#OB Japan

[kushamiqueen]

Shout-outs to all the guys in Japan who carry a seperate bag just to put their used tissues in.

If you really need to use that many tissues, you'd probably rather stay home. But it's cute that you're prepared, at least.

[shotaumino]

Me watching Gabe and Shota beat the shit out of each other: Wow, they're so cute.

[pgoeltz]

[astrobiscuits]

Astro obs part 9

🐌 The planets in your 12th house indicate your sleeping style:

Sun in 12th house - their sleep schedule is extremely messed up; for them, daylight hours = nighttime hours and vice versa, so they have trouble being themselves during the day; their true self comes out at night

Moon in 12th house - goes to sleep very late; full moons have a special effect on these people; their intuition is more clear at night; as kids, they probably slept a lot with their mother

Mercury in 12th house - loves texting/calling people late at night; they might journal their thoughts before sleep because they overthink a lot and it helps to clear their mind or maybe they just like to relax by reading a book at night

Venus in 12th house - cares a lot about getting their "beauty sleep"; sleeps with sleep masks on, buys expensive bed lingerie, skincare night routine might be very important; loves sleeping in general lmao

Mars in 12th house - enjoys working out before going to sleep, can go to sleep angry because they tend to get into conflict more at night than during the day

I have Uranus in 12th house and i can be both a light sleeper or a heavy sleeper, depending on where i am. For example, when i'm traveling, during the first night i wake up several times, but from the second night on i sleep like a baby lmao. Another thing would be that i can't sleep in a quiet car but i don't have any problem sleeping during a thunderstorm

🐌 Mars in fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sag) and Mars in 3rd house individuals love riding motorbikess

🐌 While Mars in 9th house peeps would probably love to go on a world tour on their motorbike. The sign ruling their 9th house represents the countries they would love to visit (i'm aware that some of these can only be visited by plane, take it with a grain of salt): 

♈ in 9th house: Ireland, Poland, Japan, Zimbabwe

♉ in 9th house: Cuba, Paraguay, South Africa, East Timor

♊ in 9th house: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Montenegro

♋ in 9th house: Canada, USA, Bahamas, Argentina, Slovenia, Madagascar

♌ in 9th house: Hawaii, France, Italy, The Netherlands, India, South Korea, Peru, Bolivia

♍ in 9th house: Switzerland, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Vietnam

♎ in 9th house: Belgium, Portugal, China, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho

♏ in 9th house: Panama, Spain, Turkey, Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE), Palestine, Lebanon

♐ in 9th house: Finland, Lithuania, Romania, Tanzania, Thailand

♑ in 9th house: UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Australia, Camerun

♒ in 9th house: Greece, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka

♓ in 9th house: Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Mauritius, Saint Lucia

🐌 I have a feeling Pisces Suns like to spend their time in a garage lmao. Mostly because their opposing sign, Virgo, would hate to spend time in a garage due to how dirty it can get.

🐌As a 7th house Sun who's been in love for almost a year now (haha, are we surprised, ofcours not; i'm not even in a relationship with him but ugh we're so perfect for each other), i realised that Sun in 7th house people tend to behave differently with their partner when they're in a healthy relationship vs when they're in a toxic one

Sun in 7th house in:

♈ Aries in a healthy relationship: empowers their partner, knows how to balance me time vs us time in a healthy manner, encourages their partner to take safe risks

♈ Aries in an unhealthy relationship: impulsive, impatient, selfish, dismisses their partner's feelings, often controlled by rage, prone to abusing their partner

♉ Taurus in a healthy relationship: veryyy generous (their love language is gift giving), accommodating to their partner's wants and needs, cooks for their partner

♉ Taurus in an unhealthy relationship: stubborn af, hard to please, focused more on the material gain from their partner rather than the love they share

♊ Gemini in a healthy relationship: curious, always lightens the mood of their partner by cracking up tons of jokes or telling them funny stories, knows that communication is key to everything so they're not afraid to discuss serious topics, teaches their partner a lot of random stuff

♊ Gemini in an unhealthy relationship: superficial, doesn't have a problem moving on from their partner to another person in a matter of seconds, if they're still in school/college, then they prioritize studying over their partner

♋ Cancer in a healthy relationship: nurturing, knows how to balance babying their partner vs being babied by their partner, emotionally vulnerable, feels safe enough to present their partner to their family early on in the relationship

♋ Cancer in a unhealthy relationship: if they don't trust their partner, they tend to become emotionally closed off to hide their deep sadness; defensive, but if their partner attackes them, then they'll hide, worries excessively, avoids presenting their partner to their family

♌ Leo in a healthy relationship: treats their partner like the king/queen they are, keeps their ego in check so it doesn't interfere with the relationship, if they've got artistic talents (music, acting, art etc.), they'll show their love for their partner by performing in front of them

♌ Leo in an unhealthy relationship: egocentric, shows off their partner/relationship too much out of pride, often feels entitled in the relationship and wants to be put on a pedestal by their partner

♍ Virgo in a healthy relationship: selfless to a healthy degree, remembers every lil detail from every casual conversations with their partner just to please them, remembers every important date and plans ahead for it, takes care of their partner when they're sick

♍ Virgo in a unhealthy relationship: critical, overfixates on past hurts and mistakes that their partner made in the relationship (often times their partner doesn't even remember those things because they're usually not that serious), loves their pets more than their partner

♎ Libra in a healthy relationship: romantic, charismatic, truly values their partner and the relationship with them, acts fair in the relationship, teaches their partner lovingly about the importance of honesty, truth and a healthy give and take dynamic in a relationship

♎ Libra in an unhealthy relationship: doesn't prioritize the relationship; instead, they flirt with others despite being in a relationship, emotionally detached, cold and calculated in their current relationship

♏ Scorpio in a healthy relationship: loyal, loves their partner deeply and intensely, but without suffocating them, keeps their partner's secrets like they're a locked safe box with no public access

♏ Scorpio in an unhealthy relationship: obsessive, manipulative, seeks to dominate their partner, displays stalkish behaviour in the relationship, liar

♐ Sagittarius in a healthy relationship: exposes their partner to various cultures, belief systems and philosophies to expand their mind and form their own opinion on certain topics, loves freely but is still able to maintain a long-term relationship, improves their partner's mood, usually brings an element of surprise and excitement to the relationship

♐ Sagittarius in an unhealthy relationship: travels in order to avoid dealing with their partner, parties a bit too much, doesn't take the relationship seriously

♑ Capricorn in a healthy relationship: loves their partner in a mature, serious and secure manner, doesn't shy away from improving their partner's social status and/or career if they can, discusses plans for the future (getting married, having kids, adopting pets, buying a house) with their partner early on in the relationship, they make time for their partner, despite the fact that they're busy most of the time

♑ Capricorn in an unhealthy relationship: displays no emotions or physical affection in the relationship, has a hard time communicating their thoughts with their partner, settles in a relationship for the wrong reasons (money/kids/safety/"i'm getting old and i need to have my life established"), prioritizes work/career over their partner

♒ Aquarius in a healthy relationship: flexible, makes their partner's dreams and aspirations come true (whether they're related to the relationship or not), has got a very open-minded attitude towards their partner's opinions, lifestyle and identity, takes the time to become friends firsts with their future partner because they value a relationship built on solid foundation (often times their partner is also their best friend), knows how to balance couple time vs time with friends

♒ Aquarius in an unhealthy relationship: displays wishy-washy behaviour, emotionally detached, prioritizes their friends over their partner, seeks online validation from strangers and acquaintances to fulfill their needs

♓ Pisces in a healthy relationship: sensitive to their partner's emotions, knows how to balance wearing their heart on their sleeve vs hiding their emotions in unfavourable circumstances, always honest with their partner

♓ Pisces in an unhealthy relationship: prone to drown their relationship problems and sorrows in alcohol, drugs and meds for mental health issues, runs away from problems instead of dealing with them with their partner, displays dishonesty to a fault, prone to self-sabotage

[twistmusings]

florid and (arguably) azujade are feasting this chapter update. congrats us

Honestly Anon, you're so right.

Chapter 7 is so interesting for Octavinelle - largely because we do get to see so much of how they think of each other and themselves, and we get to see so much of their relationship with each other. Honestly the shippers are thriving, but so are so many Jade and Floyd fans.

CW: Spoilers, Twisted Wonderland Character Shipping and mentions of Neurodivergence under the cut in case that isn't your cup of tea. It's very long and examines Floyd and Riddle's and Jade and Azul's dynamics throughout TWST and is sort of Character Analysis as well. Special note that there are Visual spoilers under the cut that will spoil some of the jokes from this chapter, so proceed with caution.

First, Floyd, who we see is outright distraught when everything goes right. Honestly at this point it makes me, as an ADHD person, struggle to not view Floyd as also having ADHD. I tend to not actually assign the characters neurodivergence or diagnose them, but honestly his characteristics really point to him being understimulated and just generally miserable because he's not doing anything and that's boring him. I have heard this from so many other folks with ADHD and have experienced it myself. I think, truth be told, that Floyd is a really good picture of a young person with ADHD. Especially as someone who was just properly diagnosed later in life - I would get these random, massive intense moods and would never be able to explain them until I began to suspect I had ADHD. If we consider Floyd's general characterization - he hates to be 'bored', he hates to force himself to do things that he doesn't want to do, he had random, intense moods, randomly struggling with some academics while really excelling in the things that interest him, comparing himself to other people and not understanding why he's different ... like, yeah, as a person with ADHD I relate to him so much. It's so interesting to me because Japan in general has a lot of medical bias against diagnosing and managing neurodiversity, so I think generally speaking, he's honestly a really well written example of someone who is struggling. I think his portrayal is probably so important for young people who play the game because it makes them feel normal and accepted, and I can't deny that.

And then Floyd and Riddle... these two are so funny. Like, if you had to ask me any character that shows having a crush on someone else canonically, I would probably point to Floyd and how he acts with Riddle. Considering that they're teenagers and we know neither he nor Riddle have any experience dating (none of the characters except Ace really do), I think it's really charming because like... are they annoying the fuck out of each other? Yeah, and I think that's pretty realistic for people who are 17 who have crushes on each other. Of course, I don't want to say I support people annoying or antagonizing their partners, but they are young people who are still learning how life works. I realize that teasing =/= having a crush on someone, but like...

In the recent stitch event they had this dialogue

Riddle gets so genuinely happy when Floyd praises him. Even Jack takes note of it. And then in Floyd's Labwear...

This interaction is so telling of the sort of relationship that they have with one another - first Floyd interprets their interactions as playing. Second, Riddle takes note that Floyd is in a bad mood which means that Riddle pays enough attention to him to notice when he's having a bad day. And then you have Jade over there just like 👀. It's so goofy but it's kind of wholesome also because it shows that in spite of everything, Riddle still shows concern for Floyd and Jade is a nosy sibling.

I don't know how many people have actually read the comic anthology, but there's a side story with Floyd and Riddle where Riddle is trying to study how to control himself better following his OB and Floyd, of course, comes to bother him and notices him reading advanced books and that ends in this interaction.

Like, is Floyd being a shit? Yes, of course, but he also doesn't take it back when he says that he thinks that it's admirable that Riddle works hard.

They really are the duality. Please enjoy this too-high effort shitpost I made.

And then add the fact that in the most recent story chapters the thing that gets Floyd to wake up is Silver and Jamil reminding him of the entrance ceremony where Riddle threw him through the air, and Floyd essentially being like "Yeah goldfishie is fun that was fun" and that being what snaps him out of it? Like these two are fated to irritate the hell out of each other by the story itself.

Also I think it's such a funny cute touch that the reason Floyd even started irritating Riddle is because Riddle couldn't control his temper and flung him. Floyd was just being curious, and while, yeah he probably should have asked before he touched Riddle's hair because he was curious if it would feel hot, Riddle immediately rose to meet his energy, and generally speaking we know that Floyd is a physically motivated person. He likes to fight, and he likes to test his strength. No one else caused a scene at the Sophomore orientation except Riddle. You know, the character that is almost entirely focused on not breaking rules? Riddle painted a massive target on his own back with his temper. And honestly, what I think does make it work is that even though Floyd teases Riddle literally all the time, he does respect Riddle. Riddle is interesting to him because he's strong and reacts when Floyd irritates him. As I said before, on Floyd's end at least, the antagonism is playful, and considering Floyd's relationship with Jade and Azul it's easy to see why. It's how he was raised to view affection from friends and peers.

Now, how about Riddle's side of things? Well, while we don't get a ton of canon crumbs from Riddle, there's at least a few things that we do get. We know that Riddle sort of resents that Floyd teases him, but he has been told multiple times by other people that Floyd is just trying to get a rise out of him. And yet, every time Floyd compliments Riddle and then immediately starts teasing him, Riddle falls for it. On some level, I'm sure it's because Riddle likes the attention just as much as Floyd, even if for a different reason. Riddle gets put down a lot - from his dorm and from his own mother. But even if Floyd teases him, Floyd also gasses him up because, like I said, Floyd genuinely thinks highly of Riddle. Riddle gets complimented and he gets smug about it because he thinks highly of himself, and it probably feels good to have that recognized.

Compare Riddle's interactions with Floyd to the ones he has with Jade, for example.

From the Spectral Soiree event.

There are a couple reasons why I feel like this is important to note. First, Riddle recognizes that Jade is making fun of him immediately. Riddle also misses Jade's sarcasm. Riddle isn't good at reading Jade - he finds Jade unpredictable and malicious, and interprets this as Jade making fun of him. In contrast, you don't see Riddle outright refuse a compliment from Floyd - he knows that Floyd is being upfront about how he feels when he says the things he does, but he doesn't know that about Jade. Riddle is also the butt of the joke here, whereas if we compare it to the similar situation that he went through with Floyd during the Tropical Turbulence event.

Floyd is teasing Riddle, yes, but in this situation he isn't making Riddle the butt of the joke, he's just causing a little bit of chaos. Floyd already has a plan in place, but Riddle the two aren't arguing with each other. It's also important to note that Floyd is one of the few characters outside of his dorm that Riddle really banters with comfortably.

The other thing is that though they compete with and annoy each other, Floyd and Riddle are actually genuinely pretty nice to each other otherwise. They both compliment each other pretty frequently even if they usually pepper in barbs as they do.

Floyd and Riddle are also pretty similar people, too:

At any rate, that's a lot of screenshots to basically say, yes they do make fun of each other and tease each other, but when they do get onto the same page, they work very well together and seem to have a mutual respect for each other even if they criticize each other. They can identify the aspects in each other that they can't identify in themselves and it makes their chemistry interesting because every time they share screentime it seems like they learn from each other.

Anyway, Florid fans eat well literally any time these two share screen time.

And then Jade and Azul... honestly those two cracked me up the entire time.

First you have Jade's dream with his god awful imagination. Jade literally gets the knockoff versions of Azul and Floyd as I said in the first post about it, but I think it's interesting to see how he perceives both of them. I'll be including images this time.

I'll start with Floyd because HOO buddy if I was Floyd and had to endure this shit.

This is an actual crime.

That being said, Floyd is noticeably more childish in Jade's dream than the actual Floyd is in reality, both in his rather immature visage as well as a more child-like way of speaking.

It's worth noting, in Floyd's dream, Floyd doesn't really pay much attention to where Jade is, and he doesn't really pay any attention to where Azul is either. He says "Eh, Jade's probably with Azul on land because the Mostro Lounge was succeeding." Floyd also makes a point of saying that it's a rule between the three of them - they don't have to stick together - if they don't want to do something, then they won't stick together and whoever wants to do it can do it on their own, or if they don't want to involve someone in something, they don't involve them in it. (Ironically, I would argue that this is one of the healthier dynamics for friendship in TWST that we see. All three of them have discussed and come to understand that if they need to separate ways, they will, they don't want to hold each other back from the things they enjoy.)

Jade on the other hand, and whether Floyd likes it or not, seems to view Floyd as a younger brother. We don't get confirmation as to whether or not Jade hatched first or if Floyd hatched first, but regardless of whichever it is, it seems like Jade views Floyd as his younger brother, and seems to have an instinct to coddle him, even if this portrayal of Floyd is deeply unflattering to Floyd and starts a whole fight.

It's also of note: Floyd didn't expect to be in Jade's dream at all. Floyd talks about how he figures that Jade has just dreamed about him in a similar way that Floyd had dreamed of Jade - off doing whatever he wanted to do. That's not true - Floyd is there, with Jade, and engaging in Jade's interests.

In Jade's official EN school uniform home tap he says:

Though some translations tend to interpret this line differently, and essentially instead say that Floyd is clingier than he seems.

The reason I'm pointing this out is because Jade is the only one of the three who's primary dream features all three of them together. This would seem to point toward Jade actually being the one who's clingier, and to being the one who's most attached to both of them. I can't really say for certain, but I almost wonder if Jade has a bit of a fear of abandonment with regard to Azul and Floyd and that's why his ideal dream world is one where they're both so reliant on him.

And then Azul...

Is Giorno Giovanna in the room with us?

Seriously though, I think it's kind of interesting to see how Azul is portrayed in Jade's imagination.

For reference, here's what Azul actually looks like in his mer form in the same pose.

The thing I immediately noticed is Azul's eyes. Sure, the image Jade has of Azul is a JJBA joke, but there's something else I want to point out about them in particular.

Azul's eyes are an entirely different, brighter color. In fact, it's also a different color from Azul's overblot eye color as well.

We know that Jade's limited imagination means he's working on his own impressions of Floyd and Azul and you're telling me that Jade's impression of Azul is that he looks like a character from a manga known for being about handsome, fabulous men and that he has ginormous, bright, shiny blue eyes that look like sapphires? Hello?????? Jade???

I think this is fascinating because had they just drawn Azul as like a normal old JJBA reference but kept his color palette the same, I could see it just being explained as "oh, neat, Jade thinks Azul is handsome when Azul doesn't" but follow me with this: Jade's imagination is painting them in broad strokes the way that Epel's imagination was doing in his dream. These are Jade's impressions of Floyd and Azul.

Floyd tracks - he sees Floyd as a younger brother and someone he inherently wants to take care of, even if it's not realistic. Floyd is a childish younger brother in a cartoonish way. Azul is motivated by money in a cartoonish way. These are the traits that stick out the most about the both of them to Jade.

So when Jade imagines Azul physically what he sees is Azul being handsome AND that he has these shiny bright blue eyes even if his memory gets the shade of blue wrong. Jade....... honey................ I need you to sit down when I tell you this..........

And then after he and Floyd fight, because Jade is too stubborn to wake up because he can't grasp that what he's seeing is wrong, the thing that finally triggers him to realize something is off is this version of dream Azul checking on him after the fight and being relieved he's okay and then saying that he's afraid he would have lost his "かわいい部下".

The thing that triggers Jade to start waking up is Azul calling Jade his cute subordinate (essentially his cute assistant). I am not exaggerating this. That is literally the phrase that triggers Jade. Jade even repeats it.

AND HE FUCKING PANICS

JADE. I AM BEGGING THE SECONDHAND CRINGE THIS MADE ME FEEL.

From there the dream Floyd of course says he's going to cry if Jade left him and like that just seals the deal. And everyone is super impressed because Jade realized it was wrong by himself and woke himself up.

I don't tend to insert my opinions much in my post but there is not a single person on this planet that is not going to make me believe that Jade did not just gay panic himself awake. I feel like most queer people have experienced something just like this. Jade literally wakes himself up because he's like "no, wait, hold on, Azul wouldn't say that, right?" and then Floyd saying he's going to cry sells it. Dream Azul essentially just fucking "baby girl"ed him and Jade was like "no, actually, that's too cringe for me to even dream about".

Then you have Azul's dream. Honestly there aren't a lot of crumbs there for Jade, but I think it's sort of sweet how even if they're sort of forced to, Jade and Floyd don't want to force Azul to do anything. They have a lot of respect for each other's personal boundaries, and they were fully prepared to let Azul stay asleep and allow him to work it out himself if he wanted to wake up. It doesn't end up working out that way, but it's not hard to tell that both the twins and Azul had respect for each other as individuals.

Another neat thing is that Azul is one of the few people who's dreams aren't inherently things he really wants. They're more of "what-if" scenarios. What if Azul was good at sports and ended up being a high school athlete? What if Azul actually got to follow through on burning that picture of his younger self and then opened a Mostro Lounge branch? I think it's interesting that Azul seems to be kept in these dreams because his imagination is vivid, and not because they're an ideal world perse. In a sense they are - but Azul himself admits that he doesn't really want either of them.

Azul gets so much growth shown in this chapter. He ends up wanting to wake up because he wants to live for himself, and not live for what other people think of him or having to rely on them. Azul still wants to succeed, but he wants to succeed for himself and not because he feels a need to one up the people that bullied him, and he wants to be fulfilled in himself. He's actually working on his mental health, I love that for him.

And, one more thing of note, I think it's so fucking cool that at the end of the book, Azul doesn't freak out about other people seeing him in his true form. In fact, he doesn't freak out about seeing himself in his true form when Idia makes a proxy version of him - he's just thinking about how cool it would be to have a second version of himself. I feel like most people have gotten the sense that Azul has a sense of self-loathing regarding his mer-form, but it seems like if he did at some point, he's made peace with it.

Anyway that's an unnecessarily long infodump about my feelings about the character relationships that we've got in the new update. Like obnoxiously long. So, uh... I'll just end the post with Azul's smiling sprite because I just think it's fucking adorable.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Wouldn’t school start in April, cause that’s when it starts in Japan and it’s a Japanese game?

[Referencing this post!]

That would be incorrect! TWST is a Japanese game, but that does not necessarily mean that all in-universe logic follows Japanese norms. We should not assume that a game’s country of origin informs its lore; we should look at the lore itself!

NRC is said to be designed after a British boarding school, and it is heavily implied that its school year is similar to the British model as well. You can easily tell this is the case from looking at the months and seasons referenced in the main story.

Book 2 features an interdorm tournament (which is similar to homecomings that traditionally take place mid-October). Japanese schools do not have homecoming; it’s purely a western thing. From what we know about book 2, we can assume the beginning of the school year must then be in September (book 1 occurs during the first week of the school year). Book 3 mentions end of the semester final exams (with the threat of remedial classes if you fail, thus cutting into your winter break) while book 4 explicitly takes place during said winter break. Book 5 begins “in the new year”, meaning it must be January, and then book 6 occurs a few days later. Book 7 takes place in spring, but before summer break since the third years are still preparing and applying for their fourth year internships.

If the NRC school year started in April as you’re suggesting, then it’s weird that no summer break was ever mentioned even though a winter break was. It also messes with the pacing of the main story. That would imply that books 1 and 2 occur in a short span of time, then there’s a long stretch of 5-6 months were nothing important happens because the next significant series of events isn’t until November/December. That doesn’t work as well with the main story’s narrative that OBs are happening consistently and so close to one another despite supposedly being rare.

I hope that clears things up for you! The ages I listed in the original post are correctly calculated based on this information.

[torchlitinthedesert]

I'd be curious to hear your Ob-la-di Ob-la-da take lol

I claimed Ob-la-di Ob-la-da as a political song. No, I'm not kidding.

Obviously, Ob-la-di Ob-la-da isn't a protest song. It's a perky ska-style number about the happy, everyday life of an immigrant family. And it was released in 1968, when immigration had just become the most inflammatory topic in British politics.

In spring 1968, the UK government proposed a new Race Relations bill, making it illegal to refuse housing, employment, or public services to anyone on the grounds of race or national origin. It was a response to racism, particularly against recent immigrants, especially those from the Caribbean.

Cue a lot more racism, most notoriously from politician Enoch Powell, who gave what is still commonly referred to today as the "Rivers of blood" speech. Powell ranted about sending "the immigrant and immigrant-descended population" back to the countries they or their families had once come from. He was particularly freaked out by the idea that, having come to Britain, people would settle down and - horrors - have babies, eventually outnumbering the white population. Powell was sacked by his party the next day, but he sparked a horrible wave of racist protest and abuse.

All this was brewing over the summer, as The Beatles worked on the White Album, and on this song. What is Ob-la-di Ob-la-da about? It's an everyday love story. The ska style frames Desmond and Molly as Jamaican - which, in a British context, strongly suggests that they're immigrants. The song builds a happy ending out of exactly the things that racists like Powell were terrified that immigrants would do. They work, get married, and have children, who grow up and help with the family business. Life going on, happy ever after.

The Beatles were certainly aware of the tensions sparked by Powell, immigration and the Race Relations Act; they were still talking about it, and trying to write a protest song about it, in the Get Back sessions in January 1969. Ob-la-di Ob-la-da doesn't talk directly about any of that. Its subjects - work, home, children - are the sort of thing that 1970s rock journalists would put down as Paul's normie bourgeois sensibilities.

But normie is where most people live. The song presents Desmond and Molly as deeply relatable. It assumes that their happy ending is something everyone can root for and sing along with. That is not an apolitical act, particularly not in Britain in 1968.

And people did sing along, in their millions. Ob-la-di was staggeringly popular. The Beatles didn't release it as a single in the UK or the US (though it topped charts in Australia, Japan and Europe). There were multiple competing cover versions. One by the band Marmalade went to No 1 in Britain, and sold about a million copies. Paul's own favourite cover was by The Bedrocks, whose members were all first-generation immigrants from the Caribbean.

(Obviously, there are other questions here about race, music, and appropriation; The Beatles, and most of the artists doing cover versions, are white people singing black music. Hello, history of western popular music.)

As I said, this isn't a protest song. But it has been sung in protest. @beatleshistoryblog found this great footage from a Women's March in London in 1971. Just listen to the first seconds: la la la la life goes on.

[beardedmrbean]

North Korean authorities have been punishing doctors who carry out abortions and the providers of contraceptives amid a drive by the country to boost its birth rate, according to a recent report.

Radio Free Asia cited a medical field source in the northern province of Ryanggang, which borders China, in its article. The source, who requested anonymity for their own safety, said the head of the obstetrics and gynecology department of Paegam County Hospital was put on trial for having conducted at-home abortions.

The doctor, who conducted one abortion at home that resulted in the death of the woman, was sentenced to five years in prison, according to Radio Free Asia. His trial was held in a conference room of a medical university hospital.

North Korea's fertility rate, or the number of babies expected per woman's lifetime, dropped to 1.8 births per woman last year, per estimates by the United Nations Population Fund. A fertility rate of 2.1 is considered the minimum rate necessary for a population to sustain itself over time.

An OB-GYN working at a hospital in Unhung County, another administrative unit in Ryanggang, was handed a three-year sentence. She had previously been sanctioned for illegally terminating a pregnancy in 2021.

The pair carried out the clandestine abortions at home, as many as three in a day, according to the source. The procedures reportedly cost 30,000 North Korean won ($33), equivalent to an average monthly salary and enough to buy 10 pounds of rice.

"Typically, OB-GYN doctors go to a pregnant woman's home to perform abortions in order to leave no trace, but these two doctors had set up medical equipment in their own homes," the source said.

They added that the department head in Paegam County had reached retirement age this year. The Unhung County doctor has two daughters who are middle school students.

RFA cited sources who said the government had raised doctors' salaries by a factor of 40, now ranging between $5-$11 won per month, to disincentivize earning extra money outside of their regular jobs.

Vendors of contraceptives are also reportedly being targeted, another source told the outlet.

She said she knew of two such merchants in the city of Hyesan who had their stalls seized by authorities in July. Late last month, three others were issued with heavy fines and had their booths confiscated.

These vendors were also banned from conducting business in the market ever again.

The North Korean embassy in China didn't immediately respond to a written request for comment.

North Korea banned abortions during the "Arduous March," a period of extreme economic hardship and famine that gripped the country between 1994 and 1998, with deaths ranging from hundreds of thousands to upwards of 2 million.

North Korea's demographic crunch is also a concern for its neighbors, whose policies to encourage births are so far failing to bear fruit. The fertility rate stands at 1.4 in Russia, 1.2 in Japan, 1.0 in China, 0.85 in Taiwan and 0.72 in South Korea.

However, North Korea is even more susceptible to the negative impact of the trend because of international embargoes on advanced machinery, imposed over Pyongyang's missile and nuclear weapons programs. The country therefore continues to rely more on physical labor and outdated production techniques than other countries in the region.

Late last year, in remarks during the country's fifth National Congress of Mothers, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un named the declining birthrate as one of the country's major social challenges and appealed to North Korean women to do their part to reverse the trend.

[mitarbeiter]

Hey, Tumblr! Tumblr hier. Wir führen Livestreaming auf Tumblr ein und nennen es … nun ja, Tumblr Live.

Tumblr Live bringt Streaming direkt auf das Dashboard, sodass deine Tumblr-Zielgruppe und deine Streaming-Zielgruppe zusammenkommen. Was ist das, sagst du? Synergie? Wunderbar.

Eigentlich wollten wir Tumblr Live nur in den USA über unsere Android- und iOS-Apps ausrollen. Aber jetzt ist es so weit. Tumblr Live wird im Laufe dieser Woche auf weitere Länder und auf alle Plattformen (Android, iOS und Web) ausgeweitet.

Das heißt, wenn du in einem der unten aufgeführten Länder oder Regionen wohnst, kannst du Streams anschauen. Aber nicht nur das, du kannst auch selbst streamen: deine Minecraft-Abenteuer, Strickgruppe, Parkruns, Furby-Rituale – oder was auch immer du mit der Welt teilen willst:

Brasilien

Europäische Union

Großbritannien

Japan

Kanada

Malaysia

Mexiko

Südkorea

Türkei

Und so funktioniert's:

Die kleine Kamera 🎥 unten auf dem Dashboard in der Smartphone-App führt dich zum Tumblr Live-Tab. Hier kannst du durch die Streams scrollen, die zu diesem Zeitpunkt live sind. Du findest die Livestreams auch oben auf deinem Dashboard, sie sind mit „Live“ gekennzeichnet.

Solange du sauber bleibst, kannst du alles streamen, worauf du Lust hast. Tippe dazu einfach auf den „Go Live!“-Button. Enten im Park, dein missratener Schneemann, dein gefroggter Pulli.

Streaming funktioniert sowohl mit der Front- als auch mit der Rückkamera. Wenn du also kamerascheu bist, kannst du streamen, ohne dein Gesicht zu zeigen. 

Du kannst deinen treuesten Zuschauer:innen den Moderator:innen-Status verleihen. Sie können dir helfen, deinen Stream zu moderieren, während du live bist.

Du kannst auf jeden Live-Avatar tippen, um in ihren Stream zu gelangen – egal, ob du dem jeweiligen Blog folgst oder nicht.

Du kannst den Streamer:innen während ihres Streams kleine Geschenke schicken, wenn dir gefällt, was sie machen.

Du kannst deine Lieblingsstreamer:innen in einem speziellen Tab für später speichern.

Und das war’s für den Moment. Stell dir vor! Gaming-Livestreams! Buchclubs! Pilzzucht-Live-Übertragung! D’n’D-Kampagnen! Live-Kunstwerke! Hai-Fakten! GRWMs! Cosplay und Con-Casts! Strickstunde! Fotokurse! Erzählzeit! Pflanzenpflegetipps! Wohnzimmerkonzerte! Furby-Workshops! Museumsführungen! Krebse! (nur Krebse!)

Eine tolle neue Spielwiese ist da! Wir sind gespannt, was ihr euch einfallen lasst.

[marinahavik]

I decided to redo some files because I wasn't really liking them

Welcome to Yumi's new profile

Yumi Yozakura is the youngest in her family, she has six older brothers.

In the universe of my fanfic “a bloodstained flower” Yumi is the monitor of Ramshackle but in the universe of “Ramshackle Isn't on Fire (Yet)” Yumi is one of the 80 people who live in Ramshackle

(The universe of “Ramshackle Isn't on Fire (Yet)” was created by @raguiras , the project has a server on Discord with the same name, and a blog on Tumblr with the name @riofy-ramshackle )

Some information about her

Yumi

NAME: Yumi Yozakura

AGE: 17

PRONOUNS: she/her

GENDER: female

SEXUALITY: Pansexual

HEIGHT: 170 cm/5’5’’

BIRTHDAY: May 21st, Gemini

MBTI: infp

HOMELAND: Tokyo/ Japan

OC TYPE: Yuu

MAGIC?: maybe

OC X CANON SHIP: Jamil x Yumi (cherry snake)

GENDER: female

SPECIES: human (receptacle)

GRADE: first year

DOMINANT HAND: right

CLUB: light music

BEST SUBJECT: potions

HOBBIES: fashion design, shiny objects, cute things, collecting action figures, Disney movies, mythology from various countries, jewelry, figure skating, artistic gymnastics, martial arts training

HATE: annoying people, lack of personal space, lack of freedom, Crowley, not sleeping well, being hungry, crowded and noisy places

FAVORITE FOOD: sweets, especially if they are strawberry, chocolate or passion fruit flavors

LEAST FAVORITE FOOD: nothing (for now)

LIKES: Disney movies, anime, manga, cosplay, her siblings, her friends, Goliath (her dog), Jade (her pet snake), sweets, appearing out of nowhere and scaring others, mythology

DISLIKES: Crowley, very bitter foods, lack of freedom, people trying to steal her food, it disturbs her sleep, her hair is messy

TALENTS: skating, gymnastics, martial arts, a little theater and fashion design

#Yumi Yozakura's stats

(Thanks Mionn for the model!)

0 = absent

5 = average

10 = present at an extreme level

INTELLIGENCE

Academic intelligence: 10/10

Emotional Intelligence: 8/10

Romantic Intelligence: 7/10 (Only works with others, because with her it's a mess)

Everyday Intelligence: 10/10

Planning (successfully) in advance: 10/10

Logic: 10/10 (As a member of the Yozakura family and future matriarch, Yumi has superhuman intelligence)

STRENGTH

Physical Strength: 50/10 (Similar to Mitsuri from Kimetsu, she has completely superhuman strength)

Magical Strength (minus UM/OB): 0/10

Unique Magical Strength: 0/10

Overblot/Alternate Form Strength: 10/10

Emotional Strength: 7/10

HEALTH

Physical: 8/10

Mental: 6/10

Physical Beauty: 9/10

ATTITUDE

Optimism: 7/10

Realism: 8/10

Pessimism: 5/10

ABILITY TO DEAL WITH SITUATIONS

Someone is sad: 6/10

Someone is angry: 7/10

Someone is angry with him: 4/10

Someone asks for love advice: 4/10

Someone asks for friendship advice: 8/10

Someone needs help making a plan: 10/10

WILLINGNESS TO...

...help others with minor problems: 9/10

...help others with major problems: 9/10

...put others before yourself: 10/10 (only for friends and siblings)

CATCH

Quick Catching Ability: 10/10

Quick Thinking: 8/10

Sarcasm: 10/10

Cynicism: 7/10?

DEADLY SINS

Pride: 10/10

Greed: 10/10

Envy: 4/10

Anger: 5/10

Lust: 5/10

Gluttony: 2/10

Sloth: 2/10

some information about Yumi's brothers and the Yozakura family

the Yozakura family.

The family has been known since the Edo era as a family of renowned assassins and ninjas. Over the centuries, the family has modernized but still maintains certain traditions. They now work as spies, preventing sects from dominating the world and committing various other types of crimes.

They are the most influential family in the Japanese underworld (or perhaps the world) and are ranked first in the category of best spy family, among other categories.

The family is currently in its 10th generation and consists of 7 members.

Some of the main characteristics of the family are their dark hair and black eyes. Rumor has it that looking into the eyes of a Yozakura is the same as looking death in the face.

Another striking characteristic is Soumeine, a unique protein found in the family's blood.

This Soumeine can make normal humans become superhumans, and so the leader must be protected at all costs, as she contains the largest amount of Someminine

The order from oldest to youngest are, Ren, Keiko, Aiko, Yuki, Akemi, Seiji and Yumi

according to the family rules (which were written in the Yozakura archive) Yumi is the current matriarch

I will soon make a new POST about the Yozakura family, as many things have been changed since the initial version

The family's former matriarch was killed when the children were young, and their father was presumed dead but is only missing.

Despite their "ordinary" appearance, the Yozakura family is a family with abilities far beyond those of any ordinary human.

Rumor has it that the first leader of the family made a kind of deal with the devil so that she and her children could protect themselves.

The strange abilities have continued to this day. Each child is born with a unique and completely superhuman ability, but in each generation a girl will be born without abilities.

This child without abilities is the one who will be the next head of the family, as she is the one who will continue the Yozakura lineage.

Yumi is the child without abilities of this generation and the current head of the family, at 17 years old. The mission of the rest of the family is to protect the leader at any cost.

Yumi, even without supernatural abilities, is still a force to be reckoned with, knowing 5 types of martial arts, in addition to having great knowledge of poisons and the use of various types of weapons.

Unfortunately, because she was the next boss, she didn't have a normal life, and unfortunately she didn't have many friends, and she couldn't trust people other than her brothers, because murders and kidnappings are common.

Since her blood could be used to artificially create superhumans.

The few friends she had were also connected to espionage or were online friends. The last time she made friends who weren't connected to this work was the first and last time, because they ended up dead and to this day Yumi blames herself for this, since her first friend and his brother ended up dying just for getting close to her (when she arrived at Twisted Wonderland and saw two people identical to her friend and his younger brother, she almost had a breakdown).

A little about her personality

Yumi is a very calm person and doesn't usually get involved in conflicts, but when she does, it's better to run or pray, because she shows no mercy.

Because she was raised in a family that was anything but normal, she isn't afraid of many things, and because of that, it's hard to scare her.

So many years of suffering assassination attempts have given her nerves of steel. So she doesn't usually show much emotion when she goes through a dangerous situation.

She's so silent that she could be right next to you and you wouldn't notice. She's already scared the first-year class a lot because of this. Marina once joked that they should put a bell on her, like the ones they have on cats' collars, so they know when she's around.

She is quite quiet with strangers, or people she is not very close to, but despite being somewhat introverted she has a good level of social battery.

But with people she is already used to, her personality transforms into a cheerful and agitated girl who is a little sarcastic and ends up swearing a lot, or cursing and making some morbid jokes.

She talks a lot, especially about her hobbies, and is a little agent of chaos. She likes to create her own devices, she ended up creating a kind of hologram communication device for the entire first-year class, now they all have a new device, never seen before and other people are a little jealous.

The device is round and looks like a small makeup case with a mirror for Yumi and the twins, while for the boys it looks like a pocket watch.

The devices were made to be worn on a special belt with other things that Yumi gave as gifts. Each device was customized to match the dorm uniform and the owner's personality.

Some interesting facts and other information

Current mayor of Ramshackle

She is ambidextrous, so she can do things with both her left and right hands.

When she was a child she dislocated her right arm after falling from a tree, she started trying to learn to use her left arm to do things, and ended up being able to do various activities with both hands

She likes animals

She has a dog named Goliath who is the family's guard dog

Goliath is an old lab experiment that ended up being saved by the family, and since then he has been part of the Yozakura family. No one knows how old he is, since he has been in the family for years.

30cm (Small Form)

100cm (Medium Form)

800cm (Large Form)

She likes anime, manga and manhwa as well as otome games

She really likes Disney and has a great knowledge about it

Speaks at least 5 languages: English, Japanese, Spanish, Mandarin and Latin

When she arrived at Twisted Wonderland and saw the statues of the 7 greats, she immediately recognized them and explained a little of their history to Grim, which surprised Ace.

When asked how she knew this information, she didn't answer directly, she just said that they were also known in her dimension but that their stories were different from those that Night Raven knew, and she refuses to talk about it, no matter how much they insisted that she talk about it.

Even though she doesn't have magic, she ended up being great at history and potions. She also ends up doing well in physical education, but most of the time during Professor Vergas' classes she finds a way to hide.

Her characteristic colors are white, pink, red, black and gold.

She has a pet snake that she calls Jade.

The Havik sisters kind of adopted her, so they are always together.

After several events, the first-year class was mistaken for a gang. Yumi is the leader, the twins are her assistants, Ace and Deuce are her right and left arms. Jack and Sebek are the security guards. Epel seems to be the secretary and Ortho is the group's hacker.

To earn more money, she opened a kind of fight club in Ramshackle's basement. Almost all the dorms show up either to watch or fight, Leona usually shows up and stays in the VIP area watching everything. (And mainly because most of the people who enter are students from Savanaclaw)

Speaking of Ramshackle, the dorm is completely chaotic and it's not because of the ghosts that the dorm seems to be alive, besides the fact that the room and strange objects appear out of nowhere, there was one time when Yumi found her computer, she doesn't know how it got there but she doesn't complain.

She usually hacks into the school's system sometimes to bribe the principal, he's always crying because Yumi steals his money and can't even say anything, the last time she tried to complain, Yumi showed her evidence that Crowley was stealing money that the Al-Asim family donated to the school, and she said she would send it to the newspapers and ruin his reputation, he never complained again.

She uses the money she bribed from Crowley, and also from the fight club, to restore her dorm.

The first years are always having sleepovers, and at these parties they have discovered a bunch of secret rooms and underground passages that connect Ramshackle to the rest of the school.

Other information

•She doesn't fully understand some feelings. Yozakuras normally only know five feelings: Joy, Sadness, Anger, Hate and Love. Other feelings are confusing to them.

• The matriarch is the one who understands the feelings of others the most, but does not fully understand them like a normal human being.

• Yumi doesn't see any problem in killing or getting rid of something that bothers her. Despite being the most "human" of her siblings, Yumi also has great aggression and a huge hunting instinct.

• Regarding the hunting instinct, Yozakuras were created to kill and annihilate enemies. Not even Yumi is free from this factor in her DNA.

• Despite being a bit cruel, if you're not part of the family and you're not someone Yumi cares about, she doesn't even bother to remember your name.

• Yozakuras were created for battles, and because of that, they have an enormous thirst for blood, and they constantly get into fights to reduce this thirst.

•If they spend too much time without being able to release this thirst for blood and adrenaline, they become uncontrollable.

That's all for now, more information will be added over time, and I'll also make a new post about the Yozakura family, I'll also make a post about Yumi's dynamics with some characters, that's all for now, thank you for reading, I apologize for any possible grammatical errors, questions and suggestions are always welcome, and until next time

[kioupikioupi]

obs in Japan

[djkibrit]

During Which Months Did Persona 1 And 2 Duology Take Place?

It’s well known among fans of the series that the later entries take place during an entire school year, however the same can’t be said about the earlier games. The only confirmed information about the time frame that P1 and P2 occur is the year, but dialogue present in these entries and the characters’ birthdays allow us to stipulate a more precise date of when they took place.

Before starting, it’s important to be aware of how the school year in Japan is divided (I’m not Japanese and all the information I got is from the internet. So if you are more familiar with the system, feel free to correct me or to just talk more about it): The academic year in Japan starts from April and ends in March, having summer vacation in August (normally going from July 20 to August 31) and winter vacation in the end of December to the beginning of January (normally going from December 26 to around January 6).

-Obs: All of the dates that I have just mentioned are related to 2023/2024. I wasn’t able to find anything about it in 1996 or 1999. So take them with a grain of salt.

Persona 1:

List of the main cast birthdays + their ages:

April 09, 1979 - Yukino -  17

June 04, 1979 - Maki - 17

July 11, 1979 - Mark - 17

August 18, 1979 - Reiji - 17

September 21, 1979 - Eriko - 17

October 02, 1979 - Nanjo - 17

December 24, 1979 (it's a complete nonsense) - Protagonist IN THE MANGA - 17

January 01, 1980 - Brown - 16

March 03, 1980 - Ayase - 16

Analyzing the age of the characters, it can be assumed that the game takes place at the end of 1996 since Nanjo is already 17 when it occurs. However, the birthday date of the protagonist in manga, generates some inconsistencies: if taking this date into consideration, the game would take place between December 24, 1996 and December 26, 1996 - since, after that, the winter vacation starts. It could be hypothetically possible for the game to only last two days, however, considering that there are two routes and that most people believe that P1 happened during a whole week, I’m ignoring this date. With this, we can conclude that:

Persona 1 Probable Time Period: Between October 02, 1996 and December 26, 1996

Persona 2 Duology:

List of the main cast birthdays + their ages:

April 09, 1979 - Yukino - 20

February 14, 1982 - Jun - 17 

May 04, 1982 - Lisa - 17 

June 13, 1967 - Baofu - 32

July 04, 1976 - Maya - 23

July 27, 1981 - Tatsuya - 18 

September 21, 1979 - Eriko (P2:EP) - 20

October 02, 1979 - Nanjo (P2:EP) - 20

November 15, 1982 - Eikichi - 16 

November 30, 1974 - Ulala - 24

December 30, 1973 - Katsuya - 25

-Obs: If you want to know why I only used July 27, 1981 as Tatsuya’s birthday while ignoring August 21, 1981 (present in the SMT Wiki) as a possible date, there’s this post explaining it.

Let’s begin with Innocent Sin. Besides the age of cast, there’s another variable that needs to be taken into account: when the Grand Cross happened. In real life, this event occurred on August 18 1999 and, while, in Eternal Punishment, many NPCs mentioned that the Grand Cross had passed during the summer, we can’t be sure if it happened during this specific date due to one small thing: rumors becoming true. It could be very plausible that the Grand Cross in IS took place in a different time because it was influenced by rumors, while, in EP, the actual Grand Cross occurred as normal. That being said, I’m using August 18 1999 as the day that this event happened (only because I can’t even think of another date) since I don’t believe that the creators would change it.

Well, we found out the period of when the game ended so finding when it began should not be that difficult, right?... Oh, is August 18 during the summer vacation in Japan? And are there characters attending class both during the beginning as well the end of the game? Well… things just got a little bit more complicated. 

In front of this adversity, I have two prepositions. The first one depends on the assumption that the summer vacation in Japan used to happen during a different time frame in 1999 than the one we have now. With that, we can guess that the game starts around July 27, 1981 since Tatsuya would already be 18. On the other hand, the second one regards the vacation period of 1999 as the same one as the one of now. In this hypothesis, we can guess that the game began some time before July 20 as well that the Kasugayama School Festival happened on the last day of class. Personally, I’m putting the latter just because the former’s time frame is also included in it. With this, we can conclude that:

P2:IS Probable Time Period: Between July 12, 1999 and August 18, 1999

Finally, we can get into Eternal Punishment! After the many contradictions present in Innocent Sin’s time frame (Nyarly would be proud), discovering when EP takes place is going to be way easier and this is only possible due to the main cast’s birthdays along with their dialogue. 

First of all, it’s been confirmed by the creator that EP occurred some months after the Grand Cross, more specifically, during the autumn 1999. With that, we can take a closer look into one dialogue said by Nanjo in Parabellum a bit before going into Mt. Iwato: “Ms. Amamo, he is still a minor. I do not feel it wise to bring him to this kind of establishment… NO, I’m not being tense!”. For those unaware, the drinking age in Japan is 20 years old. Based on that, Nanjo becoming tense could be interpreted as him being nervous since he’s just recently turned 20. With that, it’s possible to presume that the game takes place after Nanjo’s birthday.

Another series of dialogue to take into consideration are of Ulala’s. During the entirety of the game, she is always stressing out that she’s turning 25 soon which indicates that her birthday has still not passed. With this, we can conclude that:

P2:EP Probable Time Period: Between October 02, 1999 and November 30, 1999

And now, we can say that this analysis is finished! Remember that this is only a personal theory of mine, done only because I couldn’t find any posts exploring the subject. Feel free to discuss your own opinions on the matter and to correct any errors I’ve made.

[aciesvirtus]

Don't Say No to a Man in Love? (Chapter 2 & 3)

A Legally blonde au for ohshc! One unfaithful day, just when Tamaki thinks Kyoya is going to get serious with him and take things to the next step, he breaks up with him! In order to win his love back, Tamaki follows Kyoya to Harvard, chaos ensues. (for plot purposes haruhi was never a part of the host club. im sorry :c)

Chapter 1!

Ao3 link for the full work!

Word Count : 3,427

Author's note: i am moving this fic to my main blog, and this is up on ao3 also! the links will up here somewhere :3

“WHAT???” Tamaki suddenly rose to his feet, again somehow, as he screamed in all caps; tears formed on his newly narrowed eyes.  

“I’m sorry, Tamaki..” Kyoya barely mumbled, looking down at the dish they were eating.  

With Tamaki’s yell, everyone also halted their dining. All the eyes were on them now. Tamaki swiftly looked around, trying to find a way to flee while not wanting to cause more big of a scene.  

“Don’t bother, Kyoya.” A final courage fueled his words as he started walking away.  

Kyoya watched his lover -now ex- walk away, he didn’t want to do this but he had to. He stuffed a bunch of cash below the napkin holder without thinking and got on his feet to try to catch up to Tamaki, however he was on the wind by that time.  

Tamaki had already called his driver while storming off and was waiting at a further point, away from the hotel. It was a rather long wait and even a sadder drive back home. He was torn to pieces, how could Kyoya do this? Tamaki loved Kyoya ever since he came to Japan. It was almost like he was his new home and shelter. They were destined for each other. It was so right to love Kyoya, Kyoya was almost like the perfect melody on the piano he’d play for his mother.  

He threw himself on his bed, ignoring everyone else in the house. Days passed, weeks passed making up an entire month.  

“He can’t possibly spend his entire life like this” Hikaru said, peeking through the door which wasn’t entirely closed since Tamaki couldn’t even bother to open a window and he needed air to exist.  

“Should we do something about it?” Kaoru crossed his arms and leaned on a kitchen counter right in front of the door that led to Tamaki’s room.  

Honey was sitting on the counter right next to Kaoru, with a cookie jar on his lap, he grabbed another cookie from the jar and calmly recommended “Maybe we can get him to go outside, to a party or something. It would be a nice change of pace for him!”   

Kaoru shrugged, Hikaru was still sneakily stealing glances at Tamaki who was rewatching the same taped Japanese shows that his dad brang him when he was a child and continuously weeping at the same scenes.  

Then Mori bursted inside the kitchen in a hurry, holding a newspaper. Everybody’s attention immediately turned to him as he showed an article.  

“No way..” Hikaru said as he read.   

“Oh, he can’t know this.” Kaoru added  

Honey gasped.  

Mori showed them a part of the gossip column, it was a some sort of announcement of an engagement. It was Kyoya and Renge Houshakuji. The former hosts recognized her in an instant. They’d never forget the day she sat on one of the couches as she declared herself as the fianceé of Kyoya, despite him never meeting her.  

“Can’t believe she finally got her way.” Hikaru giggled “You gotta admit, it is kinda funny. Me and Kaoru figured she gave up when she started that otaku club”  

The former hosts were stunned to say the least, seeing another former host leave them like this AND get engaged without telling them. Not to mention the obvious heartbreak he made Tamaki go through. They stared at each other for a while until Tamaki appeared behind them like a jumpscare.  

“Guys, I have a brilliant plan!” Tamaki was up and all smiley like he wasn’t the one that was dumped.  

The twins quickly hid the newspaper as Honey flew out of the counter, Mori rushing in front of Tamaki in full speed to cover up the twins.   Tamaki, of course being the most intelligent and observant of all, didn’t notice what was happening and started mumbling on and on about his ‘brilliant plan’.  

“So, if Kyoya wants someone serious, I’ll show him I’m serious!” Tamaki put his hand on chest in a way rich people annoyingly do to show off their superiority. “Gentleman..” His voice got more relaxed, a dark cloud surrounded him as his friends anxiously anticipated the rest of his plan.  

“I’m going to Harvard!” He announced, his brows furrowed as he posed like a knight, holding his imaginary sword up in the air.  

The former hosts looked at each other and back at Tamaki as one of the twins spoke “Tono, how the hell are you going to manage that?”   

Mori shut his eyes and crossed his arms in deep thought.   “You need a very high LSAT score, a good GPA and a banger essay!” The twins spoke in unison, numbering the requirements with their fingers.  

“That’s no easy job.” Honey chimed in, as he unwrapped a strawberry lollipop he magically happened to find.  

“I mean, does your dad even do business with Americans?” Kaoru put a finger on his chin in deep thought.  

“You could just bribe them or something, no?” Hikaru hit the same exact pose in front of his brother.  

“The essay shouldn’t be a huge problem for an author like moi.” Tamaki flipped his greasy blonde hair since he was too busy bedrotting for a month, it didn’t really sweep like he wanted it to.  

“Suure..” Hikaru and Kaoru narrowed their eyes as the slowly spoke.  

“Oh! Oh!” Honey raised his hand excitedly “Me and Taka-chan can tutor you!” He smiled even though it was one of his usual sweet smiles, a dark thunder suddenly appeared behind him. Tamaki gulped, these next months wouldn’t be easy with such disciplined friends as Honey and Mori at his neck but he had to do it! He was going to prove himself to Kyoya, he was going to show him that he is serious, seriously in love with him.   

Months passed with never ending determination and toughness. Though Tamaki gave up like a million times, Mori and Honey picked him right back up like a million times. Twins were excellent at annoying Tamaki to get back on track too.  

After a billion practice tests and scraped essays, Tamaki finally applied. Instead of clicking of the timer, it was pure emptiness and anxiety, anticipation, then it was checking the mail every day until one day that big letter arrived.   It didn’t take long for Tamaki to pack and fly right away, though the others couldn’t exactly follow suit but promised to come when they could arrange it.  

And there was, in a campus he imagined that would never cross his path. Not that it was impossible or hard, he just had no reason when the university his family literally owned existed.  

One thing was sure however, it was a new adventure and a new opportunity, and possibly a brand new life.  

----

It was a beautiful autumn morning, Tamaki had finished moving into his new dorm. He was all excited, as he was yapping to himself or humming melodies, trying to get ready. Now that he got into Harvard, all he had to do was show himself off to get Kyoya’s attention back. 

He wore a suit for some reason, with a sparkly blazer. Though thank god it was all soft lavender, so he didn’t hurt anyone's eyes. As a bonus, it was a cute throwback to highschool.

He was finally done with doing his hair a million times instead of rolling out normally because “his perfect hair places itself perfectly” as he used to say

Tamaki was now insecure. Everything he had before no longer felt enough, he had to be the best and his natural flamboyant personality wasn’t just cutting it anymore.

It took him a few hours and a half to leave the dorm room. Tamaki could feel all the stares on him as he walked the halls and through the campus. Of course, that was to be expected, he was drenched in sparkles. For once, he didn't enjoy being himself. He always had this profound confidence, and love for himself despite everything he endured. It was kinda stupid how he felt like this over a man, considering the time when he went through hell as a teenager with his family issues.

He, then, decided to fake it.He walked, his steps more confident, his usual stupidly charming smile on his face. As he continued to roam the halls, trying to get to class, he spotted Kyoya. He was walking from the opposite direction.

As they got closer, Tamaki immediately smiled wider, casually raising a hand to greet Kyoya ''Hi, Kyoya'' his voice got cheerful as the words left his lips.''I forgot you go here.'' he said in a cocky tone.

''Tamaki.'' Kyoya responded. ''I thought you were attending Ouran, last time we talked you said Harvard was too bothersome for you.''

''Well, turns out it wasn't. It was pretty easy too.'' Tamaki puffed his chest slightly,then put his hands in his pockets.

''Oh? Is that so?'' Kyoya said, Tamaki hated how he sounded, so uncaring, so distant, so cold... It was like Kyoya was a frozen statue.

''Yeah, catch up with you tonight? Very important club meeting, wouldn't want you to miss it.'' Tamaki tried to sound casual however the sparkles in his eyes begging for approval betrayed him.

Kyoya didn't reply, he simply parted his lips as if he was going to say something.It was then Tamaki started rambling, trying to catch Kyoya on what he missed out on. After a good 10 minutes, Tamaki remembered that he had to go to class. With a genuine smile, he excused himself. 

It felt as if they never broke up in the first place, he just rambled on and Kyoya listened. No matter how Kyoya seemed distant, there was something in his gaze, Tamaki thought. He still loved him, right?

Things didn't really go well for Tamaki for the rest of the day, he even got kicked out from his first class ever. All thanks to Renge, of all people. He didn't even know she was attending Harvard too? She had that wretched smile on her face when she showed him no mercy, all because he was distracted? None of this made sense to Tamaki, sure he knew Renge never actually liked him. She always thought he was a 'phony prince' and that he was a shame to the host club, and that he lacked the depth for it.Though, last time he checked when Renge opened her own club, the otaku club, this was all behind them. They were on good terms, he remembered so. 

Eventually, the evening arrived. He wandered around aimlessly again. Though he noticed something during his stroll, Kyoya and Renge? Renge was latched onto Kyoya's arm, and Kyoya didn't appear to mind it. He just stood there, nodding and smiling. All Tamaki could do was sit on a bench and stare, with tears forming in his eyes.

''Hey, are you okay?'' The girl next to her spoke, he hadn't noted her presence earlier.

Tamaki turned his head to the direction she was seated to get a good look of her, she had short brown hair that barely made it to her neck and big beautiful brown eyes and she was eerily similar. Tamaki had seen her before, but couldn't make out from where.

''Oh, I'm alright.'' Tamaki regained his composure as he voiced, with his usual charming smile painted back on his face. After a minute of awkward silence, he finally asked the question that circled in his mind ''Do I know you from somewhere?''

The girl tilted her head and put a finger on her chin, thinking. ''No, but you do appear similar.'' Then, she smiled and raised her hand for a handshake ''I'm Haruhi, Haruhi Fujioka.''

Tamaki swiftly returned her handshake, then softly put his other hand on the hand he shaked a second ago. ''I'm Tamaki, Tamaki Suoh.'' he introduced himself back freshly.

''Suoh?'' Haruhi tilted her head again. ''Oh, you were the Chairman's son?''

Tamaki froze momentarily ''You attended Ouran Academy?'' he asked, his tone of voice louder than intended.

''Yeah, I was the scholarship student'' Haruhi explained, with a grin. She looked so pretty when she smiled, Tamaki noticed.

The scholarship student wasn't a boy? Tamaki pondered for a second, confused. ''I thought you were a guy.''

Haruhi laughed ''No, I am a girl. But does it really matter?''

Tamaki seemed to take a slight offense to that ''I.. care..'' he mumbled.

''I'm sorry, what was that?'' Haruhi raised a brow, but her smile was still on her face.

''Nothing!'' Tamaki blushed, his cheeks a very soft pink as he shook both of his hands dismissively.

''You're funny.'' Haruhi commented. ''It's unfair how that girl treated you back there, but you have to watch your back. It's kind of brutal out here.''

A light bulb shined on Tamaki's head, Haruhi was a law major too?

As Tamaki was still thinking to himself, Haruhi continued to talk ''Y'know, she is very familiar too. I think I've seen her around in Ouran, do you know her?''

Tamaki snapped out of his thoughts ''Oh, yes I do. She kinda tried to become my club's manager at one point?'' He said sheepishly ''Though, after some unfortunate events we decided that she was on her own.''

''Oh, I see.'' Haruhi hummed.

Tamaki suddenly decided that he wanted to dump his entire highschool lore here and now. He suddenly started to talk about Kyoya and him, Renge and her whole deal,how he ended up in Harvard and how much of a failure he felt like he was.

Haruhi listened, and she appeared to be somewhat annoyed by the fact that the weird stranger she met a second ago suddenly dropped his entire life story; however Tamaki didn't quite pick up on it.

''That's rough...'' was all she could add to this. She really couldn't relate to his rich and stupid struggles. ''Well, if you need help with classes and stuff, you can find me around.'' She remarked and got up, the wind brushed on her hair.

Tamaki stared at her for a while as she got up. ''O-okay..'' He stuttered, so many emotions were shaking up inside his brain. He watched as Haruhi walked away, his eye went for Kyoya and Renge who were still standing in the same exact spot. Unfortunately, they were standing near the path to his dorm so he had to walk past them. He also got up, accepting his faith.

He took slow and steady steps, his head low, his hands in his pockets. As he was relatively past them when Renge called out for Tamaki. He turned to his back to notice that Kyoya wasn't with her and the group that was talking to her.

''Hey, Tamaki!'' She said in a fake cheery voice.

''Hello.'' Tamaki greeted her back.

''I'm throwing a party tonight, it's a costume party.'' There was that wicked smile again but the idiot, Tamaki, didn't see through it. ''You should come!'' Renge invited, later telling him when and where it was.

''I'll try to swing by.'' Tamaki said to the offer, and grinned. He swiftly turned to his back and back to the direction he was walking in.

He walked in the emotions whirlwinding inside, however he was to some extent happy about the offer. He had a lot of questions, and a man to win back. This surely was an opportunity.

[rike0528]

Die Vorbereitungen für vier Monate Japan und Südkorea laufen. Für alle Interessierten Reisenden unten mal eine Gepäckauflistung. Ob ich alles habe und ob alles reicht? Keine Ahnung 🤷🏼 Vor Ort wird auf jeden Fall gewaschen, sodass ich versucht habe, sparsam zu packen. Falls ihr etwas seht, was definitiv fehlt, dann bin ich für Infos immer dankbar!

Am Körper:

Kleidung

Festes Schuhwerk

Regenjacke

Handgepäck-Rucksack 65l (5,3 Kilo)

Ersatzkleidung

Zahnbürste

Hygieneartikel

Medikamente

Sonnenbrille

Handschue

Dokumente und Portmonnaie

Nintendo Switch

Kindle

Japanisch-Buch

Skizzenbuch, Stifte

Powerbank

Ladekabel

Travelrucksack (9,5 Kilo)

Turnschuhe

2 Pullover

4 T-Shirts

Unterwäsche/Socken

2 lange Unterhosen

Sportshirt (Wandern)

Sportpullover (Wandern)

Sporthose (Wandern)

Reise-Schlafsack

Badelatschen

Badesachen

Reiseführer

Kuschelhase

Erste-Hilfe-Set

Reise-Handtuch

Waschtasche

Gastgeschenke

[thezoe611]

I have a digimon question, What are the favorite films of the main group of the fic?

Obs: the question doesn't count for the digimons, since they shouldn't even know what a movie is (except Jader's, of course)

Oh, I like this question! - Taiki: Superheroes. He loves them. Although he doesn't consider himself a superhero, he likes to see how others help those who need help ^^' -Tagiru: video game movies, and more than likely he loves Power Ranger, or the "Super Sentai" as they are actually called in Japan. Also everything related to the Mecha (he's quite a child) -Yuu: the blonde must like quieter movies. Those family movies that you can sit down to watch and relax. Also one or another mystery. He may even like romance ones, but that's a secret he ONLY shares with Damemon. He will take the secret to the grave. -Samanta: detective ones based on real cases, mysteries, and even some fantasy movies related to science. She doesn't like bloody ones or horror ones at all, not out of fear, but she considers that these types of movies are "10% script, 90% blood and deaths and massacres and blah blah blah." -Jack: same type of movies as Tagiru, and a weakness for romance ones, which would annoy Samanta to see him hold back crying to watch a drama, but she wouldn't say anything else, respecting his strange tastes. -Sky (And Kokoromon): princess movies. Obviously -Luke:…food channels. Yes, they are not movies. And although he also shares Samanta's taste in movies… He CANNOT watch a movie where something bad happens to the pet (the cat, the dog, the horse, any animal). Luke would watch the movie "I Am Legend" without any problems… but the scene with the dog… Samantha would see her television turned off, and the black-haired man curled up in bed, hugging a pillow, annoying the girl even more.

And adding to the digimon (once they know what a movie is, except Kokory, who already knew) -Shoutmon: action movies, hero movies -Gumdramon: the same tastes as Tagiru and Jack^^' -Damemon: same as Yuu, but he would also like mystery and detective cases like Samanta. -Kokory: princesses, as I already said. -Slayerdramon: action and mystery. Still, NO digimon could stand a movie where something happens to the pet (ironically having the same reaction as Luke… or worse^^')

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hi sorry for bothering you but do you know if the Yuu in Savanaclaw novel is still Yuuya or is there a different Yuu? I've been looking around twitter but I don't seem to find anyone talking about that 😔

[Images in this post are from this tweet by Yana!]

The Savanaclaw volume of the TWST light novel only just came out a few hours ago (on August 25th) in Japan. That’s probably why you haven’t seen any details about it before now. I did find a thread with contains Yana's illustrations for the Savanaclaw light novel, so go check those out!) In the same thread, we get confirmation that Yuuya will continue to serve as the light novel's protagonist.

I’m sort of glad about this, since it means we can actually follow his character arc to completion; Yuuya also gets much more in-depth background and characterization (since we can see his thoughts) compared to the single-episode manga!Yuus, which we comparatively only know like a few facts about their previous lives. For example, Yuuken is part of a kendo team and supports his team members in their training. Yuuka went to an all-girls school and does judo. Yuuta helps out at his family’s Chinese restaurant and loves food. Okay… but what else?? We don’t really get to glean their thoughts, so this results in us not fully understanding how they feel, think, or react to what’s going on around them either.

Additionally, the manga!Yuus are sort of set up like they have no arc or growth to be had. Rather, they serve as foils to each OB boy (and have to be “not having the same flaws” by design to be the “good” mirror to them. Yuuya is, meanwhile, very clearly set up to improve over the course of the main story. He’s not a foil, but he doesn’t have to be in order to be a good protagonist. In this way, I can see the light novel following Yuuya’s growth as an individual who is meek and shy into someone who is strong and able to stand up for himself and others. The story would, then, be just as much as Yuuya as it if about the boys around him.