Pattern Pumpkin

Spy Girls

Shallan:  Daughter of rural minor noble family who goes on a journey and ends up in the court of the current political center of her world where she is slightly overwhelmed by everything and is trying to figure out how to save her family.  In the process, she discovers a plot of some sort in the underworld of the society and create and alter-ego to infiltrate it.

Vin: Daughter of the underworld who finds herself in a new crew where the rules aren't quite what they used to be and she has to adapt as they plot to completely overthrow society. As part of this, she creates an alter-ego in which she infiltrates the court as a daughter of a rural minor noble family who is here to further her family's interests.  

These girls are like two sides of the same fantastic coin and there are two things I really want to read:

1) Shallan and Vin curled up with coffee or tea or something trading infiltration stories and tips with Pattern providing commentary.

2) A scenario where these two are moving in the same court and are initially on opposite sides and they start getting suspicious of each other and eventually one confronts the other (I can't decide which way).  After talking they discover that there is more going on than either realized and essentially end up forming their own faction.

So I saw @ultimateinferno theorizing about this, and I want spoilers hidden under a cut on my blog, so I’m making a new post rather than reblogging to add to his excellent theory/meta. There are *major Rhythm of War spoilers* mixed with theorizing under the cut.

Ultimateinferno makes a good argument that Lift is the one who is eventually going to deal with Taravangian!Odium. This is *perfect*.

Lift’s “I don’t want to ever change.” You know what? If she kills Taravangian she’s going to get the opportunity to absorb Odium and ascend. Either her boon is going to give her the strength to resist taking the power so that she can deal with it some other way (maybe she could team up with Rysn??? I wonder what kind of affect shattering Odium would have...) OR she *will* take the power, but because of Cultivation’s boon it won’t affect her ability to think clearly.    

Heh, although, Lift, as she is right now, but with the power of a shard might be a whole different kind of problem. As Yanagawn points out, “She often does what she isn’t supposed to.”

Rithmatics digression

We've talked about 9-point circles.  Here is a further exploration of 9-point conics in case you are curious:

My thought process on reading this:

Yeeesssss sibling interatctions!  

Mmm, if Lift were Kaladin's little sis, she would be the little sis of all of Bridge 4.  Since Rock is in charge of food, he would be her favorite big bro (or maybe uncle?...hmmm...either way works) and she would hang out around him and try to snitch food constantly.  Rock can see Wyndle and they conspire to try to keep her somewhat in line, but Rock is also never actually mad about her eating.   Sigzil takes it on himself to be her tutor and both starts teaching her to read glyphs and helping her understand her awesomeness by experimenting with it.  Lift isn't thrilled with his tutoring and sneaks off whenever she can. She learns much more about her awesomeness from the games she gets into with Lopen.  She catches Lopen glowing sometime and insists (with much stomping and pouting that isn't actually necessary because Lopen doesn't really need convincing) that he teacher her how to glow because that is so awesome!  At some point he sticks her to the wall and starts to laugh at her but then she becomes awesome and slides down the wall and past him making the bottoms of his shoes awesome as she goes past so that when he tries to turn around he slips and falls.  Lopen is briefly stunned and then bursts out laughing and congratulates her and from then on they are constantly trying to use their powers to get one over on each other.

http://therustyrobot.tumblr.com/post/102898558995/does-anyone-else-really-want-to-see-the-dynamic

does anyone else really want to see the dynamic between kaladin and lift

because I’ve been thinking about it all day and I feel like since most of the radiants so far are pretty tall and lift is. not. she’d want to see what all the tall people were doing so since kaladin’s the tallest she’d end...

Welcome to the 2015 Cross Cosmere Rithmatics Olympiad!

The other night in FNCC I brought up the question of what would happen if someone drew a chasmfiend chalkling.  Things snowballed from there and dm-mo, ElderDragonMystic and I got carried away.  As a result, our friends from across the Cosmere are gathering to compete in games derived from one of Sanderson’s non-Cosmere magic systems.

Welcome to the 2015 Cross Cosmere Rithmatics Olympiad!  Teams are gathering from across the Cosmere to compete in an exciting assortment of rithmatic events! The games will be kicking off soon and we here at the Cosmere Chronicle will follow the action when they do, but in the mean time let’s introduce the teams.  

Roshar is fielding three teams this year.  

The first is their traditional team from the Alethkar Academy of Rithmatics.  This team’s roster is formed of brothers Adolin and Renarin Kholin, their cousin Elhokar Kholin, and Shallan Davar, a young woman who hails from Jah Keved.  As expected, these four all have solid groundings in classical rithmatics and should be a force to reckon with.  Rumor has it that there is some dissension in the group though and that they don’t always work particularly well as a team. It will be interesting to watch them and see how this plays out

The other two teams are a ragtag bunch known only as Bridge 4 that are not associated with the Alethkar Academy.  This motley crew appears to bring together students from nearly all regions of Roshar and has divided itself into a Division 1 and a Division 2 team. The senior team consists of Kaladin “Stormblessed”, Moash, Teft and Sigzil.  The junior team is comprised of Lopen, Rysn, Tien, Lift and Syl and coached by Numuhukumakiaki'aialunamor “Rock” of the Unkalaki.  We know very little about the rithmatic background of any of these competitors, but if what we have seen in the practice fields is any indication, they could shake things up - they appear to be bringing a style unlike anything we have seen before.

Scadrial is fielding two teams, one each for Division 1 and Division 2.

Scadrial’s senior team should look familiar to anyone who follows Intra-Cosmere Rithmatics.  It is, as expected, comprised of husband and wife team Elend and Vin Venture as well as The Survivors, Kelsier and Spook.  In case you don’t  usually follow ICR, Scadrial rithmatics is known for working in pairs and they should help make the pairs dueling exciting to watch.  The Ventures work seamlessly together while Kelsier and Spook always seem to be able to recover no matter what mess of a situation they find themselves in.

Oddly enough, Scadrial’s division 2 team has an odd number of competitors: the established duo Wax Ladrian and Wayne and newcomer Marasi Colms.  We caught Marasi to ask her how it is working in rithmatics on Scadrial without a partner. She informed us very matter of factly that she simply hasn’t found the right partner yet, but that there was no way she was going to let that cause her to miss the opportunity to come to the games this year.  Based on the rest of our conversation, we expect her to hold her own in the theory competition.

Sel is also fielding a team for each division.

To form its senior team, Sel held a local preliminary competition where it ended up choosing a pair each from two very different parts of the planet.  It is comprised of Sarene, Hrathen, Shai and Gaotona.  It will be interesting to see how the four members blend their styles for the team portions of the games, but they all seem quite focused and determined to win.  One thing is certain - we can always expect precision from Sel rithmatics.

Sel’s division 2 team is possibly the most unusual team - its captain, Raoden, isn’t actually a Rithmatist!  When we found Raoden to ask about this, he calmly reminded us that one doesn’t have to be a Rithmatist to be a scholar of rithmatic theory. His team is rounded out by a particularly laid back young man named Galladon and an enthusiastic but clearly intelligent girl named Kaise who is, we believe, this year’s youngest competitor.  

Political unrest on Nalthis has disrupted its rithmatics program, so it has only sent one team this year.  Veteran Vasher is back and should be a powerhouse in any event he competes in,  though rumors suggest that he may only be here for theory this year.  The team seems to be held together by the lovely princesses of Idris, Vivenna and Sisirinah.  It is rounded out by Siri’s quiet husband Susebron. Keep an eye on Nalthis if you are interested in chalklings.  No one is quite sure how they do it, but in the past we have seen chalklings from the Nalthiean competitors that seem almost sentient.

We here at the Cosmere Chronicle look forward to sharing the Cross Cosmere Rithmatics Olympiad with you in the coming days.  We will bring you the results from the events, analysis of different rithmatic styles, and stories from around Olympic Village.

Badger and I were contemplating what color axehounds should be and then they said there should be sparkle axehounds and that reminded me of My Little Pony and then Badger drew this and it is EXCELLENT. 

my little axehound, my little axehound ~

Pattern Skirt

I randomly got this image in my head of Shallan in a poodle skirt except with Pattern instead of a poodle...  So, here, have Shallan in a Vorinified 50's style poodle (Pattern) skirt outfit.  With boots. Because this is Shallan after all. I don't usually like the result of me trying to draw people, but I'm reasonably happy with how this came out.

Truth

White people need to tell each other the hard truths. This includes the fact that No, you aren’t colorblind. Nor should you strive to be. The point isn’t whether or not you see that a person is black. They are. The question is what you see when you see that they are black. Do you see competency? Do you see worth? You should.

(paraphrased (because I didn’t write it down during the service) from the sermon at the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta on 25 September 2016)

Yahoo Groups Will Be Shutting Down - What Each of You Can Do

This post will be frequently updated - check the Google Doc linked here for the latest version. Follow this Tumblr for more information in the days ahead.

Yahoo Groups will be shutting down key features and restricting access to Groups, with user-uploaded content being deleted on December 14, 2019. With this shutdown, decades of fandom history will vanish. But there is something that every member of the fandom community can do now - whether they’ve ever used Yahoo Groups before or not.

I am a member of a Yahoo group - what can I do?

Immediately contact the admins to find out what their plans are.

Download PGOffline, a Windows tool to save the files and messages. Any member of the Yahoo Group can use this tool - you do not have to be an admin to save the mailing list. 

Since many admins are busy or inactive, install the free Windows software program yourself and start downloading - focus on Files, Photos, Links, and Messages. A step-by-step walk through is available here and a video tutorial here.

Submit your plan to download here.

 Export the messages and backup up the files and photos by copying them to another folder on your computer. Then contact Open Doors, the OTW preservation program. The OTW is open to providing storage of Yahoo Groups backups that are assembled by moderators and non-moderators alike. Details are here.

If you are a member of a Yahoo Group and have downloaded the files and messages, and the admins do not respond, please contact your fellow mailing list members. Remember, anyone can save a mailing list messages, files and photos and submit them to Open Doors.

Click here for instructions on how to use the Chrome plugin

If you need help from fellow fans, try asking on the “Save Yahoo Groups” Discord Channel

Mac Users: try this Chrome based plugin

Instructions on how to use the Chrome plugin

Alternatively, if you are familiar with Python, please experiment with the tools found at https://www.archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Yahoo!_Groups

I am Admin - what can I do?

Communicate with your Group members - let them know your plans

Download your Group messages, files, photos, and links using the tools above. Don’t forget to download your members list.

Decide if you want to simply archive the old posts and disband the mailing list or start up somewhere else.

Please take a look at setting up a Dreamwidth community - it allows explicit material, threaded conversations, privacy locks and is free. Image uploading is limited to 500MB for free accounts and 1.5GB paid accounts. Also, if you are considering Groups.io as an option, please note that it does not allow any material that depicts sexual activity, even implied sexual activity or anything that could be considered a fetish.

I am not certain I have time to help download? Is there something else I can do?

If you are a member of a mailing list, submit the mailing list for consideration. It will help volunteers focus their efforts. Don’t forget check here to see if your group is already being downloaded.

Even if you are not a mailing list member, consider creating a page for the mailing list on Fanlore, so that there will be a place for people to talk about the mailing list, its history. Details here.

Login Problems?

Has your “inactive” email been purged? Is your email email address not linked to a Yahoo Group ID?

An “inactive” account is one where you haven’t sent an email or logged in for the past year. Receiving emails does not count as activity. The email address is then released, and can be used by someone else.

If you used your Yahoo email to subscribe to a mailing list, your access to the Yahoo Group is gone (along with all your emails). If your account was deactivated within the past 90 days, you may be able to reactivate it. (more here). Alternatively, you can try contacting Yahoo Mail support.

Outside the 90 day window: you can try creating a new Yahoo email account using the same screen name as long as no one else has snapped it up. Simply sign up as you would for a ‘new’ email account. Reclaim an inactive mailbox. Then log into your Yahoo Group.