#and 98% will be years if not decades old
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crash-likes-cookies · 7 months ago
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Physically bought single player games, that can no longer be played.
Live-Service games, forced always-online games, everything that is Steam...
The recent crackdown on ROM sites hosting software that has not been sold in DECADES...
Also, the subscription model for software, all that is fraud.
Nothing else.
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theslimeologist · 1 month ago
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Like im not even kidding here I just had to tap two share buttons (one was just an image pointing to the interactive meatball menu) to copy something. to copy a link.
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Copy? I think you mean share.
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hamliet · 7 months ago
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Derry Girls: A Masterclass in Detailed, Thematic Writing
Several years after the end, I finally watched Derry Girls, and it's become one of my favorite shows. Not only for the way it captures the absolutely unhinged aspects of Irish families (askmehowiknow) but for the sheer writing skill.
The vast majority of the episodes are laugh-out-loud hilarious, while also offering insightful commentary on the Troubles and on humanity's foibles as a whole. The characters are allowed to be human and act in unlikable, unsanitized ways, and to still be human and come back from that. (Almost like a metaphor for the Troubles or something.)
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The story is also incredibly detailed; for example, when the girls are accused of killing a nun and Erin points out the nun was like, 98 years old and askes "might that shed some light on the situation?" there's an hourglass behind Sister Michael--emphasizing the idea that her time was up. Even more than that... the window is behind the hourglass, literally shining a light on it.
But that's a micro level. On a macro level, I also appreciated the way the story discusses the political backdrop that is part of its premise. Even as Erin, Michelle, James, Clare, and Orla grow up in a place that's been in a state of low-level warfare for decades, they live full lives. In fact, that's kinda the point.
Case in point: episode 4 of the first season, wherein Erin gets an exchange student from Chernobyl. The way the Northern Irish in general treat the Ukrainians is hilariously awful and patronizing, believing that they are giving them a respite from the troubles "over there" while Northern Ireland isn't in a much better state. But, as Sister Michael assures the Ukrainian students, the Irish troubles don't matter because "we're the goodies."
This line gets to the heart of what the episode is saying about political divisions and the way people view an "other." Everyone sees themselves as the "goodies." Because of that, they don't self-examine and wind up hurting the people they see themselves as wanting to help/save with their ignorance. It's a paradoxical egotistical (and frankly teenage) worldview that is also unwilling to look critically at oneself. The focus on their own perceptions over focusing on the actual humanity of the other results in ruining gifts that could come with cross-culture interaction, as seen in how Erin's misunderstandings and petty jealousy of Katya leads to her literally ruining a surprise gift Katya had prepared.
And the end of the episode also comments thematically on the story. One of the Ukrainian boys turns out not to be Ukrainian after all--he's actually Irish and from just down the road. He just didn't know how to say that. The ironic message is clear: despite differences in culture and views, they are actually all human beings, and assumptions make it hard for people to speak. If they could actually talk openly and without presumptions about who is "good" and who is "bad," they could prevent and solve a lot of problems.
This kind of background, symbolic commentary on the Troubles continues in just about every episode of the series. For example, even after the ceasefire, season 3 has an episode where it's discussed how negotiations are stalling, and the entirely of the rest of the episode takes place on a train that stalls between two separate places.
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The Troubles are always something affecting their lives, but the only time the Troubles ever become the main story is in the finale episode. Which is also an episode that makes everyone cry. Michelle's brother is finally mentioned for the first time the entire series, yet it doesn't feel like a retcon so much as a recontextualization, and again mirrors how a lot of society (and Michelle's own family) have treated those who murdered others during the conflict.
Erin and James' relationship also works as a metaphor for the Troubles--an Irish Catholic girl and an English boy. Earlier in season 3, after they finally kiss, they're told they can't be together, that it's wrong, and that it'll create problems for everyone around them. Michelle doesn't want things to change. And Erin agrees that it's not good to pursue something.
But, in the final scenes, as Erin prepares to vote in the Good Friday Agreement and talks to James, she directly states she thinks things can't stay the same forever--thereby countering what she said to reject James earlier:
There's a part of me that wishes everything could just stay the same. That we could all just stay like this forever. There's a part of me that doesn't really want to grow up. I'm not sure I'm ready for it. I'm not sure I'm ready for the world. But things can't stay the same, and they shouldn't. No matter how scary it is, we have to move on, and we have to grow up, because things... well, they might just change for the better. So we have to be brave. And if our dreams get broken along the way... we have to make new ones from the pieces.
Symbolically, also, given that we know the outcome of the Good Friday Agreement, I think it's pretty clear Erin and James end up together even if we're not directly shown it.
That the last shot of the episode (besides the funny epilogue) is Grandda Joe, one of the eldest characters, helping his youngest toddler granddaughter Anna leap over a threshold as they leave the voting station, is also incredibly clear in its symbolism.
Erin: People died. Innocent people died, Grandda. They were someone's mother, father, daughter, son. Nothing can ever make that okay. And the people who took those lives, they're just gonna walk free? What if we do it, and it's all for nothing? What if we vote yes and it doesn't even work? Grandda Joe: And what if it does? What if no one else has to die? What if this all becomes a--a ghost story you'll tell your wee-un's some day? A ghost story they'll hardly believe?
I dunno, I think this is a sentiment we need more of in the world. A peaceful future means taking risks and accepting that punitive justice will not be perfectly doled out; however, if you allow more people to be hurt, is that not also injustice? It's a paradox that the story leaves us without a dogmatic answer to (for example, we never find out if Michelle's brother gets released), but it's also hopeful--because we know that the Good Friday Agreement largely worked.
(For further analysis of the final scene, I recommend PillarofGarbage's analysis on YouTube!)
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artbyblastweave · 8 months ago
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So for those of you who don't read twenty-year-old marvel comics a lot, the 2005 Marvel Crisis Crossover was called House of M. The basic premise of this was that this was smack dab in the middle of the Scarlet-Witch-is-Having-a-Normal-one arc that was very, very loosely adapted into Wandavision; in her initial breakdown, she'd killed several of the Avengers, wound up in the protective custody of Magneto, and the recently reformed team was debating whether or not they were going to have to kill her before she deleted reality on accident or some such thing. But when they're on their way to Magneto's stronghold to have a "talk" with her, the world is enveloped in white, and Wolverine (the initial POV character) wakes up in a world where Mutants are 98% of the human population and have been for decades, and Magneto and his family (the titular House of M) are leaders of the global political order, and Wolverine is one of the only people in this realigned world who remembers that it was ever different.
Wolverine initially is operating under the assumption that Magneto cajoled Wanda into rewriting reality in his family's favor, but after rounding up and waking up several of his allies, he realizes that what actually happened is that Wanda rewrote reality so that everyone she knew would get everything they wanted- Magneto being in charge with a 98 percent global mutation rate is just the inevitable byproduct of that. The resulting world is an amalgamation that has to accommodate the conscious or subconscious "perfect life" of every superhero on earth, in a way that acts as a fascinating characterization tool, often with a monkey's-paw angle. Spider-Man is a beloved celebrity wrestler, and Uncle Ben and Gwen are both alive, but he attained that status by pretending to be a Mutant and he lives in constant fear of being exposed. Mystique, Rogue, Nightcrawler and several of their associates are the tight-knit family unit they were always kept from being.... as the elite jackboot of Magneto's regime. Luke Cage and Hawkeye lead the human resistance, standing in perpetual principled opposition to the powers that be, but with no real hope of accomplishing anything. Captain America didn't lose years of his life to the ice, but he had to live through a global authoritarian takeover he ultimately couldn't do anything about. Wolverine gets to remember his entire life, but that includes remembering that his current ideal circumstances were manufactured to keep him placated. And on and on and on. Lot of really interesting character takes packed up in there, paired with the equally interesting project of packing as many of them as possible into the same timeline without contradicting each other- after all, from the word go you have to contort everyone's happiness around the basic conceit that Magneto rules the world.
Anyway. House of M AU for Worm. Discuss.
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into-the-feniverse · 10 months ago
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Finished reading Trigun/TriMax a couple days ago and have been feverishly trying to piece together a timeline, so here’s the result of that ✨
EDIT: as of 3/13/24 this has been UPDATED
For a more detailed timeline (with vol/ch marks): google sheet
Full res of the graphic (& other resources): bit.l/trigunresources
Notes & rest of the timeline under the cut!
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Edits as of 3/13/24
The detailed spreadsheet is organized and color coded! If you'd like a more concise breakdown of events/see some of my reasoning behind certain time stamps feel free to skim through that
Changed where in the timeline the Maylene and Wolfwood events happened (originally where I had placed them would have made Maylene like 6 when she and Wolfwood reunited which is NOT correct)
moved where in the timeline Knives started collecting the GungHo Guns (at latest he started in 0090 (20 years before 0110) since it's noted that Monev has been training in a cellar for the past 20 years
Moved where Knives initially tracked down Conrad (felt like it needed to happen at least a decade before July)
Changed up some of the months (personally, I don't think the Ark launched in December, since that'd put Milly and Meryl's arrival to the colony in July, which wouldn't make sense. So I placed the ark launch in October which of course offset some of the other month stand ins)
Added an earth year for when Knives and Vash are born. The explanation is I think at minimum there was at least a 2 year period between them and Tesla (since Rem was around for that whole process). I do think it was more than that, but that’s the earliest possible year I think it could have happened. Personally I’m more in the camp of 5-10 years, but def not 50 like in tristamp
Old Notes:
If you see any typos or phrase inconsistencies: no you don’t 💕 (😭)
Blue text can be completely ignored, that’s just kinda my personal preference/wild guesstimating of when “exactly” those events happened
Blue lines can also be ignored, they’re also just rough guesstimates on where exactly in the timeline these could have happened
The distance of the lines from one another doesn’t really mean anything, I started trying to follow a system to notate when things happened really close together but it was//// not consistently done ngl
Fun fact: by the time Wolfwood leaves the orphanage Meryl is 18! And she was 14 at the time of July’s destruction
Additional fun fact: Brad is 17 when he and sensei meet up with Vash in the Factioned city (which I think is absolutely RIDICULOUS), and we know this because he was 4 the one/last time he had met Vash and it’s been 13 years since
It was noted by Karen, one of Meryl’s coworkers, that she and Milly had been on assignment with Vash for about 4 months. (Might be that they were out searching for him during that time as well, but I’m choosing to interpret it as they were actually with him for that amount of time)
I’m also working on a 98 timeline for comparison (but more like just sequence of events cause I don’t think I have the patience to sift through the lore quite as much… mainly making it just to clarify how the anime delineates from the manga)
I am//::: feeling v unhinged after this and feel like it could be improved/i need to do a more thorough read, but I’m calling it quits for now before I actually go insane (but hopefully some people will find it somewhat helpful!)
Also: if anybody has any notes to add or clarifications/corrections I would be more than happy to hear them 👂
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merylstryfestan · 1 year ago
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i'm sure this has been discussed before, but this still brings up so many questions for me.
my memory of '98 isn't perfect, but i'm pretty sure that at least in the manga, no one really knew who Vash was before the destruction of July. the manga and '98 deviate on the timelines here, but in both he stuck around with Knives for a very long time before being on his own, and between them separating and July, Vash was probably getting himself involved with gangs and thugs trying to save lives and such, but nothing that made him well known. it wasn't until July and his bounty that he became infamous, so that makes sense to me.
so what's going on in Stampede then? because as far as we know, Vash and Knives haven't seen each other between Vash losing his arm and Juneora Rock. What happens in the ~150 years between for Vash to gain a reputation? i'm assuming it's the result of Knives stealing plants over the years, so has Vash just been chasing after his brother trying to prevent the thefts? and that's how he got associated with them in the first place?
then there's the fact that in the beginning, Meryl seems to almost not believe the Humanoid Typhoon is even a real person, in the sense that "surely all this stuff can't be one guy's fault". does that make the persona of the Humanoid Typhoon almost a conspiracy theory? or perhaps more similar to a cryptid?
and if this is all true, how are people not more surprised when they learn that the 25 year old looking dude is the guy that's supposedly been terrorizing the planet for at least 20 years? why would it take Roberto and Meryl finding the photo to realize the timeline isn't adding up here?
the only explanation to that i can think of is that since the windmill village is essentially run by the Eye of Michael, then it's the Eye that started calling Vash "the Stampede" and the "Humanoid Typhoon" and spreading his reputation. that's why Rollo would know about him. and if those rumors took a couple decades to become more widely known, it would explain why Roberto and Meryl weren't suspicious of Vash's age at first.
i don't think it's a perfect theory, so i'd definitely be interested to hear other people's ideas. could just be me totally missing something (very likely tbh). i still find the idea interesting though, that it could be the Eye specifically, and therefore Knives, that starts villainizing Vash amongst the human population. an early attempt to get Vash to turn his back against humanity perhaps?
@tristampparty
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whencyclopedia · 1 month ago
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Social Change in the British Industrial Revolution
The British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840) witnessed a great number of technical innovations, such as steam-powered machines, which resulted in new working practices, which in turn brought many social changes. More women and children worked than ever before, for the first time more people lived in towns and cities than in the countryside, people married younger and had more children, and people's diet improved. The workforce become much less skilled than previously, and many workplaces became unhealthy and dangerous. Cities suffered from pollution, poor sanitation, and crime. The urban middle class expanded, but there was still a wide and unbridgeable gap between the poor, the majority of whom were now unskilled labourers, and the rich, who were no longer measured by the land they owned but by their capital and possessions.
Urbanisation
The population of Britain rose dramatically in the 18th century, so much so that a nationwide census was conducted for the first time in 1801. The census was repeated every decade thereafter and showed interesting results. Between 1750 and 1851, Britain's population rose from 6 million to 21 million. London's population grew from 959,000 in 1801 to 3,254,000 in 1871. The population of Manchester in 1801 was 75,000 but 351,000 in 1871. Other cities witnessed similar growth. The 1851 census revealed that, for the first time, more people were living in towns and cities than in the countryside.
More young people meeting each other in a more confined urban setting meant marriages happened earlier, and the birth rate went up compared to societies in rural areas (which did rise, too, but to a lesser degree). For example, "In urban Lancashire in 1800, 40 per cent of 17-30-year-olds were married, compared to 19 per cent in rural Lancashire. In rural Britain, the average age of marriage was 27, in most industrial areas 24, and in mining areas about 20" (Shelley, 98).
Urbanisation did not mean there was no community spirit in towns and cities. Very often people living in the same street pulled together in a time of crisis. Communities around mines and textile mills were particularly close-knit with everyone being involved in the same profession and with a community spirit and pride fostered by such activities as a colliery or mill band. Workers also got together to form clubs to save up for an annual outing, usually to the seaside.
Life became cramped in the cities that had grown up around factories and coalfields. Many families were obliged to share the same cheaply-built home. "In Liverpool in the 1840s, 40,000 people were living in cellars, with an average of six people per cellar" (Armstrong, 188). Pollution became a serious problem in many places. Poor sanitation – few streets had running water or drains, and non-flushing toilets were often shared between households – led to the spread of diseases. In 1837, 1839, and 1847, there were typhus epidemics. In 1831 and 1849, there were cholera epidemics. Life expectancy rose because of better diet and new vaccinations, but infant mortality could be high in some periods, sometimes over 50% for the under-fives. Not until the 1848 Public Health Act did governments even begin to assume responsibility for improving sanitation, and even then local health boards were slow to form in reality. Another effect of urbanisation was the rise in petty crime. Criminals were now more confident of escaping detection in the ever-increasing anonymity of life in the cities.
Cities became concentrations of the poor, surviving off the charity of those more fortunate. Children roamed the streets begging. Children without homes or a job, if they were boys, were often trained to become a Shoe Black, that is someone who shined shoes in the street. These paupers were given this opportunity by charitable organisations so that they would not have to go to the infamous workhouse. The workhouse was brought into existence in 1834 with the Poor Law Amendment Act. The workhouse was deliberately intended to be such an awful place that it did little more than keep its male, female, and child inhabitants alive, in the belief that any more charity than that would simply encourage the poor not to bother looking for paid work. The workhouse involved what its name suggests – work, but it was tedious work indeed, typically unpleasant and repetitive tasks like crushing bones to make glue or cleaning the workhouse itself. Despite all the problems, urbanisation continued so that by 1880 only 20% of Britain's population lived in rural areas.
Continue reading...
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luvtonique · 1 year ago
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I realized something this morning.
This is probably gonna be a long post. (Edit, yep)
I'm a pretty fairly public figure on the internet, and I very regularly interact with a huge amount of people. From YouTube Comments to Discord to Tumblr Asks/Comments to Newgrounds Reviews to MMO Chat to Mic-Chat on Games to Twitch Chat to Stream Chat, blah blah blah.
I've, for years now, over a decade (hell over two decades) talked to probably thousands of people, and have been able to get a gauge on a pretty safe to say "average" of collective human intelligence on the internet.
I've come to realize that not everybody has that kind of experience talking to people online as I do. I've talked to literally thousands, probably near ten thousand, people online in my life.
This is a staggeringly high number and puts me in an outlier position among the rest of you, who likely have only interacted with a double digit number of people online in your life.
Now that you have that information in mind, here's what I realized this morning.
I realized that the reason I don't listen to people, ESPECIALLY when it comes to politics, is because I have learned through talking to all these people that fucking nobody knows what they're fucking goddamn talking about.
I study a lot of things in my spare time, and history is a huge one that I study. I very regularly read and listen to multiple sources talking about historic events, and I make sure to look at as many sources as possible, sometimes including reading encyclopedias in my own home that we've owned for like 40 years.
I cross-reference all of these things and paint a picture of the most likely truths through various means.
Why's that important? Because sometimes a 14 year old on Twitter, literally nearly less than a third my age, will occasionally come along telling me that I'm wrong. Not about history necessarily, but about some opinion that I have based on my own experience and my own knowledge that I've researched myself.
I usually ask them where they got their information, and I'm met with boldfaced idiocy. Completely braindead shit like "180,000 people said it on Twitter," or they link me a Tumblr post with 100k notes, or they say "It's common knowledge," (which is the biggest red flag of them all because not only does it prove they have no evidence to back up what they're saying, but as this post will go on to explain, "common knowledge" is quite literally the worst source of information on anything. People commonly think the earth is flat and that Scientology is real. People commonly think that walking under a ladder or breaking a mirror gives you bad luck. People commonly think that naturally blue food exists.)
In my life I have met thousands of people, and THOUSANDS of them are fucking idiots who very very smugly state completely incorrect knowledge. Earlier today someone tried to tell me that the creators of Beat Saber never sold the company to Facebook, and I showed them proof and they went silent for 3 hours and then went "Yeah so what, Facebook is still a good company" and I wanted to beat my head against the desk.
The internet is full of people who are fascinatingly ignorant. I'm not calling myself "better" or "smarter" than anyone here, I'm just saying that I have learned better than most people that people on the internet are not, and never fucking will be, a good source of information. I don't care if they're your best fucking friend, the coin-toss of them knowing what they're talking about or actually having the facts is so heavily weighted against them, it's seriously like a 98% chance they have no fucking clue what they're talking about.
I urge everyone to take a moment and realize that the internet is, in fact, a good place to find information and do research, but PEOPLE ON THE INTERNET, especially MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA, are NOT SMART PEOPLE AND ARE NOT GOOD SOURCES FOR YOUR INFORMATION.
These are angry, smug, annoying little idiots who are likely 14 years old with a 1st grade reading comprehension who aspires to be a TikTok content creator as a career, and under no fucking circumstance should you ever, ever, EVER listen to any social, financial, religious, gendered, medical or political advice they give.
The world has gotten vastly out of control with how much people think "A lot of people agree with me" is a good enough reason to solidify your opinions. "A lot of people agree" is the biggest red flag ever, because people on the fucking internet are complete fucking idiots, I'm sorry, but I'm someone with far more experience talking to people on the internet than literally any of you reading this. I talk to people on the internet as a career and have been doing this for longer than most of you reading this have been alive.
So what's the point of this? What's the take-away?
The take-away is that I'm saddened by how many people will attack each other vehemently, cut off friends and family members, label people as toxic or problematic, jump to conclusions, etc. based on complete and utter misinformation spouted to them by people who have never once in their entire life actually looked up what the fuck they're talking about. They treat random strangers on Twitter as "experts" because that person is well articulated or put together a YouTube video with really good editing that's softly spoken by a British accent guy and has scary music whenever some "evil" person is on the screen.
The take-away is that people, like yourself (don't you dare try to deny it) will just believe whatever they read on social media, or whatever their Discord friend-group is talking about, because they are living in a complete falsehood that people on the internet know better than they do.
You are not incapable of doing your own research. You are not incapable of finding the truth. You are not stupid. Just do your own research, look into things yourself, cross-reference, use the scientific method, go to a library, read books, for fuck sake please adopt the basic social skill of "If someone says it on the internet it is most likely not true and I should look into it myself."
Because the current state of people is monstrous.
Y'all get so fucking mad about things that are just plain not true, and you revolve your entire life around things you were told by complete idiots and/or children on Twitter and other social media websites.
Stop.
Look at yourself, look at how angry you get about things, and consider that there may be a possibility that anger stems from a complete lack of any foundation or truth in your own beliefs.
Consider the almost 100% guaranteed possibility that you have been blatantly lied to by people who have no fucking idea what they're talking about, and that you are violently upholding standards that are incorrect because you have placed trust in the word of untrustworthy people.
Look up confirmation bias, read about it.
Look up manipulation tactics, read about it.
Look up "Plato's Republic" and read about it.
Absolutely, under no circumstances, should you ever, EVER, form your social or religious or political or financial or gendered or sexual etc. opinions based on SHIT YOU READ ON SOCIAL MEDIA.
And while we're here, don't listen to the news either. They're just a bunch of parrots saying what needs to be said to get you all fighting with each other so that the government can fuck things up while you're distracted. Do your own research, check multiple sources, don't consider social media or regular media to be a 'source,' get every bit of information from every angle, and for fuck sake, stop attacking people for disagreeing with you when you, yourself, only believe what you believe because your friend group believes it and you know that if you disagree with your friend group they'll all attack you so you'd rather be on their side, which only further proves my point that y'all need to fucking chill.
"Democracy will never work. If 3 medical experts tell you that you must eat a ginger root to cure your ailments, but 100,000 idiots with no medical experience tell you otherwise, you're more likely to believe the 100,000 idiots. They are louder, there are more of them, and you will gamble on the hope that among those 100,000 idiots, there must be more than 3 medical experts. The voice of the ignorant will always drown out the voice of the educated."
-Plato's Republic, 375BCE (Paraphrased)
"I can't believe Jay just called us all idiots and expects us to listen to him"
-Someone in the comments of this (It's gonna happen)
PS: If you looked up "Naturally Blue Food," and found out it does in fact not exist, good for you for doing your own research!
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okay i went down a rabbit hole of names and here’s what i found out
each name is either from their birth year's top 100 in indiana, or their decade's general US top 200 for their decade if it's before 1960
Steve:
in the 60s, Steven (with a V not a PH!!) was #11 on the most popular baby names list in the US.
specifically in indiana in 1967 (1986-19 years old), it was #15
Steve’s parents would definitely be in the top most common names in my mind:
in the 40s, Richard was the #5 most popular name, so good job naming Steve’s dad ‘Dick’, everyone, it’s entirely possible.
looking at the 40s list’s top 10, Linda at #2 stood out most for Steve’s mom.
Eddie:
in the 60s, Edward was #29 on the most popular baby names list in the US, 'Eddie' by itself was #112, Edwin #155.
specifically in indiana in 1965 (1986-est. 21 years old), Edward was #42
There weren’t any other names that started with ‘Ed’ on the 1965 indiana list.
In my own personal headcanon though, with Eddie being short for Theodore, it’s a whole other story:
Theodore is #152 for the whole US in the 60s, and doesn’t appear in Indiana’s top 100 for 1965 BUT my headcanon is that his mom named him after her dad, who would’ve est. been born in the 20s. (Her in the 40s, Eddie in the 60s) and the name Theodore was #64 in the 20s.
the other Munsons:
Wayne was #49 on the 1930s list (taking into account Joel Stoffer’s age for this one, I’m thinking he’s Eddie’s dad’s older brother).
Albert was #47 on the 1940s list (i’m just assuming Al is short for Albert)
Eddie’s mom was harder, but when I thought about it, the first name that popped into my head for her was Margaret (#13, 1940s), but I think she’d go by Peggy, (#42, 1940s) which matches Wayne and Al’s location on the list.
the rest of the spicy six, indiana top 100, 1968 (seniors/est. 18 in ‘86):
Nancy: #47
Robin: #43 (actually surprised this was on the list!)
Jonathan (no really, this spelling specifically): #64
Argyle: not on the top 100 in California, or on the general 60s list
The Party, indiana top 100, 1971 (freshmen/est. 15 in ‘86)
Michael: #1
William: #10
Dustin: #103 for the US in the 70s, not on top 100 for indiana, 1971
Lucas: not on either US 70s or indiana 1971 list
Jane: not on either US 70s or indiana 1971 list
Maxine: not on either US 70s or indiana 1971 list
Erica (11 in ‘86, born 1975): #63 on top 100 for indiana, 1975
a few of the other adults i saw while doing this (general US 1940s list):
Joyce: #19
James: #1
Robert: #2
Karen: #16
Theodore: #98
Lonnie: #146 (again, was actually surprised this name was even on the list!)
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eugenedebs1920 · 3 months ago
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In their last term, The Supreme Court of the United States of America (SCOTUS), mainly the men, but occasionally Barrett showed the American people how little we are worth to them. They made it blatantly obvious that we are nothing more than serfs, subjugated, whose purpose is to pay taxes and STFU.
This was also made apparent with the reversal of Roe. The 2023-24 term had its share of long term dire consequences yet to be felt. The overturning of the Chevron doctrine was a devastating blow to the middle class/working poor. Its reversal will, at one time or another, affect the lives of 98% of Americans (the middle class, upper middle and working poor).
The right wing apparatus will tell you that regulations, protections, and limitations prohibit productivity which leads to less profits and in turn, a cooling of economic prosperity. What they aren’t divulging is the massive amounts of wealth they have amassed over the past 4 decades.
As far back as the Nixon administration, one could go back as far as the New Deal but, it’s a post, not a novel, certain restrictions, limitations, protective measures, and practices have been imposed on major corporations and industries. These regulations range from environmental protection, labor practices, safety standards, hazardous substances, banking practices, equal pay, the list goes on.
These regulatory agencies specialize in the field in which suits their skill set. Some call it the bureaucratic state. These non partisan civil servants work throughout changing administrations in their various fields without being inhibited by the views held by the party in power.
What the overturning of Chevron did is lessen the power that these agencies have. Putting the rules and regulations they enforced in peril. Now regulations created to protect the health and safety of Americans and the environment we live in, as well as the financial institutions and practices in which they can engage in, are put in peril.
The effects of this won’t be immediately noticeable. We are the frog in a warm pot of water, slowly being boiled to death. What does this have to do with Helene and future natural disasters one may ask?
Some of those regulatory agencies impacted by this reversal are, the EPA, FEMA, NOAA, the Department of Labor, OSHA, The FCC, the SEC, and so many more. Pretty much any agency that limits the exploitation these massive conglomerates and giant corporations can impose on Americans and the world they reside in.
We live in a time where the Supreme Court is rogue. With an extreme right wing MAGA majority, dead set on revoking rights as opposed to instilling them. A Supreme Court who, when scandals arose of lavish gifts coming from billionaire benefactors, rather than enforce a code of ethics they simply legalized bribery (Snyder vs the United States). A Supreme Court, so lawless and void of standards, that justices refuse to recuse themselves from constitutional crises cases, where they flew flags in support of the defendant, where the wife of another was in direct contact with the cheif of staff of a man who, while watching from the dining room of the White House, while a mob, led by his incendiary rhetoric ramshacked our capital. All the while chants of “hang Mike Pence, Hang Mike Pence” rang through the the halls of that hallowed ground. When told the mob wanted to hurt the Vice President, the defendant said, “So what”.
I’ve had tacos more supreme than this court! This November 5th, it is not a choice between a vile demented old man and a lifetime protector and prosecutor for the people, it is the direction, the safety, the environment, the lending practices, the food we eat, the wages we make, the lives our children will have that is the choice because. If Trump is elected, Alito as well as Thomas WILL retire, giving the mandarin Mussolini FIVE SCOTUS appointments. This will dictate the next 30 plus years of our lives. So please! Get out and vote! Vote the Harris Walz ticket and blue down ballot. The freedoms of women, LGBTQ rights, labor rights, environmental protections, food and drug safety, fair banking/lending practices, our federal lands, clean water, green energy for the future, so much hangs in the balance and the effects will be felt for a majority of the rest of our lives. We are one nation, indivisible, we stand for liberty and justice for all! ☮️🇺🇸
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grayskies2525 · 14 days ago
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A Year of Falling | Ben and Arlo | M/M | Part 1/?
I’ve decided to write another cheesy, little love story 😊. If you’ve read The Reluctant Reunion, and its sequel An Admirable Denial, then you may remember Ben. You don't need to read either story to understand this one.
Word count: 4,200 words
Link to all parts: A Year of Falling
***
Chapter One: January — First Cold of the Year
“I’m not sure what you expect, Ben, when the car is literally twenty-six years old.”
“I expect it to get me to work and back,” Ben says with a long, exasperated sigh as he throws his head back against the headrest of the passenger’s seat. “I need it to get me to work and back,” he tells his best friend, Felix, whose gaze is currently fixed on the road in front of them while he drives.
“Again, that’s asking a lot out of a car that is nearly as old as you.”
Ben narrows his eyes, though Felix doesn’t notice since his focus is still on the road. “I’m thirty-four, Felix. My car is still in its twenties, thank you very much.”
Felix spares a quick glance over at Ben before averting his gaze back to the road. “Ben, you were seven years old when that car was made. You don’t see a problem with that?”
Ben does, in fact, see a problem with it. Of course he sees a problem with it. He’s tired, though, so he refuses to relent. 
“Nope,” Ben says, exuding a confidence he in no way actually possesses. “Plenty of cars can run for several decades.”
“With maintenance, Ben,” Felix says, pointedly. 
In that moment, Ben silently concedes to losing the embarrassingly short-lived argument. He can’t pretend he maintains his ‘98 Toyota Corolla the way he should. Ben doesn’t have the resources — namely time or money — to keep a car like that properly serviced. Felix is well-aware of this. 
So, Ben slumps further down into his seat. He sniffles thickly, scrunching up his nose. One sniffle isn’t enough, so he scrubs at his nose with the back of his hand. Then, sniffles again. He quickly finds himself in an uncomfortable cycle, alternating between scrubbing and sniffling. This has been going on since he woke up this morning. That, alone, should have been indicative that his day would not be going well. 
He leans forward to open up Felix’s glove compartment. Immediately, a barrage of items tumble out, crashing to the floor. 
“What the hell, Ben?” Felix asks, annoyance clear in his tone. 
“Who keeps their glove compartment that fucking full?” Ben asks, feeling indignant in a way he knows he has no right to be. But it’s been a tiresome day — despite the fact of it only being 7:30 AM — and now he has to bend over to pick up Felix’s innumerable CD cases, and with his nose running incessantly, he’s not fond of the prospect. Reluctantly, he begins the task.
“Who opens up someone else’s glove compartment?” Felix retorts.
“Someone whose nose is freaking pouring like a faucet! I need tissues or something,” Ben says, resigning himself, at this point, to holding his arm up over his nose as he collects the fallen items.
“Oh my god,” Felix says, rolling his eyes. “Why didn’t you just say that before taking it upon yourself to destroy my poor car. There’s some napkins in the console, I think.”
With another desperate sniffle, barely enough to stem the tide of his overflowing nose, he finishes shoving the items back into the full glove compartment. He quickly opens up the console and sees several brown napkins clearly acquired from various fast food establishments. He grabs for them and holds the rough paper to his pouring nose. He gives a productive blow before wadding up the napkins and setting them on his lap.
“It’s too early in the year for allergies, so my guess is you’re coming down with another cold?” Felix asks.
Ben rubs the bridge of his nose, hoping to relieve some of the pressure he’s beginning to feel. “Uh, yeah, probably,” Ben says, shrugging.
Felix lets out a long sigh. “Ben, you are literally always sick,” he says, and Ben thinks he detects an accusatory note to his tone.
Ben stares at him. “You say that like it’s my fault.”
“It is,” Felix says, emphatically. “Partially, anyway. You sustain yourself on Cheetos and, like, 2 hours of sleep a night. And you never do anything but work.”
Ben sniffles again, rubbing his nose. He closes his eyes, deciding to rest them for a moment. He knows there’s no use in trying to grab a quick nap, since they’ll be at the coffee shop he works at in less than ten minutes. “Let me know whenever not working becomes an actual option, Felix, and I’ll jump right on it,” he says, his tone slightly more biting than he’d intended. This is beyond a trite conversation between the two of them, and as appreciative of Felix as he is for picking him up when his car wouldn’t start this morning, he doesn't have the patience to listen to this again right now.
Felix lets out a long sigh. “Okay, listen, I’m sorry. I’m not trying to, you know… lecture you or whatever. I just wish you could manage without having to work two shitty jobs.” Ben keeps his eyes closed for a moment. If it were anyone else, he’d smile and joke it off, or change the subject. But this is Felix — his best friend since preschool. He’s the one person he can be his entire self with — even if that current version of himself is in a miserable mood.
“Yeah, Felix,” he says with a wry laugh. “Me, too. I’m just… I’m doing my best, though, okay?”
There’s a long moment where Felix says nothing, his gaze fixed firmly on the road ahead. “Are you?” he asks, finally. “Doing your best?” Ben barely has his mouth open before Felix continues. “I mean, I know you work hard, Ben. Literally anyone can see that. But, what about, you know… everything else? Like, all the rest that goes into maintaining your well-being? I’m not even just talking about how bad you are at sleeping and eating well. God knows I’m also not great at doing those things, okay? I’m not trying to act like I’m perfect, but for me, I’m usually just caught up in other stuff, or I get distracted, but you….” Felix pauses as if in search of the right words. “You were literally a week paying rent this month even though you had the money. And last month, your water was turned off. And this kind of thing happens all the time, Ben. You just… you don’t take care of yourself. Like, at all.” Again, Ben opens his mouth to speak, but Felix shoots him a pointed glare before continuing. “And… And I think you want people to think it’s because you’re lazy, or that you just can’t be bothered, or whatever. But, I know you, Ben, and sometimes I worry that… that you just don’t care enough about yourself. Like, you have no sense of your value. Like you think you deserve to do nothing but work yourself to the bone. I mean, you don’t even try to apply for different jobs. You’ve just accepted this ridiculous setup you’ve got going on, and I mean, what’s even your reward, Ben? To come home to your tiny little apartment where you live alone, all so you can start the cycle over again the next day? You don’t even let yourself date! It’s like you want to be as miserable as possible.” 
Ben clenches his jaw and lets out a long breath. He feels moisture pooling up at the edge of his nostrils, so he quickly swipes at it with the back of his hand. “Go ahead and let me out here, Felix,” he says, his tone sharp.
Felix huffs out a breath. “Are you kidding me? You’re really just going to be angry about this instead of actually trying to process my words?”
Ben grits his teeth, wanting to respond, but his breath starts to hitch and he jerks forward into his napkins. “AhhH’DSHooo!” The sneeze is harsh, much more than the sneezes accompanying  his bad allergy days. He’s irrefutably coming down with a cold. The sneeze, and the realization that comes with it, depletes his energy. 
“Okay,” Felix says with a sigh. “I will admit that maybe this wasn’t the best time for this conversation.”
“Oh and there’s a good time to tell me that I live a worthless, shitty life?” he asks with a wry laugh. “A good time to tell me that because I didn’t go to college or have parents with enough money to help me out, that I’m not trying hard enough? Not to even fucking mention that somehow it’s my fault that I haven’t just fallen into some sort of fairytale romance like you and Connor. Because that’s the only way to be happy, right?” Ben asks, all composure gone. 
“Ben,” Felix says, sternly, though Ben thinks he can detect some hurt in his tone, as well. “You know that’s not what I was saying. I just want you to want more for yourself.”
“Yeah, okay,” Ben says, rubbing the center of his forehead where a dull ache is forming. “Listen, thanks for the ride,” he says, looking out the window at the now visible coffee shop. “Don’t worry about picking me up. I’ll walk home later, or… I don’t know, try to get the one taxi or Uber this dump of a town has,” he says, bitterness coating his words, as he removes his seatbelt. 
“Goddamn it, Ben. Stop being so unreasonable. You know I’ll be here later.”
Ben’s already shaking his head. “Don’t waste your time,” he says as he leaves the car.
____________
It takes ten minutes into his shift to regret every single word he’d said to Felix in the car that morning. Felix is the sweetest, most caring person he’s ever met, and Ben knows he’d been putting words in Felix’s mouth — that he’d been projecting his own insecurities. But it had been so early in the day, and Ben had woken up late, not having time to get even a single cup of coffee in his system. Then, of course, there had been the mess with his car. And his budding cold. 
After the line of customers dies down, he leaves the other barista, Kenna, to handle the shop for a moment. He heads to the cramped storage area to send a quick text to Felix. Using this moment to also have a reprieve from wearing his mask, he pulls it off, then types one simple word — “Sorry” and hits send. He blinks when he sees an immediate response from Felix which also says “Sorry.” Ben furrows his brows. A moment later he receives another text from Felix.
Felix: Did we both just apologize at the same time?
Ben feels the corners of his mouth quirk up as he reads the text. 
Ben: Looks like it. You don’t need to, though. I was being an ass. I’m just tired and it’s been a rough morning and it felt like you were attacking me
Felix: I get that. I’m tired, too. Edna escaped her enclosure last night and Connor and I spent hours looking for her. It was AWFUL. But still, I shouldn’t have snapped. You know I just worry about you though, right? That’s where I was coming from. But I recognize those words weren’t what you needed at that moment.
Ben takes a moment to sympathize with Connor for having to live with Edna, Felix’s pet tarantula, then begins typing. 
Ben: What an emotionally mature response, Felix. Connor must be sharing what’s he’s been learning in therapy
Felix: He HAS been actually. Anyway, I’ll pick you up when I’m off work. 
Ben: Fiiinnnneee. I guess I’ll let you pick me up if you’re that eager to do it, geez
Felix: 🙄 Quit texting me and do your actual job.
And with that, everything is back to being fine between Ben and Felix. Their disagreement hadn’t even lasted twenty minutes. This has always been the pattern between them. Ben knows the foundation of their friendship is strong enough to handle a little shaking up every now and then. Felix knows this, too. It allows the two to say things that need to be said, or like today — things that don’t particularly need to be said, but are still their feelings, nonetheless — without the fear of any actual damaging effects to their relationship. Ben could spend every day telling Felix how grateful he is to have Felix in his life, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Felix has always been his one constant — especially after Ben���s parents passed away a few years ago. Ben has never had issues making connections with people, but keeping them… sometimes it feels impossible. But, somehow, he’s kept Felix all this time. 
Ben is distracted from his thoughts when Kenna peeks into the storage room. “Dude, I need you back out here.” 
So, Ben emerges from the storage room to reluctantly face more customers. His nose is still running relentlessly, which is not an enjoyable state to be in when serving customers. The next person in line looks to be a man in his late twenties or early thirties. He smiles awkwardly when Ben asks him for his order, and runs a hand through his curly, brown hair. “Um, yeah, can I just have a honey citrus mint tea, please?” he asks. 
The man’s voice cracks mid-sentence in a way that has Ben suspecting he’s not the only one under the weather today. The man’s tea order is further evidence of this suspicion, as well as the reddened skin around the edges of his nostrils. 
“Sure,” Ben says with his usual forced customer service smile. “Can you give me your name?”
The man opens his mouth to speak, but Ben notices his face contorting into an almost pained expression. Ben’s close to asking if he’s okay when the man’s head bobs down, then pops back up quickly. Ben realizes it was a sneeze — a completely silent one.
 “Uh, bless you,” Ben says slowly. “I mean, if that was a sneeze. Was it a sneeze?” he asks, an amused smile playing across his lips.
The man looks up, and Ben notices the man’s cheeks are flushed. Was this man embarrassed to be sneezing? “Um, yeah, sorry,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. Ben feels his brows furrow as he realizes the man is definitely embarrassed to be sneezing. “I’m at the tail end of a cold and my n-nose —” The man swings his arm up to catch another sneeze. 
“G’nt!”
This time the sneeze slightly more audible, but still expertly stifled. 
The man’s cheeks flush further and his gaze is firmly fixed on the floor when he says “Uh, excuse me, again. My nose is just bothering me this morning. My name…uh... It’s Arlo?” he says as though it’s a question.
Ben watches this man — Arlo — look very much like he wants the ground to swallow him up whole. All that embarrassment from two small sneezes? Ben wonders, to himself. Although, as Ben considers it, he realizes the man looked decidedly uncomfortable the moment Ben first saw him. Ben feels his expression soften as he realizes this guy must just be shy — exceptionally so. 
After Arlo pays for the tea, Ben turns around to begin making it. He’s reminded of his own cold as he feels his nose begin to tickle. Unlike Arlo, Ben does not have dainty, quiet little sneezes, so he’s reluctant to sneeze here around food and drinks. So, he tries to hold it off. He’s mostly successful. However, when he goes to hand the tea to Arlo, and with one sharp hitch of his breath as his only warning, he sneezes everywhere.
“HH-ADT’SHHHHUUUE! ADT’SHHOOOOO!” 
Ben winces as he realizes he’d never put his mask back on when he’d taken that break earlier. So the droplets from the two uncovered sneezes freely spray out in front of him, thoroughly coating everything close to him in a fine mist— including Arlo’s tea that he’s still holding out in front of him. He desperately hopes he didn’t actually hit Arlo with any of the spray. It’s now Ben’s turn to be embarrassed and he feels his own cheeks flush. 
Arlo’s staring at him, wide-eyed, and Ben is horrified to see Arlo actually reaching for the cup.
“Oh my god, no. No, no, no,” Ben says, pulling the cup out of Arlo’s reach. “I just sneezed all over that cup. There’s no way I’m letting you touch this thing. I’ll make you a new one,” he says, emphatically.
Arlo smiles, looking sheepish. “Okay. I just… I didn’t know if it was okay to ask for a new one? And, well, I’m already sick, so….” he trails off, looking away from Ben. 
Ben just stares at the man. “Dude, you have got to be a better advocate for yourself. I mean you literally just watched me sneeze on your drink. And you were just going to take it?” Ben asks, incredulous. 
Arlo’s face contorts into something resembling a wince. “I guess? I mean, I’m not good at handling these kinds of situations. I ordered macaroni and cheese at a restaurant the other day without bacon, but they brought it to me with bacon, and I’m a vegetarian, so I just… uh, I just didn’t eat,” he says, his cheeks flushing again. “I mean, I ate, but only the salad. But I was with my sister and she, well, she made them take the macaroni back and it was just so embarrassing so I told them not to worry about making any more — that I was fine with just the salad. So, anyway, I just try to avoid that kind of thing,” he finishes, finally, looking down at the floor.
“Were you? Fine with just the salad, I mean?” Ben asks, suddenly finding himself invested in this situation.
Arlo smiles and Ben notices his nose scrunches up in a way that’s almost endearing — cute even. It’s an odd thought to have because Ben doesn’t usually think about people like that — especially strangers. “Uh, no. No, I was actually quite hungry, and well, vegetarian options around here already aren’t that great. So, I really had been wanting the mac and cheese. But, I don’t know. I guess I panicked?” he says, rubbing the back of his neck. “I kind of do that sometimes. I’m not the best when it comes to dealing with people,” he says, that crooked smile and nose-scrunch returning. “I think I’ve made that abundantly clear today,” he says, laughing nervously.
Ben finds himself, despite the shittiness of the morning, smiling. “I think this failed social interaction is more the fault on my part than yours. I am the one, after all, who — and I hate to bring this back up, but it does seem necessary to do so — sneezed on your tea.”
Arlo laughs, his face lighting up in a way Ben, strangely, finds to be rather pleasant. The laughter is short-lived, however. Arlo turns his head to the side and holds a finger under his nose as if to hold back the obvious urge to sneeze. 
“HEH-g’nt g’nt g’nt g’nt gn’t gn’t g’nt! Hh Hgn’t GN’T! NgK’T!” 
Ben can't help but stare as Arlo became completely lost to the sneezing fit as his shoulders shake with each spasm. He doesn’t know if he’s ever seen anyone sneeze quite like that. Felix can stifle his sneezes, but he’s never seen Felix go that long with barely a breath between them.   
“Bless you!” Ben exclaims when it seems Arlo’s finally done. 
Arlo looks up and sniffles thickly. “Um, I really hate to ask, but do you have any, uh…” Arlo trails off, which Ben realizes he seems naturally inclined to do. 
“Oh, yeah! Let me grab some napkins,” Ben says, spinning around quickly. 
He holds out the napkins to Arlo, who takes them and immediately turns around facing an empty part of the coffeeshop. Ben shouldn’t be surprised — the guy was mortified to sneeze, so of course he’s going to be discreet about blowing his nose. Ben realizes, though, that either Arlo is blowing his nose profoundly quietly, or he’s not blowing at all, because there’s absolutely no sound coming from him. It occurs to Ben that, most likely, Arlo is only wiping his nose, though from the way his voice had sounded, it seemed he could benefit from an actual blow.
When he turns back around, the edges of his nostrils have visibly reddened. “Sorry,” he says, clutching his napkins. “Like I said — tail end of a cold. I’m fine, mostly. Just some sneezing, still.”
Ben huffs out an amused laugh. “Why are you apologizing? You just sneezed and blew your nose in literally the least disruptive way possible. And again — do I need to mention the incident with the tea? Because it occurred, like, one whole minute ago, so I don’t really think I need to, but if you think I do then —”
Arlo laughs. “No, no. No need to bring it up, again. I do remember.”
Again, Ben has one small hitch in his breath then he snaps forward in another sneeze. “HH-Ih’dzzzHHUE!” This time, though, he catches most of it with his arm. He blinks, then rubs his nose. “Ugh. I’m at, like, the head end of a cold, myself,” Ben says.
Arlo’s brows furrow. “The… the head end?”
“Yeah,” Ben says, chuckling. “Like, if you’re at the tail end, then I’m at the head end— as in, at the very beginning. Unfortunately,” he says, sniffling thickly. “I had been wearing a mask so that I wouldn't, you know, spread this lovely little thing around, but I took it off for a moment and forgot about it. So, your poor tea getting ruined was an unintended consequence of that decision, I’m afraid.”
“Ben?”
Ben startles at the voice, then realizes it’s Kenna. She gives him a pointed look, and Ben just now notices that more customers have been lining up while talking to Arlo as though this were a social occasion and not his literal job. 
“Sorry, I’m going to get this customer another tea. It, uh, it’s not any good,” he says, cringing at how ridiculous he sounds. He looks back at Arlo. “Sorry, I guess I kind of forgot I was working. But I’ll get you your tea now,” he says with a smile.
Ben puts his mask back on and remakes Arlo’s tea. He hands it to Arlo, who smiles softly before taking it. “Thanks,” he says. “Um, I hope you feel better soon.”
“Well, thank you,” Ben says with a wide grin. “And I hope this tea helps your throat. I’m guessing that’s why you ordered it?”
“Yeah, actually. I’m a teacher and I’ve taken the last few days off work, and I feel mostly okay, but I know as soon as I start teaching, my voice will abandon me entirely. So, I guess this is a futile attempt to keep that from happening?”
Ben isn’t going to tell Arlo that his voice seems to already be giving out on him with the way it’s cracking and dipping, and that he may want to play it safe and take another day off instead of using tea as a lifeline. He’s also not going to tell him how surprised he is to hear that Arlo is apparently a teacher. He seems much too soft-spoken and reserved for a job that demands standing in front of a room of people. So, instead, Ben simply smiles. There’s a moment where neither of them speak, and Ben has the odd compulsion to ask Arlo out. He’s not going to, of course. That’s not something Ben does. Also, he has no way to know if Arlo is interested in men. And more importantly, Ben doesn’t even know if he, himself, is interested in men. The fact that Ben felt compelled, at all though, is notable enough for him to ponder on. Dating — and all that comes with it — has never been something he’s felt especially inclined to do, regardless of the person’s gender.
Arlo also looks like he wants to say something, but instead he gives a quick, slightly awkward, smile. “I should head out now. So, I’m not late. Like I said, feel better soon and uh… try not to sneeze on anyone else’s drinks?” 
Ben notices Arlo seemed almost surprised at himself for making a joke, and slightly embarrassed by it. How can this guy be real? How can anyone be THIS cute in real life? Ben wonders to himself. “You feel better, too,” he says, while the nagging thought to ask Arlo out forces itself to the surface of Ben’s mind, begging him to verbalize it. Ben shoves the thought away. Arlo gives one last shy, little smile before he turns and leaves the coffee shop with his tea. 
Ben feels an odd sense of unease settle in his stomach as he watches Arlo walk off. Ben gives a quick shake of his head before returning to work, deeming the entire interaction to be, ultimately, inconsequential. Still, though, he can’t seem to entirely shake the inexplicable feeling that he’s letting something slip away from him. 
Part 2
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mariacallous · 2 months ago
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WARSAW, Poland — In the heart of the former Warsaw Ghetto, where Jews were killed and their neighborhood razed during World War II, a Jewish community has never recovered — but a museum has for a decade drawn visitors to learn about their history.
The Polin Museum is marking 10 years since opening its exhibition about the 1,000-year history of Polish Jews. In that lifespan, it rose to fame as one of the world’s leading Jewish museums and a symbol of Poland’s long-deferred recognition of its extinguished Jewish past.
But it also faced down challenges from a government ruled by Poland’s right-wing nationalist Law and Justice party, which sought to remove museum leaders seen as too critical of government policies or unwilling to conform with nationalist versions of history. Law and Justice was overturned by a centrist coalition last year.
During a weekend of anniversary programming in late September, which included a gala, a symphony orchestra concert and curatorial tours, nearly 10,000 people passed through the museum, a modernist building designed by the Finnish firm Lahdelma & Mahlamäki.
Special guests ranged from government officials and museum founders and donors to influential members of Poland’s small Jewish community, including Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich and Marian Turski, a 98-year-old historian and Holocaust survivor who presides over the museum council.
The hoopla surrounding Polin’s 10-year anniversary reflects its impact on Poland, a society that only in recent decades has confronted the history of its Jewish community and the 3 million Polish Jews who were killed there under the Nazis. The museum’s name draws from a story about Jews who fled persecution in Western Europe and arrived in Poland during the Middle Ages. According to legend, they heard birds singing “Po-lin,” a transliteration of the Hebrew words for both “rest here” and “Poland.”
Before Germany invaded Poland in 1939, it was one of the most diverse countries in Europe. Jews made up 10% of the total population and a majority in many towns. Warsaw was home to more than 350,000 Jews — about 30% of the city.
After the Nazis killed most of Poland’s Jews, the country came under decades of communist rule. Soviet authorities suppressed Jewish religious and cultural life and folded the Holocaust into an ideological narrative about the Soviets’ total victory over the Nazis — relegating Polish-Jewish history to what scholars call “the communist freezer.” Only in the early 1990s, after the fall of communism, did the idea of the Polin Museum first come into being.
Over 20 years and more than $100 million later, with the help of wealthy American donors and the Polish government, the Polin Museum opened its core exhibit in October 2014.
“For 50 years, people didn’t learn anything about what Polish Jews were about — including Polish Jews,” Schudrich told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “What’s really happened since 1989 is people beginning to learn, and the key pivotal place for that education to take place is here.”
The ambition of Polin was distinct from the memorials at Poland’s slew of concentration camps and Nazi killing centers: This place called itself a “museum of life.”
Only one of the eight multimedia galleries is dedicated to the Holocaust. The rest follow a millennium of Jewish life in Poland, from the first appearance of Jews in the 10th century to the development of Jewish towns; life under Poland’s partition between Russia, Prussia and Austria; waves of pogroms; the birth of modern Jewish social, political and religious movements; and a period of newfound freedoms after World War I, in the Second Polish Republic, all before the devastation wrought by the Holocaust.
A final gallery also traces the post-war years, when a small number of Jews remained in Poland. After a government-sponsored antisemitic campaign in 1968 purged thousands of Jews from the country, only about 10,000 remained. This gallery also looks at a renewed curiosity about Jewish history since the 1990s, which has given rise to festivals of Jewish culture across Poland, many of them organized by non-Jews.
Dariusz Stola, a historian at the Polish Academy of Sciences and the museum’s first director, said that Polin arrived at the perfect time — when interest in the Jewish heritage of Poland was surging at home and interest in the Polish heritage of Jews was surging abroad. (About 70% of the world’s Jews have roots in Poland, according to Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, a professor emerita of New York University and chief curator of Polin’s core exhibit.)
Today the museum has been visited more than 5 million times, with about half of its visitors from Poland and half from other countries. Its collection of accolades includes the European Museum Academy Award and the European Union’s Europa Nostra Award.
“The Polin Museum was an outcome of the opening of Polish society after 1989, of democracy, of certain liberal principles — such as the idea that people are different and we should live together — but it also contributed to these developments,” Stola told JTA.
But the past 10 years have also brought challenges for people who work in education about Poland’s Jewish history. Between 2015 and 2023, a nationalist-conservative government made controlling history a central part of its platform, promising to revive Poland’s pride in its past and eradicate a so-called “pedagogy of shame” — which meant stifling discussions about Polish people who killed Jews or cooperated with the Nazi regime.
In 2018, the country passed a law that outlawed accusing Poland or the Polish people of complicity in the Holocaust. Although its penalty has changed — lawmakers downgraded it from a crime punishable with three years in prison to a civil offense — the law remains in effect today.
Stola was among the casualties of the eight-year government, which accused him of “politicizing” the Polin Museum after an exhibition that documented Poland’s antisemitic campaign of 1968. Stola was pushed out as the director in 2019, despite winning a competition to extend his tenure.
Still, Stola believes that Polin has triumphed in educating the Polish public about the Jewish history in their midst. He pointed out that even those who oppose the museum’s contents have been forced to contend with them.
“There was a moment a couple of years ago, when a group of antisemites made a little campaign online: ‘This is Poland, not Polin,’” Stola said in his remarks at the 10-year anniversary gala. “I’m pretty sure they had never heard the name ��Polin’ before we opened this museum, so they also learned something.”
For Jews in Poland and abroad, Polin presented an opportunity to learn about Polish-Jewish heritage beyond the most-remembered story of death and destruction. At the Auschwitz memorial in Oświęcim, a regular parade of Jewish students, tourists and officials leaves dizzy with despair — but Polin sought to inspire other feelings, too.
“Many of our Jews in Poland today didn’t even grow up knowing they were Jewish, so one of the challenges is for people to learn about their history — and also have a great sense of being proud,” said Schudrich. “This is a place where someone who has Jewish roots can come and learn, wow, look what my ancestors have created.”
That offering has made the museum some high-profile friends in the United States. The actor Jesse Eisenberg spoke remotely at the gala about visiting Poland to shoot his new film “A Real Pain,” about two cousins who travel there to learn about their grandmother’s Holocaust story, based on his own roots in the country.
Eisenberg joked that when he arrived for filming last year, he was annoyed to see the Polin Museum built on a site he remembered being empty during his first trip to uncover his family history.
“I was initially frustrated because it conflicted with my image of that set from 2008, but when I went in the museum, I was just overwhelmed,” said Eisenberg, who has applied for Polish citizenship. “I cannot wait to go back.”
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, the chief curator, said Polin rose from a demand to understand what vanished from Poland together with most of its Jews. Unlike many other Holocaust museums in Europe, Polin’s founding was not based on a collection of Jewish relics and remains — but on their absence.
“This museum is built on the rubble of the ghetto, on the rubble of the pre-war Jewish neighborhood,” Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, professor emerita at New York University,  said at the gala. “That is for me a very powerful symbol, because we began without a collection. We’ve now formed a collection — we have over 19,000 objects — but our greatest asset wasn’t a collection. Our greatest asset was the powerful story of the largest Jewish community in the world.”
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justforbooks · 3 months ago
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Ratan Tata
Indian business tycoon who turned his family’s Tata Group into a global player, and invested heavily in British industry
Ratan Tata, who has died aged 86, was India’s most celebrated industrialist. He modernised the unwieldy business empire founded by his great grandfather in the 19th century and internationalised it. In the process he spread his interests into western countries, with mixed results.
For the UK, that included the £271m purchase of the Tetley Group in 2000, followed more controversially by the acquisition of the steel company Corus for £6.2bn in 2007. Then, in 2008, Tata, himself a car enthusiast, added the troubled Jaguar Land Rover motor business for a further £1.75bn.
He joined the family firm, Tata Steel, in 1962. Educated in the US, and newly qualified as an architect, the young Tata had, he said, no intention of returning to India. But family ties won out. When his ailing grandmother, Navajbai, who had raised him, asked him to return he did so. He was soon promoted, building his reputation with tough reorganisation, followed by more troubleshooting at the electronics and textile companies.
In 1981, he was made chairman of Tata Industries, and found himself confronting an assortment of separate businesses, with different ownership patterns over which there was little formal control. He made a blueprint for reorganisation, having spent time at the Harvard Business School, but it was rejected after opposition from semi-autonomous bosses.
However, in 1991, the 81-year-old patriarch of the group, JRD Tata, chose him as his successor as the overall chairman. Asked why, he replied: “He has a modern mind.”
Tata soon demonstrated it with a tough programme of reshaping that, against continuing opposition, brought closures, job reductions, and the departure of the heads of the steel, hotel and chemical businesses.
He began to focus more on brands and less on heavy industry, and he benefited from the deregulation of Indian industry championed by Rajiv Gandhi. As part of it, he took the company more heavily into the motor industry. Tata lorries already dominated Indian highways, but now he moved into the car business in line with his own enthusiasms. While always seen as a man of modest habits, he had his own lovingly maintained collection of high-powered and classic cars, and delighted in driving them along Mumbai’s Marine Drive most Sundays.
Tata produced what was called “the first Indian car”, designed by and for Indians, in 1998. Ratan did some of the first drawings himself. The Tata Indica was a success. But when he went further a decade later, and the company conceived the Nano, a tiny saloon described as the world’s most affordable car at a price of about £2,000, the project failed. Such a cheap car was not enticing even to those “on two wheels” whom he hoped to attract.
In 1999 Tata had travelled to Detroit to discuss the sale of the motor business to Ford, only to be asked why his firm had gone into the passenger car business when it clearly knew nothing about it. Later he would turn the tables, buying underperforming Jaguar Land Rover from Ford and reviving it.
With sell-offs and cutbacks, Tata reorganised the group into 98 operating companies from more than 250, reducing the labour force by more than a third. He forged alliances with foreign companies and went into information technology.
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He stepped down in 2012, observing the compulsory retirement rule he had himself introduced, but was still regarded as “chairman emeritus” and was brought back unhappily for a few months when his successor was sacked four years later.
His most shocking day came in 2008, when terrorists took over the Tatas’ Taj Mahal hotel on the front at Mumbai with great loss of life. The company has continued to support staff affected and the families of those who died.
Ratan was born in Mumbai, into the large Parsi Tata family, whose wealth came from a scattered collection of businesses including textiles, hotels, engineering, steel and tea. His father, Naval, had been adopted by the son of the founder, Jamsetji Tata. After Naval and his wife, Soonoo, separated when Ratan was seven, the child was brought up with his younger brother, Jimmy, by his grandmother in a grand Tata mansion in central Mumbai.
Aged 17 he was sent to the US to attend Riverdale Country school in New York City, from where he entered Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He studied engineering before switching to architecture, graduating in 1959. He worked as an architect for a while in Los Angeles before returning to India, and Tata Steel.
In his 20 years at the helm, Tata’s sales grew by 22% annually and its international revenues rose from a quarter to 58% of the total, while Tata Consultancy Services became Asia’s largest software company.
His British investments have been among his less successful. Corus was bought for an over-the-top £6bn just before the global financial crash devastated the industry. Tata claimed it as “the first big step that Indian industry has taken as a global player”. It was later described by a senior Tata executive as “worthless”. The firm is currently negotiating terms of new investment at Port Talbot, which would be accompanied by hundreds of redundancies, while huge plants on Teesside and Scunthorpe have already been closed or sold for a nominal sum.
Jaguar Land Rover was initially a happier story. Tata’s major investment, including in research and development, made the company for a while the largest foreign investor in British industry. But eight years of profits have been followed by losses since 2018.
Surveying the British scene in 2011, Tata told the Times: “Nobody seems to want to exert the effort to make the UK truly competitive. It’s a work ethic issue. In my experience in both Corus and JLR, nobody is willing to go the extra mile.”
He was a major figure in the international business community, close to US politicians as well as the Indian government, advising the former prime ministers Gordon Brown and David Cameron, and sitting on the boards of multinational institutions.
He was also known as a major philanthropist. Many of the Tata companies were owned through trusts he chaired, and huge sums were provided for medical research and university projects both in India and abroad, particularly in the US, where a number of campuses have buildings bearing his name.
A softly spoken man, renowned for his courtesy, he never married, although he described himself as having come close four times. He was known for living modestly, although his recreations included flying his private jet and driving his collection of expensive cars, as well as a speedboat. He was noted for his love of dogs. The Tata headquarters in Mumbai had kennels and made provision for street dogs, and he was a donor to canine charities. In 2014 he was made GBE.
He is survived by Jimmy, by his stepmother, Simone, a half brother, Noel, and two half sisters, Shireen and Deanna.
🔔 Ratan Tata, businessman, born 28 December 1937; died 9 October 2024
Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?
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timdrakesbussy · 1 year ago
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Goblin Destroyer: How the Internet Revived an Obscure Local Band
This is something that suddenly appear in my mind when I was waiting for a public transport near my campus but like ... Stardew Valley's aesthetic looks like they're in the 90s in rural Northern America/Western Europe (though still cmiiw since I don't live in neither of those regions).
So then I thought about Sam's band and the real life band called "Panchiko" where the internet basically rebirth this band. (If you want to know about the band, here's a video)
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And I randomly think about some kids somewhere in the SDV-verse came across Sam's band's LP (I'm gonna go with Goblin Destroyer) and asked online forums about it but none got anything so far. Doesn't help the fact that the LP was credited only with their first names which are very very common names. The names in the back of the LP only says Abigail, Sam, and Sebastian with their roles which are drummer, guitarist/vocalist, and keyboardist/synth in that order.
OP then gave more information, like how the label seemed to be from either the late 90s or early 00s and it was obvious that they were from the Republic of Ferngill. Small problem though, Ferngill Republic is not a small place. Sure, it's not a big country, but it's still going to be hard to find the people who contributed to this record, especially since it was decades long. Regardless, this was a step forward. 
I personally think they would not take too long (like Panchiko irl) because of my personal headcanon of Sebastian being chronically online even to his fourties.
The forum was very popular with many tried to remaster their songs or figure out just who they were. So then Sebastian rolled around and was like, "Holy fuck, I can't believe you found a copy of this. Thought they threw them all away in Zuzu City back in '98."
AND PEOPLE WERE SHOCKED AND ASKED IF THIS USER HAS A CLEANER COPY BUT THEN HE WAS LIKE, "lmao I'm the Sebastian credited in the back of the LP. Sadly, no. I do not have the cleaner copy, but I think my husband do keep some in his previous house when we still lived in the Valley."
Obviously, people were skeptical because the internet lies a lot. But they still gave him the benefit of the doubt because this was more information than they previously tried to dig. It was true that Goblin Destroyers were from Ferngill, specifically Zuzu City, and it was correct that they were from the late 90s.
Few months went by without a follow-up so most people just brush him off as hoax because that's what they usually did to lost media, claimed to know and kept it somewhere but unattainable for some reason.
That is, until another user joined the forum and introduced himself as Sebastian's husband who has the cleaner copy back in his old home. The husband was apparently, a very important piece in the band because he was none other than Sam -- another name crossed off the list.
Sam apologized and claimed that it took him longer to find than he expected and to compensate, he and Sebastian did a digital remaster for the LP and will put it to streaming services alongside their previously unreleased tracks.
With the band finally found, some questions arrived. Most of the questions were about Abigail, the drummer of the band, and also about them in general. The only things they knew so far were that Goblin Destroyer was a prog metal band from the late 90s, Ferngill, and that two out of the three members are married to each other.
The two claimed that they had no idea where Abigail was; the last time they saw her was when they still lived in their hometown. Sebastian then mentioned that she joined something called "The Adventurer's Guild", and one of the last things they did together was go to the forest and watch Abigail's improved swordsmanship. That was almost twenty years ago. They just hope that wherever she is, she's alive and well because she was their best friend.
They then ended the forum with pictures of them when they were young and some band photoshoots, needless to say that social media will be filled with their pics for a few months or so because of how attractive they were. The couple also added a recent pic and well, they're still handsome as hell.
It took them a while to finally return as a band; they were not the young adults in a small town who were bored and annoyed with how their parents coddled them anymore. They are middle-aged with a family and jobs, so yeah, it took a while for them to perform again. Eventually, though, they were back as a band. At least a duo for a few months, releasing a new single after twenty years.
Goblin Destroyer did not tour or participate in any music festivals until they were hit by a surprise, Abigail finally returned to the band. She revealed that she's been busy with the guild for over twenty years and is a mentor, so she was so out of touch with the news. She also revealed that she figured out that they went viral through her mentee, who told her about it.
Finally, the band was back in business. This was the dream that Sam had thrown away, and to actually have it tenfold decades later was exhilarating, to say the least.
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hit-song-showdown · 2 years ago
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Year-End Poll #47: 1996
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[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Los del Tio, Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, Celine Dion, The Tony Rich Project, Mariah Carey, Tracy Chapman, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Donna Lewis, Toni Braxton, Keith Sweat. End description]
More information about this blog here
A lot of major moments to talk about this year. Like my birth. I was born out of the Macarena Summer.
In 1996, the Bayside Boys remix of Los del Rio's Macarena became a cultural phenomenon as well as an incredibly popular song (I'm clarifying it's a remix, because the non-Bayside Boys version also reached the Hot 100 at number 98). The track's record for longevity in the Hot 100 would only be broken almost two decades later by Adele.
Speaking of record-breaking songs, One Sweet Day, the duet between Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men, is a towering R&B number. At 16 weeks, the song held the record for most weeks at the number one spot until Lil Nas X came out with Old Town Road in 2019.
One Sweet Day is a song about grief, specifically the track was inspired by the ongoing AIDS epidemic. It's not the only song on this poll related to this issue. Bone Thugs-n-Harmony wrote Tha Crossroads to honor Eazy-E, one of the establishing figures behind the West Coast rap scene who passed away from AIDS-induced pneumonia in 1995 when he was just 30-years-old.
Sadly, the stretch between 1995 and 1996 would be marked by several losses among legends in rap and hip-hop. In 1996, The Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac Shakur would be murdered with only a few months between their deaths. These losses will be relevant in a direct manner when we get to the next poll, but it's not an exaggeration to say that the music world was shaken by their deaths. There were those who were quick to make bad-faith arguments blaming the violent subject matter of the music itself. And while the coast-based rivalries did get extremely intense, I think this is a reductive conclusion to come to. To many, however, this moment in music history felt like a nation-wide wake up call.
As rap became more mainstream and started to absorb more of pop music influences into its sound, the genre was bound to change. We've already seen this with the increasing number of R&B fusions and rap verses on pop songs. But some mark this year as another turning point for the genre, as the gangster rap era starts to fade in the mainstream music scene. Even outside of rap, after this point pop music starts to feel a lot sunnier, for lack of a better term. Whether this is due to coping with these recent tragedies, a larger demographic of younger music listeners dictating the majority taste, people gearing up for the new millennium, the record industry reaching record numbers in profits, or genuine positivity and optimism (think that might have been still a thing lol), the times are certainly about to change.
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omi-papus · 2 years ago
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Concept I pulled out of my ass while trying not to pass out in the micro:
A couple of fanon interpretations of the architects have the idea that they have genetic children, (whether by insemination, something about spores I think, and literally just raw DNA depends on the creator) but they don't give birth, and they don't have partnerships between the parents, they also don't care for their children themselves. That's left to specific qualified caretakers and essentially no member of the equation knows who it is they shared genes with, neither do they care
Now. Present day. No architects save for one are left. Robin and Al-An have been traversing the home world for years and have yet to find sight of any survivors. They find records of what was apparently an evacuation effort to get as many of the children out of the planet as possible, apparently not all were able to be boarded, and they learn that one child was intentionally left behind. The file is too corrupted to get the explanation as to why. They assume said child has already dead, and Al-An is too afraid of facing any more disappointment, but Robin pushes him along, encouraging him to try and find it.
And above all odds they do. Its consciousness is stored in a faulty terminal and it luckily they can get a body for it rather quickly, but due to time and resource availability. They are forced to give it a body that's much smaller. Smaller than even Robin. Al-An claims it to be a couple of decades old, around 98, and to Robin it appears to hold the mannerisms and behavior of a twelve-year-old. It's initially scared and untrusting, and it only begins to trust them somewhat when it seems that they made it a body and that it has nowhere else to go. It can't speak any human languages, being far less apt than Al-An, but it can speak some architect. Both Al-An and it can communicate, and he senses that there'is something it's not telling him. The network is gone, so these two cant read each other's thoughts, so they are stuck as they are. This is why the brooding doesn't actually recognize Al-An in any meaningful way. It can tell he's an older architect, but nothing more. Al-An recognizes this insecurity and, after a long period of trust building, mostly between him and it, Robin being a presence he feels uncomfortable with. Al-An decides to sit it down and explain to it who he really is. Why things are the way that they are, and why he is here now. 
The broodling remains frozen for a second and without warning emediatly attacks him. Al-An has no problem stopping him. And begs for its forgiveness and in the midst of it screaming and crying, falling over its own legs, repeating itself in its rage induced misery, tells him “It is your genes that made them choose to leave me here!” Before running off.
Al-An doesn't understand. He stands there still for way too long, and it's only when Robin shakes him to get out of his stupor, that he manages to whisper.
“That is my offspring…”
He can't face it. Al-An has never even thought about this being before, and cant believe the chances of ever meeting it like this. The guilt swallows him whole as he realizes that his failure was not only known throughout the network, but that they deemed his very being so repulsive that they left an innocent child to die only in the name of culling his bloodline. He does not expect it to forgive him, and he is terrified by the very notion of being a genuen father. He was never meant to be. He doesn't even know who the mother was. It was just something all architects where instructed to do at one point. He's scared and remorseful and yet, even now more than ever before, so desperate to hold it close, to keep it safe and tell it he loves it more than anything. But he can't bring himself to follow after.
And Robin does not plan to let that stand. She's going to get those two back together if it kills her. And she isn't going to tell either of them… but she doesn't want to think about Al-An having a family with somebody else. She deep down wants the kid to accept her too.
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