#1st cohort

[sweetsdereese]

“How did you stop hurting?” “I didn’t”

[star-mannnn]

This ship probably makes no sense, but I love Mike Kahale x Dakota

I have yet to see anyone ship it

[opens-up-4-nobody]

Guy whose fave character is jiraiya: Jiraiya is the father figure iruka never was

Me, giving aggressive thumbs down: HOW???? WHAT???? WHAT THE FUCK R U TALKING ABOUT?????? JIRAIYA IS THE FUCKING WORST!!!!

Him: Cite your evidence!

Me: WHERE THE FUCK DO I BEGIN???

[calqlate]

just finished watching all 3 seasons of the kaguya-sama series plus the 4-episode film and now all i hv to say is: i will not settle for less!!

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Year - 2023 Edition

Welcome to our special edition newsletter recapping the best news from the past year. I've picked one highlight from each month to give you a snapshot of 2023. No frills, just straightforward news that mattered. Let's relive the good stuff that made our year shine.

January - London: Girl with incurable cancer recovers after pioneering treatment

A girl’s incurable cancer has been cleared from her body after what scientists have described as the most sophisticated cell engineering to date.

2. February - Utah legislature unanimously passes ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy

The Utah State Legislature has unanimously approved a bill that enshrines into law a ban on LGBTQ conversion therapy.

3. March - First vaccine for honeybees could save billions

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved the world’s first-ever vaccine intended to address the global decline of honeybees. It will help protect honeybees from American foulbrood, a contagious bacterial disease which can destroy entire colonies.

4. April - Fungi discovered that can eat plastic in just 140 days

Australian scientists have successfully used backyard mould to break down one of the world's most stubborn plastics — a discovery they hope could ease the burden of the global recycling crisis within years. 

5. May - Ocean Cleanup removes 200,000th kilogram of plastic from the Pacific Ocean

The Dutch offshore restoration project, Ocean Cleanup, says it has reached a milestone. The organization's plastic catching efforts have now fished more than 200,000 kilograms of plastic out of the Pacific Ocean, Ocean Cleanup said on Twitter.

6. June - U.S. judge blocks Florida ban on care for trans minors in narrow ruling, says ‘gender identity is real’

A federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, ruling Tuesday that the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment.

7. July - World’s largest Phosphate deposit discovered in Norway

A massive underground deposit of high-grade phosphate rock in Norway, pitched as the world’s largest, is big enough to satisfy world demand for fertilisers, solar panels and electric car batteries over the next 50 years, according to the company exploiting the resource.

8. August - Successful room temperature ambient-pressure magnetic levitation of LK-99

If the claim by Sukbae Lee and Ji-Hoon Kim of South Korea’s Quantum Energy Research Centre holds up, the material could usher in all sorts of technological marvels, such as levitating vehicles and perfectly efficient electrical grids.

9. September - World’s 1st drug to regrow teeth enters clinical trials

The ability to regrow your own teeth could be just around the corner. A team of scientists, led by a Japanese pharmaceutical startup, are getting set to start human trials on a new drug that has successfully grown new teeth in animal test subjects.

10. October - Nobel Prize goes to scientists behind mRNA Covid vaccines

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to a pair of scientists who developed the technology that led to the mRNA Covid vaccines. Professors Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman will share the prize.

11. November - No cases of cancer caused by HPV in Norwegian 25-year olds, the first cohort to be mass vaccinated for HPV.

Last year there were zero cases of cervical cancer in the group that was vaccinated in 2009 against the HPV virus, which can cause the cancer in women.

12. December - President Biden announces he’s pardoning all convictions of federal marijuana possession

President Joe Biden announced Friday he's issuing a federal pardon to every American who has used marijuana in the past, including those who were never arrested or prosecuted.

------

And there you have it – a year's worth of uplifting news! I hope these positive stories brought a bit of joy to your inbox. As I wrap up this special edition, I want to thank all my supporters!

Buy me a coffee ❤️

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

[thetimetraveler24]

Sometimes I think about how people rank Jason as their least favorite because he’s “such a bland character with no personality”, but was he even allowed to have one in the first place?

He’s two years old when Lupa guides him to Camp Jupiter. He’s brought up to be the perfect soldier, the perfect Roman, the perfect hero. He doesn’t know life outside the legion. He’s the son of Jupiter, he has to be great. If he’s not, he’s a failure and a disgrace. If he is then he’s still not the best because there so many other heroes who did it better than him so he has to keep trying harder and harder even though no matter what he’s never going to be good enough because the moment he slips up he’s no longer the perfect hero.

The few times he actually tries to do something he wants, he’s only cut down. Changing the 12th legion to the 1st legion? No, you can’t do that. It’s tradition. You’re wrong. That’s stupid. Joining the 5th cohort? Why would you join those losers? You’re only hurting yourself. You could be great if you join the 1st cohort instead like a good Roman boy.

So why would he try to do anything that cultivates his identity? Why would he try to do anything that brings him joy if everyone around him is just going to suck it right out?

He has no best friends at Camp Jupiter. He has acquaintances. He has people he’s friendly with. Say what you want but Reyna was a coworker. Dakota was cool, Gwen was nice. But none of them make Jason want to stay at Camp Jupiter instead of Camp Half-Blood. He thinks of Reyna but only in terms of he doesn’t want to saddle her with the responsibility of picking a new praetor. He thinks about duty. When he is picking between the camps he’s weighing his options between doing his duty as he’s done his whole life or picking himself for the very first time ever and he picks himself.

And it’s honestly so fucking depressing that the first time Jason picks himself and is actually supported in his decision happens when he is sixteen years old. And most of the people supporting him have only known him for a month.

But then he saddles himself with duty and responsibilities because that’s all he’s ever known and Percy is dying and Jason is a good Roman and a good hero and his job is to sacrifice his life for everyone else because of course it is. So he takes on Pontifex Maximus to build shrines and temples to minor gods and goddesses (not that they shouldn’t be honored but… once again he’s sacrificing his identity for the good of everyone around him).

And then, just as he’s finally discovering an identity for himself—he likes physics, he’s learning about the mortal world and living in it, he’s becoming more than just Jupiters son and Juno’s perfect hero—he’s killed.

Jason never got to be Jason. He only got to be Jason Grace, son of Jupiter, Praetor of the 12th Legion, slayer of Krios, one of the Seven, Juno’s Champion, Pontifex Maximus. He always belonged to someone else and never himself.

All this to say, Jason is my favorite of the Seven and although he’s not the eldest nor a daughter, as an eldest daughter I relate so hard and feel very seen in him.

[fingertipsmp3]

At least I can cling to the fact that no matter how bad things get, it’s not October 2021 anymore

[seokshinedk]

At long last…the semester is over

[scenic-route33]

The fact that Oscar was offered a job with the 1st cohort of test subjects at Red Valley implies that they had a bigger budget at some point, that then got whittled down to just Bryony and 2 assistants by cohort 4 (teddy bears picnic)

In WYWH 1.3 the pamphlet says "hospitality team". Did they actually have that? Or was it just embellishments/outright lies from Overhead to make people more likely to sign up? Was there any security in the beginning, or did they know it wouldn't be necessary after the treatments began?

And if there was actually more staff in the beginning, was it the budget that cut that number down or was it the risk? Hospitality team implies nurses maybe, did they speak out once all the "patients" died? Did finding out Oscar wanted to tell Gordon influence Overhead's decision at all? Did they even know Oscar wanted to abandon ship, or did they just recycle everyone as a precaution??

[that-one-golden-boi]

Turns out I'm no longer dead!

Name: Jason Grace(aka blond superman)

Age: 15-16

Birthday: July 1st

Cabin at chb: Cabin 1. (at camp juister I'm in the 5th cohort)

Godly parent: Zeus

Pronouns: He/him

Sexuality: Not straight? (i think)

Status: Single

People I know:

Nico di angelo: @emo-mcdonalds-lover Hes like a little brother to me<3

Will solace: @sunshine-boy-official I'm 70 percent sure him and nico are dating

Clarrise la rue: @swirly-lord Dont know her too well

Hazel levesque: @the-gems-keep-popping-up Shes awesome, was 5th cohort like me

Lou Ellen Blackstone: @da-great-lou-ellen Cool vibes

Leo Valdez: @repairr-boy people keep asking me if we are dating, he's my best freind, pretty

Piper mclean: @beauty-queen-of-greece shes awesome, girl liker

[sweetsdereese]

The day has just started and Percy is already done with Octavian.

[saintsenara]

In Marauder era (or 1st Wizarding World era) fics, all the characters that we know from the actual books/movies (i.e., The Marauders + Lily, the Malfoys, Bellatrix, etc.), or just characters that are more known, are all put in Hogwarts together at the same time, and it confuses me.

They couldn’t have all been at school together, could they? And even if they were, most of them would have to be years ahead, no? It especially confuses me when Bellatrix is the one in school with them, but her and Narcissa are the only ones that are ever mentioned. Andromeda is literally not that much younger than Bella and older than Narcissa, so you would think that she would appear, yet she doesn’t. Why exactly are they always all bunched together? And what are their actual ages?

this is a bit of worldbuilding which i'm not fond of either, anon.

i get why it happens - hogwarts is a school and, therefore, requires a large cast of characters as fellow students, and since marauders-era writers don't have the advantage that lightning gen writers do of being able to lift these characters directly from the text, the few names we do know from canon of people who lived and died during the first war get used to fill in the gaps.

there are also - obviously - some inconsistencies in the text itself caused by jkr's functional innumeracy. if we take the date of birth given for bellatrix on the black family tree she drew in 2006 - 1951 - then she would graduate hogwarts in either 1969 or 1970, depending on when in the year her birthday is. but sirius says in goblet of fire that she was friends with snape at school.

i ignore sirius and go with the given date of birth because it works better for my worldbuilding - and i have andromeda born in 1953 [leaving hogwarts in 1971 or 1972] and narcissa born in 1955, as per the family tree, but in the autumn [therefore leaving hogwarts in 1974 - and married in 1975, allowing narcissa's wedding to be the last time sirius sees bellatrix, since, as he tells us in order of the phoenix, this took place when he was fifteen] - but i think authors can shift the sisters' birthdays later if they do want to have them overlap more with the marauders generation without it being too much of a problem.

lucius malfoy's date of birth can be worked out fairly easily from canon. in the autumn of 1995, he's forty-one - as we're told in order of the phoenix - which means he was born in 1954 [or - if he has a winter birthday - late 1953] and was at hogwarts between either 1965-1972 or 1966-1973 depending on when in the year his exact birthday is - if it's october 1953-august 1954, he's in the former cohort; if it's september 1954 [which is when the article in which his age is mentioned is published] then he's in the latter. we know he overlaps with the marauders cohort very briefly - since he's shown meeting snape in the prince's tale - but, since he's either a sixth- or seventh-year at the time, i find it unlikely that he paid james and sirius much attention, or that they paid him much attention in turn.

[lucius must - let's be real - go rather under the radar, since he's clearly able to recruit death eaters while at school - and immediately after leaving it - without being noticed.]

what i'm much less inclined to be flexible on is the fanon which has characters like dorcas meadowes, marlene mckinnon, emmeline vance, and so on all be at hogwarts with the marauders - which doesn't work for me for the very basic reason that the order of the phoenix is not an army of child soldiers.

the implication of canon is definitely that the four marauders and lily are an exception to the make-up of the rest of the order - likely for the sensible tactical reason that dumbledore had all the ministry infiltrators he needed, but didn't have people who would be able to provide information about voldemort's recruitment of younger death eaters, which the marauders were clearly able to do by virtue of having been at school with them all [and - in sirius' case - being related to two of them].

it's also clear in the text that dorcas meadowes [who is the only person in the first war other than james and lily we know was killed by voldemort himself] must have been an important political figure - otherwise the dark lord would have left her for one of his minions - and that james and lily don't know marlene mckinnon well enough for her to have been a school friend.

[if she was - as is the common fanon - sirius' teenage girlfriend, i would like to hope that lily's letter to him mentioning her death would devote a little more space to the event than it canonically does...]

what i love to see is the rest of the order - hardened aurors and civil servants who've been locked into the war with voldemort since the marauders started school - being a combination of faintly amused and supremely irritated by the group of cocky young bastards who've just turned up at their meetings, and who seem to think the whole "being a paramilitary" thing is a big laugh.

[especially because it's then so much easier to explain why everyone involved could believe that sirius was guilty...]

[barbucomedie]

Sandstone Altar to Jupiter from Castlesteads, England dated to 241 CE on display at the Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle, England

This altar to Jupiter and the Divinities of the Emperor was set up by a group of Tungrian soldiers in the 3rd century as part of their annual diedication. It honours both the Roman Emperor Gordian and the god Jupiter as well. One translation of the remaining text reads:

"To Jupiter, Best and Greatest, and to the Divinities of our Emperor the Second Cohort of Tungrians styled Gordiana, part-mounted, publicly praised, under the command of Tiberius Claudius Claudianus, the prefect, (set this up) under the direction of Publius Aelius Martinus, princeps, on the 1st of January in the consulship of our Lord and Emperor Gordian, for the second time, and Pompeianus."

The Tungrians came from modern day Belgium and were stationed at Castlesteads Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall. There is a thunderbolt on one side of the altar and the wheel of Nemesis on the other.

Photographs taken by myself 2023

[starlightshadowsworld]

Jason Grace raised by the 5th because no one wanted to raise one so young. He was their little wolf, they're baby brother in all but blood.

"Please you have go believe me, Octavian is going to cause all at war." Pleads Jason, and while many Romans turns their backs on him for his apparent betrayal.

The 5th do not.

The 5th were a strange bunch, the misfits of Camp Jupiter. The cohort everyone looked down upon and ridiculed. It was because of that they looked out for each other.

Jason looked up in suprise as Dakota took his hand and helped him to his feet. "I don't know what you're plan is Jase, but we've got you're back." His centurion said with a grin.

"But I'm..."

Dakota chuckled "a traitor? If you're a traitor than we're the 1st cohort." They really had his back, even now. They all looked up to him with a reassuring smile.

"So what are your orders, Praetor?"

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

The plot thickens…supposedly a draft of the RAVEC ruling was made on/around February 1st and it can be found online.

So now there is speculation that the Sussexes were made aware that Harry was losing the lawsuit earlier in the month and that may or may not have also been cause for Harry’s mad dash to London on Feb 6th - yes, it was for sympathy with Charles’s cancer but also possibly to discuss the RAVEC ruling or maybe encourage a little courtly pressure to get the judge to rule in the “right” way.

And since reading that Harry presented himself as a working royal in the RAVEC cohort during the lawsuit, and then we got a whole 48 hours of “we’re working royals” “well maybe half-in half-out” “don’t you fucking dare, not on my watch” communications…well, hindsight is making that temper tantrum look a little more clearer, and giving more nuance to the website’s launch.

Anyway. All speculation, all conjecture. All coincidentally happening at the same time. I’m not a lawyer and while I know courts leak (hello, Dobbs!), I’m not sure that judges share draft rulings with the parties involved before it’s been finalized.

What do you think?

[hey-august]

Buggy would be a fucking MENICE on April 1st. The crew would be on high alert. His partner always ready. Hell even cross guild is tense waiting to see what he has planned. Man is pulling out alllll the stops

You know it. There would be chaos. Absolute chaos. But if you embraced it, April 1st might be your new favorite holiday.

I'd like to imagine that his crew would also try and get into the shenanigans eventually. Some would try and prank Buggy. A few would succeed and that would only spur the excitement.

There would be alliances. Which group could successfully prank the captain? Who could get the captain on their side to prank another unsuspecting victim? What happens when Buggy is pulling the strings of multiple cohorts of crewmembers trying to out-prank each other?

And as for Buggy himself, the intricacy and intensity of his pranks would vary. Swapping the sugar and salt. Releasing three circus animals, but they have signs that say "one," "two," and "four." Putting disgustingly sour or incredibly spicy condiments in food when his victim isn't looking.

Sometimes he just chuckles. Nothings happening, but Buggy's laugh has everyone on edge. Goosebumps. Prickles on the back of their necks. At the beginning, this was one of his favorite "pranks" for the Cross Guild.

Not to mention swapping Crocodile's cigars for chocolate. (His partner talked him out of adding a turd.) And swapping Mihawk's hat feather with lil baby birds.

But listen. Hear me out. Jackass. JACKASS. The giant hand skit is the exact shit I think Buggy would pull. (Video behind the cut.)

(The way Bam falls at 2:16 gets me every time. Cackling and tears in my eyes.)

Honestly, there are so many Jackass skits that I could see Buggy doing. Clipping someone's hair short with a surprise razor, the black mamba sock puppet face smack - he can just float a hand over.

A menace. A whirlwind of pranks and laughter. Buggy loves April 1st.