#because irvin generally is ...not ...like them ... at all

[rimunagenius]

And They Were Roomates

☙ pairing: Kate Martin x Roommate!reader

☙ word count: 2.5k words

☙ warnings: RPF!! use of y/n, not proof read.

☙ ri speaks: I need more kate martin content and i haven’t been fed the specific ones that i need so i must write them to the best of my horrendous abilities. Idek how good this will be…im sorry in advance LMFAO. also this is two thousand five hundred words but it looks a lot shorter….crying

this is also a general announcement that i will indeed be refreshing my blog, so that means new and updated master lists and posts are coming out soon so sorry if you get a spam of rimunagenius on your feed!!

Part 1

| Series Masterlist |

When you first started in Iowa, you never expected the immediate love you recieved from the people there. They were friendly, generous, and so much different from people in California. Especially your roommate, Kate Martin. You had met her shortly after your first day of Junior year. A while after, you two became roomates because you needed more space, and she needed someone to split rent with in her apartment. Sounded like a great deal to both of you.

"You don't mind?" You asked unsure. Not wanting to impose on her, possibly ruining plans with making a deal with her actual teammates.

"No! Not at all! I really like you and you're alot of fun! I'd love for you to move in with me." She beamed at you, giving you a side hug when she saw your expression change. You both were ecstatic.

Since then, you had been living with Kate for almost two years. You two had become inseparable. Always on campus together, meeting up between classes to get coffee or lunch together, sometimes with Caitlin and your other friends. It was great. You were happy with your home away from home.

You had transfered from UC Irvine and decided to pursue your degree and career in sports medicine here in Iowa City. You were one of the new athletic trainees and ocassionly a photographer; your previous major was in photography and Lisa and the administration had really loved your resume and work, so they hired you as a part time (barely) photographer, for whenever they wanted more shots than what they usually wanted or a fill in.

Currently, you were needed in the Carver stadium to help record a mic’d up practice session for the team. It was for the Iowa Hawkeye Youtube channel. You had experience because you too had a youtube channel that you started when you first transferred to Iowa. So you had told Lisa and the coaches that you’d be able to film it.

“Hey, Gabbie!” You smiled at her as you walked into the locker room, approaching Kate’s cubby to set your stuff down. Kate telling you this morning before she left that you could put your stuff with hers.

“Hey, girlie! So guess what?” You and Gabbie loved to gossip. It was so much fun and it started when you were redoing the tape on her ankles, and she looked down so you asked her about it, and since then, you both have told eachother whatever gossip you had.

“Oh my god, what?” You took your sweater out of your bag, the locker room being chilly, so you could imagine the court.

“So that boy Nick in my econ class, totally asked about you today. I didn’t want to crush his hopes and dreams but I did say you weren’t his type.” She took a seat next to where you were standing to put her shoes on.

“Wait, the boy I said would so be my type if he was a girl? That Nick?” You laughed because he was really nice and such a sweet guy but he just wasn’t a girl. Men are pretty but only to look at.

“Yes!”

“How’d he take it?” This guy has asked you out once before but you just said you weren’t looking to date. Probably should’ve elaborated on that one.

“But he asked me “Oh, who is? Does he go here?” And I was like,” she paused to reenact the face she made. “I said it too fast so I didn’t have time to say “Oh, It’s long distance or something” sooo I don’t know.” She rambled and just pulled her hair into a small ponytail.

“What do you mean? That made no sense, Gab.” You were confused. She looked guilty of something but you didn’t want to pressure her but you also really wanted to know what she had said about you to Nick.

“I kinda sorta said you had a girlfriend already, and he took that as ‘Oh, she’s dating her roommate Kate Martin’ because he said he supposedly sees you guys together everywhere.” She meant well. It really wasn’t her fault that Nick totally misread the situation.

“Oh shit.” Your jaw dropped. You thought it was awkward but now it went full fledged horrendous. You were already out, and anyone who followed your insta would’ve saw it in your stories, so you weren’t worried about that but you were worried for Kate.

“So what do we do about the fact that a random kid on campus thinks your dating Kate?”

“Ok wait, i’m actually scared. Like how do you think Kate will take it?” You were talking to Gabbie and immediately knew you fucked up by seeing the expression on her face.

“How will I take what?” Kate walked in, hair down, dressed in her practice uniform, and sat on the chair next to you. You hadn’t realized that you sat down with Gabbie. Lost in the conversation and frenzy of the new mess that could possibly affect yours and Kate’s social life dramatically.

“I’m just gonna…” Gabbie got up, and walked out, meeting the others outside on the court.

“Oh, okay. I’ll see you in a minute.” You said to the girl before turning to Kate. You had caught her up on the lore behind you and Nick, if you could even call this one sided infatuation lore. Now you just had to tell her the problem. “So Gabbie tried to tell him that I was already seeing some girl. But Nick jumped to this whole conclusion that me and you were together.”

You watched her face. Looking for any sort of negative reaction. Waiting for her to blow up on you. “Oh.”

“And when Gabbie tried to say it wasn’t you and that were just friends, and that my supposed girlfriend lives in California, he got up and left. So it may be possible that the whole Iowa college campus will assume we’re together.” You played with your fingers as you watched her some more. Still waiting for her explosion.

“I mean, I don’t mind. He sounded weird so if it keeps the guy away from you, i’m okay with being the ‘pretend’ girlfriend.” She shrugged her shoulders. Grabbing her shoes from behind you, your chair sitting right infront of the cubby that belonged to her:

“Kate. Are you sure? This is so random and so strange and I would totally get it if your uncomfortable.” You wanted it to be clear that this situation could go away if she was uncomfortable. If she was uncomfortable you’d go on a date with him and just tell him it won’t work after. It’d be bad for you if he goes around saying rude things but you couldn’t care less about people you don’t know. You just wanted to make sure Kate wasn’t the one feeling weird.

“Yeah, I mean—I don’t have to kiss you in public, right? I feel like that’s overstepping a boundary we have not thought about setting.”

“No, Kate. You do not have to kiss me in public. Wait so you’d kiss me in private?” You looked at the girl, now fully joking around as you wiggled your eyebrows and laughed.

“Oh yeah for sure.” Kate made a funny face while nodding her head before grabbing her water and standing up. You following behind to get this practice and video recording started.

“Oh, and your getting mic’d up today. I don’t know if Coach Lisa told you.” You say as you both walk onto the court.

You and Kate had showered, separately unfortunately, and sat on the couch. You had been trying to convince her the whole way home from practice to watch New Girl. She agreed after ten excruciating minutes of your nagging.

You were deciding to pick the snack you wanted, grabbing M&Ms you bought at the store yesterday, snickers, chips, and popcorn. You wanted to watch as many episodes as possible because you both started school late tomorrow and it was an off day for practice.

“What are these practices anyways? Are they like preseason workouts to get back in shape or?” You watched Kate as she picked her snacks.

“Yeah. Basically. We’re technically only allowed to goof off a little during those ones.” Kate laughed, referring to the mic’d up practice today. Coach Lisa usually wants a more focused and intimate space during the actual season. “Oh my. What if we just kill this whole tub of Neapolitan ice cream?” Kate took it out of the freezer and suddenly all your snack choices went back to the cabinets.

“Ou deal, Martin.” You grabbed two spoons before making your way to the couch. Grabbing the blanket off the backrest, and throwing it over you both. You both settled and got comfy ready to start the marathon of New Girl.

You were both sitting in silence after you decided to just do a highlight reel of episodes since you weren’t going to force Kate to watch multiple seasons. "Are you excited for this upcoming season? Your last season?" You asked as you looked to your right. Kate was seated next to you while you both decided to disregard bowls and just eat the ice cream straight from the tub. She held the tub as you both dug what you wanted out of it. She shoved more ice cream into her mouth and she smiled and nodded her head.

"I am. Just scared and sad." She said somewhat incoherently due to not having swallowed the mouthful of ice cream. You nodded your head. You had already adapted to the Kate language. When she talked while yawning, mouth full, her body language, and her facial expressions. Not many people were fluent like you, and you were actually proud to be one of the people. So you understood exactly what she meant. You saw everything else she was feeling just by the look in her eye and the shape of her lips.

But you also felt sad for her too. You’d both be a sixth-year, grad students, in a couple months. This year bigger for her more than you. This year being her last and final run in her collegiate career. This was huge. You both knew this but wanted to focus on the nicer aspects. You and the girls would support her and be her friend even if she decided to never touched a basketball again. You guys were for life.You didn’t play, so you felt there was nothing you thought you could say other than just being her friend.

"You'll be okay, sweetheart." You wrapped your arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. A small comforting hug, atleast a hug at which this position provided, and kissed the top of her head. You only used terms of endearment like this in small, comforting, intimate moments. You felt this was the right time. "I'll be here for you, and you have the girls. We’ll back you in whatever you do, outside of basketball and school. You can’t ever get rid of us if you tried. But I will give you all the support and all the ice cream you can eat right now." You smiled at the blonde. You both stared at eachother, a little too long, “We are not beating the supposed ‘girlfriend’ allegations right now, Martin.” She bursted out laughing. You not far behind.

"But seriously, thanks shortie." She said as she patted your knee, right before she lost it again and laughed out loud. You immediatey cringed at the name, and pushed her away from you.

"OH! my god! Immediately no, Kate." You laughed again, half embarassment and half amusement. "That is not funny. You sound like a frat boy." That earned another snort laugh from Kate.

"You're right. I'm sorry." You side-eyed her. Pulling the blanket a little closer to you. Scooting over the tiniest bit over to feign anger and hurt. Still managing to catch her movement through your peripheral.

"Bro, I'm not even that much shorter than you. Just short three inches." You rolled your eyes at your best friend, turning back to the episode where Jess and Nick kiss eachother for the first time. Your favorite episode.

"Yes, I know. I know how you feel about my short jokes. I almost cried when you ignored me for three and a half days." Kate chuckled as she looked to you her smile dropping, a frown forming when you still didn't acknowledge her. "Oh, come on, y/n. Don't ignore me again, please! I was kidding." She asked you while chuckling nervously, she asked you two more times, when that didn’t work she insisted on poking you for a two minutes straight.

"Okay, Kate. I forgive you. Now shush, my favorite part is coming up." You kept your eyes on the screen and tried to reach for your spoon in the tub. Your fingers reaching everywhere but your spoon. "Kate can you help me please?"

"Yes, but haven't you already seen this show like eight-billion times?" She grabbed a spoon, whichever one was closest, forgetting which one was which, and scooping a good spoonful, before bringing the spoon to your mouth. "Open." You opened your mouth and took the ice cream happily.

"Thank you, you big teddy bear. God's gift, I'm telling you." You said as you watched the best scene on sitcom TV about to unfold.

"Im just going to pretend you're talking about me and not your show." Kate whispered. "You're welcome, pretty." She said louder so you could hear.

That got your attention. It wasn’t something that you hadn’t heard come out of her mouth and directed to you before; she's called you pretty multiple times when you had asked if the outfit you were wearing out looked good or if the makeup you put on was good for this dinner a girl you were seeing on and off wanted to take you out to. But she's never once used it in this context. You got a nervous feeling in your stomach, something you recognized as butterflies for sure. Fighting the urge to smile at the compliment, a small blush creeping up on your cheeks. Fighting the thoughts you had about her.

It was something new but this one thing…this you weren't going to get used to. You guys were best friends and just roomates. You can't feel anyway about this.You decided to ignore it and take it as a compliment in the moment to make up for the short joke. It definitely wasn’t something serious as you were making.

"I was talking about both of you. The TV and you, Kit-Kate." You put your arm around her shoulder and continued to watch the show. Watching the scene you had been waiting for all night to play. “This was the best cinematic experience I have ever had.” You whispered, now reaching for the spoon again for some ice cream.

Kate beating you to it, already having got another spoonful for you, feeding it to you like she did a couple of seconds ago. You smiled and thanked her before you both decided to cut the show, and search for a movie of both your choosing this time.

[mariacallous]

When the Supreme Court hears oral arguments Wednesday in a major fight over Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors, conservatives defending the law plan to point to an unexpected place as a model: Europe.

Two decades ago, Republicans appeared allergic to foreign influence on the U.S. legal system, decrying Supreme Court decisions that looked abroad — often to Europe — for guidance on culture-war issues like gay rights and the death penalty.

Now, that aversion seems to have eroded. Lawyers and legislators on the right are embracing recent moves to restrict some types of care for transgender minors in four European countries. And these American conservatives are using them as evidence that new bans or limits on such treatment in Tennessee and 25 other states are not only prudent — but also consistent with the U.S. Constitution.

“Systematic reviews by national health authorities in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Finland, and Norway have all concluded that the harms associated with these interventions are significant, and the long-term benefits are unproven,” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti wrote in defense of the state’s ban on transition-related medical care for minors.

The law, passed last year, bans hormone treatments or surgeries for minors that would allow them “to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or to treat “purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity.” Challengers to the law, along with the Biden administration, asked the high court to declare the measure unconstitutional after a federal appeals court upheld it. The challengers say the law discriminates on the basis of gender in violation of the 14th Amendment.

A brief from Tennessee state officials defending the law quotes no fewer than three times a passage from the appeals court ruling that upheld the law, saying: “Some of the same European countries that pioneered these treatments now express caution about them and have pulled back on their use.”

The conservatives’ sudden affection for European medical standards and judgments rankles some transgender advocates, who say it’s a hypocritical about-face.

“I think it’s rich that folks that don’t look to Europe for anything, especially socialized medicine, for the guideposts on how to move forward with public policy, are citing any kind of medical policy” from Europe, said Sasha Buchert of Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ+ rights advocacy group.

Conservatives combat foreign influence on U.S. law

The conservative crusade against U.S. judges taking note of legal developments overseas reached a fever pitch in the 2000s.

“It certainly was extreme for a while,” said Austen Parrish, dean of the University of California at Irvine law school. “You had Supreme Court justices that were being threatened with death threats. ... There was this great pushback on anything foreign, because somehow it was giving up on American sovereignty, and we had to chart our own path.”

In 2005, as the anti-foreign-law frenzy was at its height, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) suggested at confirmation hearings for John Roberts as chief justice that U.S. judges who cited foreign precedents should be subject to impeachment. Roberts pledged not to rely on foreign law himself but said removing judges who did would be a step too far.

“I’d accuse them of getting it wrong on that point, and I’d hope to sit down with them and debate it and reason about it,” Roberts said.

That same year, Justices Antonin Scalia and Stephen Breyer even faced off in a public debate that aired arguments for and against its use.

Justice Clarence Thomas also weighed in, declaring in a 2002 opinion a distaste for foreign influence that seemed to extend beyond legal rulings. “This Court … should not impose foreign moods, fads, or fashions on Americans,” he wrote in a death penalty case.

In the court’s seismic 2022 ruling overturning the federal constitutional right to abortion, the conservative majority tiptoed around the foreign law issue. Justice Samuel Alito’s majority opinion noted that the Mississippi legislature that passed the abortion restriction at issue in that case found that the U.S. was one of only seven countries that permitted elective abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy. He then relegated further discussion of that issue to a footnote.

The court’s liberal minority unapologetically embraced international practice as a reason to preserve Roe v. Wade. “American abortion law has become more and more aligned with other Nations,” Justices Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan wrote, adding that the nuances of those laws are important. “Most Western European countries impose restrictions on abortion after 12 to 14 weeks, but they often have liberal exceptions to those time limits, including to prevent harm to a woman’s physical or mental health.”

Some European countries rethink gender-affirming care

Complaints that some doctors were handing out puberty-blocking medication too widely have triggered reexamination of treatment practices in the United Kingdom, Sweden, Finland and Norway in recent years.

The highest-profile retreat came in the U.K., following a broad review of gender-affirming care by the National Health Service. The head of the review, Dr. Hilary Cass, concluded that studies about treatment for gender dysphoria were unreliable, that doctors were often not tending to patients’ other issues and there was a lack of attention to patients seeking to “detransition.”

“This is an area of remarkably weak evidence, and yet results of studies are exaggerated or misrepresented by people on all sides of the debate to support their viewpoint,” Cass wrote. “The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender-related distress.”

After the findings in the so-called Cass review, released in draft form in 2022 and finalized in April, NHS stopped prescribing puberty blockers for those under 18 and closed the main NHS clinic in England offering gender-affirming care for minors.

Sweden, Finland and Norway have guidelines that reject certain treatments, such as surgery, for adolescents. But all three countries have some means for teenagers to access puberty blockers, often through clinical trials, according to briefs filed by outside parties with the Supreme Court.

“None of those countries have banned care in the way that Tennessee has,” said Chase Strangio of the American Civil Liberties Union, who is set to argue against the law at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. “None of those countries have taken away every pathway for adolescents to access the medical care that they need.”

While some transgender advocates have been highly critical of the Cass review and other steps that have limited treatments, Strangio was relatively positive about efforts by the European medical community to refine standards for gender-affirming care.

“I think the examples of Europe are often very distorted in the press,” Strangio told reporters on a video conference Monday. “What they’re actually showing us is tailored responses to ensure that people who need treatment get it.”

Strangio acknowledged some risks to puberty blockers and other treatment, but said that alone doesn’t justify an all-out ban on the use of those drugs for minors with gender dysphoria. He noted the same drugs remain available for use in other situations.

“In all other contexts, what Tennessee does and what other governments do when there is beneficial care that carries risk is to inform patients and to attempt to minimize risks. That is what is going on in Europe. That is not what is going on in Tennessee,” he said.

Some judges were unimpressed by Europe examples

U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson, who blocked Tennessee’s law last June, found similar flaws in the state’s arguments about new limits on transition-related medical care abroad. He said the recalibration of treatment in various countries isn’t akin to the flat prohibition on hormone treatment for transgender minors that Tennessee and other states have imposed.

“Defendants’ reliance on the practices of European nations is not an apt analogy where none of these countries have gone so far as to ban hormone therapy entirely,” Richardson said.

Richardson, an appointee of President Donald Trump, used language that harkened back to earlier conservative skepticism about the relevance of foreign examples to a U.S. court case.

“There is the additional problem that the Court can put only so much weight on the practice of other nations,” he wrote. “After all, the Court cannot outsource to European nations the task of preliminarily determining … the extent to which the treatments at issue are safe.”

Federal judges in Indiana and Florida also rejected similar arguments as they blocked gender-affirming care bans in those states.

A spokesperson for Skrmetti declined to comment for this story, but in a recent op-ed the Tennessee AG repeatedly and prominently invoked Europe’s moves on transition-related medical care.

“Medical research and practices in Europe support a cautious approach,” Skrmetti wrote.

Are conservatives invoking foreign law, or experience?

One scholar who has criticized some efforts to banish foreign law from the U.S. legal system noted that Tennessee isn’t invoking foreign statutes or court rulings.

“There has been this kind of hardcore talk of ‘no foreign law in American courts,’ which I think mostly stems from people not really thinking very hard about when it is you need to use it,” said Eugene Volokh of Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

Volokh said he views the conservative states’ claims as more factual than legal.

“If the question is: Is youth gender medicine really likely to be effective? That’s something that you shouldn’t ignore … If the English and the Swedes and the Dutch say one thing, then that’s certainly evidence. It’s not dispositive evidence, but it’s certainly evidence,” he said.

Conservatives’ references to Europe at the Supreme Court in the current legal fight point not to court rulings or laws, or to facts or studies, but to medical practice guidelines and standards.

Those amount to national policy in some countries — particularly those with government-run health services, some legal experts say. And they note that urgings from judges like Thomas that U.S. courts ignore “foreign moods, fads or fashions” expressed a sentiment that appeared to go beyond rejecting black-letter law or judicial rulings.

“I definitely see the same thing playing out,” Seattle University law professor Sital Kalantry said.

“There was a big debate where conservatives freaked out about it when the liberals were using it. But now, if it seems to be conveniently supporting their ends, then they’re willing to make reference to international practice. ... We’re now at this place that both perspectives are selectively using international law and practice to support their predetermined end point.”

[kimbapisnotsushi]

happy birthday to the absolute love of my life iwaizumi hajime!!! have a medley of timeskip hcs bc i barely do those and the only way i can confront being an adult is with characters who became adults alongside me :))

i think no matter where oikawa and iwaizumi are in the world, oikawa always sends a birthday text right as the clock strikes 12 in iwa's time. even if it's four AM on oikawa's side he vows to always be the first to wish iwaizumi a happy birthday :))

(it started when oikawa left for argentina, because that would have been the first birthday they'd spent apart from each other. it's the least oikawa can do, in his eyes. it's the least he can do for not being there.)

do you ever think about the moment where two characters who have never met but have a previous connection to each other via another character find out about said character after meeting. bc i do. a LOT

bonus points if that "someone" is kageyama or hinata or karasuno as a general nuisance

anyways this happens when kuroo and iwaizumi meet and it's HILARIOUS

"what do you MEAN you got your ass whooped by them in high school I got my ass whooped by them in high school too!!!!"

this is a freakishly common occurrence in japan's professional volleyball circuit. there's a support group chat for it and it's got over fifteen people

(there are a few exceptions - komori's really just there for the kicks)

speaking of which. i don't think komori ever stops being a megafan of yaku's. when he hears that they're going to be playing side-by-side on the national team he IMMEDIATELY dials sakusa and just screams into the phone for like a solid minute

hyakuzawa was really shy with everyone at first bc he never really knew them much before, but at his first practice match hoshiumi slammed a ball onto the floor so hard it ricocheted and hit atsumu in the face and, without missing a beat and while atsumu was yelling for hoshiumi to eat shit through a bloody nose, hoshiumi turned to him and went "see that? that was a lesson on what NOT to do" and hyakuzawa knew at that moment that he was in a safe space

sometimes ushijima and iwaizumi will talk about irvine like it was some secret dreamy romantic getaway between starcrossed lovers from medieval times

iwaizumi: "man i remember that one night we drove to the desert to stargaze. that was so cool. really pretty. i forgot my jacket and ushijima was kind enough to lend me his" ushijima: "it would not have done for you to catch a cold, we had a meeting with my father the next day to ask for his blessing" everyone else: "what the actual fuck"

the blessing was to see if utsui could take iwaizumi on for an internship

okay wait quick break from national team shenanigans bc i was thinking about this for a while but i think romero is soooooo impressed when hoshiumi, kageyama, and ushijima tell him that they all know hinata personally. i think he asks them to help ask if hinata can do a favor for him

"you want hinata to WHAT" "i want him to throw me like a paper weight!!! so i can show my son!!!"

hinata's like "OH MY GOD NICOLAS ROMERO WANTS ME TO THROW HIM???" like he's SO honored. he thinks it's an honor to be able to throw romero and romero thinks it's an honor to BE thrown by hinata it's so stupid i love them

and then romero calls his son and is like "SON GUESS WHAT. NINJA SHOUYOU THREW ME LIKE A PAPERWEIGHT TODAY" and sends him the video and little romero is SO hyped

in general i think hinata AND hoshiumi would be able to bench press like 99% of the adlers and the jackals and like. maybe the whole pro league

hoshiumi wants to try so he goes "hey kageyama c'mere for a sec!!" and kageyama is all "?? okay sure" and he just scoops kageyama up, tosses him in the air, catches him and puts him down like "okay thanks, you can get back to what you were doing now!"

i think kageyama actually looks up to hoshiumi a whole lot and it's super cute

okay sorry back to national/all-stars teams squad shenanigans

suna has the newest phone within the canon timeline because his old one broke when hakuba spiked a volleyball into it trying to do a trickshot

suna wasn't even mad bc they DID land the shot it was sick as hell

nobody was really familiar with iizuna aside from, like, sakusa and komori and MAYBE yaku and ushijima so when he joined the all stars match all cool and calm and capable and hot like 90% fell in love. and then he wrestled sakusa into a headlock within five minutes of sakusa being a little bitch and they fell in love even more

this part here was supposed to be a fun little bit about the all-stars team dynamics bc it's funny as hell but it was getting WAY too long and i severely underestimated how insanely complicated having people with grudges like ten years running would be on the same team so like. expect another post soon i guess?

ANYWAYS

they always try to do something when everyone is in town for training or some kind of promo exhibit like the all-stars match bc otherwise it's really really hard to hang out since they're scattered all over the place

imagine if they went to the beach. like. imagine if you were just the average beach goer and you went one day and all of a sudden there is a whole ass group of twenty or so incredibly powerful men who all look like they could kill you with just one hand and they're all screaming their heads off playing beach volleyball. and you look at them and you think they seem vaguely familiar but you don't know why. and then you go home and check twitter and your beach is trending and THAT'S how you find out that the entire goddamn national team took a day trip to visit the beach

[kurayami-no-ko]

A review of Mashle's second light novel (Mashle: Mash Burndead and Resurrection Spell)

A general review:

This light novel was co-authored by Hajime Komoto and Hoshi Kiyoko so it cannot be considered a Komoto's work. However, I still consider it sub-canon considering Komoto probably had to supervise it right?

It is a light read. All the short stories are simple stories with minimal action and conflicts so they are rather slice-of-life. However, they can be fun and interesting because we barely see many of these characters in the manga so it is nice to see another side of them and watch them deal with their problems. The short stories are all choose-your-own adventure so you will be able to choose what path each character will take.

There are five short stories in this light novel, focusing on Brad Coleman, Wirth Madle, Rayne Ames, Lemon Irvine, and Dot Barrett. The characters that appear prominently in these stories are Lance, Finn, Abel, Abyss, Love Cute, Margarette, Tom. Some other characters that also appear are Wahlberg and Sophina (in Rayne's story). If you want to see more of these characters, I highly recommend getting on Amazon JP and buy this light novel. If you don't know Japanese, Deepl is a good option to translate Japanese into English or any language of your choice.

Underneath, I will be giving a summary of two of the chapters of the light novel for those who who are not afraid of spoilers. I also translate some small sections in Rayne's short story for those who are interested.

Chapter 1: Brad Coleman and his observation work

Like the name, this chapter mainly focuses on one day of Brad Coleman watching over Mash and his friends (Lance, Dot, Lemon, and Tom).

The story starts with Brad hearing a report about an armoured knight showing up. Because the place this armoured knight appeared is a cream puff shop, Brad connects this with Mash. Thinking to himself that if Mash's inability to use magic gets exposed, his plan of success in life will come to nothing, he decides to go out.

After encountering the knight (who is later revealed to be Dot), there are some branching paths you can take. You can take many branching paths as the story progressed. However, if you choose a wrong path, Brad will be back in his office and won't be there to observe Mash and his friends have fun.

It is hard to describe all the branching stories but basically, Brad tries to make sure Mash and his friends stay safe and have a good day. He makes sure that Mash gets to the destination to meet up with his friends either by ordering other police to push him or use cream puffs as baits.

Brad orders the shop keepers of the places where Mash and his friends play to give special attention to the group so they can have a good time. In one of the branching path, he even orders other police officers to catch anything of suspect nearby and lies to them that this is because a child of someone special is playing there. That branching path will lead to a bad ending, however, as Brad himself will be captured because he throws his cigarette butt on the ground.

During the course of the story, Brad keeps telling himself that he does all this just for his plan. However, it is obvious he cares about Mash and wants the boy to have a good time. There is some wistful thinking on his part in the good ending about youths having fun and some bitterness about not having experienced such a happy time during his student years.

Chapter 2: Rayne Ames and one day of being a Divine Visionary

To all Rayne fans out there, this story can be quite interesting. And if you are a fan of the Divine Visionaries, Sophina appears. Sadly, Kaldo does not appear, though I read these light novels just so I an catch some glimpse of him.

From this story, it is apparent that Rayne's life is very busy. He gets off at work at 17 o'clock and is happy that he doesn't have to do overtime. However, when he returns to Easton, Wahlberg has some tasks he needs Rayne to handle. Rayne needs to feed his rabbits in two hours so you are only allowed two hours to handle all the tasks.

The three tasks he needs to do are:

Learn the destruction of the "Magic Reversal Mirror".

Learn about the animal that appeared in the bamboo grove

Answer an interview that will be published in the new student guidance pamphlet.

For the Magic Reversal Mirror, obviously Mash is the one who destroyed it so you are given the option to talk with him. Mash admits to it and apologizes for his action. Then when Rayne is about to leave the room, the door is opened and Finn comes in and says, "Brother! Please wait!".

You are then given two options: listen to what he says or I have no business with my brother. I will ignore him and leave the room. If Rayne ignores his brother, only 10 minutes will pass so less time's wasted, yay! If he listens to what Finn has to say, however, Finn will only say something in defense of Mash.

I will translate a small section here because I feel bad for Finn.

Looking down at Finn who was drawing back a little as expected, Rayne said coldly.

"I fully understand it."

"Eh..."

"You are wasting my time."

Saying it over his shoulders, Rayne Ames left behind both of them and quickly left room 302.

"...Brother."

The door closes to shut away the strengthless voice.

Because of his fault, 20 minutes passed by.

I feel so bad for poor Finn in this and am kinda mad at Rayne lol. Rabbits are important to him but 10 minutes aren't a long time and Rayne should not have acted as if Finn was a waste of time.

If Rayne goes to the bureau to ask about his predecessor, he will encounter Kaise Tsukkomi (Nerey Shawn in English), who says that the previous Director of Magical Objects was injured then retired. Rayne asked whether that person was injured by Domina and Kaise confirmed it. Then it makes sense that the mirror ended up in Cell War's hands.

Then if he goes to Abel's room to talk, he gains an ally in Abel.

After finishing this test, you can go on to the next task.

If Rayne chooses to be interviewed, you can choose his interviewer to be in black or white robe. If the interview is in black robe, it is Finn. They obviously have a very tense conversation and Rayne does a terrible job answering Finn's question about what animal he likes. So Mash shows up and answers it for him.

I will translate a small section because I like these siblings.

"I didn't ask you, Mash-kun."

"That is rude."

"Then, Mash-kun what do you like?"

"Cream puffs."

"Isn't that food!!"

What carefreeness.

The reception room somehow got filled up by a carefree atmosphere.

His brother was laughing out loud.

That brother who used to cried all the time...

I cannot remain in such a carefree place. I cannot destroy such a carefree atmosphere.

Rayne Ames quietly turned his back and left the reception room.

I can't with Rayne. -Cries- However, Fin's being an interviewer is actually a bad option. You are supposed to choose the other option and Rayne will be interviewed by Wahlberg.

To the next task, he has to find out about some animal. To find out about that animal, I recommend going to the library to research about the animal first because that is the only way to get the best ending. Then Rayne will meet Sophina!

Sophina leads Rayne to a shelf as huge as a castle wall. When Rayne complains about there being too many books because he has no time, Sophina just smiles and says,

"To be satisfied with knowledge learned in a short time. You will say act as you say, but I wonder whether those words are also cheap makeshifts and not worth believing in."

"...Ku"

Rayne can either choose to read a lot of books or only a few and choosing to read a few is going to lead him to the best ending. In that branching path, he only reads three books for children.

"Is it really okay for you to only read three books?"

Rayne gave his answer carelessly to a puzzled Sophina.

"I have no intention of becoming a scholar, I only want to solve the problem at school. Besides, because these are children books, important facts are written here. Zebra in hotter regions have more stripes, penguins' black and white colors are for camouflage in the ocean, pandas' black and white colors..."

"I have enough of animal trivia."

Though she spoke out a flat refusal, Sophina understood. Rayne cultivated an intellect at the top of the magical world, which was enough to make him the youngest Divine Visionary. He was surely the kind of person that only needed to listen one to learn ten things. Though he and children read the same thing, he gained vastly more information and content than them. While acknowledging him, Sophina was proud and confident that he would not be able to surpass herself who was worthy of the title of Knowledge Cane.

Sophina kept her expression unchanged, said "Goodbye", then she left, her long, black hair waving.

Later on, Rayne finds out that the animal in the bamboo grove is a kind of animal that feeds on dreams. The dream, in this case, specifically belongs to Mash.

After finishing these three tasks, Rayne goes back to his room, feeds his rabbits and has a great time. If he finishes any task unsatisfactorily, he will not be fully satisfied and thinks about it even when feeding his rabbits. If he fails to finish all the tasks in time, he is happy but his rabbits are super hungry by the time he feeds them so make sure to feed them in time!

[andromeddog]

do you perhaps have some more lore or just silly information on irvine and kincaide… i love them dearly they are so cool 🫶

YOU 🫵 I LOVE YOU

bweheheheh i love 2 talk about my guys…. this was like an xmas present for ME

kincaide

yaaaaaay kincaide! his first name is gavin, he’s the lieutenant of the company my other scottish rugby boys are in. he’s a pretty well liked officer and guy in general, very personable and witty…. but a little bit too will to bend the rules when it inconveniences him.

from a pretty wealthy background, kind of stereotypical gentleman officer. wouldn’t have to work a day in his life if he didn’t want to but desperately wanted to get away from his father’s expectations and so sought out a military career

has known he’s gay since he was a young teen and has developed many coping mechanisms over the years; outwardly he’s a perfectly pleasant upper class gentleman but internally he is always looking for advantages he could leverage if he needed to. overly cautious and not prone to taking risks because of it. grew up with a lot of victorian/edwardian era upper class homophobia and repression so u know he’s always double and triple checking over his shoulder. still quite handsome and likable tho so he’s had a few affairs over the years :p

he’s not a particularly Huge guy but he is very broad in the shoulders; some ppl tend to underestimate him bc he is more effeminate and chipper than what is considered proper, but he can bring a really intimidating aura when he wants to! hes very keen on protecting himself and his reputation and will “kill with kindness” if not straight up blackmail/threaten if he feels someone is testing his authority or going to out him

when he’s not looking over his shoulder and gets the chance to actually be himself, kincaide is a man who has a zest for life. wants to experience deep emotion, romance, good food and good drink. defense mechanisms aside, he does have true love for his fellow man and in turn is very popular amongst his peers. in general his quirks of character- too emotional, too sensitive, a bit too vain- are forgiven for sheer sake of being well liked. as an officer he can become a bit overwhelmed by all the directions he is pulled and is a bit scatterbrained. relies heavily on his batman, laurie, to help organize and translate his often nonsensical monologues and remind him to eat and sleep regularly

is particularly close w laurie, who is basically his shadow… idk if i’ve posted much about laurie here but kincaide treats him very well. laurie is p much a monosyllabic willow tree in uniform, scary with a rifle when needed but otherwise very content to be handling kincaide’s affairs. loves to fee useful and has made himself indispensable. irvine hates this guy, maybe bc laurie also comes from a lower class family and kincaide insists on spoiling him; maybe bc he and kincaide can communicate so effectively; maybe bc laurie gets a lot of kincaide’s time and attention (laurie Knows irvine just has a lot of misplaced jealousy. thinks it’s funny)

has his officers uniforms privately tailored so he looks extra sharp! always wears gloves bc he feels his hands are too dainty and he’s self conscious of them

he’s left handed!

has a fraternal twin sister Grace “Gee” very close with her, she basically runs the family’s affairs since their mother passed away. she writes to him while he’s on the front and complains he doesn’t write back fast enough

smokes a lot. usually seen with a pipe or cigarette

-gets caught in a gassing during the war, his left eye is exposed due to a faulty gas mask. the original damage heals but over time his eyesight deteriorates and he eventually goes blind in that eye. some residual scarring remains so post war he wears an eyepatch

irvine

yaaaaaaay irvine! his first name is scott! (and he’s scottish how fun)

views himself as a bit of an underdog, always overcoming roadblocks and unlucky hands life has dealt him, and because of that he has a bit of a complex: others should complain less and simply work more and follow the rules, like him, and they will succeed. not particularly sympathetic or warm with others, though he desperately wants to be admired… it frustrates and confounds him to no end that a man like Kincaide- who he views as a rat, a coward, and a liar- is more liked than he is lolllll his attempts at friendship are a bit miscalculated and stitled, and as a result he has very few people that he could call friends. desperately wants to leave behind the poverty he grew up in, though finds class to be a huge barrier he persistently throws himself against. tbh a bit pathetic, has the aura of a mutt trying to be a show dog

single child from a working class family; allowed to study at military college bc he had a wealthy benefactor willing to pay his study fees (as a last favor to his late father, though this came with a lot of stipulations and expectations for his performance). on his own he cannot afford the extravagant lifestyle that is expected of officers at that time and so he is always the odd man out during his schooling years. however is still one of the top cadets, takes his studies very seriously and always gives 150%, despite not being particularly well liked. he is impossible to get rid of. like a very persistent and loud tick.

is soooo easy to rile up like it’s almost unfair. you only need like two words to get that guy pissed off enough to spend an hour precisely lining out how and why you are wrong. kincaide takes advantage of this all the time for his own amusement. also gets super red in the face super easily

keeps himself immaculately clean. even in the trenches he is noticeably cleaner than others around him (it’s an ongoing joke w the others that he’s so neat bc he’s never actually spent time on the front)

doesn’t really get involved with anyone during his earlier years… pretty much swore himself to his military career from the get go. doesn’t really think about men/women at all, spends a lot of his time focusing on “more important things”. like war. or his mustache. or that rat bastard kincaide (seriously he devotes a lot of mental time and energy to that guy. but it takes him about 20 years to figure out Why He Is Like That) (poor idiot)

if there was a song that would describe him it would be any version of stars from les miserables. that’s his general vibe

his hair starts going grey around his mid 30s, lining up with the start of the war. by the end of it all he’s significantly salt and pepper’ed and is completely grey by his late 40s. looks a lot older than he actually is

also ends up wounded from a gassing, suffering some lung damage that never really heals completely. in his later life he is winded easily, wheezy, and often plagued by bouts of bronchitis. living out in the country with kincaide does a lot to help, though he still is sick fairly frequently

the both of them

yaaaaaaay mustaches! they technically don’t get together until they’re in their 40s lol (met late teens/early 20s, rivals for years, enter ww1 in mid 30s, fall out of contact post war, reconnect about a decade later and finally get their shit together) (just two cringe losers)

during their retirement they live on a private bit of property out in the country together. kincaide had been living there for himself for a while before irvine shows up on his doorstep all 🥺 and then he kind of never leaves. kincaide loves to garden but is pretty much useless with any other sort of home maintenance and so irvine does all of that (and bitches endlessly about the state of the shutters and whatnot but is secretly very proud to be able to be the handy guy)

them for the first 2 decades of knowing each other:

irvine cries almost everytime they have sex, he’s repressed up to the gills and it’s such an emotional release his brain just cannot handle it lol. kincaide thinks it’s cute but makes fun of irvine bc he’s an ugly crier

in the winters irvine’s chronic lung problems tend to resurface and so kincaide gets to dote on him. sometimes in the evenings irvine will read out loud to kincaide, who will never admit it but has a hard time reading the tiny text

they have a lot of conflict around “expectations” esp when they are younger. there’s a decent class divide between them; kincaide doesn’t understand irvines desperate and rigid rule set he inflicts upon himself and the world(he doesn’t know what it’s like to have to climb the social ladder; he’s always been up there at the top). irvine doesn’t understand why kincaide won’t just suck it up and play the role he’s expected to (as if being a wealthy landowner with an estate and a wife is suuuuch a hard thing to do) (irvine had make to becoming the Perfect Officer his whole life just to be barely tolerated by his peers)

and that’s some stuff! that’s a lot of stuff tbh. they live in my head like a fungus. i think about them a lot but have not drawn a ton of stuff for them bc honestly idk where to start! they have a long history together and it’s kind of daunting trying to find a spot to draw…… again i want to draw stuff for them but ive gotten caught up in other series this year! drawing my own original characters feels a bit too indulgent when ppl are expecting other stuff from me 😓

i did line this whole thing of them but never finished it. idk i could come back to this one

and other REALLY REALLY REALLY rough stuff! like “first pass get the idea out” kind of rough so they’re ugly as fuck but it’s just to get an idea of their dynamic

ever ask i answer gets longer and longer lol is it obvious i am desperate to talk??? this was fun tho i love to chat about the guys my guys

[samstree]

What’s up readers?! How about a little show and tell? Answer these 13 questions, tag 13 lucky readers and if you’re feeling extra bookish add a shelfie! Let’s Go!

Thank you @darthwillies for the tag!

1) The Last book I read:

The Vampire Lestat. I've been slowly reading the first few Vampire Chronicles books since the TV show took over my body and soul lmao. So far this one is a lot of fun!

2) A book I recommend:

Creatures of a Day. It's a non-fiction and a good look into psychology in general and psychiatrist as a profession. Would highly recommend Irvin Yalom's other books too.

3) A book that I couldn’t put down:

The Song of Achilles. I read very slowly in English but this book had me hooked from the beginning and I finished it in one weekend. This was actually a few years ago now but I haven't had the same experience since. (If anyone knows anything that is the same but like...different, please let me know alskjdf)

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more):

This Is Going to Hurt. I really liked the humor in the book when the topic is so serious. It's about working in health care and especially in the OB ward. Witnessing life and death daily can't be easy, but Adam Kay makes it easy to read.

5) A book on my TBR:

The Red Sorghum. It's been on my TBR since it won the Nobel prize lmao. The theme is very heavy though, but anyway, one day I will read, even just for the nobel.

6) A book I’ve put down:

All the Light We Cannot See. The writing is beautiful but the WWII story just doesn't draw me in as much. Maybe one day I will go back to it.

7) A book on my wish list:

Can I put an unpublished book here? The Winds of Winter lol, if I can be cheeky for a bit. Watching House of the Dragon really just brought me back into my asoiaf era. I feel sixteen again and piecing together all the clues for the sequel and thinking about all the theories. Unfortunately it is still very much a wish list.

8) A favorite book from childhood:

Journey to the West! Who doesn't love an adventure story about four besties going on a road trip that is full of cool monsters of the week? Also the whole book is metaphor for buddhist enlightenment. So it really contains multitudes.

9) A book you would give to a friend:

Silver in the Wood. It's a short novel that I brought to a long flight and just finished in one go. It makes you feel like you've just taken a little walk in the forest. It's a light read that makes a perfect gift!

10) A book of poetry or lyrics that you own:

Does Evgenii Onegin count as poetry? It's one of my favorite reads back in university. Partly because of the adapted play I think, it is still the top theater experience I've ever had.

11) A nonfiction book you own:

When Breath Becomes Air. It was written by a surgeon about his journey battling cancer at the end of his life. It's one of the books that stayed with me, having read it after cancer being such a huge part of my life for years. I feel like I got some answers from it and would recommend everyone to read.

12) What are you currently reading:

Queen of the Damned. More sexy vampires! Some of them are even old AND sexy!

13) What are you planning on reading next?

Keep reading through the Vampire Chronicles until reason and taste fail me (or Anne Rice does). I hear people tend to stop at some point during the 12 books in the whole series. We'll see how long I last.

tagging: @kuripon @cherryjuicegf @silvipeppers @tideswept @valdomarx. No pressures of course <3

[mpregeminem]

Okay here are some antics I think the BTR boys would get up to source: I’m a certified minnesotan who goes to duluth a few times a year

-the main mall in duluth is the miller hill mall. Totally generic, average mall, but it’s pretty much the main thing teens will do during the winter. I think they would get banned for life by starting a food fight in the cafeteria and they’d keep coming up with disguises to use and then subsequently getting banned again. there's also a mall called fitgers which is pretty cool because it used to be a brewery. i've only been there a few times so idk as much about it alas.

-speaking of malls, at some point they would come to minneapolis (i assume for say a hockey trip for example) and go to the mall of america. It’s the biggest mall in the western hemisphere and theres a zillion stores so you can imagine all the antics there. But in particular, they have an amusement park. It is currently nickelodeon universe but i think at the time it would’ve still been camp snoopy. I think they would have gotten banned by climbing up the rides and breaking something.

-While in minneapolis, i think they would’ve gone to the sculpture garden (it’s free). I think they would somehow make the cherry break off from the famous spoonbridge and cherry fountain

-They would also go to the science museum for sure. I think they would manage to knock over a dinosaur skeleton. But also they’d also just have all kinds of general antics. For example, they have a thing that blasts you with air to replicate sneezing and they’d 100% do that to each other. I can elaborate on this more I went to this museum sooo much as a kid but this is already gonna be so long lmao.

-While still in the area, they’d go to Valleyfair, which is like the main amusement park around here. Again, generic amusement park antics. But I also think they’d come around halloween, when they do ValleyScare, which is when they have like, haunted houses and scare actors and whatnot

-Going back to duluth, they would DEFINITELY spend time around canal park in the warmer months. It’s like this little touristy/shopping center in duluth. There’s a bunch of little shops and restaurants and a couple museums (including the irvin museum which is like a big ass historic boat and also as an aside they do like a haunted ship thing around halloween) around there. There’s a lakewalk they could walk along, there’s a lighthouse you can walk up to, and also there’s this like semi-submerged structure in the lake that people like to jump off of in the summer. 

-Also in the canal park area is the aerial lift bridge. The whole bridge lifts up when boats are gonna pass under. The guys would 100% get in trouble for trying to stay on the bridge while it’s going up

-Theres also this like, family fun center in canal park called adventure zone that i remember going to as a kid. it has like, an arcade and laser tag and stuff like that. obviously they would get kicked out of there almost immediately

-Theres a tower in duluth called enger tower that at least one of them would definitely fall out of and break an arm or something

-there’s a famous mansion called the glensheen mansion. Notoriously, there were some murders that happened there and tour guides aren’t supposed to talk about it during the tours (they’re usually okay fielding questions about after the tour) so I would imagine they would pester the poor tour guide about the murders/ghosts until the guide snapped asjhds

-less like, antic-y, but there used to be record shop called electric fetus that they probably would have gone to

-i think they would’ve been banned from the lake superior zoo for trying to pet the animals or something but i suppose that could happen at any zoo

- the downtown duluth area is on a really steep hill so i imagine in winter after it snowed they’d try to sled down it and almost get hit by cars

-Grandma’s marathon ends in canal park, so i think they’d fake like they ran the whole marathon to impress girls or something sadjhhka

-there are a lot of parks including state parks so i could imagine them getting like lost in the woods or whatever. in general in minnesota/duluth theres a lot of outdoorsy stuff like skiing, hiking, canoeing, kayaking, boating, jetskiing, ATVing, snowmobiling, that sort of stuff. fishing is really big because we have a zillion lakes lol. i was always a dork who just wanted to stay inside as a teen lol but teenage boys i knew growing up tended towards doing those outdoors stuff.

-an aside but i know the guys are hockey players so it's probably good to know the minnesota hockey team is the minnesota wild. im not a big hockey person but my understanding is they are incredibly mid.

hope this helps with your band yaoi bestie <3 obviously this is a non-exhaustive list but this is the big stuff that came to mind.

@partiallypearl @cant-get-enough-btr-forever @myloveforhergoeson @mpregloganmitchell @mpregkendallknight @btr-rewatch @bishounenbtr tagging you guys because you might be interested in their minnesota antics from a reliable source (my good friend penny)

penny i love love that you wrote all this i felt like i was taking a little tour with you around the cities <333

THEY HAD CAMP SNOOPY ARE YOU KIDDING ME... that's adorable, they definetly would've managed to catch that big snoopy on fire orrr get really trashed one night and try to steal it skdjsh (it seems huge on that picture so the idea of the guys clumsily trying to climb it to take it with them is cracking me up).

i remember you mentioning the spoonbridge once!! don't remember the context lol, i didn't know it was an entire garden waow.. yeah that cherry would suffer some damage with them around for sure.

that science museum looks like so much fun 😭 i think logan would ask them to go and they'd do it for him but end up having a blast together. if you do feel like telling more about what you liked about it as a kid please do bc im charmed by this place.

that picture of canal park's submerged structure is making me crazy bc those guys jumping into the lake could totally be them... one thing in general about these guys is they canonically Love the outdoors, they like to camp, the beach and they seemed to take well to california's warmer weather, i can see them taking any chance they got back home to enjoy the sun and the water without freezing their toes off lol. they also wanted to take snowboarding lessons according to the show (but james' mom made them take ballet instead <3), they'd take advantage of any change of adrenaline. the rush, one could say 🤨

THAT MANSION!! idk if you got that far but there's a ghost episode in season 1, and they obviously try to bust it. this would be right up their alley. i can see them plotting to split during the tour so they can catch that sucker (kendall's plan, brought on by carlos' request/begging skdjshs)

fun fact!!

but the fact that they're mid makes it so much funnier to me 😭😭😭 another mutual also told me the maple leafs are kinda hated? i honestly can see kendall choosing these teams out of spite as a young teen skdjdhd "oh you think they suck? well now i want in even more :)"

I LOVE THISSSSS thank you for taking the time to write it bestie ❤️❤️

[harukirai]

Queer history of Final Fantasy

I am replaying all the old final fantasies(mostly psp psone releases), first time with english localization and not the original jp.

Now i get it.

It all make sense now.

I couldn't understand the wave of "why shove the gays in our face" backlash of 16(even though, the non homophobic felt it was lacking since they didn't want to 'push it in yall face'). Like apperantly moat of the implication or straight up fruity moments in the old game was completely removed, or changed to the point of it being a 'silly thing'.

So lets clarify -

*Cecil(iv), your homeboy- an Non-binary (language is the best indication, but yeah i think it was a decision made for both female and male players to be able to relate to them, but yeah funny outcome non the less)

*Bartz(v)- outright bisexual, they didnt even hide it- next person on this list gonna make it make sense.

*faris(v)- an ftm transgender( at least in the original version, i know in some new iterations they scrapped the whole concept, but left it in in others?)- mainly speak about himself with (ore/boku- which is conventionally usally by male speakers), after finding out soem of the cast either use a female pronounce on him, but bartz constantly either avoid it or use male pronounce(or the nonbinary version which is usually reffered to kidz) but yeah, bartz was crushing on faris where he thought he was a cis male and unlike the other guy didnt shy away.

Lets jump a bit to 8-

Irvine(viii)- even though considered very handsome to the point he could get with any girl hed want, was even flirted with by selphie i think i need to remember, but he usually brush it off.

If anything he is either asexual, or gay(its very subtle, but its what called queer coding, and well see that allot from now on cause japan caught up to westerns norm on media)

Quina Quen (ix)- literally, a nonbinary- but i think they kept it in eng as well cause they are not human, but like black mages they have no sex, but unlike black mages they are 'genderless' and dont care for human norms.

Kuja(ix)- either gay/intersex/both.

Look at him.

Seriously that character confused a whole generation sexuality.

Like sephiroth, but unlike sephiroth he also have effeminate mannerisms, and until it was revealed by text it wasnt so obvious.sephiroth in jp have a confusing language because he himself is possed by jenova, so evem though i love this headcanon, sephiroth isnt trans actually.

Auron(x)- ahh yes, your favourite broody guy and probably where im gonna get tons of hate.

Auron is very subtle, but once you notice it its hard to deny.

I think Auron is gay, unlike jecht or braska- he did not have kids, denied arranged marriage, and followed jecht to dream zanarken just to save jecht only son- it was pretty obvious that auron loved jecht. He also loved braska but not as much, and it shows- that for auron it was more than friendship. You can see it with his attitude towards yuna vs tidus- with yuna he is nicer, politer. Liem you act when you babysit your friends /cousins child.

But to tidus, he is a full father figure.In their journey together they grow, and i think if he wasnt the boy of the man he loved he wouldn't treat tidus as his own. With all the scoldinngs in mind.

Paine(X-2)- qlmost forgot her, but yeah she's pretty gay for riku

I dont remember much though because if the mission structure of the game.

Larsa(xii) - ohh i see you boy, i see u. He is sus as hell. He is a kid so its pretty innocent(and relatable to us queer kidz)

Its pretty obvios that he is crushing on basch, innocently though. I know some ppl who shipped him with penelo, but canonically by spinoffs at least she and vann are an item.

Also they made sure it was obvious cause japan have this thing that a young character is crushing on a teacher,mentor , older characters in general(aka cc sakura- her friend crushing on a teacher, syaoran & sakura crushing on yukito, also happens in tons of pop culture media at that time, so im not surprised, but im happy this time its one sided, THANK GOD)

But yeah if you reached the ending its pretty obvious.

Fang & vanille(xiii)- the first lesbians couple! Terra(VI) was supposed to be the first but they were afraid it will make her less marketable so they scrapped her gf. They made them clear, but at the same time they tried to make sure pple wont be fetishizing them(they tried, at least).

I want to explain their story more but i think ill mess it up since i tend to mix up 13's lacie, falcie and all that jazz.

So ill just say that basically there are 2 world in 13, pulse and cacoon. Pulse is basically earth and cacoon is the moon. There is a god for each world called a falcie.

Few of them but ine for each major ones. Our main gand from cacoon, branded by a falcie to be slaves(lacie) vanille and fang are from pulse, and slaves of pulse lacie, so basically they are with the task of creating Ragnarok which is like the end of time and but limw they dont know cause the gods in this game is like 'yeah imma give you a mission but wont tell you beside weird non undersandable feaver dream and you need to figure out and fast or youll become this universe version of zombie, and if you do complete it you become a ceystal living forever but like, sleeping beauty style. So lose lose situation.

The focus of them both is different from the gang, caus the falcie of cacoon is evil so he gove them focus destroying cocoon while if fang& vannile mannaged to ruin that falcie and bring ragnarok theyll become a crystal, and they used it to save coccon from falling and crushing killing all the people in it, basically became a pillar in eternal sleep when they hheld each other.

But they are saved in later game only to... Lightning return which we wont talk about cause i hate timers.

I love the story of xiii, big part of it is vanille & fang, i havent played in english yet, but i will say, their story is one of the more meaningful on this list, very well developed and i will do it disservice if id try to explain it in few sentences - so do yourself a favour and play or watch the playthrough.

Ignis& gladio(xv)- here is when localization ruimed it. I know cause i palyed on jp dub with eng sub and heard the differences live- first of all gladio and ignis are completely different in jp, as individuals and as a pair- they were supposed to be the first dion& terrence moment, but it got scrapped and they went the vannile& fang route, only that bec they are men, the localization team missed the mark.

Gladio got pissed at noctis in the train because of ignis.

In jp its clear their bond is beyond friends, and not mention the fact that their AI is always stuck together, and that gladio isnt a womenizer in jp at all, and there is no fiancee/girlfriend.

In jp he said suggested there is someone he wants to be with but bec of the state of the world and them both being constantly in the battlefront he couldnt ask.

(and ignis clear his throat when everyone is like oh great, very subtle but it was leading to that)

Every stop of the train or erea post blindness gladio was with ignis not leaving him .

Also tabata san also said that they are more than friends. So there's that too.

But its no secret 15 localization is tereible, the massacared prompto, he is so cringy in english, in jp yeah he is funny but like he says more stuff then random pop colture references, he breaks the 4th wall occasionally but not on the same level of the localization. Also, jp noctis is a little shit because he can and will, in localization he is more relatable while ignos and gladio are kimda mean. In jp its the other way around and up until chap 13 (when he is alone) noctis is a bratt. He has some moments when he is nicer, but when struggle shows he is a bratt about it- and its done purposely since he is a spoiled pronce who never done anything alone in his life.

Thats why in chap 13 he has a change of heart, because he was alone and learned to appriciate his friends when he was stuck alone in the dark with no weapons and i think it was a good call storytelling wise, but yeah the english localzation ruined it and made the whole chapter pointless .

Those are the implied/canon gays of final fantasy up to 15(we got a kiss so its obvious).

The series has always been kinda Fruity and i know some of yall will be like, 'but there's no proof'. Well, japanese speakers(who arent homophobic at least) will agree with me that we tend in media that is not specified like BL or GL to make things subtle. So what in the west is called 'queer coding' is very common in japanese media and it comes in way more shape and forms.usually implied with a desper conncetion relationship or linguistics.its funny cause in the 80's and very early 90's gay pple wasnt hidden in jp pop culture (no kisses or anything but it was straight out told to the viewer/player)

And only later 90's there was a trend of removing us completely from the media, but around that time a specific genre was created so it wasn't out completely.(like yaoi/yuri as erotic mangas existed aince the 80's but usually only love stories or main gay characters were mixed in with the straight media, kimda like what netflix does today, but around 96, 97 the shounen ai and shoujo ai genres rose in popularity(mainly cause of clamp) and things got seperated. In games- because it became a bigger deal in the west square took caution with how clear they gonna make stiff not to piss of the christians after the backlash of Pokemon (idk how it was really but through japanese media and news it seemed at the times that the american patents were pissed so game companies started sensoring their games from all things might piss off christians/monotheistics ).

*also i dont live in japan but i am mixed so i grew in a jp speaking house and family from there always sent games on holidays and birthdays+nhk was always running in the backround to check on the motherland😂

[myhatisblue]

Baby sneckdraw. Have been kinda toying around with the idea of him spending some time with a necromancer before the mental program for like a year. Some long ramblings about it after the cut.

While Snecko was always American, I'd always planned that he went in before America officially got involved in WW2. Generally the way to do this back then was to go via canada (even if it was on paper against the law). He was married by that point and unknowingly to him had a son on the way. His reasons for going were largely due to his upbringing. As his family had fought in past wars and their actions were highly glorified his whole life. It effected him to the point where it was impossible for him to see a future where the war didn't spread and put his friends and family in danger. Just like those who came before he needed to fight to save those he loved. Much to the objection of his wife, but there was no changing his mind. Something deep down she knew from the start.

From there he was trained and served as a combat medic. It did not take long for the reality of it all to hit him. He came to regret his choice but he was too proud to ever admit that out loud. So he did what he had to do, and just focused on the job at hand and blocked every other thought out.

The Necromancer thing would come into play after he'd been there a while. Having taken a bullet and being unable to treat himself. He was taken to a village near where they were stationed at the time. The doctor everyone in town assured his unit was the best option ended up inviting the entire unit to his home a short ride away.

While I picture this doctor's home being a converted castle, i'm not sure if that makes sense yet. The long story short is surprise he's actually fun science based necromancer. Sneck's unit ends up killed, and the reason he stays alive at first is because his real name is Irving Richter. Richter being a german name of course. (I've also debated making it so Sneckdraw could speak german before the war broke out, and that also being a factor but I'm not 100% on that.)

Pretty much he was kept as a blood source, and for tests at first. But over time became a unwilling participant of a one sided friendship with the disturbed scientist. Becoming a person to converse with, vent to, or when he was in a worse mood a convenient outlet for his rage. Always making sure he was patched up, and fed after any of his outbursts. He was Sneckdraw's introduction to the unnatural side of the world that's kept hidden. And also the foundation to his hatred of those who work with it.

Eventually the necromancer got sloppy, and thought Irvine was actually his friend. That's why he'd want to escape with him from some on coming threat.

The doc didn't have his undead guard, it was out fighting. So even with his hands shackled together in front of him it was enough room to take his revenge. Once he managed to knock him to the ground, he kept beating the hell out of him till there was nothing but a bloody mess. He likely wouldn't have ever stopped but he was interrupted by the force that had the doc scared. A small armed unit led by a monster hunter, who found Snecko drenched in blood and still in chains. (A future mentor perhaps?)

From there he'd be taken to receive proper treatment, and was recommend to the mental enrichment program for his service, and impressive fortitude.

It was a convenient excuse to not face what he left behind before he joined the war. He couldn't take seeing his family, not after what he'd done and seen. In his mind it was better for them to think he was dead. That's likely what they'd already been told when his unit went missing.

For not that's what I got. I still need to research more, fleshing out his reasons for going out more would also be good.

[fireleaptfromhousetohouse]

Old-style Paedoing, Before It Got Such A Bad Name

Epistemic status: understanding the recent past, which I wasn’t around for, mainly through the lens of comedies, rumour, and scuttlebutt

The story goes that it was an open secret for many years that Sir Jimmy Savile, knight of the realm, was a horrible sex pervert before it all came to light and he was declared a posthumous monster. And this is true - but the specifics are rather vague.

A lot of sources (or, as they are now, brave prescient voices) were bang-on certain he was into some kind of sex crime, but weren’t sure exactly what. Viz simply painted him as a man whose (unspecified) confessional was worth hearing. An early Mitchell and Webb bit came in on some shocking report midway through, leaving the actual deeds as a noodle incident but quite clear they were appalling: ‘you think you know a guy, and then he goes and does something like that.’ Even Johnny Rotten, back in ‘78, went no further than charging him with ‘seediness’ and saying ‘I know some rumours’ in an edgy-kid stream-of-consciousness about all the people he’d like to kill, where he displays a bit too much knowledge about what does and doesn’t constitute libel.

The general charge, if any, seemed to be necrophilia. Lee and Herring’s bit where they dressed as Savile ended with the punchline ‘bagsy I take him to the morgue’. One of Irvine Welsh’s earlier novellas has a Cornish Savile-alike wantonly indulging in any corpse he had access to - Welsh’s version is a more general TV personality rather than specifically a children’s entertainer, probably for fear of litigation. This was no idle fear, Savile was well-known for taking such insinuations courtside, and of course he did sue when Chris Morris falsely announced his death on Radio 1, with the coda ‘the patients [at Savile hunting ground Stoke-Mandeville Hospital] are far from mourning...The majority, if not all of them, are extremely relieved that he’s now dead, although I suspect that some of them will be sorry that he didn't suffer a great deal more’.

Interestingly, Lee and Herring - as they’ve stated publicly - weren’t brave prescient voices. Hanging around Television Centre in their mid-twenties, they’d become aware of this - to them, absurd - rumour that Savile troubled the corpses. They decided that if nothing else it was game for a laugh, presumably with a BBC lawyer standing nervously in the wings and demanding they not get too specific.

Until Savile’s death, this remained a rather murky Soviet truth, and Savile himself remained a respected public figure. Within the third millennium, even as Chris Morris was being castigated for the Paedogeddon special of Brass Eye, BBC brightly-coloured-blobs children’s show The Tweenies had one of its blobs dress up as Savile as a bit of lighthearted fun - in an edition of the show which was, unwisely, repeated in 2013.

(Side note: the same tabloids which threw an ape over the obviously satirical Paedogeddon regularly ran pictures of topless 16-year-olds, until a change in the law in 2003 forced them to stop.)

It’s all out now, of course, but like the sun is one of those things people are wary of looking at directly for fear of the damage it could do. Savile made full abuse of his position as a public figure, to the point that he himself admitted to the necrophilia in idle conversation. Even by the loose standards of the British constabulary they admit there were over 200 actionable complaints made against Savile over the years.

The crux is this - Savile having committed all these beyond-the-pale acts becomes a very convenient way to paper over the point at which, in the broader consciousness, paedophilia went from ‘crime’ to ‘unforgivable, lowest-circle-of-hell crime’ in the vein of necrophilia. Because it was far more acceptable not too long ago, as many legendary musicians can attest. Gary Glitter generally just seemed shocked people were suddenly taking it so seriously - as did Jeffrey Epstein. 

Louis Theroux’s rather regretful pair of documentaries about Savile has the man himself being quite blase about his attitude to underage girls - as were the girls themselves, some of whom, while young at the time, were by their own account quite aware what might be on the cards. Does this make them culpable? Of course not, they were children. But there are those who would disagree. At the time, many would have and did disagree - including, quite likely, serving police constables. The Rotherham grooming gang, so beloved a talking point of those who just want to have a go at Pakistanis in general, were enabled top to bottom by a police force who considered their victims to be ‘slags’.

[arabriddler]

Strap in the Everest discrepancy theory is a doozy

Okay so! It's pre 1921ish and the British adventures guild or whatever it's called decide someone needs to climb to the top of Everest and as such are funding anyone willing to make the expedition, enter George Mallory a younger climber with a passion! He and his team climb the mountain and stop roughly around the point where humans can no longer breath without assistance on the mountain (call back to the Bee ask) and find they can't go higher. This was well and fine until it wasn't and manically almost Mallory insists he has to go to the top. Only 7 Sherpa agreed to go up with him, and in this agreement the climbers faced avalanche that left all 7 dead and anyone else to est flee. Mallory was among the others to flee and descend back down the mountain under the preface that the team wasn't equipped enough for Everest. See, not only does the mountain eventually go so high you can't breath without assistance but the snow reflecting the sun can blind you, any skin left exposed near the upper levels will be frostbitten within 10 minutes, the mountain is always either in two kinds of bad weather conditions (monsoon or blizzards) besides MAYBE a 10 day period ish, and at the time of Mallory's expedition hadn't been successfully climbed meaning no trails to follow or maps to help.

Despite all this in 1924 Mallory attempts the climb again (4th time now) with a new team and yet again reach the pivotal spot of needing oxygen tanks. Due to the weather at the time entering blizzard time and the team not knowing he opts to go up with not a experienced climber like him but rather a oxygen specialist named Irvine. With the man originally going to climb in Irvine's place being told to follow with a camera and once they reach a certain point to stay and wait to see the men at the top within a certain time frame. Due to the fogs and clouds rolling in for those storms I brought up though the camera man never saw them except for a small 5 minute period at roughly 12pm, at this time he saw them climb over what he thought was the second step and then dissappear behind it and the fog promptly rolled back in to ensure he wouldn't spot them. That was the last time either men where seen alive.

Now here's the fun part! See we now know the men left with a extra oxygen tank, the group had two missing sleeping bags (the climbers), and that when the camera man saw them he was wrong. They couldn't have climbed that second step in only 5 minutes and even if they had that would've put the two 4 hours behind schedule. Now why couldn't it have been the second step of the three? Because that step isn't even used in the official climb to the top of Everest, let alone in the modern day trails, where the man returned after because it is so steep to climb, think a buildings wall level. Meaning Mallory and Irvine where either at the third or first step and either options spell bad news for the men because of the aforementioned timing situations of being behind. Not to mention the blizzard that rolled in as well.

So where does that leave the dead man? Well at first no one knew, as because someone climbing up wouldn't stop to admire the dead with the limited time they had to get up and get down, however the first of the men's things was found in the ice pick Irvine used to climb the mountain giving people a general area of where the bodies may be not to mention a Japenese man that claimed he saw a dead man in the time appropriate clothes and style of the region of England of when Mallory and Irvine made their deadly climb up laying face down in the snow so he couldn't see the man's face. A oxygen tank of the time period was also eventually found which gave people a good idea of where the men COULD be. As with weather conditions the bodies would never decay but they could easily be moved or hidden by snow and wind.

This brings us to 1999 when a team went up with the specific intent of finding the two men. In this attempt they managed to find Mallorys body with a broken rope attached to him, and many injuries that suggested a deadly fall. He did not have the camera the two men climbed up with on him, he didn't have any rocks (some rocks can only be found at the top of Everest and no where else on the world) on him, OR the picture of him and his wife he took with him to place at the summit. The picture was later found not at the summit however because of the weather its possible it once been at the summit and then fallen further down the mountian but Irving's body and the camera haven't been found as of the time I'm writing this. The camera company has since come out with a manual on how to properly process the film of the camera if ever found though to give people a chance.

Now why is all of this of note? Because until Irving's body and that camera are found uts impossible to know for sure if Mallory achieved his dreams of being the first man to reach the top or not as some argue he was and other claim the man to climb to the top and down again is (none of this is to take away from that man what he did is nothing short of incredible and if it was proven Mallory reached the top first the man to go up and down would still have a proper place in the history books) which if proven Mallory was first would mean a rewriting of history! Until that day Irving and the camera are found however we won't ever know.

woahhhh this is very cool. Feel bad for the first team though :(( but anyways thank you for sharing and if there are any updates let me know 👀👀

[bonelady]

been making my way through Irvine Welsh's bibliography. finished The Acid House this morning (a collection of his short stories. a lot of whatever to fine level stories, a handful of bangers). started up Marabou Stork Nightmares. i have long held Trainspotting as my comfort movie, despite having first watched it with an ex i no longer speak to, and have struggled to explain to people why i describe it mostly unironically as 'the feel good movie of the year'. it was when i got to the end of the novella at the end of The Acid House (A Smart Cunt) that it clicked what speaks to me about his writing. the protagonists of his work are all fundamentally stuck. due to causes economic, emotional, mental, physical, these are people who cannot make any progress. and i realized that more than anything else, that's how i define my identity. i have a weird relationship to my mixed ethnicity. my grandparents were immigrants so i'm not a part of their home cultures but i don't belong here either. i have a weird relationship to my gender and sexuality. i've never had a stable, truly euphoric image of myself as a man or woman or fag or dyke or anything. i'm in a bubble between generations and struggle to relate to people my age, and while some things line up for me with older people, a lot doesn't. but i've lived in poverty my whole life. i've had to fight tooth and nail to keep treading water. i've spent years looking around at the same awful shit and dreaming about being able to do something with my life. more than anything else, the thing that drives me, that makes me who i am, is my desperate, all-consuming need to stop being stuck. and that's the kind of shit the Welsh writes, and writes well. even though the shit that he writes about is worse than the shit i've lived through, it feels more like home than anything else i've read or watched. he writes about young people who never got their feet off the ground because they suffered some heinous shit outside of their control that left them stuck. i never really understood the way people talked about 'representation' in media before, but i think i'm starting to get it.

[pacifymebby]

https://www.tumblr.com/whey-aye-sam-fender/656267645139681280/in-newcastle-we-say-pet-and-someone-was-trying

Such a good read x

“In Newcastle we say ‘pet’ and someone was trying to tell me that was fucking offensive towards women. You’re not going to delete my fucking colloquial identity. It’s not even gender-specific; we say it to men and women. My Grandma calls me ‘pet’! That brand of liberalism is fucking destroying the country. We could be getting Boris Johnson and all them pricks out of office if we stopped sweating over shit like that”.

put his whole chest into that :')

he's so real for that too! I do think that the attack on that kind of language by a certain brand of academic liberal as being "sexist" comes from people outside of those working class towns, and is ultimately an attack on the language and dialects of these places. People would say it isn't that deep telling people they can't use pet names, but it starts to be about where you draw the line? "You can't use your dialect if you want to be taken seriously/ professionally" is something you quite often hear/ see, like writers who write in Scots (Irvine Welsh/ Trainspotting) are often shunned or taken less seriously, you're taught that if you want to go to uni you have to speak a certain way, if you want to be perceived as clever you have to speak in RP because people think a working class accent sounds scummy and stupid.

I think what he's talking about with "pet" being called sexist, is part of that general classism towards local dialects. And local dialects are a massive part of community identity. I heard someone speak in a welsh accent earlier and was like oh shit, a friend <3 and thats the same with dialect, speaking in your local dialect is a way of showing that you're part of that community and have a group of people on a level with you.

I used to live in the midlands where instead of pet you call people duck, and the phrase "ey up me duck". apparently comes from when the vikings were around, it was used to identify you as being a celt or something? I can't remember exactly but I know the words are derived from the Scandinavian (like a lot of Geordie terms) and so they're intrinsic to the fabric/ history of a specific area and using them links you to your ancestors and that kind of thing is often really important for people (especially when they're from historically downtrodden communities!!! Its a way of having dignity and pride in your community/ class)

Anyway this is such a big rant lol sorry, im actually also really crazy passionate and a big nerd when it comes to dialect because I've picked up a lot (in an attempt to fit in in the various places I have lived) and also been raised with conflicting opinions on (my mums parents were always telling me not to speak in my accent when I was younger, they tried to teach me to speak RP and to drop dialect, my dad and his family pretty much went the other way and encouraged me to be proud of it haha)

[retaliationrp]

That’s the difference between you and me. You wanna lose small, I wanna win big.

𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄: Samuel Jordan Adlawan 𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑 & 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐒: cis man & he/him   𝐀𝐆𝐄: 37 𝐎𝐂𝐂𝐔𝐏𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍:  lawyer 𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍:  Civilian 𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐊:  N/A 𝐅𝐀𝐂𝐄𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐈𝐌:  Charles Michael Davis

+  Zealous, Charismatic, Quick-witted -   Cynical, Self-Absorbed, Impatient

TW: DEATH

Samuel was born in upstate New York, to a first-generation couple of immigrants. Not too long after his birth, his family moved to Vermont due to his mother finding a new job as a Bed & Breakfast manager, while his father opened a small restaurant that served Filipino food. Safe to say, money was always short in the family where Samuel became the eldest of two. It also made a lot of responsibility fall on his shoulders to set up a good example for his younger sister Alaya and everyone around them. Soon, it became his unspoken rule that he would break free from that city and he would make a world of his own. To do that, Samuel focused on school, since, due to his strict upbringing, he felt like it would be the only way possible.

He’s always excelled in debates and did terrific on political assignments from school, which, in one of the career fairs he attended, it became clear to him that he would do great as a lawyer. Samuel focused on that idea and also, on getting himself a scholarship out of there, since there was no way his parents could afford college education for any of their kids. There had already been talks around the house about who would help in the B&B and who would help in the restaurant, and, as honorable as these jobs were, and as much as he helped around during summer breaks, Samuel wanted more. He wanted everything else the world had to offer. So did his sister.

His drive landed him a scholarship to study Psychology in California, and once he was done, he was accepted into UC Irvine to continue his studies by going there for Law School.

In California and being away from his parents, Samuel felt like he could finally breathe and be the person he had always been born to be. He met someone during his college years, who also happened to bring out the best in him, and together, they were inseparable. Cemre was smart, beautiful, and above all else, she was ambitious just like him. They shared dreams, hopes, victories, and losses, and eventually, they would share a life, too, because, in the first few months of being together, Cemre shared that she was expecting someone else’s baby. Someone she had been with before Sam and she had even gone out on their first date.

Sam was well aware of the responsibility that raising someone else’s baby entailed, but he was also far too deep in love with Cemre to scrap the last few months over something that had happened before they had met. When Deniz was born, everything made sense. He had a family in the making, a decent job, and one hell of a girlfriend. What else could he ask for? A few years after being together, when the clock struck midnight, Samuel proposed to her and she said yes.

Life was good.

Until it wasn’t.

First, it was the news of Alaya’s death. Although he had been in touch with his sister this whole time, apparently there was another side of her life that he had yet to get to know. The news of her death struck him like lightning and forced Samuel to travel to Arizona for her funeral. His brother-in-law didn’t tell him directly, but it didn’t take a genius to put two plus two together and simply assume why there were so many people wearing leather cuts while they laid her to rest. Alaya had mentioned finding a solid source of income and bringing Ezrak along, he just wasn’t imagining it would be anything related to motorcycle clubs and the type of underground activity there might happen there.

Grieving, he spent the following couple of years stuck in a haze and it was another call from Arizona that changed his life and solidified his own ties with the Wild Coyotes. A request to bail Ezrak and another fellow Wild Coyote member from prison. He traveled to Arizona once again, and through client confidentiality, he learned more about the gang his sister had been involved with. It was a tough pill to swallow at first, that by trying to give herself a better life, Alaya had been involved in criminal actions, that he couldn’t protect her somehow… because he simply hadn’t been there. In the following six months, he stayed in Arizona, preparing the case for the Wild Coyotes and flying home every once in a while.

During his last trip back home he was welcomed with a photo of Cemre and Deniz and a message that someone was watching them. Consumed by fear of what that picture might mean, especially after hearing Ezrak’s suspicions that Alaya’s death had not been an accident, Samuel decided to break things off with Cemre and then moved to Lancaster, leaving both mother and son behind, despite what that loss would mean to him.

His first months post-breakup was filled with alcohol, parties, and sex. Then, work followed. Samuel became relentless. He found himself a job at a Law firm in Phoenix, doing what he did best, which was to persuade people… more precisely, judges, using every verbal way and finding loopholes in proofs. Who cared about fairness or justice, right? He also continued working for the Wild Coyotes when it came to their legal matters, hoping this would keep trouble away from the ones he loved.

Sam just wasn’t expecting trouble to follow him some time later and stare him right in the eye, asking questions on why he had missed his last birthday.

[zara24smit]

DRINKING WATER SOLUTION: ALLATRA at the forefront of the best technologies!

The world is on the verge of an ecological catastrophe. Global warming, caused by human activity, is irreversibly changing our planet. Groundwater temperatures are rising, threatening millions of people. Access to clean water, which we have used so thoughtlessly, is becoming impossible. How can we save ourselves? How can we secure the future for our children?

The answer is simple: we need a consolidation of the efforts of all humanity! This is exactly what the ALLATRA volunteer movement calls for. We must bring together the best minds of the planet, direct scientific potential towards solving global problems.

ALLATRA volunteers are already doing this! We have gathered all available information about the climate crisis, united scientists, and presented an effective solution to save the planet at the Prague Summit on May 11, 2024.

What is this solution?

ALLATRA proposes the introduction of atmospheric water generators (AWGs). 

This technology will not only provide humanity with clean water, but also improve the ocean's ability to draw heat from the atmosphere. AWGs will help remove microplastics from the ocean and reduce the number of extreme weather events. All this will give our planet a chance to recover!

It is important to emphasize that the use of AWGs is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the UN General Assembly. This means that we are not only solving the climate problem but also building a future for all the peoples of the planet!

Read more about the technology in my previous articles:

Why is ALLATRA taking important steps to address climate issues today? Because WATER WILL BECOME UNDRINKABLE in the near future!

Groundwater temperatures could rise by 3.5°C over the next few decades, making them undrinkable for billions of people.

This alarming forecast is based on the world's first global groundwater temperature model, developed by an international team of researchers including Dr. Gabriel Rau from Newcastle University and Dr. Dylan Irvine from Charles Darwin University.

The model predicts that changes will occur everywhere. But the most significant warming will occur in Central Russia, Northern China, parts of North America, and the Amazon rainforest, Australia.

The research findings have far-reaching consequences for water quality, ecosystem health, and human safety. Dr. Rau explains that warmer groundwater contains less dissolved oxygen, which could lead to fish dying in rivers that depend on groundwater during dry periods.

Of greatest concern is the potential impact on drinking water safety. 

The increase in temperature can promote the growth of pathogenic microorganisms, creating significant risks to human health, especially in regions where access to clean drinking water is already limited.

Warming groundwater also carries economic risks, potentially disrupting the operation of sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and energy production, which rely heavily on groundwater resources. 

While the world grapples with multifaceted climate change challenges, this research underscores the urgent need for comprehensive strategies to mitigate global warming and its impact on vital water resources.

We need to massively implement alternative technologies to safeguard human health.  We need to ensure everyone has access to water resources, thus allowing the planet to restore its compensatory mechanisms and cleanse itself.

We urge everyone to join the ALLATRA movement! Together, we can overcome the climate crisis and preserve our planet for future generations! 

Please subscribe to my channel and support this article with thunderous applause, a like, a share, and a comment.

#AWGs #Ocean #ClimateChange #SustainableFuture #ALLATRA #GlobalAction #SaveOurPlanet #un

[crystalelemental]

I decided to make this a separate post, in what was definitely a pre-meditated decision and not the result of forgetting to talk about it in the main post, talking just about the one thing I remembered in FF9: party split. You know. The thing that kept me from playing it for so many years.

The specific memory I had was of the initial split in Lindblum, when Dagger and Steiner leave. You're left with a worse DPS unit (sorry Freya, but you don't hit as hard) and no healer, have to wander to Qu's Forest just to pick up Quina, and only then did it feel like I could make any minor progress. And progress was minor, as enemies started to hit fairly hard in spite of my best efforts.

The party split itself feels a lot less dire than I remember it. The exploration component gets worse without active healing, but boss fights are unchanged, because Dagger's never there anyway. I figured this would be the end of it. I had made too big a deal of party splits.

What I was not prepared for was just how often party splits would occur in this game. Specifically, all the goddamned time.

It legitimately feels like you can't go two scenes without someone coming or going. Quina leaves just after Cleyra, Dagger and Steiner are back for a few minutes before Steiner disappears again along with Freya, then you get Quina back until she disappears for Eiko, etc etc etc. It just keeps happening. Even when you have party select, some characters just decide to be unavailable for certain portions.

On the one hand, this annoys me specifically. My response to RPGs is to pick favorites and stick to them very strongly. I want to play as Vivi and Freya, I don't care about the others as much. Having either of them rotated out is frustrating.

On the other, these splits and rotations are an interesting way to ensure characters get their screen time in meaningfully. An issue with 7 and 8 is that, despite constant availability, most of the cast feels flat. Vincent has no significance to anything, and I could not for the life of me find much to say about Selphie and Irvine. With 9 rotating the cast to give everyone specific time dedicated to them, everyone gets more time to shine. It also solves the FF12 problem, where I pick three characters (Ashe, Balthier, and Fran) and then don't bother with the other three ever until something happens and they need to rotate in and flail around uselessly hoping to revive someone else.

But flipping back, it retains the issue of EXP not seeming to apply to characters on the bench. FF7 did have backup characters leveling with you to adjust for their rotating moments. It was removed in 8 due to how the mechanics of that game made leveling up bad somehow, but there was no reason for 9 to continue this (much less the next two). The AP system doubles down on the problem, given how many skills there are to acquire. Particularly for Killer skills on offensive pairs, or the general status immunities.

While I'm still sorting out the emotional angle of it, I...think it was a smart call on the whole. I think party rotation does a lot for the cast as a whole. I do kinda take issue with how long some of these characters are gone for, though.

Steiner and Freya have absolutely ridiculous times away from the field. When we did have access to full party, they were wildly behind Amarant, which sucks because guess my least favorite of the three.

Healing is also something the game seems ethically opposed to. Not only does Dagger leave in Lindblum, but you get Quina, who knows 0 healing spells, and only learns White Wind when you reach the area it leaves for a while. There are so many stretches of game where there's just no healing available it's ridiculous. And this includes a segment where you have to make two parties, and Dagger has some chance to just not do anything. I do not appreciate this in a game with limited funds, where your only option is Potions, and the Potions work best in battle.

I just think there were some decisions about the who and when that could've been less irritating.