger opponent is absolute hell. Especially if they are significantly larger than you. What an arm shoot is setting yourself up for is a grappling match you are more than probably going to lose. This assumes he doesn’t have 2-3 buddies waiting close by to help him out whilst you’re struggling around like an idiot. Avoid wrestling in all non-sport fights, it usually ends badly for you. Don’t do this.

Number 4: The nut-shot.

SO CLOSE. YOU WERE SO CLOSE. This is a two part technique that almost functions well as an opener to a combo and creating some distance between you and your attacker. Movement 1 is a dual headbutt and push towards the groin. This is just not quite enough to create a gap; your ability to perform a decent headbutt at bear-hug range is massively hindered. At best you have 4cm of wiggle room with your head to make the shot. Most people, especially when jumped up on adrenaline, won’t even notice a small headbutt. The little boop to the groin even less so. Hell you might even arouse your would-be rapist. Striking with the knee to the groin should be on a more forwards angle. The nut-cracking is only part of this, you want to create distance. Push forwards with your hips and drive that knee THROUGH the nuts, he’ll instinctually move backwards. This works on women too, by the way. They’re expecting it less.

Number 5: Single leg sweep.

Don’t. Don’t do this. He’s bear hugging you and already has full back control. The moment you reach forwards, old mate here is going to posture all his weight onto your back and you’re going to eat cement and end up looking like Lady Deadpool. Avoid eating cement, don’t do this.

FINAL NOTE:

If you are concerned for your safety and want to learn more, please contact a self defence or martial arts school in your area. When assessing the gym/dojo for their practicality in self defence, you should be looking at their drills: - Are the ‘attackers’ showing aggression that you would expect in a real confrontation? - Are the ‘defenders’ showing the correctly response to aggression that you need to display to survive an attack?

Generally speaking, these moves work.

Generally speaking.

But, I strongly recommend joining a fight gym and training.

Training gives everyone fight instinct and develops muscle memory.

Instinct kicks in and muscle memory takes over.

You do the right thing, at the right time, to escape danger.

Pictures on Tumblr are not a replacement for training and fighting.

so i was watching cinderella while doing my nails and waiting for them to dry which was clearly a Mistake because now i can’t help but think -

the evil stepmother was always evil, okay. say her abuse of her own daughters was different than that of cinderella’s - but it was still abuse. giving them impossible expectations, telling them they were never good enough, never pretty enough, never smart enough. and then she gets married, and anastasia and drizella are ecstatic because this man seems kind and warm and maybe just maybe he can temper their mother, maybe with him around she won’t be so cruel. so they’re on their very best behavior in the beginning, they do just as their mother taught - they trot out their best upper court manners in an attempt to get their new stepfather to like them. but it just comes off as cold and snooty and they’re trying, they are, they’re just bad at it. and they see how he is with cinderella, the smiling girl their own age, and they are jealous. they don’t mean to be, they try not to be, they know it isn’t becoming of young ladies. but she gets hugs and kisses and affection and they get rulers slapped on their hands when they reach for desert and sharp jabs to their sides when they slouch and - soon they hate cinderella, not for anything she’s done, but for what she has and they dont

but then her father dies. and it’s all a tumble of things and cinderella is crying and they’ve lost their only chance at escaping their mother’s clutches and it’s terrible. and everything settles and there’s no reason to be jealous anymore but resentment is hard to let go of and they don’t know what to do. they’re only kids too after all. and they’re so terribly bad at comforting people, they can do flowery words and know all the right bows but cinderella is so sad and they just don’t know what to do with that, because they’re supposed to be sisters but they’re not even friends

and slowly but surely their mother starts abusing cinderella, starts making her a maid in her own home, and she’s their mother, what are anastasia and drizella supposed to do? she rules them with an iron fist, and cinderella doesn’t even like them anyway, it’s none of their business.

except one night anastasia crawls into her sister’s bed in the middle of the night and wakes her up. “i was thirsty,” she explains, eyes wide and shiny, and they’re bad at this with other people but drizella has no problems with pulling anastasia into her arms. the younger girl clutches her sister and continues, “i was thirsty and i went down to the kitchen to get some water and - and cinderella is still up! she’s doing the dishes, and she should be asleep, mom is going to make her make breakfast in the morning and -” she cuts herself off with a hiccup and whispers, “it’s not fair.”

“life isn’t fair,” drizella says, echoing one of their mother’s favorite phrases. but her sister is staring at her with wet eyes, and it’s not like their mother is likely to get up before sunrise anyway, she hates waking up, so she pulls herself and anastasia out of bed and off they go.

(Part one: 1-50)

Just the other day I was emailed by a relatively new indie journal looking for writers. They made it very clear that they did not pay writers for their work, so I figured I’d probably be passing, but I took a look at their Copyright policy out of curiosity and it was a nightmare. They wanted “non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free, perpetual, worldwide license and right to use, display, reproduce, distribute, and publish the Work on the internet and on or in any medium” (that’s copy and pasted btw) and that was the first of 10 sections on their Copyright agreement page. Yikes. That’s exactly the type of publishing nightmare you don’t want to be trapped in. 

Most journals will ask for “First North American Rights” or a variation on “First Rights” which operate under the assumption that all right revert back to you and they only have the right to be the first publishers of the work. That is what you need to be looking for because you do want to retain all the rights to your work. 

You want all rights to revert back to you upon publication in case you, say, want to publish it again in the future or use it for a bookmark or post it on your blog, or anything else you might want to do with the writing you worked hard on. Any time a publisher wants more than that, be very suspicious. Anyone who wants to own your work forever and be able to do whatever they want with it without your permission is not to be trusted. Anyone who wants all that and wants you to sign away your right to ever be paid for your work is running a scam.

What if the publisher goes defunct? What if they get bought by another publisher who doesn’t care to promote or publish your work? You still can’t to anything with it, you don’t own it anymore!

For a thorough overview of what you should be aware of regarding your intellectual property and publishing rights, please read through this collection of post [https://kriswrites.com/business-musings/contracts-and-dealbreakers/] by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. 

Hello, anon!

I have indeed read Merchant’s Fortune. The author is a friend of mine and let’s me know whenever a new chapter is updated.