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bookofjin · 8 months ago

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Early history of Linyi (LS54)

Up to c. 413 AD.

The state of 林邑, Middle Chinese *Lim-'ip, Vietnamese Lâm Ấp, Standard Chinese Línyì, was located in what is now central Vietnam.

The Liangshu account is quite close to the one in Jinshu but each have elements not found in the other.

The various states South of the Sea for the most part are located on islands in the great sea south and south-west of Jiao Province, the distance for those close is three to five thousand li, those distant twenty or thirty thousand li. The western ones are adjacent to the various states of the Western Region. Middle of Han's Yuanding era [116 – 111 BC], they dispatched the General who Humbles the Waves, Lu Bode, laid open the Hundred Yue, and set up Rinan commandery. The various states that were outside its borders from the reign of Emperor Wu and onwards all sent tribute to court. In the period of Emperor Huan of Later Han [r. 146 – 167 AD], Daqin and Tianzhu both made use of this route to dispatch envoys envoys with tribute to present. Reaching the time of Sun Quan of Wu [r. 222 – 252], he dispatched the Assistant Officer for Promulgating Reform Zhu Ying and the Central Gentleman Kang Tai to communicate with them. Those they passed through and those they heard accounts of amounted to a hundred and several tens states, and following that there was established records and accounts. During the Jin era communications with the Central States were perhaps rare, and for that reason were not conveyed to the history officials. Reaching Song an Qi, there were arrivals from more than ten states, and they started to make accounts about them. Since Liang's change in fortune, they who served the correct calendar, redress tributary responsibilities, and sail the seas to arrive annually, exceed those of previous eras. Now [I] gather their manners, customs as roughly put forth, and patch them together as an Account of South of the Sea as follows:

The state of Linyi [MC: Lim-'ip] was originally Han's Xianglin county in Rinan commandery, at the boundary of ancient Yuechang. The General who Humbles the Waves, Ma Yuan, opened up Han's southern border, and set up this county. Their land's length and breadth could be 600 li, the distance from their city to the sea 120 li, and the distance to Rinan's southern border more than 400 li. To the north it borders Jiude commandery. From their southern border on a route by water and by foot for more than 200 li there is a western state of barbarians who likewise claim to be kings. [There] Ma Yuan erected a pair of copper pillars to show the location of Han's border.

Their state have golden mountains where the rocks hall wave a reddish colour, and from their midst gold is produced. The gold flies out at night, in shape it is like the lights from fireflies. They also produce hawksbill turtle, shell teeth, jibei, and sinking wood incense. Jibei is the name of a tree. At time their flowers are complete, they are like goose down. They draw out their threads and spin them to make cloth. Pure white it does not differ from ramie cloth. They also dye it completely with five colours and weave it to make mottled cloth. Sinking wood, local people cut and chop it up, and store it for years. It rots and decays until the heartwood alone remains. If put into water, it sinks, and for that reason it is called sinking incense. Next is that which does not sink and does not float, it is called zhan棧 incense.

[This is the process of making agarwood incense which nowadays you apparently can buy on Amazon.]

At the end of Han there was great chaos. The Board of Merit officer Ou Da killed the county Prefect and installed himself as King. It was transmitted for several generations, but after that the King had no heir and he installed his sister-son Fan Xiong. Xiong died and his son Yi inherited. Emperor Cheng of Jin's 3rd Year of Xiankang [337 AD], Yi died, and the slave Wen usurped and was installed.

Wen was originally the family slave of barbarian leader from Xijuan county in Rinan, Fan Zhi. He often herded the cattle at the mountain brooks where he found a snakehead fish with two heads. It changed and turned into iron, and following that he used it to forge a sword.

When the forging was complete, Wen turned toward a rock and made a prayer, saying:

If when cut the rock breaks, Wen will be King in this state.

Following that, he raised his sword and cut the rock, it was like cutting hay or dry wood. Wen in his heart was singularly amazed with it. Fan Zhi often sent him to trade with merchants that reached Linyi. Following that he taught the King of Linyi to build palace houses and military chariots, implements and weapons. The King favoured and relied on him. Later he then slandered the King's various sons, and each fled to other states. When the King died without an heir, Wen pretended to the neighbouring to go and receive the King's sons. He put poison within their liquid to kill them. Thereupon he compelled the people of the state and installed himself. He raised troops to attack the nearby small states, all were swallowed up and extinguished by him. He had a multitude of forty or fifty thousand people.

At the time the Inspector of Jiao province, Jiang Zhuang, sent his intimates Han Ji and Xie Zhi to oversee Rinan commandery from beginning to end. Both were covetous and ruthless, and the various states were troubled by them. Emperor Mu's 3rd Year of Yonghe [347 AD], the palace dispatched Xiahou Lan as Grand Warden, his intrusions and cruelties were particularly extreme. Linyi previously had no farm land, and he coveted Rinan's land for being rich and well-watered. He had often wanted to seize and take possession of it. Arriving at this point, he took the opportunity of the people's anger, and thereupon raised troops to assault Rinan. He killed Lan and used his corpse as a sacrifice to Heaven. He remained in Rinan for three years, and then turned back to Linyi.

The Inspector of Jiao province, Zhu Fan, after that dispatched the Controller-Protector Liu Xiong to defend Rinan. Wen again slaughtered and wiped him out. He advanced to rob Jiude commandery, and injured and murdered the personnel and common people. He dispatched envoys to report it to Fan, and desired to use Heng Mountain on the northern border of Rinan as the boundary. Fan did not allow it, and again dispatched Controller-Protectors Tao Huan and Li Qu to chastise him. Wen returned to Linyi, but soon after again took station in Rinan.

5th Year [349 AD], Wen died and his son Fo was installed, he was still stationed in Rinan. The General who Conquers the West, Huan Wen, dispatched the Controller-Protector Teng Jun, and the Grand Warden of Jiuzhen, Guan Sui to lead the troops of Jiao and Guang provinces to chastise him. Fo fortified the city and firmly defended. Sui ordered Jun to with ample troops to the front while Sui led 700 sturdy soldiers to cross over the ramparts from the rear. Fu's multitudes scattered in surprise, and he ran and fled. Sui pursued until Linyi, and Fo then requested to submit. Beginning of Emperor Ai's Shengping era [357 – 361], he again began with robbing and violence. The Inspector, Wen Fangzhi, chastised and routed him.

Emperor An's 3rd Year of Long'an [399 AD], Fo's grandson Xuda again robbed Rinan and took the Grand Warden, Gui Yuan. He also advanced to rob Jiude and took the Grand Warden, Cao Bing. The Grand Warden of Jiaozhi, Du Yuan, dispatched Controller-Protector Deng Yi and others to strike and route him, and forthwith [the court] used Yuan as Inspector. 3rd Year of Yixi [407 AD], Xuda again robbed Rinan and killed the Senior Clerk. Yuan dispatched the Controller-Protector for Sea Patrols, Ruan Fei, to chastise and rout him. He behead and took prisoner a considerable multitude. 9th Year [413 AD], Xuda again robbed Jiuzhen. The Acting on Commandery Affairs Du Huiqi fought with him, and beheaded his King of Xijiaolong [?], Zhenzhi, his general Fan Jian, and others, captured alive Xuda's Xineng [?], and took prisoner more than a hundred people. After Yuan's passing, no year passing in which Linyi did not rob Rinan and Jiude commanderies. They killed and laid waste to extreme extent, and Jiao province thereupon became empty and weak.

#ls54

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foster-the-moths · 2 years ago

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oooo dont know anything abt pacific rim but hell yeah 👀

its just "humans use big robots to fight big monsters" basically LMAO but i realized it had some parallels to tmc so. i got a bit silly lol. putting it under a readmore bc its Long

brief pacific rim summary for those unaquainted: bascially monsters start appearing from the ocean and fucking shit up so humans make these big robots to fight them BUT its really dangerous and requires 2 people who are 'drift compatible' to pilot them (basically its the ability to control a big robot with ur mind while also being in sync). thats all u really need to know for this au i think

pacific rim au: this is based purely off of my memories of the first movie (which. i watched when it first came out in uhhh 2013!!!??!?! THIS MOVIE CAME OUT IN 2013??? 10YEAR AGO A DECADE??? WHAT THE FUCKanyways. um. i'm probably missing some stuff but whatever<3 -kaijus become a thing in like. idk 1980 or so. -by the time mark and cesar are 18 the big robots exist. what are they called. JAEGERS thats it. -mark and cesar get sort of. drafted into testing it out and find out they are drift compatible!! -i think in this au they are besties but. they could be worsties. maybe. perhaps toxic if thats what canon says. but in the origin draft of the au they are besties so im going with that -anyways they fight kaijus for a bit and they are pretty good at it!! until a kaiju attacks their hometown (or something. idk how an ocean beast would get to wisconsin. WAIT lake superior AND lake michgan flank wisconsin i can use this) -okay so. a kaiju comes out of the great lakes and the government is like"???? THEY CAN DO THAT??? fuck." and send mark and cesar to deal with it since they. live there -everything goes to shit when a kaiju (altcesar) attacks mandela, their hometown, and ALSO where sarah is!!! and shes like. 5 or smth -so mark is SUPER stressed out, his sister might be dead already, and to top it off?? the kaiju can like. idk hijack their drift link or whatever idk still working on that. im trying to incorporate alternate bs into how kaijus work -anyways mark is the one the kaiju targets and it uses cesar's voice/image to fuck him up and both cesar and mark die. and sarah watches it happen. oops. -sidenote: altcesar kaiju is based off of the crab one. bc sarah is loosely based off of the main protag girl in the movie whats her name. MAKO MORI. apparently. she watches her brother die + entire county get destroyed -another sidenote: since secar apparently DOESN'T die in canon. maybe he survives in this au?? mark is dead as hell tho :(( -anyways sarah is so so traumatized by that. however she is also VERY FUCKING ANGRY because uh. turns out mark and cesar were not the only ones patrolling winconsin!! thatcher and ruth were meant to be back up but uh. they. did NOT get there in time. and sarah thinks maybe if they had gotten there in time mark wouldn't have died. -speaking of those two. ANOTHER kaiju attacks mandela not too long after altcesar does and um. thatcher and ruth DO go out to deal with it but. ruth gets knocked unconscious during the fight. and thatcher can't wake her up. so half of their jaeger is just powered down and stationary while the kaiju rips its arms off and tears into the cockpit. eventually thatcher realizes he has to evacuate to save himself. he tries to bring ruth with him but he can't. -needless to say. thatcher is DEVASTATED. he feels like a coward, even if he DID follow protocol, and he never really forgives himself for leaving ruth behind. dave supports him through it, but. he never really recovers after that.

-…and fast foward 17 years, to the actual events of the au!! -bps is founded by sarah to um. idk actually i have NO fucking clue what they are doing in this au but it IS just. VERY ILLEGAL. and they get caught -however, the government can find literally nobody to pilot the giant murder death trap robots due to A) how rare a drift link (or. whatever its called im 99% sure its called that) is and B) nobody wants to fucking do that. so they just decided to say "hey. you guys are criminals. BUT if you go in the giant death trap robot AND you can pilot it then we'll forgive your criminal charges!! :)" because of course they would do that -anyways. bps agrees to this. and it turns out jonah and adam are drift compatible!! hooray!! they get to pilot a jaeger together -…which leaves sarah. due to testing her against adam and jonah, the government knows she CAN connect to a jaeger, and pilot one. she just needs a partner. -which is were thatcher comes in. he takes the place of the guy whos brother dies in the movie. -sarah is NOT FUCKING HAPPY about this. the moment she recognizes him she freaks OUT. immediately starts chewing him out. -however, she does have a deal to uphold, and she has to at least TRY to pilot the jaeger with thatcher. so they do a testrun and. it turns out they ARE compatible. -so with that the government goes "okay cool we're sending all of you to the faciltiy (or whatever idk)" and. sarah fights this tooth and nail until she realizes they. really don't give a shit LMAO -so she's stuck with thatcher. and her two idiot coworkers but thatcher is the real issue. -so they get shipped over to the training facility and. start training. -dave and evelin take the place of those two gay scientists. dave has so many kaiju tattoos n shit and evelin is just Normal. just kidding shes weird too shes just better at hiding it lol. evelin is officially his 'assistant' and mentor but dave treats her as an equal. they are silly scientist coworkers -dave and thatcher are also still friends. not sure if its strained or not but i dont think it is they can be silly. besties even. -i also think dave is sarahs estranged but still on good terms uncle. hes is ESTATIC to see sarah!! she hates that hes friends with thatcher but she is literall incapable of being mad at dave so she just takes it out on thatcher instead LMAO -also dave sits thatcher down and is like "y'know i think this is good for you actually. being a mentor figure really helped me w moving on i think you could really bond with my cool awesome neice :D!" "dave she tries to kill me every ten seconds" -anyways the au centers around sarah and her relationship with thatcher from one-sided enemies to eventual found family :)

other things: -adam glows in the dark and is just sort of fucked up. surely this means nothing (he is not entirely human) -oh yeah jude and lynn are killed by the same alternate that kills ruth. i think. or it was six but when thatcher and ruth are sent out altthatcher double teams them and thats why they failed. -vol 2 sort of happens (the girls are fighting) but jonah does NOT die. -dave gets hooked up to a kaiju brain like the guy in the movie and like. his brain implodes a little bit and his eyes bleed but hes (mostly) fine^^ -all of the alternates are kaijus i get to be soooooo silly with designs :3 -dave and sarah lost contact when sarah started bps so they are very happy to reunite -i am just making shit up about a movie i saw a literal decade ago so. um. im probably missing a lot of important stuff but oh well lol. -i also have a barebones alt version of this au where everyone lives and nothing bad happens and they just fight monsters. bc i got sad.

#i went back and added some stuff with the context of vol4+catalyst but its mostly the same #feel free to send asks if u wanna know more i need to flesh it out more #tmc pacific rim au #asks #also i dont think i have to clarify this but. no ships in this. all platonic.#just saying this bc the characters in the movie DO have pretty important romantic relationships but. that does not transfer over to the au

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bigbihatemachine · 2 years ago

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On Monday, I phoned my dept I'm waiting for therapy for bc they said they'd start in person in spring and well...

Also I'm not doing well.

The dude who answered told me they don't do that specific type of therapy in this nhs trust or dept but in the other one in our area (like one trust is for the major hospital in our area, the other is for the general v small county we live in, it's v confusing) and a completely separate dept who literally does the same service which I find deeply confusing bc, again, the two trusts are in the same v small county. Like small even for the UK. Also I've had different therapy with the dept before and my therapist said she'd be running this therapy and didn't mention any of this.

So he gives me the number for the other dept who are shut for the day and I call on Tuesday and can't get through so leave a message and they get back today (Wednesday). I miss them and they leave a message and I call back but apparently I def don't have a referral waiting for them and check my hospital records and there's literally nothing at all, no record. They said I needed to get my GP to refer me to them but the original dept could prolly do it to.

At this point I'm holding back tears bc it took me A YEAR to get into the first dept originally and I've been waiting like 3/6 months for therapy and, to reiterate I'm not doing well. I've even turned down other offers of help bc I thought I had this.

To uh yeah I phone the 1st dept back again and go 'uh yeah so I'm trying to track down my referral, the second dept are saying this now, can you please tell me what's going on?' and it's a different person this time and they immediately go 'yeah I can see you have an outstanding referral to our x therapy here, that's just waiting atm for in person sessions to start.'

I was like 🙃🙃🙃🥺🥺🥺🥺 but your colleague told me a completely different story and told me x and she was like 'uhhh did you get a name 🙃' and I was like no but he was a bloke and she was like nw I know who that was 🙃🙃🙃 and then offered to just find out the wait times like I wanted in the beginning 😭

Like.... Multiple mental breakdowns for literally nothing 😭😭 I do not have the resilience for this

Nvm the fact that I also found out from the second dept that my GP sent the wrong referral in my efforts to get mobility aids... For like the 4th or 5th time now? Apparently me being not 80 is throwing them and they don't know what to do and they're kinda panicking and sending me to random depts to see what happens which is def not a waste of everyone's time and a little triggering???

#personal shit

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henriiiii-1001old · 1 year ago

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future me here: this is so long so if you dont wanna read it all then just please trust me that it is so puppet in every single fucking way omg-

gonna put everything under a keep reading now too bc its. so long CFVGBHN

okokokokokokokok so lemme put the translated lyrics so you guys can like. understand where i'm coming from (i ofc had to read them too LMAO im not fluent xddd)

the first few lines are just. IMMEDIATELY screaming puppet to me, growing up in a different environment (basically being raised by alternates) and "likes and dislikes" being reversed and all that.

the next thing that hit was the bridge. like it's him actually meeting ruth and talking to her for the first time. he's "confused" by actually trying to talk to someone thatcher knows while disguising as thatcher, but at the same time it feels nice "being normal".

first chorus would be him first thinking that he has some sort of weird "crush" on ruth but later he realizes that he actually "want[s] to love [ruth] unbearably" to act more human.

and the whole concept of not wanting "normal" love, possibly hinting at wanting an unhealthy relationship of some sort. in puppet's case, it would be more of him wanting control, and it would start with ruth.

(note, the black out word had 1) an incorrect translation i noticed and 2) a. a not too positive word in today's context so im just censoring it just in case at this point)

second verse now, and the lines about dancing and playing music seem like it would connect to his like. like it would be him adjusting to be more like other humans, learning dances, listening to music, maybe learning a few instruments along the way!

however, things probably start going sour as puppet reveals himself anyway to ruth and ultimately technically failed his mission. he should have "watched dramas and prepared for it", with "it" being human interaction specifically with people thatcher actually knows.

also funny thing that belladonna can mean both "beautiful lady" as well as the plant of nightshade. "giv[ing] belladonna to the person i like" could be some sort of metaphor for M.A.D. in this context.

i also hc that ruth actually planted nightshade in her yard as a weird precaution in case nightshade berries/leaves could work against alternates. yeah i looked it up and apparently it's illegal to do that, but it's fucking mandela county no one fucking cares LMAO

anyways, symptoms of belladonnas are (according to medliveplus.gov) "blurred vision, fever, fast heartbeat, inability to urinate or sweat, hallucinations, spasms, mental problems, convulsions, coma, and others." who knows? maybe ruth got a bit too cocky and tried to fool puppet and he ended up fooling her instead, causing her to fall sick and for him to have to take care of her? cool concept huh :) <- totally not giving xem ideas

i also just like the mention of hyde from "the strange case of dr jekyll and mr hyde" it's genuinely such a good fucking story man. i just think it's neat <3

it does kinda relate to how puppet is sometimes going around and fuckign with people as thatcher, but it's kinda the opposite of the short story's case. in the book, jekyll uses basically a fake identity w a potion to change his appearance in order to not put blame on him, but puppet wants to blame thatcher for his actions (though he honestly isn't the biggest fan of people taking credit for his "work", but he'll let it slide if it's to slander thatcher <3). idk, just smth to think abt :0

ok now onto the "octopus hold" that i corrected: it's wrestling move!! if you look it up, it does honestly look like the person is like. an octopus LMAO. its funny tho how octopi have 8 tentacles and spider have 8 legs :) i do think it could also been seen as him trying to have a sort of strong grip on those he wants to keep close, specifically with ruth here.

chorus is almost the same except it talks abt how you can't buy love with money. probably tries to buy it with manipulating his peers </3

(i forgot a fucking line at the bottom, but it's just "i am living freely" as the last line of the song after "i will live because of you". i'll analyze this later i prommy)

this last fucking part. O U G H

puppet is kind of an outcast compared to everyone else, but only later bc he doesn't reveal his true intentions w humanity until later on in the story. he becomes an outcast after ruth escapes because even those he called his friends (specifically the paranoia squad) are now turning on him.

the rhetorical question of "everyone is free, right?" just feels like he'd ask himself that and question his own humanity (if he even had any in the first place bc he barely got any LMAO) as well as how moral it would really be if he, a nonhuman, just started killing people. he will "live freely" regardless of "those who reject [him]."

the last chorus is the exact same except for the end, and i LOVE IT!!!!!!!

specifically with the lines "i will live because of you" and "i am living freely"- as opposed to all the other times the line was sung, where it was "i will live freely" in which it sounds more like a promise (and it definitely seems to have been kept at the end ;) )- it just. AUUGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

the "i will live because of you" is definitely something he says after ruth either escape or smth he says after a specific event i havent actually fully revealed yet. it's just such a hm line <333

AND THE "I AM LIVING FREELY" LINE!!!!! HE'S FREE OF GABRIEL'S CONTROL BUT LIKE. THERE IS CLEARLY SOMETHING THAT HINTS THAT SOMETHING IS NOT GOOD ABT THAT AND AUGH <333333

ITS ALL PUPPET I LOVE THIS SONG!!!!!!

anyways if you made it this far omg tysm for reading my insanity <333333

GUYS

GUYS I

IM GOING INSANE OVER SYUDOU'S NEW SONG (アタシ) AND HOW IT SO FUCKING PERFECTLY IS PUPPET OMG

THE SONG IS ALSO INCREDIBLY GOOD PLEASE GO LISTEN TO IT

#long post #mandela catalogue #the mandela catalogue #alternate thatcher #puppet/goliath #vol 333 alternate #LIKE??????????????#AAAAAAAA i am insane for him man #i just also love how syudou rolls the r's in the song its so good <3333333333333 #i just. i love imagining his voice as how puppet sings ngl #アタシ my beloved <33333333 #a2t #evidence reel #tmc unholy gift #self reblog

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racfoam · 3 years ago

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Here you go @inkwardspots the one where Harry and Delphi go to Voldemort Wins 2nd Wizarding War AU. Some background for the scene:

1. Harry and Delphi have been living with Voldy in Slytherin's Mansion (yes, Slytherin had a mansion, let's say Voldy rebuilt the parts which were crushed)

2. They went on a ball to Malfoy Mansion. Which means Voldy is wearing a traditional robe ie suit, cloak, trousers (he's removed his shoes upon returning home though)

3. Harry was feeling choked by the crowd and while Voldy and Delphi like being in the spotlight, Harry does not. Therefore, she ditched it. Plus, Harry and Voldy danced on the ball and Delphi has everyone wrapped around her fingers.

4. POV switches between Voldy and Harry. Voldy's parts are in ( )brackets. Also, Harry is oblivious. Also, I suppose Miscommunication happens because Harry is OBLIVIOUS. Honestly, this scene alone can work for so many Harrymort AUs it's insane.

5. I'm going to Hell. Oh, I am going to HELL.

6. Harry is 27, Delphini is 10, it's been 10 years in the Voldy Wins Universe which means they completely time travelled from good 2008 Everything Went To Shit 2008. Also, Delphini can Apparate bcs Voldy taught her to be able to escape any situation, and she has a wand, too. She is given a lot of free roam in this AU for a ten year old bcs Voldy is protective and spoils her.

This is long:

***************************************************

[START BRIEF]

BRIEF NO.: #967

DATE: 25th December, 2008

LOCATION: Salazar Slytherin's Library, Lord Voldemort's Mansion, Undisclosed County, British Isles

OCCASION: DARK LORD AND THE YULE BALL

OBJECTIVE(S): Get out of there. Get out of there. Go home. Go home. Where is home? Where is home? Fuck.

ADDITIONAL NOTES: Can't breathe, can't breathe, have to get away. Too many people. His hands on my waist. His hand holding mine. His eyes. Merlin, his eyes. END ADDITIONAL NOTES

Slytherin's library is where Harry goes because any library reminds her of Hermione. She shuts the doors, takes the heels off, wants to rip off the entire dress, but that wouldn't be proper, so she just loosens the lacing of the corset. Merlin, she wants to curse Voldemort for challenging her to wear it. Well, at least she won that game. The heavy pressure releases — maybe Delphini wound it too tight, Godric knows that despite having a knack for fashion, Delphini has no knack for her own strength.

Harry is never going on a party with those two again. She hoped Voldemort would make sure Delphi didn't get into trouble, because Harry is not going back there.

Who is Harry kidding? They're both menaces, Delphini thankfully much more less. Within the next ten minutes Voldemort will probably be Legilimensing everyone to find out where Harry went and organize a search party while Delphini Apparates everywhere she knows Harry likes to go to be alone — “Which sort of defeats the purpose of being alone, Delphi.”

Standing barefoot on the clean, polished floor, Harry rises from the green armchair. She has to hand it to Slytherin, it was a rather cozy place. It would give the grand libraries of the world a run for their money.

Hermione would love this library, though perhaps it was a bit too dark currently for her best friend's tastes. The shelves stretched wide like corridors to hide in, reached as high as the twenty meter stone ceiling. Emerald green curtains hung high off the ceiling of the wall overlooking the front garden, closed over the tall windows framed by ebony wood.

Dammit, Harry misses Hermione. It is an unexplainable ache. Hermione would figure out Voldemort's nice behavioral patterns before Harry could say 'horcrux'.

Harry traced her gaze over a few of the spines of the books and tomes. They smell of that old parchment scent Hermione would love.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?”

Harry jumped at the sound of that voice. The voice she knew intimately. The voice she could never escape, even after she had killed him, even after he was six feet under the ground.

The ghost of him was always with her.

That serpentine hiss, that cold voice of a blast of a December snowstorm.

Now here he is, standing tall, black regal coat embroidered with gold (he always liked gold, even as a boy, and it reminded Harry of a magpie, his tendency to collect shiny objects) and black trousers with a golden belt shaped like a serpent wrapped around his waist, white face, as though he had never died.

Voldemort raises his wrist, waving it lazily. Flames flicker on the glass lamps mounted along on each shelf, wall and along the table. The orange rays cast their glow on him, painting him.

Evil has never looked as ethereal as in that moment.

Harry can see Voldemort is watching her the same way she is watching him. As though he is taking her existence in. Of this Harry, no longer a teenage girl, but a young woman, who had raised a child even when she herself was a child acting to be an adult.

The stare was as creepy as it was ten years ago. As heart-stopping as ten years ago. That single, razor sharp focus. How it makes her heart pound in her breast like a wild lion trying to wrench free — a reaction only his gaze could summon and how Harry hates it.

An amused, welcoming sort of smile graces Voldemort's serpentine features as he asks silkily, “When will you stop running from me, Harry?”

Harry. Not Harriet. Somehow, it is dangerous. Somehow, it means so much more. Like his long fingers around her waist, or curled around her hand as he led her through the waltz.

The memory of it makes her stomach clench.

“I don’t run from you," said Harry, not going to fall for his games. “I came to you in the forest.”

Voldemort hummed nonchalantly, serpentine face neutral, unaffected. Harry didn't care about the fact he understood she was evasive with providing an answer. “Would you have done it if you didn’t have to destroy that precious piece of my soul inside you?”

The Dark Lord was pacing around casually, never removing his scarlet gaze from Harry, while Harry followed his every step — he was in the spotlight of her attention.

Maybe that was the aim.

Bastard.

Voldemort reached the side of the reading table, stopping to Harry's right, a space of twelve feet between them. At once, Harry turned her entire body to face him, not to let a single detail of body language slip her attention.

Not just a bastard. An unfairly tall bastard.

Perhaps he enjoyed setting Harry on edge, enjoyed in the sight of making her tense, enjoyed making her squirm, took pride in it, delighted in it — in the fact no matter how hard she tried to claw him out, he stuck to her like stubborn glue.

“Tell me, Harriet.”

In the intense ruby eyes, Harry can read: Tell me you would have come to me, anyway.

There is no point in lying. She's a bad liar, anyway. “I would.”

(He can't take his eyes off the red ball gown. He wonders whether she wore it for him. Whether it was to mimic the colour of his eyes. Or the Gryffindor pride?)

“To save my friends.”

Voldemort growled. It was something dark, rumbling in his throat.

(Jealousy rumbled like a basilisk within him.)

“And if I hadn’t threatened you with their lives? If I had simply told you to come to me, without any…” he paused, considering the choice of words not to rile her up. (Those wary eyes, still... There was no need for that. He had no intention of harming her. Not anymore.) “Requirements? Were it the two of us alone, with nobody in between us, with no stakes… would you have come to me?”

Harry? Come to Voldemort? Without any bets on the table? Without any stakes? Why would Harry ever go to Voldemort? Harry never wanted to be a part of Voldemort’s life as much as she could help it, but he had cursed her with that the same as he cursed her with the Killing Curse. Why on Earth would she seek out the company of the wizard who she hated and who hated her all the same? Why would Harry go to this man who brought her so much misery, who took her parents away from her as well as her godfather and Lupin and Tonks and Fred and so many of them…

“Why in Merlin’s name would I ever —” snarled Harry, that fire reigniting inside her, lit by him, burning to destroy him.

Voldemort prowled forward, moving fluid like a river, like a slithering basilisk.

Harry cut herself off in exchange to watch him approach. Closer and closer, with each step he took on the polished ebony floor of the library one of the Hogwarts founders built, Harry's heart banged louder and louder, raced faster and faster.

The candles flickered, as though sharing her rabid state.

Voldemort was watching her carefully. Always watching. Before striking.

The pupils in the red irises had dilated, expanded into large circles of black, encompassing the irises, leaving a thin ring of fire. The veins in the blood-covered scleras appeared more pointed than ever.

Harry held her breath as she remembered Hermione’s words. “A human's orbs dilate when they look at something they love.”

But a cat's do, too, Hermione. Before it pounces.

“If I told you I want you?” Voldemort asked, loud and clear, but it could have been a whisper against her collarbone, a warm puff to her lips, a brushing croon over her heart.

It sounded like he sung it, hissed it tenderly. That was how he said it. Like a long forgotten song.

The ice of his voice was somehow melting away into something unexplainable, something spellbinding, rendering Harry’s ears hostage to the sound.

Like they were two supernovas which had exploded, been reborn and met again…

Like they were from an old story, and only he remembered it, while Harry didn’t.

“Why would you want me?” demanded Harry. Before she could stop herself, her gaze sharpened, wishing to curse him, choosing to speak instead. “You're the one who put the scar on my head. You’re the one who keeps seeking me. You always raised your wand first against me, always with the same curse on your tongue. I was always defending myself against you because you attacked me. If I had a choice, I would never want to meet you in my life. I would never go to you if there were no stakes. You took over my life, you selfish, murdering bastard. I hate it. I hate how losing you was like -”

“Losing a limb.” finished Voldemort, his voice overlapping with hers.

Harry's eyes widened. Why would he feel losing Harry was like losing a limb? Wouldn’t he be relieved to get rid of a thorn in his foot? Harry has barely been part of his life. After all, he had lived a longer life.

“A phantom pain.” provided Voldemort slowly, staring down at her. “I knew you were gone, but I kept reaching for you, thinking you were still there.”

Harry was stunned. A moment passed before she found her voice again. The length of Voldemort's shadow reached the length of the floor, touching Harry’s feet.

“Don't act like you wouldn't seek me out even without any 'requirements' or any stakes. You're like a dog searching for a bone.” A melancholy sort of acceptance crosses the emeralds. “You’d never rest until you found me.”

Voldemort breathed a delighted laugh. That wide, spine-shivering smile of revealed white teeth lifted his face and cheeks. “How well you know me, Miss Potter.”

“Believe me, the best thing to happen when the horcrux was destroyed is not getting into your head. It creeped me out."

"Don't be like that, Harry," he purred in a whisper, fluttering the 'r', red eyes gleaming against the torchlights.

Harry took a breath, then exhaled it. The excess tension, the boiling magic.

“You were the spotlight tonight.” said Voldemort suddenly, grabbing her attention. “Many wizards were... curious about you."

(They weren't just curious. They were past the line. They were looking at Harriet, gawking and thinking indecent thoughts like hungry hyenas. Voldemort didn’t like others looking at something which was his. He wanted to rip their eyes out of their sockets and crush their throats with his bare hands. Leave them less than men.)

“I didn’t notice."

“Was your attention focused elsewhere?” Voldemort asked, jaw suddenly clenched, his eyes slowly narrowing, like an irked cat’s.

(Was she looking at another wizard? Did someone strike her fancy? Gather her attention?)

To Delphini so she doesn’t do something stupid like me or something irrational like you.

“Was yours?” Harry asked back calmly, despite her heart pounding harder than a fist against a locked door.

A smile lifted the lipless mouth. The red eyes burned more fiercer than the flames of the torches. “You, my dear Harriet, are the most distracting being in the universe.”

A warmth burned Harry's cheeks.

Those eyes were looking down upon her — a vivid crimson owned singularly by roses. Staring into them was like staring at the eclipse, a glimmering heat and molten burn of a ring of lava. Maybe one day, Harry would go blind. One day, she would be burned alive by those burning roses of his.

It was Harry who broke the silence. She never asked him, even though she knew the answer. “Are you glad you killed me?”

“Yes,” he whispers tenderly, hissing in pleasure. He approaches Harry.

Rather suddenly, Voldemort cups Harry's face in his deadly, large, skeletal palm. The hand and long fingers, strangely gentle — they encompass her entire skull. As though Harry is the planet, and Voldemort the orbit holding her afloat with nothing but the unexplainable power of the universe undiscovered.

The long fingers burrow beneath the untamed waves of her hair, settling in the curtains of it, soft and devoted, the fang-like nails threading through the thickness.

(He is bewitched by the beauty of her, what she has grown to become; he cannot look away, and he has no wish to.)

Almost as an afterthought, he adds as he caresses the back of her head, cradles it, an unbelievable amount of delicate care in the touch. “And no.”

Voldemort has never handled her like this — as though she was a delicate flower. How would Harry know, though? How would she know how he touches people?

The only time he touched her directly was when he touched her scar on the graveyard. In fact, Harry can't recollect a single time Voldemort sought physical touch. Rather, he pushed people roughly away from himself unless he intended to be polite or act he cared.

After all… snakes don’t like to be touched, do they?

But maybe even snakes need a warm touch. Don't snakes seek the warmth they miss? Don’t they bask in it? Don’t they search for the golden, heating glimmers of sunlight?

“Bored without me, your Lordship?” teased Harry, beaming up at him.

Voldemort’s lips curled into a smile, the skin beneath his eyes crinkling; a genuine smile. “As I said, it was rather bland without you, Harriet.”

“Didn’t you want it?” Harry asked, using it as an excuse to break eye contact, feeling something strange tickle her belly at the sight of the humane smile, turning to look around at the large library which put the centuries-old library of London to shame. How can a library be so full, yet feel so empty? “Power?”

“I have power,” he hummed, smirking victoriously, that triumphant grin. He placed his skeletal hand on the mahogany wood of the reading table; it rested there like spiders. His gaze never strayed from hers. “I am the most powerful wizard in the world.”

Harry stepped up to him, fire in the emeralds, refusing to let him win. “Then why, pray tell…”

(How Voldemort missed that fire. How Voldemort missed the heat of Harriet's magic, the diamond light of it. The burn of Harriet's power, standing up and rising to meet him, match him, and perhaps, outmatch him. A sense of excitement swirls in his chest. He has not felt excitement in a decade. Has not felt excitement since the day the girl dropped dead to the floor of the Forbidden Forest and never stirred again. And it is now that girl, who is no longer a girl, but a woman and the most astounding witch he met, that has awakened excitement in his chest again.)

(If beauty had a definition, it would be this woman.)

“...is the most powerful wizard in the world seeing a witch he was supposed to have killed?”

(She’s a vengeful little minx, more fierce than before. Truly, this was not a girl standing before him. This was a witch, a woman, standing before him, ready to burn him at the slightest inclination of hostility. Obsession runs deep, as does desire, for his Harriet.)

(Voldemort wondered when he started thinking of Harriet Potter as his.)

(He desires her. He desires Harriet Potter. Harriet is in his soul, has burrowed herself deep into it without him having a say. Harriet is in his skin, in his veins, Harriet is every longing breath he takes, Harriet is the curl and the burn of his muscles.)

“I want to kill you in entirely different ways.” he whispers in a possessive hiss, stepping forward, the hand which rested on the table settling on her waist, lowering his head, an inch from her lips.

Harry’s fingers twitch to do something. What, she has no idea, no clue. Shove him away? Set him on fire with nothing but her magic? Or ask him to explain? Ask him to clear the fog of confusion he’s cloaked her in like a dementor?

It was always clear cut with Voldemort. Always direct. No questions needed. She was his failure which he wanted to correct. And he had. He’d killed her. Murdered her. They fulfilled the prophecy. Harry died, Voldemort lived, and that was that.

Over. The end.

Except it wasn’t, was it? Not from where Harry comes from. Harry did the impossible. Harry lived twice.

Why was Voldemort not letting go this time? Was he so bored? Was he so bloodthirsty? How many times did he need to murder her, in how many ways, until he is satisfied?

Has he not done enough? Why in all nine hells would he want anything to do with Harry now? All these months in his mansion, spending time with her, buying flower and tree seeds for her and Delphini to plant in the vacant garden, going as far as to join them… without ever raising his wand against Harry...

“Of course you do,” said Harry, chuckling bitterly, feeling a bit insane, a bit melancholy, because she will never get a break from this man. Of course he wanted to kill her. The obsessed, sick bastard. She inched her chin up, proud and unafraid, defiant. “Do it then, Tom. Kill me. Bloody kill me. Give me peace from this warped reality where I’m The Girl Who Died, so I can wake up from this nightmare.”

Voldemort was so close now. His chest pressed against her. She faintly heard the accelerated beat of her heart. Or was that his? It was against her right breast... was it his? It had to be.

Why? Why was Voldemort's heart beating so fast? Why was he not removing one of his hands and unsheathing his wand? No matter... Any time now, Voldemort will do it.

Voldemort's eyes were half-lidded now, and he was getting closer... Harry could make out the shades of the torchlight against his white skin. His breath was growing heavy. It sounded like a beast excited for a meal it waited for a decade.

There was no wand. No green light.

The next thing Harry felt was a lipless mouth on her lips. A gasp burst out Harry's throat in reaction to the sensation, the sound murmuring across her mouth. Her eyes bulged open and wide.

Her heart might as well have exploded, or melted, Harry can't be sure. Whatever happened to her heart, Harry could not say with confidence.

Lord Voldemort had bent down and was kissing Harry, his eyelids shut, serpentine face relaxed.

His unnaturaly long fingers splayed across from her waist to land on her back, pulling her completely against him, pulling a sort of sound from Harry which she never thought capable as the warmth and masculinity of his body, dark magic and dark robes intimately pressed against Harry's own.

Harry wondered whether it was possible to die from a kiss. It was deep, slow, passionate and soft, enveloping and warm.

How could a kiss from someone like Voldemort be the softest kiss Harry has experienced in her life?

#female harry potter #harrymort #gift fic #my writing

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coderfortourette · 3 years ago

Text

Statehouse Headcanons

State Headcanons based on city research

Thanks to Ben's city name videos, I have started researching the etymology of different places in the United States. And naturally I've come up with lots of different headcanons based on all of my research.

Pronunciation Headcanons: How some states will pronounce other states names

- Louisiana says "Eye-way" instead of Iowa. [From place Iowa, Louisiana. Which was founded by a bunch of people from the Midwest]

- Kansas says Arkansas's name wrong, but that's on purpose because he's a little bugger.

- Kentucky says "Lee'siana" instead of Louisiana. [This one is just a personal thing. I'm from Kentucky (ok, Ohio-Kentucky hybrid, but I pick Kentucky) and that's just how I sometimes slur Louisiana together.]

- Texas says "Colo-ray-do" instead of Colorado. [Colorado City, Texas. The "Mother City of West Texas"]

- Wisconsin says Arkansas's name correctly, he just spells it "Arkansaw". West Virginia also spells it this way sometimes. [Arkansas, West Virginia (or sometimes Arkansaw) and Arkansaw, Wisconsin.]

- Then Nevada's name... 3 pronunciations (a). Ne-vad-uh = how the state says it (b). Ne-va-duh = the Spanish pronunciation (How I headcanon New Mexico says it. Gov/DC also uses this pronunciation) (c). Ne-vey-duh = The one used by cities in Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Texas, and Arkansas. [Nevada County, Arkansas actually, not a city. And it's named that because it's shape is/was similar to that of the state of Nevada.]

State Names:

- Alaska's name comes from an idiom. So I propose this New York: It's an idiom! Florida: You're an idiom. Alaska: Actually I'm an idiom, he's an unoriginal copy.

- Kentucky named Washington. The original proposed name was "Columbia" for the Columbia River and Columbia District. However a Kentucky representative (Richard H. Stanton) felt that was too similar to the District of Columbia. So the name Washington, after the president, was proposed and obviously accepted. There is still confusion between the city and the state though, so it wasn't really a thought out decision.

- Pennsylvania named Wyoming. The name comes from the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania and is derived from a Munsee word meaning "at the big river flat".

- Wyoming is indifferent towards being named by Pennsylvania. Washington is looking into maybe changing his name, but hasn't said anything aloud to avoid hurting Kentucky's feelings. [Based on the fact that name changes have been proposed to avoid confusion if/when Washington DC becomes a state]

- Florida's name means "Little Flower". He was given the name from the lush greenery and the fact that it was Easter season when Juan Ponce landed. (Pascua Florida).

- There is apparently a state holiday in Florida called Pascua Florida. It's celebrated around April 2nd. Florida, the state personification, absolutely celebrates it. I'm still not 100% sure what festivities entail, but Florida wears a flower crown that day (Orange Blossoms and tickweeds specifically)

- Florida has tried to include some of the other states in his festivities. But given that the holiday falls right around/sometimes on April 1st, they think it's just an April's Fool Prank and don't join.

- In a universe where Georgia and Florida have a father-son relationship, Georgia would call Florida "Little Flower" as a nickname when Florida was younger. He still does occasionally, but not as often anymore.

- There exist a few cities named "California". I'm going to focus on California, Kentucky (totally not because that's my favorite state, what?) The city was set up 1852 and was named California because of the Gold Rush. The occupants would receive lots of news and letters about it. My headcanon: California and Kentucky are pen-pals. In fact, they are pen pals who don’t know that they know each other in real life (which, at this point everybody’s giving them questioning looks bc they’ve been sending letters since the 1840s and it’s the 2000s. Who else would they be sending letters too?) They're just dumbasses. Literally everybody else in the statehouse has figured it out except for these two. Like, the others will watch one of them write the letter and send it. The letter will arrive at the statehouse after a few days and the other one will be reading it in view of the first one After the first few times, even the mailman was like “this letter is just coming back here?? Why should I take it??” But I also headcanon Kentucky with OCD/Autism (totally not projecting here...). He would get upset if the mailman wouldn't take the letter because OCD/Autism Logic TM. So the mailman humors him. Does this mean that Kentucky and California should recognize the return address and stuff? Yes. Do they? Of course not. I will need to do a separate post just for my Kentucky and California headcanons.

Other random things:

- Kentucky just... can not pronounce things. That, or he has his own way of doing it and will not listen to others. Specifically when it comes to French or Spanish based names. There's a lot of cities in Kentucky pronounced differently then their foreign language source. [Louisville, Versailles, Cadiz, Erlanger, etc]

- Kentucky sings under his breath a lot. The three most common songs are "My Old Kentucky Home" [state song], "My Bonnie Lies Over the Sea" [Bonnieville, Kentucky], and "Pastoral Elegy" [Corydon, Kentucky].

- Kentucky supplies Utah with most of beekeeping equipment. [Walter T. Kelly Beekeeping company started in Leitchfield, Kentucky].

- Virginia no longer names anything Fayette anymore. He named a place Fayette County, in honor of Marquis de LaFayette. Then Kentucky became a state and took it. So in 1830, Virginia named another place Fayette County. Then West Virginia became a state and took it. West Virginia and Kentucky have joked that maybe District should change his name to Fayette and he'll get statehood a whole lot sooner and easier.

- Georgia really likes bacon. [Bacon County, Georgia and Baconton, Georgia. Both are technically named for people who's last name was Bacon, but shh]. He will argue with you if you don't like bacon.

- Whenever the BBQ argument pops up between the South, North Carolina likes to point out that his BBQ is the best, he even has a place named Barbecue! The other states are not amused.

- Kentucky is the type of person who gets his paperwork done ahead of time. He's very busy with it. (Not to the point of ruining his sleep schedule though). [Busy, Kentucky. Named because the enterprising citizens were "busy as bees".] (Is it obvious I have a favorite state?)

That’s all I have for now. But I’m going to keep up the research still anyway and may update it with new revelations and thoughts.

#welcome to the table #welcome to the statehouse #wttt #wttsh #ben brainard #city names #state names #Kentucky #etymology #I have fallen into a deep pit from which I can not escape #Back into research I go though

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autisticandroids · 4 years ago

Note

Screammm that post about being uncomfortable with human cas endgame — I feel unbearably seen — I acknowledge it makes narrative sense and it's a good and satisfying ending — but I can't read many human cas hcs without getting extremely sad for apparently no reason. But now I think you're onto something, that I am just too much a cas kinnie to comfortably accept him being powerless. (Anyway my Emotional Support completely for fun hc is cas keeps his powers & uses them to make his vegetables grow out of all proportion and take gold at the county fair, bc he's petty and competitive enough to do that I think)

i know i know i know!!!!!

also my other reasons for still an angel cas endgame are

i think that falling the way cas does doesn’t make an angel human it just makes them depowered so i feel like its not ever gonna be a “good” thing. a sacrifice, maybe, but not a positive. so like, it has to be a sacrifice cas chooses to make, and no one portrays it like that.

there are many very good possibilities with angel cas such as “he lies in bed with dean all night every night even though he doesn’t sleep because there is nowhere he would rather be”

most importantly: the comedy potential is limitless

#spn #asks #Anonymous

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corona-extra-newsletter · 5 years ago

Text

3/15/20 corona extra: cracking open cold covid facts

Announcements & Thank Yous

“About This Newsletter” has been moved to the bottom so it’s easier to skip if you’ve seen the other ones.

Some institutions do not update on Sundays. I have included the date of everything that is in question. That is also why this update is early :)

Thank you to @hysterical-random-things for letting me know about the first death in NYC and where to find that news, to @nanook2000 for information and links about KY’s response, and to @akashicsage for all of the good deets on San Diego county. If you have reliable information from a good source that I don’t seem to have, please shoot me a message/ask/pigeon!

Places now included in the newsletter are: Utah, Oregon, Washington, the Netherlands, Minnesota, Kentucky, Georgia, Nebraska, the UK, and possibly some others I missed here but included in the newsletter. Please send an ask or a message if you would like a place included!

A word on mortality rates: they look very high in some places in the US right now because testing is limited to the sickest patients. People who have mild illness and are well enough to go or stay home may not have been tested until very recently when several states started mass testing/drive through testing. Testing is still limited in a lot of states, so this will be a rolling increase situation, I anticipate.

A word on case numbers: due to the aforementioned expansion of testing capacity in the US (thank fuck), case numbers are gonna grow in a really, really scary-looking way this week. This is not actually as scary as it seems, because it means we are catching more of the cases that would have gone unnoticed and have better information to help more people.

Just The Numbers

Case numbers

Total cases: 153,517 (10,982 new)

Total deaths: 5,735 (343 new)

China: 81,048 cases (27 new!!), 3204 deaths (10 new)

This gives us a mortality rate of ~3.95%

Excluding China: 72,469 cases (10,955 new), 2531 deaths (333 new)

143 countries/territories reporting cases, 9 are new today including:

Kazakhstan: 6 cases

Curacao: 2 cases

Namibia: 2 cases

Central African Republic: 1 case

Congo: 1 case

Equatorial Guinea: 1 case

Eswatini: 1 case

Mauritania: 1 case

Mayotte: 1 case

Italy is reporting over 20,000 cases with over 1400 deaths

Iran is reporting over 10,000 cases with over 700 deaths

South Korea, Spain, and Germany are reporting over 5,000 cases

SK reports 75 deaths

Spain reports 289 deaths

Germany reports 11 deaths

International/General News

Many places experiencing a worsening epidemic are following the lead of countries including South Korea and instituting drive-through testing and high-throughput testing. Some tests (like the ones being used in Vietnam) can have a result in as soon as an hour, enabling people to be quickly cleared or quarantined. (This is super cool science! Yay, science!)

Johns Hopkins University is putting on a webinar on Tuesday, 3/17. If you are interested, you can sign up/check it out here: https://www.jhsph.edu/events/2020/covid-19/

South Korea’s epidemic is currently being driven by a fringe religious group, which represents approximately 60% of all cases.

Italy’s health system is overwhelmed, which is likely why their case-fatality rate is so high. Doctors, nurses, respiratory techs, first responders, lab personnel, and everyone else involved in hospitals/health care are working their butts off and doing some frankly heroic shit to help people.

Singapore has instituted strict travel restrictions on visitors/transiting people from European countries, including Italy, France, Spain, and Germany; this is in addition to restrictions on visitors from Iran, China, and South Korea.

Some doctors from Washington state, USA (the ones seeing the most cases) are noticing that myocarditis (viral infection & inflammation of the heart) seems to be what kills patients, not the ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome) that requires ventilation. This is obviously in early stages and more research is ongoing.

The World Health Organization is setting up three hospitals with advanced respiratory care capabilities in Erbil, Baghdad, and Basra, Iraq.

Virology Corner

Today’s topic: where did SARS-CoV-2 come from?

SARS-CoV-2 is what’s known as a zoonotic virus. This means that it spread from animals to humans, and then gained the ability (through mutations) to pass from human to human.

We think that SARS-CoV-2 came from bats (Rhinopholus) or pangolins- which doesn’t mean we need to blame bats or pangolins for this, they’re innocent bystanders in the game of cat-and-mouse viruses and animals are constantly playing over evolutionary timescales. Also they’re pretty ding dang cute.

(Not to get much more depressing, but here goes, as humans encroach on more and more land and as climate change progresses, more zoonoses will affect humans. Sorry to be a mega-bummer.)

Question Tuesday

Today’s question comes from @adventurecalls! They ask (paraphrased because the ask got eaten): “If I do get sick, how do I know when it’s ok to go back to doing stuff?”

This is a really good question, and one that’s rapidly being worked out by public health people as we speak (whoa)!

In general, the thought is that once you’re totally recovered you’re not able to spread the virus, but there’s not concrete data on this. The best we have is this recent study in the Lancet (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30566-3/fulltext) which indicates that people who recover shed virus for 20 days from symptom onset, whereas those who die shed virus continuously until their death, a maximum course of 37 days.

I obviously can’t give individual medical advice, which this is not, but the guidance from the WHO is excellent in general, and I will keep readers posted when there’s more information.

If you have questions, ask them and they’ll appear here in the next issue of corona extra!

Regional News (if you want somewhere added just let me know. Don’t be shy!! I highly recommend you just skip to your area if you don’t wanna be overwhelmed.)

Canada: last updated 9:00 AM EST 3/15/20

Total cases: 249 confirmed (+5), 4 presumed (-1), 1 death (3/9/20, no change)

All current cases had symptoms starting between 1/17/20 and 3/9/20

One of these cases is the PM’s wife (mild case); the couple are in quarantine for 14 days now. This is not expected to affect Canada’s management, but is definitely a reminder that being a political leader does not grant one immunity to COVID-19.

12% of cases have required hospitalization

79% of cases are in travellers, and a further 8% in their close contacts

Affected provinces include (both confirmed and presumptive cases): BC (73, +0), Alberta (39, -2), Saskatchewan (2, +0), Manitoba (4, +0), Ontario (103, +2), Quebec (24, +3), Newfoundland and Labrador (1) New Brunswick (2, +0), and PEI (1).

Newly affected provinces include: Newfoundland and Labrador

4 cases in repatriated travellers

The Netherlands

I do not speak Dutch so please correct me if I’ve fucked something up royally

1135 confirmed cases, 20 deaths

176 new cases, 8 new deaths

Provinces (?) affected include: Drenthe (15), Flevoland (19), Friesland (10), Gelderland (100), Groningen (9), Limburg (129), North Brabant (446), North Holland (90), Overijssel (28), Utrecht (109), South Holland (110), and Zeeland (12).

I think this is all of them based on a quick Wikipedia investigation?

Interestingly they tested a bunch of people who work in a hospital and found a pretty high (4%) rate of asymptomatic infection. This seems like bad news (are these people spreading, etc) but it’s actually pretty good news because it means the mortality rate is lower than we think. I’ll update here as I find out more, which is hampered by my inability to speak Dutch.

New Zealand

8 confirmed cases, 2 probable cases

2 new cases, one of which was diagnosed in Australia

Both patients were on international flights and there is extensive contact tracing underway

2 patients have required hospitalization but both have been discharged

6700 people have completed self-isolation, 3015 people continue to be isolated

These people all deserve a medal, thank you for protecting your communities!

Golden Princess cruise berthed in Akaroa has one confirmed and two potential cases. The ship is quarantined now.

Norway

1077 cases, 166 of which are new

I still don’t speak Norwegian so if I screwed up lemme know

Only 1 confirmed death, possibly one more to be confirmed 3/16 but only official numbers go here

Also possible that it’s been confirmed and I don’t know because I don’t speak Norwegian

287 cases are due to community transmission, 710 acquired outside of Norway, the rest are undetermined

Locations where people became infected include Austria (491), Italy (144), Switzerland (14), UK (12), Spain (9), France (8), USA (7), Iran (5), China (1), Hong Kong (1), other countries with more than 3 cases (80), and other countries with less than 3 cases (20).

Breakdown of cases by area: Agder (55, +3), Innlandet (72, +16), Møre og Romsdal (20, +4), Nordland (8, +0), Oslo (281, +59), Rogaland (127, +9), Troms og Finnmark (20, +4), Trøndelag (50, +4), Vestfold og Telemark (48, +9), Vestland (118, +9), and Viken (278, +47)

Good job Nordland! No new cases today! :D

United Kingdom in general: this is pretty rough because apparently the public health strategy coming from Boris is “herd immunity” aka let everyone get sick and then they’ll all be immune, since the only other way to get herd immunity is a vaccine that…..we don’t have yet. Boris does not understand how to medicine.

Fuck you, Boris.

1372 total cases (+20%), 232 are new today

35 total deaths, 14 new today

England

1099 total cases

Affected NHS regions are as follows: London (407), South East (175), Midlands (94), North East and Yorkshire (91), North West (76), East of England (71), and South West (61).

Deaths are not being reported by the PHS but I will do my best to split these out in the next few editions using news reports etc

Scotland

153 cases total and 1 death

Affected health boards are as follows: Ayrshire and Arran (6), Borders (7), Fife (7), Forth Valley (10), Grampian (12), Greater Glasgow and Clyde (39), Highland (2), Lanarkshire (16), Lothian (28), Shetland (11), and Tayside (15).

I don’t know if this is all of the health boards in Scotland but it sure is the ones that have confirmed covid19.

Wales

94 cases, 34 new

Welsh authorities are now recommending that anyone who develops a persistent cough and/or fever self-isolate, and only call 111 if they are unable to cope with their symptoms at home

Affected areas include: Blaenau Gwent County (3, +2), Bridgend County (1, +0), Caerphilly County (11, +4), Carmarthenshire County (7, +3), City & County of Swansea (18, +4), City of Cardiff (8, +3), Conwy County (1, +0), Flintshire County (1, +0), Isle of Anglesey (1, +0), Monmouthshire County (5, +1), Neath Port Talbot (11, +0), Newport City (5, +3), Pembrokeshire (2, +0), Powys County (5, +0), and Wrexham County (1, +0).

Newly affected areas include: Ceredigion County (1), Rhondda Cynon Taf County (2), Torfaen County (2), and Vale of Glamorgan (1).

Northern Ireland

45 cases, 11 new

This is all the data I have, sorry

This may actually be a thing that makes northern/southern Ireland cooperate, which is a small spark of hope in the raging dumpster fire that is this pandemic (I hyperbolize, but only slightly)

US in general: All this info is from the state & county health departments unless I say otherwise. The national response is a trash fire (but maybe hopefully improving this week??) CDC information is updated weekdays; total US cases are from 3/13 at 4 PM

1629 total cases, 41 deaths (2.5% mortality rate), with 46 states and DC reporting cases.

CDC is now recommending all in person gatherings with more than 50 people be canceled for the next 8 weeks. This sucks for me personally and probably a lot of you all too. Hang in there.

California: updated around 10 AM PST, 3/15/20

The state dept of health is not providing a ton of info right now, so all of this is coming from county health departments, which are doing really excellent work btw. Love local public health departments <3

My official take is that the higher level government orgs in the US are muzzled from above and therefore totally shitting the bed and the county-level public health officials are really stepping up to the plate

Total cases not including the ones at Miramar (discussed below): 363, with 4 total deaths

Affected counties include: Alameda (7), Calaveras (2), Contra Costa (29), Fresno (2), Humboldt (1 - recovered), Imperial (2), Los Angeles (53, +11), Madera (1), Marin (5), Orange (14), Placer (8), Riverside (10), Sacramento (29) San Benito (3 - 2 recovered), San Diego (8), San Francisco (28), San Joaquin (8), San Luis Obispo (1), San Mateo (32), Santa Clara (91), Santa Cruz (7), Shasta (1), Solano (6), Sonoma (4), Stanislaus (2), Tulare (2), Ventura (5), Yolo (2)

San Diego: My numbers are not gonna include the federal quarantine situations at Miramar (for repatriated people and the Diamond Princess passengers) because that’s what makes sense right now regarding community transmission. If this changes I will say so.

Unaffected counties include: Alpine, Amador, Butte, Colusa, Del Norte, El Dorado, Glenn, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Modoc, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Plumas, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Tuolumne, Yuba

Counties with confirmed community transmission include: Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, Riverside, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Sonoma

Newly affected counties include San Luis Obispo (3/14)

Colorado - last updated 3/14 at 3 PM

Colorado Springs Bridge Center is under an advisory for possible exposure

Drive-up testing is available now, in Denver and Lowry and possibly other places

1 death, 3/13/20, in El Paso County, a female in her 80s

Community spread has been confirmed

101 confirmed cases, 1 death

Affected counties include: Adams (6), Arapahoe (10), Denver (20), Douglas (4), Eagle (18), El Paso (3), Gunnison (6), Jefferson (9), Larimer (1), Mesa (1), Pitkin (2), Pueblo (1), Summit (2), Weld (3)

Out of state visitors who have tested positive are tallied separately. They are located in the following counties: Pitkin (9), Eagle (2), Routt (1), Denver (1), unknown (2 - wtf??)

Florida - last updated 145 AM EST 3/15/20

115 (+45) cases and 4 deaths (+0)

Florida has not yet confirmed community transmission but it’s almost certainly happening. I’m no longer separating counties with and without confirmed community transmission because of that.

Also, the numbers by county do not add up to the same total because locations are updated less frequently by FLDPH than the total number of cases.

Affected counties include: Alachua (1, +0), Broward (36, +16), Charlotte (1, +0), Clay (3, +2), Collier (5, +2), Duval (4, +3), Hillsborough (4, +2), Lee (5, +1), Manatee (4, +0), Miami-Dade (13, +5), Nassau (1, +0) Okaloosa (1, +0), Orange (2, +1), Osceola (1), Palm Beach (5, +0), Pasco (2, +1) Pinellas (2, +0), Santa Rosa (1, +0), Sarasota (1, +0) Seminole (1, +0), Volusia (5, +1)

Newly affected counties include: Citrus (1), St. John’s (1)

Port Everglades is under an advisory due to several cases connected to a cruise company based there.

Georgia: last updated 3/15 at 11:43 AM

Y’ALL THEY MADE A HASHTAG. I am NOT making this up. It’s #covid19ga if you want to use that, I guess???

99 cases, 1 death

Affected counties include: Bartow (9), Charlton (1), Cherokee (6), Clayton (2), Clarke (2), Cobb (19), Coweta (2), Dekalb (10), Dougherty (6), Fayette (5), Floyd (4), Fulton (20), Gordon (2), Gwinnett (4), Henry (1), Lowndes (2), Lee (2), Newton (1), and Polk (1).

Illinois: last updated 3/14/20

64 confirmed cases, 16 new, with confirmed community spread

New cases: Chicago (7), Cook not Chicago (4), Kane (1), Lake (1)

195 pending persons under investigation

Affected counties include Cook, Kane, McHenry

Newly affected counties include: Woodford (1), Cumberland (1), St. Clair (2), DuPage (1, first long-term care facility case)

Iowa: last updated 3/14/20

Total cases: 18, 1 new 3/14

Affected counties include: Carroll (1), Dallas (1), Harrison (1), Johnson (14), and Pottawattamie (1)

Community spread confirmed on 3/14/2020

Kansas: last updated 3/14/20

8 confirmed cases

Affected counties include: Johnson (5), Wyandotte (1), Butler (1), Franklin (1)

Kentucky: last updated 3/14 at 6 pm local time

18 confirmed cases

2 new cases, both in Fayette County

One patient in Nelson County tested positive but left the hospital and refused to quarantine himself. Don’t be like this guy. Please. I’m expecting a lot more cases to pop up in Nelson county over the next couple weeks all connected to this one patient.

Apparently there’s now a bunch of cops sitting outside his house to make sure he stays there. Ffs.

Affected counties include: Harrison (6), Fayette (7), Jefferson (3 or 4, possible repeat test), Bourbon (1), Nelson (1), and Montgomery (1)

Governor is recommending hospitals stop elective procedures and childcare centers plan for closure by 3/17/20. Also put in place a bunch of important protections for people who don’t have insurance and stuff. Good job, KY!

First patient has fully recovered! Yay!

Louisiana: last updated 9:30 am 3/15/20

91 cases reported, 14 new

2 deaths, 1 new

Parishes affected: Jefferson (12, +1), Lafourche (1, +0), Orleans (65, +12), St. Charles (2, +0), St. John the Baptist (1, +0), St. Tammany (4, +2), and Terrebonne (2, +1)

New parishes affected: Bossier (1), Caddo (1), St. Bernard (1)

Massachusetts: last updated 4 pm 3/14/20

138 cases (19 lab confirmed, 119 presumptive positives)

1 new lab confirmed case, 14 new presumptive positives

1083 people in quarantine

Affected counties include: Berkshire (9, 0% change), Essex (5, +150%), Middlesex (65, +8%), Norfolk (28, +16%), Suffolk (27, +3%), and Worcester (2, 0% change)

Newly affected counties include: Barnstable (1) and Bristol (1)

5 cases travel related, 104 (+10%) in one community transmission cluster, others unknown

11 hospitalized, 105 not hospitalized, the rest pending (22)

1 new hospitalization

Michigan: last updated 3/14/20 in the evening

33 cases, 8 new, 0 deaths

Affected counties include: Bay (1), Charlevoix (1), Ingham (1), Kent (3), Macomb (2), Monroe (1), Montcalm (1), Oakland (9), St. Clair (1), Wayne (8), and Washtenaw (4)

Likely community transmission

Minnesota: last updated 3/15

35 cases, community transmission confirmed

Affected counties include: Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Olmstead, Ramsey, Renville, Stearns, Waseca, Washington, and Wright

County numbers are not currently being provided by MN dept of health, just ranges. Hennepin and Ramsey counties have 6-20 cases each.

Hopefully they’ll pull an Ohio and help a girl out soon

Drive through testing available in Olivia

Nebraska: last updated 3/15

Community transmission confirmed: many locations in Douglas County are potential places where transmission has occurred; if you live or have traveled to Douglas County (Omaha), please check the Douglas County COVID-19 monitoring site.

There were also two exposures in Knox County on March 5, at basketball games at Lincoln Southwest HS and North Star HS.

17 cases, no deaths

Affected counties include: Cass (1), Douglas (15) and Knox (1)

New Jersey : last updated 3/14 at 2 pm

69 cases (+38%), 1 death (none new)

Affected counties include: Bergen (25, +47%), Burlington (3, no change), Camden (2, +1), Essex (7, +1), Hudson (5, +2), Middlesex (10, +6), Monmouth (8, +1), Morris (3, no change), Ocean (1, no change), Passaic (2, -1 apparently?), Somerset (1, no change), and Union (1, no change)

Newly affected counties include: Mercer (1)

I dread updating NJ just because the website sucks so bad

Thank you to the commenter who noted that the help line apparently rules and they’ve been advertising it heavily, that’s awesome public health work by NJ!

So that’s a bright spot, eh?

New York: last updated 3/14 at 8 PM

613 cases, 192 new, 1 new death

Affected counties include: Westchester (178, +12%), Nassau (79, +54%), Suffolk (41, +13), Rockland (12, +3), Ulster (5, +0), Dutchess (4, +1), Orange (6, +3), Saratoga (3), Albany (5, +3), Broom (1, +0), Delaware (1, +0), Herkimer (1, +0), Monroe (2, +1), and Schenectady (1, +0).

NYC has 269 cases (+75%) as of 3/15 at noon

Newly affected counties include: Erie (3), Tioga (1), and Tompkins (1)

Drive through testing in New Rochelle and Long Island

All public places are closed in New Rochelle through March 25.

Ohio: last updated 3/15 at 2 pm

36 confirmed cases, 10 new

350 people under investigation

Affected counties include: Belmont (2), Butler (6), Cuyahoga (14), Franklin (3), Lorain (2), Lucas (1), Medina (1), Stark (2), Summit (2), Trumbull (2), Tuscarawas (1)

THEY STARTED GIVING COUNTY BY COUNTY INFO, PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Oregon: last updated 3/14 at 11:00 AM

36 cases, 13 hospitalized at time of positive test, 1 death (3/14)

The following counties are affected: Clackamas (1), Deschutes (3), Douglas (1), Jackson (2), Klamath (1), Linn (9), Marion (2), Multnomah (1), Polk (1), Umatilla (2), and Washington (13).

Pennsylvania: last updated 3/15 at noon

Gritty is now loose and is singlehandedly responsible for all cases in Philadelphia, if you see the orange monster, RUN

63 total cases, 16 new today

No deaths, Gritty is thankfully failing in his mission to murder

Counties affected include: Allegheny (3, +1) Bucks (4, +1), Chester (2, +0), Cumberland (5, +2), Delaware (7, +1), Monroe (6, +3), Montgomery (24, +4), Northampton (1, +0), Philadelphia (6, +2), Pike (1, +0), Washington (1, +0), Wayne (1, +0)

Newly affected counties include: Lehigh (1) and Luzerne (1)

446 people under investigation pending test results

Rhode Island: last updated 3/13/20

~500 people in quarantine for close contact situations

57 pending people under investigation

20 confirmed cases, no deaths

Next expected update 3/16 in the AM

South Dakota: last updated 3/15

9 confirmed cases, no new cases since 3/14

6 pending cases under investigation

Affected counties include: Beadle (1), Bon Homme (1), Charles Mix (1), Davison (1), McCook (1), Minnehaha (3), and Pennington (1)

No community transmission

Texas: last updated 3/15

56 total cases, 5 new.

Highly likely that there has been community transmission, unconfirmed currently

Affected counties include: Bell (1, +0), Bexar (3, +2), Brazoria (2, +0), Collin (6, +1), Dallas (8, +0), El Paso (1, +0), Fort Bend (9, +0), Galveston (1, +0), Gregg (1, +0), Harris (10, +0), Hays (1, +0), Lavaca (1, +0), Montgomery (3, +0), Smith (4, +1), Tarrant (3, +0), and Travis (1, +0)

Newly affected counties include: Matagorda (1)

The Texas DPH has corrected a tabulation error that affected Gregg and Travis counties.

Utah: last updated 3/15

21 total cases, 14 cases in Utah residents

Affected health districts include: Davis County (3), Salt Lake county (14), Southwest Utah (1), Summit County (2), and Weber-Morgan (1)

The Utah Jazz managed to get more testing than the rest of the country for awhile there, so that’s great for them

Whoever does your graphic design, *greatjob* (the little virus instead of the UDPH logo is CHOICE)

Also, the website is super useful and readable, 10/10 good job Utah

First case of community spread identified on 3/14/20, in Summit County

Schools and universities are closed starting 3/16/20, Mormonism is closed until further notice, and skiing is canceled in Park City and Cottonwood Canyon for a minimum of a week. If you are interested in skiing in Utah, check Ski Utah for a list of closures.

Virginia: last updated 3/15

45 cases total, 4 new

Affected counties/cities include: Arlington (8, +1), Chesterfield (1, +0), Fairfax (10, +0) James City (8, +1), Loudoun (5, +0), Virginia Beach City (4, +1), Prince William (3, +1), Spotsylvania (1, +0), Prince Edward (1, +0), Hanover (1, +0), Harrisonburg City (1, +0), and Alexandria City (1, +0)

No newly affected areas today.

Washington: last updated 3/14 at 2:45 PM

Godspeed, y’all are having a real rough time right now. Yipes. Washington is really hard hit right now, especially King County. Look to Washington State and how they’re coping for a preview of how things are gonna go as the cases develop elsewhere.

642 total cases, 40 deaths (6.2% mortality)

Affected counties include: Clark (3), Columbia (1), Grant (2), Grays Harbor (1), Island (6), Jefferson (1), King (387), Kitsap (3), Kittitas (3), Pierce (26), Skagit (4), Snohomish (154), Spokane (3), Thurston (3), Whatcom (2), and Yakima (4).

39 cases are currently unassigned to a county. These are expected to resolve in the coming days, hopefully.

Deaths have occurred in the following counties: Grant (1), King (35), Snohomish (4),

Wisconsin: last updated 3/15 at 2 PM

33 total cases (6 new), 1 recovered, 0 deaths

Affected counties include: Dane (6, +0), Fond du Lac (11, +5), Milwaukee (7, +1), Pierce (1, +0), Racine (1, +0), Sheboygan (3, +0), Waukesha (3, +0), and Winnebago (1, +0)

Today’s Hot Tips

Make sure you have ibuprofen and tylenol/acetaminophen/APAP/paracetamol at home before you get sick. This isn’t just covid advice, this is life advice in general. (Obvs, ask your doctor about what’s safe to take if you have chronic health conditions etc but this is a general recommendation, not medical advice. As I said, life advice.)

As far as I know, ibuprofen and tylenol are ok, but research may change this. Current research indicates that steroids, which are used in other severe respiratory conditions, may make COVID-19 associated acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) worse. More on this later.

It still can’t hurt to have some tylenol around, though, ya know?

Hand Washing Song of the Day

If you hate singing happy birthday while you wash your hands, I certainly do, try Good as Hell by Lizzo instead!

Sing from “I do my hair toss” to “If he don’t love you anymore” at minimum (if you’re like me and can’t leave a lyric unfinished, go ahead and dry your hands while making your brain happy.) to follow CDC handwashing guidelines! Use soap and water for maximum virus-murdering.

Chill Cat Otter Corner

https://gfycat.com/pastjovialalligatorgar-otter

Please watch these otters sproing and chase!

About this newsletter

I’m Emily, I’m a 4th year med student w/ a degree in molecular biology. I wrote this because I’m an infectious disease and epidemiology nerd and also all my friends have questions & anxiety. Hi internet!

All this info is sourced from regional & national public health organizations, plus the WHO. It’s as up to date as humanly possible. I’ve been beaming information about this outbreak directly into my brain 24/7 but I still miss stuff. Please let me know if I miss something!

Most public health departments stop updating their information around 4-5 PM local time on weekdays. That means that the earliest this will come out is around 6 PM Pacific time on weekdays going forward. On weekends things update more sporadically and earlier, so who knows what I’ll do then, but I’ll do my best.

Thank you to @marywhal for the excellent title!

For More Information

JHU COVID-19 data center: https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6

List of peer-reviewed publications: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/publications.html

WHO daily sitrep: https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200315-sitrep-55-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=33daa5cb_6

WHO FAQ: https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses

CDC cases in the US (take w/ a grain of salt due to Political Garbage, as detailed above): https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-in-us.html, this also has links to each state’s health dept which may or may not be more up to date than the CDC

#corona extra #covid corner #covid19 #coronavirus #pandemic #information without anxiety #my pledge is to only give you the straight dope #social distancing #coronavirus pandemic #long post

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lesbiancarat · 3 years ago

Note

Haha its fine! Im book anon for a reason so take all the time you need! Before I start, I wanna apologize for the possible asks you got about the merch and hybe in general. I didn't intend to cause stress and need to be careful bdjahdsj so slap me with a fish!

Onto the ask! But agreed, I mean before the big kpop boom we saw, this was very common. Build a decent fanbase and then move to Japan or China. (Of course sometimes you see INSTANT movement in other countries but that depends on the company and such but you know what I mean) but since we do have the more global kpop era, we may see more companies do America which isn't a bad thing. It makes sense buisness wise so they will jump on it after debut or something. Thus I don't see it a bad thing for kpop groups to promote in America because hey, if in Korea they do sell western artist music who also tour there, kpop groups can also do the same ya know?

Now onto the hybe comment, I will try not to speak too much on it so I will try to summarize. I think my theory is due with merch from their main artist, they think maybe it could work with svt which maybe could but svt has a different fanbase so throwing on random merch won't make fans really want to buy (not saying some won't which kudos to you! As a fan you are allowed to consume what you please except not be a bad apple about it) so thus like the infamous water bottles which was done for bts, they thought why not do it for svt because bts fans sold it out apparently for a 2nd wave of it being sold again. (Which to this day idk why someone in the hybe team thought this was smart. Like...this is just in bad taste imo) I do wanna agree that it appears that hybe doesn't seem to have a proper art team for svt because while sometimes wild, I do know for their main artist they do have thoughtful merch based around say an album concept I recall. Kf course they will make mistakes i.e. the water bottles. I do wish it can improve because even though it is capitalism, I think fans do want decent merch. We have seen interesting ideas like svt making their own magazine and selling it lol. Of course it is hard to please because some fans want subtle merch ideas while others don't mind the vibrant pastel colors we got or some want wild ideas like svt figurines or something. Overall I hope I didn't drag this too much as I just wanted to respond back to you, I agree with many points you said so yeah cx I say let's also wait as this is barely what, a year or even less of svt being under hybe properly. Especially when hybe had its rebranding and expanding so things are being changed, I know fans are worried about this which is valid but let's not panic just yet. Let's come back in a year to this and see what has improved and what hasn't. (OK but peldis sold the boys rings!? :o since when!? I haven't heard of this actually, when did this happen if I may ask?)

Oof yeah sadly with streaming, many view "oh you don't stream it means you aren't a fan" when isn't the case (which is why I personally don't like when certain companies also do "listening parties" which seems a bit ???) I do remember this popped up big in 2017 but many fans called it out so it quiet down a bit. Like we didn't see it so often where fans were causing problems over it so idk why this returned nor what the cause of it was.

But thank you!! It really was a nice closing chapter, I think when I have personal stuff settled I will try maybe get a new bunny? And oohh congrats on the album! (Note to hybe or pledis. Please make the us store a more common thing, it makes things so much easier! Am happy it was at your place quick so kudos to the us store. Oohh wonderful choices! I think for many fans anyone or heaven's cloud seems to be the popular picks? For me, I may have to say game boi or heaven's cloud as well! Those songs make me just so happy? Like game boy is just so creative with the way it was made. As a video game nerd, it is perfection. I could make an essay about this song lol and heaven's cloud is just...wow. I feel so at ease with the song, comfortable and soothed. Like you are on a cloud lol. Also that is totally fine! Rtl was a grower for me (I blame the mv, it didn't do the song jusitice) but it is a bop and can't stop humming the chorus at random moments. Overall a great summer album. Just imagine any of these songs performed live ndjansns

lol don't feel too bad about it! honestly they weren't that bad + i can always delete asks if i really don't want to answer them, i just always get a bit paranoid that things will get out of hand so i may end up getting more serious in those situations OTL

and yeah i agree! i don't think it's a bad thing for groups to promote in the US, as you said, it's similar to groups expanding their fanbase by promoting in china or Japan or other asian counties, it makes sense from a business standpoint and there's nothing wrong with promoting in different countries. i just wish that some kpop stans understood that western and/or global popularity is a bonus and not a requirement for success. while they do have a global appeal, at the end of the day kpop's main audience is korea, and groups that achieve popularity in Korea have already achieved what they set out to do. but there's unfortunately a decent chunk of international fans that prioritize western popularity over anything and can't fathom that a group can be successful without being popular in the US. or they just talk as if their groups western achievements are more valuable than their Korean ones and to me that starts to look like xenophobia... (sorry if I'm repeating anything i said before in regards to this, i feel like i am but I'm too lazy to go back and check OTL)

since you sent this ask hybe released the caratland merch which was actually really nice, and today they also announced that there will be birthday merch for cheol (and presumably all members from here on out). we don't know what the bday merch is yet but some carats are already a bit miffed that hybe is even thinking to capitalize off the boys' birthdays... i bring both of these up bc i feel like the caratland merch proves your point that hybe is capable of designing good and thoughtful merch, and honestly this does reassure me a bit. but on the other hand them trying to capitalize off the boys' birthdays also proves that they still don't fully understand carats wants and priorities as a fanbase. which, if the future of seventeens merch is gonna be quality merch with some shitty cash grabs in between, i can live with that. I'm not gonna like the shitty cash grabs and i think it would be in our best interest as a fandom to not go crazy buying those shitty cash grabs, because if we don't then hybe will hopefully stop wasting their time and put more effort into /quality/. but if we get quality merch for important events like concerts and fanmeetings, i can live with it. as you said too, it can take time for these things to change, and we should all recognize that. but at the same time merch specifically is market driven, so i don't think it's a bad thing if people like @ hybe on twt about any bad merch that comes out in order to drive that change dhfkfj

but also on a maybe more fun note in regards to the merch... with some carats being upset about the bday merch i was thinking about what hybe could do for merch instead that would fill the niche of being at intervals throughout the year that could still be limited time drops but that carats wouldn't be mad at them capitalizing on and then i was like duh! they could literally just make merch off of going seventeen! honestly I'm surprised they haven't yet. maybe not merch for every episode, but they could have a line of permanent gose merch w a basic logo or something and then release limited time merch themed around some of the more popular episodes at various points during the year. I'm actually kind of obsessed with this idea now and for once I'm like hybe/pledis please capitalize off of this!! dhfkgjg

they never actually sold them, but for seventeens 3rd anniversary, pledis planned to sell replicas of seventeens rings. after it was announced carats were understandably upset since the boys worked so hard for those. luckily pledis heard carats concerns and put out an apology and didn't manufacture them in the end. I'm glad that at least they listened to carats even though it would have been better if they had never considered the idea in the first place :(

oh yeah listening parties are definitely just another marketing technique to boost streams. i think like with a lot of marketing techniques, it just depends on the execution. imo if they're done well it can be a good way for fans to connect while listening to an artists music, which is mutually beneficial for the company, but i can totally see a situation where companies get greedy and push it too hard. i don't know anything about what happened with them back in the day, but if you're curious why SVT had listening parties leading up to your choice, they were set up by UMG, the American distributor that SVT worked with for this cb. in this case the listening parties weren't just for boosting streams, but also likely for UMG to gauge interest. SVT isn't officially signed to a US label yet, but UMG's data from the listening parties could be used to show US labels whether or not there's enough interest for them to be signed. which if that happens we'd almost definitely see a more permanent US shop!

ahh yes, once you're ready I'm sure it would be great to have another bunny companion 🥺

yes! heavens cloud and gam3 bo1 are both such feel good songs! my sister actually added heavens cloud to their Spotify after i made them listen to the album in the car dhfkf it's now one of 6 kpop songs they have saved (4 of which are SVT... my influence 💅 DHFJFH) I'm certain we'll see some of the songs from your choice at caratland this year, hopefully it's all of them but I'd especially like to see heavens cloud and wave 👀 I'm also still crossing my fingers for an i wish live performance bc i can't believe my favorite SVT b-side is one of the TWO tracks they haven't performed live not including the new album (the other one being network love, which i would also like to see live!)

#melia.ask #📖 anon #long post #it always takes me so long to answer these bc i am incapable of shutting up OTL

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fuck-customers · 4 years ago

Note

I don't work for Greenwalls anymore but one of my friends still does and apparently the company sent out emails to all the stores in Ohio (which currently has mandatory mask policies for ALL businesses in red counties, one of which I live in) telling employees NOT to enforce the mask rule. They claim its to "protect them" from angry customers, as if I didn't get screamed at, cussed out, or had shit thrown at me on the daily there bc of privileged old people. Fuck Greenwalls

#pftones3482

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heyhey-heyward · 4 years ago

Text

expectations & disappointments

series masterlist

summary: Morgan Miller has lived her life under her mother’s thumb—but one afternoon with Kildare County’s most notorious Pogues changes everything.

word count: 1.4K

note from the writer: this is the first part of my series! I’ll be doing a taglist for people that would want to be included so send me an ask if you want to be included! this takes place along the canon events of the show, so major spoilers. also, be prepared for a s l o w b u r n bc I can’t help myself.

enjoy!

Morgan Miller did not belong on The Cut.

She was from Figure Eight, the rich side of the island and where the Kooks resided. She had nice clothes and nice things and a nice education—her whole life was nice and practically laid out in front of her. She’d go to an amazing college on the mainland, and meet an amazing guy that would make an amazing husband. Then, depending on where her amazing husband would want to live, she’d either go back to the Outer Banks and buy one of the gorgeous plantations on Figure Eight or she’d move to some other equally gorgeous coastal town. She’d have two kids and a dog and be in bed by ten every night.

And she fucking hated it.

Nothing seemed worse to her than having to follow her mother’s carefully laid out plan. Having to spend each day on the lookout for an amazing husband—one that, if she was really lucky, might actually like her—and devote her life to. Apparently, having a husband was the number one priority for a girl, according to the widowed Mrs. Madeline Miller, who was currently working on securing husband number two.

Enter, The Cut.

A poverty ridden side of the island that got dealt the worst hand and told to make due. Home of the Pogues, the name given to the people that inhabited The Cut. Kooks acted like they ran the show, even though life itself on the Outer Banks would cease to exist if the Pogues all decided to up and quit working one day. Underappreciated and overlooked, Morgan had a soft spot for the hardships of that side of the island.

As a result, she took it upon herself to donate to The Cut as much as she could. Majority of the time, she avoided telling her mom her whereabouts. But it was a small island, and her mother had eyes everywhere. For the most part, she could smooth over any transgression with her mother by agreeing to go on any of the dates with certified Figure Eight boys she had arranged with the other overbearing mothers. Unsurprisingly, none had ever worked out.

With the arrival of Hurricane Agatha, Morgan had been working double time, helping families around The Cut prepare for a storm while donating a month’s allowance worth of drinking water and other groceries. Currently, she was dropping off supplies at a house on the main street of The Cut, climbing around the back of her dad’s old pickup to find the right cooler.

“Hey, Mo!” A familiar voice called out, using the nickname that everyone but Mrs. Madeline Miller called Morgan, and she looked up to greet the source with a smile. Kiara Carrera, a fellow Kook that defected to the dark side—at least according to Morgan’s mother and other Figure Eight higher ups. Really, she was just one step ahead of Morgan, having befriended a group of Pogues. Morgan, despite spending a great amount of time hanging around The Cut, mostly kept to herself. She knew the families, went to some of the Boneyard parties, but kept most people at arms length—it had been that way since her father passed when she was ten.

“Hey, Kie.” She greeted her with a wave, watching her and her group—John B, Pope, and JJ—approach on the sidewalk. Morgan found the cooler she had been looking for, the one that had the groceries needed for the family she was parked in front of. “Hey, help me with this?” She asked, setting the cooler on the tailgate while getting a case of water. John B didn’t waste a moment, grabbing one side of the cooler before helping her set it on the sidewalk. “Thanks.”

“So, where does your mom think you are today?” Kiara asked with a teasing tone as Morgan hopped off the back of her truck. She chuckled at her, shutting the tailgate and turning back to find the boys looking at her and Kiara with confused expressions. Probably because they had never seen Morgan and Kiara interact, having fallen out of touch for the most part since leaving Kook Academy. The whole Sarah Cameron drama wasn’t Morgan’s cup of tea, and when shit hit the fan with them, Morgan, instead of taking sides, seemingly dropped off of the face of the Earth.

“I’m on a beach somewhere, perfecting my tan and rehearsing what I’m going to say to my future husband when he asks me to marry him.” Morgan joked, sighing dreamily for added effect before rolling her eyes. Mrs. Madeline Miller was nothing if not determined to get Morgan to settle down. And Morgan was nothing if not determined to rebel against that.

“Yeah, why aren’t you back on Figure Eight? Kooks too boring for you?” Though most of the boys had chuckled at her comment, the blonde standing between John B and Pope spoke up with a smug grin on his face. The other two froze, though Morgan barely noticed as her attention fell to the sidewalk.

“JJ!” Kiara chastised. Morgan shook her head at her, waving a hand dismissively. It stung a little bit, that even after spending so much time helping the people on The Cut, that some still saw her as her mother’s daughter. It wasn’t Morgan, and never would be.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Morgan assured her, flashing a weak smile as she picked up the cooler and made her way to the house. She heard the group bickering on the sidewalk behind her, mostly just Kiara and JJ back and forth, and she sighed before turning over her shoulder one last time. “Hey, Kie, tell your dad hey for me!”

And then she continued into the house, and when she came out, they were gone.

Morgan didn’t think much about it, and continued on with her deliveries, only heading home when the sun started to set and storm clouds started rolling overhead. The lights were off in the house, but as soon as she slipped quietly into the too large kitchen that Mrs. Madeline Miller never used, the lightswitch was flipped and she was met with her disappointed mother.

“Hi, mom.” Morgan winced, knowing her mother would be upset at her for being out so late and from the way she was gripping the stem of her wine glass, Morgan could tell she knew where she was.

“I’m not having this argument with you again.” Her mother sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. From the way she was acting, one would think that she had caught Morgan doing drugs or smuggling beers out of the fridge instead of helping the less fortunate.

“I really don’t—” Morgan started even though she wasn’t sure how she was going to finish the sentence, but cut herself off when her mom raised a hand that silenced her immediately. Sighing again, her mother leaned against the kitchen island.

“Melanie told me you were in The Cut today.” Her tone sounded accusatory and Morgan was still trying to figure out what exactly was so wrong with helping out on the island. She just shrugged her shoulders in response, moving to the fridge to pull out a bottle of water. “I want you to go on a date with Kai Johnson. I’ve been talking to his mom and he’s a good kid—”

“I went on a date last week with Kelce! You have another one planned already?” Morgan exclaimed, though she knew it was a useless fight and started to head towards the door where she’d retreat into her bedroom. It was always the same thing with her mother. Morgan would do something to disappoint her and then she’d have to go on one of the dates her mother would set up for her in order to try and live up to the expectations of being a perfect Kook daughter.

“Are you going to go on a second date with him?” Mrs. Madeline Miller stepped to the side to block her escape route and Morgan sighed. She knew the answer and she didn’t even have to reply, it was the same one she gave her after every failed date—that they weren’t what she was looking for and she didn’t plan on seeing them again. “No? Then I’ll be telling Kai’s mother that we’re setting it up.”

And, like always when her mother confronted her, Morgan stayed quiet.

#jj maybank #jj maybank imagine #jj maybank x reader #jj maybank series #outer banks #outer banks imagine #outer banks x reader #expectations & disappointments

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goodguydotmp3 · 4 years ago

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1) Hi, I just came across your post on Harry & although we are looking at him differently i absolutely agree with you on alot of what you say. I never was a 1D fan, I worked for an arena & was lucky enough back in those days to see 1000's of concerts. I remember thinking 1D was awful. 12 months ago now I fell down the rabbit hole with Harry. I can't say i'm a fan because I only like a combination of his songs from both albums, which I listen to often on a playlist.

2. the others I listened to once and never again. I never bothered to listen to his CALM app nor do I obsess over wanting his merch & quite frankly didn't bother to buy a ticket to see him. In fact I kinda find him a bit cringe at times on stage. However, I think he is one of the most charismatic sexiest humans on the planet. This has caused me to want to study him. A lot of what I think you actually said. He is 100% a brand.

3. He is a smart guy & i'm pretty sure a lovely person but I also think he is a shrewd businessman. He has allied himself with professionals who know how to make millions off of his brand. Classic example was the beauty pages (which I despised btw). Probably in partnership with the magazine knowing it would sell out in seconds. I'm sure him & his team are laughing all the way to the bank, and on the fans coin.

4. I could analyse as well why I think he queerbaits, which I believe he does for his image. That being said I truly think he is open to anything, he is at a level in his life that he is able to do whatever he wants. I certainly don't want to paint him as a nasty person which he certainly isn't. But again why his silence on social media ? I do think it's because he wants privacy but at the same time he could be more open to his fans if he wished.

5. Other stars do live random Instagrams with their fans. You don't have to give anything away & it wouldn't hurt him to do now & again. Yet I don't think he wants to. He did facetime interviews with DJ's in London who all happen to be his friends, but nothing to the people who give him the lifestyle he has become accustomed to.

6. There are a few things in his past that don't sit right with me & again, I don't hate him, I find him very charismatic & alluring, but I certainly don't think he is anything personally like his fans think he is. Anyways sorry for all the asks.

okay so let me just start by sating you really probably could have gotten away with just one ask but since we here let’s go.

second (okay last one fore i go in) is this a white? you can be honest. that’s not why I’m judging you I just have hunch.

Lemme just say I already can’t take you seriously if you gone sit up here and tell me wondee is awful. WHERE? Especially Four and Midnight Memories! I also can’t imagine being privileged enough to see their live performances with raw vocals repeatedly and still have the nerve to say with yo whole chest one d is awful. Especially in comparison to Harry!! Where are the vocals?? Where are the riffs??? Every time I see a solo Harry video It’s never about the amazing things he does with his voice, it’s always some joke he made, or his dancing, or how he messed up, or an outfit someone’s talking about. one time I saw where there was a difference between shows where he was louder in the latter bc of the confidence factor. Like?? Go girl Give us nothing!!!

And even with songs, you already said he ain’t all that! You already said he’s barely passable, You already know he’s not an artist so what exactly are you even holding on for?

I know you’ said he’s “the sexiest and most charismatic man on the planet” but I promise you that 1) no he’s not so don’t even lie like that 2) not even in his own band 3) not even in the music industry.

I pinky promise you there is better out there for you, hell there are better rich white man out there just waiting for you time, attention, and coin.

Rich white men who haven’t built stadiums that hurt the smaller stadium in the same town and only benefit the large artists who would be able to sell it out, who doesn’t associate with the Kardashian-Jenner clan, who are notoriously racist and elitist and make money off of doing so, white male artists who don’t travel across countries during a pandemic, seemingly doing the most to spread as many germs as possible, at a time when his home country is among the worst county handling the spread of a deadly virus.

Other white men who are just straight up not Zionists, which I feel should have been the point where people were actually upset but apparently not because I see “free Palestine” this and that but then scroll down and see his ugly mug in a closeup (and not no old “oh he looks like a baby” picture neither, one of them recent “my name is earl” lookin ass photos, posted uncritically). Other white men who don’t use a deadly global pandemic to squeeze for coin out of folx,

Other white men who aren’t okay with racism, transphobia, homophobia, Zionism, and would gladly denounce any fan who felt like that.

Other white men who aren’t just using gender ambiguity as an aesthetic, and can actually recognize and use other pronouns besides he/she when prompted.

Other white men who hire black and brown people to work with and for them, and don’t just wait until the next blm wave to try and score brownie points with prominent (white approved) black people. Other white men Who don’t take that amazon money! Other white men who don’t buy your data to make more money! Side note please tell me we’re all still pissed about that???

Harry Styles is a Nasty Bitxh and will do anything to get what he truly wants: money and fame. If you can stan a husk of a man because you think he looks pretty and his scripted remarks from some of the best pr managers money can buy sound real good when he says them, do you boo. But please don’t try to make excuses for this ho.

At the end of the day he might as well be Mr. Monopoly himself, and if that’s okay with you, that’s between you and your bank account, but I have to ask why you feel the need to defend him (especially seeing as he has an entire team of people to do that for him), and if all the defending is worth it. If you have to make this many allowances for him, is he really that great?

If you keep turning a blind eye, at some point you just blind.

#hazza curly mchazzerson

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