#great lakes loan

[etechguide]

CCLogin can provide you with a comprehensive guide on Great Lakes student loan. Great Lakes is one of the largest loan servicers in the United States and is responsible for helping students manage their federal student loans.

Comprehensive Great Lakes Student Loan Guide - Credit Card Login

[yourheartinyourmouth]

hey @nyancrimew can you erase us american student loans next

[ceaselessims]

American manifestations of Smirke's 14 (+ the extinction)

the lonely: blizzards, social media, the "american dream"

the vast: the great plains, the great lakes, NASA

the flesh: fast food restaurants, tanning salons, cosmetic surgery

the slaughter: the NRA, police, military recruitment officers

the hunt: trophy hunters, true crime sleuths, TMZ, paparazzi

the spiral: fox news, healthcare professionals, washington dc

the eye: the fbi, silicon valley, the library of congress

the desolation: hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfires

the stranger: large cities, the Appalachian mountains, hollywood

the dark: alaska, organized crime syndicates

the corruption: opioids, ants, cockroaches, mega churches

the buried: mine shafts, the subway, credit card debt, student loans

the web: the CIA, the NSA

the end: prison industry

the extinction: nuclear power plants, the mississippi river, contaminated water reserves, golf courses, oil rigs

[dailydemonspotlight]

Day 15

Race: Oh god

Alignment: Oh fuck

April 9th, 2024

After a few hours of rigorous training, I think I’m ready. Day 15 is a special day, after all. Welcome to the all-for-one Jack Frost special! 

1. Lucifrost 

Race: Herald

Alignment: Light-Law 

Lucifrost is a very strange Frost with a surprisingly intricate design, a demon that only appears in the Demikids and Devil Survivor games, typically as a mid-late game boss. Unlike what one might expect, he isn’t a frostified version of Lucifer- no, his backstory is far more fun. 

Lucifrost once was a Jack Frost, but he was exiled from the Frost family due to betraying them, much like Lucifer did to the Angels. Jealous, he wandered down to hell, eventually finding himself in the final layer, wherein he saw the frozen Lucifer in a lake of tears. Rather than feel pity, though, Lucifrost saw an opportunity… for profit. Frozen Lucifer was a perfect idol for the ice-obsessed fiend, who began to try and impersonate the fallen angel, eventually returning to hell after achieving a perfectly angelic form… only to see that Lucifer had long since departed. Likely despondent, he wandered aimlessly to find the king of demons for all of eternity, ending up crossing paths with the DemiKids and Devil Survivors protagonists along the way. 

While his backstory is silly, his design is fantastic, an interpretation of an angelic Jack Frost that makes him far more adorable than the Morning Star could ever be.

2. Frost Ace

Race: Genma

Alignment: Light-Neutral

The legendary hero of the Frost Lineage, Frost Ace makes himself known as a mid-game demon who exists as a parody of superhero media and, more specifically, tokusatsu sentai shows like Super Sentai.

Frost Ace mostly works as a 'good side' equivalent to Black Frost, being a heroic transformation that any Jack Frost is implied to be able to take to grow in power. I personally like to see Frost Ace, on top of that, also serving as a general in King Frost's army, as it adds on a bit to the whole 'Frost Kingdom' theme.

You getting tired yet? I'm nowhere near done!

3. The Frost Five!

Race: Frost

Alignment: Five

These bozos are each based on separate frozen deserts, save one, which is a cocktail. In order, Blue Hawaii Frost is based on the Blue Hawaii cocktail, Lemon Frost is based on lemon-flavored shaved ice, Melon Frost is based on melon-flavored shaved ice, Strawberry Frost is based on strawberry-flavored shaved ice, and lastly, Milky Frost is just ice cream.

Ahem.

4. Hee-ho-Kun

Race: Student

Alignment: Broke due to Student Loans

Less of a specific demon and more of a recurring character, Hee-ho-Kun is a demon who originates from SMT if... serving a minor role as a friendly Jack Frost who can become an optional party member, apparently enjoying going to school.

Unfortunately, in order to pay his college bills, he had to open a shop! In SMT 3: Nocturne, Hee-ho-Kun makes his grand return as a shop owner in Shibuya, though later finds his calling as a Black Frost, becoming an optional boss of the Kabukicho Prison area after being cleared, then becoming a recruitable party member once defeated, appearing in the Labyrinth of Amala.

Lastly, Hee-ho-Kun manages to get a girlfriend! In Megami Ibunroku: Persona, aka Revelations Persona, he appears at St. Hermelin HS as a student after it is frozen over as a result of the Snow Queen quest. Let's hope he got the education he hoped for, especially given his acquisition of a girlfriend!

Finally. The Jack Protags.

Ah, they truly are great. Let us bask in their brilliance lest we forget the greatest frosts of them all. Raiho is a personal favorite of mine.

Also, Jack Frost somehow got a Demonica? Enter Demon-hee-ho, a recurring boss in the Strange Journey games. Admittedly, I don't know much about SJ, but I find his inclusion to be really silly, so he gets a special shoutout among his protag contemporaries.

...And that's that! I hope you enjoyed the Jack Frost miniseries. I'm missing a few Jack's, such as the Petite Frosts, but I'm honestly just tired of doing Jack Bros. stuff. Let me have this break. Either way, though, the Frost blockade has been cleared. We'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming once our snowplows come by.

[moth--mallow]

I know a lot of people are hyped for this moment but I kind of feel bad for gwaian I know a part of her character and Tristan's

characters that they're supposed to be more than their parents but it just feels like at this point she doesn't get to be an original character she's either doing magic like Merlin or doing sunshine mode like escanor or somewhere in between with her powers it doesn't feel like she gets to be original like the other characters doing even

Tristan doesn't fully feel like a copy of meliodis or Elizabeth but with her she feels like she's just a mixture of both escanor and Merlin rolled into one is their magic love child she even has a hand-me-down outfit everyone else got a new outfit but her during part two and she just feels like she's a carbon copy of both of her parents

And yeah I know it hasn't been stated in the manga yet that she's related to Merlin or escanor but it's pretty clear through everything that she's heavily linked to them

I just don't know why she can't have original moments for herself that aren't really seen as moments that parallel Merlin and escanor or so heavily I wish she had more original moments like even though Lance has traits of both his parents you can still feel like he is his own character he doesn't feel like a complete copy of either Ban or Elaine

He takes advantage of the skills he's had and that he's learned and uses them in different ways than his parents did I wish we could see that gwaian maybe if I'm lucky in the future we'll get to see that but for now I just feel kind of disappointed and wish she could have her own moment that didn't reflect escanor and Merlin in any way and she was just her own character

Even nasiasin doesn't feel like a complete copy of king or Diane he feels like his own character with his own goals and dreams but with her I know her main goal is to figure out who she is where she comes from and what she likes women and some other things but in the long run after all that's discovered what does she hope to do after that it'd be nice if we got to explore that

Like what most characters in this situation you would at least think oh after they discovered who they are they can go be with their loan interest or discover something new but it doesn't feel like there's any setup for what she plans to do after she discovers who she is because I know once Merlin comes back or we get introduced to the Lady of the lake who likes to tell everybody's business will get her full backstory and then what after that

I know this kind of sounds like pointless rambling but I just wish there was more for her character other than feeling like just a straight-o copy of two other characters we have from the original series who weren't even together although escanor was in love with Merlin she did not fully reciprocate his feelings maybe at some point down the line she realized maybe she could have loved him and we did see that she kept the burns on her face from the kiss she got from him before he died but other than that Merlin made it clear she had closed her heart off to love and wish that if he had love truly loved her she wished she had found her 3,000 years early but it was to late

I'm hoping that nakuba maybe does something more with her character in the future he's never actually been the best at writing female characters a lot of mangas that don't exactly have great female characters unless you look at certain mangas that have a certain types of female leads

A good example of a female lead I can think from a story is maka from soul eater, and rukia from bleach even though she's not the main character she still has a very heavy strong presence that's recognized as a strong good female character that a lot of people

Maybe if I'm lucky down the line gwaian will get something like that I know it just sounds like I'm rambling and complaining about nothing but I just have so much hope for this character and I feel like I'm not getting that with how things are going with how her characters being written

[lostlegendaerie]

Fuck it! US Private Student Loans Guide!

DISCLAIMER: while I have worked in private loans specifically for five+ years, this isn't ‘financial’ advice and is just a heavily summarized guide on how to navigate them. Yes, these loans suck, but complain to your legislators not me. I’m just trying to help you know what you’re doing. Additional info for each section is under the cut!

1) Who are you and who are all the companies constantly running around with my money?

I work in loan SERVICING, which is basically the billing department. If you’ve got a new company asking you for money, it's probably a new servicer and your debt is still owned by the bank. We enforce the terms in the promissory note, the document you sign telling the bank “yeah I'll play by your rules if you give me the money.” If your loan defaults, you’ll get contacted by a third (fourth?) party, but how that works is beyond my wheelhouse. The bank or your servicer should be able to confirm what happens in case of default.

2) What am I looking for in a ‘good’ loan?

Generally, you’re going to want SIMPLE instead of compound interest, a FIXED RATE opposed to a variable one, and you’ll want to go for FULL DEFERMENT while in school and make manual payments when you can. Also ask up front about stuff like if disability forgiveness or co-signer release (getting your parents off it) is offered.

3) This loan sucks! How do I make it better?

Student loans are NOTORIOUSLY hard to get out of, unfortunately. If the interest rate/payment relief options suck, you can try to REFINANCE where you take out a new loan to pay off the old one. This gives you a new promissory note, interest rate, and terms/conditions. If you’re trying to erase the debt entirely, ask for the promissory note (if they can't provide a copy, we have to forgive the debt. I've only seen this happen ONCE.) or try to go through social security disability.

DO NOT USE FREEDOM DEBT RELIEF OR OTHER SERVICES. DO NOT. THEY ARE SCAMS.

More in depth information for each point!

1) Lenders and Servicers

The lender is the person who provides the funds in the debt - the bank who pays the school or the hospital or the home contractor fixing your sink. The servicer is the company that is your point of contact when you need to make payments, ask for payment relief, or otherwise manage the loan that exists. Think of us as the mechanic (we keep the car running) where the bank is the manufacturer (they make the car). Some different servicers are SoFi, Zuntafi, Great Lakes, Nelnet and Firstmark Services; their names will be on the billing statements. Some different banks are Citizens, US Bank, NorthStar; their names will be on the promissory note and the disclosures.

Sometimes banks do sell the debt, however! A couple years ago Wells Fargo sold an enormous chunk of their loans off somewhere (an investment group, maybe?) but! The promissory note will still be the EXACT same if your debt gets sold. You’ll only get a new promissory note if you refinance the loan yourself.

2a) Interest Accrual and Rates

Interest is how banks profit off the loans they give out and/or ‘ensure they don't end up with a loss if the loan defaults’. (It's profit.) Most, but not all, loans calculate interest with the simple daily interest formula, shown below:

[(Current loan balance) x (interest rate)] divided by 365

If your loan’s balance is $10,000 and your interest rate is 6% you’ll be charged $1.64 each day. SIMPLE INTEREST means that this interest just kind of floats around on the account until a payment comes in and pays it off, where COMPOUND adds that interest to the balance at the end of the month/day/whatever. Compound charges you more over the life of the loan.

FIXED INTEREST is a set percent that doesn't change, where VARIABLE will change usually based on whatever the economy is doing. There’s a minimum and maximum value to the variable interest rates, so if you’re doing a variable ASK WHAT THE MINS AND MAXES ARE. A fixed rate might be 8% and a variable might be 3.25% the day you take it out, but that variable could have a maximum interest rate of 25% so be VERY, VERY CAREFUL. If you get stuck in a real bad variable interest rate, your best solution is probably a refinance.

2b) Deferment and Payment Allocation

So interest is gonna be accruing on your loan from the day the money leaves the bank. Sucks. And you may not be able to make payments while you're in school, so opting to DEFER your payments will stop them from billing you so you can skip a month or whatever without penalty. At the END of that deferment, though, whatever interest that accrued will be added to your current balance. If we use the example from above (10k loan with 1.64 daily interest) four years of school will add $2,400 to your balance and then your daily interest will jump up to $2.03 a day.

Solution? Make payments of what you can while you’re in school to chip away at that floating interest. Usually when you make a payment, it’s gonna go towards the interest first and then the rest drops the balance. (E.g. if you make a $20.00 payment ten days after your loan is disbursed, $16.40 will go towards interest and $3.60 towards your 10k balance). There is NO PENALTY for making extra payments or making early payments, but it might make your bills look a little weird if you’re being billed each month for just the interest.

3) Why are these loans so horrible? Can’t I find anything to help me?

Blame Reagan and the republicans who enabled him.

No, but really. The problem with these loans is that those promissory notes are VERY legally binding and have lots of fine print in there designed to make it as hard as possible for someone to skimp out on their debt without having their credit score decimated. Some lenders might even dip into your paychecks if you're crazy behind or default; again, that's not my wheelhouse and I've only maybe seen that once. Your best bet is just to pay it off as fast as possible (again, no penalty for paying the loan off early) or refinance into better terms.

And I get it. I really do. I hate how we’ve made so many incredibly important things in our society locked behind a paywall that charges poor people more to climb than the rich. But if you’ve made it this far, please don't turn your anger at me for not giving you the answers you want. The best I can do is vote for people who are willing to crack down on predatory lending, keep fighting for student loan forgiveness… and at my own job, make sure that my coworkers aren't making mistakes.

If you have a more specific question, I can try to answer as best I can without breaking any information privacy laws. And take care, okay? You are never fighting alone.

[wynnefic]

2025, here we go 🥳

A multiple of 5 type of year, hell yeah. The usual look back on the prior year below the cut!

In 2023, I posted four one-shots, and I'm delighted to say that in 2024 I beat that with 15 oneshots and one multichapter fic.

Perchance to Love, in which a time traveling Harry gets love potioned, as one does

let the sky fall, in which Harry's a phoenix and Voldemort's a fan

yet I still believe in ever after with you, in which Harry is the Bachelor and Tom can't believe he's a cliche

what the whole world wants, in which SQQ is determined to stay out of the plot and fails miserably

love you since this morning, in which fem!Harry sees Sirius and goes "ah yes that's the one"

wake me up when they build that time machine, in which child!Tom gets a new start

set my soul on fire, in which Harry wants a baby and Voldemort deals

you feel it once and you're never the same, in which Harry's too popular for his own good

at last, the skies above are blue, in which the sorting hat also gives out free soulmates

like a river flows, surely to the sea, in which I write two love potion fics in the same year

take my name and make it yours, in which Sirius claims it's not an engagement ring

leave the door ajar, in which there's some necromancing

the future's ours to see, in which the Black family tree is a romantic

take my hand, take my whole life too, in which there is marriage

but if it's forever, it's even better, in which it's Hufflepuff's cup that hands out the free soulmates

something I'm not, but something I can be, in which I swap Dumbledore with Sirius

The latter half of these (9) were written for the 2024 Sirry Stockings fest over on the Sirry Discord, which was so much fun. I'm glad the mods ran the event again!

Like last year, I stayed mostly in my tried and true fandom of Harry Potter, venturing out only into Scum Villain, which was my main reading obsession of the year. The amount of Scum Villain words I've read makes me glad there isn't an AO3 Wrapped. All 16 of my new fics were rated T, very in character of me, and "Sirius Black Lives" was my most-used tag. I know what I'm about.

All in all, I posted 45k, my highest posted word count since 2021. It's not too much compared to my even older years, but ah, well, those times are long gone. In some ways I don't mind it too much -- I like where I am in life -- but I do still get nostalgic about how much free time and energy I used to have a decade ago.

My favorite reads of 2024 were:

The First and Last Adventure of Kit Sawyer, m/m romance between a historian and an Indiana Jones type with supernatural elements

Death in the Spires, historical early 1900s murder mystery with m/m subplot

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, productivity

Good Morning, Monster, heartbreakingly excellent memoir of a therapist

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, badass pirate gang gets back together for one last job

Outlander, 1940s woman falls through time to the 1700s, VERY good romance

Peak Mind, a reread, still my favorite meditation book

IRL, it was overall a good year. I had many good times with family and friends, including a visit from an old fandom friend. I finished paying off my student loans (🥳) and my car, which felt amazing. I went on vacation to Lake George and took many photos. I went on many hikes. I had my third year work anniversary at my current company. I had a great time with someone cool before we broke up. I started learning to crochet again and got halfway through a scarf. I read many good books.

In 2025, I want to finish that scarf -- or maybe start a new one. And then crochet a hat to match the scarf. I want to finish Perchance to Love, the WIP I started last year; I paused working on it because I wasn't sure which of two directions I wanted to take the fic. I want to read even more good books. I want to write even more Sirry. As usual, I want to learn and to grow, and to engage in fun nonsense.

This blog isn't too active anymore, but feel free to join me over on my Discord server if you want to catch up!

All my best to all of us in 2025! ❤️

[traineecryptid]

NPSS Weibo Q&A (20240831) Part 4

This is a Q&A session held on Weibo. People will tag their questions with the hashtag #南派三叔藏海花在线答疑# (#NPSS Zang Hai Hua Online Q&A#) and NPSS will look through the tag to pick some to answer. The event started at 1500 hours on 2024 August 31st.

Folder with screenshots and big compilation google doc is here. Part 1 is here. Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here.

1608

Q: Man crush, honestly, do you think that West Lake Vinegar Fish is delicious? Can you finish a plate of Vinegar Fish from Louwailou by yourself?

A: Actually, I really can’t. At most, I can eat two bites. But I’ve heard that they’ve improved their recipe lately and now it’s very delicious.

1609

Q: Shu, how long do you spend online from day to night? Your mental state is great. (T/N: “great” as in “wow what a mental state!”) A: I actually have too many things to write but well, I’m a liuliang celebrity, aren’t I?

1609

Q: The unbeatable, most handsome man crush in the universe, may I ask if Wu Xie would get caught by Xiaoge and Pangzi for sneakily buying game currency in LOL so he can buy skins? A: You can’t skimp on skins no matter how poor you are. Everyone understands this.

1611

Q: Sanshu, you have written about so many places in China, have you considered letting the Iron Triangle go tomb robbing overseas? A: I’ve written a movie script previously. The three of them were kidnapped and brought inside a pyramid. I was prepared to direct it myself but there was an Ebola outbreak right when the filming site in West Sahara finished construction.

1611

Q: I’ll post this again. Lei, can you invite the original singer to perform Three Days of Silence next year? People go to the bathroom three times (T/N: this is the proverb meaning to visit a place persistently until you get the result you want), why don't you go to the bathroom three hundred times. After all, there’s still more than 300 days till the next 817.

A: I visit once per day? Won’t it make me look like a loan shark?

1613

Q: When will this Q&A end?

A: It won’t end. I will answer at any time.

1613

Q: Shu, you’ve previously said that you’ll slowly delete the drafts on your public account. Can you not delete them? I really like to read the drafts over and over again.

A: There isn’t enough space. There’s too many [drafts]. Even if I don’t delete them, you can’t find them either.

1615

Q: If Zhang Qiling could only say one sentence to Wu Xie in this lifetime, what would he say?

A: I can only say one sentence to you in this lifetime, go get paper and pencil, I’m going to start saying this sentence and try my best to not stop and tell you everything that I can say, don’t interrupt me, let’s see how long I can make this sentence, now listen up, Wu Xie, my plan is goes like this bla bla bla bla bla—

1616

Q: Do you think that you can write better than you have previously? Or has that best feeling stage passed? A: I can go back [to that state], but I will go insane. Once I go insane, I will hurt everyone, including you all.

1618

Q: Shu, I think you wrote the best when you were in the psychiatry hospital. Can you trouble yourself and fulfill us and go there again? A: Here comes the crazy guy.

1620

Q: I’m praying for Shu to get Tianshou today and update nonstop.

A: Once the Tianshou ends, there’s a great probability that I will go to Liuheta (T/N: a culture park in Hangzhou, West Lake area) and run around naked.

1623

Q: What were the first impressions Zhang Qiling and Wu Xie had of each other?

A: Wu: Wah, it’s a show off. Zhang: Looks like there’s a layman on the team.

1624

Q: Man crush, if you were to choose a birthplace in DMBJ, would you choose the Golmud Sanatorium or the Bronze Gate?

A: Are these birth places? What is my mom thinking?

1629

Q: Which one do you like more; going to work or going to jail? Can you write while you’re in jail or write while you’re at work?

A: What’s the difference?

1631

Q: Shu, what do you think ZHH means to you?

A: I was suffering a lot when I wrote ZHH. It was before my mental breakdown. I went crazy after finishing it.

60 questions in! /laid flat on the ground. Only 60 questions in... and the list keeps getting longer. On one hand, I kinda regret spacing these out so much but on the other hand... I need something to fill my days between the ZHH updates. Maybe I'll do double updates tomorrow! Who Knows!

[bouncybongfairy]

The Connection of Water Part 2

Percy Jackson x Water Nymph Reader

Summary: Your relationship with Percy is beginning to flourish, which causes some jealousy from Naylene. You explain that because you were raised by a full blooded water nymph, this meant you didn’t have any contact with the modern world. After learning this, Percy takes you to the city and indulges you in the first time you’ve ever been to a mall.

Word Count: 3k+

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

When you woke up in the morning, most of the girls were already up. Once you started getting ready, you had three little girls asking you about what happened when you left with Percy. You told them you went for a walk, which wasn't entirely a lie, and satisfied their curiosity. You felt well rested and optimistic about today. You really wanted to learn more about the camp and how things were running around here. Percy was telling you about different competitions the camp hosts. After getting dressed, you make your way down to the canteen for breakfast. You pulled your hair into a ponytail as you walked. Once you got to the outdoor picnic tables, it didn't take long. They haven't issued you any camp t-shirts, so you wore the one Percy loaned to you. Percy motioned you over to sit at his table, which you did. 

"Hey, how'd you sleep?" he asked. 

"Great actually, I thought I might be uncomfortable because you know, a new place away from home, but it was fine," you said. 

After eating breakfast, Chiron gave you five camp half-blood tee-shirts, which you appreciated. It made you feel better to be wearing what everyone else was wearing. It gave you a sense of camaraderie. Not to mention Naylene was giving you dirty looks non-stop. You were pretty sure it was because you had not only gotten close with Percy, but wearing his clothes. You push that aside and head back to your cabin to change your clothes. Even though you missed your dad and sisters, you were so happy that the cabin you ended up being assigned to was so peaceful; everyone was so kind and caring. After changing, you make your way to one of the common areas, unfortunately there weren't any activities planned today. Just general combat training, but other than that, it was going to be an uneventful day. You make your way to a picnic table where Percy and a couple other campers were hanging out. 

"One of the things I've been missing about the modern world is going to malls. Even if you only went there to eat and walk around it was still always really fun," one camper remarked. 

"What's a mall?" you asked, which caused everyone to furrow their brows. 

"Wait you- have you ever like, see the modern world?" Grover asked.

"Well, I was raised by my dad and he's a full blooded water nymph and was extremely uh, paranoid about mortals and modern society. The only times he would leave the lake was to get certain medicines and foods. Oh he would also get our birthday presents from mortal commerce," you said. 

"Wow, and I thought I was isolated from the modern world," Annabeth said. 

"So you've never been to school, or movies or anything like that?" Percy asked. 

"No, I'm sure if my dad was mortal I would have but that's not how the cards were dealt," you said playing with the two roses on your necklace. 

After hanging out at the table for a while you departed and made your way to the lake. You stripped your shirt and jeans off and dove into the water. You let yourself float still for a couple moments, taking in all the sounds underneath the water. The water rushing pasted your ears or the frogs making ribbiting noises. You lay flat on your back, slightly above the floor of the lake. You looked up and gazed at the sun breaking through the surface, it was really beautiful. You swim around slowly, guiding yourself through the water. The water was cold but not in an overwhelming way, it felt more refreshing than anything. You were surprised by how big the lake was, it felt like you could swim for miles without stopping. You take a break from swimming and let the current take you, suddenly you feel something grab you by the back of your shoulders. You jump and whip yourself around to see what holds you. You let out a sigh when you see that it's Percy, he was laughing so hard that his face was covered with bubbles. You laughed and shoved his shoulder. You pulled your hair out of the ponytail that it was in and started swimming circles around him. He reached his hand out and let his fingertips graze the end of your tail. You stopped in front of him and made eye contact, he moved the charms from your necklace out of your face after they floated up. He signed the word beautiful which made your jaw drop. Most water nymphs can use sign language because it's the most effective way to communicate under the water. 

I didn't know you could sign.

Chiron has been teaching me just in case I need to in combat.

How did you know where I was?

Your tail is stark white, and when it hits the sun, you look like a ball of light.

You smiled at him and put your hand on his chest, he gently grabbed your wrist and pulled you in for a quick kiss before pulling away. After swimming around with each other for a while you decided to take a break, sitting on top of the large rock that the other naiads used to bask in the sun. You used your fingers to brush your hair out slightly, Percy was sitting with his elbows on his knees. His skin was so pale in comparison to his black hair which was even darker if possible while it was wet. You didn't realize how long you'd been in the water until you saw that the sun was setting. You were about to make small talk when Naylene and Madison jumped onto the rock. 

"My Gods, I had no idea your tail was white, it's beautiful," Madison said.

"Oh then-" you started but were interrupted.

"So Y|N, how's the dream house. Are you able to tell your sisters apart under all that hair?" she asked. 

"Yeah everyones really nice, it's nice to be around girls who don't feel the need to compete with each other. They were all super welcoming," you jabbed back and suddenly as you could. Naylene was about to respond but before she could Percy began to speak. 

"We actually have to get back to my cabin but it was nice seeing you both, let's go Y|N," he said standing up and diving into the water. 

"Look I don't know who you think you were, I guess you think wearing a shirt with his last name on it makes you queen of the sea or something. Percy and I are almost a thing and I swear to the God's if you fuck that up you'd better watch your back," 

"Naylene!" Madison said as she jumped off the rock into the water, "I'm sorry she's normally bitchy but I don't know what's wrong with her lately. I'll see you around," she finished jumping off the rock. 

You were a bit taken back by what Naylene said, it was like her words went down your throat and created a pit in your stomach. Percy popped out of the water as you were about to lower yourself into the water from the bottom of the rock. He set his hand on your tail and looked up at you. His eyelashes were clumped together because of the water, his eyes were dazzling. He asked you if everything was alright and you reassured him that it was. After hopping back into the water, Percy grabbed your hands and pulled you on top of him. You were lying chest to chest, he then used a current that propelled you both towards his cabin. You laughed and rested your arms on his chest, helping steer in the right direction with your tail. His hair was slightly covering his eyes because of the momentum of the water. This made you laugh and prompted you to kiss him on the chin. Once you got to the dock that was attached from his cabin he got up first and then pulled you by the shoulders onto the dock. He picked you up and carried you over to his bed that had a huge towel draped over it. He then handed you another towel, you used this to dry your hair and tail. 

"Thank you," you said. 

"No worries," he said while using a towel to dry his hair, he then sat down on his office chair before continuing, "so you really never seen the mortal world?" he asked. 

"No, like I said my dad told us about it but not very much," you explain. 

"Can I take you?" he asked. 

"When?" you asked slightly skeptical about these plans. 

"Tonight." he said matter of factly.

"Is that even allowed?" you asked, finishing up with drying your hair and moving your attention to your tail. 

"Well like Chiron told you, they can't force us to stay here and we are allowed to go into the modern world to get toiletries, clothes and other necessities," he said. 

"But at designated times right?" you asked, finally standing up, now that your legs had finally emerged. 

"Well yeah but I-," he took a big sigh and walked over towards you, pulling his tee-shirt over your head, "I really like you and I know we just met and I respect if you think we're moving too fast like really I do get it. Today when I went into the water you were literally sparkling, you moved with such fluidity and grace. You are so striking and I just can't keep my eyes off you, you're so kind and genuine and I love that. It may be selfish but I want to be the one with you when you experience the world," he said, wrapping his arms around your waist, you looked up at him and smiled. You weren't quite sure what to say so your heart generated an answer before your brain could. 

"I would love to come with you but I am a bit scared," you said resting your arms on his shoulders. 

"It's okay, I grew up around mortals until I came here. Not to brag or anything but I know my way around," he said kissing the top of your head before continuing, "let's get ready yeah?" he asked and you nodded, letting your head rest on his bare chest listening to his heart beating. It made you giggle when you noticed that his heartbeat was fast. 

~

After you left Percy's cabin, you walked back to yours to get your backpack. One of the older girls asked you where you were going as you were shoving different things into your bag. You told her you were going for a late night swim because you were used to sleeping in water rather than a mattress. She bought it and rolled over before falling back asleep. Your heart was racing thinking about going into a real city. You dad always told you stories about buildings taller than trees and all the different shops and people. Even though your dad did explain the glorious upsides to the modern world he didn't leave out the dangers that came right along with it. How mortals are extremely judgemental and can be so cruel when it comes to beings who are different. This scared you but you knew as long as you concealed any mystical aspect of yourself, everything would be fine. It also brought comfort to you knowing that Percy had extensive knowledge of the modern world. You finally made it to his cabin where he was also gathering his things into a backpack. You knocked as you walked in which made Percy jump and you laugh. He let out a sigh and slung his bag over his shoulders, asking if you were ready to go. You nodded your head and started towards the entrance of camp. Percy fills you in on how during this time of night they start training new campers to become guards; this means that the front gate won't be as heavily guarded as it normally would be. Hand in hand you slip right past the entrance of the gate. After walking in the woods for a while you both talk and giggle with each other, you guys finally reach a train station. 

"Have you ever been on a train?" Percy asked you as he bought your tickets. 

"No but my dad told me about them because he used to ride one to get into town," you said. 

"Well I'll be here for your first time," you blushed and followed him onto the train car.

When you saw Percy hand the worker green bills you immediately recognized it from when you left home. Before the dove symbol appears over your head your dad helped you pack a bag and gave you a fabric drawstring bag with similar green paper inside. When you asked your dad what it was, he told you not to worry about it and not to lose it. You pulled the small velvet bag out of your backpack and showed Percy to ask what it was, his eyes widened when he saw.

"Where did you get all that?" he asked while counting it. 

"My dad gave it to me before I left home," you said, setting your bag down by your feet. 

"150 bucks," he said before folding the stack and putting it back in the bag.

"Is that a lot in terms of human money?" you asked as he handed the cash back to you. 

"Yeah it's a nice chunk of change," he said. 

"Oh okay, where are we going again? I know we're going to the city but what are we gonna do?" you asked. 

"I was thinking we could go to this mall I used to ditch class to go to. It's called ShopLand Plaza, it's really cool. It had a carousel and a lot of different places to eat and alot of cool stores," he said, wrapping his arm around you. 

You ended up falling asleep for the hour and a half ride there. Percy woke you up 10 minutes before you needed to get off the train at your stop. You were grateful because it gave you time to collect yourself before going into modern society for the first time. You grabbed your backpack and stood up with Percy, following him towards the train door. He grabbed your hand to help you off, and you were a little overwhelmed to say the least. It was loud; music blasting from a couple different directions, children screaming and of course just the loud sound of the subway. It wasn't until he led you up the concrete stairs that you felt better about coming. Percy told you it was only a 15 minute walk to the mall, as you walked you were slowly taking in your surroundings. All the billboards and people with crazy styles of mohawks that were two feet tall and colored every color you could think of. Or the most beautiful woman you'd ever seen, she was wearing a white fur coat with bright pink lipstick and was holding a cat that had a bedazzled harness on. It didn't take you long before getting to ShopLand. Once you walked in, the smell of food was one of the first things that you noticed once you walked inside. 

"Let's eat, I'm starving," he said, taking you by the hand and leading you to the restaurants that were lined up along the wall. 

Percy ended up deciding on Chinese which you were very excited to try. It was amazing, your dad had made rice before but adding egg, carrots, and peas made it that much better. It was the first time you'd ever had broccoli beef and you fell harder for it than you did Percy. After you guys ate, you started walking around, wandering into different stores. You got to the Disney store and when you saw The Little Mermaid doll you completely lost it. You had no idea that there was any type of representation of water nymphs in mainstream media. It made you a bit confused because your dad said mortals had an negative outlook on mythical beings but seeing pop culture yourself gives you a different story. Percy bought you the Prince Eric and Little Mermaid plushies which kept you blushing for a solid 30 minutes. You then followed him as he walked into a store called Zumiez, he was browsing the Thrasher's magazines. You held onto his arm and rested your head on his shoulder. You got bored after a while and noticed they sold bathing suit tops which you needed. As you looked around you noticed a store employee walk up to you and start a conversation. 

"So uh, are you looking for anything in particular?" he asked, taking a sip out of his plastic cup. 

"Oh yeah, I'm looking for a bathing suit," you said, tucking a piece of hair behind your ear. 

"Oh yeah for sure, are you like a model or something? I just asked because you're incredibly gorgeous so I- '' before he could finish his comment the drink he was holding had dropped causing water to spill all over him. He quickly made an excuse before rushing into the back room, when you turned around and saw Percy standing behind you a smile crept onto your face. He walked over to you and wrapped his arms around your shoulders as you looked through the bathing suit tops.

"Was that you? How did you know it was water in his cup?" you asked after deciding on a purple top, matching the one on the Ariel plush. 

"Yes it was and I didn't. I just hoped and prayed to the Gods that it was water," he said, giving you a kiss on your cheek. 

After you purchased your top and Percy got his magazines you started making your way out of the mall and towards the subway. Before you left however you had Auntie Annes for the first time and your eyes practically rolled into the back of your head when you took your first bite, washing it down with a frozen strawberry lemonade. You made it in time for the train and as you sat you looked up at him and tapped him on the shoulder. 

"I have a question and you can't laugh at me," you said which made a smirk appear on his face. 

"Okay, go ahead," he said. 

"What's a model?" you asked which made him laugh, you couldn't help but join him before entering a food coma for the rest of the ride home. 

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Canary Media:

Airlines are banking on sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the industry’s planet-warming pollution. But the amount of lower-carbon alternatives available to them right now represents just a few drops in an ocean of petroleum.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a nearly $3 billion effort that it said could significantly boost America’s output of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, over the next few years, Canary Media has exclusively learned.

The agency’s Loan Programs Office has made conditional commitments to two companies in the Great Plains region that are working to turn crops and waste feedstocks into jet fuel.

Montana Renewables, a subsidiary of the industrial manufacturer Calumet, could receive a loan guarantee of up to $1.44 billion to expand its existing renewable fuels facility in Great Falls, Montana. The company makes biofuels for planes and trucks using vegetable oils and leftover animal fats and greases. The expansion would allow Montana Renewables to produce about 315 million gallons per year of biofuels, most of which will be SAF — equal to nearly eight times the country’s total SAF production capacity in 2023.

Colorado-based Gevo is vying for a loan guarantee of $1.46 billion to build a new jet-fuel refinery in Lake Preston, South Dakota. The facility, named Net-Zero 1, would turn corn into ethanol to produce up to 60 million gallons of SAF per year. Because the ethanol-making process creates carbon dioxide emissions, Gevo is planning to capture CO2 at the refinery and send it via the proposed — and highly contentious — Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline to a storage site in North Dakota.

Patrick Gruber, CEO of Gevo, said the announcement ​“marks a watershed moment for the Net-Zero 1 project and a critical step forward” in the company’s mission to produce low-carbon jet fuel. 

The projects are the first SAF-related ventures to win the backing of the Loan Programs Office, which has issued $42.4 billion in loans and loan guarantees and made $21.6 billion in conditional commitments as of June 2024. The office is supporting other clean energy initiatives such as battery manufacturing, virtual power plants, fuel cell production, and the repowering of old nuclear plants.

The two fuel producers will have to meet certain milestones before they can close on the federal loan guarantees and start putting the financing to work.

[yourbestpalpercy]

Alright, first things first. I’m only writing this because I just got a great idea. High Tide and Low Tide. DeadZone is often depicted in my head with either yellow or red eyes. So, depending on what color her eyes are, that’s the tide. Also, depending on the tide, those are the kinds of attacks she can do. The important thing is the tide gimmick, I only added everything else because I was bored.

Another thing, DeadZone hates fighting and will actually use her ability to control water to throw your toon out of battle 3 times. If you’re persistent though, DeadZone will let you fight her (4th time reentering the battle). Now onto me making a Wiki style post about DeadZone.

The DeadZone is a Cashbot Manager Boss who will be introduced fully eventually in one of my stories. She can be fought at the Daffodil Gardens Lake after completing the task “Pollution Problem”.

DeadZone is a 6’7 tall cog dressed in an older diving outfit with the large helmet being replaced with a clear fish bowl. Inside this fish bowl are a few aquarium plants and black aquarium rocks. A foggy, black void that is DeadZone’s head floats inside in this fish bowl. Her deep green, seaweed like hair rests on her shoulders. Underneath the helmet, around where her neck would be, is a speaker of sorts that’s used to translate her underwater gurgles into a voice that’s understandable. Her deep red diver’s suit has gnashes around the knees and elbows. These gnashes look like they’ve been repaired multiple times.

Department: Cashbot

Position: Regional Manager

HP: 2700

Defense: 27

Level: 19.mgr

Lowest Damage: 10

Highest damage: 23

Real name: Ariel Cove

Honorifics: Ms./Mx.

Employee ID: 192017

Likes: Fish, swimming, playing with the water, bike horns, Rainmaker, Deep Diver, Gatekeeper, Duck Shuffler

Dislikes: Firestarter, Prethinker, math, drop gags, Brian, some toon named Mac, Witchhunter

Attacks (Low Tide)

Liquidate: 12 damage, 50% accuracy, 25 frequency

Guilt Trip: 10 damage, 30% accuracy, 25 frequency

Attacks (High Tide)

Evil Eye: 23 damage, 90% accuracy, 78 frequency

Flash Flood: 19 damage, 80% accuracy, 47 frequency

Special Attacks (Low Tide)

Algal Bloom: 17 damage, 30% accuracy, 20 frequency

Brackish Water: 15 damage, 40% accuracy, 35 frequency

Special Attacks (High Tide)

Whirlpool: 36 damage, 99% accuracy, 60 frequency

Backwash: 30 damage, 90% accuracy, 40 frequency

Cheats

Cog Capacity: DeadZone will only have Cogs helping her during High Tide. The max amount of Cogs she can have is 2 (making a total of 3 attackers). Typically, the Cogs she summons are Loan Sharks, Bean Counters and Money Bags.

Lure Resistance: DeadZone has a Lure Resistance of 2 rounds during Low Tide and has a Lure Immunity during High Tide (If you attempt to lure her during High Tide, a tendril of water will not only take the lure from your Toon but also deal 2 damage upon it exiting. Idk, I thought that would be funny to add.

Tides: Low Tide is the best time to attack as Gags have a guarantee to hit DeadZone no matter what. DeadZone’s eyes will be a calm yellow during this. The Low Tide also makes her attacks much weaker. Low Tide lasts for 3 turns.

High Tide is the best time to use Toon-Ups and heals in general because Gags have a much lower chance of hitting DeadZone (A small animation plays if your gag misses where a tendril of water will grab the gag and render it useless). Zap gags have a higher chance of hitting though. DeadZone’s eyes are glaring red during high tide. Her attacks are much, much more powerful. High Tide lasts for 5 turns.

Special Attacks (Low Tide)

Algal Bloom: DeadZone makes a rising motion and throws a clump of green “slime” at the most dangerous cog, giving them a lower accuracy.

Brackish Water: DeadZone makes a waving motion with her hands, causing a small wave of brown water to appear under a toon and deal damage.

Special Attacks (High Tide)

Whirlpool: DeadZone makes a spinning motion with her finger. A spiral of water engulfs a random toon and spins them roughly before the water sinks back under water.

Backwash: DeadZone makes a pushing motion. A large wave forms behind her and washes over the toons, dealing them all damage. There’s also a 1% chance of flooding a Toon out of the fight.

Strategy:

I wondered if I should actually put this in for a bit but decided to do so. I have WAY too many ideas. Why not make this as real as possible?

When fighting DeadZone, it’s best to attack depending on the tide. During Low Tide, attack DeadZone straight on, do not use Toon-Ups or non damaging Gags unless you have to because Low Tide only lasts for 3 turns and is the best time to lower her HP. During High Tide, use Toon-Ups and use it as an attempt to set up Lures (Not on DeadZone, do that during Low Tide). Also try to take out the Cogs fighting with her during High Tide as they will not have the ability to dodge or block the Gags like DeadZone can.

Loot:

DeadZone Sticker

Fish Bowl hat (Or Seaweed Hair hat)

In DeadZone’s sticker, she’s looking at a leaf with a saddened expression. Alt idea: DeadZone with a deadpan or concerned expression.

The Fish Bowl hat comes with yellow eyes sketched outside of the bowl.

20 gumballs

34 jelly beans

920 Toon Experience

Dialogue and Cutscenes

Opening Cutscene 1:

Toons approach DeadZone as the shoreline before her parts and allows her to grab a small fish to eat. One of them looks a little sick upon seeing it and fakes a gag, catching DeadZone’s attention. DeadZone turns to face them, her red eyes softening to yellow.

“...What? It’s my lunch break.”

“Normally, I’d cook the fish but I’m banned from using the microwaves. Last time I used them, I made the whole HQ reek of fish!”

The 2 Toons in front get angry while one in the back comforts the other. This leaves DeadZone looking a little concerned.

“...Not here for small talk or jokes, got it.”

DeadZone points a weak finger at the Toons

“You guys aren’t seriously here to fight, right? I really don’t like fighting.”

One of the front toons step forward, leaving DeadZone a little bit panicked now.

“I really, really don’t like fighting!”

A pillar of water begins to rise up behind DeadZone as the other front toon steps forward and gets angry too.

“I really, really, really don’t like fighting!!”

DeadZone makes a pushing motion. The water washes the entire group out of the area.

Opening Cutscene 2 (Return to the area and reenter the fight)

DeadZone is now turned towards the Toons, slightly uncomfortable.

“I really don’t want to fight you guys.”

“I mean, you guys are adorable!”

“Maybe we can just sit down and…talk? I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m not polluting the water or…anything. At least I don’t think so.”

The Toons get angry again, causing DeadZone to sigh, make a pushing motion again and flood them out. Again.

Opening Cutscene 3 (Enter the fight again)

“You guys are really persistent. I’m almost concerned.”

DeadZone just looks saddened by this and floods the Toons out again.

Opening Cutscene 4 (Enter the fight again)

The Toons get angry again causing DeadZone to spin back towards the water, slouching now.

DeadZone puts her hands together, takes a deep breath before spinning back towards the Toons.

“Okay, fine! But I really didn’t want to do this to y’all.”

Ending Cutscene:

“THAT’S IT! STOP!!”

DeadZone waves her arms and even makes a T with her hands.

“I-If I could have a few words right quick- please?”

One of the Toons stops the rest with a shushing motion.

“I really, really don’t know who’s polluting the water supply. I swear it’s not me. I live in the lake! I try to keep it clean! I live underwater!”

DeadZone turns away slightly, her eyes turning red with an annoyed expression as the tide begins to come in again

“No idea why you guys would attack me without evidence but oh well.”

DeadZone turns back to the Toons, her eyes still red

“I swear I just want to be a friend to the Toons. I’m not here to harm at all. I’m still a neutral.”

DeadZone’s eyes fade back to yellow as she slowly stands up and holds out a water damaged journal

“I found this journal. I figured it was neat and kept it around just in case. The few words I could read mentioned the Toons so I figured you guys must know about it. I tried to give it to any Toons I saw but they only tried to attack me…”

One of the Toons grab it and the scene cuts to the name of the journal which only has ‘L’ written on it with the rest of the name faded out from water damage.

DeadZone stares at the Toons a little longer and mentions,

“I liked their drawings from what I could see. Please tell them they have a lovely art style.”

DeadZone jumps into the water, disappearing.

The fight ends with you getting a new quest, “The Mysterious Journal”.

Special Attack Dialogue

Algal Bloom

“Green is a nice color when you’re not associating it with money.”

“What’s a lake without algae?”

“‘You’re getting into deep waters, Toon’. No, this ain’t the right attack for that…”

Brackish Water

“The water’s not polluted, it’s just a little dirty.”

“Hope you don’t mind getting soaked!”

“‘Water, water, everywhere!’ I should talk to her again.”

Whirlpool

“‘Thpin, thpin, thpin!’ Ha, a friend of mine used to say that often.”

“‘You’re thpinnin’ out of control!’ Sound familiar?”

“Y’know, whirlpools are my favorite!”

Backwash

“Don’t worry, it’s not the stuff in your mouth.”

“Why not surf a little? I hear the water’s great!”

“Thou shall be washedth awayth by mine wavesth! That’s not how the old language works…”

Misc. Dialogue

Face-off Taunts:

DeadZone sticks her tongue out and presses a finger to her helmet with a ‘bleh’ noise. “Huh? That doesn’t count as a taunt? Hmfp!”

“I’ve got my eyes on you!”

“Woah! I can do that?”

“Why not take a little dip? The water’s warm, I promise!”

“What do you mean you guys don’t recognize me?”

“Can we hurry this up? I just remembered I have a DnD game with Holly soon.”

“Listening to Prethinker tell me I’m the worst would be better than this…”

Death Taunts:

“Suits you right for randomly attacking me!”

“And pleathe don’t come back! …Pleathe…PLEASE! Oh my gosh, this is why I don’t do impressions!”

“Lifeguard! We need a lifeguard!”

“So many people have thalassophobia nowadays…”

Surrender Taunts:

“What? You need a breather?”

“Forgot to take your swimmer’s test, I see!”

“Need to grab your life jacket right quick?”

“Maybe this time you won’t come back…”

Friend Request Accepts:

“You seem fun, why not?”

“Keep this between you and I please.”

“I’m going to get in so much trouble for this…”

Friend Request Denials:

“You just kicked my butt for no reason! Heck no!”

“Go take an ip dip dip in the tides of changes and then we’ll see.”

“Go drink salt water!”

Attempt to Sue:

“Don’t you try to sue me! I’m barely hanging onto this job, you piece of ****!”

Attempt to Fire:

“You’re not my boss. Who’re you to try to fire me?”

Trivia:

A good chunk of DeadZone’s dialogue references other Cogs like Duck Shuffler and Rainmaker. In total, DeadZone references Duck Shuffler, Rainmaker, Prethinker, Deep Diver, and Gatekeeper. Almost sounds familiar to someone else we know.

I made DeadZone because of the lake you can see on the map in Daffodil Gardens (Or, if you’re looking at the TTR map, Daisy Gardens) and I thought ‘I can make something with that’.

DeadZone was partially inspired by the song Drown by AViVA.

DeadZone’s real name is Ariel which, naturally, comes from The Little Mermaid, Ariel. As for the Cove part? *Shrug* DeadZone needed a last name.

The dead zone, also known as the abyssal zone is a place underwater where there’s little to no life. It’s often completely dark and it’s right in between the midnight zone and the hadal zone.

DeadZone’s Employee ID (192017) is a date and it’s a reference to a terrible flood that happened in the US (If I remember correctly).

[nancydrewwouldnever]

The Infamous Jenny Vulture Interview

So, I keep losing access to the infamous Jenny Vulture interview from March 2017 because of caps on access they have on their website. So, in case anyone else hits the same problem, I'm cut and pasting it here, to have an easier to access copy of it.

The Year of Living Publicly

Jenny Slate’s got two new films and a new home and, oh, by the way, she’s fresh off a breakup with Captain America. 

By Jasa Yuan

Published March 2017

Most pillows are just pillows, but for Jenny Slate, the floral-print puffs arrayed on her pristine white linen couch in her freshly rented apartment in L.A.’s Silver Lake are metaphors. For a bright future. For a new life. For freedom. The Obvious Child star and her bichon frise, Reggie, just moved into this sunny one-bedroom in February, and every time she looks at those pillows, she gets so excited because she remembers how she’d bought them while still married to editor-director Dean Fleischer-Camp, her husband for three years, but had to stow them away because she realized it felt like they were living in a box of tampons. Now she and Reggie don’t have to run their decorating decisions by anyone. “I’ve never lived on my own, because I really did go from one relationship to another my whole life, so I’ve never had a chance to go really girlie,” she says. “And I had my ex-husband over last night and he was like, ‘These flower pillows look great. But they’re just for you.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah! That’s right!’ I love them so much. I just love them for what they represent, which is that all my choices are for me.” She turns around. “I’m gonna pee really quick.”

The bathroom door doesn’t quite close — she’d warned me of this. “You can snoop around if you want,” she shouts. “It’s just a little mouse house. It’s fucking perfect for me.”

I have been in her presence for about two minutes. The first thing she did was offer to loan me a T-shirt because I mentioned I was hot. Slate used to do a stand-up routine about how her mom refused to sew her name into her shirt in elementary school, “because she was like, ‘You’re too friendly, and some stranger would just be like, Jenny! Come into the van!’ ”

There’s an obvious person missing so far from this tale of pillows versus patriarchy, but she’s not hiding anything; we just haven’t gotten to it yet. “When I moved in here, I’d been through my divorce and a breakup,” she says, returning from the bathroom and referring to the ten or so months she spent dating Chris Evans, best known as Captain America, and her much more famous co-star in Gifted an upcoming film about a family struggling with a young girl’s genius affinity for math. The internet went wild over their apples-and-oranges compatibility: a brash Jewish comedienne beloved for oversharing about her bodily functions on talk shows and voicing Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, a tiny stop-motion conch with a single eye and feet who talks about being so small he can hang-glide on a Dorito, in a series of YouTube shorts she made with Fleischer-Camp — and a world-famous Marvel superhero, who also happens to be a Massachusetts momma’s boy with one of the most insanely ripped bodies on the planet. “We used to talk about what kinds of animals we were,” says Slate. “Chris said it’s like I’m a chick riding on a St. Bernard’s head. We’re an odd match.”

Paparazzi tried to snap them, bloggers scrutinized their Instagrams, tabloids obsessively covered their one appearance together on a red carpet. Slate didn’t read the coverage, but it was extremely kind, with most articles praising Slate for taking a chance on Evans, or noting that his coolness factor had jumped several notches because of his proximity to her. Maybe this crazy thing could work out! There was something beautiful, in a year marked by division, to think of these two opposites finding common ground. He was 35; she was 34. They’d grown up half an hour from each other. They were both outspoken liberals. They’d said really adorable things about each other on Anna Faris’s podcast.

And then, a few weeks before I met Slate, news broke that it was over. In her life, though, she’d already spent several months dealing with that loss and having to find a place to live, crashing with friends in Venice Beach in January. “I watched You’ve Got Mail so many times, it was unbelievable,” she says. Was she weeping most of the time? “Yeah, I did it right.” Eventually, she found this new apartment and purged everything she owned except for a few clothes she loves, books, precious objects, and a velvet chair once belonging to her great-grandmother. “I was like, ‘You need all new things. You are a working woman. Maybe this is an indulgence, but just start over,’ ” she says. “It’s like, Fuck.”

The other night, she tells me, she was sitting at a bar by herself, reading a book about the Holocaust, and finally sent an SOS text to her friend Mae Whitman. “I was just like, ‘Can you please help me? I’m so lonely.’ And she came and we got shitbombed, and I woke up the next morning and saw my headphones on my neighbor’s yard. I have no idea how they ended up there.”

As Slate gives me the tour of her place, Reggie trails her every move. “He’s like a little soul mirror of me. We’re a lot the same,” she says. How so? “Needing closeness. Despair when left alone. But also he’s very excited to misbehave when left alone. So he doesn’t know what he wants.”

Ever since she was a pip-squeak at Camp Tapawingo in Sweden, Maine, Slate has known what she wanted to be: an actress, like Amy Irving or Gilda Radner or Madeline Kahn. That or “Jewish Felicity,” taking over Manhattan, like in the TV show. In the aughts, she came up in the alternative-stand-up-comedy scene in New York, where she garnered attention for a one-woman show as different characters eulogizing an eccentric millionaire, got cast on Saturday Night Live, and wasfired one season in after accidentally cursing on-air in her first sketch. That ego blow hurt a little less when she made the awards-circuit rounds for Obvious Child, a low-budget romantic comedy about two people navigating an abortion after a one-night stand, and she’s built a devoted fan base through her outrageous characters on the Kroll Show and Parks and Recreation, not to mention her great voice work with Marcel, Bob’s Burgers, The Secret Life of Pets (as an anxious Pomeranian), and Zootopia (as a villainous sheep). In 2012, she relocated from Brooklyn to L.A. Her relationship with Evans is easily the most Hollywood thing she’s ever done. She shows me a photo of her aura on her fridge, taken in New York’s Chinatown. There’s a thick concentration of “productive energy,” which is good, since she has a lot of work coming up, and a giant cloud of worry and overthinking, which seems to be dissipating. By the sink are potholders she made as a kid on a little loom and a drawing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg that Fleischer-Camp brought her as a housewarming gift. “We’re good friends. That’s why we got divorced,” says Slate. “If we didn’t get divorced, we wouldn’t be able to be friends and we wouldn’t be able to do our work. We had just grown apart, and we love each other. It wasn’t easy, but not bad.” She pauses. “No, it was bad. But not essentially bad.”

Her mother, a ceramicist, and father, a lauded poet, are still married; she wrote a book about her childhood home in Massachusetts with her dad this year. Her younger sister, Stacey, a mental-health counselor in Brooklyn, had come over on the previous weekend and helped her put up pictures. (Her elder sister, Abby, is a nurse-practitioner in Massachusetts, and Slate is convinced her middle-child need for attention is what nudged her toward showbiz.) Covering the top of her dresser are snapshots she hasn’t figured out what to do with, such as the one of her in a revealing tank top at Columbia University, where she went from high-school valedictorian to pothead almost instantly. “This is me when I was a slutty virgin,” she explains. “A virgin but trying to act like I knew what was going on.”

Somewhere beneath a pile of half-read books is her bedside table. She hates computers so much she doesn’t keep one in the house, and she often turns to books when scrolling through Twitter on her phone stresses her out, which it always does. Current favorites include The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis, Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning, and Emma, a children’s book with Barbara Cooney illustrations that she bought on Etsy and loves so much she put it on display so she could see it when she wakes up. “It’s about an old woman who doesn’t love how she’s alone, and then learns to make herself not alone through art, and draws people into her life through art. It’s the fucking best thing.”

The instinct other young actresses have to keep every interesting thing about themselves under wraps — or the toughness that female comics often give off — wouldn’t be very useful in Slate’s case. Her brand, if you can call it that, is built on vulnerability, whether she’s revealing her innermost insecurities through an animated shell or telling Seth Meyers on TV that she was so stoned in college she accidentally signed up for an astronomy class thinking she’d learn about astrology. Not to mention that she and Evans met while playing love interests in a movie that is now coming out and that she needs to promote. That’s hard to get around.

“I don’t mind talking about him at all. He’s a lovely person,” she says. “I don’t know. It feels like such a huge thing. Last year was a giant, big year for my heart. I’ve never, ever thought to keep anything private because that’s not really what I’m like, and now I’m learning those things, and they’re weird, kind of demented lessons to learn.”

She didn’t set out to have a tabloid-­fodder romance. She’d fought hard for her part in Gifted, as a teacher who falls for Evans’s character, a working-class guy trying to give his prodigy niece (Mckenna Grace) a normal childhood. Slate’s part is not huge, but it’s a big studio picture. It got her in the room with director Marc Webb and Fox Searchlight. She liked the script, but more than that, “I was just like, ‘I want viability as an American film actress. I want to find my own seat at the main dinner table, because I want to do this forever, and I want to show that it doesn’t always have to be a bikini model opposite Captain America.’ ”

Evans and Slate met at her chemistry read — the audition in which it’s determined whether two romantic leads play well together — and they instantly got along. “I remember him saying to me, ‘You’re going to be one of my closest friends.’ I was just like, ‘Man, I fucking hope this isn’t a lie, because I’m going to be devastated if this guy isn’t my friend.’ ” The first time they went out to dinner, as co-workers getting to know each other, she remembers insisting they split the bill over Evans’s strenuous objections. “If you take away my preferences, you take away my freedom,” she says she told him. “Then I was like, Oh, man, is this dude going to be like, ‘Ugh, this bra-burner.’ Instead, he was like, ‘Tell me more.’ ” They drew from that friendship for their flirting on film, but the time when they jump into bed together in the movie felt as awkward as you hear all love scenes do. “It’s one of those scenes where you bust through a door making out. I’ve never done that in my life,” says Slate. “I remember apologizing to him after. I’m pretty sure I kneed him in the balls.”

Slate was in a weird space at the time. Her marriage was dissolving, and she was working only two or three days a week, and spending her days off wandering around Savannah’s many parks and doing yoga and writing that book, About the House, with her dad. (Which, incidentally, the publisher gave away free with any donation to any charity.) Every weekend, Evans would organize a game night for the cast and crew — usually something called “running charades,” which sounds like high-speed pantomime — that she begrudgingly went to, even though all she wanted to do was hang out on the porch and drink beer and smoke cigarettes. “At first I was like, ‘What a fucking nightmare,’ ” she says. “Chris is a different speed than me — I think he really did just jump out of a plane for an interview. And so when he was like, ‘Game nights,’ I was like, ‘This is annoying. This guy’s like a sports guy. He’s the kid that likes P.E.’ ” But finally his enthusiasm won her over. “I first really liked Chris as a person because he is so unpretentious,” she says. “He is a straight-up 35-year-old man who wants to play games. That’s it. I was like, ‘I’d better not discount this, because this is purity.’ ” It also helped that she’s so competitive she constantly won.

As they got to know each other, she learned he’s still close with people from his childhood, and his best friend is a woman. “What’s the same about us is not just that we’re from Massachusetts, which was such a delight, but Chris is truly one of the kindest people I’ve ever met, to the point where sometimes I would look at him and it would kind of break my heart,” she says. “He’s really vulnerable, and he’s really straightforward. He’s like primary colors. He has beautiful, big, strong emotions, and he’s really sure of them. It’s just wonderful to be around. His heart is probably golden-colored, if you could paint it.”

They didn’t fall for each other on set. “To be quite honest, I didn’t think I was his type,” she says. (Evans has dated Jessica Biel and Minka Kelly). “Eventually, when it was like, Oh, you have these feelings for me?, I was looking around like, Is this a prank? I mean, I understand why I think I’m beautiful, but if you’ve had a certain lifestyle and I’m a very, very different type of person — I don’t want to be an experiment.” Evans never made her feel that way, but it was hard to get past how so many people seemed to feel some ownership of him and view her as an interloper. “If you are a woman who really cares about her freedom, her rights, her sense of being an individual, it is confusing to go out with one of the most objectified people in the entire world,” she says. Especially when she’s aware that in Hollywood, she says, “I’m considered some sort of alternative option, even though I know I’m a majorly vibrant sexual being.” And especially when random ladies would come up to her at CVS, “being like, ‘Oh my God, is that Chris Evans? He’s so hot!’ You’re like, ‘How dare you? That’s my boyfriend. But yes, he’s so hot.’ ”

Every time Slate mentions Evans, it keeps coming back to the same thing: As much as they loved being with one another, she says, “we’re really, really different,” with different social circles and different lifestyles. Slate comes from a DIY comedy scene, and most of her friends are fellow comics and gay guys. “Chris is a very, very famous person,” she says. “For him to go to a restaurant is totally different than for me to go. I sit in my window and I say ‘Hi’ to people on the street. I have more freedom because I’m not Captain America. I’m mostly a cartoon.” She kept waiting for everything to feel normal, but it never did. “This is what I needed to do to feel normal. To be alone.”

That meant day-to-day they mostly stayed home, “which was really nice,” she says. But it was also one of the most anxious years of her life. She fretted over the “psychos” on the internet who turned her relationship with Evans into a pissing contest with Fleischer-Camp. And she struggled seeing the person she was in love with deal with the side-effects of fame. “The stress that I saw him be put under, I’ve never seen that before, and he handled that really gracefully,” she says. What she wasn’t taking into account was that he’s used to it. “He’s not stressed,” she says. “I was the person that was stressed.”

She’s also aware in hindsight that she hadn’t processed her separation before she got together with Evans. It wasn’t as scandalous as tabloid reports made it sound — as with any long-term relationship that splinters, they’d been on the rocks long before it was official. But, she says, “When Chris and I started dating, my husband and I had only been separated for a couple of months.” The divorce actually went through while she was at the Sundance Film Festival, after she and Evans broke up. “Even though we had an amicable divorce, I think that’s still something that you need to mourn. When you get separated from somebody that you actually care about, it is the destruction of a belief system. That is really, really sad.” Throughout all of it, the divorce, the new love, she says, “I just didn’t have the tools. And I didn’t think very hard about that, to be honest. I wanted to step into the light. Chris is a sunny, loving, really fun person, and I didn’t really understand why I should be prudent.”

Are she and Evans on good terms? “We’re not on bad terms, but we haven’t really seen each other, spoken a lot,” she says. “I think it’s probably best. I’d love to be his friend one day, but we threw down pretty hard. No regrets, though. Ever.”

Slate introduces me to the mascots of her new home, two cute mice figurines in jaunty outfits who look like they’re off to travel the world. “The way I feel now is I’ve stepped out of the woods and I’m a forest animal and I’m standing on the lawn,” she says. “And if anybody tried to approach me right now, they’re seeing a creature that’s just trying to figure out what the lawn is like. All I’m thinking about is the lawn. I’m not thinking about whether or not they are going to be a fun person to be on the lawn with, because I am just trying to be on the lawn.” And what or where is this lawn? “It’s just where I am,” she says. “I like the lawn. It’s filled with air, freedom, sunlight, and I’m alone.”

Slate wants to step out in the sunlight now, with a walk around the Silver Lake Reservoir. She bids good-bye to Reggie and turns on the TV to keep him company. “I watch Twin Peaks, but Reggie watches Frasier,” she says. That morning, while Slate was walking him, a woman got out of her car and stopped in her tracks. “She was like, ‘Oh, are you Jenny Slate?’ And I said, ‘I am.’ And she said something nice to me and I said, ‘Thank you so much. I need a lot of encouragement,’ which is usually what I say because it’s true.”

Dating Evans actually, weirdly, spurred her to double down on her career, because, she says, “I don’t want people to ask me more about my love life because of him than they ask me about my work,” and in order to ensure that, she’d have to produce a lot of work. She does stand-up in small clubs whenever possible and had two films at Sundance this January, just as the paperwork for her divorce came through: The Polka King, the true story of a polka-world Ponzi scheme, opposite Jack Black; and Landline, a story of two Jewish-Italian sisters and their parents having life and love crises in ’90s New York City, with Obvious Child creators Gillian Robespierre and Elisabeth Holm (out July 21). Soon she’ll be heading to Vancouver for a road-trip movie with Evan Rachel Wood, Alison Pill, and Cynthia Erivo, which is also Wood’s directorial debut. She and Fleischer-Camp are also at work on a feature-length Marcel the Shell movie, which she says will be “a character portrait much like Billy the Kid or Grey Gardens.”

Today, she’s leaning in to International Women’s Day by wearing a sundress covered in red roses and made by a company, Day Space Night, that’s run by women. She even canceled her one meeting with a man, an appearance on Snoop Dogg’s podcast, so she could have an entirely penis-free day. And she’s planning on ending the day by going with her girlfriends to a 90-minute seminar on fertility and reproductive rights.

A vocal supporter of Planned Parenthood, Slate credits Obvious Child not just for allowing her to prove she’s a legitimate actress, but also for turning her into a women’s rights activist. Back when she signed on, she says, “I still felt embarrassed of the word feminist.” Then one day discussing a costume fitting with co-star Gaby Hoffmann, Slate jokingly apologized for showing up with “crazy bush,” she says. “And Gaby did not take it as a joke. She was really serious and she looked at me and she was like, ‘I didn’t know we were supposed to apologize for that.’ I was like, Oh, I’m being a fool. I need to learn this shit right now.”

And now that she’s got a financial cushion from Zootopia and Secret Life of Pets, she can act on what she’s learned and say “no” more often. Specifically, she’s drawing the line at any movie that, she says, “makes it okay to laugh about things like women’s bodies after birth, like when women who’ve just had babies are referring to their vaginas as all ruined. I think it’s really rude for someone to disparage a vagina in the female body after it’s just fucking created and exploded a baby into our world. It makes me furious and I will not change my opinion on that.”

Also a no-go are any roles she’s offered that “seem like a weird stereotype version of me. Like Quirky Best Friend: ‘She doesn’t have a filter! She talks about poop!’ ” She thinks it’s worth it to hold out for roles with nuance, that will allow her to lean into humor and tragedy equally, and get to the heart of the human condition. In the meantime, she has plenty of personal-growth goals. She wants to learn Norwegian this summer. She wants to spend time with her family on Martha’s Vineyard. And she wants to find a farm she can help on so she can be around animals.

Eventually, she’ll try dating again, too. “I am inclined toward partnership,” she says. “I’m like a mallard, definitely looking for my other duck. But I’ve been in love in very strong ways enough times now that there are just some compromises maybe I won’t make.” He has to know who Gloria Steinem is, for one thing. She’s thinking maybe a scientist with a sense of humor. But definitely someone who’s sure enough in who he is to accept that she’s had a past without him. “Whoever is the next person is going to have to respect that I had a husband who I loved and this boyfriend who I loved so much, and I don’t want to have to act like they weren’t important.”

We’re back at the apartment and Slate is overjoyed that Reggie hasn’t peed on anything. Speaking of pasts, she’ll also soon be hitting the press tour for Gifted with Evans. “I feel pretty relaxed about it right now,” she says, sounding not entirely convincing. “That’s because I know Chris and he’s a very nice man. And we’ve gone into our separate lives. But that doesn’t also mean that I’m going to sleep well the night before, you know?”

First, she’s taking her parents to Cabo San Lucas to celebrate her 35th birthday. I suddenly have a horror flashback to a similar trip to Cabo I took years ago and warn her not to drink the water or brush her teeth with it, or to have ice or eat anything raw, or maybe to eat anything at all.

“Oh God,” she says, laughing, “having raging diarrhea is just a real on-brand nightmare for me.”

She thinks for a second. “But, you know, it would be such an icebreaker. If I showed up with, like, a spray tan and a blowout, he’d be like, ‘What happened to Jenny?’ But if I was able to say, ‘Aw, man, I have diarrhea,’ he’d be like, ‘It’s you. I remember you.’ ”

*This article appears in the March 20, 2017, issue of New York Magazine.

[smoke-in-the-wind]

Warning: stupid world building/alt history ideas i came up with while high:

-Carthage wins Punic wars, establishes Mediterranean empire, and adopts (and spreads) a new radical religion based off Greek philosophy yet infused with Egyptian mythological subtext (devotees known as Philotanites, believe idea of Truth should be worshipped as represented by the idea of Zeus -> Athena = Isis -> Horus in a continuous Father, Daughter, Son, Mother relationship, scripture is claimed by the Hellens (now entirely diasporic) to be a poor translation of a now lost Athenian political comedy)

-Carthage focuses on building well established trans-Saharan trade roots over expanding into Europe beyond the south, earlier resulting development of unified sahelian kingdoms, Carthage moves capitals first to Memphis then to conquered Axum in order to be closer to eventual Persian rivals, due to this empire become Ethiopian over time (like Rome-> Byzantines in our history)

-Philotanite “Lovers” (eunuch monks) evangelize in Eire (Ireland), they establish colonies of converts, generations past and a man grown in such a colony begins having divine vision he records in haunting music and esoteric poetry, he claims (derived from his past faith) that Ultimate truth is an image of a Vulva, he establishes a theocracy across western and southern Europe, there is deep irony as the major religions of this earth give high theological importance to women yet they evolve to be equally patriarchal 

Norse are never brought into expanding Mediterranean trade and are threatened by the growing Irish-based religion, as a result they focus on further exploration into the arctic regions, Norse colonization across what is now to us Eastern Canada and the U.S. state of Maine begins in (our) 13th century, they eventually expanding into the St Lawrence and reach the Great Lakes yet remain a minority and are never able to fully implement settler colonialism (yet were an apartheid state for awhile), Norse commit human sacrifices which upsets everyone they come into contact with

-Ghana annexes imperial lands and becomes the most powerful state on the eastern Atlantic, hears about Norse finds and sends their own explorers across the Atlantic, come into contact with Taino lands and develop a similar apartheid colonialism eventually

-During all this China keeps failing to unify, the Mongols never unify, north is never annexed, south is never annexed, Song Dynasty never falls, yet Song dynasty never regains the north, instead focuses on navy and commerce, expand throughout Southeast Asia through loaned ports, the first truly global empire (similar to those of Western Europe in our world), emperor is overthrown in a violent liberal uprising by 16th century 

[blackswaneuroparedux]

I'm an escapist. I'm not a planner; I've never made a decision about anything in my life. The good thing about Africa is that you can escape forever. You can do what you want without someone looking over your shoulder.

- Peter Beard, photographer

Surviving a shipwreck in Lake Rudolf, being crushed by an elephant & an encounter with a lion in the middle of the night, Peter Beard wld have been 85 this week. Beard was heir to 2 fortunes - railways & tobacco - a child of privilege: Upper East Side, Buckley and Yale. Africa and its wildlife.

In the late 50s, he bought Hog Ranch, near the Ngong Hills & adjacent to his friend Karen Blixen’s coffee farm. In 1972 he acquired an estate at Montauk Point near Andy Warhol.

Explosive, collagist, his works combine his photographs with his diaries - paper clippings, dried leaves, insects, old sepia photos, phone messages, India ink marginalia, quotes. Blood from the nearest butcher - and his own. Photographing wildlife, wild personalities and living an extravagant, untamed, life, Peter Beard was the personification of the word “Wild.” Baptised “the last of the adventurers,” Beard is as famous for his very public private life as he is for his idiosyncratic collage diaries and assemblages. Bringing together found objects, contact sheets, literary text and photographs from Tsavo, Kenya, his work subverts craft, control, and intentionality, typically associated with conventional artistic practice.

‘I’m an expert on futility and I like the futility and the pettiness of my diaries. It's a sort of laundry list of the day.’ It began when Jacqueline Kennedy gave him a leather-bound journal. He collaborated with Andy Warhol, Francis Bacon, Karen Blixen, Truman Capote, and Salvador Dalí. He also became a portraitist. In the jungle that is Manhattan & in Kenya (clad only in a kikoi) he proved as irresistible as he was insatiable. He was the great passion in the passionate life of Lee Radziwill. He would say sleep was such a waste of time.

Beard himself referred to his devotion to photography as something to be taken not too seriously, introducing himself as “a dilettante,” or amateur. However, the artist played an undisputed role in portraying an impeccable artistic vision of Africa to the West, although many accused him of offering a slanted and idealised perception of the continent - the only lover he remained loyal to until the end.

After once finding a big game poacher on his property, “Hog Ranch,” famously next to Karen Blixen ́s (author of “Out of Africa") coffee plantation, Beard tied the man up in wires, stuffed a glove in his mouth and left him there. Although this cost the artist a week in African jail and a few more of press and rumors in NewYork, these solitary but outrageous acts of protest slowly but surely granted Beard an environmentalist status within Western and African preservationist circles. Ultimately, the artist was years ahead of his time in his efforts to sound the alarm about environmental damage, and became a walking symbol for a future generation of artists who would use their art to send urgent social messages to the public. “The deeper the white man went into Africa, the faster the life flowed out of it,” Beard wrote in his most critically acclaimed book, “The End of the Game.”

He had two failed marriages before a third to a Kenyan Muslim, Nejma Khanum, brought him a measure of peace and stability with the birth of a daughter, Zara. But he remained untamed. One time, in the Sth of France, he sold off a valuable photo to pay off a $20,000 bar bill. His long suffering wife, Nejma, sought to regain the art he had given away or loaned in a haze of drink and drugs.

Peter Beard, who lived in Montauk, on the eastern end of Long Island, New York, disappeared on 31 March 2020 and was found dead in Camp Hero State Park, not far from his home, after a 19-day search on 19 April. He was 82. His family wrote on his website, “He died where he lived: in nature.”

[poke-entomology]

A Tentacool Story

Got excited again! Have Chap 12 early. But I won't post on Tuesday again this week... unless I get excited... again.

Chapter 12: Cool discoveries

Jessie wakes up floating peacefully, it was a good sleep. The ocean's waves had a calming effect on the jellyfish as he drifted downwards with the dusk and back up at sunrise, almost by instinct.

Also by instinct, they very nearly fall for another hook.

"No no! Not this time! Remember last time. Remember last time..." They take the bait in one tentacle and allow the fisherman to pull them upwards, keeping control, and more importantly, keeping that hook well away from their mouth.

-"I'll be, a Tentacool! Hrm, little scrawny, but a nice color on the lil bugger. Good job, son!" The fisherman, or rather his small son standing nearby, reels in his first ever catch with pride. Or he would have, had Jessie not taken the bait off the hook first.

-"Aw, don't be bothered none. Happens to the best of us. Jelly here was just a touch too smart this time, but you'll get em next time!"

"Doubt it." *ploop*

Diving back underwater and enjoying their "well earned" meal, he wonders about what to do with his day. It had been a few days since everyone's great escape from the ruins lake. They had since caught sight of that one crab... motherfucker. But thankfully it didn't seem interested in a rematch. In fact, it seemed kind of skittish, sticking close to it's trainer when it sighted Tentacool.

The crew had also been working on getting their new friends to accept Jessie as part of the school, with mixed results. Mostly they were fine, as long as the jellyfish kept a distance between them and the new members. Oddly, it was the Seaking he spoke with before that was the most willing to approach. They traded words now and then, a bit of info in exchange for some of the humans' bait fresh from the line. It always tasted better than caught fish somehow~

Oh yeah, that kid came back, almost like clockwork. He's still a bit dumb, not understanding a word of poke-speak, but at least he had spirit. Despite themselves, he wound up enjoying those daily visits.

'My only human contact... Well, it's probably close to time. Better not keep him waiting. Loafy (the Remoraid with the, erm, diet problem) might try and land on that hook if I take too long!'

"Beam me up, kid." Tugging on the hook twice, the line went taught and hauled Tentacool up to the surface.

-"Tenty!"

"Didn't agree to that name."

-"Look what I brought! It's an old manual from before they had pokedexes! My mom let me borrow it so I could learn more about you!"

"Manual huh? Alright, so what does that book say about me?" Swimming closer, he attempts to haul himself up a little higher to see the page.

-"Careful, it's a loan. But this is pretty cool, getting to read with a pokemon."

"Nice pun. So about that book?"

-"Let's see... Tentacool are a Water type pokemon. And they have a- *gasp* a secondary Poison typing! I didn't know that!"

"...You don't say."

-"You're so cool, Tenty! Okay okay, let's see what else we can find. Um, it says here you have a Poison Sting attack."

"Yep."

-"You might have the Clear Body ability, if that shinyness means anything."

"Yes, that's also very true."

-"You are a... Girl Tentacool!"

"Mh, check the book again."

-"Or are you just small? It's hard to tell just by looking... Say, can I-"

*dive* "Yeah no bye."

Loafy snickers nearby as Jessie once more retreats to the comfort of his party.

"Hey all, how's- Wait, where did Spring get off to?"

-"Karp, Magikarp."

"Really? I mean, I guess I should congratulate them! Er, if I find their new trainer, that is. You know, they deserve it after the last one. Really, good for them!"

-"Karp!"

"And what of the rest of you all? Any plans?"

The lovey dovey pair (the two Goldeen from before) swim over.

"Oh right, it's about that time huh? So you two are headed back North for a bit to have an egg?"

-"Gol Gol!"

"Well I'm very happy for you both. It won't quite be the same without you here, but no worries. We'll manage just fine. And hey, you can introduce me to Jr. later!"

Everyone says their goodbyes to the happy couple, giving small gifts of berries, fish, or whatever interesting looking shiny rocks they could find. The pair shed no shortage of tears as they leave our little group for now. 'I'm really gonna miss those two...'

As things were wrapping up and everyone got ready to bed down, Seaking streams over looking all kinds of haggard.

-"Seaking! Seaking! Sea- King!"

"Slow down, big guy! We can barely understand you when you're out of breath like that! Now, take a deep gulp and tell us,"

"What do you mean by The Warband?"

[dailyanarchistposts]

Mega Schemes

Huge hydraulic schemes are made possible by advanced modern civil engineering techniques. They require vast international contracts that are only possible at the level of central governments, international free floating capital and supranational government organisations. The financiers borrow money and lend it at commercial rates, so they favour largescale engineering projects that promise increasing production for export markets at the expense of local subsistence economies, with disastrous social and environmental effects. Cash crops destroy settled communities and cause pollution of soil and water. For instance, Ethiopia’s Third Five-Year Plan brought 60% of cultivated land in the fertile Awash Valley under cotton, evicting Afar pastoralists onto fragile uplands which accelerated deforestation and contributed to the country’s ecological crisis and famine. There’s a vicious circle at work. Development needs money. Loans can only be repaid through cash crops that earn foreign currency. These need lots more water than subsistence farming. Large hydraulic schemes to provide this water are development. Development needs money. And so it goes.

Large-scale projects everywhere are the consequence and justification for authoritarian government: one of America’s great dam-building organisations is the US Army Corps of Engineering. Stalin’s secret police supervised the construction of dams and canals. Soldiers such as Nasser of Egypt and Gadafi of Libya and military regimes in South America have been prominent in promoting such projects. Nasser built the Anwar High dam in 1971. The long-term consequences have been to stop the annual flow of silt onto delta land, requiring a growing use of expensive chemical fertilisers, and increased vulnerability to erosion from the Mediterranean. Formerly the annual flooding washed away the build-up of natural salts; now they increase the salt content of irrigated land. The buildup of silt behind the dam is reducing its electricity generating capacity; the lake is also responsible for the dramatic increase in water-borne diseases. Nationalism leads to hydraulic projects without thought to what happens downstream in other countries. The 1992 floods of the Ganga-Brahmaputra-Barak system killed 10,000 people. 500m people live in the region, nearly 10% of the world’s population, and they are constantly at risk from water exploitation and mismanagement. Technological imperialism has replaced the empire building of the past: large-scale hydro projects are exported to countries despite many inter-related problems – deforestation, intensive land use and disputes and so on. Large-scale water engineering projects foment international disputes and have become economic bargaining counters, for example the Pergau dam in Malaysia. The British Government agreed to spend £234m on it in 1989 in exchange for a £1.3bn arms deal. In 1994 the High Court ruled that the aid decision was unlawful but these kinds of corrupt deals continue.

In Sri Lanka the disruption caused by the Mahawelli dams and plantation projects resulted in the forcible eviction of 1 million people and helped maintain the insurgency of the Tamil Tigers that resulted in thousands of deaths as they fought government forces from the late 1980s onwards. In 1993 the Marsh Arabs of southern Iraq were threatened by Saddam Hussein’s plans to drain the area – the most heavily populated part of the region. Many of the 100,000 inhabitants fled after being warned that any opposition risked death. Selincourt estimated that 3 million people would lose their homes, livelihoods, land and cultural identity by giant dam projects in the 1990s. The Kedung Ombo dam (Indonesia) displaced 25,000; the Akasombo dam (Ghana) 80,000; Caborra Bassa (South Africa) 25,000. Three dams in Laos alone will have displaced 142,000 people. The proposed Xiao Langdi dam in China would displace 140,000; the Three Gorges project 1.1 million people. Only war inflicts a similar level of human and environmental destruction, yet large dam projects have a chronic record in delivering water and power, or eliminating flooding in downstream valleys.