#Paragraph 218

[girltakecare]

Abtreibung - Selbstbestimmung der Frau Lebensrecht des Kindes sind gleichwertige Rechtsgüter

Das Konzept des Nordischen Modells sollte an oberster Stelle stehen, wenn es um Menschenrechte geht. In der Bündnisgründung haben wir so oft und umfangreich über die Thematik der Prostitution gesprochen. Dabei haben wir festgestellt, dass vor allem der Schein der “selbstbestimmten Prostituierten” die Frau in dem System der Prostitution hineinführt und hält. Dabei wird die Selbstbestimmtheit…

[spxdxrpxnk]

matchies! : GWEN STACY / GHOST SPIDER

it was so, so dumb, but you and GWEN had matching tooth gaps.

( notes: this is written by a minor about an underage character, so nsfw/18+/'minors dni' blogs please do not interact with this post! thanks!

this is gonna be a little series about how you'd match with various characters!!! it was supposed to be one post, like a paragraph per character, but gwen went from a paragraph to 2k words, so... <3

warning: there's mention of blood and spit here! nothing too graphic or gross, just prepare yourself after "and.. well, he missed pretty badly."

also, i tried to experiment with colors because of the way gwen's universe works. if it's a headache for anyone, let me know and i'll change it to the way i normally color my writing! )

GWEN was the pink to your orange, the deep purple to your bright blue. you were pretty different, yet complimentary when placed next to each other.

she was more reserved at first, sticking to her best friend PETER and virtually no one else, while you were quite the social butterfly.

you never had a set group of friends, bouncing between friend groups with ease. you even befriended the quiet kids everyone else avoided- and you weren't even isolated for it. that's how much everyone loved you.

GWEN knew you because you were friends with PETER, who would mention you regularly when they'd recap all the good parts of the school day while walking home.

you stood up for him against the jerks who'd pick on him whenever she wasn't there to do it.

you had her respect, even though you apparently didn't even know her name.

you called her GWANDA.

regardless, she'd smile and wave back at you when you greeted her in the hallway in passing. "hey peter, hi gwanda!"

one morning, you both were the only ones in the hallway.

GWEN came to school late, having slept through the entirety of first period because she was exhausted from patrolling the entire night. you were sent out by a teacher to run an errand, just coming back from the main office.

"hi gwen!" you greeted with a smile when you noticed her, which gave her pause as she closed her locker and eyed you suspiciously.

"... hey."

"what's up? aren't you supposed to be in class right now?" you asked casually, as if you weren't being totally weird right now, with a curious tilt of your head that GWEN silently found only a little bit adorable.

"came late, i slept through my alarms."

you simply nodded, and she was silently thanking you for not questioning her further. she was terrible at lying on the spot.

"what about you?"

you held up a 3D-printed hall pass, from room 218. "had to bring the permission slips for a college trip to the office."

GWEN hummed softly in response, silence falling over the both of you. she felt awkward, so close yet slightly disconnected from you; the environment reflecting that. the hallway was a deep blue and you were a nice baby blue, whilst she was a dark purple that almost blended in.

"... soooo…" she drawled, glancing around before making awkward eye contact with you again. "we should.. probably get going…?"

you chuckled a little, "yeah, we should. where are you going right now? i'll walk you to class."

she was about to politely decline with a billion apologies, the way she always did when she got too awkward.

but then, she got that itching in the back of her skull that wouldn't go away whenever she was about to make a decision. the one that always made her do the exact opposite of what she was about to do.

"... sure. i'm in 208 right now." she said with a smile, before walking side by side with you up the staircase.

you attempted to bid her farewell and simply walk by, but GWEN grabbed the wrist of your free hand when you were right outside of her class. "why'd you call me gwen?"

you looked at her like she was a little bit stupid, "'cause.. that's your name...?"

"no- well, yeah, it is, but-" she huffed, a piece of her hair flying up. "you never call me gwen. it's always-"

"oh! yeah, i always call you gwanda. that's only a joke though, did peter never tell you?" you continued at the confused little shake of her head. "the one time you weren't here for phys ed, we had a substitute coach and she kept calling you gwanda for some reason. if it bothers you, i'll stop-"

"nono!" GWEN didn't know why she was so bothered by the thought of you not calling her by a stupid name. "it's okay, it's.. it's funny, i like when you call me it."

you just smiled at her- too sweetly, her heart was hammering in her chest. you slipped your wrist from her grasp, which she forgot she was holding, instead holding her hand with your own. she could feel the lockers around you both fading into a muted color she couldn't even care to notice, only focused on you and the pretty purple you both became.

"okay then, i'll call you gwanda for the rest of our lives."

woah.

she could only hope you didn't notice the blush on her face as she silently cursed you for saying something so.. so intimate, so casually.

"uh- yeah, yeah, cool. totally." she stammered, nodding as she returned your smile.

"later, gwanda."

you slipped your hand out of hers and waved before turning your back to her, making your way to the class you were supposed to be in.

"yeah, later…"

coincidentally, it happened in gym class, during the mandatory class soccer game.

the class was split into four teams. GWEN, you, and PETER were all on different ones.

GWEN's team wasn't playing at the moment, but yours and PETER's were so she was sitting on the sidelines and cheering for him. he actually had the ball for once!

he was clumsily dribbling it down the field toward you, goalie of the opposing team. and you, ever the try-hard, dove for the ball right as he went for a goal-scoring kick.

and.. well, he missed pretty badly.

you fell to your knees, clutching your mouth, while the ball pathetically rolled into the goal behind you.

your team, most of PETER's team, and even people from the sidelines got up and rushed to crowd around you two before GWEN could even register what just happened.

PETER, of course, was the first person to kneel down next to you, apologizing profusely while trying to get you to move your hands from your mouth to assess the damage. GWEN had to push, duck, and weave past her fellow students to get to you both, and she made it just in time to see you move your hand from your mouth.

it was covered in blood and your saliva, dripping onto the polished gym floor. PETER backed away a little, utterly horrified, not sure what to do.

a few tears, presumably from the pain, streaked down your cheeks as you blinked heavily.

GWEN had to give some people in the crowd her meanest glare when they started jeering at her friend for kicking the most beloved student in the school in the mouth.

"'m okay, guys-" you started, slightly pained but as optimistic as ever, but you and everyone else were a bit startled by the lisp in your speech that wasn't there before.

she tentatively kneeled down in front of you next to PETER with her hand firm on his shoulder to calm him down, trying to get a look into your mouth while you spoke to confirm her suspicions.

but you didn't have to speak again.

you toyed with something in your mouth before lifting your hand to spit into it- a tooth.

the gym exploded into angry reds and oranges so quickly, it almost gave GWEN a headache. the three of you stood out in various shades of blue and purple.

the gym teacher, who wasn't paying attention the entire time, only came to disperse the crowd when everyone started yelling at PETER for kicking you in the mouth and knocking your tooth out.

he was practically hyperventilating, so the teacher told him to go to the locker room and chill out, and make sure to grab some paper towel to get your blood and spit off the floor.

GWEN was told to walk you to the nurse, after leading you to the locker room as well.

you didn't seem all too bothered about your tooth being knocked out. you rinsed your mouth out in the locker room, cleaned yourself and your newly isolated tooth of blood, and were just admiring it while she walked next to you silently.

she didn't know what to say besides 'sorry my best friend knocked your tooth out' or 'sucks to suck', so she chose to keep quiet.

then, you gasped loud and clapped your hand on GWEN's shoulder harshly, making her flinch and turn to you, a frantic orange in direct contrast with your vibrant blue. "what's wrong, are you-"

"we match!"

it took her a second to register what you said, and when she did she just stared at you blankly, slowly fading into a usual purple that she was with you. "... huh?"

you smiled that million watt grin of yours, even though your lips were a little swollen, and GWEN noticed- it was one of your front teeth that was knocked out. she huffed, relieved that you weren't dying or something, before simply glancing at you, unimpressed.

"seriously?" was all she could ask. it wouldn't be the first or last time someone made fun of the gap between her two front teeth, but she couldn't really tell if you were doing that or if you were being genuine.

that is until you nodded enthusiastically.

"yeah! i mean, i don't think mine looks as cute as yours does," wow, okay, smooth. "but now we're matching!"

… okay, yeah, you were being serious. it was kind of endearing, if she was honest, and GWEN couldn't hold back the smile on her face.

"not really," she humored you. "since mine is natural."

you just sucked your teeth, the sound less sharp than it'd usually be, which got a laugh out of her.

"ooh, ooh- we should take a picture!"

"a picture? for what?"

"you know, to remember this day forever?"

"the day you got kicked in the mouth and your tooth was knocked out?" she questioned sarcastically, shaking her head fondly at your totally serious nod.

after a very intense mini staring contest, GWEN knew she lost when she brightened into a blue matching yours, making her roll her eyes as if she was being burdened by the childlike joy you brought her. "fine." she relented, grinning at your little cheer as she pulled out her phone.

she wrapped her arm around your shoulders and pulled you close as if you'd been friends forever, and you leaned your head against hers like it was totally normal.

both of you smiled wide, showing your tooth gaps to the camera, and she had to hold down a laugh at the way you were holding your knocked out tooth in frame.

you said a very corny "cheeese!", and once the picture was taken, she couldn't stop herself from bursting out laughing at the lisp in your voice.

and you were definitely playing it up just to make her laugh, talking in a very exaggerated nerdy-lispy voice that had her giggling all the way to the nurse's office.

you eventually got the tooth put back in at the dentist, which you missed a few days of school for.

thankfully, PETER found you on social media and peer pressured encouraged GWEN to reach out to you after she kept asking random people she'd never speak to otherwise where you were.

double thankfully, you didn't question how she found your socials and were happy to give her your phone number.

she definitely lectured you about how irresponsible that was of you over text, but only after she finished debating you over why her naming your contact "gappy 2" ( she'd be "gappy 1" for you ) wouldn't make any sense if you won't have the gap anymore.

to end the debate, you told her to hold on a second and then sent her a selfie.

you were smiling as bright as ever, your missing tooth back in it's place. your lips weren't swollen and you weren't bloody and drooling. GWEN just admired you for a few minutes before she actually noticed the gap between your two front teeth.

a gap that wasn't there before one of them got knocked out.

gappy 1 💫: Woah, you actually have one now?

Gappy #2 💞: yea!

Gappy #2 💞: the dentist lady said they can't do much about it ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Gappy #2 💞: besides give me a retainer? which, hell no!

Gappy #2 💞: so we're officially twinning forever now 🫶

gappy 1 💫: Lol. You dodged a bullet, retainers suck

gappy 1 💫: It looks cute on you though :)

Gappy #2 💞: aww ty! but i could never outdo the doer <3

GWEN would admire the selfie you guys took that fateful day whenever she was missing you.

and then gaze longingly look at the one you took together the day you came back to school, showing your now actually matching tooth gaps.

your smiles were always so contagious, GWEN found herself matching your energy all the time. when you got hype and became a bright orange, she did too. when you chilled out after and faded into a comfy blue, so did she.

before you, GWEN never really smiled unless she was with loved ones or if someone told a joke. and when she did, it was close-lipped, since someone always managed to bring up her tooth gap and ruin her mood.

but she smiles so much more now, always with her teeth, and no comment can bring her down.

seeing you be just as radiant, if not more, with your gap-toothed smile encouraged her to smile the same way. even when you weren't around.

sometimes, when you're bored and lounging in her bedroom, you just flash her your teeth.

( like 😬 )

and she'd do the same back, not a word spoken.

neither of you have figured out what it means yet, and you probably never will.

but just seeing your tooth gap makes GWEN's heart thump a little faster, and reminds her of how much she loves you, so she thinks it doesn't matter.

[celerieth]

The only way the Loki series can redeem itself at this point is if season 2 ends with Sylvie dead and a threesome between Loki, Sigyn and Theo Bell, along with accurate rep for all three of them.

Of course, I know it isn't going to happen because a) the second series has already been filmed;

b) Disney would never go for any actual queer rep;

c) Disney is also too focused on their self-insert/OC who makes for a nice cishet-looking relationship to kill her off;

d) Theo's supposedly gay (I mean, that's his generally accepted sexuality in the fandom, but it's a bit ambiguous in the book itself; Mrs Sharpe alludes to the possibility of him being bisexual, but then says she hasn't talked to him about it, and Theo's feelings didn't seem to change when Loki told him about their genderfluidity, though admittedly that might be because Loki was male-presenting throughout the book.);

e) it's too late;

f) Where Mischief Lies is somewhere in the grey area between actual canon and legal fanfiction;

g) I don't trust Marvel Studios with Sigyn after what the comics did to her;

and finally h) Marvel/Disney hates Loki too much to give them that kind of happy ending.

Thank you for listening to this.

Update: I've found the passage I was talking about where Mrs Sharpe alludes to Theo possibly being bisexual. It's just below, found in the last paragraph of page 218 ⬇️

[xarva]

AU where tkkg is based and not borderline right wing (Set in the 70s)

It's pride month! Time to remember that the fight for queer liberation is an intersectional and anticapitalist one- the rise of the far right in Germany goes to show again, that we have to continuously fight for our rights and against all types of oppression. The fight isn't over- Stonewall was a riot ✊🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

(Translation of the signs and explanation below, they're very specific to queer history in germany)

From top to bottom the signs read;

"Solidarity with the wildcat strikes! Gays and Migrant workers together against Police brutality"

In 1973 a big wave of strikes happened all over the country. While many workers faced repression for their actions, police brutality disproportionally affected so called "Gastarbeiters"- migrant workers who were already heavily exploited due to racical prejudice.

"rather a 'warm brother'[dated expression for gay men] than a cold Warrior"

This relates to a quote by Franz Josef Strauß, the german leader of the political party CSU (a German conservative party), who claimed to "rather be a cold warrior than a warm brother" in an interview in 1970.

"We will no longer let ourselves be oprressed! Against Paragraph 175 & 218"

While Paragraph 175, that criminalised homsexuality in Germany was finally abolished in 1994, paragraph 218 still rules abortion as a crime to this day.

[annabelle--cane]

pls I need episode sources for the true ones in the wtnv polls

this is about my "which of these is a fake fact about welcome to night vale" poll and ideally one should take that before reading these answers. having said that, let's go:

NVlians have to fill out triplicate sex paperwork with all potential partners: canon in the novel it devours! a few paragraphs from chapter 13,

2. cecil is an avid tiktok user and regularly records dances at the radio station: this is the false one, it's actually carlos who is the wannabe tiktok star. from episode "218 - the sitter cancelled,"

I tried to get Carlos to take Esteban to the lab, but apparently today they’re doing a dangerous experiment and he doesn’t want our son to get hurt. I’m not sure I believe that. I think Carlos might just want some time alone to work on his Tiktok dances. He’s obsessed these days with getting one to go viral, and he’s putting a few too many hours into choreographing and filming these things. 

3. k[h]oshekh the floating cat is a misogynist: from 195 and 196, silas the thief parts 1 & 2. these episodes are told from the perspective of silas, a former successful art thief who used to work with a partner called sandrine whom he never got on with, largely due to his self-centeredness and misogyny never letting him see her as a full person. it all came to a head when sandrine, as an act of revenge, cursed him to be an immobile mutant cat for the rest of his days, and this is the cat we have known all along as khoshekh gershwin-palmer. however he has mellowed since then and his misogyny has kind of cooled, having kids really changed him.

4. cecil turns a recurring nightmare of his into an nft: I feel the need to say he turned the nightmare itself into an nft, not an artistic representation or anything. from "199 - guidelines for retrieval,"

And thus ends the new Guidelines for Retrieval. Aw, that’s such a nice offer from the Sanitation Department! A little long winded maybe, but I don’t want to be too critical. I know their public communications department has had a lot of turnover lately. Anyway, I definitely will be taking them up on that offer this week. There’s a super vivid recurring nightmare I used to have that would make a great NFT.

5. cecil doesn’t know what fridges are: this one comes from the 2017 live show "ghost stories,"

Cecil: Oh yeah! Carlos and I have one of those humming closets, and when I open it up, there’s a light inside and cool air washes over me and I’m just like – what is this thing? Earl: Well, that’s just your refrigerator, Cecil. Cecil: Wait, that’s a refrigerator?! Earl: What have you been using as a fridge? Cecil: [beat] So tell us more about this master class um, Earl.

6. carlos climaxes in person in voice on podcast: from the patreon bonus episode "holiday." thinking or talking about science at too great length has a long canonical track record of getting carlos hot and bothered, and in one passage of the episode he starts talking about how much he loves doing science with a romantic partner, and, well. I'll just link the clip.

7. a big villain is defeated by getting squashed under a falling cow: major spoilers for very recent content here. in episode "230 - carlos explained," right as dr janet lubelle is giving her big villain monologue, this happens,

DR. LUBELLE: Now you’re starting to understand. There is no defeating me. No trick to wriggling out under my thumb. I’ve gamed out every gambit. Foreseen every fumbling, sweaty strategy. You have lost. And now…now Carlos, I will explain you away. You, Dr. Carlos Robles, were the son of [WHISTLING SOUND OF SOMETHING FALLING FROM THE SKY. LOUD SPLAT] [LONG PAUSE] CECIL: And that’s when the Glow Cloud dropped a dead cow on Dr. Lubelle. I sure hope she wasn’t injured. We should definitely check on her at some point, you know, eventually.

8. joseph fink, irl writer of the podcast, has been a NV radio intern twice: once, in the live show "the investigators," an intern played by joseph fink introduces himself as intern joseph fink. in all fairness, he could just be playing a character with his exact name, I mean, that's what maureen johnson does. however, from episode "188 - listener questions" onward, our world has in-universe been merging with the night vale world, and the actual writer joseph fink has been trapped in the town of night vale for over two years, at one point doing a stint as an intern.

9. a big villain is offered “an extra hour in the ball pit” as a bribe to go away: this one's about dr janet lubelle, again. in the last couple of seasons, tamika flynn has been feeling like she's outgrowing using violence as a tool to solve her problems, so in "228 - diplomacy," she tries the following,

Frustrations have swelled to a new high in Night Vale after Councilmember Tamika Flynn’s failed diplomatic attempts with the University of What It Is. Tamika tried offering them everything from limitless use of the scrublands to a coupon book full of cute tasks like free backrubs. She even offered an extra hour in the ball pit at the Night Vale Convention Center. But Dr. Lubelle and all of her henchmen will not budge.

[bratshaws]

through the hourglass 249. brb x oc

a/n: OHHOHOHO(comments and reblogs are super welcome and encouraged!)

pairing: plus size!oc x rooster

warnings: none uwu

goodness gracious (pls read this one to know more what this fic is about!!)

chapter

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/210/211/212/213/214/215/216/217/218/219/220/221/222/223/224

/225/226/227/228/229/230/231/232/233/234/235/236/237/238

/239/240/241/242/243/244/245/246/247/248

(pls let me know if you want to be added to the taglist! )

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-

Beatrice knocked first, interlacing her hands above her womb while Rooster kept one of his on her lower back and the other was busy keeping Nicole close to them. Their oldest daughter was going to turn one in a matter of weeks but she was already moving like she was a teenager.

It wasn’t her fault, Nicole was curious from the second she was born and she wanted to know about the tiny gnomes and crystals all over her great aunt’s garden. The bucket hat she wore fell a bit over her eyes but she quickly pushed it up, “Papa!” Rooster immediately looked down at her, only to see her pointing at a huge plant close by, ‘Geen!” 

“Yeah it is green, baby girl.”

“Pant geen.” followed by a long paragraph of babbling that only made her giggle before Rooster picked her up, “Pu-Pu.” and she points to the large lavender flowers swaying with the wind, her body twisting on his grasp.

“Your daughter knows her colors.”

Beatrice smiles, “My daughter?”

“Baby I can barely figure out tones.” he mutters, swiping some dirt that was on Nicole’s cheek with his thumb, then fixing her hat on her head, “I know the basic colors but I damn well know I couldn’t say half of these when I was Nicole’s age.”

“Oh don’t sell yourself short,Roos.” She tried to hide her bouncing leg by moving her hip to the side, eventually making it stop moving, so she could lean into him, “You know and you have a lot of colors in mind.” her eyes flicked to the door, wondering why her aunt was taking so long to answer it.

After all, she knew she was home.

“Yeah…I do love lilac.” he smirks, slowly lowering those brown eyes down the length of her body, the second she noticed what he was doing her cheeks went bright red and she elbowed his arm as gently as she could, “I know you do too–”

Their conversation was cut short because Martha finally showed up. Her long black hair now had silver streaks on it but she still looked the same as the first time. She had a mug with steaming liquid insite and her glasses were on the bridge of her nose, “Bradley,Beatrice, little sunshine, oh–” she sets the mug aside and cups her niece’s cheeks, then her nephew in law and finally her grand niece, in the order, to press kisses on their forehead, “What a wonderful day for a visit, please, please, come in.”

"Thank you for having us, Aunt Martha," Beatrice said  as she walked past the threshold with Rooster right behind - and Nicole immediately gasped at how many things were there for her to see. "Sorry for it being so sudden though.”

Martha chuckled, her laugh rich and warm. "As if I’d deny you two from coming over.” she puts her glasses on top of her head and tilts it towards them, “Are you two hungry? I know it’s almost time for you to have something to eat,” she points over at Rooster, winking, “I know you just got back from work too, something special must've happened for you two to come here so soon.”

Rooster smiled, albeit a bit bashfully. "We couldn't resist the opportunity to see you, Martha," he replied. "And well, something...interesting did happen."

Beatrice nodded in agreement, following Martha as she walked, more like floated, to the kitchen "Yes, something quite unexpected," she added. "But we'd love to have a meal with you, if you don't mind."

Martha's eyes twinkled with curiosity as she ushered them further into her home. "Of course, my dears," she said. "I'll whip up something special for you. In the meantime, make yourselves comfortable. Nicole looks like she's ready to explore."

Rooster chuckled as he set Nicole down on the floor, her tiny legs immediately propelling her forward in her quest to investigate her great aunt's kitchen. "You know her well," he remarked.

Martha watched with a fond smile as Nicole toddled around the living room, her eyes bright with curiosity. "Children have a way of bringing so much joy and energy into a home," she said. "It's a delight to have her here." she smiles more, “She also reminds me of Beatrice.”

Beatrice blinked, “Me? Really?”

“Of course you were…” she sighs, “Overly protected by your parents and siblings, but you’d explore as much as you could. You were a very, very special child. Even your cousins could agree to it.” she says softly, her long flowy dress moves like the wind as she walks into the kitchen, “Would you two like some tea?”

“Iced tea?” 

Martha smiled fondly at Rooster’s voice, then nodded,”Of course my dear. Iced tea. With honey?”

Rooster and Beatrice exchanged a glance, both appreciative of Martha's thoughtfulness. "Iced tea with honey sounds wonderful," Beatrice replied with a warm smile. "Thank you, zia Martha."

Martha nodded and began preparing the iced tea, her movements graceful and deliberate as she went about her task. Rooster and Beatrice took a seat in the cozy kitchen, keeping their eyes on Nicole as she wobbled a bit

As they waited for their iced tea, Nicole continued her exploration, her curious eyes taking in the various decorations and trinkets that adorned the space. She occasionally babbled excitedly, her tiny hands reaching out to touch anything within her reach.

It caught Martha’s attention when she noticed the dried herbs hanging on the wall, the older woman couldn’t help but hum appreciatively at the sight, “She is very alert, isn’t she?” she asks, the sloshing of the ice cubes hitting the tea adding to the sounds around them.

Rooster watched their daughter with affection. "She's quite the adventurer," he remarked, his eyes never leaving Nicole.

Beatrice nodded in agreement, "She definitely takes after both of us," she replied with a chuckle. "Curiosity runs in the family."

Martha turned towards them with a tray carrying three glasses of iced tea, each one garnished with a thin slice of lemon. She set the tray on the table and took a seat across from Rooster and Beatrice.

"There you go, my dears," Martha said, her eyes sparkling with warmth as she watched Nicole's antics. "I hope you enjoy it."

"Thank you, Martha," Rooster said as he took a sip of his iced tea. The cool, sweet beverage was refreshing, especially after a long day at work. "This is delicious."

Beatrice also took a sip and nodded in agreement. "It's perfect, zia Martha," she added with a smile. "You always know how to make everything feel so welcoming."

Martha's soft chuckle was the reply. "You're too kind, my dear," she replied. "It warms my heart to have you here." Her gaze shifted to Nicole, who was now attempting to climb onto a cushioned chair with a determined expression. "And little Nicole is an absolute delight."

Rooster quickly lifted Nicole from the chair with one arm while the other was busy holding the glass close to his lips, settling her on his lap. "She sure is and she is also a little spider monkey, yes you are.” and he tickled her tummy, earning a gurgled laugh from the little baby girl.

Martha observed the young family with a soft smile, then moved her gaze to Beatrice who looked like the air around her was covered with hearts and her gaze was so soft it was adorable. “You two look a bit tense,however.” she says softly, earning a look from both of them, “What is bothering you two,hm?”

Beatrice and Rooster exchanged a glance, Rooster still had his glass against his lips. It was true that they had been harboring concerns and uncertainties, but they hadn't expected Martha to pick up on it so easily.

But then again.

It’s Martha.

Rooster took a deep breath, his gaze shifting from Bea to Martha. "You have a keen eye, zia Martha," he admitted. "There have been some...unusual developments lately."

Beatrice nodded in agreement, her fingers gently tracing the rim of her iced tea glass. "We received an invitation from…neighbors." she added. "And it's left us with some questions and concerns."

Martha listened attentively, her hands propping under her chin. "I see," she said softly. "Would you like to share more about this invitation?"

Rooster exchanged another glance with Beatrice before nodding. "It came from Miranda Halton," he explained. "She's the wife of Mark Halton, one of my colleagues at work. But the strange thing is, they are…strange. And I know we shouldn’t judge, but they act weird around us.”

Martha's brows furrowed slightly as she absorbed the information. She had a thoughtful expression as she considered what Rooster had just shared. "The Haltons," she mused, her voice soft and contemplative. "I don’t think I’ve known that name, did they just move to your neighborhood?"

Beatrice nodded in response. "Yes, they have," she confirmed. "But we've never really interacted with them much. Well…they mainly interacted with us you know? They just pop out of nowhere too.”

Rooster leaned forward, his fingers tapping on the glass. "It's not just that," he added. "There's something...off about the way they approached us. They mentioned that they wanted us to join them for dinner, and they seemed overly enthusiastic about it. It just didn't feel right."

Martha regarded them both with a knowing look. "You trust your instincts," she said, her tone serious. "That's important. If something feels off, it's best to be cautious."

Beatrice sighed, her fingers gripping the glass of iced tea a bit tighter. "We want to go," she admitted. "But mainly because  we want to understand what's going on. It's not just about the dinner invitation. Rooster's promotion at work is at stake, and there might be a connection between the two."

Martha's gaze sharpened as she absorbed the additional piece of information. "I see," she said, her voice tinged with concern as she turns to Rooster, “Is that true?”

Rooster nodded in agreement. "Too much coincidence ends up becoming a fact." he assured her. "But we don’t know, not really, that’s why we want to go there and deal with this already."

“Are you taking Nicole?”

Beatrice leaned back in her chair, her fingers finally relaxing their grip on the glass. "No, she’s staying with Shells, my friend, you remember her,right?," 

Martha's smile widened. "Ah, the Kylie Minogue girl, yes I remember her." she replied. "She has a good heart,I’m glad she’s staying with Nicole.” she says while drinking her own tea, her eyes sharpening towards Rooster, “But there’s something else bothering you, bambino.”

Damn.

Caught again.

Rooster inhales, adjusting Nicole on his grasp, “Well I–” he clears his throat, “I might’ve…seen some things uhhh early today.”

Martha's brows furrowed with concern as she leaned forward, her gaze locked onto Rooster. "What kind of things, Rooster?" she asked, her voice gentle but insistent.

Rooster hesitated for a moment, his eyes darting between Beatrice and Martha. He knew he couldn't keep the strange incident in the nursery a secret any longer. "I thought I saw someone," he finally admitted, his voice low. "In the nursery, with Beatrice and Nicole. But they disappeared when I entered the room."

"It was really strange, zia," she added. "I didn't see anyone there, but Roos seemed certain."

Martha's expression remained serious as she absorbed the information. She leaned back in her chair, her fingers steepled in front of her. "Seeing someone who isn't there," she mused. "That's an unusual experience, Rooster. Do you think it might be related to what's been going on with the Haltons?"

Rooster shrugged, with a soft laugh  "I can't say for sure," he replied. “I mean,I’m stressed but I don’t think that could be it.”

Martha nodded thoughtfully. "Did you see what the figure looked like?”

Rooster pondered for a second, wracking his brain. It was so quick and brief he was having a hard time remembering the details, his eyes clenched shut, trying to relive what had happened hours before, “...tall. I think it was a man? Looked like one. I couldn’t see the face though…am I going crazy?”

Martha regarded Rooster with a thoughtful expression, her fingers tapping lightly on the table as she contemplated his words. "You're not going crazy, Rooster," she finally replied, her tone soft and reassuring. "Sometimes, our minds can play tricks on us, especially when we're under stress or dealing with unusual situations."

Rooster let out a sigh of relief, grateful for their understanding. "You're right," he admitted, running a hand through his hair. "I guess I've just got a lot on my mind with work, the twins, and now this dinner with the Haltons. It's probably nothing."

Martha gave him a warm smile. "However-”

“Oh?”

She smiles more, interlacing her fingers together and titling her head at him, “I think that some of the Schiavoni gene is spreading onto you.” her eyes squint when she grins, creating creases on the sides, “Perhaps this is someone who must want to talk to you again, see how you are, how things are.”

Rooster stares at her in silence, then questions,  “...like my dad?”

Martha's expression softened immediately."It's possible," Martha replied, her voice gentle. "Sometimes, our loved ones find ways to let us know they're watching over us, especially during significant moments in our lives. It could be a way for your father to reassure you or offer his guidance."

Rooster's eyes shimmered with emotion as he absorbed Martha's words. He had missed his father every day since his passing, and the idea that he might be trying to reach out to him touched his heart.

After all, he did see him during their wedding.

Beatrice reached out to place a hand on Rooster's, offering him support and comfort. "Roos?" she asked softly. "A sign that your dad is with us?"

“I…” he clears his throat, “I-I think I’m gonna go to the bathroom really quick,can you-” he hands Nicole over to Bea and stands up, disappearing from the two women’s sights before either of them could stop him.

“He’s going to be okay.” Marta says when Beatrice looks back to where Rooster disappeared, “The bambino needs to calm down a bit, his promotion and birthday is coming up,tesoro.” she smiles, “A lot of emotion is coming up.”

“Yeah…and Nikki’s birthday and–” she frowns, “How did you know about his promotion?” but her aunt’s smile turns wider as she brings the tea to her lips, winking at her niece, “...right,I forgot.”

“Do breathe,tesoro. You two will enter a new stage.”

“Huh?”

‘Thw twins are coming back, Bradley’s promotion will open doors…but it will also make you two climb some walls.” she says, crossing her arms on the table, “You are aware of that,no?”

Beatrice looks down at Nicole who was happily tapping her hands on the tablecloth, “...yes,I know.”

“Not to mention, your life. You personally.” and this time her aunt’s tone got serious, “Tesoro, do you still have the amulets I sent you?” Beatrice blinks in surprise but nods as soon as she says that, “Good…never lose that,hm? It’ll protect all of you.”

“...Zia,should I be worried?”

Martha’s serious façade dropped and she took another sip of her tea, “Why tesoro,” she grins, tilting her head to the side, “You two have each other. There’s nothing to be worried about. You two are stronger together than apart.” 

“...yeah…�� she looks back at the bathroom door, a little smile on her face, “I agree.”

[dailyanarchistposts]

Footnotes - Part 2

[80] Graham Kemp and Douglas P. Fry (eds.), Keeping the Peace: Conflict Resolution and Peaceful Societies around the World, New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 163.

[81] All quotes and statistics on the Navajo come from Dennis Sullivan and Larry Tifft, Restorative Justice: Healing the Foundations of Our Everyday Lives, Monsey, NY: Willow Tree Press, 2001, pp. 53–59.

[82] www.harmfreezone.org (viewed November 24, 2006)

[83] Philly’s Pissed, www.phillyspissed.net [Viewed May 20, 2008]

[84] George R. Edison, MD, “The Drug Laws: Are They Effective and Safe?” The Journal of the American Medial Association. Vol. 239 No.24, June 16, 1978. A.W. MacLeod, Recidivism: a Deficiency Disease, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965.

[85] Jamie Bissonette, When the Prisoners Ran Walpole: A True Story in the Movement for Prison Abolition, Cambridge: South End Press, 2008, p. 201. Also consider the stories of John Boone and other bureaucrats presented in this story.

[86] Some mainstream sources still contest that the Makhnovists were behind anti-Semitic pogroms in Ukraine. In Nestor Makhno, Anarchy’s Cossack, Alexandre Skirda traces this claim to its roots in anti-Makhno propaganda, while citing unfriendly contemporary sources who acknowledged that the Makhnovists were the only military units not carrying out pogroms. He also references propaganda put out by the Makhnovists attacking anti-Semitism as a tool of the aristocracy, Jewish militias that fought among the Makhnovists, and actions against pogromists personally carried out by Makhno.

[87] Paul Avrich, The Russian Anarchists, Oakland: AK Press, 2005, p. 218.

[88] Makhno hoped that Lenin and Trotsky were motivated by a personal vendetta against him rather than an absolute desire to crush the free soviets, and would call off the repression if he left.

[89] Alexandre Skirda, Nestor Makhno, Anarchy’s Cossack: The Struggle for Free Soviets in the Ukraine 1917–1921, London: AK Press, 2005, p. 314.

[90] Amy Goodman, “Lakota Indians Declare Sovereignty from US Government,” Democracy Now!, December 26, 2007.

[91] From an anonymous illustrated pamphlet, “The ‘Oka Crisis’ ”

[92] Oscar Olivera, Cochabamba! Water War in Bolivia, Cambridge: South End Press, 2004.

[93] George Katsiaficas, The Subversion of Politics: European Autonomous Social Movements and the Decolonization of Everyday Life. Oakland: AK Press, 2006, p. 123

[94] Jaime Semprun, Apología por la Insurrección Argelina, Bilbao: Muturreko Burutazioak, 2002, p.34 (translated from French to Spanish by Javier Rodriguez Hidalgo; the translation to English is my own). The quotes in the next paragraphs are from p.18 and p.20.

[95] Jaime Semprun, Apología por la Insurrección Argelina, Bilbao: Muturreko Burutazioak, 2002, pp.73–74 (translated from French to Spanish by Javier Rodriguez Hidalgo; the translation to English is my own).

[96] Ditto, p.80 . Regarding the fourth point, in contrast to Western society and its various forms of pacifism, the peacefulness of the movement in Algeria does not preclude self-defense or even armed uprising, as evidenced by the preceding point regarding the martyrs. Rather, peacefulness indicates a preference for peaceful and consensual outcomes over coercion and arbitrary authority.

[97] Ditto, p.26.

[98] George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia, London: Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., 1938, pp.26–28.

[99] There were 40,000 armed anarchist militants in Barcelona and the surrounding region alone. The Catalan government would have been effectively abolished had the CNT simply ignored it, rather than entering into negotiations. Stuart Christie, We, the Anarchists! A study of the Iberian Anarchist Federation (FAI) 1927–1937, Hastings, UK: The Meltzer Press, 2000, p. 106.

[100] Ditto, p. 101

[101] John Jordan and Jennifer Whitney, Que Se Vayan Todos: Argentina’s Popular Rebellion, Montreal: Kersplebedeb, 2003, p. 56.

[102] Natasha Gordon and Paul Chatterton, Taking Back Control: A Journey through Argentina’s Popular Uprising, Leeds (UK): University of Leeds, 2004.

[103] John Jordan and Jennifer Whitney, Que Se Vayan Todos: Argentina’s Popular Rebellion, Montreal: Kersplebedeb, 2003, p. 9.

[104] George Katsiaficas, “Comparing the Paris Commune and the Kwangju Uprising,” www.eroseffect.com. That the resistance was “well-organized” comes from a report from the conservative Heritage Foundation, Daryl M. Plunk’s “South Korea’s Kwangju Incident Revisited,” The Heritage Foundation, No. 35, September 16, 1985.

[105] Goods produced in environmentally friendly ways, by workers who receive a living wage in healthier labor conditions.

[106] Sam Dolgoff, The Anarchist Collectives, New York: Free Life Editions, 1974, p. 71.

[107] David Graeber, Fragments of an Anarchist Anthropology, Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press, 2004, pp. 54–55.

[108] John Jordan and Jennifer Whitney, Que Se Vayan Todos: Argentina’s Popular Rebellion, Montreal: Kersplebedeb, 2003, pp. 42–52.

[109] Ditto, pp. 43–44.

[110] Diana Denham and C.A.S.A. Collective (eds.), Teaching Rebellion: Stories from the Grassroots Mobilization in Oaxaca, Oakland: PM Press, 2008, interview with Yescka.

[111] Ditto, interview with Leyla.

[112] “Longo Maï,” Buiten de Orde, Summer 2008, p.38. My own translation.

[113] Natasha Gordon and Paul Chatterton, Taking Back Control: A Journey through Argentina’s Popular Uprising, Leeds (UK): University of Leeds, 2004.

[114] For those who cannot read French or Spanish, in 2004 Firestarter Press put out a good zine about this insurrection, called “You Cannot Kill Us, We Are Already Dead.” Algeria’s Ongoing Popular Uprising.

[115] Paul Avrich, The Russian Anarchists, Oakland: AK Press, p. 212–213.

[116] Harold Barclay, People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy, London: Kahn and Averill, 1982, p. 57.

[117] “Pirate Utopias,” Do or Die, No. 8, 1999, pp. 63–78.

[118] To name just one example, “humanitarian” UN missions have been caught repeatedly setting up sex trafficking rings in the countries where they are stationed for peacekeeping. “But the problem goes beyond Kosovo and sex trafficking. Wherever the UN has established operations in recent years, various violations of women seem to follow.” Michael J. Jordan, “Sex Charges haunt UN forces,” Christian Science Monitor, 26 November 2004. What the mainstream press cannot go so far as to admit is that this reality is universal to militaries, whether they wear blue helmets or not.

[119] “About RAWA,” www.rawa.org Viewed June 22, 2007

[120] See the citation of van der Dennen and Rappaport in Chapter 1.

[121] Harold Barclay, People Without Government: An Anthropology of Anarchy, London: Kahn and Averill, 1982, p. 122.

[122] Haudennosaunne oral traditions always maintained this early date, but racist white anthropologists discounted this claim and estimated the league began in the 1500s. Some even hypothesized that the Five Nations constitution was written with European help. But recent archaeological evidence and the record of a coinciding solar eclipse backed up the oral histories, proving that the federation was their own invention. Wikipedia, “The Iroquois League,” http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iroquois_League Viewed 22 June 2007

[123] Stephen Arthur, “Where License Reigns With All Impunity:” An Anarchist Study of the Rotinonshón:ni Polity,” Northeastern Anarchist No. 12, Winter 2007 nefac.net

[124] See, for example, Dmitri M. Bondarenko and Andrey V. Korotayev, Civilizational Models of Politogenesis, Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences, 2000.

[125] The argument that certain societies were able to take over the world because of geographic conditions rather than any inherent superiority is skillfully presented by Jared Diamond in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies. New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.

[romeythehomie]

20 Questions for Fic Authors

my buddy parker @amrv-5 tagged me in this and i Do love talking about myself slash my writing so. here we go babey! more questions under the read-more :)

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

17 in all, plus some that that i wrote in high school, orphaned, and probably could find again but simply have no desire to.

2. What is your AO3 wordcount?

99,759.

3. What fandoms do you write for?

those which are recently (~past five years) i have published for M*A*S*H, resident evil, saw, breaking bad, and the MCU

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

alright this is where we get into anonymized fic territory -- much of these were written when i was in very late high school/early college and are representative of that in both quality and tone. i'll still link them but...you know, that's what we're getting into!

you've arrived at last, my friend, 309 kudos

carrying the weight together, 218 kudos

losing me at your fingertips, 179 kudos

my tired eyes are blind, 147 kudos

i take my cue from you, 143 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments?

i try to but feel bad just saying "thanks :D" five hundred times over so more often only if i have something of substance to reply

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

honestly i am not good at undeniably angsty endings; a lot of my MCU stuff had a running theme of "nothing every really gets better" but also was heavy on the comfort parts of hurt/comfort. recency bias aside, i'm inclined to say snapshot of a morning, 1954 is up there for the absolute lack of resolution for BJ's ennui and borderline anhedonia

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

probably kotenok, arguably the cutest. it's "bucky gets a cat: the fic!"

8. Do you get hate on fics?

nope!

9. Do you write smut? If so, which kind?

ah....yes and no? i'll write sex scenes in a work, but not so much porn for porn's sake. i have a google doc of some indulgent paragraphs that i've written in the dead of night but those are for my eyes alone

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest crossover you’ve ever written?

nope

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

no

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

also no

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

i think the one that i'll always come back no matter the time in between is, admittedly, steve/bucky MCU. rewired my brain and i think is just a part of me forever now!

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

god. i have this whole contrived resident evil AU that i write for as the mood strikes me but the gist is "leon is unwillingly transferred to the BSAA after the events of RE6 because it's not great governmental optics for your best agent to seemingly go rogue and kill the president"

16. What are your writing strengths?

i like my prose! I have what i know is a very consistent writing style and tone

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i'm far better with it in original fiction, funnily enough, but when it comes to fic i tend to loiter and meander SO much. this scene only needs to be a few hundred words to move things along? you're getting quadruple that and none of it will ultimately contribute anything to the plot. i LOOOVE to be verbose. read my words boy

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

i do it in english, for however much sense that makes -- if it's from the speaker's pov or that of someone who understands the second language, i'll use something like:

"Here's a sentence in a different language!" Character exclaimed in, unexpectedly, an enthusiastic ramble of Non-English Language.

if the POV character doesn't understand the second language, i'll just use a "Character said something in Non-English language, far beyond the comprehension of POV character, and the conversation had moved well on by the time POV character could ask."

i quite frankly have never once used any end-notes "translation guide," i think it's greatly counter-intuitive to a reading experience, and especially so for any non-latin scripts. sorry but it just doesn't work for me! for little foreign words, especially nouns, which cannot be directly translated, i'd use the native word and then define it best possible in the work then keep the ball rolling

19. First fandom you wrote for?

um. god. do i have to admit it? do i really? it was dan and phil RPF. yeah like the british yewchubers

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

i have this really soft spot for my jane/jesse breaking bad fic surrender (my everything). that's romance, baby!!

thank you so much for the ask parker this was lots of fun to think about when i haven't touched a lot of fic writing in so long! i'll tag uhh @thebrandywine and @doomednarrative if either of you feel so inclined!

[theomnicode]

Coming of Age; The lessons in immortality and moral high grounding

The longest meta often starts with the tiniest thing.

One thing in Cosmic Garou's design is an interesting one to note.

Long ears.

It's not only demonic, but elvish as well.

It is by no means accidental, because elves who in popular culture posses such long ears, often denote long life, vitality and immortality.

I'd like to borrow something I found from quora, from Douglas Adam's Hitchiker's guide to galaxy. An answer to question:

Do the Elves in Tolkien’s mythos ever go insane from living too long? Do any of them resent being immortal?

I think this topic is covered very nicely in Douglas Adams' book “Life, the Universe and Everything - Wikipedia ”, the third book in his five book trilogy “The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy”: Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged was-indeed, is - one of the Universe's very small number of immortal beings. Those who are born immortal instinctively know how to cope with it, but Wowbagger was not one of them. Indeed he had come to hate them, the load of serene bastards. He had had his immortality thrust upon him by an unfortunate accident with an irrational particle accelerator, a liquid lunch and a pair of rubber bands. The precise details of the accident are not important because no one has ever managed to duplicate the exact circumstances under which it happened, and many people have ended up looking very silly, or dead, or both, trying. Wowbagger closed his eyes in a grim and weary expression, put some light jazz on the ship's stereo, and reflected that he could have made it if it hadn't been for Sunday afternoons, he really could have done. To begin with it was fun, he had a ball, living dangerously, taking risks, cleaning up on high-yield long-term investments, and just generally outliving the hell out of everybody. In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in at about 2.55, when you know that you've had all the baths you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the papers you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o'clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul. So things began to pall for him. The merry smiles he used to wear at other people's funerals began to fade. He began to despise the Universe in general, and everyone in it in particular.

"So, Elves, having been created immortal, would live happily in Valinor until the end of time. Humans, if they had been granted their wish of immortality, wouldn’t know how to cope with it."

Elves are naturally immortal; like the Ainur, they are bound to Arda until its End. Elves are immune to all diseases, and they can recover from wounds which would normally kill a mortal Man.[1]:218-9

Nonetheless, Elves can be physically slain or die of grief and weariness.

Saitama denotes all the signs of immortality as well, yet his body is still human, because he stubbornly clings to his humanity. And so his body is still capable of dying.

So in this, Garou's story and one of the themes in OPM is a coming-of-age, where Garou matures enough to realize the cost of attaining such power and takes responsibility for his actions.

Of growing and becoming an old and weary soul, of having your loved ones die before you.

That's why he chose to not remain so and chose to go out in his own terms and not linger around trying to find redemption. Otherwise he'd just become insane.

Humans, when immortality is thrust on them, would not know how to cope with it. There is one being that would know this fact better than anybody else. The one who imposed those limits on humankind.

Yet said being is actually already dead but stubbornly clinging to a human-resembling form and takes the identities and forms of other people because it has none of it's own. Or perhaps it resents itself and so hides behind a facade.

Makes you think who could have killed such a being and locked it away behind a dimensional barrier. If not himself.

So in the cruellest way possible, Future Garou learned an important lesson; not to dabble with powers he does not know to justify being moral police. The consequences are too severe.

That's why he only got a mere fraction of the power and why he was allowed to go out on his own terms. So the lesson will stick harder when it becomes apparent that he's not out of the woods yet. Because he's definitely not allowed to live a long life no or become immortal in the mortal world.

OPM God could have taken his life, yet he did not.

We're really making assumptions here that how long Garou spent touching God's hand is the reason why he got only a small portion of his powers imparted to him.

Instead of OPM God choosing to only impart him with a small fraction.

Or that the gesture itself is entirely meaningless in the grand scheme of things; that the true meaning of taking God's hand is accepting, wanting help and willingness to take that power and touching the hand makes the contract more binding when the person is manipulated to follow through with thinking of it as moral obligation.

It's not like he has to tell them what to do with the power, after all, their own moral code will make certain that they do exactly as he emotionally manipulates them to confidently act.

Like a puppet chessmaster, the space moral police lawyer. Also known as Advocate.

They'd still be a puppet, even if they have free will, when they get manipulated into thinking that they can justify their current actions. And why such manipulation is so hard to shake off by telling them they're being controlled, because their own hard convictions lead them on.

Being able to take the moral high ground, when one has so many problems with society's moral values and everyone else's values one deem bad, is a helluva drug indeed.

(Nice parallel btw)

If it's not apparent, Garou is not the only one who got taught an important lesson that will stick.

Don't take the moral high ground and flaunt that power imbalance. The consequences are too severe. The resulting ignorance and superiority complex are not worth it.

Being able to justify anything one does on the cognitive side is only fooling oneself into becoming a hypocrite.

Consider using heart and empathy instead.

--

So what did we learn about chasing and gaining power, attaining immortality and moral high grounding?

Fucking Don't. Don't fucking do it. Because at the end of the day, people still have to accept responsibility for their own actions if they're to be an actual mature person. Physically and mentally.

The higher moral ground one takes, the harder will be the fall when one slips off the edge.

Oh and the inner critic, Big Brother, is watching, with a magnifying glass in hand.

--

(Funny how your own metas make you sound like a bloody hypocrite huh? There is a lot of power in written and spoken words too. It certainly does make one consider. That's how you know ONE's writing is super-effective. Preach.)

Edit: You know it's kind of creepy when I write this shit for multiple hours, post and then I come back and see ONE has posted an omake in Mob Psycho about the same fucking thing.

Well, I fucking guess I'm on the right track with the theme he wants to tell ppfpfpf. Preaching without action or empathy is just being a dumbass hypocrite.

[triviareads]

ARC Review of The Duchess by Sophie Jordan

Rating: 3.5/5 Heat Level: 3/5 Publication Date: March 26th

Premise:

Valencia is a widowed duchess who is finally free to do as she pleases. The new heir to the dukedom is finally found and it turns out to be Rhian, a Welsh businessman Valencia finds herself inconveniently attracted to. In exchange for helping Rhian's sisters navigate the ton, Rhian agrees to give Valencia financial security and the freedom to leave.

My review:

This was low-heat and relatively short (218 pages) as far as historical romances go. Valencia is in her early thirties, a popular matron of the ton, and finally free to be as merry a widow as she pleases now that her husband is dead. Sophie Jordan has not shied away from writing HORRIFICALLY shitty husbands in her Scandalous Ladies of London series, and the late Dedham haunts Valencia for much of the book. What I found particularly poignant was the rightful blame Valencia placed on not only her husband for his various abuses, but also her father for not protected her when he held all the power to decide her future and her marriage. It feels very real for the time period and drives home the point just how much power men held back in the day.

And Valencia isn't perfect; she's a bit of a snob when it come's to Rhian's countrified sisters initially, and she spends most of the book antagonizing her stepmother Hazel, who is actually younger than Valencia, and was a sex worker before she married Valencia's father. There are a few chapter's in Hazel's POV, and by the end of The Duchess, her romance is set up and Valencia finally begins to realize her hatred is unfounded.

I think where the book fell short of my expectations was with the hero Rhian, and his chemistry with Valencia. Rhian is big, Welsh, a competent businessman (a Rhys Winterborne type superficially, but he doesn't go as hard as Rhys lol), and initially hates that he's attracted to Valencia. But that hatred feels pretty tepid all things considered, and while I could see where that "hatred" morphed into grudging respect, I really could not make out where their attraction, and even their love began. It felt like there was no good reason, apart from base attraction and the low bar of Rhian willing to listen to and support Valencia while her late husband and the men around her never did.

Here's my thing: like I said in my review of the first book in this series, The Countess (see here), a friendship between a bunch of popular, disenchanted older women as a concept is fun, but so far both heroines have spent most of their books quite miserable, and the romantic and sexual payoff with their heroes has been middling at best.

The sex:

There were 1.5 sex scenes in this book. I say .5 because one was vaguely described in a paragraph and mostly glossed over. There is a *mounting* moment in this book, which I did appreciate, but otherwise the sex scenes were... underwhelming. I'm starting to feel like this is a pattern for this series.

Overall:

Like I said earlier, if low-heat, short historical romances with family and marital drama are your jam, you'll enjoy this book. I for one am quite curious about the next book in this series, which features Valencia's stepmom Hazel, who is put in a predicament very similar to Jayne in Lorraine Heath's Waking Up With the Duke...

Thank you to Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my review.

[dynamic-dingo]

I have a fantasy!au idea for Blue Lock, but I’m in need of Kaiser’s and Ness’s backstories for it. I did manage to type out a fitting paragraph, a summary or catching point to drag someone in, I suppose. I have to thank trying to dodge the 218 spoilers like spiders, I had no context from what I had seen and it helped fuel this specific paragraph.

I’m very far away from being near ready to do anything, but this quite nicely can fit Kaiser and Ness’s canon relationship.

Below I’ll explain why I think it fits.

Ness is "purpose", he's there to fill the role as whatever Kaiser needs at that moment. As the arc continues on, the more the thorns pierce him--and though I don't want him to break, he's appearing overwhelmed? by the happenings at current. When the thorns draw blood, I feel that will be when he breaks, whether he gets upset at himself, his teammates, his opponents, or even Kaiser.

Kaiser is the "position", he rules over the others as a king, an emperor even. He makes the demands Ness obeys, like royalty calling upon a servant. As the arc continues on, his vines wither around him--he's losing teammates and has a growing, let's say obsession, with Isagi. When they fully wither, I feel like he'll having nothing left around him, including Ness who has broken above.

I’m not sure how Kaiser will react to losing everything, and I can only further go on with it when I can finally see it. I believe we’re closer to Ness possibly breaking than Kaiser losing everything, but who knows since it could happen at the same time. 

Though I’m quite glad that 218 didn’t end up as the scenarios that happened in my impatient brain.

[weimarhaus]

Poster against Paragraph 218, Kn 198 – Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln

[shiradestin]

Review: Plot and Structure, by J. S. Bell

Scheduled on Jul 5, 2023: The last pages of his book on plot summary especially page 218 say every week or every chapter make a parallel summary, cut and paste your first and last chapters with a paragraphs of every the first and last paragraphs of every chapter into a notebook with a summary for every chapter. That makes it easy to see your work in progress summary which I suppose can later…

[korrektheiten]

Paragraph 218 soll fallen: Paragraph 218 soll fallen Ungeborene verdienen Schutz

Die JF schreibt: »Die Ampel macht ernst. Paragraph 218 StGB soll fallen und Abtreibung damit weiter erleichtern. Dabei verdienen Ungeborene Schutz und Liebe. Ein Kommentar von Lukas Steinwandter. Dieser Beitrag Paragraph 218 soll fallen Ungeborene verdienen Schutz wurde veröffentlich auf JUNGE FREIHEIT. http://dlvr.it/T5Kg4f «

[deuterosapiens]

Warning: long text rant about numbers in the Blueberry Academy PokéDex (I thought it was interesting). You have been warned.

So nifty fact, roughly thirty-three percent of the Blueberry PokéDex consists of Starter Pokémon and their evolutions. Of the 240 Pokémon required to complete the Blueberry Dex, seventy-two (8×3×3) are starters. Of the remainder, eight are species that evolve by trade. Two lines are version exclusive (for four lines in total). Additionally, two Pokémon of a story-related persuasion are also exclusive to each version. So, if my math(s) and my research is correct, my breakdown of the PokéDex for Blueberry Academy is as follows (assuming a Dex length of 240, though it's technically 243 if you include Walking Wake, Iron Leaves, and the Mythical)

Starters: 72 Pokémon (30%)

Trade Evolutions: 8 (7 of which are item-based); thus (3% (2.9% require items))

Pokémon exclusive to Scarlet: 6 (2 families for a total of four Pokémon and 2 which are not evolutionary); thus (2.5% exclusive to Scarlet)

Pokémon exclusive to Violet: ditto the previous; thus ultimately 12 Pokémon are exclusive to one version or the other for a total breakdown of (5%)

So let us see these numbers from a different angle. 240 Pokémon, four of which are obtained only after completing Perrin's base 200. So of those 240, only 236 are actually possible to obtain for the purposes of this 200 base count. 236-72=164.

Now, regarding the reason I wanted to look at this in the first place. Perrin's side quest requires you to have registered 200 Pokémon towards the Blueberry PokéDex. 200 out of a comparatively tight 240 (as a point of reference, the Dex for Paldea and the Dex for Kitakami each have* has 400 entries, though I haven't bothered to analyze them comparatively, so I don't know how many Pokémon specifically are unique to Kitakami and how many are unique to the Terrarium).

Each of the four Terrarium Biomes can contain six Starter Pokémon (six times three equals eighteen Pokémon). The issue is that unlocking the ability to catch these six starters per Biome requires an incredibly tedious 3,000 BP each. 12,000 BP in total to catch all Terrarium Pokémon.

So here's how each Biome upgrade affects your potential that 200 minimum (also, just as a reminder, 200-164=36):

1 Biome: 182 Pokémon

2 Biomes: 200 Pokémon

3 Biomes: 218 Pokémon

4 Biomes: 236 Pokémon

You will need a minimum of two Biomes (costing 6,000 BP) to reach the 200 if you've caught every other non-starter species. What's fun however, is that by simply adding one more Biome, you'll actually completely erase all Trade Evolutions (remember, there were eight of those), and you can replace those four Pokémon exclusive to the version you are not playing with Starter Pokémon instead.

Which means that, by unlocking Starter capabilities in three Biomes, you can complete the 200 Pokémon minimum required for Perrin's quest entirely in your own game without trading with another game (as long you remember that Hydrapple is required, as is Terapagos, but Dipplin and Applin do not appear in the Blueberry PokéDex). As a side-note to that Hydrapple point, three Biome upgrades actually side-steps that issue as well, as the version exclusives and trades only total off to twelve and each Biome is eighteen Starter entries.

Thus concludes my long post which stretches a cursory glance at the Blueberry PokéDex into a massive affair spawned out of irritation at how small the Blueberry PokéDex is compared to the other two (I could legitimately have finished enough BBQs to unlock my second Biome upgrade in tge time it took me to write this).

*I realize I've made an error here regarding the number of Pokémon in the Kitakami Dex. Upon reloading my game, I realized it was 200, rather than four. As a result, this entire paragraph is basically wrong. It is however being kept in mostly because I'm too lazy to edit the entirety of what I meant in that paragraph. But the point still stands: Perrin's quest in Teal Mask required 150 out of 200 (one of which is obviously the reward for completing the quest). 150 out of an available 199 is still slightly more room than 200 out of 236, in my opinion.

[puutterings]

preliminary flourish, phlegmatic correction, puttering close

  ...a preliminary flourish and a puttering close, Urge them to begin at the beginning and stop at the end. Read examples of ways in which members of the class arrived at a strong closing.       Whether to require an outline prepared before beginning to write, whether to resort to similes of freight-cars and geometry as an aide to good paragraphing, whether to advise furious writing and phlegmatic correction — this sort of thing I may have opinions about after another fifteen years. I have not arrived at much of anything so far. ₁

...But the majority still desire an art that is purer, spelled with capitals. They have gone to the master of knowledge, to Science, and have heard the hard answer, “Ye must be born again. Sell all the method you are puttering with, and come, follow me in more observing.” But the sociologists turn away sorrowful and look in the printed rabbinical pages of the Law and the Prophets according to some mystic Kultur. ₂

...That is an acrobat’s way of saying “puttering; with hopeless superstition.” ₃

out. For if the picked intellects of my country are so utterly wrong in the very fundamentals of right thinking, human brains are not work keeping. And if I had to live with the converse suspicion — that my own mind was puttering with desiccated myths — I should be afraid of myself. And a man afraid of himself has no need of his brain. If an ordinary citizen can believe in God... ₄

sources : all (Charles) Henshaw Ward (1872-1935)

1 What is English? : A Book of Strategy for English Teachers (1917) : 208 U Chicago copy/scan, via google : link LC copy/scan, via hathitrust : link 2 Thobbing : A Seat at the Circus of the Intellect (1926) : 218 U California copy/scan, via google : link same (U California copy/scan), via hathitrust : link 3 on Thorstein Veblen’s exposé of poor economic reasoning, ibid, 288 : via google : link via hathitrust link (hathitrust) 4 Builders of Delusion : A Tour Among Our Best Minds (1931) : 170 via google : link (snippet only)

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