#But no that can't be the case at all. If it was then India and China should have a way larger concentration of dots.

[sskk-manifesto]

It's somewhat surprising to find out skill users exist outside of Yokohama too lol. The kind of “in theory, I know that's how it's supposed to be; in practice, that doesn't feel true at all”

[000marie198]

Incorporating jinns in fanfics with real life accuracy is super fun. Who'd have thought

[tj-crochets]

Hey y’all! Do you know of any good sites to learn non-baby ASL for phrases like can I pet your dog, are you okay, do you need help, please help me, or other things like that? Mostly I just want to be able to communicate with one of my neighbors in an emergency, but also she walks her dogs around the neighborhood and they are adorable and I really want to be able to ask if I can pet them, but googling it is just getting me baby ASL tutorial videos and idk if that’s the same

[katrafiy]

I think about this image a lot. This is an image from the Aurat March (Women's March) in Karachi, Pakistan, on International Women's Day 2018. The women in the picture are Pakistani trans women, aka khwaja siras or hijras; one is a friend of a close friend of mine.

In the eyes of the Pakistani government and anthropologists, they're a "third gender." They're denied access to many resources that are available to cis women. Trans women in Pakistan didn't decide to be third-gendered; cis people force it on them whether they like it or not.

Western anthropologists are keen on seeing non-Western trans women as culturally constructed third genders, "neither male nor female," and often contrast them (a "legitimate" third gender accepted in its culture) with Western trans women (horrific parodies of female stereotypes).

There's a lot of smoke and mirrors and jargon used to obscure the fact that while each culture's trans women are treated as a single culturally constructed identity separate from all other trans women, cis women are treated as a universal category that can just be called "women."

Even though Pakistani aurat and German Frauen and Guatemalan mujer will generally lead extraordinarily different lives due to the differences in culture, they are universally recognized as women.

The transmisogynist will say, "Yes, but we can't ignore the way gender is culturally constructed, and hijras aren't trans women, they're a third gender. Now let's worry less about trans people and more about the rights of women in Burkina Faso."

In other words, to the transmisogynist, all cis women are women, and all trans women are something else.

"But Kat, you're not Indian or Pakistani. You're not a hijra or khwaja sira, why is this so important to you?"

Have you ever heard of the Neapolitan third gender "femminiello"? It's the term my moniker "The Femme in Yellow" is derived from, and yes, I'm Neapolitan. Shut up.

I'm going to tell you a little bit about the femminielli, and I want you to see if any of this sounds familiar. Femminielli are a third gender in Neapolitan culture of people assigned male at birth who have a feminine gender expression.

They are lauded and respected in the local culture, considered to be good omens and bringers of good luck. At festivals you'd bring a femminiello with you to go gambling, and often they would be brought in to give blessings to newborns. Noticing anything familiar yet?

Oh and also they were largely relegated to begging and sex work and were not allowed to be educated and many were homeless and lived in the back alleys of Naples, but you know we don't really like to mention that part because it sounds a lot less romantic and mystical.

And if you're sitting there, asking yourself why a an accurate description of femminiello sounds almost note for note like the same way hijras get described and talked about, then you can start to understand why that picture at the start of this post has so much meaning for me.

And you can also start to understand why I get so frustrated when I see other queer people buy into this fool notion that for some reason the transes from different cultures must never mix.

That friend I mentioned earlier is a white American trans woman. She spent years living in India, and as I recal the story the family she was staying with saw her as a white, foreign hijra and she was asked to use her magic hijra powers to bless the house she was staying in.

So when it comes to various cultural trans identities there are two ways we can look at this. We can look at things from a standpoint of expressed identity, in which case we have to preferentially choose to translate one word for the local word, or to leave it untranslated.

If we translate it, people will say we're artificially imposing an outside category (so long as it's not cis people, that's fine). If we don't, what we're implying, is that this concept doesn't exist in the target language, which suggests that it's fundamentally a different thing

A concrete example is that Serena Nanda in her 1990 and 2000 books, bent over backwards to say that Hijras are categorically NOT trans women. Lots of them are!

And Don Kulick bent over backwards in his 1998 book to say that travesti are categorically NOT trans women, even though some of the ones he cited were then and are now trans women.

The other option, is to look at practice, and talk about a community of practice of people who are AMAB, who wear women's clothing, take women's names, fulfill women's social roles, use women's language and mannerisms, etc WITHIN THEIR OWN CULTURAL CONTEXT.

This community of practice, whatever we want to call it - trans woman, hijra, transfeminine, femminiello, fairy, queen, to name just a few - can then be seen to CLEARLY be trans-national and trans-cultural in a way that is not clearly evident in the other way of looking at things.

And this is important, in my mind, because it is this axis of similarity that is serving as the basis for a growing transnational transgender rights movement, particularly in South Asia. It's why you see pictures like this one taken at the 2018 Aurat March in Karachi, Pakistan.

And it also groups rather than splits, pointing out not only points of continuity in the practices of western trans women and fa'afafines, but also between trans women in South Asia outside the hijra community, and members of the hijra community both trans women and not.

To be blunt, I'm not all that interested in the word trans woman, or the word hijra. I'm not interested in the word femminiello or the word fa'afafine.

I'm interested in the fact that when I visit India, and I meet hijras (or trans women, self-expressed) and I say I'm a trans woman, we suddenly sit together, talk about life, they ask to see American hormones and compare them to Indian hormones.

There is a shared community of practice that creates a bond between us that cis people don't have. That's not to say that we all have the exact same internal sense of self, but for the most part, we belong to the same community of practice based on life histories and behavior.

I think that's something cis people have absolutely missed - largely in an effort to artificially isolate trans women. This practice of arguing about whether a particular "third gender" label = trans women or not, also tends to artificially homogenize trans women as a group.

You see this in Kulick and Nanda, where if you read them, you could be forgiven for thinking all American trans women are white, middle class, middle-aged, and college-educated, who all follow rigid codes of behavior and surgical schedules prescribed by male physicians.

There are trans women who think of themselves as separate from cis women, as literally another kind of thing, there are trans women who think of themselves as coterminous with cis women, there are trans women who think of themselves as anything under the sun you want to imagine.

The problem is that historically, cis people have gone to tremendous lengths to destroy points of continuity in the transgender community (see everything I've cited and more), and particularly this has been an exercise in transmisogyny of grotesque levels.

The question is do you want to talk about culturally different ways of being trans, or do you want to try to create as many neatly-boxed third genders as you can to prop up transphobic theoretical frameworks? To date, people have done the latter. I'm interested in the former.

I guess what I'm really trying to say with all of this is that we're all family y'all.

[knuppitalism-with-ue]

No ecosystem is complete without a myriad of small insects, arachnids and other invertebrates. Which is the reason that this is the second spec evo project where we have a dedicated leaf litter piece to canonize all the little creatures we can't really fit into the larger habitat pieces.

On Lemuria

Lemuria is a new spec evo project for and by the #paleostream community. Like the Atlantis project beforehand it deals with a fictional piece of land in 3 phases. Lemuria is an already existent concept that was invented before the recognition of plate tectonics to explain certain distribution patterns of animals and plants. In our case Lemuria is a continent consisting of India and Madagascar. We speculate how animals and plants would evolve if these two would never separate. This has MANY consequences. And the further we progress through time the more natural history will change. Phase one deals with the Cretaceous, when things are still rather "normal".

[runawaycarouselhorse]

Okay, now, you're just being rude and mocking. They've always acknowledged the harms and taught about it, they will not halt it because it's what the economy largely relies on. The tourism thing has only begun rather recently as an alternative source of income, but the main thing has always been oil exports.

A country can both acknowledge what they're relying on is harmful to the environment and that other alternatives are needed and make steps to use more green energy, using more solar power, planting a lot of trees and plants (most of the country is now a lot greener, especially the urban areas.)

"SGI supports Saudi Arabia’s ambition to reach net zero emissions by 2060 through the Circular Carbon Economy approach and is also accelerating the country’s transition to a green economy. Three overarching targets guide SGI’s work - emissions reduction, afforestation, and land and sea protection.

Since SGI’s inauguration, 77 initiatives corresponding to the three targets have been activated, representing an investment of more than $186bn and helping to drive sustainable growth. By bringing together the government and private sector, and fostering collaboration and innovation, the Kingdom’s commitments have been turned into tangible action, whilst supporting global goals."

Friends and family searched for missing hajj pilgrims on Wednesday as the death toll at the annual rituals, which were carried out in scorching heat, surged past 900.

[insane-in-the-membranee]

Men fucking scare me.

Now, some are going to go like, "it's not all men", " Are you also scared of your dad/brother/male relative?", "Another 'feminist' hating on men" and so on probably. Sure, it's not all men but it's always men.

I was scrolling insta when I came across a reel where a guy is complaining about how whenever there is a crime concerning a woman, we raise our voice and protest yet when there is a crime concerning a man, there is barely even news coverage. Which is certainly true and fair. But seriously, right now? Why is it that men always complain whenever people are trying to give justice to a poor victim girl?? I totally agree that whether men or women, all victims should get their justice but have some fucking sympathy instead of complaining?!?

Next, another reel where a lawyer guy was talking about women's safety laws and all, the comments? "Law for women, la*da for men". Well, why don't you go and take a look at the statistics? Maybe read the news daily, I mean the local one. Again, I'm NOT against men's safety, ofc no. It's just that, why can't men complain or raise their concerns without pulling the women with them? What do you want? The laws that are made for us (not that they're REALLY useful) to go nil??? Or what?? Equality? That is feminism. Fucking equality!! You don't hear a true feminist complaining, "why do men get paid more than us? Salary for men, chillar for women" or anything, instead it's "We want to get paid the same as that of a man." Again, I'm NOT speaking against men particularly, just the ones who feel enraged towards us just because we want to get treated as a human first, and equally.

I was talking to a guy friend and his attitude is, "Yeah what happened to her is TERRIBLE but hey, it's not like I can do anything about that? I would never do that and be a good person but that's all I can do, I can't tell the rapists that what they did was wrong and they'd too be like 'oh yes yes oops we did wrong' right?". Now, I do understand his perspective but sure a bit more sympathy and kindness won't hurt anyone?? He even has a sister!! And in the age of social media, anyone with a phone can contribute to some extent.

When I read the details of the case, my soul cried out. I can't even imagine her sorrow. Oh my goodness. My insides felt all queasy reading those gruesome details. All girls of all ages have almost experienced a bad incident with men. Harassment, molestation, abuse, assault, SOMETHING! So many cases everyday and so many more which don't even get registered. Rapes have become so common in India that unless and until it's something very gruesome, people don't even bother that much. It's always "What has it got to do with me" until it's someone you, someone who is close to you. 78 years of independence yet girls are still caged behind walls.

It's always "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao", Beti padh toh li lekin Beti bach nahi pai. Why is it always "Arre voh toh ladhka, voh toh aise he karega", Voh aisa kyu karega?!?

Why is that ladhkiyo ko mana karte hai raat mein bahar jaane ke liye because it's not safe for her, lekin ladhke puri raat awaaragardi kare, koi dikkat nahi.

Why can't we just teach boys to respect women? To not just respect women, but to respect everyone? The next person is a living being, is that not a good enough reason to not be cruel??

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-ry4xNvZw0/?igsh=N2M0bW51c3dueGpi

Ajeeb toh hai.

[m1ssunderstanding]

Understanding Lennon McCartney Rewatch Part 2.1

Cynthia and John are worse and crazier for admitting what they admitted in the bio. But Jane and Paul are not exempt.

Will forever love this pic of Paul and Julian. He does not look like the fun uncle. He looks tired and dependable. Just stepped out of the womb as a father, didn't he? The sperm that fertilized his egg probably passed some fatherly advice and hair tussles to the other sperm as it passed them. 

They should've bought the fucking island.

They never look more like a couple than when the women they're actually dating are right next to them. 

The India footage actually looks so beautiful. Obviously it's a beautiful place, but they all genuinely look so free and at peace there. It really could've been so good for them. Getting enlightened, getting soberish, growing closer as a band, taking a much-needed rest. It should've been good. 

The music choices in this documentary! The drastic shift from, “all you need is love” and “the dream I had was true” and “I don't need much to set me free.” to Paul leaving to “yes I'm lonely. Wanna die.” “I'm going insane.” “Look at me. Who am I supposed to be?” 8d8 psychic damage. And the thing is it's real. John really did flip a switch, just like that.

Smashing my head into a wall. It's the same as Yoko's quote about how ‘nobody hurt John more than Paul.’ Really Pete? Worse than after his mum died? Really Yoko? More than that drunk cop? Paul, what the fuck did you do to him in India, seriously, because at this point in the doc I can't accept the theory that it was just some lack of communication, I just can't. 

It's also telling to me that when John's losing it, everyone's solution is some time alone with Paul. Nobody panic. Paul can fix him. Little do they know Paul's the one that broke him. Or maybe they do know and that's only another reason they know Paul's the only man for the job?

Old-fashioned ad voice: You liked Protective Jesus Scandal Paul? You'll love Protective LSD Scandal John! Really. Before the question is even out, he's making fun of it. I think he cuts off the interviewer at least three times with jokes before he can get the sentence out, and by the time he is, Paul's giggling too hard to feel bad about his little PR fuck-up.

Then he lets Paul talk a bit before jumping back in, this time with his Hard Man suit on. It's just so good. A testament to their unconditional love, really. Because, clearly, Paul's just hurt John pretty bad. And yet, here John is. Using every trick he's got to defend his friend. 

But actually, though John is supposedly the one everyone's worried about, Paul's doing a pretty shit job of being the “stable” one. This entire press tour he's either fucking blazed and laughing at everything or disassociated and not contributing.

(((except during that political discussion – again! Paul secretly has actual thoughts on actual things?!)))

But for the most part, John's absolutely holding down the fort. I wonder if this is another case of everyone – all their friends and business associates, just like we as a fandom still do now – assuming John is the problem child, and Paul's the strong one, but actually they're both both. 

Back to the political interview. They're just so in sync. Finishing each other's sentences when you're talking about the weather or your shared work is one thing. Finishing each other's sentences on complex topics like why poor whites often vote bigots in or the cause of rampant misinformation is quite another. 

“Letting his dad cut his hair at sixteen, seventeen.” You all know that John hates Jim quote. 

John: so there's war, and vegetables. There's relativity and absolute.  Paul (absolutely smitten): that's great Johnny. Int: that's rather hard for people to interpret. John: well if they can't interpret it now, maybe they will later..... 1. John really was extremely intelligent. 2. That last statement sums up Beatles historiography.

Paul really just Won't be alone with John, will he? Well, two can play at that game, Paul, and John's going to win, let me tell you. 

But he's going to do one last panic grab for attention first.

I really do think if John had done something like that *before* Paul would've given him that attention. Told him he's being insane and taken him home to splash some cold water on him or something and then given him whatever softness Paul was capable of. But not anymore. 

I wonder if Paul could go back to 1966 if he just wouldn't have taken John to that Indica show where he met Yoko. If he would've just said “okay John, sure, let's just stay home and trip on the couch tonight.” I don't know.

Anyway, Yoko gets an A+ for persistence. Imagine being Paul, George, or Ringo, though, and John is suddenly madly in love with this woman whose been begging you all (and then him specifically) for a platform for over a year? It would be weird to say the least. 

John: don't you hate me? I'm crazy, you know. Paul: no I don't hate you. John: aren't you pissed at me now, Paul? Even a little bit? Paul: I'm very proud of you. It's the unstoppable force (“Don't ‘nore me, Mimi!”) vs the immovable object (“I learned to put a shell around me”.) Someone get them some professional help before they nuke the whole world. 

“There is, however, a desire to get power in order to use it for good.” One of those quotes that just really lets you see a person, you know? Benevolent dictator Paul. 

Yoko, why are you talking about how bad your boy doesn't want to fuck you right in front of all his closest friends and on record for posterity? If you have to be talking about your sex life, shouldn't you be lying about how insanely horny he is for you? Oh, right, she will think of that, just not yet. 

And then she waxes poetic about how turned on John is when he's working on music with Paul. Cool. Smart. Thanks for that, though, genuinely.

And Then (gosh, Yoko is such an asset to Beatles history when she's not actively spreading misinformation. Everyone give her a hand) she goes on about how Paul goes out of his way to make her feel respected and even valued. Compare that to John and Linda, anyone? And I want to be clear, I'm not saying this means John cares too much and Paul doesn't care at all, which might be the surface read. I just think John's reaction was to scream in everyone's face that he was in pain and Paul's was to insist ad nauseam that he was fine. You know?

[novella-november]

I have no idea why this needs to be said, but you can hate generative AI, love the Public Domain, love media preservation, hate the overbearing US Copyright system, and... still believe that Copyright Laws exist in the first place for a reason, (even if, thanks to Big Corporation Monopolies, it's been twisted into its current behemoth monstrosity.)

You can hate Large Language Models and still believe in Copyright Reform over Copyright Abolishment.

You can believe in Media Preservation and still believe that Plagiarism is wrong.

You can hate the current restrictive Copyright Laws without wanting to abolish them entirely.

You can love the Public Domain and still loath predatory corporations stealing everything they can get their hands on, to literally *feed the machine.*

These things are not mutually exclusive, and if you think that

"you can't hate AI if you hate the current copyright laws"

or that

"Hating on Generative AI will only give us more restrictive copyright and IP laws, therefore you need to normalize and accept generative AI stealing all of your creations and every single thing you've ever said on the internet!"

I just genuinely don't understand how you can say this kind of crap if you've ever interacted with any creative person in your life.

I'm a wanna-be-author.

I want as many people to be able to afford my written works as possible without restrictions, and I fully plan on having free ebooks of my works available for those who can't afford to buy them.

*That does *not* mean I, in any way shape or form, would ever consent to people stealing my work and uploading it into a Large Language Model and telling it to spit out fifty unauthorized sequels that are then sold for cash profit!*

You cannot support generative AI and turn around and try to claim you're actually just defending small time artists, and *also* you think no one should have any legal protections at all protecting their work from plagiarism at all.

Supporting unethical generative AI (which is literally all of them currently), protecting artists, and *completely abolishing* copyright and intellectual property laws instead of reforming them *are* mutually exclusive concepts.

You *cannot* worship the plagiarism machine, claim to care about small artists, and then say that those same small artists should have absolutely *zero* legal protections to stop their work being plagiarized.

The only way AI could even begin to approach being ethical would be if using it to begin with wasn't a huge hazard to the enviornment, and if it was trained *exclusively * on Public Domain works that had to be checked and confirmed by multiple real human beings before it was put into the training data.

And oh, would you look at that?

Every single AI model is currently just sucking up the entire fucking goddamn internet and everything ever posted on it and everything ever downloaded from it with no way to really truly opt out of it or even just to know if your work has been fed to the machine until an entire page of text from your book pops out when it generates text from someone's writing prompt.

And no, it's not just "privileged Western authors" who are being exploited by AI.

For an updating list of global legal cases again AI tech giants, see this link here to stay up to date as cases develop:

[cherrysweather]

hi do you think you could do a miles edgeworth x reader where reader comforts edgeworth during or after an earthquake ? maybe angst/comfort :) tysm!

Hello Anon, I'm glad to be writing again! Apologies for the late response, but I hope you're still around to read this :')

(Requests are now open again :D)

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Comforting Miles Edgeworth during an earthquake:

Ever since the death of his father, Miles has always tried to avoid places where earthquakes are known to occur;

But with his constant traveling, he sometimes can't avoid it;

So when he's most insecure, he likes to bring you along, knowing that your presence alone is soothing enough for his terror;

Even if he knows that he's scared and knows how he behaves, he still cannot avoid fleeing to the first spot he deems safe enough and stays there, paralyzed;

He hates being in that state, remembering all the times it blocked him even at work;

But the worst times are when earthquakes strike where he thinks they're rare, like his home;

However, he noticed that whenever you were around, everything was easier, he would calm down faster and his reactions were milder;

He'll probably never recover from the trauma, so finding you was the best thing that could happen to him.

Miles set the freshly brewed tea on the table as he waited for you to return from the kitchen, sat on the chair and adjusted his glasses before pouring the drink into each of your cups.

"Which one did you prepare? Darjeeling again? Or the usual Earl Grey?" as you finally emerged from the room next door, drying your hands with a dishcloth, Miles felt a little tug on his lips and moved a chair closer to his, instead of in front of it. "It's the one I brought you from India, it's a green tea mix of Sencha and Assam, so it's a little less intense than a black one" he gently guided you by hand to sit "So I'm not allowed to add any sugar?" "Nu-uh" he sipped his cup, as his muscles melted on the seat.

Miles loved this moment of the week; after a long, usual day of work, he could relax all the time wanted, knowing tomorrow was a full rest. He would usually read one of his books, or a file case -if in a better mood- and just wait to fall asleep. Luckily, now with your company, he could also have pleasant conversations with someone equally lovely.

The time flew by between a teapot-amount of tea, some discussions about work, hobbies and a very long parenthesis about Miles' recent new assistants in his investigations. You moved on the couch and searched for something to watch as Miles took the tea set and brought it to the kitchen.

However, everything paused when the lights suddenly went out "Miles? Stay where you are, I'll go take the torch" You carefully moved around the apartment, making your hands go first. All the other buildings outside were in total blackout, so the research for the torch was sped up, feeling something bad was arriving.

Feeling that was confirmed mere seconds later, sensing the earth under your feet and the furniture around starting to tremble, first imperceptible, but soon became a true quake. Your first thought went to Miles. Found the torch, as everything trembled, the sound of many pieces of porcelain crashing to the ground of the other room made your guts fall to the ground, and your body followed soon enough.

You had to stay still until the tremors weakened enough to stand up again and rush to the kitchen, making way with the light in hand. As soon as all the ceramics on the ground were spotted, you searched for Miles and undoubtedly found him huddled under the table, quivering and protecting his head with his arms.

Miles froze on the spot when the light blacked out, holding tight to the tray with the tea set, but as soon as the smallest tremor hit his feet, he started shaking and searched somewhere to hold on, but a horrific shake made him fall to the ground, crashing everything in hands and banging his head on some counter. The already black vision didn't help his attempts to not go back to that elevator, all he could do was hug himself as strongly as possible and reach the first wall to have some sort of support around. When a light was pointed at his face, he somewhat understood that he was not inside the elevator, but his head couldn't come out of there.

"Miles! Miles are you hurt?!" you kneeled beside him and tried to "unlock" his head from the protection he created "Miles, it's okay, we're safe, it's gone" you attempted to make him better see around, but he was elsewhere right now, shaking uncontrollably and barely breathing. Nothing comforting worked, between cuddles and gentle whispers, he went increasingly apnoea and tears started falling.

To avoid panicking, you forced his hands away from his face, making him look at you, softly shaking his shoulders to make him inhale air again "Miles please, breathe with me, everything is all right" You found his hand and almost instinctively he clasped his hand with all his strength around yours.

Luckily, lights started to come back to the buildings outside, and when the kitchen ones turned on again, you turned Miles' face towards yours, seeking for any potential injuries, which were more than visible on his temple "I have to get something for your head, you're bleeding" you applied soft pressure on it, but instantly understood that no one was moving soon

Miles remained rigid for some more minutes before slowly coming back to earth. He finally recognized his kitchen and your hand, which up until three seconds ago was the gun he had thrown all those years ago. His mouth wouldn't open, his eyes wouldn't stop leaking tears and his body wouldn't stop shaking; all he managed to do was climb on your legs, searching for a safe position and trying to stabilize his breathing.

You slowly dragged his body from under the table, moving with him until a wall could be used as a backrest, covering his body with your own to give comfort and warmth. Your free hand gently stroked his locks while the one Miles held, kindly caressed his fingers. "Everything is okay Miles, as long as I'm here you're safe, nothing will ever happen to you again" Your thumb cleared his eyes of tears and slipped along his cheeks, allowing Miles to finally relax against you, keeping his eyes open to not permit his mind to play tricks.

"I'm sorry, I hate being like this" he mumbled and tried to straighten his back, loosening the grip on your hand "Don't even start, you're doing so good and it's not your fault. When you're ready we can go to bed and try to forget all this" You shushed him when he tried to talk again, probably about the tea set or the "nuisance" he's causing you "I don't know… if I want to sleep" he softly sobbed, holding his head where it banged "Everything could be worse, and my head is hurting like crazy" he fell again against your body, hiding himself where nothing could see all the overbearing emotions on his features "We'll do whatever you want, just don't hide. The only thing I ask is that you let me aid that wound on your head" You sighed and watched yourself around, noticing that almost all the other cups in the cupboards were destroyed, but everything outside Miles was a tomorrow problem "It's ok, just… stay with me".

It took another two hours to pull Miles up that floor, dragging him to bed first and convincing him to get in his comfortable clothes after "You don't want to try and sleep?" his head was finally patched and massaged carefully to relieve some pain "Not now, if I get asleep, good, otherwise I prefer staying vigilant for any other earthquakes" Miles melted against you, trying his best to listen to your advice and get some sleep, trying to forget what happened and how the perfect evening was ruined in the worst way possible "You can ask for some days off if you want to re-do this stolen time; I'm sure Gumshoe would help your request" Your mind could read his thoughts, and caught the opportunity to let his head wander somewhere else "I hate to skip work for such futile motives; my weakness shouldn't obstruct my work" "Oooh yes, sorry Mr. Chief Prosecutor, the office will crumble on its own weight without you" Your hands kept cuddling him softly enough to stimulate his sleep.

Miles stayed still and silent, eyes closed, ignoring the pain in his head and everything else around, and inside his thoughts. He'll never recover, he knows that perfectly, but if the reserved treatment every time was like this, he could learn to handle better his trauma, and learn how to be properly thankful for what life is finally granting him, not just inflicting; you.

[kaibutsushidousha]

What do you think would happen if the Lostbelt War was simply carried out properly?

The only way the Lostbelt War could only be "carried out properly" is Novum Chaldea not appearing. And Chaldea is relevant to the motivations of many participants, so why they don't appear alters the situation.

If the cause of the divergence is Chaldea dying in the prologue, Beryl has no reason to bother anymore, so he just remote-triggers everyone's Sirius Lights. However, Akuta amputated her Sirius Light long before, so only her Lostbelt doesn't explode. ORT could possibly survive the Sirius Light, but he would explode his own heart in one year anyway, so it's just a matter of waiting. Eternal China Ending.

If the cause of the divergence is Chaldea never returning from their Imaginary Number dive, there's no proof they're gone and Beryl will keep waiting for Mash, extending the conflict a lot more long-term.

January

Chaldea takes 3 months to come back, so the movements of the Crypters will remain pretty much the same until March. Keyword: the Crypters. They're not the only players in Part 2.

As soon as the Lostbelts form, Kama escapes India and begins planning her Oo'oku. She's supposed to build it in 6-7 months by yoinking roughly 210 Servants from Chaldea, but here her best option is to take everything from Atlantis. It's the Lostbelt with the most Rogue Servants and it's the only one with a surface level not supervised by its Lostbelt King. The Godbreak Alliance plus the Atlantis Defense Servants gives her roughly 20 Servants, allowing her to build Oo'oku in 60-70 months if the world there keeps spawning new Rogues at the same rate.

"Doesn't Traum have 1000 of Servants to grab at once?" Yes, but Traum didn't appear in Sion's map scan at LB3 prologue, so I'm assuming it doesn't exist yet. Novum Chaldea only discovered it after the New Year, but since Don Quixote moved to it before their arrival in Atlantis, I'll assume it formed somewhere between June and October.

March

Without Fujimaru summoning Avicebron, Kadoc doesn't have the means to beat Ivan. After his Amadeus dies and his Salieri can't handle the job, Ivan awakens and learns the truth as he did in canon, but here he survives and remains active.

Rasputin's main interest is in letting Anastasia be satisfied with her ending, so in canon he only ensured Kadoc's survival and freedom after Kadoc and Anastasia had an honest shot at ruling the Lostbelt, but since here that didn't happen, Rasputin will take both outside to try conquering a new Lostbelt. There are six options for Kadoc to go to, but for reasons, I have to choose Rasputin sending Kadoc and Anastasia to Britain.

April

Gotterdamerüng without Chaldea leaves Napoleon and Sitonai as Ophelia's only opponents. Even if they still have the idea of freeing Brynhild, they lose the fight if they rush in unaware of what Ophelia's eyes do. This means Sigurd's body isn't killed, therefore Surtr doesn't incarnate in April, therefore Skadi is still in control of the Fantasy Tree. No progress on Ophelia's side until Russia grows big enough for their walls to touch. Checking the map, the distance between Scandinavia and Russia is roughly twice the distance between Britain and Atlantis. Atlantis touched Britain during the climax of Olympus, but that was a case where Britain wasn't growing. With both sides growing at decent paces, we can schedule the contact for October.

"But why Russia? Britain is closer." Yes, Britain is also not growing because its tree was sucked dry 2017 years ago, and most importantly, due to the reason I had to send Kadoc to Britain. Britain has a prophecy I'm forced to deal with. There inevitably has to be one outsider mage who accompanies Arthuria's journey and all the steps there need to happen, including all bells, all calamities, and the journey allowing Cnoc to dethrone Morgan. And I feel like Kadoc has the best opportunity to do that. Avalon le Fae in April causes fewer changes than you'd expect. All parties were pretty much done with their 16 years of prep time and were only waiting for the Child of Prophecy. Pretty much everything would play out the same except:

Mash's absence means Beryl would be not invested enough in the plot. After he was done with Spinel and Morgan lost the throne, he'd declare himself a loser and bail to Olympus before the calamities began.

Pepe isn't there to save Kadoc from the Moss humans, but that's nothing Anastasia can't deal with. Freeze them without touching and everything is fine.

Koyanskaya is not developed enough to survive Muryan's request very long. Koyanskaya dies in April.

Muramasa's absence means Arthuria fully becomes a Holy Sword.

Arthuria needs to save Kadoc from the Garden of Lost Will. He can't get out on his own like Fujimaru. And recovering from this would require gigantic progress in his romance arc with Anastasia. Huge increase in Kadoc's protagonist level.

Anastasia was a member of Aesc's party. I really would rather have Kadoc there, but if she has the reaction speed to shield him from Billy's bullet in canon, she has the reaction speed to shield him from the Water Mirror.

The most instrumental changes come from the differences between Mash's and Anastasia's personalities. With how deeply devoted she is to her emotional attachments, she'd take Morgan's side in the faerie conflict. In the Camelot invasion, she'd beg Morgan to escape Britain with them and find a new home in Yaga Russia. Morgan is absurdly stubborn but if they get her to check her memories with Nastya, have this emotional appeal from both Nastya and Habetrot, have a logical appeal from Kadoc telling her that Britain is doomed and that Cnoc will steal her throne but the prophecy doesn't mention that Morgan has to die so she can get away with just disappearing to Avalon, and Spinel's murder removing her last attachment to the fae world, they have a chance of getting through to her.

The last thing Kadoc's journey needs is a means to let him escape Britain during the calamities. Which he can get if he manages to recruit Morgan, the other Avalon le Fae. While Arthuria will forge herself into the Holy Sword, Morgan could forge herself into the Avalon sheath, allowing Kadoc to survive Britain's collapse and return to Russia. Like in canon, Oberon's world-ending hole fails to expand and consume the planet because Melusine cuts him off. But since Kadoc didn't fight the calamities, this time it's a mutual kill from both of them starting at full health. Britain excised. 6 Lostbelts remain.

Another April event in canon is Nemo diving into Imaginary Sea in search of the Chaldea survivors but in this version, we can't have him finding them. He could still find Gogh drifting there, but without Fujimaru forcing riskier decisions, he'd dump Gogh back there if not outright kill her. If Sion's canon plan was already revealed, I could work out a Sion plotline by having her redo her predictions and respond accordingly, but since that's not the case, I'll just write Sion and Nemo off by saying their computer tells them Chaldea is in the Imaginary Sea and they keep searching indefinitely.

May

Kadoc, Anastasia, and Habetrot sneak their way back to Russia. Kadoc could use his new tools as a catalyst to summon King Arthur but opts against it because he can't afford Excalibur coming out of his own mana supply. It's better to lend his Holy Sword to a capable Rogue Servant, and luckily Beowulf is a suitable option for the job. Beowulf excaliblasts Ivan dead. It was a convoluted journey, but Kadoc has finally established Anastasia as his Lostbelt King. Now it's steady expansion progress until contact with Scandinavia.

June

Without Chaldea's intervention, Shi Huang's war preparations continue smoothly. They finish reverse engineering Mei-ren's body for themself and she gets paid with Xiang Yu's ownership. Lan Ling and the couple retreat to the peaceful uninhabited mountains and Akuta stops attending the Crypter meetings. Nothing to worry about until contact with India, and even then that's mostly Shi Huang's problem. China and India's distance is not that much bigger than the distance between Britain and Olympus, so I'll schedule that for November (it won't happen).

September

Without Chaldea's intervention, I think Nezha kills Pepe here. Even if Pepe survives and fights the same way Chaldea did, with Koyanskaya dead in April, Daybit can't save Pepe from Asclepius. Pepe dies. 6 Crypters remain. Lakshmi and Jinako are the only forces opposing Arjuna. "How does Jinako's big cube work?" I have no idea. It may have never existed. Doesn't matter either way without anyone to pull Jinako out of the cube.

October

Three more Yuga cycles after Pepe's death, Arjuna burns his own Fantasy Tree as Douman planned. India excised. 5 Lostbelts remain. Douman once again moves to Olympus.

In the same month, the walls of Russia and Scandinavia touch. Ophelia has the overwhelming advantage in soldiers (the giants and Valkyries vs the Yagas) while Kadoc has the overwhelming advantage in heroes (Anastasia, Habetrot, Beowulf with Excalibur, Billy the Kid, Minotaur, and Atalante Alter vs only Sigurd possessed by Surtr). Kadoc has enough of a tactical eye to figure out that Skadi is not a fighter while she's using all her power to keep the giants (+ Surtr) in check, so his strategy should be to assassinate Skadi first. But all the snow serves as Skadi's eyes, so she should know that's what he's going for. I don't think aiming for Skadi first would work, especially with Ophelia's eye being a factor. But Kadoc is informed about her eye and not informed about the consequences of killing Sigurd's body, so his logical approach would be: Attempt to kill Skadi regardless of counters -> Ophelia stops this possibility -> kills Sigurd instead. That causes the Surtr scenario. Skadi hits the panic button and frees the prisoners Napoleon and Sitonai. Kadoc is forced to shoot his trump card: Beowulf with Excalibur. Ophelia's sacrifice Sirius Light + a blast of the Holy Sword + an overloaded Grendel Buster + Napoleon's finisher should defeat the giant. Ophelia dies. 5 Crypters remain. The last major enemy left in Scandinavia is Skadi, who wishes only for her children not to be trampled. Kadoc seizing Scandinavia's Fantasy Tree instead of cutting it down doesn't make him an enemy, and it only plays to Kadoc's advantage to recruit Skadi instead of fighting her. Russia and Scandinavia merged. 4 Lostbelts remain.

But October is not over yet. Fantasy Tree Magellan is blooming. That's where Zeus set up Demeter and Aphrodite to die fighting Chaldea so that he could run away from the incarnated Alien God without shaming himself in front of his family. But here there's no Chaldea. So we're left with the challenging question of "Would Zeus prioritize his pride or his survival?". And that's the divergence point of the Lostbelt. This is a Zeus that chooses to survive at all costs. Zeus would abandon Demeter and Aphrodite, moving the two to Kirschtaria's side. Zeus escapes the Lostbelt and tries to escape Earth. But like Koyanskaya's egg, he can't leave. The dome to the cosmos is closed. He'd need to open a hole with a properly charged World Discipline Keraunos but other things are happening at the same time.

As usual, Muramasa kills Atlas, preventing Kirschtaria's plan while Kirschtaria is being held off by Beryl. The Rhongomyniad tactics aren't at play here, but Beryl can still fight full-power Kirschtaria because he got his Woodwose transformation earlier than canon. U-Olga successfully emerges. Apostle count 3->4. Muramasa is urgently dispatched to deal with Zeus, causing the last World Discipline Keraunos charge to be wasted smiting him. Muramasa dies. Apostle count 4->3. Olga gets to consume the Olympus Lostbelt, removing the Cronus Crown power source that let Zeus use his Noble Phantasm, so now he's just stuck on Earth, humiliated and desperate.

Olga didn't consume Olympus in canon because of Kirsch's Sirius Light kicking her away, but here there was no Rhongomyniad that he had to wall, so no opportunity for Beryl to fatally stab him, and Kirschtaria wouldn't use Sirius Light if he wasn't about to die anyway. He has the option to survive. Caenis was always in and out of the Lostbelt walls thanks to Poseidon's authority, so Kirsch could have an emergency escape route by having Caenis pilot the actual Poseidon Alitheia carrying his party of Dioscuri, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Artemis.

Since U-Olga still manifested, Douman still got inspired to develop Naraka Mandala, and Beryl refuses to die without seeing Mash again, so he allies with Douman and uses that as his ticket out of this doomed place. Olympus excised. 3 Lostbelts remain.

November

Zeus studied his options. He has nothing left to lose. He just wants to get away from CHALDEAS ASAP and needs all Fantasy Trees gone for it. South America is a time bomb thanks to ORT's heart, so Zeus will resort to stalling against this one. China is beatable at any time despite Shi Huang's Grand-level body. But Russia is an easier pick now since Skadi still hadn't much time to recover. Zeus attacks Kadoc and can counter or overpower all of his remaining options.

Meanwhile, Kirschtaria has a big target on his back due to betraying CHALDEAS. With his plan lost, trusting his friends is his only option. He mainly trusts Daybit to save the day, but he can't join Daybit because that would draw U-Olga's attention to him. Instead, he chooses to join Kadoc's side. Kirschtaria with his party of 5 gods is all Kadoc needs to turn the tides against Zeus. Kadoc's roster suffered a few casualties, but should still have its most important members (Anastasia, Habetrot, Skadi). Kirschtaria's third and last use of his ideal magecraft happened here, so he's no longer a combat asset for Kadoc.

At the same time, Douman is running the Imperial Holy Grail War in the Heian without Fujimaru's presence to intervene. This time he also brought his new assistant Gatto Beriru, probably with a really stupid spelling like 歹戸辺璃瑠. Fujimaru is honestly not much of a factor in Heian. Douman would still set up Ibuki to become a Beast, still realize the day before that Ibuki was not guaranteed to be loyal to CHALDEAS, still try to become the new Beast himself instead, still fail because he never loved mankind, and still get chopped by Kintoki. Cagliostro obtained. Apostle count: 3 -> 4.

There is a crucial difference in this scenario, however. Pepe never put Douman on his last life. Kintoki's victory accomplishes nothing. Douman can just reset the Singularity and try again. Grab a second copy of Cagliostro while he's at it, why not? Neither he nor Cagliostro can be turned into Beasts by the Fantasy Tree because they never knew true love, but Douman's team in this version has one more member. One full of opinions on love and beauty. One with a solid vision for the mankind he wants.

Speaking of Beasts, Kama also lost her source with Olympus being excised. She needs to reevaluate where's the new best place to grab Servants from, and luckily, Traum exists now. That's a few thousand Servants taken, making for a bigger, badder, and more loading-screen-filled labyrinth than ever before. However, Traum fails to provide with a human to complete the ritual by breaking all the Buddhist vows. Our twig and nerves friends aren't too equipped for that life of desire. Kama returns Bluebook to Traum, where they begin to rebuild their Servant armies from scratch. His main partner Zhang Jue might be still around.

December

Douman's second round of Heian concludes with the manifestation of Beast VII, U-Beryl. Now that he has Independent Manifestation, he can roam the Imaginary Sea in search of the disappeared Shadow Boarder. He plans to keep his word about being an allied force to CHALDEAS and U-Olga Marie, but he'll only be back after he finds Mash, and since that'd defeat the premise of this scenario, he'll never do. Nonetheless, Douman and Cagliostro consider this a job well done and regroup with U-Olga and Kotomine in Mictlan. Beryl doesn't die but metamorphosizes and leaves the plot for good. 4 Crypters remain. Cagliostro 2 obtained. Apostle count: 4->6->5 if you want to count U-Beryl as one.

Beryl's metamorphosis leaves Kadoc and Kirschtaria as the last two humans on Earth, therefore Kama's only options for Oo'oku. I don't think either of them would be able to cheat the system the ways Fujimaru did, but together, they have the combination character traits necessary to succeed. Without Goredolf completing Kama's maturation, she shouldn't be much trouble. Mata Hari's hypnosis duty can be done by Aphrodite. Scheherazade's Reality Marble duty can be done by Demeter's land-making authority. Tajima's swording really good duty can be done by a Saber from grabbed Traum. We know Yamato Takeru was one the earliest summons of the Revenge Realm, so that works. Kama gets defeated not too differently from canon. Unfortunately without Kiara to enable her development.

Second January

The canon crumbling of Oo'oku returned all Servants to Chaldea, so in this versions, all Servants in the walls should return to Traum (except Takeru who went to Kadoc's party). But Traum was already reconstructing for 2 months, so it already developed new factions. Kriemhild and Constantine are no longer faction leaders and I don't think they could manage rising to the top again. Kriem probably wouldn't even try since she'd find Siegfried in their return. Either way, someone would get the three Grails, and Zhang Jue would lead the attack on Antarctica.

We still don't know enough about CHALDEAS's total forces, but considering Kriem with 2 Traum Grails was on Siegfried's level, I can confidently say Bluebook's army gets easily wiped. No casualties among the 5 Apostles.

With that surprise threat quickly out of the way, the Apostles can return to their respective plans. A Douman shikigami attacks Kadoc, dies easily to his current party, as everyone including himself expected, and the two Cagliostros get planted in Kadoc's and Kirschtaria's heads. They don't have Dantès to cause an Id scenario, but Aphrodite continues to be an extremely value party member, allowing an Anastasia power of love solution to the horrors that inflates Kadoc's protagonist levels even harder. Kirschtaria's relationship with Caenis is unfortunately not like that, so he'd have a worse handle of the malignant information, but he can infodump all of the plot's secrets to Kadoc before he's gone. Cagliostro double dies. Apostle count: 5->3. Kirschtaria dies. 3 Crypters remain.

Second February

Kadoc and Kirschtaria not dying at the same time causes a huge disadvantage state for CHALDEAS. Remember, the reason why Bluebook could command millions of Servants at once was because he gained Representative of Mankind status from being the last human of his world. Camazotz seems to count as another example of the power a Representative of Mankind gains. Akuta and Daybit aren't human, so Kadoc is the last one left. He now can make his own Traum equivalent and become a threat CHALDEAS can't afford to ignore.

However, this is happening at the same month as ORT becomes accessible. They need to be on these two battlefronts at the same time or else they're checkmated by the one they previously ignored. The smartest option here is send Olga to get rid of Kadoc and send Douman and Kotomine to kill Daybit and secure ORT.

Even if Kadoc doesn't stand much of a chance against full power Olga, I don't believe there is any fast solution for a Representative of Mankind, so the Mictlan side of the conflict should end first. Not much to say here. Kotomine and Douman just kinda get hard walled by Camazotz. Daybit wins the race.

Izcalli's change of heart comes from the Dinosaur King reveal rather than from the few times Chaldea humiliated him, so I think he'd still say no to ORT at the last minute. And without Olga's heart to make Daybit a viable core, they have to use blond Tezca to wake up the spider. ORT retrieves the sun with practically no resistance. Apostle count: 3->1.

Kadoc and Olga probably disengage to go after Olga. Camazotz is also fighting on their side. I think ORT still takes this one. Kadoc's Servant army is very whittled down from holding off Olga, Olga can't assimilate ORT because Tezca is already there as a core, and most importantly, even if they manage to destroy ORT's body, it should be able to make shikigami copies after eating Douman. RIP Earth. Kadoc, Akuta, and Olga die. No Apostles remain. 1 Crypter remains. The Russia-Scandinavia, China, and Latin America Lostbelt weren't excised but their lands were shattered, so maybe they still exist but only in the shard that contains the tree. Lostbelt count: 3->0 or 4 depending on how this works.

ORT, Daybit, and Camazotz all survive to either be lost in space forever or become another planet's problem. The end.

[parlerenfleurs]

In the notes of the previous post I've reblogged I saw a discussion about why Ringo isn't considered (by the fandom) as a romantic interest for Mizu despite treating her better than all the other men in her life, and how this is tied to fatphobia. Also the fact that the fat character is often the comic-relief and the fact that if he is indeed intended as platonic why make him the only fat (="unattractive") man among the three (others being Taigen and Mikio) that can or have been considered love interests for her?

And that's really interesting because indeed, I never considered Ringo a potential love-interest for Mizu... And so I have to wonder if it's because he's fat. But I also never saw him as a comic-relief character, and I want to expand on why first.

He is indeed funny, and brings levity. But it's not "comic-relief", it's "positivity-relief", in my eyes. I don't feel like we're supposed to take him unseriously at all. Characters take him unseriously, sure, because of his social class, his disability, his seemingly naïve and weak character (never his size, in any case).

But the story shows, and Mizu comes to know, that he's anything but weak and naïve. We know right from the start that he's endured a terrible childhood and life up until meeting Mizu. He doesn't have hands, his father is abusive both physically and psychologically. The way the flesh-trader mistreats him in the first episode isn't anything unusual to Ringo. Everyone despises him and feels free to exert force against him. Taigen in his arrogance, deigns offer him a menial job in his household with the condescension reserved for a nobody who is also a child, or mentally a child.

Ringo was forged at this cruel relentless fire and what came out is a formidable strength. It doesn't manifest itself as obviously as Mizu's but it's, in my opinion, superior, and also extremely great and loveable. Ringo is neither naïve nor stupid. He knows when he's being beaten and condescended to. He's like that because, in spite of everything, he wants to see beauty in everything, and enjoy the good things in life, and he chooses to be kind. He CHOOSES to be kind. With an unbreakable, fluid, infinitely bending strength.

I am not well-versed enough in Japanese culture to make a meaningful comment about this, probably, but my personal reading of Ringo is that he might be a Buddha figure. East of India, the Buddha is fat. The Buddha smiles serenely, even in adversity, because he's reached a state of zen. His ego isn't touched by insults and beatings. Of course Ringo prefers to be treated well, like anyone else! That's why he follows Mizu around! She's an outcast and "deformed" like him, but she's also able to hold her own against physical violence, against the tyrants of the world, and that obviously appeals to him.

He kills, he has sex, he likes good food, he's obviously not detached from the world at all. But still, like a Buddha, his sense of self cannot be shaken by outside mockery or hostility. He's incredibly persistent once he has a goal, but he doesn't bother affirming himself to others for the sake of ego. He's the polar opposite of Taigen in that respect. Taigen's background has made him desperate for outside sources of strength - admiration, prestige, money, social standing...

On the other hand Ringo is really similar to Mizu, a thing he sees immediately but she does not. Hers is an inner unbreakable strength, too. The same fluid, adaptable, water-like strength. Can't break water. It will shape itself around you and your obstacles without ever losing its nature.

But contrary to Ringo, Mizu feels all the pain, the slights, the shame, the self-hatred. Ringo is pure love, or water, not poisoned by betrayal. Perhaps, or even probably, he has been betrayed but he hasn't let it poison his love, his water nature.

Even when Mizu betrays his love (respect, admiration, regard), he's no pushover, he lets her know that he won't stand for it, but still he rescues her because... despite everything his love is still pure. His love is the agape kind. He loves life, he obviously loves himself. There is no shame or shrinking of the self in him. No shame of his body, among other things. He's the only one in the main cast who doesn't wear a mask. What you see is what you get, and it's only people's own preconceptions that blind them to his depth and merit.

On the subject of fatness, I'm not sure he's even really... considered fat, in-universe? Or not negatively so, in any case. When Akemi has to serve her first client, HE is called fat by the characters. Fat enough to crush someone, and to hinder his own libido - the fatness of being extremely rich and eating too much rich food while being extremely idle. This one has the prostitutes reluctant, and his fatness is viewed in a negative light. Ringo has a very pleasant and cordial interaction with the two prostitutes who service him, and sure we're not privy to their thoughts on the matter, but I bet they found him cute, polite, not troublesome at all to service, and I feel like his size wasn't even a question that was posed. We see him naked, running around, carrying things, and being extremely active. His is a common build, sturdy, not a hindrance to his libido, his health, his self-image, or anything. What I mean is, he's not presented to us in a negative way on account of his fatness, and isn't viewed negatively for it in-universe.

All of this to say, I might indeed be blind to his potential as a love interest to Mizu, but I'm not sure it just has to do with the fact he's fat? It might be! I don't know. The first thing I think about on why I don't ship them is they show no romantic or sexual interest in each other that I see. Except, perhaps, that it might be significant that she's the one to arrange his first sexual experience and that it's the framework he has when seeing her naked. But as his attitude remains strictly the same and he shows no change in the kind of interest he has for her, it didn't feel significant to me. I might be wrong, I don't know. But again, Taigen is the opposite: he might be bi, but let's say he isn't, or at least isn't aware of it (I would be sad if he's not but it would better serve the parallel if he's straight) - the guy shows unmistakable chemistry with, and attraction to Mizu without even knowing she's got peaches underneath it all. (I love that he feels attraction to her at the precise moment where she's her playful self again: wrestling, battling and winning, while laughing and having fun... everything that Mikio couldn't handle is the very thing Taigen feels attracted to, aaah so good.)

When I think about it, the loyal, protective role Ringo has, where he saves her physically and emotionally, cares for her, protects her secret, admires her for who she is as a whole, his place as the person who sees the most of her without rejecting a single part of it, should indeed make me feral....

But if he's the opposite to Taigen in so many ways, he might be in this too, in that he has no attraction to Mizu, and they've no such chemistry between them. It's also so lovely as a platonic relationship! For once it is! He's her apprentice, after all, and she takes on the Swordfather role for him as Swordfather did for her (she even used the same persistent-as-hell-I-will-stay-look-I'm-useful method as Ringo did on her - when I say they're so similar...). She used to make noise to signal things to Swordfather and she makes Ringo make noise so that she can keep track of him, too. It's very cute! He uses her kitchen knives and she makes him start to fight with that just like she started to forge by forging them. To me, they're firmly in this master-apprentice dynamic. And friends.

I've said repeatedly that he's not naïve but actually in some ways he is, and that's what Mizu needs more of. She needs to reconnect with that younger, less hurt version of herself. And Ringo helps her with it, because she does ask for his help, does recognise she needs it (healing!) when she asks him to write on her back. He literally has her back. He's his own character, his own person, but they mirror each other a lot, and in some ways he's her master too. A master in gentleness.

Oh. I've said that Ringo's love/water is pure, but that it HAS been touched by the poison that affects Mizu: he's a better sword, has a better strength because he let the impurity be a part of him, didn't push it away or let it consume and change him. No wonder she must learn from him/needs his help to forge her new sword.

IF the story started signaling attraction between them, I don't think it would occur to me that Ringo is fat or anything (or it wouldn't have before, now I'll pay attention to that). It didn't occur to me when he was with the prostitutes, I was only thinking about the fact he has no hands, but the prostitutes shrugged it off with grace, and it made me happy.

[itsblasttothepast]

wait, checo is paired with other drivers beside max?

Oh yes, even when the main Checo pairing right now is Max, he has been paired with a few drivers:

With Lewis Hamilton (Chewis):

This has the seniority right now, they have been cozy since 2012, and even with their ups and downs, still mantain a friendly relationship which give us delusional fans hope.

With Fernando Alonso (ChecoNano or Perlonso):

I personally don't ship them, feel too brotherly for me, but they have been close since the time Checo entered F1, both hispanics, Checo was lighthearted than most of the hispanics drivers back then, so Alonso clicked very well with him. And Alonso has this very pansexual vibre with all the drivers, honestly, he's just sex on legs. With Checo, people think they would be good together, but I think Alonso is spoken for (Lanceeee).

With Nico Hulkenberg (Hulkenrez):

Sorry to put more images here, but they have history. They were together in the GP2 Series, then teammates in Force India. Hulkenberg speaks fondly of Checo, but honestly, he is a little shit. I love him, but it's true. I feel he's the one pulling pigtails on the people he likes, and in this case, with Checo, was pranking him, making jokes boderline racists (but he didn't mean them like that, he was just being Nico) and just flirting with him. They are still friendly, but now with KMag, they have lost their mojo. If Checo goes to Audi, maybe they would relink the romance.

With Esteban Ocon (no pairing name as far as I know):

Hate sex, anyone? Yes, that's why most of the fans started pairing them. I can say they sometimes had nice interactions, when they weren't trying to destroy each other, but I personally don't feel the vibe most of the people pairing them feel. Too much drama.

With Charles Leclerc (Checlerc):

This one baffles me, to be honest. When they interact, they say he's thirdwheeling Max and Charles, but yep, people ship them, and I guess I can see the appeal, Charles seems like a nice guy, they have chemistry, but I'm not sure why they pair them (Charlos makes more sense).

With Carlos Sainz Jr. (Cherlos):

Well, I can't see it, and now even less with their divorce, and I don't know if they ship them because they are hispanics, or because they look cute together. Carlos seems too hotheaded for Checo, and since Checo's teammate is Max, that's saying something.

With Lance Stroll (no idea of the ship name):

When they were teammates, they had this incredible chemistry, and were really, REALLY close, that's why Lance is still one of Checo's friends in the grid. But to me, they're more like brothers, nothing romantic as Lance focus all his romantic energy on Alonso. But I can see why people ship them.

He's also paired with Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and even Oscar Piastri, but those are rare (like one or two fic rare), I think these guys are the most popular pairings for Checo (also it tickes me off when they ship him with Lando, come on! LANDO!).

Wow, sorry about the long rant, anon!

[starsandaces24]

I was thinking about St. Hilarion's. It could either be an Anglican or a Catholic school, which might mean different things for the boys.

-Anglican - The state religion, meaning that Edwin's parents would be relatively normal members of Edwardian society. Comprises most of the current faith schools in Britain (I'm getting this off Wikipedia), but not all of them. (I'm not getting into Catholicism versus Protestantism because I'm in no way an expert, but Catholics were definitely a minority religion in 1916 England).

In Charles' (and Edwin's) case, this means his parents might not be super religious. I don't know if Ms. Rowland is Hindu, Christian, or not super religious, but if she is Christian, she would probably be Anglican because that's who took over India. Anyway, his parents might not be very religious because the Church of England was the default, meaning they probably sent him to St. Hilarion's because it was the best school or his father went there.

Evidence: Charles' family doesn't seem to be as rich (Look at Charles' room, there's a pretty good post about it. It's pretty small and a rich family would probably let their kid have a bigger room even if one of his parents was abusing him) and the CoE gives out more spots to people who can't afford it (in modern times, at least.) Also, it's the state religion.

-Catholic - There were less Catholic schools, meaning he would probably be further from home. Charles' family would definitely be pretty religious because they sent their kid there instead of a non-religious school or something.

Evidence: There's only one thing I can think of, but it's pretty convincing. Saint Hilarion is only considered a saint in the Catholic Church. (And a few other Orthodox churches, but I'm not considering either of them).

-Conclusion: St. Hilarion's is probably a Catholic school. I'm explaining myself out of the "Charles' family might be poor" by saying Charles' grandparents would probably pay for his school.

Extra: I would assume that Edwin's father went to the school no matter what, and Victorian parents (I'm referring to Edwin's grandparents) living in colonies would often sent their little boys off to boarding schools to learn to be "proper members of society, blah, blah, blah." Edwin's father might have grown up in India.

Edit: Preempting the "Charles' is left handed, Catholic schools wouldn't have let him do that", I know someone slightly older than Charles and he made it out of school perfectly left handed. I asked him, and he said that they stopped doing it when he went to school. Does that mean every school did that? No. Does that mean that St. Hilarion's could have? Yes.

[ashxketchum]

Some consolidated thoughts on the new Digimon announcement:

Since it's set to Brave Heart, which is originally 4:13 long, assuming that they add an intro scene and round it off to 5 mins, I think that it's best to not have high expectations of the amount of content they will cover.

Having every Digidestined (including 02 kids) get substantial screen time is the highest bar I will set. If this requirement is fulfilled I will personally consider the video a success.

I can't seem to land on one solid reason for why we are getting a PV instead of a third movie to truly tie off the series (giving space for the Reboot version to take off into their journey so we're all like 68 and still watching & arguing about Digimon lol). I've seen a few comments about 02TB not performing well enough to warrant a third part, which I don't feel is the case because that move was even released in India, a rare occurrence, so the global popularity was definitely felt considering Kizuna was hit by the pandemic in this department.

I'm leaning more towards creative differences, because Kakudo has made it quite obvious that his vision does not align fully with the narrative that Kizuna, then 02TB have built. It's entirely possible that Seki and Kakudo just couldn't sign off on the actual plot presented to make a third movie, and decided to do their own thing hence the shorter format.

One staff at NYCC was introduced as being responsible for heading the new Digimon team, which does give me the hope that another anime series (REBOOT SEASON 2!!!) is in the works and they were just waiting for the 25th Anniversary projects to tide over before announcing it.

Onto the actual content of the video, I think for the fans that enjoyed Kizuna, especially the open ending (I'm Fans) a half-assed explanation of how Taichi and Yamato get back together with Agumon and Gabumon will be disappointing. That said, I don't think we'll really get an explanation for it but I do think the video can start off with Taichi and Yamato reuniting with their partners.

However, the tone set by 02TB implies that these guys are also well settled in their lives even without their partner Digimon, so for them to rush back into battle something HUGE would need to disrupt that flow, but can they even explain & sustain a huge occurrence like that in 4-5 mins? I don't want to answer this question lol.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a more laidback take, which leaves a lot of space for fans to interpret what happened, rather than just shoving sequence after sequence of important moments in high speed. Showing Taichi and Yamato and other older kids just going about their lives as adults and then there is that moment when they're hit by a nostalgic memory of their partners which starts off their path to reunion. I understand the need for having a villain for Taichi and Yamato to join forces and battle, but I'm totally okay with a more nuanced, slice-of-life version which hits home for all older Digimon fans currently struggling with adulting.

And finally, the controversial (still traumatized by it) Epilogue. I would prefer it if the point of this video is to show the reunion of the Digidestined and their partners, with the implication that this will lead to the epilogue shown in 02. But I also fear that in order to fit in the societal standard of "adulting", and with Seki being a part of this team most likely, they'll definitely add the married couples with kids tropes.

Keeping shipping aside, I think that showing Sora, Mimi, Miyako and Hikari in their exploration phase during Kizuna/02TB did wonders for their characterisations. Rather than shoehorning all of them into wives/mothers/tradfem roles, we actually got a glimpse of how they will always continue to break barriers and moulds, which is at the core of how every Digigirl was written originally. Still, as life goes on people do change so even if we see Mimi with a typical cooking show or Miyako the Mom, I wouldn't be as upset because Kizuna/02TB already gave us a good glimpse of how the girls are capable of forging their own paths, regardless of any male presence in their lives.

But jk we all know this is going to be a TaiYama fest so Idk why I'm even worrying over my girls, I will be grateful if we get Mimi on screen for more than 10 seconds 😂

So that's my thoughts, open for discussion, not condescending arguments 🫶🏻

[ashsimpsalot]

Sushi in Tokyo (Kid X Sita X Reader)

Yes this is a poly fic, the tittle is based on

MY poly anthem

You entered the cracked up flat to find Kid watching the TV by himself, so deep in the Movie he didn't even realise you were home, a smile formed on your lips, fuck, even though you're hosting two fugitives in your home, the sight is too domestic to not melt your heart.

"I'm home," you announced, closing the door behind you. You turned around to see Kid with a big smile on his lips, standing and walking towards you, as excited as a puppy.

"jaanu, I missed you," he breathed before attaching hid lips to yours, hands wrapping around your waist. You hummed in the kiss.

Once you pulled back you stared into his eyes with a smile before looking at his hair, touching them.

"your curls feels fluffier than usual," you made a comment which earned a chuckle from Kid. He hummed and have your lips a final peck. "Sita put henna on my hair, she said she got bored being stuck in this house." he explained.

The mental image of your girl just running her hands into your man's curls makes you smile.

"where is she?" he lead you to sit you on the couch with him. "she's asleep," he whispered into your hair. The man's already clingy as it is, having you work much more than usual makes Kid crave having you in his arms even more.

You being the only face that is not all over the news for the murder of Rana, Queenie and Baba Shakti, you had decided, it's safer for the them to stay at home until it all die down, then all three of you could make a run to a different region of India, maybe even crossing borders. Anywhere people can't recognise them.

But until then you have to work to supply enough money, for three people, and it's not easy. It takes way much more time than you usually work.

You glance at the blanket that is on the sofa and frowned. "you're sleeping on the couch? Did you two fought?" you asked looking at Kid.

Kid barely loses his cool, Sita, being herself, is always clear on what she wants, what she likes and dislikes. For them to fight is very very rare.

"God, no. She kicked me out of the room because it was too hot, she said I'm a human heater," he said and lightly pouted. You let out a small laugh.

"she's right, you are a heater, and the heat of Mumbai isn't to play with. Plus your habit of hugging while you sleep isn't really helping your case." you teased, kissing his pout off. His eyebrows furrowed. "I can't even cuddle my girls without being rejected," he joked. You love it when Kid is comfortable. When it just the three of you, you get to see this side of him.

"baby?" a sleepy voice interrupted you two you turned around to see Sita with sleepy eyes standing in front of the room.

"hey, pretty girl, come here," you smiled at your girl, fuck even when she just woke up she's so incredibly beautiful. Sita sits herself between Kid and you, playfully pushing Kid away from you earning a small whine from Kid. He positione her so that she's sitting on his lap. On of her hand thrown over his shoulder she lazily kissed him

You smiled and softly placed your thumb on her chin, caressing before leading her in. She smiled and kissed you next.

"how was your nap?" Sita had thrown both her legs into your lap, you chuckled and brought her hand to kiss her palm.

"was good, without the heater bothering me." she joked, Kid tickled her side earning a yelp form her.

"Did I wake you up, sweetheart?" you asked softly, she just shook her head. Taking your hand in hers and begun her favourite pass time. Drawing random shapes on your palm.

"it's raining outside, it got cold," she replied, her fingers tracing letters in your palm. 'I <3 u` again and again and you smiled.

"is that why you came out? To be with the heater?" Kid asked, his arm thrown over your shoulder to pull you closer, you end up with your head on his chest while Sita's head on his neck.

Just what you need after a long day.

Sita didn't answer just let out a small laugh and yelp once again when he tickled her side. "Kidd!" she whined, now switching form drawing letters in your palm to kissing your fingers, almost even suckling on them.

Kid on the other hand has had his nose buried in your hair. Obviously sniffing the hell out of them.

"you two are awfully clingy today," you laughed into Kid's chest, eyes pinned on how pretty Sita's lips are kissing your fingers like that. You're glad that she's comfortable enough to let her oral fixation out and about. She used to say she's insecure about it and try not to do it in public.

"we missed you," Sita said softly before taking her head off of Kid's neck, tilting your chin and kissed your lips. You hummed into the kiss.

"hopefully this thing die down a little soon, I've got my contact for fake IDs already, even all the papers we need, just need this to die down and we can move on," Kid said and sighed. Sita though looked particularly interested. "what?" Kid asked confused. You just laughed because you know your girl all too well.

"you talking about all these matter makes her hot and bothered," you joked which made Sita blush. "hey!" she tried to defend herself before burying her face into Kid's neck, hiding from both of you.Kid chuckled and raised his hand to run it through her hair.

"hot and bothered hm?" he looked over to you with a smirk. You chucked. "such a tease," you laughed at him and kissed his lips, Sita turned her head again, pulling your hand towards her lips and kissed them again.

"i could fall asleep like this," you admitted, earning a him from Kid. A yawn escaped your lips. You looked over to Sita and chuckled when she's settled into placed your index finger into her mouth.

"I might fall asleep," you said again eyes now closed. Kid's hand that was resting on your arm softly move to pat you "sleep, I'll lift you later," you answer with a hum. You felt a kiss on your head and before you know it you're snoring like a baby.