#at least it occurred to him and strongly enough to note it in the official records

[anza-redstar]

To-night I have stockings to darn, to-morrow pantaloons to mend, and all of next week carpenter-work, mending and making sledges, sewing sails, dressing skins, and taking photos in a temperature -22° C.—all of this is far from pleasant, but it contains a lesson. It teaches us how much of the drudgery of life is done uncomplainingly by mothers, sisters, wives, and other members of the family circle. It makes us feel the importance of feminine existence, causes us to see the ups and downs, the ponds and eddies, the rapids and cataracts of the humdrum side of life which man ordinarily escapes.

Takes getting frozen into the Antarctic ice to notice the work that isn’t the work which is normally assigned to you, but so it goes.

[otnesse]

Commentary on Peace Walker’s lionization of Che Guevara

Well, guys, as I promised earlier, I’m going to do coverage on a particularly infamous aspect of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and quite frankly if you ask me, one of its worst elements. Sorry for the delay, didn’t realize that Peace Walker was actually released on April 29 in Japan and not the 30th. I’m basically going to cover the game’s lionization of Che Guevara in the various briefing files, and in particular Big Boss and Kazuhira Miller’s lionizing of that monster. For a bit of background, Peace Walker was the second canon PSP entry into the Metal Gear series, after Portable Ops (yes, Portable Ops is in fact canon, and if you ask me was a superior game to Peace Walker in terms of story and characterizations at least, but I digress…). The game has some controversial elements, namely it being very overtly anti-American even by its usual standards, not to mention pushing left-wing values to a far greater degree. One of these values is in the blatant promotion of Che Guevara in the briefing files (in the main story itself, ie, strictly going by the actual missions you undergo, the Che love was at least limited to the Sandinistas and to Vladimir Zadornov, with it being left ambiguous as to whether Snake and Miller actually were fond of him, and while you could argue that the Sandinistas’ sympathetic portrayal could point toward a promotion, Zadornov’s promotion was definitely meant to be a negative since he was planning on having Big Boss reenact Che’s well deserved execution after successfully changing Peace Walker’s target to Cuba in a disinformation op. The Briefing Files, however, aside from obviously Amanda and Chico, members of the Sandinistas, they also had Big Boss and Miller singing praises for that jerk.).

My commentary is on how Big Boss and Miller’s promotion of the guy was a complete and total betrayal of their characters, and also a betrayal of the explicit themes of the game, and also how it’s just one sign of Kojima just being a hack writer, not to mention was extremely poorly done even if we were to assume Kojima intended for Big Boss and Miller to be seen as the villains.

Out of character

For the first part, I’ll cover how the gushing for Che Guevara was completely out of character for Big Boss, and especially for Kazuhira Miller, aka, Master Miller from MG2 and MGS, not just going by past entries, but even when taking into account Peace Walker itself and any supplementary materials. I’ll give separate sections for the two of them, since it’s going to be lengthy.

Big Boss

For Big Boss, I’ll acknowledge that he was meant to be the main villain in the MSX2 games, or at least the main antagonist. However, his singing praises for Che Guevara even knowing that tidbit still didn’t make any sense at all, for a variety of reasons. First off, the games, namely Metal Gear Solid 2, strongly implied that Big Boss adhered to a more, for lack of a better term, right wing outlook. For starters, the New York Mirror review for Nastasha Romanenko’s book gave brief coverage on the official reports of what went down on Shadow Moses. In particular, as you can see with the screencaps down below, they specifically called the Sons of Big Boss a “radical right-wing group”, and the group itself for all intents and purposes, was modeled after Big Boss (even Liquid, despite hating his father, nevertheless was influenced by his ideology).

And then we get into the character Solidus, who unlike Liquid, or even Solid Snake, practically idolized his “father” (I put it in quotes since Solidus is a clone of Big Boss, as are Liquid and Solid), to the extent that he was practically ecstatic that Raiden shot out his eye and made him look even MORE like his dad. Aside from that, as you can see below with these screencaps, he was also depicted as a proto-Tea Party type, heck, a proto-MAGA type even, basically wanting America to return to the way the Founding Fathers envisioned it. There’s definitely no way Solidus would have been the type to sing praises for a scumbag like Che Guevara, knowing that, and considering his idolization of Big Boss, it’s also unlikely Big Boss would have sang praises for that creep either.

There’s also the fact that in MGS3, he wasn’t fond of Communism at all, and had already interacted with a guy similar to Che in many respects (well, other than maybe in terms of sexuality), Colonel Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin, as both were renowned sadists, and even directly attempted to cause nuclear war. In fact, even before the torture, Big Boss, more accurately Naked Snake at that time, learned a bit about Volgin’s past, in particular his involvement in Katyn, and presumably Bykivnia and Kurapaty as well due to EVA’s references to similar massacres occurring in Western Belarus and the Ukraine, as you can see below:

His reaction in that conversation with EVA, in particular Volgin’s personal role in executing those guys, had him downright horrified. Bear in mind that Che Guevara actually DID do several of those things himself, shot innocent and unarmed people, and if anything, unlike Volgin who at least allowed Snake to have weapons on hand to fight him, Che outright dithers when confronted with people using guns, even if they’re his own allies based on his interaction with Jorges Sotus, and to a lesser extent Jesus Carreras. It says a lot when even someone like Volgin, a psychopathic mutant, had more honor than Che Guevara. Plus, in Peace Walker, Big Boss when recalling the Cuban Missile Crisis implied that he blamed that event for his ultimately having to kill The Boss (with Miller even noting it was uncharacteristic of him to get into hypotheticals), as you can see in these screencaps below.

The reason that ties in to Che Guevara is because, believe it or not, Che is the reason why the CMC nearly caused the Cold War to become hot. He and Castro even attempted to launch nukes at the United States, and it actually spooked Khrushchev enough that he had to muzzle Che and agree to end the standoff with the United States via the Turkey Deal (or retrieving Sokolov). Knowing that bit, it’s extremely unlikely Big Boss would have been particularly fond of the guy who essentially set the ground for Operation Snake Eater and his having to kill The Boss. And that’s not even getting into how he tried to stop a nuke being launched not just once in the game, but TWICE, and the second time was a perfect opportunity for him to emulate Che Guevara and succeed where Che failed. When Paz hijacked ZEKE, she revealed that she intended to nuke the Eastern Seaboard and pin the blame on MSF under Cipher’s orders, and yet Big Boss fought her in an attempt to stop her. That definitely wouldn’t have been something Che Guevara would have done, and if anything, he bragged to the London Daily Worker that he WOULD have launched the nukes at America preemptively had they been allowed to remain.

Heck, in Portable Ops and even Peace Walker, or at least the backstory for those games, Big Boss specifically served western interests after Operation Snake Eater. In the former, Big Boss was revealed to have participated in the Mozambique War of Independence, and a comment made by Null, aka, Gray Fox, aka, Frank Jaegar, after being bested the second time around, implied that Big Boss had fought alongside the Portugese during that time (Jaegar at that time was siding with FRELIMO), as you can see from the following screencaps:

And in the tape detailing how he and Miller met (not to mention the extended version included in the Peace and Harmony Blues drama tape that was later included in the Japanese version of Ground Zeroes, specifically chapters 1 and 2), it was mentioned that Kazuhira Miller at the time was a mercenary operating with an implied communist rebel group in Colombia, while Big Boss was clearly siding with the Western-backed government.

I think the events proper for Peace Walker was the first time Big Boss explicitly sided with Communists (not counting Portable Ops, since it’s implied the Russian soldiers renounced their Communism after being abandoned by the Soviet government), and even there, he did it more out of his own personal motives of getting closure regarding The Boss’s true motives after learning she may have somehow survived Snake Eater than out of any liking of Mena/Zadornov’s objectives.

Besides, Big Boss is former CIA, and grunt or not, he'd still need to have at least some degree of knowledge about Che, namely stuff like how Che tried to commit to the Cuban Missile Crisis and make it a hot war, among other things like his instituting gulags in Cuba. And let's not forget, when Gene in Portable Ops tried to pull a similar stunt, Big Boss was genuinely horrified by what he was planning to do.

Kazuhira Miller

Now we get to Kazuhira Miller, aka, Master McDonnell Benedict Miller. Unlike Big Boss, Miller was consistently up to that point depicted as a good guy (probably the closest he got to engaging in villainy was in MGS1 regarding manipulating Snake into arming REX, and even there, he was dead three days before the events of the game, and that had been Liquid who did so). He was also shown to be a huge Che fanboy, and if anything he was depicted as being an even bigger fanboy than Big Boss himself in that game. And Peace Walker also retconned his origins by revealing he was in fact born in Japan with bi-racial ancestry (Japanese and American Caucasian), as he originally was third-generation Japanese American. He was made clear to have more love for America than his own home country of Japan, and only recognized the meaning of peace when talking to his hospitalized mom. He also was mentioned to have been influenced to get into the mercenary business by Yukio Mishima’s suicide, though he does imply that he wasn’t on the same political spectrum as him. Him singing praises for Che Guevara doesn’t work well at all, especially considering that he repeatedly stressed that they not allow another Cuban Missile Crisis to happen, and going by his comments in these screencaps below (in the same briefing file as Big Boss’s uncharacteristically going into hypotheticals, and if anything happened immediately before then), he was fully aware about how Japan itself was almost nuked again thanks to that event (with the only difference being that the Soviets were more likely to nuke them), as you can see with the following screencaps.

Having him sing praises for Che Guevara, whom as I pointed out earlier actually attempted to launch nukes and jumpstart World War III, comes across as ESPECIALLY distasteful knowing that bit, since it comes across as him basically cheering for the guy who tried to wipe out his fellow Japanese, to say little about the Americans, whom back then, he idolized. It would be the same thing as a Holocaust survivor singing praises for Adolf Hitler after narrowly surviving being killed by him. It also doesn’t match up at all with his characterization in MG2 or even MGS1 (and believe me, Liquid posing as Miller or not, his statements to Snake would have been what Miller himself would have said since Snake didn’t seem suspicious at all about him.), the latter regarding the bit about Meryl after she was captured. Even his not being fond of Japan doesn’t cut it, especially when, ignoring that he put that to the side after his mom was hospitalized, the character Sokolov ALSO wasn’t fond of the Soviet Union at all, risked crossing the iron curtain alongside his family to get away from it, and would have been free as a bird had the CMC not happened, and almost got away again until The Boss interfered. Even THERE, however, he still retained at least some degree of love for Russia itself, as when Gene decided to try to nuke Russia (or at least, that’s what Gene led everyone to believe at the time), he secretly went against Gene and adopted the alias of Ghost to aid Big Boss specifically to prevent a nuke from being launched there, being THAT against harming Russia despite hating the Soviet policies. I would have expected Miller to not be fond of Che Guevara at all for that reason.

Overall

The whole thing also didn’t work since if they were meant to be seen as heroes, it ticks off a whole lot of players who are fully aware of some of the crap Che Guevara caused and know his true nature, and regarding painting them as a villain, the problem is that the story DOESN’T depict them as villains for that. Heck, they don’t even STATE any bad things Che did other than maybe dying, and if anything, the way everyone was talking, you’d think he’d walk on water. If Kojima wanted to depict Big Boss and Miller as villains by having him sing praises for Che, the very least he could have done was make sure to specifically reference Che Guevara’s role in nearly causing the Cold War to go Hot by the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis and his being upset at the nukes being removed.

Apparently, if Kojima’s secretary is of any indication, the reason the Che love was in the game was because Kojima himself tried to force in his socio-political views into the game in blatant disregard for the narrative and characterizations therein, as you can see below with links (screencaps will have to be in an addendum post since, unfortunately, I've hit my limit regarding screencap postings):

https://twitter.com/Kaizerkunkun/status/900937994143649792

https://twitter.com/Kaizerkunkun/status/1179860611297153038

https://twitter.com/Kaizerkunkun/status/1190763430497542144

Themes

The Che praise doesn’t work too well with the themes either, since he was not a peaceful man, even called himself the opposite of Christ, and tried to start a nuclear war. It definitely goes against the stated themes of the game, which was peace, not to mention the anti-nuke themes of the overall franchise. Heck, if anything, specifically referencing Che’s attempt at nuking the US and causing Nuclear War, and by extension outright condemning him for it would have worked much better with the themes of anti-nukes, especially considering that they made sure to reference Vasily Arkhipov’s actions during the Cuban Missile Crisis at one point, not to mention referenced both Katyn and the fact that the Turkey silos were already rendered obsolete even before the Turkey Deal made removing them required due to the advent of nuclear subs in Snake Eater earlier. And without the references to that, or any other bad stuff, you’re literally left thinking that he must be a good guy. I’d know because I fell for that myself, especially after getting the game (I didn’t follow the briefing files, but I did follow the cutscenes on YouTube back when it was still in Japan, and I also was baffled as to how people were talking about Big Boss and Miller were Che fanboys since the cutscenes never even pointed in either direction, and if anything, Big Boss nearly being killed by Zadornov would probably point to him NOT liking Che afterwards due to nearly being forced into Che’s fate).

The only thing it did was just have Kojima force in his political and social views, and I’ll be blunt, that kind of crap is something I have distaste in, I hate having propaganda pushed onto me. Ironically, Kojima or at least the Benson books for MGS1 and MGS2, instilled that view onto me. So my anger at Kojima doing that, after learning what Che was truly like in one of the Politically Incorrect Books (either Vietnam War or the 1960s one), is very much personal as well as political and social.

Aftermath

Well, as I said, I did buy into the narrative around the time Peace Walker was released, but then I learned I was being tricked by Kojima after reading the PIG books. I’d argue that event definitely was a watershed event for me. Not only did it have me lose any respect I might have had for Kojima, it also influenced my outlook on life, left me becoming distrustful the second I started picking up how they’re trying to push an agenda instead of, say, actually teaching the material in college. It also may have influenced my later views on Star Wars and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (specifically, George Luca’s open admission to basing the Ewoks/Rebels on the Vietcong, and especially modeling the Galactic Empire after American soldiers; and Linda Woolverton admitting that she was trying to push a radical feminist agenda in Beauty and the Beast, the same one she tried to push in that awful Maleficent movie. Though I also was becoming disturbed with Belle for reasons other than that bit due to researching the French Revolution, though I will acknowledge Big Boss and Kazuhira Miller’s fanboying of Che Guevara, and in particular their reference to Sartre and his infamously singing praises for Che as “the most complete human being of the century”, certainly worsened my views on Belle, thinking that she may turn out like Sartre and throw her lot with the Jacobins and other groups.). It also left me distrusting of whatever Metal Gear had to say, may have also led to my not liking Chris Redfield after Resident Evil 5, or heck, some of the more anti-American commentary in 5 and other games, and also Dead Rising. It also influenced my decision to become a Dead or Alive fan (especially when before, I wasn’t particularly fond of the game due to the fanservice stuff), and in particular a Tina and Bass fan. May have also influenced my later distaste of Greg Berlanti’s writing of Arrowverse shows, in particular Supergirl starting with Season 2 (though that also had Heroes Redemption as a factor, which predated Peace Walker, thanks to how it changed Claire Bennet).

[in-class-daydreams]

Parlay (Kuroo x Reader) | Ch. 3

Pairing: Kuroo Tetsurou x Reader (ft. Roommate Kenma)

Word Count: ~2400

Genres: Fluff, angst if you squint, general buffoonery

CW: Some swearing, but otherwise none!

Summary: (Y/N), a first-year student attending Tokyo U, is living with her best friend, Kozume Kenma. Little did she know, her life would be turned upside down after being exposed to Kenma’s volleyball teammate and close friend, Kuroo Tetsurou. One wrong move, and the parlay’s stakes only get higher each time.

Chapters: First | Previous | Next 

Honestly, Kuroo dreaded 2:00 pm every Tuesday and Thursday. His lecture was two and a half hours long, and it was in one of the school’s bigger lecture halls, meaning he spent two days a week sitting at an itty bitty desk in an overcrowded lecture hall. It was always hot and muggy, and there’s always that one guy that you can smell three rows back. It honestly can’t be that hard to take a shower once a while, right? Personal hygiene. What a concept!

‘Before making assumptions about a person who smells - like thinking they don’t shower - consider their living situation and the fact that not everyone has access to--’ A memory from a conversation with Bokuto flashed through his mind. He begged the Bokuto that lived inside his head to please shut his piehole.

In retrospect, he really should have taken an easier class, but no. His academic advisor had strongly advised against taking an easier class to fulfill this requirement because it wouldn’t ‘enrich his academic talents.’ He could just hear his teammate’s irritating tone.

“Don’t worry, Tetsu-Chan! It’ll be a good challenge for you!”

‘Good challenge’ his ass. He really had to stop trusting other people’s judgement.

Despite his admitted hatred for his 2:00 lecture, at least he and Bokuto got to chat beforehand. The frat boy had a class at the same time: Women and Politics in Continental America. According to him, so long as you did your work and ‘are at least a somewhat decent person,’ the class was relatively easy to get a quality grade in. So while Kuroo was dreading the next two and a half hours of his life he’ll never get back, Bokuto could talk Kuroo’s ear off about his “Owlets” without a care in the world, that bastard.

“Bruh, they’re so cute! We played freeze tag for warm ups today ‘cuz they’ve been good all week and, man, little kids are hella fast!” Kuroo cracked a smile at that. Bokuto loved both volleyball and kids, so when he started working as a youth instructor at the sports center, the guy was living his best life. About halfway through hearing a story about the Owlets dogpiling on Bokuto, Kuroo heard a group of girls giggling a little further down the hallway.

There he saw Kenma’s cute girlfriend making an exaggerated sad face. Her surrounding girlfriends were half laughing and half consoling her. They patted her back and he could vaguely hear ‘next time, next time!’ and ‘--boba right after?’

As they got closer, he heard one of the girls chime in, “Hold on, we can’t go right after. That guest speaker for Native American Lit. is speaking in Ballroom One at six.”

“Oh yeah... After that, then?” another girl offered.

(Y/N) shook her head, “I promised I’d pick up a shift at Chisai at 5:30,” she told them apologetically. Her friends collectively booed as Kuroo pushed off the wall he was leaning against.

“I’ll see you at practice, man.” Bokuto paused his story. They gave each other a bro-nod in farewell.

“Okay, ttyl.”

Kuroo halted in his tracks, “...did you just say ttyl out loud?”

“It’s easier that way. My kids like it!”

“They’re nine, Kou, they like everything you do.”

“Nine is a very enriched age and it’s important that we don’t undermine the abilities of--”

“Whoops, gotta go!” Kuroo speed walked in the direction of the group of girls. Bokuto went out of his way to stay “woke” - his words, not Kuroo’s - and it made him a great guy, but Kuroo could only handle so much social consciousness. (Y/N) noticed him before he reached them.

“Oh, Kuroo-san! You have a class in this building?” For someone he’d met only once before, she looked happier to see him than a lot of people normally would. Did she look at everyone like that?

He gave each of the girls a charming smile. Several of them looked from (Y/N) to him, wide-eyed. In all objective terms, Kuroo knew the effect he had on people. He was used to people of all genders’ gazes lingering on him. After all, he was the whole package: tall, handsome, charming, and it was obvious he drank Respect Women Juice every day.

“Unfortunately, yes,” he nodded his head towards his lecture room, “Not my favorite class this semester.”

“Well, I’m in this class, too. If we sat together, would it be less agonizing?” she asked. Before he could answer, she turned to her friends, “I’ll see you probably tomorrow.” They said their goodbyes, and a few of them flirtily waved Kuroo goodbye. In return, he gave them a sly wink, “Ladies.”

“If you have other friends in this class, though, I won’t be offended at all if you sit with them,” his attention snapped to her. He held the classroom door open and gestured her in. She unthinkingly led them to the same side of the room as the one Kuroo usually sat, a few rows ahead of his normal seat.

“Actually,” he said, “All my friends were smart enough to take other classes,” he laughed. “Besides, who wouldn’t want to sit next to a such a cute girl?” he gave her a cute wink.

‘What a flirt,’ she thought.

“Is that your signature move?” she teased.

Kuroo put a hand to his chest in mock offense, “Move? A gentleman doesn’t use ‘moves.’”

“Are you a gentleman, then, Kuroo-san?”

“If you wanted me to be.”

“Cheesy.”

“Don’t worry. I get worse over time.”

(Y/N) mentally cheered. If Kuroo was flirting with her this blatantly, surely he must have a feeling that she and Kenma weren’t serious. Then, Kenma would have to admit that she wasn’t oblivious and she’d win the bet!

Kuroo’s voice broke her out of her thoughts. “But don’t think I’m trying to steal you from Kenma. Bro-code is sacred text, you know.”

Oh. Well. That’s okay! He might not figure it out right away, but surely when he sees that Kenma doesn’t care one bit that he was flirting with his ‘girlfriend,’ he’d figure it out eventually! ...right?

“Don’t worry.” She replied, “He couldn’t care less.”

The professor walked in about 2 minutes before the class officially began. The man in about his mid-40’s cracked his RhedBhull energy drink and chugged the whole thing in one go. Crushing the can in his fist, he tossed it into a nearby trashcan and started plugging the projector cable into his laptop. In a way, Kuroo was glad even the professor was having as much of a hard time with this class as much as he was.

While he’d been watching the professor prepare himself, he hadn’t noticed the girl next to him pull out a notebook, two mechanical pencils, a big eraser, a set of highlighters, some gel pens, and some sticky tabs. At first he thought she was the type to make pretty notes and not actually learn anything, but as the class dragged on, whenever he glanced at her notes, he noticed that her diagrams were frighteningly detailed and every bit of information had its place. He didn’t want to be that guy by constantly looking at her notes, but even the comments in the little text bubble she drew made more sense than anything on the lecture slides.

Leaning in towards her, the taller male whispered, “I’m sure you don’t need the help, but do you want to study together sometime?” No answer.

“Kenma can come too, if you’re worried about him getting the wrong idea.” Nothing. Was she ignoring him? Had he somehow managed to offend her? He was nearly offended until he realized that nothing was affecting her at all. Not when someone sneezed or when the glass side door slammed loudly and nearly everyone jumped out of her skin. Save for her hand working like a machine, she hardly moved. Just her hand and her eyes flitting up, down, up, down, up, down from the projector to her notes. A tornado could rip through campus and Kuroo wasn’t entirely confident that she’d move.

‘Cute.’ Kuroo shook his head at his own thoughts. Sure, she was cute, but she was as off-limits as possible.

‘Though,’ he reasoned, ‘Being friends isn’t a crime.’

Lost in thought, the end of the lecture came sooner than anticipated. Twisting in his seat, his spine made a loud crack. Ah, the ripe old age of 21. In his defense, the chairs in the lecture hall weren’t exactly ergonomic.

“I doubt that’s a healthy noise for your spine to make.” She peered at him over her bag as she gently organized all her pens into a baby pink pencil case with little green aliens on it.

‘Cute,’ he thought.

“Thanks! It was a gift,” she chirped. He blinked.

“Huh?”

“The pencil case? I got it as a gift.”

It took Kuroo a moment to register what in the world she was talking about. When the realization dawned on him he mentally kicked himself.

‘I said that out loud???’

They headed outside where the sun had nearly set. She asked him what his plans were later on, and he mentioned his volleyball scholarship.

“Wow! It’s super competitive just to get on the team here. Congratulations!” He chuckled at her enthusiasm and thanked her for being so encouraging.

“So…” she trailed off for a moment, “You’re Tooru’s teammate, then?”

Kuroo gave an ugly, barking laugh.

“Yeah. Not sure if that’s good or bad. He’s the best setter I’ve ever met, but he’s also super cheery and will smile while he roasts you within an inch of your life.”

They both chuckled. (Y/N) looked at the ground shyly and said in a small voice, “Yeah, that sounds like him.”

“You know each other?” it suddenly occurred to that she and Oikawa were on a first-name basis. “You a fangirl of his?” he teased.

She squeaked. Waving her hands in front of her frantically, she said, “No, no, no! I just-- We just-- We both went to Seijoh, that’s all.” Kuroo was mildly offended that she thought he’d believe such a poorly delivered lie, but he decided to let it go. For now. Changing the subject, he said,

“So, where are you headed? Practice to watch your boyfriend?” She tensed, then quickly relaxed.

“I’ve never been to a practice since I always seem to have a shift at the same time. I have work at 5:30 today, actually.”

“You’re walking around when it’s this dark?”

“It’s only about a 20 minute walk from here. Don’t worry, I have pepper spray.”

“Mildly comforting, but not much. If you don’t mind, I could walk you there?”

His gesture was rewarded by an adorable eye smile, “Oh, that’s so kind of you. Okay, if it’s not too much trouble.”

On the walk there, she told him all about Chisai Tea House and about Grandmother, the sweet old woman who owned it.

“I worry, though. Gran is getting old. She’s not in a condition to work all day like she does.”

Kuroo looked up at the darkening sky, “When people love something, it’s hard to pull them away.”

“Mm, don’t I know it?”

Kuroo asked what kinds of things Chisai served. Besides dim sum, of course.

“What people order just depends on what they want at the time. There’s no ‘good’ thing to get because everything’s amazing! We make traditional green teas, Korean songpyeon, khao neeo mamuang, and don’t even get me started on the har gao and sumai, and all the dim sum stuff. All of our recipes have been passed down through families for generations.”

Around 5:20, she stopped at a door along the line of shops. The place was bustling with customers, and the air around it smelled of sweet treats and green teas. The whole place had a traditional Chinese feel. Through the windows, the busy place looked busy, but peaceful. On the tables nearest the window, he saw moon cakes and songpyeon that made his mouth water.

“Thank you for walking me to work! If you have some free time, would you like to come in for something to eat? My treat?” she offered.

“I wish I could, (Y/N)-san, but I have practice--!” Kuroo choked on the word. Practice! How could he forget? He’d been going to volleyball practice on weekdays since he started high school!

“Is there something wrong?” the shorter girl asked, concerned. He shook his head.

“Not at all. Thanks for keeping me company,” he winked. He didn’t want her to feel like him being late was her fault, so he waited until she was fully inside the tea shop before he turned tail and hauled ass. The gym was about a 10 minute walk, so there was a chance he could make it.

After some hardcore sprinting, the boy almost cried tears of relief when the building finally came into view. He flung himself through the locker room door. Inside, he saw all his teammates finishing up getting dressed, putting on knee pads, tying shoelaces, the like. Every head turned his way.

“Bro! What’s-- Hey! Why are you all sweaty?” Bokuto shouted from the far end of the locker room. Kuroo meant to respond, but he found himself completely out of breath. Volleyball players might not be cut out for long distance sprinting. At least, he definitely wasn’t.

“Overslept?” Iwaizumi clapped his teammate on the back as he brushed past him through the doorway.

“You know coach doesn’t like it when people are late to practice. Better hurry up, Tetsu-chan!” Oikawa said in a tone all too gleeful to be genuine. Forcing his legs to move, Kuroo stumbled as he yanked his shirt off and ran to his locker while simultaneously trying to shimmy his pants off. Bokuto came up beside him during his frantic clambering to get ready.

“What happened, man? You don’t usually get here this late?”

Kuroo glanced over his shoulder at his friend’s worried expression.

“I’m good, bro, I just...” he panted, “I just lost track of time.”

“M’kay, if you’re sure everything’s Gucci?”

“Yeah, man, I’m good.” The wing spiker nodded and headed out the door. Alone at last, Kuroo stuffed his feet into his shoes and rested his head against his locker for a moment. Next time, he’d stop creeping on Kenma’s girlfriend and focus on making it to practice on time. This wouldn’t happen again.

~~

(A/N): At last! We have tapped into the interactions between Kuroo and (Y/N)! And yes, the Bro-Code is very important! (Well, I'm female, but I’m fully aware of how it works lol). Please continue to give/leave your feedback and thoughts on the story! Be sure to check out the Tumblr/Wattpad for more updates! Thanks and see y’all soon!

- Admin Kiwi-Chan

(A/N): Yeeeaaaaaa boiiiiiiiiiiiiii.

- Admin Mango-Chan

~~

Taglist: @joyful-jimin

[bloodborne-on-pc]

Alright, so, I recently restarted Pokemon LeafGreen, with the intent to finally beat the game because I now possess the capacity to give a shit about strategy and a balanced party, meaning there is now a slight possibility I could actually defeat the Elite Four. Anywho, I decided I’d nickname pretty much every Pokemon I got - I ain’t Nuzlocke or anything, I just feel like it. I usually attempt to be at least slightly clever with the names - for example, my Bulbasaur is nicknamed Raff, because the flower on the back of Venusaur(which he’ll evolve into) strongly resembles a Rafflesia flower. One Pokemon I got was a Weedle. I named him “Dick”, a reference to this video where a man refers to Beedrill, one of Weedle’s evolutions, as  “Big Dick Bee”. I thought I was being funny. Anyway, tonight he levelled up enough to evolve into Kakuna, and learned the move Harden. I thought, “Cool, we’re one step closer to being fully evolved!” So, I decided to continue battling wild Pokemon to make him stronger. So, I started the next battle, with Dick as a Kakuna now. I figured it would be a good idea to start off the battle on a more defensive note, and decided to use Harden. Then, the fateful sentence flashed across my old GameBoy Advanced’s screen:

“Dick used HARDEN!”

And that’s when my soul collapsed into a black hole, destroying my neighborhood. In my last moments, I contemplated how incredibly stupid I was for somehow not realizing this would fucking happen. It did not occur to me at all that this particular combination of words would result from naming my Weedle “Dick”.

I then proceeded as normal, and managed to level Dick all the way to level 10, evolving him into a Beedrill. Meaning he is now officially Big Dick Bee.

[sunflowerseedsandscience]

By the Dim and Flaring Lamps: Part Three, Chapter Three

Part One: One | Two | Three | Four Part Two: One | Two | Three | Four | Five Part Three : One | Two

NOTE: THIS IS THE SECOND CHAPTER THAT I HAVE POSTED TODAY. You can read the one directly before it at the link above.

AUGUST 1863 WEST OF FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA

As luck would have it, during the week that Mulder has spent in Fredericksburg, the Army of the Potomac has marched further south, stopping at the Rappahannock River. As a result, instead of the half-day's travel on horseback that it took him and Scully to get to Charles Spender's house at the start of the week, today, he will only need to travel for an hour or so. He has, of course, neglected to mention this to his parents; the idea of being forced to sit and listen to his father's strictures and his mother's pleading for any longer than absolutely necessary is enough to set his teeth on edge.

It's a warm morning, but not yet uncomfortable, and he meets almost no one else on the road. With the army so close, civilian travel is strongly discouraged; special papers are often required in order to pass from one town to another, and some soldiers are less cordial and gentlemanly than others when it comes to dealing with Virginian citizens.

Of course, it's not exactly safe for a soldier from either side to be riding alone, either, given the number of opportunistic thieves roving the countryside. And it's particularly dangerous for Union soldiers, at the moment, with Mosby's Raiders leaving the rebel army to go marauding north of Lee's encampment. Mulder hopes, not for the first time, that Scully had managed to make it back to the regiment without any trouble.

Near the end of his ride, about twenty miles away from Fredericksburg, Mulder passes through a picket line, marking the outer boundaries of the Union army's encampment. He's let through with relatively little hassle- the men are from his own brigade and recognize him immediately- and passes through three brigades before he manages to locate his own.

Further along, just out of sight of the picket lines, there's a group of men whiling away the morning by playing a game of four-to-a-side baseball, their jackets lying abandoned in a heap behind their makeshift home plate. Mulder stops to watch for a moment. The players are making do with a pitcher and three basemen; the men waiting to bat for the other team are taking it in turns to retrieve the pitches that the batter misses. Mulder wonders, for a moment, whether being a colonel means that he's supposed to be "above" joining in the games with his men. He resolves then and there to not give a damn if it's considered proper or not; he loves baseball, and during the long months of winter encampment they'll endure starting in December of January, it will be a welcome diversion- not to mention a way to keep warm.

He wonders whether Scully has ever played baseball before. There's a decent chance that she has, if she's grown up with two brothers and is as much of a tomboy as she's said that she was. And if she's never played... well, he'll just have to teach her.

Another few minutes' ride brings Mulder into the encampment itself. He stops to ask the colonel of each regiment where the Third Brigade is currently encamped, and before too long, he spies the red Maltese Cross of his brigade fluttering in the breeze above headquarters. Mulder decides to stop for a moment and see Colonel Skinner, before he continues on to his own regiment. He tells himself, firmly, that he's only doing it to make sure that his superior knows that he's returned, and to see if there is anything that he needs to know about, any upcoming orders that he'll need to get his men ready to carry out.

It's not because he's putting off seeing Scully again. Of course it's not.

Colonel Skinner is sitting under an awning in front of his tent, bent over a table with several members of his staff. He looks up as Mulder arrives and dismounts, then stands to return Mulder's salute.

"Welcome back, Colonel Mulder," he says. "Is your family well?"

"They are, Sir," says Mulder. "I appreciate being given the time away to see them. Thank you for that." Skinner waves this off.

"It wasn't a problem at all. It's certainly not as though anything is going on around here, at the moment."

"Before I return to my regiment, Sir, might I ask how things are standing right now? Will we be moving out anytime soon, do you think?"

"Doesn't seem very likely," says Skinner, sitting back down in his chair. He gestures away south, in the direction of the Rappahannock River, lying out of sight some two or three miles away. "General Lee's got his entire army on the southern bank of the Rappahannock, and we're sitting over here on the other side... and it doesn't look as though anyone has any plans to do anything. For the moment, we're just waiting, running drills daily to keep the men occupied, and having our sharpshooters take it in turns to keep watch along the riverbank, especially at night." He turns back to Mulder. "And speaking of sharpshooters, where's your Lieutenant Scully? We'll need him to take his turn on the watch, if you can spare him for a bit. Didn't he go to Fredericksburg with you?"

"He did, but he left much earlier than I did," says Mulder, alarmed. "You haven't seen him back here yet?"

"No," says Skinner, "but I've been close to my tent all morning. For all I know, he's waiting for you with the rest of your men." Mulder nods.

"If that's all, Sir, I'll be getting back to my regiment," he says, and Skinner returns his salute and waves him away. Mulder salutes, climbs back up on his horse, and continues on until at last, he spies the regimental colors of the Eighty-Third Pennsylvania.

The men who are gathered in his regiment's camp send up a loud cheer as he rides through, which he acknowledges, with not a small amount of discomfort. He doesn't feel quite right accepting praise from the entire regiment, not just yet, not before he's led them into battle and has proven himself to be capable of having command of so many men. But still, he waves back as the men salute him and call out to him, all the while keeping a sharp eye out for Scully's distinctive red hair.

By the time that he's reached the tent that his men have pitched for him, however, Scully is still nowhere to be found, and Mulder is becoming genuinely concerned. Scully had said that she was returning directly to the regiment, he recalls, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that she had changed her mind and had decided to spend the week elsewhere, instead. But where would she go? The roads aren't safe for anyone riding alone, not with bands of robbers and brigands waiting to attack the unaware.

His stomach gives a sudden, awful lurch when it occurs to him that, in the course of a highway robbery, Scully's attackers could discover, all too easily, the secret that she's managed to keep hidden from the entire Union army. And if that were to happen, the danger would not just be to whatever meager valuables and money she might have stashed away in her haversack. He resolves that, if Scully hasn't shown up within the hour, he will send runners to the other regiments to find out if anyone has seen her. Her hair, thankfully, makes her easy for people to remember.

And if she hasn't shown up by nightfall, Mulder will ride out in search of her himself.

Mulder dismounts and hands his horse off to be wiped down and fed. He ducks into his tent and discovers, much to his surprise, that a cot has been placed inside. He thinks that he remembers seeing one in Skinner's tent, when he had been colonel of the regiment, so maybe it had just taken some time for one to be located for him. Whatever the reason, he's glad of its presence now, and throwing his haversack to the ground, he sinks down onto the cot with a groan. It's a far cry from his accommodations of the past week, but it's a solid step above sleeping on the ground, so he'll take it.

The tent flap is suddenly thrown back, and Mulder sits upright with a start. Scully is standing just outside, peering in, squinting in the lower light. Mulder's gut unclenches at the sight of her, and his relief is strong enough to leave him light-headed.

"Permission to enter, Sir?" Scully asks stiffly, and inwardly, Mulder grimaces at the formality.

"Of course you can come in, Scully," he says. "It's your tent, too."

"Not officially," she says, but all the same, she steps inside, allowing the flap of canvas to fall closed behind her. She raises her eyebrows at the cot, and Mulder ducks his head sheepishly.

"I didn't request this, I promise," he says. "It was all set up when I got here a few minutes ago. I'll have a word with Colonel Skinner and see if I can get you one, as well."

"No, don't," Scully says. "That would likely raise a few eyebrows. Lieutenants don't usually sleep on cots, do they?"

"I don't think so," admits Mulder. "Well, you can take this one, then. I don't mind sleeping on the ground."

"It's your cot, Mulder. You're the senior officer. Why would you give it to me?"

"Because I'm a gentleman, and it's the polite thing to do," Mulder says. "Isn't it?" Scully narrows her eyes at him.

"Not when the person you're offering the better sleeping arrangement to is your subordinate," she says. She lowers her voice. "This is the sort of thing I was talking about, when I said you might treat me differently."

"But still," Mulder protests, "I don't feel right about it. At the very least, we should trade off nights." Scully sighs.

"If I agree, will you promise to shut up about the damn cot?" she asks, rolling her eyes. "I've been back at camp for all of five minutes, and already you're making me wish that I'd just deserted, instead." Mulder's heart sinks... but then he sees the glint of mischief in Scully's eyes. He grins at her, relieved.

"Fine, we trade off nights," he agrees. Scully nods and drops her gear next to Mulder's, then sits down beside him on the cot. "Where'd you go, Scully?" Mulder asks her. "You told me that you were returning to the regiment, but Colonel Skinner says he never saw you come back." Scully ducks her head.

"I didn't," she admits. "I started riding back the way we'd come, but...." She sighs. "I needed some time to cool down, after I left Fredericksburg, and I wasn't ready to come back and face the regiment, and have to come up with some phony explanation about why I wasn't still with you and your family." She glances up at him. "What did you tell them, by the way?"

"I said that we had a rider in the night, with a message calling you away," Mulder says. "I left it at that. Samantha was disappointed when you were gone at breakfast, I'll tell you that much."

"I'm sorry that I didn't get to spend more time with her," Scully says. "I feel like she and I were getting along really well." She twists her fingers awkwardly in her lap. "Mulder, I feel like I owe you an apology," she says. "Those were some terrible accusations that I was throwing around, and I shouldn't have said anything unless I knew for sure what was going on."

Mulder opens his mouth to tell her about what had happened, that last night... and stops. He's suddenly reluctant to share what happened between him and Diana last night, and it's only in part- a small part- because he doesn't like admitting that he might have been wrong.

While it's true that Mulder doesn't want to prejudice Scully against Diana more than she already is, if it turns out that the conversation in the alleyway- as well as last night's events- were innocent, it just feels... wrong, somehow, to tell Scully what had nearly happened in his bedroom last night. And it's not just because Scully is a woman; after all, hadn't they touched on the subject of intimacy briefly, right after their arrival in Fredericksburg? One way or another, Diana's advances are not something he wants to share with her, just now. He goes with a different tack, instead.

"I owe you an apology as well, Scully," he tells her. "You were right about one thing: Diana could have been a good deal more welcoming than she was, and I should have stepped up and said something to her about it."

"It could have made your visit less pleasant," Scully counters. "She didn't have any warning that I would be there, after all."

"Well, my visit was less pleasant anyway, because you weren't there," Mulder says, and Scully ducks her head, blushing. "And maybe if I had just taken the time to explain her a little bit better, you wouldn't have been so upset by the way she acted. Diana's... she's used to getting what she wants, used to having things done the way she wants them to be. I'm not saying that it's an excuse, but she's always been easily upset when plans change at the last second. I should have written ahead that you were coming with me, and I'm sorry that I didn't." He reaches out, tentatively, and covers her hand on the cot with his own. "Do you think that you can find it in your heart to forgive me?" She smiles at him, still blushing. He's charmed by the way that her freckles stand out against the pink of her cheeks.

"If you can forgive me for jumping to such offensive conclusions about your fiancee," she says.

"Scully, there's nothing to forgive," he tells her, and he means it. "You were only looking out for me, the way that you're supposed to do- as my lieutenant, and as my friend." They sit in silence a moment longer, and Mulder discovers that he doesn't want to take his hand away from Scully's. She doesn't seem in any great hurry to move, either, and so they sit quietly on the cot, not holding hands, exactly, but enjoying the connection.

"So... you never told me where you went, when you left Fredericksburg," Mulder reminds her.

"Nowhere special, really," says Scully. "For maybe half an hour, right after leaving, the idea honestly did cross my mind to just ride north, to go home and give this up, whatever happens." Mulder turns to face her fully, alarmed, and she twists her hand upwards so that they're properly holding hands, and gives his fingers a reassuring squeeze. "I decided against that pretty quickly, though. Aside from not being ready to face my mother just yet, I knew that if I left the regiment, there would be a decent chance that you and I might never see each other again."

"Not to mention, the lovely Dr. Waterston would be waiting to force a ring on your finger and drag you straight to the chapel," Mulder points out. Scully, however, looks skeptical.

"In all honesty, Mulder, I'm not sure that Daniel would still be interested in marrying me, if he found out where I've been for the past six or seven months," she confesses. "He would be absolutely scandalized by my spending all of this time in the company of men. I'm sure that he would believe my virtue to be absolutely beyond retrieval." She grins. "And that's not even getting into all of the excellent swear words I've picked up, sitting around the cooking fires." Mulder laughs.

"So you think that you'll be free of him, then?" he asks. "When you do eventually go home?" She nods.

"I think so, yes," she says. "Although, as I'm sure my mother will be quick to point out, there likely won't be a single man in all of West Chester- or in all of Philadelphia, no doubt- that will be interested in marrying a woman who has just finished spending God knows how many years in the constant company of soldiers."

"Then every last man in West Chester and in Philadelphia is a fool, and not a single one of them is worthy of you," says Mulder, before he can stop himself.

If Scully had been blushing before, it's nothing compared to the shade of red that she's turning now. She looks up and meets his gaze, her blue eyes shining, and the slow, sweet smile that plays across her lips transforms her entire face into something truly lovely... and for the first time, Mulder becomes fully aware of one very important fact.

Dana Scully is beautiful.

Reluctantly, Mulder forces himself to let go of her hand, and he stands, putting some space between them before he does something that will either get him slapped or make their situation complicated beyond all comprehension. Scully, he would like to believe, looks slightly disappointed, but she hides it quickly.

"Thank you, Mulder," she says. "Your opinion means a great deal to me." He chuckles.

"It shouldn't," he says ruefully. "Not when I'm allowing my family to believe that I'll marry someone who's treated my best friend so shamefully." Scully frowns.

"Why wouldn't your family believe that, if you and Diana are engaged?" she asks, confused.

"Because we're not, not officially," Mulder says, even as he's mentally kicking himself for telling her this. He and Scully, he's beginning to realize, are going to need a great deal of self-control to make it through the war without doing something that truly would be cause for scandal, and allowing her to think that he's engaged would probably have been the wiser choice. He knows her well enough to be fairly certain that she would never allow anything improper to happen between herself and another woman's prospective husband. But he's already gone this far, so he might as well explain.

"It's more or less assumed that one day, Diana and I will marry," he says. "We've always been close friends, from the time that she came to live with Charles Spender... and I guess that to my parents- to most people, probably- if an unmarried boy and an unmarried girl are that close, it's because they plan to wed, eventually, when they're old enough. My parents and Charles Spender love the idea; it would mean the consolidation of both of their families' fortunes. And Diana...." He shrugs. "Well, I'm pretty sure that she was hoping I would have proposed by the time I left Fredericksburg today."

"But you didn't?" Scully asks, and he shakes his head.

"To be perfectly frank...." Don't, he tells himself, she doesn't need to know, but his rational mind seems to have taken a leave of absence, and he ploughs ahead recklessly. "In all honesty, Scully, I'm beginning to have second thoughts."

"You are?" asks Scully, in a tone somewhat more cheerful than what could be called appropriate for this sort of admission. She seems to realize this immediately, and adopts a more sober countenance. "Not just because of how she treated me, I hope. You were right that it was unfair of me to expect her to be completely welcoming without having any notice that I would be coming along with you."

"No, not because of that, necessarily," Mulder replies, "though it's related to that, a little bit." He bites his lip, thinking. "Scully, you know that sometimes, I tend to be... impulsive, wouldn't you say?" Scully laughs.

"Sometimes, Mulder?" She chuckles, shaking her head. "I'd say that's a bit of an understatement, wouldn't you?" He grins sheepishly.

"All right, most of the time," he concedes. "I don't mind when the plan gets shot to hell at the last second, and I honestly enjoy improvising, doing things spur of the moment. And I just got to thinking, this week... what would it be like, for someone who dislikes surprises and always prefers to know, ahead of time, exactly how everything is going to be, to end up married to someone as impulsive as I am?" Scully seems to be thinking this over.

"It doesn't seem like the perfect recipe for domestic bliss," she says. "But do you really think that Diana hasn't had these same doubts? If she's known you for this long, your penchant for doing things spur of the moment can't have escaped her notice."

"No, it hasn't," says Mulder. "But I think that Diana might be operating under the age-old assumption that marriage is going to change me, make me more level-headed and less attracted to excitement." Scully looks at him skeptically.

"So you're saying that she's in love with the man she wants you to become, as opposed to the man that you actually are?"

"Well, to be honest, she's never told me that she loves me," Mulder admits. "So maybe she's not worried about love, one way or the other."

"I can't imagine marrying someone that I didn't love," says Scully. "I mean... I know that it's relatively common, I know that plenty of marriages are arranged, or are a matter of convenience, but... I just can't fathom placing all of my chances for my future happiness on the hope that being married will change traits that are essential to who my husband truly is." With a sigh, she stands. "Listen," she says, picking up her things again. "I'm supposed to be down by the riverbank in about a half hour, all right?" Mulder frowns.

"What for?" he asks.

"I'm in the rotation for guard duty," Scully explains. "The colonel of the Forty-Fourth New York made the rounds at the beginning of the week, I'm told, and said that all sharpshooters are required to take a turn on the picket lines."

"How long?" Mulder asks.

"I should be relieved and back back by supper, I think," Scully answers, and Mulder nods.

"Be careful, all right?" he advises her. "Stay awake. No distractions." Scully rolls her eyes.

"Of course, because I'm the one who needs to be told things like that," she says. "Do you think that you can manage to keep yourself out of trouble for the rest of the afternoon while I'm gone?" Mulder scowls at her, but underneath, he's fighting off a smile. His fear that he and Scully might have lost this over Diana, this easy rapport between them, has been consuming him since the night she had ridden off in anger, and discovering that they're going to be all right is a relief beyond comparison.

"Listen, I was doing just fine all on my own before you showed up in this regiment to torment me," he tells her, and she grins.

"You just keep on telling yourself that, Mulder. I'll see you at supper tonight, all right?" And with a final wave, she ducks back out of the tent and is gone. Mulder returns to his new cot and flops back down onto the stretched, waxed canvas with a groan.

Just what is he getting himself into?

[sindrafalcone]

Wrong Number, Right Call (part 3)

Part 1    Part 2

Fandom: BIGBANG/ Choi Seung Hyun x Reader

Synopsis: The truth comes out...

Warnings: none

Author’s Note: A little happiness for you guys... because, after this week, I think we all need it. Please note that I am not tagging this. I don’t want any of you to think that I’m trying to exploit current events for the sake of notes. I’m intending this post more as a gift for my friends and followers, to (hopefully) brighten your world during these dark times.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. This story contains fictional representations of real people. None of the events are true. This is from an American standpoint, so some of the situations may not happen the same way they might in Korea. I make no money from the writing of this fictional work.

Masterlist

Mere seconds after he had sent the second text, Seung Hyun's phone rang.

"Everything alright?" you asked the moment he accepted the call. You sounded worried.

"Yeah, hang on just a mintue." Seung Hyun replied. Shit. This was way faster than he meant for things to happen. He thought he'd have a little more time to think it over.

But clearly he didn't and maybe that was a good thing, because he had spent the past couple of days thinking it over and arriving at no conclusion. He wasn't going to have this conversation in front of Jiyong though, so he waved at him and gestured towards the elevator.

Jiyong rolled his eyes and waved him off, sipping his coffee as Seung Hyun left.

"Sorry." he said once he was in the elevator and on the way up to his floor. "I was just... uhm. How are you?"

"I'm good... getting a little impatient here and also worried. How are you?" you returned the question pointedly.

He took a deep breath and, as the elevator pinged when he arrived on his floor, he stepped out. "I... there's something I need to tell you."

"Okay." your voice was patient and even, but it wasn't like there was much else you could say to that.

"I... well, I haven't been entirely honest with you."

"Okay." you said again, but this time you drew the word out, caution in your voice.

Seung Hyun winced as he ducked into a practice room that wasn't being used. "It's not... I... well. I haven't lied but I just, uhm. It was something I couldn't tell you right away and now I really want to because I trust you, but I'm worried, and-"

"Seung Hyun..." you gently interrupted his babbling. "Is this about the idol thing?"

It was like his entire brain ground to a sudden halt. He slumped against the closest wall & slid down it to sit on the wooden floor. "What?"

"Because that wasn't really hard to figure out." you said. "Is that what you're trying to tell me? You're T.O.P? Because I've known that for about six weeks now."

"Uh..." Seung Hyun stammered. "I, uh... how?"

You sighed. "Okay, admittedly, you weren't entirely awful at keeping it a secret. It was a number of things, I guess. Like, how you carefully didn't go into too much detail about where you were, but it was obvious you weren't in Korea sometimes. Or how you have tried really hard to not tell me exactly where you lived, like it was very important that I didn't figure out you lived in Yongsan. Or how you don't mention your friends' names. Although, you probably didn't know that Daesung already told me his name that night you drunk called me. Or that time you had to hang up quickly because of some mundane reason and minutes later it was all over the news about a Bigbang press conference. Should I go on? It's all little things, but put together it's not a hard leap to make."

"I guess..." Seung Hyun admitted reluctantly. Put like that... maybe it really wasn't that difficult to figure out. "So... six weeks?" He tried to think back, to remember if anything had changed six weeks ago, but nothing stuck out in his mind.

"Six weeks, Seung Hyun." you confirmed, sounding deeply amused. "So that's it? That's what had you all tangled up in knots?"

He took a deep breath, then exhaled, feeling a huge chunk of the tension that had been building up inside over the past couple of days release all at once, leaving him feeling much lighter.

"Yeah. I wanted to tell you, but at first I couldn't, for obvious reasons. And then it had been too long and I didn't know how. I'm sorry."

"It's okay." you said warmly. "I won't lie, when I first figured it out I wasn't really sure how to react, but then I figured I didn't have to react yet because I didn't officially know. And now that I do, well... it's not really a big deal, is it?"

Seung Hyun smiled and was just about to agree when you corrected yourself himself hastily. "No wait, scratch that. It's kind of a big deal, but... I've been working on keeping you, Seung Hyun, and T.O.P separate in my head. Though to be honest, it was a little bit of a shock when I figured it out."

"I couldn't very well immediately tell you I was T.O.P could I?” he said with a chuckle. “Besides, where it counts I'm really Choi Seung Hyun, so it wasn't really a lie."

"If you say so." you giggled along with him.

It wasn't a lie, Seung Hyun wanted to protest, but that was only half true, and instead he found himself asking something entirely different. "So you really don't... mind?"

"Seung Hyun..." you said patiently, then sighed. "Look. If I had known this in the beginning, maybe it would have changed something. I probably would have felt weird about talking to you, in any case. But I know you a lot better than I know T.O.P. and... look, do we have to talk about this? I guess we do." you sighed again. "I'm okay with it. I'm not about to fall to my knees in worship or anything, and I'm definitely not going around telling everyone that I've got an idol on speed dial. Okay? Are you okay with me knowing?"

"Yeah." Seung Hyun breathed. "I don't like... I mean, I know everyone has secrets and things like that, but I didn't like keeping something so huge from you."

"I'm not angry." you told him after a moment, voice soft. "I admit I was, initially, but I'm not anymore, okay? I get why you couldn't tell me. And I'm glad you told me today."

"Not that I had to, you clearly had things under control." he replied, a little rueful. That would teach him to underestimate you. There was a question that suddenly occurred to him and although he was apprehensive, he decided to just ask. "So do you... follow the tabloids on me?"

"Seung Hyun..." you said, voice entirely sober all of a sudden. "You're famous. That's not exactly something I can just shrug off, you know? Of course I follow the news. Not so much the gossip part of it, but you can bet I have alerts set up. Just in case something bad happens..."

"Okay." Seung Hyun said quietly. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize, you idiot." you returned fondly. "Just, you know, maybe text me that you're fine every now and then after you make headlines? Then I wouldn't have to flip through the news channels like a crazy person."

"Oh." he cleared his throat. "Of course, yes."

Not much changed after that conversation, not really. You still talked about the same sort of things in the same way and the same amount of time. The only thing that was clearly different was that Seung Hyun could now talk a little more openly about some things, but surprisingly, that secret turned out to have felt bigger than it actually was.

What did change, however, was this sort of... undertone, a vibe, maybe. Seung Hyun found it difficult to put to words.  Things just felt different somehow. He wouldn't say that you were actually warmer with him, or he with you, but it still felt warmer somehow. He found himself smiling more, long after the two of you had hung up. Even if all you had talked about was simple things like work or the weather, he still loved it. You even called him in a mild state of panic when your hair stylist gave you way more of a trim then you had initially asked for.

And Seung Hyun felt like he would have given a lot to see your new hair cut. Even with all this truth lately, he still didn't know what you looked like, but he was too afraid to ask for a picture.  Jiyong (now as up to date on the state of Seung Hyun's relations with you as possible) told him that it was probably the natural progression of things, though he admitted to not really having much experience in the field of screen-to-screen built relationships.

Which was how Seung Hyun ended up having lunch with Bom. Because somehow, by this point, all of the guys knew that he had made a friend, and that you only ever talked on the phone or text and had never met in person. As well as being a source of hilarity, this was apparently also something that Seung Hyun was in deep need of advice for, or at least everyone seemed to think so. Jiyong had set up this meeting in some hip new restaurant with his old friend.

"So, uh, how's it going on the 'Black Label'?" Seung Hyun asked, lamely searching for a topic of conversation.

Bom waved him off. "They're still denying that I exist. I have no idea. Anyways, we have much more important things to discuss, I hear." she leaned across the table towards him, expression intent. "Spill."

Seung Hyun blinked at her. She was nice, he knew that, and the fact that she was still counted as a friend by all of them meant she was also trustworthy, despite how flighty she might seem at first. But this was a little... intense, even for her.

"About what? Why are we even here? Not that I mind, but- "

"We're here...” she interrupted “Because, apparently, you've made an internet friend and everybody else you know isn't normal enough to know how to advise you to deal with that." she raised one perfect eyebrow. "Correct?"

Seung Hyun thought about the advice he had gotten so far (even though he hadn't actually asked for any). It basically amounted to "stalk her" (Jiyong) or "wait and see" (Youngbae). Daesung had suggested sending you an invitation to join them for their "feast", meaning the take-out movie binge thing they usually did on at least one Friday a month. Seungri had suggested a mix of stalking and wait and see. Seung Hyun had been strongly advised by all of them against asking Yang his opinion because as soon as he got wind of things, the stalking would happen whether Seung Hyun wanted it to or not.

"You're not wrong." he reluctantly admitted to Bom. "I still don't really know what you're supposed to do, though. I don't need help."

"That's okay." unconcerned, she shrugged and sat back in her seat and smiled at the waiter as he brought their food. Once the waiter was gone she added, "I'm having lunch with T.O.P. We could talk exclusively about the weather and I'll still tell my grandchildren all about this in fifty years."she teased, not really meaning it.

He glanced out the window, futilely wishing that it was you seated across from him instead. "It's nice weather, isn't it?"

"Surprisingly mild for the season." she nodded. Then she rolled her eyes. "I was kidding, let's not actually talk about the weather. So, you've made an internet friend. Has anybody told you yet that you can't actually be real friends because you've never even met in person?"

Frowning, Seung Hyun lowered his gaze to his plate of pasta. "No, they haven't."

"Good. If anybody says that, tell them they're full of shit."

Caught entirely by surprise, he looked up at her, but Bom was focused on dusting grated Parmesan all over her own pasta dish, even as she continued. "It's complete bullshit. Sometimes we're more honest with strangers than with friends. Besides, everybody knows that it's easier talking about things with a person you don't have to look in the eyes. Right?"

"Right." Seung Hyun agreed.

She looked up and beamed at him. "So anybody who tries to tell you otherwise, they're condescending and don't know anything, so screw them. You don't ever have to actually meet your friend if you don't want to." She paused, then narrowed her eyes. "Unless you want to. Do you want to? You look like you do."

"That's probably because I do want to." he replied, raising one eyebrow.

Slowly, he was getting reacquainted with Bom's speed. And also... it was true. He wanted to. He wanted to see you all covered in flour as you tried a new baking recipe. He wanted to know the face you made when somebody tried to put nuts in your ice cream (one of your favorite topics to complain about was the atrocity of nuts in ice cream) and how you looked in the evening, curled up in what you called a "blanket burrito", while watching TV shows with him. He most definitely wanted to know how your face looked when your voice sounded all delighted and bright like the morning sun.

Shit... he was in trouble.

"Okay.." Bom said, completely missing the tangent his thoughts had just run off with. "Well, a couple of important things have to happen first before you can meet in person. You each need to prove you're trustworthy and trust the other person by revealing sensitive information. It's not like a rule or anything, but that's what usually happens. Like, full names maybe."

"Or the fact that I'm an idol?" he deduced where she was headed.

She pointed her fork at him. "Or that, right. Does your friend know that?"

"She does." Seung Hyun confirmed. "I told her two weeks ago, but it turned out she'd figured it out way earlier. Six weeks before that, actually."

"Smart." Bom complimented you, sounding satisfied like she was actually involved. "Well that's a pretty huge thing so, unless you think she might be gathering information for a book or a grand reveal on T.O.P., that probably means she's trustworthy."

"She wouldn't." he said, feeling appalled.

"Alright. Have you ever actually talked about this meeting in person thing? I'm just asking 'cause, you know, if you have it'll be easier to approach the subject."

Seung Hyun nodded slowly and focused on his pasta again. "So you think I should? Meet up with her, I mean?"

"Look." putting her fork down, Bom leaned toward him across the table again. "See, me? I'm totally into the full disclosure thing. What you see is what you get. I really don't believe in the whole... cloak and dagger thing, especially not in relationships. If you want things to work out, you need to be honest with what you want from her and from your relationship and all that. Otherwise it'll just be all second-guessing and angsty. Worrying and wondering what she meant when she said she'd call later and if that time she kissed you good-bye longer than usual was her letting you know she's never coming back." She flushed suddenly. "You get the gist, right?"

"Right..." Seung Hyun said slowly. "So... honesty."

"There's a difference between honesty and full disclosure." Bom informed him reasonably. "You can be honest and still hide your feelings or thoughts. So if you want to meet with her, ask her what she thinks about that. See if she wants to."

That sounded entirely reasonable and sensible. It wasn't exactly news to him, but it helped a lot having it put to words by another person. He nodded slowly, then smiled at her. "You're right. Thanks."

To his surprise, she blushed. "You're welcome."

After he and Bom had finished their lunch and went their separate ways, Seung Hyun dithered a little before texting you. Meaning, he did some work on the computer and then rearranged his entire Be@rbrick collection. Then he decided to quit being a coward and sent you a text, painstakingly phrased.

I would like to meet you in person sometime. What do you think?

Twenty minutes later, you replied with just one word: No.

An hour after that, Seung Hyun got a text from Bom: Seeing how we're now in a relationship, I figured you should have my new number. I got yours from Jiyong. <3

'Wait, what?' he thought, but he was a little bit preoccupied, so his brain discarded the first part of her message, finding himself telling her instead:  She said no.

Wait... Bom replied immediately. She knows we're not a thing, right?

I have no idea what you're talking about. Seung Hyun told her, a bit impatiently. In reply he got a link from her to some gossip website, along with the words: Check this. She knows it's all lies, right?

"This" turned out to be a short news story about how T.O.P took his “ladyfriend” Bom out to some hip new place, together with a couple of blurry phone pictures taken of them from earlier in the day. A customer at the restaurant must have taken them... there had been no paparazzi outside, Seung Hyun was sure of that. In one of them he and Bom were leaning towards each other in a way that could be construed as intimate, if one were so inclined. In another, he was holding the door open for Bom, hand hovering over the small of her back as they left the restaurant. The gossip website wasn't subtle about their interpretation of the pictures.

Now, Seung Hyun was entirely confused, but at least he knew a little more now than he did before, even if it was only about what Bom was talking about. It didn't help him much with you and your rather abrupt rejection.

I don't get it. he wrote back to Bom. What does that have to do with _________?

Seconds later Bom was calling him. "Her name is ________?" she asked when he picked up. "That's adorable!"

Seung Hyun shook his head. "Bom... what's going on?"

She huffed a little. "How did she say no? Did she say she's not ready or what?"

"No. She just said no. No explanations." he couldn't help sounding a little bitter about it, even if what he primarily felt was still confusion, and hurt.

"Well this hit the internet about an hour after we finished lunch, so she probably read it. You need to clarify that we're not an item."

"You think this... would make her not want to meet me? Why?" it made no sense to Seung Hyun, none at all.

"Oh, Seung Hyun..." she groaned. "Look, going by your expression earlier... you're really into her. Imagine if you read something on the internet about her new boyfriend taking her out to lunch, and then she texted you asking you to meet. How would you feel?"

Inadvertently rejected, probably, even though he had no right to. But Seung Hyun thought wouldn't be so curt with you, even then.

"You really think that's it?" he asked, doubtful.

"Yeah, probably." she confirmed matter-of-factly. "Look, just check in with her to make sure she doesn't think this is true, okay? Even if she hadn't said no, you'd still make sure she doesn't believe this, wouldn't you?"

Yes, he would. Probably. Seung Hyun didn't usually worry about this kind of gossip that was written about him, unless it came up just before a public appearance and his manager wanted to prepare him for possible questions that might occur. He had been in all sorts of rumored relationships already, basically every time he was spotted with a woman who wasn't his mother or sister.

"Yes, okay. Thanks, Bom." he said after a moment and hung up after her cheerful. "No problem!"

Then he frowned at his phone for a second before he decided to just get it over with and called you. He was half-terrified you weren't going to pick up, growing more and more worried as all he heard was the ringing, until eventually you did pick up.

"Yeah."

"I wasn't sure if you were going to pick up." Seung Hyun said softly.

"Sorry." you said, and you sounded like it, at least a little. Mostly you just sounded weird.

Seung Hyun cleared his throat. "So. Do you read the gossip pages after all? Because, uh... I've been advised that... you know it's all lies, right?"

There was a bit of rustling at the other end, and then you asked. "What's lies?"

"Me and Bom." he huffed. "She's just a friend.”

"I..." you sounded visibly confused. "Okay?"

Seung Hyun deflated, this didn't sound at all like this was the problem, like he had thought. "Anyways, I just... Uhm...."

He had no idea what to say now. It was your right not to want to meet up with him. You were perfectly within your rights to say no and it probably wasn't fair forSeung Hyun to be hurt by that or anything. To be honest, thinking about it, he would think twice about meeting up with himself too, especially in light of what just happened with Bom. He knew she didn't care, she had been in the gossip rags for a while & had learned to just ignore it, but you clearly didn't feel the same way and that was completely understandable.

So, he took a deep breath and said. "I just wanted to tell you, it's completely okay that you don't want to meet me. I understand, and I'm not angry. I'm sorry I just sprung that on you, okay?"

"Okay?" you repeated, sounding even more confused than before. "Wait a second."

Now confused as well, Seung Hyun waited. All he could hear was your breathing.

"You don't have to apologize." you said after a moment of silence. "I was... that was harsh, and I'm sorry. I guess I just... panicked."

"Panicked?" Seung Hyun repeated the word. "Why?"

"Because, I... well, okay, I did read that thing about you and Bom and I was pissed that you didn't tell me and also hurt because I thought we've been... and then I realized that was a stupid assumption. I do want to meet with you, Seung Hyun. I just don't understand why you'd want to meet up with me? I mean, I'm pretty ridiculous."

That didn't make sense to him at all. Shaking his head, Seung Hyun frowned. "The most ridiculous thing to date that you've done is saying that just now. Did you really just ask why I'd want to meet up with you?"

"Yeah..." you said, sounding flustered. "I know. You're important to me and we talk every day and I just... panicked. The Bom thing didn't help. But what if we... what if we meet up in person and don't have anything to say to each other? That would be terrible, Seung Hyun. And when you meet me in person, you're going to see that I do ridiculous things a lot. I really like what we have now."

"Me too." Seung Hyun told you quietly. He wasn't sure where this was going. "I really do. And if that's all you want, that's okay. But I don't think that we'd have nothing to say to each other or not get along if we met up, and I just..." he took a breath and realized that it was now or never. "I'd just really like to take you on a date."

"A date?" you squeaked.

Heart in his throat, he swallowed. "Yes. It's okay if you don't want that, though."

"No!" you exclaimed. "I mean, yes! I want that. Yes." you exhaled noisily. "Crap. I used to be smoother than this.”

Seung Hyun blinked, then blinked again. "Yes? You mean you want to?"

"Yes." you repeated, sounding amused now and much surer of yourself. "Yes, I want to go on a date with you, Seung Hyun. What, did you used to be smoother too?"

"I doubt it." Seung Hyun told you honestly. "Okay, wow....That's good."

Still amused and much warmer now, you hummed. "So where are you taking me?"

Shit. He hadn't thought that far ahead...

Desperately casting his mind out for something, Seung Hyun eventually blurted out the first thing that came to his mind: "Seoul Land?"

You laughed. "Sounds good. When?"

He licked his lips. "Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

You didn't.

[furederiko]

Meet the Rider of Science, and his power of... Exposition!!! Yeah, it's a full review for Kamen Rider Build episode 1...

NOTE: After long consideration, I've decided to upgrade my First Impression into a full review. This doesn't necessarily mean I'll be doing the same for the following episodes. That part is... still undecided for now. If anything, I might end up doing a batch review for several episodes in each new post. Probably once a month, or at least a bi-weekly (2 episodes) release. Assuming I continue watching, of course! Also, don't expect this to be as thorough/detailed as my recap-view for "Kamen Rider Ghost". To be honest, that ended up being a bit taxing to produce... LOL. For this one in particular, I've already offered some points before, so I'm just going to expand on those. Let's start!

- Like I've pointed out before, the Pandora's Box mystery is intriguing. Sure, it's basically another plot-generating macguffin, but what is it really? Of course, after a few days, I've realized one thing: TOEI seems to have a thing with cubes lately! Remember "Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger"? And also that recent 'odd' anime series, "Sekaisuru KADO". I'm so glad "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" has the... balls to be different. LOL. - The interesting part about this item though, is that it gave clear confirmation to the series' time setting. Much like Kyuranger, this show is being set in the future, albeit not as distant as that current Super Hero Time counterpart (after all, Kyuranger takes place more than 300 years after humanity's first space exploration). This first episode began around 10 years after the elusive Box was discovered. And that occured during humanity's first landing on Mars! - As for the "Romance of Three Kingdom" angle I said before? That's due to what the Box created: the "Skywall Disaster". When the macguffin was triggered during the Martian Exploration's homecoming ceremony, it unleashed a mysterious impenetrable Skywall that divided Japan into... yes, THREE areas. Namely, Hokuto (blue, the social welfare), Seito red, the economic recovery), and Touto (green, the traditional pacifist). The last is where this series is set (for now, at least). We have three confirmed Kamen Riders as well, so I'm guessing they will represent the Rulers/Leaders for each area. Not unlike Liu Bei, Cao Cao, and Sun Quan, right? - Oh, one more thing... that mysterious worker who conveniently activated the Box and instigated the tragedy? I could be wrong, but I think it's quite obvious enough that he's none other than our protagonist. His amnesiac state and strange obsession curiosity to the Box that was shown afterwards, strongly supported this theory. - Protagonist Sentou Kiryuu (played by yet another JUNON Super Boy winner Atsuhiro Inukai) is still grating on my nerves. Yes, I HAVE warmed up to him after 3rd viewing (kind of... sort of...), but I'm still having trouble liking this guy. He's what you get if the duo of "Kamen Rider W" had a child together: the cocky side of Shoutarou Hidari, and the naive curiosity of Philip/Raito Sonozaki. Calling himself genius and self-praising his own invention? Yikes! That's Shoutarou's bad-side all right. Also... Spada Spada Spada!!! Sentou's body language reminds me of Kyuranger's Spada. But he's far from being as likeable. For now, that is. - Inspite of that, I do like the questions surrounding his 'forgotten past'. That creepy human-experimentation nightmare? Yeah, it's a strong nod to Shouwa Riders, with "Kamen Rider Black" being a great example. It doesn't take a genius to guess, that it's how he ended up becoming Kamen Rider Build. Introduced via the nightmares, was 'Bat-Man'.... I mean the bat-themed Faust leader Night Rogue. It seems this mysterious figure is pulling the strings behind these experimentations. - Speaking of experiments... Ryuuga Banjou (played by Eiji Akaso) is the recent in its long line of victim. This stupid 23 years old is easily my second favorite character so far. His actor have proven his ability to showcase emotions in "Kamen Rider Amazons S2" (I hated his character at first, but he evolved into a compelling audience-surrogate later on). So he's another strong talent for the protagonist side. He also shared that Shouwa Rider-esque backstory, which comfortably placed him on route to become the 2nd Rider, Kamen Rider Claws. But if, and only if, this show is indeed going through the Sangokuden path, will he end up becoming Sun Quan to Sentou's Liu Bei? Hmmmm.... that would be a heartbreaking twist, considering how heavily he's being shipped with Sentou right now. Then again, don't forget Shadowmoon... - If Ryuuga's second, who's my favorite character then? The answer is of course... Gentoku Himuro (played by Kensei Mikai). Contrary to my First Impression, he's not that ambiguous. He's a sleek-haired corporate-level douchebag, as evidenced by his sleazy move towards the lady journalist. He might look cool and tough, but at several occasions, he's acting like a spoiled brat! That's probably why I liked him even more! LOL. I admit, he's currently present to deliver exposition dump regarding the Pandora's Box. But he also had his own mystery, which means future potentials. Gentoku's one of the three bigwigs who experienced the Skywall disaster first hand. Yet in contrast to his words, he looked okay, and seemingly hasn't aged in 10 years. What's the deal with him then? What about those other two, the lady in white and middle-aged man? Are they the leaders of the two other areas now? Why is the buttons on his gray uniform is on the left, and not right side? If I do end up following this series, getting answers to those will probably be one of the few reasons. - There's more. These past few days, many have been connecting Gentoku with the supposed-antagonist Night Rogue. A nice theory, but a little too obvious one if you ask me. Unless of course, TOEI is going the exact same route to "Kamen Rider Ex-Aid". Which makes sense, since Gentoku shares MANY similarities to Kuroto Dan! Both are played by crowd-pleasing really-good-looking (I can't really argue that, can I... ;D) 30-something actors, both are corporate businessmen who somehow got involved with the protagonist, and they exuded a strong "I'm a villain" vibe from the very start of the show. Two of a kind! But that's also the reason why it's too obvious. I doubt TOEI is going to rehash the same twist so soon. - Personally, I'm currently suspecting his assistant Nariaki Utsumi (played by Yuki Ochi) to be the real face behind Night Rogue. Going back to my Sangokuden theory, there's a likelihood that Gentoku will serve as the show's Cao Cao. But remember, it wasn't Cao Cao who ended up becoming the bigger challenge to Liu Bei. It was Sima Yi, who was his right hand and also personal advisor. I hope you're getting my point here... - Misora Isurugi (played by Kaho Takada) is obviously the official sidekick for Sentou. I sincerely hope we'll see a development in her character soon, because for now, her listless attitude... is sucking the joy out of this series. Think of it, like grumpy Koyomi in "Kamen Rider Wizard". She made me abandoned that series! For some reason, Misora has the power to cleanse evil. That means she might end up becoming a key character later on. That's a story for another day though. She's just part of Sentou's glaring exposition dump now. - Freelance journalist Sawa Takigawa (played by Yukari Taki and Cafe Nascita owner Souichi Isurugi (played by Yasuyuki Maekawa) are also exposition tools! Their main contribution to the episode was to deliver explanations, such as: the unidentified life forms Smash, how Build could extract their Essence to turn them back into human, how Misora could purify the Essence to be used by Build later on, why Sentou ended up living in Nascita's hidden basement/bunker, Build's goals in this series, as well as about Ryuuga's criminal background. Sawa served as the first damsel-in-distress, while Souichi as... Spada, Spada, Spada (that use of Italian? duh...)... a comic relief support. He was NOT funny though. AT ALL. Generally annoying for my taste. - Aaah yes, the flat dry jokes just did NOT work. It's said that third time's the charm, but definitely not for this one. None of the humor made me laugh, not even once. Aside from being weak in materials and relies too much on slapstick, the comedic timing was also off. The optimist in me would say, "Better luck next episode", but the pessimist half is saying, "Cut the crap, and just focus on being serious!!!". - If there's one thing I easily enjoyed about this episode, it's the design and concept. I could be biased due to my love to "Kamen Rider W", but Build certainly emitted Double's flair of style. Likely due to Ryuta Tasaki being the director. The dual-elements is a such a neat concept, combining biological and technological, though it seems these will not be limited to those categories (we'll be getting elementals like Diamonds, Fire, and more). Yes, the whole Full Bottles gimmick is basically an excuse to promote toy collectibles/figures. But at least it allows a variety of combinations, or as the Build Driver say... "BEST MATCH". The fact that it's created using purified Smash's essence (Hedgehog is the example) is equally intriguing. That means every Smash serves a purpose to become a new power-base! What will happen if Build accidentally uses an evil one, then? Will he turn evil too? Hmmm... - Build's transformation scene feels very SCIENCEy with all those physics equations. All those metallurgy angle... I really dig that! Sadly, the finishing move "VOLTECH FINISH" is a complete opposite. It's meant to look cool, but for me it's cheesy because the use of Physics felt unnatural/forced. Really, I don't think it's possible for anyone to move that way. To sum up, the Science approach in this episode was a hit or miss for me. - Last but not least, the nicely choreographed action, helped elevate the episode's second half into something that was genuinely entertaining. The motorcycle chase against the Touto armed forces in particular, was a highlight. It's over the top, but exciting. Like many had said, it felt like a Kamen Rider show once again.

As far as first episode go, this was... okay to good. Not great, due to many reasons I've pointed out above. Unlike Kyuranger that instantly stole my attention and sped off with it, this one didn't accomplish as much. It's clearly handholding its audience with thorough explanations here and there, so the bulk of it was merely expositions. Just to be fair, it can't really be helped nor blamed, considering this IS only the first episode. I do however, hope things will 'build up' with more... 'natural' flow in the next one. That's probably when I can properly decide whether to pick this series up or not. So yeah, allow me to reiterate: this post does NOT mean I'll be following the series from now on. There are some nitpick-ish parts I still need to... 'shake off' first, but I do have some good enough reasons to give it a chance, at least until around the 5th-6th episode. Here's hoping the next ones will be able to convince me even more... Next Episode: Is Ryuuga a real killer? Time for a murder investigation...

Episode 01 Score: 7,3 out of 10

All images are screencaptured from the series, provided by the FanSubber Over-Time. "Kamen Rider Build" is produced by TOEI, and airs every Sunday on TV-Asahi. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.

[forkanna]

NOTICE: All characters and settings © Atlus. Story © 2019 to me. All rights reserved. Dedicated to CheekaBelle, who helped inspire me to play this game and to ship this cracky ship.

WARNING: Slight AU; just one or two small events. Relationship involving a potentially underage character (high school; around 18). Massive spoilers for Persona 5, obviously. Change in perspective will be denoted with "JUDGMENT" for third person, and "The Priestess" for first person Makoto. Also, I know I'm writing the names in Western order (given name then surname) for Japanese characters; please don't @ me haha. If someone were to translate this fic into Japanese I would hope they reverse them into proper Japanese order.

NOTES: Okay. I'm really nervous about this one, because I know Persona has a huge fanbase and I'm a total noob. I just never had any contact with it that wasn't passing P4 on a game store shelf and having no idea what it was until last year; none of my friends were playing it and I didn't know enough about it. But then earlier this year, a few friends strongly recommended P5 to me, and it went on sale for a great price, and… well, crack's primary function is to be addictive, right?

Hopefully I've done some justice to the characters and the universe. And as always, I tried to write this in a way that non-Persona fans can jump right in. Enjoy!

-Jessex

[AO3 LINK] [EF LINK]

PROLOGUE

The clicking of jet black heels echoed throughout the hallway as Sae Niijima made her way to the interrogation room. Her blood boiled and curdled alternately as she thought about what she was about to do - or rather, what she was going to have to put herself through. The last thing she wanted was to know any more than she already did about this situation. But she had no alternative. Either she did her job and got to the bottom of this, or…

No. That was the only option.

"Alright," Sae sighed brusquely as the door slammed shut behind her. The noise still had yet to fade when she added the din of a metal chair scraping across cold concrete to the cacophony. A file folder with a legal pad inside was deposited on the otherwise-barren table; more routine than necessity.

"Let's start from the beginning. Name?"

The half-smiling girl across the table from her stared back for a moment. "Are you kidding?"

"I am not. Name?"

"Fine," she sighed softly, lowering her reddish eyes to point at the table as she tucked a strand of dark brown hair behind her ear. "Makoto Niijima." When the pen started scratching across the pad, she snapped, "Come on, Sis. You didn't need me to tell you that to add it to your file."

"I'm following the rules," she snapped right back at her little sister. "And don't forget our deal."

Makoto seemed to go even more pale than usual at that barely-stated threat. Her slender throat contracted from swallowing as she stared through the table that lay between them. Then she whispered, "Alright."

"Good. Now… do you want to start at the beginning?"

"Beginning of what?" she hedged.

"Of why and how you let this happen."

"When I… when I let this…" Her eyes widened and she sat up straighter. "Just what are you accusing me of?"

"Exactly what it sounds like." Sae crossed her legs and tapped the pad of paper with her violet nails, finally glaring at her sister properly. Etched across every inch of her severe features was disapproval, disappointment - just about any word that began with 'dis' was present. "You and I both know you're nobody's victim, even if you weren't the aggressor. And there are other… factors in this case that don't really add up to the simplest explanation. So I think I have every right to demand answers."

Jaw tightening in defiance, just for a moment, Makoto whispered, "I asked you to leave this alone. It's none of your concern."

But she received a lot more backlash for that than she probably had anticipated. Sae slammed her palm down on top of the notepad, eyes narrowing as she leaned in closer to her alarmed sister.

"Do you know what they think you're doing here? My superiors? They think I'm interviewing you in connection with those so-called Phantom Thieves - which I still need to do, because I think you know more than you've let on in that regard."

Only now did her sibling look truly shocked. "Wh-what?!"

"That's right. I'm not blind. But one thing at a time." Leaning in further so that Makoto had to tilt backward to avoid their heads connecting, she hissed, "I have complied with your foolish request, you little pain in my ass. I don't know what the point is. I don't know why you would want me to protect anyone who did something like that to my own flesh and blood. But I have. So the least you can do is show me a little more cooperation than this!"

As always, Makoto shut down. She knew that was coming. Whenever they argued, if it got particularly heated - or rather, if Sae let her temper get the better of her and went into full Attack Mode - Makoto would resist, she would argue back… until she didn't. The light left her eyes, the wind went out of her sails. Sae both loved and hated that moment, because while it meant she had won the argument…

She was losing Makoto. And she couldn't stop it, couldn't alter that course. It was too late. She wanted to treat her sister better, more like family, but couldn't quite see that pathway anymore.

"Yes, Onee-san," she said in that robotic tone that had become all too familiar. "What would you like to know?"

"Better. Let's begin." She turned the file folder, sliding it across to Makoto so she could see the photo clipped to the corner. It wasn't an official police file - yet. Just notes and a picture.

"What can you tell me about Sadayo Kawakami? And the nature of your relationship outside of teacher-and-student. The truth."

Makoto took a deep breath, staring down at the picture. "It's… not what you think."

"Then tell me what it is instead."

"Alright. So…" Fingers fiddling with the corner of the file, she took a deep breath before she continued. Sae had backed her into a corner; it was practically her M.O. No sense in fighting it.

"This started a few weeks ago, maybe a month, when I noticed something really unusual going on with my friend Ren…"

 CHAPTER ONE

~ x The Priestess x ~

Kawakami has always seemed to me as if she were hiding something. Maybe that's because my big sister is a public prosecutor; something hereditary from our late policeman father. Or maybe hearing about all that legal-related work my whole life has just made me paranoid. Either way, I felt like there was something a little bit off about the Japanese language teacher even if I couldn't quite place what it was. Most of the time, she remained professional and always taught her subjects with passion. But this black cloud seemed to follow her around. Why did such a highly intelligent, capable woman who said she loved teaching so much always look as if she wished she were anywhere else but Shujin Academy?

My first clue I might be right was only a series of fleeting glances between her and Ren- I mean, Amamiya-san. My suspicions should be obvious. Even though I didn't think of him as the sort of boy who would do such a thing, or Kawakami-sensei as that sort of woman, intuition is not a guarantee. So I had to find out for myself one way or another.

I could never have guessed their true situation. Not in a million years.

My curiosity finally got the better of me one day when I saw Kawakami was more tired than usual. Drastically more tired, as if she hadn't slept in a week. With everything going on after Coach Kamoshida's confession of abusing his students and subsequent termination, I think it was natural for me to assume she was feeling fatigued from the fallout from that; the entire staff were strained from picking up the slack of his classes, and dealing with the constant gossip and bad press. Still, given my suspicions about Ren, I decided it was my duty as student council president to at least ask. If she didn't want to talk about it, then that was her choice. And if I turned out to be wrong…

I would have been relieved. Do you honestly think I wanted to find out another teacher at our school could prey on their own students like that?

"Kawakami-sensei?" I asked gently as I knocked on the open door to the teacher's office. "Do you have a minute?"

The dark bags under her eyes said that she didn't. Even her cheerful yellow long-sleeve scoopneck seemed extra wrinkled, though that was probably a figment of my imagination.

"Niijima-san. What's up?"

Seating myself at the neighboring desk, I cleared my throat. "Nothing in particular. With me, anyway."

"That's good," she began suspiciously, brow furrowing as she ran a hand through her wavy brown locks. It occurred to me that she was actually very beautiful, but it wasn't as easy to notice when she always looked tired and stressed out. Sometimes a person's mood colours all perceptions.

"Yes, I'm doing well in my studies. Making new friends."

"Excellent." A few more seconds ticked by. "So…"

"Hmm?"

"So… what did you need to see me about?"

"Oh!" I gave a respectful bow, keeping my eyes on the floor as I said, "Forgive me, Sensei. I'm sorry to take up so much of your time."

However, Kawakami chuckled at me. "So formal. Go ahead, I don't bite. What's on your mind?"

As I sat back upright, I tried to arrange my thoughts into the most tactful question I could come up with. What came out was, "Are you having an affair?"

I could see my teacher's eyes widening, and it took a concentrated effort not to throw myself out of the nearest window. It happened again. Why did I always sling the most forthright question possible at people if I was investigating them, instead of phrasing things a little more gently? That impulsiveness was so unlike me - and as I already learned many times, it didn't yield positive results!

"Niijima-san… what's- I mean, why would you ask me something like that?"

"I-I, um… I'm not sure?" Swallowing hard, I whispered, "You seem very exhausted and upset. Sorry if this isn't my business, I was-"

"You're right. It's not your business." My head snapped up to see she was frowning hard at me, and my heart sank. "I'm your teacher and my personal life outside this school is just that, kid - personal. But in point of fact, I'm not married, so I can't have an 'affair', anyway."

I felt about two centimeters tall as I bowed low. "Y-yes, Sensei."

"And you can tell that old potato the same thing."

"Old… potato? Oh, you mean Principal Kobayakawa?" My jaw almost hit the floor. "Did you just say that about our principal?!"

Kawakami rolled her eyes, seeming to actually lose another hour of sleep just from having to endure this conversation. I felt a tiny pinprick of guilt, though I tried not to think too hard about that. "Come on, Niijima. I know you're his pet; we know that. The staff, anyway."

"I…" My heart sank even further at the way she stated that. "I'm not his pet."

"We've all seen those notices pinned up all over the school, asking for information. Does the rest of the student council really care about unearthing the Phantom Thieves? Maybe about bullying and things like that, but… it's not even school-related. Well, other than their target being Coach Suguru."

Staring at her denim skirt instead of her face now, I whispered, "Of course. It is our duty to… to maintain order in this school. The Phantom Thieves, a-and bullies, are… disorderly. Right? Shouldn't we want to make sure… u-um…"

When it became obvious I wasn't going to finish because my voice had left me, Kawakami prompted, "Go on."

"Shouldn't we want to ensure this is the best institute of learning it can be? Don't you want that? You're our teacher."

"Well…" Another sigh, and I glanced up to see her pinching the bridge of her nose. "Yeah. I guess we do. But nobody likes a snitch. Even I've heard that you and the principal knew about Suguru abusing his students… what was going on with poor Miss Suzui."

"I- I didn't," I hastily told her, feeling my chest tighten, my blood running cold. She hated me. Everyone at the school hated me, didn't they?

But Miss Kawakami was shrugging and turning to look at her papers. "Didn't say I believe the rumours. Just that they exist, and they have some basis in fact. You gonna deny that?"

When I never answered, she finally did glance over at me. There was no warmth or kindness in her eyes, and I understood why; I had stormed in there, accused her of doing something unscrupulous. Even if I didn't outright state that it was with a student, maybe that was why she was so upset: she figured it out. What kind of entitled jerk was I?

"I am very, very sorry," I whispered as I bowed low again, just barely able to keep from trembling. Maintaining my professional facade. "I won't trouble you with this again, Sensei."

"Thank you," she said simply. But when I didn't raise back up, she touched my shoulder. "Makoto…"

"Wh-what…?"

Now there was the tiniest amount of warmth there - both in her eyes and the gentle hand. My heart skipped over a beat. Whether that was because the brief comfort felt nice, or because I had been shocked and afraid she might hurt me, I couldn't say for sure.

"It's alright. Get out of here, let me get back to work."

"Thank you, Sensei. I… I'll go away."

For just a second, as I stood and turned toward the door, I caught a flicker of surprise crossing her face again as she watched me make my way to the exit. But I didn't dare look back to confirm.

                                             ~ o ~

That was it. My big plan to expose further corruption in our school, to get to the bottom of the problem with my teacher, and I failed. I didn't even really get started.

So nothing happened for another week or two. I busied myself with other projects, studying, my duties as student council president. Though I did notice Miss Kawakami looked more and more exhausted, I had already burned that bridge with her; she thought I was an awful, rude busybody who cared more about advancing my school career and finding out the truth than people's feelings. None of that was true… but how could I argue with the way it looked?

Then something happened that almost made me forget all about her. You might remember this, Sister. I hadn't even been home for a few minutes when I heard you shouting for me.

"Makoto!"

I was still busy taking off my Mary Janes when I called back, "Yes?"

You came around the corner, that iron grey hair of yours dripping wet, towel wrapped around your body. It's easy to forget when I don't see you like that, but your legs go on for days. How am I your sister when you're twenty centimeters taller than me? Why did you win the genetic lottery? I always feel like a child next to you. But that's for more than one reason.

"Wasn't the water heater supposed to be fixed today?"

"I… think it was," I replied, stepping away from the door and fiddling with the strap of my school bag. "I take it maintenance didn't get to it?"

"You take it correctly." Every inch of your posture radiated anger and disapproval. "I thought you were going to make sure they could be let in."

Swallowing hard, I set my bag down near the couch. "Well, Onee-san… I said I would if I was home. But they were supposed to arrive while I was at school, so-"

"Then you should have left instructions with them. A key under the mat, something. You know I'm busy with the Phantom Thieves case; do I have to do everything around here?"

"No," I said. In what I hoped was a reasonable tone. "But you also know I can't skip class. And isn't it dangerous to leave a key out for anyone to find?"

Your jaw tightened, and I felt smaller and smaller. Pathetic and useless in your eyes; like I would never measure up. Which was how I always felt with you. On the good days, I only felt somewhat lesser; on the bad, I felt like nothing.

"Fine. You're right. Can't help that. I'll have to do it myself."

"Wait. Can't you… can they come back on Sunday? I don't have class then, and I would be happy t-"

"Nevermind," you cut me off fiercely with a wave of your hand, eyes no longer focused on me but off into the distance. "I'll do it. You can focus on your studies so you can grow up someday. Can't keep coddling you and supporting you forever, can I?"

And before I could say anything else, you were stomping back into the bathroom. There was nothing more for me to do than to move into the kitchen and begin cobbling together a simple dinner for the both of us. And that happened so often I could have set my watch by it. I was left alone in the living room, with my feelings of inadequacy coming from two women in my life who were authority figures.

Poor little Makoto, right?

                                            To Be Continued…

[hellofastestnewsfan]

Previously on this topic: “Is It Time to Worry About the Boeing 737 Max?,” “A Shorter Guide to the Ethiopian Tragedy and the 737 Max,” “What Was On the Record About Problems With the 737 Max,” “‘Don’t Ground the Planes, Ground the Pilots,’” “The Implications of the 737 Max Crashes,” “Training, Regulation, and the 737 Max,” and “The Jump-Seat Pilot and the 737 Max.”

Yesterday I mentioned a new Bloomberg report on the background on the crash of the Lion Air 737 Max last fall, in the ocean off Indonesia. The crucial detail in the Bloomberg report, still to be confirmed by other sources, is that just one day before the Lion Air crash, the very same airplane had reported a similar pitch-control anomaly. But in that case, a third pilot, who happened to be in the cockpit aboard a jump seat, recognized what was happening, and helped the flight crew overside the errant system.

If this report holds up, its implications could be significant—at least for the Indonesian crash. To lay them out as clearly as I can, for emphasis:

A specific 737 Max airplane reportedly had a pitch-control problem, of the sort associated with the new MCAS software on the 737 Max.   

The three pilots reportedly in the cockpit that day—two from the regular crew, plus one more who happened to be there—together recognized and dealt with the problem, so the flight continued to its destination.   

The same plane returned to duty, full of passengers, the very next day.      

That next day, the same airplane had a serious pitch-control problem. But the two pilots in the cockpit that day were not able to deal with it, for whatever reason, and they plus 185 people went to their deaths.

At face value, something about this does not make sense — in addition to being horribly tragic.

If the doomed Lion Air plane indeed had a runaway-pitch episode the day before the fatal crash, wouldn’t the flight crew have noted that in the plane’s logbook, at the end of the flight?

And if this episode were noted, wouldn’t the next day’s crew have seen it on the routine logbook inspections all professional flight crews are supposed to make, and done something about it? “Done something” in this case would include: asking the maintenance crew what had happened; requesting a different airplane; refusing to take off until they knew the full story; and so on.

At face value, this does not make sense. The Bloomberg report addresses it, saying that the previous-day flight crew “didn’t mention key issues with the flight after they landed, according to the [Indonesian] report.” If this really is the case, it is … inexplicable. No matter where in the world, you would expect professional pilots for a commercial airline always to have logged an anomaly this serious, after landing. You would expect the next day’s crew always to have looked through the log book before agreeing to take off.

For this next installment of reaction from people in the aviation world, here are messages stressing “human factors” and cultural questions. For instance:

1) Why did the third pilot matter? Perhaps because he had additional bandwidth and mind-share. Several pilots and others have written in to make a point like the one in the message below:

Regarding the 3rd pilot who had managed to troubleshoot the problem on the previous day’s Lion Air flight, another possibility could be that it was not that that the 3rd pilot had special knowledge but that because he was not personally flying the plane, he could step back to consider the problem and find a solution.

In a situation where something abnormal happened, the pilots may just not have had the bandwidth to consider all the possibilities because they were fully occupied just trying to keep the plane aloft. The parallel is with the Qantas A380 near-disaster when their engine blew up shortly after leaving Singapore. There were five pilots in the cockpit when the incident occurred and that meant that the workload of going through all the checklists and trying to figure out what was going on could be spread out over more pilots.

While the official ATSB report said that two crew could have landed the aircraft safely, just being able to discuss the situation with other experienced pilots in the flight deck no doubt raised the confidence level of the Captain and reduced the chance of him making a mistake.

Qantas was lucky that day. Unfortunately, the pilots of the two recent 737 Max crashes didn’t have that luxury.

For an illustration of how task-saturation and “reptile brain” can take over in small-airplane aviation, check out this video by Paul Bertorelli on AVWeb. It describes how the parachute built into all Cirrus single-engine airplanes, like the ones I have flown, has given small-plane pilots an option when panic and disorientation overtake them.

On another aspect of why another set of eyes in the cockpit might have made a difference:

I don't think the survival of the plane with the jump-seat pilot  necessarily means that pilot knew about MCAS or what was causing it.

It is possible that, from his location at the back of the cockpit, he saw the trim wheels spinning in a "Downward" direction [JF note: These are the wheels through which pilots can set the plane’s “pitch trim,” which visibly move when the automated systems are at work]. He might then have realized that the pitch movement needed to be stopped, and the quickest way to stop that was by flipping the switch. Getting more details on how the previous flight solved the problem might be very interesting.

On a related expected-standards point, a reader in the U.S. writes:

You should be aware that in the US, Boeing and/or the FAA can issue notices to operators that they must follow in order to keep flying particular aircraft.  Given the complexities of modern aircraft, these notices are pretty common as experience is developed with the design.

Boeing and the FAA however, have no power over foreign operators of aircraft.  These notices are issued to foreign operators, but they are under no compulsion to follow through on them.  This is one of the reasons that foreign carriers typically have poorer safety records than US operators, as they tend to ignore a fair amount of these.

[JF note: The previous sentence may sound like a generalization, but data show that commercial airlines in North America and Europe, plus Japan and South Korea, in fact have a dramatically better safety record than those in other parts of the world. According to the latest tabulation from IATA, the international airline organization, these are fatality rates per million departures from 2012-2017, by region of airline: North Asia, 0.00; Europe, 0.14; and North America, 0.22. By contrast, the rate for African airlines as a whole was 2.22; Middle East and North Africa, 0.71; Latin America, 0.53. Airlines from the former Soviet Union had  a fatality rate of 1.17, or more than ten times the European rate. Richer-country airlines, in fact, do have much better safety records.]

Here in the US training is typically thorough and I'd be surprised if pilots were not trained to recognize and recover from a failure in the MCAS system, including simulator time in which the failure was induced and the pilots trained on responding properly.  This is one reason I believe as to why there was no order from the FAA to ground the aircraft.  The FAA was probably confident that US pilots had been properly trained.

2). Unexpected consequences, or: Fighting the last war. An experienced military and civilian airline pilot suggests that efforts to “learn the lessons” of previous airline disasters might have inadvertently created the conditions for this  one.

Here’s the crucial background to the case he makes: In most aircraft in most situations, the first step to take when a plane is nearing a dangerous aerodynamic stall is to push the nose of the plane down. The word push is generally emphasized, in part because this step means physically pushing a control stick or yoke forward in the cockpit. This, in turn, lowers the plane’s nose, reduces its “angle of attack” against the oncoming wind, and begins the stall-recovery process. Even private pilots like me have been through countless repetitions of stall-recovery drills, with a memorized list of steps that always begin with push.

In two fatal airline disasters a decade ago—the Colgan commuter plane that crashed on approach to Buffalo in 2009, and the Air France crash into the Atlantic that same year—the professional flight crews (for differing reasons), failed to push and prevent a stall when they should have. The pilot who writes in now says that Boeing may have been over-learning the lessons of those disasters in building in its automatic nose-pushing software. This pilot writes:

My bonafides:  Air Transport Pilot, Certified Flight Instructor, captain with major U.S. airline, extensive flying experience in 737s (but not the Max), former military instructor pilot who taught, among other things, the out-of-control flight curriculum for other  instructor pilots.

There may be an unexplored cultural aspect to the Max mishaps.

After the Air France and Colgan Air mishaps, a consensus seemed to form that pilots weren’t good enough at recognizing and responding to stalls.  My airline responded, in part, by training pilots in the All-Attitude Upset Recovery Strategy.  The strategy boils down to “Push, Roll, Power, Stabilize.”  I conjecture that this was an attempt specifically to address the failures of the Air France and Colgan flight crews.  Had the pilots of those flights led with “push,” their mishaps may have been averted.

I strongly suspect that Boeing engineers involved in the Max update were reacting to Air France and Colgan when they designed the Max’s “automatic nose down, can’t be outmuscled by pilots” feature.  After all, both of those mishaps occurred specifically because those pilots failed to respond to stall indications and insisted on pulling back on their respective flight controls.  The Max’s system, if I understand it correctly, may have averted both of those mishaps.

In other words, Boeing may have seen the airplane’s ability to ignore pilot inputs as a feature, not a bug.  This may have been a significant causal factor in both Max mishaps.

You’ve noticed that I use a lot of qualifiers.  That’s on purpose: I’m just speculating.  I’m not involved in the investigation, I’ve never worked at Boeing, etc.  However, I haven’t seen any journalists tease out this link, and I think it bears investigation.

The questions mount up, as preliminary answers emerge.

from The Atlantic https://ift.tt/2TmShMb

[smartwebhostingblog]

Saudi Arabia Is Not Coming To Tesla's Rescue

New Post has been published on http://cloudhostingtech.com/2018/08/20/saudi-arabia-is-not-coming-to-teslas-rescue/

Saudi Arabia Is Not Coming To Tesla's Rescue

On August 7th, Elon Musk put Tesla (TSLA) into play. The eccentric CEO did so by unconventional means, tweeting out to his millions of followers that he was considering taking the electric vehicle-maker private at $420 per share, which would imply an equity valuation of more than $70 billion. That statement alone might not be considered problematic, but his statement that he had “funding secured” for the transaction might well be, since it is now abundantly clear that he had no firm offer to back up the claim, nor had he conducted any of the preliminary due diligence and planning expected of even a small M&A transaction, let alone the largest take-private operation in history.

When Elon first issued his tweet, much of the market took him at his word and the share price spiked accordingly. When it became clear that his tweet was actually an impulsive act done without consultation of his board, banks, advisors, or would-be buyers, the stock subsequently crashed.

Elon’s actions have spurred an SEC investigation and spawned a litany of class action lawsuits that could put Tesla on the hook for more than $1 billion in damages. Yet, some true believers have not lost hope that Elon might be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat and actually get a deal done. This hope has been fueled in large part by the frantic efforts of Elon and Tesla’s board to backfill his statements. Elon has contracted legal and M&A advisors, as has the board. Of course, this appears to be more kabuki theater than serious buyout planning, as Elon has neither presented a serious take-private plan to the board, nor identified a confirmed source of funding.

The closest Elon has come to answering the question of the source of the necessary cash to take Tesla private came in the form of a blog post published on August 13th. In it, he claimed that he had been having conversations with the leadership of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and that they had indicated eagerness to proceed. It now seems like Elon may have been exaggerating, to say the least.

In this research note, we discuss the hurdles facing any potential Saudi role in taking Tesla private. We find that, despite Elon’s asserted confidence, there is vanishingly small prospect that the Saudis will bail him out – let alone at the $420 per share figure he seems to have made up on the fly.

Elon’s Arabian Gambit

In his blog about a potential financial backer for his take-private scheme, Elon had this to say about the Saudi sovereign wealth fund:

Going back almost two years, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has approached me multiple times about taking Tesla private. They first met with me at the beginning of 2017 to express this interest because of the important need to diversify away from oil. They then held several additional meetings with me over the next year to reiterate this interest and to try to move forward with a going private transaction. Obviously, the Saudi sovereign fund has more than enough capital needed to execute on such a transaction.

Recently, after the Saudi fund bought almost 5% of Tesla stock through the public markets, they reached out to ask for another meeting. That meeting took place on July 31st. During the meeting, the Managing Director of the fund expressed regret that I had not moved forward previously on a going private transaction with them, and he strongly expressed his support for funding a going private transaction for Tesla at this time. I understood from him that no other decision makers were needed and that they were eager to proceed.

I left the July 31st meeting with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving. This is why I referred to “funding secured” in the August 7th announcement.

Following the August 7th announcement, I have continued to communicate with the Managing Director of the Saudi fund. He has expressed support for proceeding subject to financial and other due diligence and their internal review process for obtaining approvals. He has also asked for additional details on how the company would be taken private, including any required percentages and any regulatory requirements.

Whether any of that is true remains to be seen. However, given what we know about the Saudi sovereign wealth fund’s resources, priorities, and strategy, it seems vanishingly unlikely that it has the capacity or the will to back Elon’s take-private scheme.

Not Enough Cash to Go Around

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund appears a highly unlikely source of the massive amount of capital needed to take Tesla private for several reasons. First of all, it does not have the financial firepower to make a tender offer without massively overcommitting to a single high-risk venture. Indeed, the fund is already struggling to scare up the cash to meet its current commitments:

Saudi officials have become concerned about the kingdom’s ability to fund those commitments, let alone make a big new one, people familiar with the matter said.

The people are skeptical the fund has any serious plans to take a sizable stake in Tesla beyond the nearly 5% it recently bought.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund was supposed to be enhanced by the proceeds of taking the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, public. But since that process has been delayed indefinitely, the sovereign wealth fund will have to subsist on its current allocation. That is worth over $100 billion, which is hardly chump change, but also not enough to commit to a deal that would likely cost, at a minimum, $25 billion to buy out retail investors, index funds, and institutions not interested in following Tesla into private ownership.

Legal and Regulatory Hurdles

Any foreign government seeking to take a substantial or controlling interest in a major American business must first pass through a congressional oversight process. That alone could delay, or even scupper a take-private deal, especially given the nativist bent of the current administration. The Saudis already own 5% of Tesla, and it seems unlikely that it would have the inclination to risk the rest on a legally precarious and highly costly operation.

Saudi Arabia is also prone to avoiding legal clashes, so the invigorated SEC investigation and looming massive potential civil liabilities are likely to have soured them to the idea, even if they were considering it before Elon’s ill-judged tweet.

A Lucid Moment

A final reason the Saudis are unlikely to bail Elon out of his tricky situation became public on Sunday, August 19th. It turns out that the Saudis have just come to terms with another EV startup, Lucid Motors, which is run by several veterans of Tesla, including much of the team that developed the Model S, arguably Tesla’s most successful product.

According to the term sheet, the Saudis will be able to invest up to $1 billion as various milestones are met, which would result in their obtaining a controlling interest. That is a lot less money for a lot more control.

Of course, some might argue that the Saudis could do both. After all, they already disclosed owning a substantial chunk of Tesla stock purchased on the open market. But there is a big different between a multi-billion-dollar allocation and a full-on buyout (or partial buyout).

More importantly, it is critical to recognize that Lucid’s leadership and engineering teams, having gotten out from under Elon’s thumb, would be loath to enter an arrangement in which they are essentially wedded to their former employer. Saudi control over both Tesla and Lucid is clearly not in the interest of Lucid’s people. Therefore, it is highly likely that whatever final deal emerges from the term sheet will protect the young startup from interference from Tesla. That would almost certainly preclude the Saudis from taking the lead in taking Tesla private.

Investor’s Eye View

Whether Elon has really been talking to the Saudis about taking Tesla private or not remains to be seen. It will clearly be a major point of interest to the SEC investigators. Perhaps discussions have taken place, but clearly they have not gone beyond the conversation stage. We can be confident of this fact for a number of reasons:

Elon has continued to present nebulous ideas about the ownership structure of the private Tesla, implying that he would prefer a diffuse ownership base even as he talks up the Saudis’ supposed capacity and will to take Tesla private.

There is no term sheet; and now we know that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, like any properly managed financial institution, uses term sheets as a matter of course.

No due diligence has occurred; the board was blindsided by Elon’s tweet and advisory firms were only contracted days after the fact.

This leaves Elon and Tesla in a dangerously precarious position, with potential criminal and civil liabilities that could wreck the company’s future. Tesla is already operationally and financially stressed; the added costs of buyout advisors, lawyers, and crisis PR consultants will only exacerbate them.

The Saudis may be making big bets on alternative energy and EV technology. But they are also interested in producing returns. The whole point of the sovereign wealth fund is to put the country’s oil profits to work by generating cash through diverse ventures. Sinking a significant percentage of its sovereign wealth fund into an EV company that has never produced a full-year profit, faces mounting competition, and likely to get hit with significant legal liabilities is not a winning investment strategy. The Saudis clearly understand that. The market is starting to understand that. The question now is whether Elon understands it yet.

Investors should disabuse themselves of the notion that a Saudi rescue is imminent. It is not.

Disclosure: I am/we are short TSLA.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

[awesomecolorfulcollectorwombat]

Saudi Arabia Is Not Coming To Tesla's Rescue

New Post has been published on http://cloudhostingtech.com/2018/08/20/saudi-arabia-is-not-coming-to-teslas-rescue/

Saudi Arabia Is Not Coming To Tesla's Rescue

On August 7th, Elon Musk put Tesla (TSLA) into play. The eccentric CEO did so by unconventional means, tweeting out to his millions of followers that he was considering taking the electric vehicle-maker private at $420 per share, which would imply an equity valuation of more than $70 billion. That statement alone might not be considered problematic, but his statement that he had “funding secured” for the transaction might well be, since it is now abundantly clear that he had no firm offer to back up the claim, nor had he conducted any of the preliminary due diligence and planning expected of even a small M&A transaction, let alone the largest take-private operation in history.

When Elon first issued his tweet, much of the market took him at his word and the share price spiked accordingly. When it became clear that his tweet was actually an impulsive act done without consultation of his board, banks, advisors, or would-be buyers, the stock subsequently crashed.

Elon’s actions have spurred an SEC investigation and spawned a litany of class action lawsuits that could put Tesla on the hook for more than $1 billion in damages. Yet, some true believers have not lost hope that Elon might be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat and actually get a deal done. This hope has been fueled in large part by the frantic efforts of Elon and Tesla’s board to backfill his statements. Elon has contracted legal and M&A advisors, as has the board. Of course, this appears to be more kabuki theater than serious buyout planning, as Elon has neither presented a serious take-private plan to the board, nor identified a confirmed source of funding.

The closest Elon has come to answering the question of the source of the necessary cash to take Tesla private came in the form of a blog post published on August 13th. In it, he claimed that he had been having conversations with the leadership of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and that they had indicated eagerness to proceed. It now seems like Elon may have been exaggerating, to say the least.

In this research note, we discuss the hurdles facing any potential Saudi role in taking Tesla private. We find that, despite Elon’s asserted confidence, there is vanishingly small prospect that the Saudis will bail him out – let alone at the $420 per share figure he seems to have made up on the fly.

Elon’s Arabian Gambit

In his blog about a potential financial backer for his take-private scheme, Elon had this to say about the Saudi sovereign wealth fund:

Going back almost two years, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has approached me multiple times about taking Tesla private. They first met with me at the beginning of 2017 to express this interest because of the important need to diversify away from oil. They then held several additional meetings with me over the next year to reiterate this interest and to try to move forward with a going private transaction. Obviously, the Saudi sovereign fund has more than enough capital needed to execute on such a transaction.

Recently, after the Saudi fund bought almost 5% of Tesla stock through the public markets, they reached out to ask for another meeting. That meeting took place on July 31st. During the meeting, the Managing Director of the fund expressed regret that I had not moved forward previously on a going private transaction with them, and he strongly expressed his support for funding a going private transaction for Tesla at this time. I understood from him that no other decision makers were needed and that they were eager to proceed.

I left the July 31st meeting with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving. This is why I referred to “funding secured” in the August 7th announcement.

Following the August 7th announcement, I have continued to communicate with the Managing Director of the Saudi fund. He has expressed support for proceeding subject to financial and other due diligence and their internal review process for obtaining approvals. He has also asked for additional details on how the company would be taken private, including any required percentages and any regulatory requirements.

Whether any of that is true remains to be seen. However, given what we know about the Saudi sovereign wealth fund’s resources, priorities, and strategy, it seems vanishingly unlikely that it has the capacity or the will to back Elon’s take-private scheme.

Not Enough Cash to Go Around

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund appears a highly unlikely source of the massive amount of capital needed to take Tesla private for several reasons. First of all, it does not have the financial firepower to make a tender offer without massively overcommitting to a single high-risk venture. Indeed, the fund is already struggling to scare up the cash to meet its current commitments:

Saudi officials have become concerned about the kingdom’s ability to fund those commitments, let alone make a big new one, people familiar with the matter said.

The people are skeptical the fund has any serious plans to take a sizable stake in Tesla beyond the nearly 5% it recently bought.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund was supposed to be enhanced by the proceeds of taking the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, public. But since that process has been delayed indefinitely, the sovereign wealth fund will have to subsist on its current allocation. That is worth over $100 billion, which is hardly chump change, but also not enough to commit to a deal that would likely cost, at a minimum, $25 billion to buy out retail investors, index funds, and institutions not interested in following Tesla into private ownership.

Legal and Regulatory Hurdles

Any foreign government seeking to take a substantial or controlling interest in a major American business must first pass through a congressional oversight process. That alone could delay, or even scupper a take-private deal, especially given the nativist bent of the current administration. The Saudis already own 5% of Tesla, and it seems unlikely that it would have the inclination to risk the rest on a legally precarious and highly costly operation.

Saudi Arabia is also prone to avoiding legal clashes, so the invigorated SEC investigation and looming massive potential civil liabilities are likely to have soured them to the idea, even if they were considering it before Elon’s ill-judged tweet.

A Lucid Moment

A final reason the Saudis are unlikely to bail Elon out of his tricky situation became public on Sunday, August 19th. It turns out that the Saudis have just come to terms with another EV startup, Lucid Motors, which is run by several veterans of Tesla, including much of the team that developed the Model S, arguably Tesla’s most successful product.

According to the term sheet, the Saudis will be able to invest up to $1 billion as various milestones are met, which would result in their obtaining a controlling interest. That is a lot less money for a lot more control.

Of course, some might argue that the Saudis could do both. After all, they already disclosed owning a substantial chunk of Tesla stock purchased on the open market. But there is a big different between a multi-billion-dollar allocation and a full-on buyout (or partial buyout).

More importantly, it is critical to recognize that Lucid’s leadership and engineering teams, having gotten out from under Elon’s thumb, would be loath to enter an arrangement in which they are essentially wedded to their former employer. Saudi control over both Tesla and Lucid is clearly not in the interest of Lucid’s people. Therefore, it is highly likely that whatever final deal emerges from the term sheet will protect the young startup from interference from Tesla. That would almost certainly preclude the Saudis from taking the lead in taking Tesla private.

Investor’s Eye View

Whether Elon has really been talking to the Saudis about taking Tesla private or not remains to be seen. It will clearly be a major point of interest to the SEC investigators. Perhaps discussions have taken place, but clearly they have not gone beyond the conversation stage. We can be confident of this fact for a number of reasons:

Elon has continued to present nebulous ideas about the ownership structure of the private Tesla, implying that he would prefer a diffuse ownership base even as he talks up the Saudis’ supposed capacity and will to take Tesla private.

There is no term sheet; and now we know that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, like any properly managed financial institution, uses term sheets as a matter of course.

No due diligence has occurred; the board was blindsided by Elon’s tweet and advisory firms were only contracted days after the fact.

This leaves Elon and Tesla in a dangerously precarious position, with potential criminal and civil liabilities that could wreck the company’s future. Tesla is already operationally and financially stressed; the added costs of buyout advisors, lawyers, and crisis PR consultants will only exacerbate them.

The Saudis may be making big bets on alternative energy and EV technology. But they are also interested in producing returns. The whole point of the sovereign wealth fund is to put the country’s oil profits to work by generating cash through diverse ventures. Sinking a significant percentage of its sovereign wealth fund into an EV company that has never produced a full-year profit, faces mounting competition, and likely to get hit with significant legal liabilities is not a winning investment strategy. The Saudis clearly understand that. The market is starting to understand that. The question now is whether Elon understands it yet.

Investors should disabuse themselves of the notion that a Saudi rescue is imminent. It is not.

Disclosure: I am/we are short TSLA.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

[lazilysillyprince]

Saudi Arabia Is Not Coming To Tesla's Rescue

New Post has been published on http://cloudhostingtech.com/2018/08/20/saudi-arabia-is-not-coming-to-teslas-rescue/

Saudi Arabia Is Not Coming To Tesla's Rescue

On August 7th, Elon Musk put Tesla (TSLA) into play. The eccentric CEO did so by unconventional means, tweeting out to his millions of followers that he was considering taking the electric vehicle-maker private at $420 per share, which would imply an equity valuation of more than $70 billion. That statement alone might not be considered problematic, but his statement that he had “funding secured” for the transaction might well be, since it is now abundantly clear that he had no firm offer to back up the claim, nor had he conducted any of the preliminary due diligence and planning expected of even a small M&A transaction, let alone the largest take-private operation in history.

When Elon first issued his tweet, much of the market took him at his word and the share price spiked accordingly. When it became clear that his tweet was actually an impulsive act done without consultation of his board, banks, advisors, or would-be buyers, the stock subsequently crashed.

Elon’s actions have spurred an SEC investigation and spawned a litany of class action lawsuits that could put Tesla on the hook for more than $1 billion in damages. Yet, some true believers have not lost hope that Elon might be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat and actually get a deal done. This hope has been fueled in large part by the frantic efforts of Elon and Tesla’s board to backfill his statements. Elon has contracted legal and M&A advisors, as has the board. Of course, this appears to be more kabuki theater than serious buyout planning, as Elon has neither presented a serious take-private plan to the board, nor identified a confirmed source of funding.

The closest Elon has come to answering the question of the source of the necessary cash to take Tesla private came in the form of a blog post published on August 13th. In it, he claimed that he had been having conversations with the leadership of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and that they had indicated eagerness to proceed. It now seems like Elon may have been exaggerating, to say the least.

In this research note, we discuss the hurdles facing any potential Saudi role in taking Tesla private. We find that, despite Elon’s asserted confidence, there is vanishingly small prospect that the Saudis will bail him out – let alone at the $420 per share figure he seems to have made up on the fly.

Elon’s Arabian Gambit

In his blog about a potential financial backer for his take-private scheme, Elon had this to say about the Saudi sovereign wealth fund:

Going back almost two years, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has approached me multiple times about taking Tesla private. They first met with me at the beginning of 2017 to express this interest because of the important need to diversify away from oil. They then held several additional meetings with me over the next year to reiterate this interest and to try to move forward with a going private transaction. Obviously, the Saudi sovereign fund has more than enough capital needed to execute on such a transaction.

Recently, after the Saudi fund bought almost 5% of Tesla stock through the public markets, they reached out to ask for another meeting. That meeting took place on July 31st. During the meeting, the Managing Director of the fund expressed regret that I had not moved forward previously on a going private transaction with them, and he strongly expressed his support for funding a going private transaction for Tesla at this time. I understood from him that no other decision makers were needed and that they were eager to proceed.

I left the July 31st meeting with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving. This is why I referred to “funding secured” in the August 7th announcement.

Following the August 7th announcement, I have continued to communicate with the Managing Director of the Saudi fund. He has expressed support for proceeding subject to financial and other due diligence and their internal review process for obtaining approvals. He has also asked for additional details on how the company would be taken private, including any required percentages and any regulatory requirements.

Whether any of that is true remains to be seen. However, given what we know about the Saudi sovereign wealth fund’s resources, priorities, and strategy, it seems vanishingly unlikely that it has the capacity or the will to back Elon’s take-private scheme.

Not Enough Cash to Go Around

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund appears a highly unlikely source of the massive amount of capital needed to take Tesla private for several reasons. First of all, it does not have the financial firepower to make a tender offer without massively overcommitting to a single high-risk venture. Indeed, the fund is already struggling to scare up the cash to meet its current commitments:

Saudi officials have become concerned about the kingdom’s ability to fund those commitments, let alone make a big new one, people familiar with the matter said.

The people are skeptical the fund has any serious plans to take a sizable stake in Tesla beyond the nearly 5% it recently bought.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund was supposed to be enhanced by the proceeds of taking the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, public. But since that process has been delayed indefinitely, the sovereign wealth fund will have to subsist on its current allocation. That is worth over $100 billion, which is hardly chump change, but also not enough to commit to a deal that would likely cost, at a minimum, $25 billion to buy out retail investors, index funds, and institutions not interested in following Tesla into private ownership.

Legal and Regulatory Hurdles

Any foreign government seeking to take a substantial or controlling interest in a major American business must first pass through a congressional oversight process. That alone could delay, or even scupper a take-private deal, especially given the nativist bent of the current administration. The Saudis already own 5% of Tesla, and it seems unlikely that it would have the inclination to risk the rest on a legally precarious and highly costly operation.

Saudi Arabia is also prone to avoiding legal clashes, so the invigorated SEC investigation and looming massive potential civil liabilities are likely to have soured them to the idea, even if they were considering it before Elon’s ill-judged tweet.

A Lucid Moment

A final reason the Saudis are unlikely to bail Elon out of his tricky situation became public on Sunday, August 19th. It turns out that the Saudis have just come to terms with another EV startup, Lucid Motors, which is run by several veterans of Tesla, including much of the team that developed the Model S, arguably Tesla’s most successful product.

According to the term sheet, the Saudis will be able to invest up to $1 billion as various milestones are met, which would result in their obtaining a controlling interest. That is a lot less money for a lot more control.

Of course, some might argue that the Saudis could do both. After all, they already disclosed owning a substantial chunk of Tesla stock purchased on the open market. But there is a big different between a multi-billion-dollar allocation and a full-on buyout (or partial buyout).

More importantly, it is critical to recognize that Lucid’s leadership and engineering teams, having gotten out from under Elon’s thumb, would be loath to enter an arrangement in which they are essentially wedded to their former employer. Saudi control over both Tesla and Lucid is clearly not in the interest of Lucid’s people. Therefore, it is highly likely that whatever final deal emerges from the term sheet will protect the young startup from interference from Tesla. That would almost certainly preclude the Saudis from taking the lead in taking Tesla private.

Investor’s Eye View

Whether Elon has really been talking to the Saudis about taking Tesla private or not remains to be seen. It will clearly be a major point of interest to the SEC investigators. Perhaps discussions have taken place, but clearly they have not gone beyond the conversation stage. We can be confident of this fact for a number of reasons:

Elon has continued to present nebulous ideas about the ownership structure of the private Tesla, implying that he would prefer a diffuse ownership base even as he talks up the Saudis’ supposed capacity and will to take Tesla private.

There is no term sheet; and now we know that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, like any properly managed financial institution, uses term sheets as a matter of course.

No due diligence has occurred; the board was blindsided by Elon’s tweet and advisory firms were only contracted days after the fact.

This leaves Elon and Tesla in a dangerously precarious position, with potential criminal and civil liabilities that could wreck the company’s future. Tesla is already operationally and financially stressed; the added costs of buyout advisors, lawyers, and crisis PR consultants will only exacerbate them.

The Saudis may be making big bets on alternative energy and EV technology. But they are also interested in producing returns. The whole point of the sovereign wealth fund is to put the country’s oil profits to work by generating cash through diverse ventures. Sinking a significant percentage of its sovereign wealth fund into an EV company that has never produced a full-year profit, faces mounting competition, and likely to get hit with significant legal liabilities is not a winning investment strategy. The Saudis clearly understand that. The market is starting to understand that. The question now is whether Elon understands it yet.

Investors should disabuse themselves of the notion that a Saudi rescue is imminent. It is not.

Disclosure: I am/we are short TSLA.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

[hostingnewsfeed]

Saudi Arabia Is Not Coming To Tesla's Rescue

New Post has been published on http://cloudhostingtech.com/2018/08/20/saudi-arabia-is-not-coming-to-teslas-rescue/

Saudi Arabia Is Not Coming To Tesla's Rescue

On August 7th, Elon Musk put Tesla (TSLA) into play. The eccentric CEO did so by unconventional means, tweeting out to his millions of followers that he was considering taking the electric vehicle-maker private at $420 per share, which would imply an equity valuation of more than $70 billion. That statement alone might not be considered problematic, but his statement that he had “funding secured” for the transaction might well be, since it is now abundantly clear that he had no firm offer to back up the claim, nor had he conducted any of the preliminary due diligence and planning expected of even a small M&A transaction, let alone the largest take-private operation in history.

When Elon first issued his tweet, much of the market took him at his word and the share price spiked accordingly. When it became clear that his tweet was actually an impulsive act done without consultation of his board, banks, advisors, or would-be buyers, the stock subsequently crashed.

Elon’s actions have spurred an SEC investigation and spawned a litany of class action lawsuits that could put Tesla on the hook for more than $1 billion in damages. Yet, some true believers have not lost hope that Elon might be able to pull a rabbit out of his hat and actually get a deal done. This hope has been fueled in large part by the frantic efforts of Elon and Tesla’s board to backfill his statements. Elon has contracted legal and M&A advisors, as has the board. Of course, this appears to be more kabuki theater than serious buyout planning, as Elon has neither presented a serious take-private plan to the board, nor identified a confirmed source of funding.

The closest Elon has come to answering the question of the source of the necessary cash to take Tesla private came in the form of a blog post published on August 13th. In it, he claimed that he had been having conversations with the leadership of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and that they had indicated eagerness to proceed. It now seems like Elon may have been exaggerating, to say the least.

In this research note, we discuss the hurdles facing any potential Saudi role in taking Tesla private. We find that, despite Elon’s asserted confidence, there is vanishingly small prospect that the Saudis will bail him out – let alone at the $420 per share figure he seems to have made up on the fly.

Elon’s Arabian Gambit

In his blog about a potential financial backer for his take-private scheme, Elon had this to say about the Saudi sovereign wealth fund:

Going back almost two years, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund has approached me multiple times about taking Tesla private. They first met with me at the beginning of 2017 to express this interest because of the important need to diversify away from oil. They then held several additional meetings with me over the next year to reiterate this interest and to try to move forward with a going private transaction. Obviously, the Saudi sovereign fund has more than enough capital needed to execute on such a transaction.

Recently, after the Saudi fund bought almost 5% of Tesla stock through the public markets, they reached out to ask for another meeting. That meeting took place on July 31st. During the meeting, the Managing Director of the fund expressed regret that I had not moved forward previously on a going private transaction with them, and he strongly expressed his support for funding a going private transaction for Tesla at this time. I understood from him that no other decision makers were needed and that they were eager to proceed.

I left the July 31st meeting with no question that a deal with the Saudi sovereign fund could be closed, and that it was just a matter of getting the process moving. This is why I referred to “funding secured” in the August 7th announcement.

Following the August 7th announcement, I have continued to communicate with the Managing Director of the Saudi fund. He has expressed support for proceeding subject to financial and other due diligence and their internal review process for obtaining approvals. He has also asked for additional details on how the company would be taken private, including any required percentages and any regulatory requirements.

Whether any of that is true remains to be seen. However, given what we know about the Saudi sovereign wealth fund’s resources, priorities, and strategy, it seems vanishingly unlikely that it has the capacity or the will to back Elon’s take-private scheme.

Not Enough Cash to Go Around

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund appears a highly unlikely source of the massive amount of capital needed to take Tesla private for several reasons. First of all, it does not have the financial firepower to make a tender offer without massively overcommitting to a single high-risk venture. Indeed, the fund is already struggling to scare up the cash to meet its current commitments:

Saudi officials have become concerned about the kingdom’s ability to fund those commitments, let alone make a big new one, people familiar with the matter said.

The people are skeptical the fund has any serious plans to take a sizable stake in Tesla beyond the nearly 5% it recently bought.

The Saudi sovereign wealth fund was supposed to be enhanced by the proceeds of taking the state oil company, Saudi Aramco, public. But since that process has been delayed indefinitely, the sovereign wealth fund will have to subsist on its current allocation. That is worth over $100 billion, which is hardly chump change, but also not enough to commit to a deal that would likely cost, at a minimum, $25 billion to buy out retail investors, index funds, and institutions not interested in following Tesla into private ownership.

Legal and Regulatory Hurdles

Any foreign government seeking to take a substantial or controlling interest in a major American business must first pass through a congressional oversight process. That alone could delay, or even scupper a take-private deal, especially given the nativist bent of the current administration. The Saudis already own 5% of Tesla, and it seems unlikely that it would have the inclination to risk the rest on a legally precarious and highly costly operation.

Saudi Arabia is also prone to avoiding legal clashes, so the invigorated SEC investigation and looming massive potential civil liabilities are likely to have soured them to the idea, even if they were considering it before Elon’s ill-judged tweet.

A Lucid Moment

A final reason the Saudis are unlikely to bail Elon out of his tricky situation became public on Sunday, August 19th. It turns out that the Saudis have just come to terms with another EV startup, Lucid Motors, which is run by several veterans of Tesla, including much of the team that developed the Model S, arguably Tesla’s most successful product.

According to the term sheet, the Saudis will be able to invest up to $1 billion as various milestones are met, which would result in their obtaining a controlling interest. That is a lot less money for a lot more control.

Of course, some might argue that the Saudis could do both. After all, they already disclosed owning a substantial chunk of Tesla stock purchased on the open market. But there is a big different between a multi-billion-dollar allocation and a full-on buyout (or partial buyout).

More importantly, it is critical to recognize that Lucid’s leadership and engineering teams, having gotten out from under Elon’s thumb, would be loath to enter an arrangement in which they are essentially wedded to their former employer. Saudi control over both Tesla and Lucid is clearly not in the interest of Lucid’s people. Therefore, it is highly likely that whatever final deal emerges from the term sheet will protect the young startup from interference from Tesla. That would almost certainly preclude the Saudis from taking the lead in taking Tesla private.

Investor’s Eye View

Whether Elon has really been talking to the Saudis about taking Tesla private or not remains to be seen. It will clearly be a major point of interest to the SEC investigators. Perhaps discussions have taken place, but clearly they have not gone beyond the conversation stage. We can be confident of this fact for a number of reasons:

Elon has continued to present nebulous ideas about the ownership structure of the private Tesla, implying that he would prefer a diffuse ownership base even as he talks up the Saudis’ supposed capacity and will to take Tesla private.

There is no term sheet; and now we know that the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, like any properly managed financial institution, uses term sheets as a matter of course.

No due diligence has occurred; the board was blindsided by Elon’s tweet and advisory firms were only contracted days after the fact.

This leaves Elon and Tesla in a dangerously precarious position, with potential criminal and civil liabilities that could wreck the company’s future. Tesla is already operationally and financially stressed; the added costs of buyout advisors, lawyers, and crisis PR consultants will only exacerbate them.

The Saudis may be making big bets on alternative energy and EV technology. But they are also interested in producing returns. The whole point of the sovereign wealth fund is to put the country’s oil profits to work by generating cash through diverse ventures. Sinking a significant percentage of its sovereign wealth fund into an EV company that has never produced a full-year profit, faces mounting competition, and likely to get hit with significant legal liabilities is not a winning investment strategy. The Saudis clearly understand that. The market is starting to understand that. The question now is whether Elon understands it yet.

Investors should disabuse themselves of the notion that a Saudi rescue is imminent. It is not.

Disclosure: I am/we are short TSLA.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

[hoseimaru]

Colorado Springs students plan walkouts over gun violence | Bradenton Herald

Shortly after the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, Deanna Cooper sat on the floor of a Coronado High School classroom with her back pressed against a wall.

The senior squeezed her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths.

The school was undergoing a "shelter in place" drill, an exercise intended to prepare students and staff for an active shooter in the building or some other threat, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported .

"I couldn’t help but think, ‘Are we going to be next?’"

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When she leaves class on Wednesday to participate in a national student walkout against school violence, Deanna said she intends to send this message: "We refuse to be the next school."

Hundreds of students across several school districts in the Pikes Peak region are planning to walk out of school on Wednesday, the one-month anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that left 17 staff and students dead.

The Women’s March Youth EMPOWER group, an offshoot of the progressive Women’s March, which advocates for rights of women, immigrants, health care users and others, issued the March 14 call to action.

At 10 a.m. in every time zone, organizers are encouraging students and other supporters to walk out for 17 minutes, symbolizing one minute for each person killed during the Florida mass shooting.

At least one local school district, Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8, in which up to 75 percent of students are connected to military families, is taking a different approach with sanctioned events about school safety and a chance for students to submit ideas about solving school violence.

The protest, according to organizers, is aimed at legislators and calls for gun-reform policies.

"Enough is enough. We want to make our voices heard," said Maya Berry, who’s organizing the event for students at Palmer High School in downtown Colorado Springs.

Some 200 students are expected to gather on the sidewalks around Palmer’s main school building at Nevada and Platte avenues.

"We hope to get the word out, to tell our government that we’re done being afraid in school," Maya said. "We’re walking out to show we’re tired of it."

During the demonstration, students will hold signs and be joined by other supporters, she said, such as parents, downtown workers, perhaps college students.

"I am proud of Maya’s dedication to change and making schools safe," said her dad, Chris Berry.

Going to school has been scary lately, Maya said. Many schools in the Colorado Springs area have received threats in the past month; three El Paso County teens are facing felony charges stemming from school threats.

Palmer High was placed on lockdown last week for what Colorado Springs School District 11 officials said was a possible threat.

"We were stuck in second period for about an hour," Maya said. "Most of us didn’t know what was going on. I was scared to think about how that could happen so quickly. Fortunately, they got it taken care of."

Some superintendents elsewhere, such as in Houston, have threatened to suspend students who walk out in observance.

Colorado Springs D-11 Superintendent Nicholas Gledich sent a message to parents, saying if a walkout occurs in D-11 schools, classes will continue on a normal schedule. Elementary and middle school students will need their parents to check out students if they plan on leaving the grounds.

Palmer High students potentially could receive a tardy mark, Maya said, unless they bring a note from a parent to excuse them.

Should a walkout occur, "Staff will be in attendance in a supervisory role to ensure student safety," Gledich’s message said.

"We are proud that some of our students want to exercise their First Amendment rights to express their views on this important topic," he wrote. "When students advocate for an issue they feel passionate about, it can be a powerful learning experience. We also recognize that some students may not want to participate in a walkout and would prefer to stay in class. We want to ensure that all students feel safe and respected, no matter what they choose to do."

Maya said she thought the letter was interesting.

"I’m glad they’re not going to actively try to stop us," she said. "But they’re preparing for it, too."

Under the First Amendment, students have the right to speak out, distribute fliers and petitions, and wear expressive clothing in school — as long as they don’t disrupt the functioning of the school or violate the school’s content-neutral policies, according to Josh Bell of the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington.

What counts as "disruptive" varies, he said, but a school disagreeing with a position or thinking student speech is controversial or in "bad taste" is not enough to qualify.

Courts have upheld students’ rights to wear an anti-war armband, an armband opposing the right to get an abortion and a shirt supporting the LGBTQ community, he said.

A school can prohibit wearing hats — because that rule is not based on what the hats say — but it can’t prohibit wearing only pink pussycat hats or pro-NRA hats.

Schools can discipline students for walking out, Bell said, but not more harshly than normal because of the political nature behind the action.

Coronado’s walkout will be held on school grounds, in the courtyard, an outdoor area that connects buildings.

Alexa Huesgen Hobbs, who is organizing the walkout with Deanna Cooper, said she talked to the school principal, to make him aware of the plans.

"We didn’t ask for his permission but notified him, and he said there’s nothing we can do to stop you," she said. "Administration is not supporting us, but there isn’t any backlash either. We don’t think there will be any disciplinary action for participants."

An unexcused absence or tardy is possible, Deanna said.

During the event at Coronado, the names of the 17 students and staff killed in Florida last month will be read, and speakers are planned. Students will be offered signs, voter registration information and how to contact state and national legislators.

Students at Rampart High in Academy School District 20 and Cheyenne Mountain High in Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 also are planning walkouts.

Cheyenne Mountain D-12 Superintendent Walt Cooper said he’s met with student organizers about logistics.

He’s quick to point out that the district isn’t sponsoring or endorsing any facet of the event.

"But I do feel it is incumbent upon us to support our kids and their efforts, if they truly feel so strongly about something," Cooper said.

No students will face consequences for participation or declining participation, he added.

The action is unusual, Cooper said; nothing like it has occurred in his 17 years of working in D-12.

"But we are clearly experiencing vastly different times and circumstances than we ever have before," he said. "I am impressed by and appreciate the maturity, thought and planning that our kids have put into this event and their willingness to work with the administration to ensure a well-organized, safe and inclusive event.

"I believe our kids are going about this the right way, and because of this, I think this can be a good and authentic learning experience for them."

Reaction to the event has been mixed, say student organizers.

At Coronado, "A lot of people are passionate and super into it, and then we have the other side, people who aren’t enthusiastic and have gone out of their way to say they’re not going to do it," Deanna said.

Palmer students also are split on the issue, Maya said.

"We have armed security now — that’s fairly new, it happened last year," she said. "I personally don’t want to be around guns, but some kids are like, maybe we should arm some teachers.

"The main idea is it’s time to stand up and make a difference. We are the next generation of voters, and this is what matters now."

Some critics believe students are being used as political pawns in the controversial debate over gun laws and Second Amendment rights.

Falcon School District 49 parent Richard Winn told The Gazette that a recent letter he received from the Falcon Middle School principal, saying it would "honor the right of students" to protest, is misguided.

"These young students are not activists looking for a march," he said. "The school wants to use them as activists."

Fountain-Fort Carson D-8, which has several schools on Fort Carson, is avoiding political controversy by taking a different approach.

"We’re holding events and conversations around safety issues at the high schools and middle schools," said spokeswoman Christy McGee.

At Fountain-Fort Carson High, students will be able to submit ideas on addressing social, emotional and physical safety, and speakers will discuss proactive conflict management, dangerous behaviors, using the Safe2Tell hotline and creating a positive school climate.

"We want to give kids the opportunity to voice how they can make a difference for students," said Principal Patrick Krumholz.

Like other schools, Fountain-Fort Carson High has had a few threats of violence this semester, he said.

"They were hoaxes, and we were able to find out who did it and deal with it appropriately," Krumholz said.

School leaders will consider instituting some of the ideas students generate, he said.

Students also will be able to walk out onto the athletic fields as a show of solidarity and remembrance for those who lost their lives in the Florida school shooting, McGee said.

Fountain Middle School students will watch a video on how they can help ensure school safety and can sign a pledge to each do their part.

"It’s a joint effort with the understanding from the school and district perspective that we know nationally this date and time has risen up, and we went to the students and said how can we make this a more productive time for you?" McGee said. "The point is to get your voice heard on the issues, how can that actually happen."

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PowerLine -> Justice Department to investigate Charlottesville violence. But why?

Die Whites Die in Charlottesville VA at HoaxAndChang.com

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Daily Digest

Justice Department to investigate Charlottesville violence. But why?

Media Alert

What Is Wrong With President Trump’s Statements On Charlottesville? [with comment by Paul]

Evil losers on parade

Far-Left Fashion at Vogue

Justice Department to investigate Charlottesville violence. But why?

Posted: 13 Aug 2017 04:26 PM PDT

(Paul Mirengoff)

The Justice Department has launched a civil rights investigation into the violence that occurred in Charlottesville yesterday. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said:

The violence and deaths in Charlottesville strike at the heart of American law and justice. When such actions arise from racial bigotry and hatred, they betray our core values and cannot be tolerated. I have talked with FBI Director Chris Wray, FBI agents on the scene, and law enforcement officials for the state of Virginia.

The FBI has been supporting state and local authorities throughout the day. U.S. Attorney Rick Mountcastle has commenced a federal investigation and will have the full support of the Department of Justice. Justice will prevail.

But is federal involvement necessary for justice to prevail? I very much doubt it.

The violence in Charlottesville had two components: the street fighting between right-wing and left-wing extremists and the mowing down of protesters by a Nazi (or Nazi sympathizer). The second component looks like an open and shut case. Local investigators and prosecutors should have no difficulty handling it. The local population will demand that they do their job, which surely will include seeking the maximum penalty against the murderer/terrorist. In Virginia, that’s the death penalty.

Determining guilt in connection with the street fighting will be less straightforward. However, there is no reason to think the feds can determine it more accurately than local authorities can. My guess is that, if anything, they can do it more objectively, since they are probably less likely than DOJ civil rights lawyers to sympathize with the hard left.

In short, a federal investigation of the Charlottesville violence strikes me as a waste of resources for the purpose, perhaps, of grandstanding.

   Media Alert

Posted: 13 Aug 2017 04:22 PM PDT

(John Hinderaker)

I will guest host Laura Ingraham’s radio show tomorrow and Friday. The show runs live from 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. Eastern, and is heard at other times in some geographies. We will have a good lineup of guests tomorrow including Dr. Herb London, but there will also be time to talk about issues of the day, including Charlottesville. It will be a good show, and I hope you can tune in!

You can go here to find a radio station in your area or to listen online. If you miss the show live, you can get highlights via podcast on iTunes. Please listen in, and give us a call at 855-40-LAURA. As always, I would love to hear from some Power Line readers.

   What Is Wrong With President Trump’s Statements On Charlottesville? [with comment by Paul]

Posted: 13 Aug 2017 02:13 PM PDT

(John Hinderaker)

As Scott has noted, President Trump has come under fire for not singling out white supremacists for condemnation following the violent clashes in Charlottesville. Trump has made several statements about those events, both orally and on Twitter. He condemned “in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence on many sides, on many sides.” He added: “It’s been going on for a long time in our country. Not Donald Trump. Not Barack Obama. It’s been going on for a long, long time.”

His tweets have mostly been calls for unity:

We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 12, 2017

Today the White House released an additional statement that specifically addressed white supremacist groups:

The president said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry and hatred and of course that includes white Supremacists, KKK, neo-Nazi and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.

Trump’s various statements have failed to satisfy just about everybody, including many Republicans–Scott, for one. Trump’s position may or may not be politically wise, but I am sympathetic to it. What his critics want him to do is denounce white supremacist groups to the exclusion of anyone else. The problem with his statements, in the eyes of critics, is they are too even-handed. Trump’s denunciation includes both the white supremacists in Charlottesville and the fascist “antifas” who counter-protested, as well as other hate groups.

This seems entirely appropriate to me, as the Charlottesville violence resulted in large part from the fact that the “antifas” showed up, spoiling for a fight. The videos I have seen suggest that the “antifas” were at least as responsible for the violent clashes as the white supremacists. Both deserve to be repudiated, and fascists who riot and try to shut down other people’s speech are just as reprehensible as racists.

So why are the critics so eager to force the president to single out the white supremacists? Because they want to tie him to the “alt-right.” They want an implicit admission from President Trump that the nuts who marched in Charlottesville and the man who drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters had something to do with him. The Associated Press says:

Trump’s critics pointed to the president’s racially tinged rhetoric as exploiting the nation’s festering racial tension.

What “racially tinged rhetoric” is that? The AP doesn’t say. It quotes one such critic, the Mayor of Charlottesville, who explicitly ties the president to the white supremacists:

I’m not going to make any bones about it. I place the blame for a lot of what you’re seeing in America today right at the doorstep of the White House and the people around the president.

This is, I think, an outrageous slander, and I am sure the president agrees.

The Democrats are eager to take advantage of the fact that James Fields, who drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing at least one, was one of the white supremacist demonstrators. His act was reprehensible and those of us who still favor capital punishment would likely find him eligible for it. But where were the Democrats when James Hodgkinson tried to assassinate Republican Congressmen, grievously wounding Majority Whip Steve Scalise?

Hodgkinson wasn’t a member of some obscure left-wing fringe group. Rather, he was a union activist, rabid Democrat, and Bernie Sanders campaign worker. Did the Democrats tell us that his act was symbolic of life in Bernie Sanders’ America? No.

The reality is that there is far too much political violence. It is all unacceptable–fascist “antifas” rioting at the inauguration of President Trump, left-wing students and hangers-on rioting and committing assault at places like Berkeley, Middlebury, and Claremont, mainstream Democrats like James Hodgkinson trying to assassinate political opponents, murderers inspired by Black Lives Matter killing policemen, and fringe fanatics like James Fields similarly committing murder. I am evidently in the minority, but I think President Trump is right to condemn all political violence rather than singling out the one incident that Democrats want to talk about while whitewashing the rest.

PAUL ADDS: I’m with John on this one for the reasons I gave yesterday. In addition, as John says, the assertion that President Trump needs to condemn alt-right hate groups because some members have expressed support for him is basically a call, witting or not, for Trump to give credence to the slanderous narrative that these groups have something to do with him.

   Evil losers on parade

Posted: 13 Aug 2017 07:16 AM PDT

(Scott Johnson)

What a sickening display of racism, anti-Semitism and all the rest the “white nationalists” served up in their demonstration over the decision to remove the statue of Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville. According to the New York Times, the planned rally was promoted as “Unite the Right,” attracting groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis and movement leaders like David Duke and Richard Spencer. NBC News has a good summary of events in Charlottesville yesterday here, as does the New York Times here.

“Evil losers” may be too strong a phrase to capture this crew, but it comes to mind in connection with the vehicular assault on “counter-protesters” that resulted in one death (at present) and 19 injured, five in critical condition. One James Alex Fields, all of 20 years old, has been charged with one count of second-degree murder and additional counts for those injured. The FBI and the Department of Justice have opened a civil rights investigation into the incident. As if this weren’t bad enough, two Virginia State Police officers were killed in a helicopter crash related to the events late yesterday afternoon.

New York Times reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg was on the scene yesterday. She noted on Twitter: “The hard left seemed as hate-filled as alt-right. I saw club-wielding ‘antifa’ beating white nationalists being led out of the park.” The “evil losers” formulation comes to mind here as well.

Byron York reviews the events and finds President Trump’s statement condemning events in Charlottesville yesterday wanting. Byron writes: “Nobody has an obligation to denounce every kook and racist in the country. But when a prominent racist declares, at a rally featuring people wearing your campaign slogan, that he is carrying out your agenda, and you are the president of the United States, there is an obligation to speak out.” This seems fair to me.

Trump has an important contribution to make going beyond the condemnation of hatred and bigotry on “many sides” that he issued yesterday (video below). More needs to be said, if not just about the “white nationalists” and their ilk.

Incidentally, the left liberal Garry Wills said goodbye to his former friends on the right in his 1970 book Nixon Agonistes. Wills had been driven to the left by the convulsions of the 1960’s in general and the civil rights movement in particular. See, e.g., Michael McDonald’s brilliant New Criterion essay “Wills watching.”

Wills presented Robert E. Lee as a sort of moral exemplar in his chapter on the perils of Wilsonian universalism. Speaking of Lee’s decision to resign his command in the Union army and accept the Virginia governor’s request that he lead the troops of Virginia, Wills writes (pages 482-483): “It is impossible to think this an immoral decision, especially when we read the anguished letters he wrote to friends justifying it[.]” Like any good man of the left, Wills must have kept his opinions in tune with the times. I’d be curious what he has to say about Lee today.

UPDATE: Via Politico Playbook: “A WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON put out the following statement in response to questions about President Trump’s remarks yesterday, per pooler Gabby Morrongiello of the Washington Examiner. ‘The President said very strongly in his statement yesterday that he condemns all forms of violence, bigotry, and hatred. Of course, that includes white supremacists, KKK Neo-Nazi, and all extremist groups. He called for national unity and bringing all Americans together.’”

   Far-Left Fashion at Vogue

Posted: 13 Aug 2017 06:12 AM PDT

(John Hinderaker)

Like me, you probably don’t read Vogue. So you probably are under the misunderstanding that it is a glossy magazine dedicated to frivolous fashion. Wrong: it is a left-wing propaganda outlet sprinkled with photos of dresses and purses.

The magazine’s relentless leftism can be hilarious. Like this article: “Step Aside, Idris Elba and Chris Hemsworth: Robert Mueller Is America’s New Crush.”

[A]s Chelsea Handler bluntly put it on Twitter: “I’m starting to have a real crush on Mueller.”

She wasn’t the only one who’d felt a tingle while reading The Wall Street Journal breaking news alert. Handler’s tweet about the 72-year-old grandfather was met with responses like, “Intelligence is sexy”; “It’s Mueller Time” (there are now even T-shirts and trucker hats to this effect); #SilverFox; and from one man [sic], “I wanna have his baby.” Kindly step aside, Messrs. Idris Elba and Chris Hemsworth, because America has a deeply passionate, totally red-hot new crush, and it’s on Robert Mueller.

This is not a parody, it is how Democrats write for a rather weird slice of their base. Since it poses as a fashion magazine, Vogue includes a picture of Mueller looking (I guess) “sexy”:

Of course, Mueller isn’t America’s only “new crush”:

This hot pursuit of the truth has made Mueller hot, but he’s not the only one. On the day of his much-watched testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, James Comey drew swoons on Twitter, including suggestions he be the next Bachelor. (It seems we all have a type: former FBI directors.) And hard-charging CNN host Jake Tapper, too, has become a journalistic crush among the resistance.

Congratulations, Jake.

Vogue features a lot of dresses and accessories, but does it normally do swimsuits? I’m not sure, but it hired famed photographer Annie Liebowitz to photograph one bathing beauty: the traitor Bradley Chelsea Manning:

The picture illustrates the magazine’s lengthy paean to Manning:

A Lambda host guides Manning down a flight of steps. The party is just starting. At one end of the space, a platform, slightly raised above the dance floor, is marked off with velvet rope. A plate of crudités awaits; Manning orders a gimlet. She’s extroverted, she says: “I love being around people.” While living as a man, she often went to clubs and parties, even in stodgy Washington, D.C. …

Music pounds through the room, which is dim and bathed in blue and fuchsia light. As the space fills, a few brave souls approach Manning, then a few more. Soon the platform is packed with people hoping to take a flash-bleached selfie.

“I just wanted to say hello. You’re, like, a perfect hero.” *** It’s a June afternoon, and we are sitting in a park along the Hudson River, a short walk from the sleek Tribeca building where Manning has been living since arriving in New York. Today she is dressed with a mixture of straightforward elegance and function: a casual black sleeveless Marc Jacobs dress with playful paisley lining, a small purse from The Row, Borderline boots by Vetements x Dr. Martens, and—the cinching touch—a black utility belt from 5.11 Tactical, a gear company that supplies law enforcement and the military. “I’ve been a huge fan of Marc Jacobs for many, many years, even going back to when I was wearing men’s clothing,” she explains. “He captures a kind of simplicity and a kind of beauty that I like—projecting strength through femininity.”

There is much more, including enough biographical information to raise the question: how did Manning, whose life was a complete mess, manage to get top secret clearance?

Vogue’s tribute to Manning concludes with credits not usually found at the end of a news story.

In this story:

Fashion Editor: Phyllis Posnick. Hair: Jimmy Paul for Bumble and Bumble; Makeup: Alice Lane. Tailor: Maria Del Greco for Christy Rilling Studio. Set Design: Mary Howard

If you don’t think there is a culture war going on, think again. And virtually every institution, including ostensibly nonpolitical niche players like Vogue, is on the other side.

   PowerLine -> Justice Department to investigate Charlottesville violence. But why? PowerLine -> Justice Department to investigate Charlottesville violence. But why? Daily Digest Justice Department to investigate Charlottesville violence.

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!!! CLICK HERE TO READ MORE !!! http://www.forextutor.net/fx-markets-look-to-rba-rate-decision-fomc-minutes-march-us-nfps/

FX Markets Look to RBA Rate Decision, FOMC Minutes, March US NFPs

Talking Points:

– FOMC minutes will help reveal why the Fed chose not to upgrade their growth and inflation forecasts at their last meeting, which sunk the US Dollar as no additional rate hikes were priced in.

– RBA policy meeting may come and go with much ado about nothing; rates markets aren’t pricing in any policy action this year.

– Friday’s US labor market report should confirm that the US economy remains on track to stay at “full employment,” which has underpinned the hawkishness aspect of Fed policy for the past 15-months.

Join me on Mondays at 7:30 EDT/11:30 GMT for the FX Week Ahead webinar, where we discuss top event risk over the coming days and strategies for trading FX markets around the events listed below.

04/04 Tuesday | 04:30 GMT | AUD Reserve Bank of Australia Rate Decision

The Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to keep rates unchanged at 1.50% on Tuesday as the country continues its transition after the end of the mining boom. At the last policy meeting RBA governor Philip Lowe noted that exports had risen strongly and non-mining investment had also risen over the last year, due in part to the low interest rate environment. Governor Lowe added that inflation is expected to pick-up gradually over the course of the year, while the labor market should also continue to improve. The central bank is therefore unlikely to want, or need, to change its policy stance in the near future. Rates markets are not pricing in any shift in policy at any point in 2017.

Pairs to Watch: AUD/JPY, AUD/NZD, AUD/USD

04/05 Wednesday | 14:00 GMT | USD ISM Non-Manufacturing/Services Composite (MAR)

The March USD ISM Non-Manufacturing/Services headline reading is expected at 57 versus a prior reading of 57.6. The relatively similar headline reading expected this Wednesday is indicative of currently favorable business conditions that are easing off the strong burst in sentiment that has been so prevalent in US markets. The US Dollar should show heightened sensitivity to this report given the economy’s tendency to follow the performance of the service sector, which accounts for approximately two-thirds of jobs in the United States. Look for the data, in conjunction with the ADP Employment report, to shape expectations for Friday’s Nonfarm Payrolls report.

Pairs to Watch: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, DXY Index, Gold

04/05 Wednesday | 14:00 GMT | USD March FOMC Meeting Minutes

The minutes from the Federal Reserve’s second meeting of the year will likely showcase the cautious optimism US policy officials have over their ability to normalize rates further this year, considering that they hiked rates by 25-bps. With a backdrop of “full employment” and inflation pressures moving above the Fed’s medium-term +2% target, the FOMC minutes should show confidencethat at least two more hikes will occur this year. The question will be what could bring about a rapid jump in rates? Fed Chair Yellen said that US President Trump’s fiscal stimulus had not been factored into the FOMC’s forecasts yet, but the degree to which this discussion took place will be important to recalibrate expectations after the early parts of the Trump agenda have failed to liftoff.

Pairs to Watch: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, DXY Index, Gold

04/07 Friday | 12:30 GMT | CAD Full-time Employment Change & Unemployment Rate (MAR)

Canadian unemployment dropped unexpectedly in February, to 6.6% from a prior month’s 6.8%, the third consecutive fall in a row and the lowest rate since January 2015. Employment rose by +15.3K beating expectations of +2.5K new workers. Real GDP slowed down in the fourth quarter of 2016, to +0.6% from +0.9% in the third quarter, due to a slowdown in consumer expenditure and slightly lower business investment. Early market estimates for March unemployment see the rate ticking up to 6.7% with just +5K new jobs added.

Pairs to Watch: CAD/JPY, USD/CAD

04/07 Friday | 12:30 GMT | USD Change in Nonfarm Payrolls & Unemployment Rate (MAR)

The key issue surrounding the March US Nonfarm Payrolls report is whether or not the US labor market will continue to indicate that it is strong enough to justify a more aggressive pace of Fed tightening. Current expectations for the data are modest, with the Unemployment Rate expected to hold at 4.7%, and the headline jobs figure to come in at +175K. The trend of +200K jobs growth per month has recently been a psychological level for markets, but Fed leaders and centrists (the Goldilocks of the Fed; not too hawkish or too dovish) tend have another number in mind.

In October 2015, San Fran Fed President John Williams wrote in a research note that he believed growth of +100K jobs per month was enough to sustain the growth in the labor force and maintain the current unemployment rate. In December 2015, Chair Janet Yellen reiterated this same view. And, in late-February, she noted that the economy can maintain its current unemployment rate by producing between 75K and 125K jobs per month. By the Atlanta Fed Jobs Growth Calculator, assuming a 4.7% longer term unemployment rate, the economy only needs +121K job growth per month to sustain that level through the end of 2017.

Pairs to Watch: EUR/USD, USD/JPY, DXY Index, Gold

Read more: ECB Pushes Back Against Euro Strength; French Elections Around the Corner

— Written by Christopher Vecchio, Senior Currency Strategist, Nick Cawley, Analyst

To contact Christopher, email him at cvecchio@dailyfx.com.

Follow him in the DailyFX Real Time News feed and Twitter at @CVecchioFX.

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