#i can see their actions but i cant perceive what it means beyond that....to the point of thinking it is a ruse

[esoterium]

thoughts can become actions..

louis understands the meaning behind those words. the implications of what could happen should those beings inside the theater creep into his thoughts. the fear of what they could find leaves him pondering most nights if it is best for claudia that they leave immediately. that the threat of what might happen greater outweighs the benefits of staying near their kind for much longer.

and yet? he doesn't. he can't bring himself to part from the gravitational pull that armand has had him in orbit of. the heaviness that fills his limbs the moment he thinks of parting ways is beyond anything that he's ever felt. more than in those last months with...

..and the name isn't allowed to enter his mind. paul. paul comes to mind instead. his mad brother. who chose the hell of heaven and the madness of god to the point that he'd given his sanity over to it as his final offering. paul. the one that he lost and left an emptiness in him so deep that it was his grave.

"what actions are you suggesting that i should care the most about," his question comes with the slightest cant of his head. a tongue that sweeps over his bottom lip before his teeth snag the corner of it. armand's confession about the others and how they perceive him is nearly all the answer he needs. "we should leave then. shouldn't we? before this gets out of hand.." and he is not so sure if it is the vampires or what he and armand have that he is speaking of the most. because whatever it is that is building betwene them? it's something he wants. something he could see himself needing. and that is a dangerous, dangerous thing. because he has not let himself admit to needing much. if anything at all in many years.

that admission gives too great a power. opens up too many weaknesses. if there is one lesson he has been taught. is that he has many of those. too many to allow himself to expose them. or invite more.

a small smile. flustered and knowing. he agrees. though he doesn't want to say it. "yes. well.. i thnk we're all take on a few parts in this life. don't we? at least the ones we need to. in whatever means we need in order to survive. or, at the very least, make it through the years and whatever they decide to give to us." emerald gaze lingers on armand's, unable to look away. unable to break that connection between them. his stomach tightens. he can swear he feels it grow warm. even pang with a hunger that should not be there.. and yet it is. god help him. he should leave..should.

"and you..? how many roles have you taken in all your centuries? ..what about now? with me..?"

he says yes and yet, any creature with a set of eyes could tell otherwise. and armand, who could discern far more than what his eyes could see, was well aware of the unbearable rumble of hostility from the theatre vampires. none of louis’s words had helped to quell it, his very presence fanning the flames and feeding them as their hatred grew into an ugly monstrosity, jaws open, teeth bared in waiting. they could parade around behind twisted smiles and flourishing laughter, but there was so much contempt behind it. none of their questions were innocuous. even if they pretended to seek knowledge, it was only to warrant them to act. they would toy with louis, seek to expose his secrets, to lay his weaknesses bare and in it, they would be his ruin. they would relish in it.

but armand wouldn’t. they don’t share in his fascination, they don’t find him alluring — but they don’t have his restlessness either or the welling loneliness that even the peace of the coven couldn’t fill.

despite his answer, armand’s gaze remains unchanged, though perhaps in the heavy stare, he’s revealed how utterly unconvinced he is.

❝ thoughts can become actions. that is where you should care. ❞

he wishes he could see what he did. to see both, the vampires who had long since severed their ties with their mortality and the vampire who seemed to not only masquerade as human, but to maintain those ties, those habits. it’s something armand had never had, never struggled with — perhaps his life had been too short, even in the final years of it, when he’d been growing up to become one of them, greedily accepting ( demanding ) the dark gift. he barely tasted humanity and centuries had made that separation all the more severe. even louis’s child-vampire companion appeared to be more like them than louis himself, albeit different in that she was so so young. could she even remember what it was to be a human? she too, is a fascinating tragedy. a tragedy unfinished.

for all appearances, he’s unmoved, but it’s in louis’s response that he finds a welling of frustration. the claim that he doesn’t need his help. he was the one who could intervene and while armand doesn’t want to lord over the theatre in an expression of full control ( to avoid resentment, to avoid enemies made ), he thinks he may give louis anything.

❝ from them? i see their suspicion, their anger, hunger… ❞ and finally, his eyes narrow in careful contemplation, studying louis’s features. ❝ your silence, your secrets, they are threats. not to me, but to them, ❞ he pauses, a strategic breath taken.

❝ and from you? i think, we have another actor among us. ❞ not one for the stage, but one who veiled himself behind false confidence, behind dismissiveness.

[papers4me]

Fruits Basket Manga Review , ch 111

sigh~~~ I feel that my recent posts are a bit negative towards the anime, but thats cuz the chapters I’ve read so far are either unbelievably important character depth content cut for no valid reason or content in the anime but packed with million other things that it lost its purpose or importance. Basically tohu’s ep 6 which consists of 4 chapters & now ep 5 which is a momiji ep & yup, packed with 4 chapters as well... so, I apologize for any negativity, my intention is just analyzing artistic & story-telling aspects, I love se03, but yeah it screwed up lots of important characters due to its not so thorough plot decisions & harmful character insight choices.

today.. we explore Momiji... but only before his curse breaks.

Furuba anime struggling to know how to design an episode based on various plot-heavy chapters?

so, they decided 13 eps, & decided one ep for momiji cuz motoko’s graduation & the fanclub is the core of the furuba & have already cut tons of tohru, cuz who cares? she’s kind. be like her. end of lesson. No. really, jokes aside, how to do this?

How to combine several chapters in one ep? collect small snippets from chosen chapters/content like a bee does flowers? you gotta skip some content, you gotta highlight others. The ep is only 20 min after all & you got an op & Ed that you cant always skip.... so.. furuba team decide that momoji’s ep should be true to his zodiac animal, this is the rabbits last appearance in spirit. so, they went with quick hopping from one chapter to the other like a rabbit?

No really, ep 5 is really like a rabbit in its flow, you can’t savior a moment enough before jumping to the other: we learned momiji grew up!! loves toheu romantically, challenged kyo, really meant it, wanted a fair love game, got freed, lost tohru romantically & faced momiji! but that’s not all? we still have space!! quick add akito’s moodiness & love triangle with her dog & her submissive bed partner, add a happy comedy for no reason whatever & make shigue kiss tohru & wish shes 'was his lover instead!!!!!!!!! Mind you all this happened in the anime before shigure hurt tohru with his “the truth of the zodiacs talk & them accepting & feeling consolance that kyo is doomed”talk. 

-Gets whats my biggest surprise after reading this chapter ?????????

Shigure is consistent!! He isnt a rabbit hopping here & there. The dog is loyal & is tired for good reason! Him being depressed & his weird talk with thoru makes so much sense given the manga’s order.

Kyo is consistent!! In the anime, momiji surprise him with confession he loves tohru & challenge him, then kyo la~la~la~joins them downstairs for curry. Not a single expression on his face, where is the expression? it will appear when the plot is forced to address it: by the end of the ep when momiji face hin again. Then we get kyo’s reaction.

I need someone to tell the anime that actions require a reaction. You can refrain from showing a certain reaction if you can’t address it now, but you can’t erase it, negate it, then make it appear when have to!!!! couldn’t they make kyo refuse to join them & eat together? the     other characters wont be surprised they think he’s needlessly moody. The audience will know that kyo is troubled with momiji’s challenged & it will excite them!!! having kyo just go eat & watch the momiji/hiro/haru/yuki comedy skit is weird.

The manga’s author wanted kyo to join the dinner, like the anime did. but huge difference. the author actually cares for logic reaction & understands that the audience aren’t dumb little kids that will sit & wait for kyo’s turn to...react! nope! she did this: (a) & (b) below.

-Lost Small Bits/ Panels from the chapter.. But Sadly Big Huge Chunks for Characters buildup & Growth:

(a) addressed the fact the hiro noticed kyoru is in love & dressed that shigure was right!! the cat being in love is a weird concept to the zodiacs! hiro reacted naturally & the author used hiro to flesh yuki’s (the rat), momiji’s (the rabbit) & haru’s (the cow) decision to silently watch the kyo (the cat) makes his own decisions to live!!! They won’t interfere or tell akito or remind him of his state as the doomed caged cat. So sad this moment is cut from yuki. Why must yuki only interact with kyo to beat him (all seasons)? why must yuki only think of kyo to envy him (all seasons) ? Here, yuki’s growth towards kyo as a person & his relationship with tohru is 1000 times better than all tohru is my mom’s sh!t & I envy kyo’s Sh!t we saw in the anime over & over till we memorized it.

(b) kyo didnt just go la~la~eat with momiji after knowing he loves tohru. Nope, there’s small bits missing: called logical emotional reaction. He was surprised he’s caught pining over tohru! cuz yuki, the audience representative, has told us in the previous chapter that ppl in love dont notice anything around them. Kyo thinks him being cold hid his feelings. the dummy’s feelings are as bright as the sun in the Sahara, tohru too. a child read her! such small thing that wont take much space from the ep but was cut cuz kyo only needs to be responsive at the ep’s end. & this scene of kyo & tohru looking awkwardly at each other is minor in space but so important cuz kyo is determined to let go but his decision is challenged by not only momiji, but his natural attraction to tohru. Here he knows he’s caught & exposed... here he knows momiji is a better choice for tohru cuz he wont didn’t hurt her mom... here he knows that even yuki is better cuz never had to pretend to be cold to her... here he knows the world is better than him... & here he just cant help by smile & walks towards her... T_T ... another lesson in writing slow burns by Takaya-san.

-Why would the anime team pass on this?? drawing kyoru closer after the epic tear in Cinderella ep, cuz they want empty suspense~! The anime team thinks that if kyo & tohru stand next to each other, then it means all their issues are solved & the audience are so stupid as to forget tohru’s mom, kyo’s imprisonment, kyo not confessing his sins to tohru & tohru’s need to make a choice wether to fogive hom or not.. nope! you see, they think, ppl who read mangas are smart, so the author can give this epic symbolism & pp would still be not sure kyoru is end game & tohru will forgive him or kyo even fogive himself, but ppl who watch, oh no, gotta cut all the plot worthy content, produce a graduation song for a minor character, cut all kyo/tohru interaction cuz it only means romance & not at all character depth & oh if we show yuki actually formulating deep thoughts that aren’t centered around him, the audience might forget his se02 struggles! or that might ruin yuki’s upcoming growth moment in the finale where he .. you guessed it hits kyo.. as he always do & sulk &  think abt himself cuz yuki can only do monologues when he’s directly involved.... man~it is so sad how the anime is dumped down.. Who is the target audience again? not kids as young as hiro cuz even hiro is smart!

-just look:

 Momiji talks abt kyo shouldn't give up loving tohru & the authr shows this this ghost!!! his mom! The author reminds us that kyo isnt da~~~~ forgetting anything. He’s a deeply troubled soul & hos mom wants him locked cuz she too was locked in a cage & thinks that’s safer...why oh why you dump ur own story! sh!t~

Side Notes:

I like the closeups on Kisa’s face as she interacted with kyo. It’s very rare for kisa to have a world beside the endearing parental/big protective bro/big doting sister love she has with tohru & haru & off course the romantic love with hiro which was perhaps since their birth or sth. lol.  Kisa & kyo arent much on the brotherly side as they rarely interact, but its one of those  refreshing  interactions she has that helps cast a new light on her as tiny as it is,  but its sth out of the norm around her. She sees him  around tohru & gets to perceive his true unprovoked character. “He is  nice guy”.

I really wanted to punch kureno this chapter.. like Shigure is a jerk shitty dog for sleeping with akito’s mom but kureno... dude.. you submissively sleep with the guy’s eternal love interest & still walks in on him talking to her!!! lol. you’re mentally, emotionally & physically weaker than him & yet, she puts you on her bed, not him & you, tho not wanting her at all, dont walk away. No wonder shigure is defeated & wishing for someone like tohru, lol! Even if shigure met an older tohru-like person, it wont work. shigure deserve someone like him mean, schemer & loves playing power games. Tohru is someone who values honesty & commutation, not saying she’s an angel on earth, but tohru knows who suits her.. except fate is saying: NO. .... currently. lol.

I know kureno’s weakness is part of his character & I love that such characters exits. There are ppl ike that in real life. It’s just this chapter, I felt shigure’s frustration. XD

Yuki in this ep is the best yuki. no exaggeration here, I love when yuki is calmly thoughtful of others & here its kyo of all ppl !!!! cutting this scene is sad.. without it, kyo & yuki remain a cat & rat in the anime. Only ever thinking abt each other thro envious binoculars or hateful words or yuki giving kyo comedic hitting or life’s problem-solving hitting. Why can’t anime yuki be interactive outside his self-centered issues is beyond me.

Momiji & kyo’s interactions are always the best! whether comedy or drama.

I hated the curry cooking scene in the anime... so weirdly out of the ep’s flow.. very forced comedy... in the manga it had a purpose! not just quick add comedy cuz next shot momiji curse breaks & drama & we’ll close the ep with tears & sadness & glimpses of hope...

I love haru’s answer to hiro... so him.. “a guy can’t fall in love?”so chill.. so..simple.

[neoraso]

royal guard!minho

requested | some gender neutral hc for how he starts to wish he was maybe more than just a guard to you 

to put things lightly, minho was the ace of your entire guard

like he was better than anyone …at everything

so originally he was on (your father) the king’s immediate guard

he was nothing but professional and saved the king too many times to count even from like stepping on rocks idk 

when you turned like 17 and had to do more public appearances obv u were in a lot more danger so ur father jumped at having minho reassigned to u as the head of your personal guard “nothing but the best for his child”

the first time you met him… he only nodded or said yes or no to everything u asked him n ur jus like ok not much of a talker that’s not so bad ig haha ʕʘ‿ʘʔ

he was so quiet and “polite” for months despite you constantly trying to get something out of him

ur other guards always tried not to laugh bc if only u knew he had like two friends and was generally a pretty serious guy

but one day there was a festival in your kingdom’s central city so obv you had to make an appearance which u were very excited abt bc you only get to go into town like twice a year and THIS was one of those times

being “of age” and that much closer to taking the throne you might as well have painted a big red target on your head to signal people against the throne

everything was going fine, everyone was having fun and you decided to visit some of the booths and musicians around the square

minho was already suspicious of the situation and tightens the rest of your guard without u evenn rlly noticing but like

just as you turned to show these cute little candies to minho to maybe get a reaction for once -

the second he looks at you, someone moves to grab you but the flash of a knife in his other hand causes minho to jump immediately into action

honestly who knows what rlly happened minho moved so damn fast but the next thing you know, ur in the middle of your whole guard squad

looking through the gaps of their shoulders you see minho pinning down your assailant with a blade against his neck waiting for someone to arrest him even though he rlly wanted to just execute the guy right there 

the festivities were kind of killed for u after that bc you and your family were rushed back home which u might’ve been more sad abt if u werent in so much shock :<

obv minho was the one to escort you back but like all he said was “you’re okay?” and after u dumbly nodded with wide eyes he walked with you but kept a hand around your shoulder

no one really talked after that which wasn’t unusual for him but in his mind he was rlly like 

“?? ok i know its literally my job to protect this family but?? hm whyyyy do i seem to care sm more rnnn??//?” help him sdhskjd

u just looked so shaken up and disappointed and suddenly he was like damn </3 they rlly have no fun in their life and this one time they could was ruined :///

u had to stay inside for weeks after that bc it turns out there was a whole conspiracy to “eliminate” your family line so you waited in safety until the criminals were “taken care of” 

minho had everything triple checked around the castle for your safety and secretly made sure you had extra treats and warm drinks sent to your room sometimes with little notes that he had the cook pretend to have sent because lately he’d heard you had trouble sleeping sometimes he’s shy boy aw

he started to realize how much he had gotten used to your smile and your little jokes and the way you sometimes tripped on the corners of rugs. and he thought maybe it was a good thing you guys didnt have many interactions lately because he was way too attached

you on the other hand, couldnt even rlly complain about having to stay inside so much bc you had everything you needed and- you knew it was for ur safety but- it wassss kind of suffocating at times

u tried sneaking out at first ((just to the garden!!)) which obviously was a bad idea bc it’s impossible to get past minhos fcking hawk eyes lmao

he STILL didnt say anything like he would just follow right behind you

n like u kinda huffed but whatever honestly at least it was just him and not 15 other guards like everyone acted like you needed

plus it was somewhat comforting to have someone so solid around even if he never talked smh

one night you sat near the little pond and tried to calm your mind by watching how the moonlight rippled in the water

you can feel him behind you so u just turn around and look at him ignoring how he was already looking at you

 “would you at least sit with me?”

he kind of hesitates bc …what if someone tried to come up behind you? but with the sad look on your face he cant help but give in and sits on the stone bench at the opposite end of you

it becomes actually somewhat peaceful until you just decide to ask everything you’ve been wondering n u just blurt out-

“would it kill you to talk with me once in a while? i mean, talk like a normal person and not a machine? i dont bite i promise..”

he furrows his brow bc he’s shocked you cared at all and also he doesnt rlly know how to respond without being like “its not really in my job description to make conversation” but he honestly just thought you were being talkative out of niceties.

 before he could even form a sentence you continued,

“i mean- i’m always trying to get your attention. i dont get to meet many people for obvious reasons but my guards are the closest people to me-literally, and i dont want there to be a big gap between us just because of my status..”

he cuts you off before you ramble yourself to death 

“i didn’t know you were this troubled by it… i just take my job very seriously and i dont want to risk anyone’s safety for the sake of conversation”

u almost roll ur eyes but not wanting to be rude ur just like “even at home? i know you’re serious about your duties, believe me, i just… i get lonely.”

smthing inside him literally breakkkssss when you say that like u are such a pure and sweet person that deserves to have all the love and friends and fun in the world so he just gets quiet for a second and looks down

“im sorry.” he said it so softly you almost didnt hear him “i’ll be there for you more- if thats what you need. im essentially in charge of your safety and care and i’ll do anything to fulfill that responsibility.”

ok.

well this was good right? so why did you still feel unsatisfied?

“i dont want to just be a responsibility, cant we just be like friends? or…”

you cut yourself off before talking too much again

you had to admit to yourself you had developed a bit of a liking for minho, not just because he was probably the most handsome person in your kingdom, not even just because he saved your life, but he had really been a pillar of security in your life and you respected his loyalty and ambition.

he was more than admirable and everything you wanted as a standard for your kingdom

sometimes you let your mind wander to him getting on one knee and leading alongside you..

no, now youre getting sidetracked and delusional and he can practically hear the gears turning in your head so he stands up and reaches his hand out for you to grab 

“of course you’re more than a responsibility to me, come on, lets go inside it’s getting cold.’

taking his hand and realizing the conversation was over, you moved to link arms instead  as he walked you all the way to your bedroom door 

u slept a lot better that night 

from that point on you could not get rid of minho 

like everyone was borderline uncomfortable with how jarring his change in attitude was 

like he was constantly behind you looking right over your shoulder or grabbing your arm to stop you from bumping into things

even when he wasnt technically on duty he had taken it upon himself to give you little lessons in archery and even some defensive moves to help you protect yourself in case someone wasnt fast enough to help you 

your tried not to get flustered every time he adjusted your form and the way you could feel his breath behind your ear

or the head pats when he walked you to your room at night

or his hand on your back when you guys would take walks in the garden

honestly it did not take long until one night you were sat next to your pond and after some comfortable small talk you noticed how close his face was to yours

but he noticed you didn’t pull away even as he leaned in closer and finally just kissed you

when he pulled away and saw your eyes still closed and how soft you looked his heart almost exploded

“i didnt mean to make things weird i just,, couldnt help myself, sorry”

his rushed confession pulls you out of your daze and you’re so happy (a little shocked) but you’re quick to reassure him

“it’s ok, i’ve been wanting you to do that for a while …”

he’s jus like “rlly?😳”

obviously this complicates things a lot and you aren’t really sure if you would even be allowed to have a relationship with minho bc of ur position

or if he would get in trouble for breaking the rules of attachment to u

all of this is kind of racing thru both of ur minds as you look at each other but you laugh after u both start talking at the same time

you prod him to go first so he grabs your hands and says like

“look i care about you a lot, and i know we’re not really supposed to be doing this but if i can be by your side … beyond my duties…i would really love to. but if we can’t, i can survive with just being here to protect and serve you in anyway i can”

he’s so honest and genuine and earnest it shocked u a little

even tho you were uncertain abt the situation as well you knew you had grown a little too fond and dependent on minho that you would do anything to make it work

luckily an arranged marriage was not required for you so that wasnt really the issue, but falling in love with someone not at all royal..? it was a daunting thought how the idea would be perceived 

you wouldnt have said anything if you both weren’t completely sure of your feelings;  but you really could not imagine being content or safe spending your life with anyone else so you mustered up the courage to ask the king and queen…

when you brought it up to your parents they looked pretty concerned

minho went on the whole “i’ll do anything to protect them and this kingdom” speech and your father just waved him off and was like

“i know u would …. i’ll allow it because there’s really no one better to represent the kingdom and because i want only the best for my child ;)”

u and minho were literally in shock but just quietly said thank u and left the room

when you had privacy he immediately pulled you in for a kiss (maybe several all over ur face)

you had a lot to figure out and many responsibilities but now you had an amazing person by your side to help you through it :.) <3

[kaiju-z]

“Moonlight Tryst Under The Eclipse”

Right! So! A little clarification is in order! Um. So like. There’s this D&D show called “Role With Me”/”The Ties That Bind”. And the party have recently reached a high-tech Elven city and are learning all kinds of things about the society there. Including that they found fucking God fan fiction. Fan fiction written about Arkanos, God of Magic, who is also the elves’ God. And of Solomon, the God of Undeath. Who is basically enemy to all elven kind, after he convinced a group of them to worship him, in exchange for “immortality”, which is the secret origin of the drow in that world.

So like. It’s them. As like. A ship. They found shipfics and were reading them.

So this is basically inspired by that. And it’s a fic, “as written” by a writer in that world, that city. That internet. So yeah. It’s a fic, within a fic. ó ____ ó;;; That’s it. That’s the joke.

Also yes, you should watch Role WIth Me. Very Dark Souls/Witcher-ish. With a flavor of Bloodborne. Also lots of funnies between the rough stuff that our heroes go through.

An Arkanos/Solomon fanfic by RainbowRunner899

It was meant to be a distraction. A simple. Basic. Get your mind off the ear-splitting screams and wails distraction. A honest to yourself one. And yet here you were. Hours after the fact, still locked in an embrace with the long eared boy scout!

Arms around your body, you can easily feel his fingers trace every smooth pattern and ridge of your back as the stars shimmer and shake under his dexterous touch. Unlike your dark dealings in your domain beyond mortal comprehension, here you are incapable of hiding your intents and secrets. Or at least, the ones you can gesticulate.

Damn him! Damn this know-it-all paragon that bewitched you with his soft voice and alluring eyes! His words, his face, his everything! It drives you to madness! Like that’d mean anything to you, anyways. You were already unhinged. By some slight you yourself perceive as such. You blame your makers for it and have stated it as such to him, many a nights.

Many, upon many, for centuries, long since after he took his foolish followers and ran off into parts unknown, leaving you with your defiled flock of sycophants! You hate them, for they fell so easily and thus, you send them to do all sorts of cruelties. Just to test how far they’ll go for you. When they’d snap. Break. You figure that is why he had come out of hiding the first time, since your conflict. And confronted you.

The two of you had fought for dominance, throwing stars and supernovas at one another, frightening the populace around you. And, had it not been for his quick thinking and raised defenses, you two surely would have exterminated all life in the vicinity.

‘Damn him.’ you think, your face flushing as his hands move to your front, caressing the 8 pack. Damn him for seeing through your ruse that night. Through to the very core of who you were and why you did what you did! All that cruelty and anger! All of it, creating a Seeming of unseen proportions, hiding the broken man in need of help underneath.

Only he saw it! Neither Vanderen, nor Fleetfoot. Nor the old man and the revelry wench got even the slightest idea you had this secret pain! They were too stupid, too blind to see. But not Arkanos. He knew and he punished your body so with the palms of his hands. Your breathing growing heavy to his actions and you contemplate evasive maneuvers.

He reaches for your pa-aaand you grab his wrist. “No.” you go, hissing at him with a glare of pure death. Or undead. As is your aspect.

He looks at you with those gentle eyes. Those honest and wise eyes. “No?” he repeats, questioning you with his pretty little face. You’d bite your lip, if you had one. Then shake your head.

“No.” And you’d get up and try to make way out of the room, specifically by him, to protect you both from prying eyes. “I’m leaving. Going back, I-I have work to do. Monsters to raise. Many dark biddings to be made, Arkanos.” You growled, pitifully to show aggression. But he’s unmoving, unperturbed by your behavior as you struggle to put your robe back on. Damn thing! Did you start putting it with the wrong sleeve forward?! You’d struggle and huff and puff as you forced your head through a familiar opening and then flinch backwards, bumping into the wall.

“You’re having those thoughts again, aren’t you, Sol?” he asks you directly, his voice peaceful, like a river during summer. Disgusting. And beautiful, damn it! So beautiful! You think that as he had been standing right to face you once you put your head through the clothing. “Don’t lie to me. My eyes cannot be tricked, my ears cannot be lied to… and my heart- And he’d reach for his chest, tapping the left peck, before reaching over to tap your own.

You had no pulse. Not that it mattered. You were a god and who honestly cared about pulses, when you would live forever! Or unlive. Or-aaah, fuck it! You’d look away, scowling a boney scowl. “This game ends here, Arkanos. You’ve seduced me many a times before, but this ends now. You know you could never beat me in a fair fight and I know that you can’t backstab me like some mortal rogue under the pale moon light.” you scoffed, grabbing the door handle.

Twisting it, turning it. Opening the entrance and, in your case, the exit from his awkward situation. But right before you’d leave, the door would shut, without you even taking a full step ahead. You flinch, step backwards and bump into his frame. Then you have to straighten yourself as you attempt to prevent flushing of the cheeks. Straightening yourself and your clothing, you scoff. “Of course, right. Your wards.”

“Yes, Sol.” He’d smile a little smile your way and you feel your spine shiver. That cute smile that drove you crazy. After everything you did. All the people you killed and brought back as your meat and soul puppets! And he has the gall to smile at you like that.

“Well, undo it!” you try to regain footing. To find your equilibrium and tower over him, make yourself bigger, like one of those bear things that roam Fleetfoot’s forests. But intimidation does not work on him and you know it. He’s too brave. TOO STUPID, you try to think, but you know he’s too smart for you. Of all of them, even you, with all your dark and vile magicks, he was always the superior intellect.

He’d sigh a light sigh and glance over to the nearby window. It had been darkened off with the Darkness spell, which you made sure to cast, in case one of your flunkies or one of his randomly popped their head through. And he’d walk over to it, tapping it gently with a finger, dispelling. The sky appeared an odd mix of colors. It was familiar. Reminded you of your many birthdays. Yes, even the one good one you had all those millennia ago.

He’d wave a hand to you to step on over and join him at the glass separating you two from the outside. No words were needed. He had prepared the right set of movements, didn’t he?! A pregnant pause. And you go over, though you dare not look upwards at what the sky would be like. You just look down, no head in the clouds. Only down towards the muck.

“There is no shame in what you feel, Sol. You know that, right?” he’d say, side-glancing you every now and then as he faced the sky, while you watched the passerby folk, well, pass by. Wordlessly, you listen to him. And then have to find yourself blinking as the silence became deafening. Like he wanted a direct answer from you.

You’d grimace and cant your head some in a direction of your choosing. “I’ve killed and converted and had them kill… so many people. And you’re trying to psychoanalyze me, Arkanos. Don’t you find the flaw in that?!” he’d sneer. “The daddy of the elves meeting with the step dad of your little traitors. In secret and for centuries now. Isn’t that a little-Don’t you think that’s kind of fucked up?!” he’d not even raise a brow over your foul mouth. He was used to it.

He was used to keeping it occupied, too. Hmph!

“Is it really so crazy, Sol? Is it, though?” he’d smile again, resting a hand on your shoulder. “You. And I. Have such a history, spanning many a lifetimes of many a people. From the short-lived to the ancient. Friends. To rivals. To enemies. To friends…” he’d giggle and your face would change shades. It was a whole galactic party on your features. “To so much more.”

“Fuckbuddies.” he scoffed at your phrasing. He was used to the cussing, but that sort of direct crassness gave you a bit of an advantage… every now and then.

“Call it as you want, Sol. But I know the truth. I peered through your actions and your thoughts and I saw the real you… And I saw the broken pieces. They were there, inside you. Calling, screaming to be reshaped.” He spoke to you with such determination and passion. You’d mistake him for one of those new-fangled “bards”. “Is it honestly that big of a surprise that once you reached out as you did, I would reach back in turn?”

You look away. “After everything I put you and your kids through, how is that a surprise, Ark-“he has a hand on your cheekbone, slowly turning your face in his direction, as you sought to glance away in your shame and woe. “I-I mean-“

No time to finish the sentence. He pecks your face with his lips. Quick and focused. Your spine shivers at his advance. But you don’t really fight it, though you hate him pulling away.

“You are a lonely man, shrouded in a darkness of your own making. Unwilling to show the pain to those around you, fearing their response.” He’d say softly. “But I saw and I felt and I knew that day…”

“You knew…?” you asked.

He’d nod to you with a, well, knowing smile, his cheeks turning pink. It really didn’t take you that much to figure out what he meant.

“O-oh. Oh!”

“Yes.”

“Ohhhhh…” it was all you could say, while he glanced back out the window and you followed his gaze to the sky above. Where the moon had gone before the sun, creating a rare masterpiece that the mortals found fascinating as all hell. But to you? To you this was your birthday. Again, damn it, you’d bite your lip if you had that.

You feel his hand on your person. Fingers entangling with your own. You look to them. And you look to him. His eyes took that “look” again. A familiar one that the two of you would act upon  whenever the opportunity struck.

He walked back. And headed to the bed that faced the door, light step after light step, pulling you along. One knee on the bed. A creeking sound. His other knee on the mattress. A repeat. Shifting of weight as he pulled you on over.

You’d open your mouth to speak. “I-“

And he’d answer. “I know.”

Wordlessly, the two of you would lock faces and commiserate as he helped you take off the robe again. This time much slower and to the point than in a simple moment of passion. There was more feeling there.

As he’d undress you and you him, a thought would crawl into your mind.

Perhaps it was possible. Perhaps it was, yes, that the shattered insides of your soul could be put together again. Perhaps he could do it.

To Be Continued.

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Author’s notes: WONDERCRAK! Thank you, dear readers, for all the well wishes and kind words about the last story! Even you, KnuckleTucker3000. I appreciate the criticism on my grammar and took it to heart o w o! Wow, like, wow! So like, I was really excited to get to this part of the story, ‘cause, obviously I finally got to reveal what kinda day Solomon was born on u w u Next week’s continuation’s gonna get extra spicy, tho, so I have to bring back the reminder >8( This one’s for the grown-ups and it’s gonna be tagged NSFW! Don’t read if a Lemon Fic isn’t your thing! I’ll drop the hidden lore bits I’ll be putting in that one!

Stay tuned u w u, RainbowRunner899 out!

[jiminieloved]

It's great that people would be okay with whatever their bond is but i honestly don't think i would :/ i've thought about it a few times and as lgbt i know i would be very disappointed of them doing things that very ""gay"" just for giggles and shit. and yes, they do know what they're doing. whether is real or not, they know exactly what it looks like. all of bts do. and this is something that's just in my head. jin said once somewhere "not like lovers" or something like when one of the others +

hugged him from the back in a photoshoot; so they know what their actions may come across. im sorry and maybe im way too strict with stuff like that, it's just that as a lesbian i cant come out to my family and lgbt people die and get beaten everyday around the world for the same things they could be laughing/playing around with. i dont think i would HATE them but i for sure wouldnt take them seriously anymore, not as a couple and i would probably lose a bit of respect for them individually. that aside, i think the whole "support" them thing it's actually meant romantically. like, if they're not a couple then there's nothing to support. you just bias them individually. i wanted to say also that i had wandered a little into the kpop world and the fetishization made me go back the way i came in the blink of an eye. i hate when girl members do this, too. i know there's a fair amount of kpop boys and girls who are lgbt, but there's also a lot of str8s who act like being gay is for show.

Okay this is going to be a bit of a long one because it’s a complicated subject and I don’t want to word something incorrectly. 

I understand your gut reaction completely, but I think there’s a layer to my statement you might not have understood, because it’s something I’m always a bit vague about/hesitant to speak on for fear of backlash, so I’m probably at fault for this misunderstanding. I’m just going to say how I feel about Jikook, no euphemisms or beating around the bush. 

A) Yes, fanservice culture is fetishization and I agree with your reservations about it completely. I spoke on my feelings about it here.

B) I think it’s pretty undeniable that Jimin and Jungkook have an extremely intimate relationship. It’s not really up for debate. 

A moment like this doesn’t happen without an immense amount of established physical and emotional intimacy. This isn’t phony. Jungkook wouldn’t have done this in front of thousands of people (knowing it was being recorded by hundreds for millions to see) if he wasn’t already in a space with Jimin where this was an acceptable form of comfort and affection. With a few exceptions, I think most of us can agree that this isn’t regular behavior between friends, or even family. It’s something (typically) reserved for lovers. It’s not my place to say what they are to each other, but this does not fall under normal standards for Korean skinship. 

So with all this being said, I think that it’s pretty clear that what we’re supporting is ‘real’, though I hate to use the term because it implies that other relationships between members aren’t real or genuine, which is not what I mean.  What I mean is that we chose to support Jikook because we saw REAL interactions there that don’t fall in line with typical ‘friend’ behavior, and we want to support this. 

When I say that if Jikook end up dating other people, we should support them anyway, it’s not because I don’t think what they have is special or tangible or ‘real’ in my eyes. But rather because they’re in a really complicated situation with a 1000 more variables in their relationship than even normal, non celebrity people have to deal with. Whether they’re just extremely intimate friends or more, they aren’t faking this for fanservice. It’s genuine interaction. As you said yourself, it’s one of the things that makes BTS stand out from your regular Kpop group. They don’t fake shit for fanservice, they embellish what’s already there. 

And I’m sorry, but the example I showed above may have started as fanservice, but it evolved into something beyond fanservice halfway through. 

My point about them having variables is that though clearly their relationship is extremely special and unique and full of love, they themselves are in a tough situation. You mention being a lesbian and not being able to come out, and how people around the world are attacked and murdered for being gay, and fanservice feels like a mockery to you. But remember- they live in this same harsh world we do. They live in South Korea, where being gay is still very much a taboo topic and by no means accepted by the general public. Gay marriage is not legal for them, there’s been almost no REAL representation in the media until extremely recently, and this is the culture they grew up in. Knowing what we know about their relationship, they’re in the same boat as you. They, if they are gay, can’t come out- they’re South Korea’s pride- they represent the entire country internationally. The amount of pressure on their shoulders is unimaginable. They are expected to be perfect, by Korea’s standards. Being gay does not fall within those standards. Remember a few months ago when Jungkook got into a minor fender bender? Somehow it became a national scandal. A minor mishap that a majority of the human population will go through at some point in their lives was blown up into a huge event and the public ripped him to shreds for it, trying to unearth every little detail and form it into a scandal. Now imagine if it was about their sexualities. 

I think you know just as well as I do that Jungkook and Jimin’s interactions aren’t laughing and playing around with LGBT culture. There’s certainly problematic aspects to idol culture and it’s fetishization of LGBT people, but what they show us, I perceive as genuine. Whether or not they other come out as anything, or let us in on their private lives during this time period in retrospect, I think we can trust them to not have disrespected us in such a thoughtless way. Jungkook especially has proven to be a huge supporter of LGBT culture and artists. I don’t think he takes our lives as a joke.

If they end up dating other people, it could be for a multitude of reasons. Maybe they were always just extremely intimate friends, and had an agreement they could date whoever they wanted. Maybe they were friends with benefits, and again, agreed to date freely outside of this. Maybe they are in a defined relationship, and won’t date other people unless they break up. Maybe they fulfill all the actions of a defined relationship without the label, and things are uncertain between the pair even now. There’s sooo many variables and soo many ways the future could turn out. It’s impossible to know from the outside looking in.

Either way, my extremely long-winded point is that regardless of the future, Jungkook and Jimin’s actions aren’t here to make a mockery of LGBT people and queerbait. They don’t do that, and I’d like to believe they respect us as fans more than that. The way they act is genuine; there’s no faking the amount of intimacy and love they’ve shown towards each other for the camera to the extent that they have, for the amount of time that they have. 

If they date other people in the future, it doesn’t detract from the depth and meaning behind their relationship now, no matter the label. 

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. 

[witchhazelnut]

Mulan (1998) vs Mulan (2020)

I watched Mulan (2020) about a week ago and the last night watched Mulan (1998) again for the hundredth time, and now I have some thoughts in comparing the two.

There are some elements I just won’t touch because clearly there is the situation of their production contexts, politics I won’t pretend to fully understand (which doesn’t mean they aren’t important I just cant speak in-depth so I’m not here), and also the live action vs. animated shebang but, plot-wise there were two things in particular that I felt really stood out as not only different but worse in terms of the development of Mulan’s character.

SPOILERS AHEAD:

First off, Mulan’s ch’i (qi).

The idea that Mulan has all of this power and potential she is forced to suppress is not necessarily a bad thing, but the way it is done sort of undermines the whole message that I’ve always felt was at the heart of the story. Like Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Isaac Bashevis Singer’s “Yentl the Yeshiva Boy” (later Streisand’s Yentl), and a host of other gender hijinx stories, the questioning of gender roles and identity is at the very core of Mulan’s story. The notion of gender as a performance is so crucial to the story, and I think Mulan (2020) sort of loses touch with that by giving her this predisposed power (ch’i) which is exclusive to her among woman. Mulan’s struggle is about letting her power be known as opposed to Mulan (1998) who struggles with coming to know power. Mulan (1998) doesn’t show up to the army ready to fight, she is actually really bad at first. She has to learn how to fight, and she sucks so hard that she almost gets kicked out! The only reason she sticks around is because of her determination, not because she is some prodigal fighter. This climb from weakness to strength is framed as her “becoming a man” by those who perceive her as such, but it is also that dramatic irony that she is not a man (although, gender troubles are abound), which makes this climb proof that anyone can do what men do and excel! Mulan (2020) very much has this quality where she is meant to be perceived as special from the start, but special for a woman. Mulan (2020) is an exception, Mulan (1998) is a rule.

Secondly, there is her reveal.

Mulan (2020) purposefully gives herself away. She exposes herself out of a duty to her honor, and again there is nothing inherently bad about this concept. However, compared to Mulan (1998) it seems a bit anticlimactic, and also sort of morphs Mulan into a virtuous character when her actions all stem from very selfish interests. Mulan’s core drive is to save her father, even though it explicitly goes against his wishes and could likely cause him shame and dishonor if she is caught. She prioritizes her father’s life over his honor which is huge. This is the same for both films. What switches is that Mulan (2020) does not admit to her own interest in the ruse beyond her father, the way that Mulan (1998) explicitly says that her running away was about herself just as much as it was for her family. The crux of this admission is that it comes after Mulan is found out. Mulan’s (1998) “outing” and banishment are also significant as they show the hypocrisy of the situation in the starkest of lights. Mulan has just nearly single handedly saved all of those who remain, seemingly taken out the Huns, and has gotten badly injured in the process. By all effects Ping was set up to be a war hero equal or greater in stature to Shang, but the minute it is found out that it’s actually Mulan, everyone turns on her. It’s one of the most heartbreaking scenes when you think that Shang is advancing to kill Mulan, and even her friends who protest at first hold themselves back. We are supposed to see Shang banishing Mulan instead of killing her as a mercy, but it’s still just as treacherous. This whole thing is lost in Mulan (2020). She gets banished and then begs for death, as if to say that she deserves to die because she “lied” (was a woman). Obviously, the choice to reveal herself is framed as not wanting to hide, and in some ways that sentiment works. However, in Mulan (2020), her deeds as she saves her fellow troops are not seen or really acknowledged by them, and so that juxtaposition between Mulan’s service and her disgrace are not explicitly connected in the same way. Mulan (1998) is acknowledged as a hero, only to then be disgraced upon her identity being revealed. That’s incredibly significant to the conflict of the story. 

This is long and maybe a bit rambly, but aside from all of the exterior conflict in regards to Mulan (2020)’s production, it was clear that there were some elements to the story itself that were lacking in depth. This is not even mentioning the erasure of bi-king Shang. 

In conclusion: Mulan (1998) still pretty much holds up. Mulan (2020) sort of missed the point in favor of visuals and stunt choreo. 

[the-energon-hole]

Hey, could I request kissing headcanons for bayverse Optimus, Cross hairs, and Ironhide?

((A/N I’m back for now- lol sorry for the wait))

Optimus Prime

-Beyond private physical intimacy, it was not common in Cybertronian culture to show small displays of affection in public spaces that he has seen humans partake in. Things like hand holding, hanging off of one another, and especially kissing- it wasn’t a bad thing to love your partner and have dedication to them, he just found it odd humans would flaunt their intimacy in public places when things like that were considered so sacred to him and other cybertronians. Kissing and holding were things saved for the privacy of your quarters and were things that were extremely sacred and personal, but he noticed a lot of humans don’t mind sharing a lot of personal experiences with one another. It was normal to them to show off their love for each other, and it was a cute idea, it was just something that the big bot is going to have to get used to doing when he has chosen himself a human partner. It was slow going convincing him that it was just a simple kiss and it didn’t have to be intimate, but with patience and time you will be able to change his views a little and be able to show him more and more physical affection.

-He absolutely enjoyed kissing and cuddling with you, but he still held onto the idea that affections should be reserved for private setting. He was a powerful warlord in the middle of war, and he deserved some happiness that you provided to him in his life, but he felt that he needed to be a symbol of power and hope to his troops and allies. He will let you be affectionate with him when you are in the presence of other humans, and only in the presents of his most trusted comrades, but there were times when you had to remember he was a leader and he needed to be that symbol his people needed him to be- a symbol that everyone can rally behind and fight for a promise of a better future. You were going to have to be ok with the fact that he was almost a kind of religious symbol to other cybertronians, and he must act in ways that support this idea of holiness- it was nothing against you, it was just that he was a beacon of light for many of those whom have lost hope in a proverbial sea of darkness, and you respected that greatly about the Prime. His sense of duty is what draws you to him in the first place, his sense of responsibility and his moralistic decisions always reflected the good in his spark- he was the best partner for you, and you are willing to wait till the end of time for him to be ready to share his feeling with you.

-You know how hard Optimus’ job can be, between having to take care of his fellow Autobots and worrying about all the red tape and politics that the government has done to ensure they had some semblance of control of this whole Decepticon situation. You understood better than anyone how being in control all the time is stressful, which is why even though you knew it made him a little uncomfortable, you would always give him kisses in public- it was the one innocent thing you could do to show that he doesn’t always have to be at the helm of all the problems and ailments in the world. He deserves happiness, even if he doesn’t believe it himself, and you wanted to be that ray of light for the bot that was almost a deity to his people- a reminder that he is beyond what others perceive him to be, a reminder given in the form of a soft kiss in front of all those soldiers and Autobots to let them all know that Optimus’ happiness is just as important as theirs is.

Crosshairs

-He was more of a bot of action rather than one of words, and in a world that seemed to frown upon the philosophy of “ask for forgiveness and not permission”- it was one of those things that no one would have ever thought this tough bot would have liked or even tolerated from some squishy little thing like you. It was his weakness for kissing and some forms of physical intimacy that others would exploit from him as weak and laughable. Crosshairs was a mech who seemingly turned to melted butter in your warm hands so to speak when you simply planted your soft lips upon his contrastingly hard faceplate. It wasn’t something anybody thought could happen to a rough and tumble mech like Crosshairs, and it was something he was kind of ashamed of- you promised not to tell another living soul so long as you were the only human who ever got to see him this way.

-You were always surprised by how warm and inviting his faceplate can be when it comes to someone who is made of metal and wires- to say the least you expected him to be cold and clammy but it was a nice surprised to feel how warm and inviting his bare protoform was. You liked to pepper kisses in any place you can seemingly get your lips on, and you loved how Crosshairs would just grumble and mumble under is breathe about how clingy and mushy you were, even though you both knew full well he absolutely loved the affections you were showing him. He will never say it out loud, but you make him feel like the only Cybertronian on the planet in the best of ways, and no amount of masculine actions and rowdy rough and tumble fights can ever make him feel as alive as you do. Romance and gushy junk wasn’t something he was good at, and whether or not you were all that good at it either, any kind of thing you do to make him feel special like sprinkle his face with your small warm and soft kisses it plenty enough to remind him of how important you were to him.

-Rarely does he ever actually be the one to give you kisses back, but when he does it is mostly for special occasions like your birthday or a human holiday that you tell him its important and very traditional. At first he thought you were lying about that stupid mistletoe thing on christmas, but after extensive research he has found it to be true, he is more questioning how you managed to time his arrival into a big doorway so precisely that it was an actual surprise to him. Another kiss he will willingly give you is on New Year’s, as you had to explain that it was a way to invite good fortune and love into the new year, and he rebuttled he didn’t understand why humans celebrate another rotation around your sun but sure, he can give you one of his signature smooches at midnight so long as no one is around to see him become all fluffy and junk.

Ironhide

-He thought himself to be above all of the physical kinds of love, he was a soldier after all, and he did not have time to partake in some frivolous forms of affection. You sure proved this old war dog wrong as he always became silently grateful to all of the kinds of things you did for him, including things like kissing him right on his faceplate despite whoever wa in the room. It was like a  weird power move on your part, to show you had so much dominance over him despite the fact he was physically much bigger and stronger than you, he loved how bold you were and it was an easy way to get him to stop talking and joking around with you for long enough that you can get words in edgewise. A power you have to remember to only use for the forces of good and not for your own personal gain, no matter how tempting it was to mess with this supposed hardened soldier.

-He never thought himself much of a showboater when it came to thing slike mates and lovers, but seeing how jealous some of the other recruits got when you would just come up to him and show him affection by smacking your soft lips all over his face, well it filled him with their weird sense of pride to know that even his battle scarred form he can still be a big headturner to all of those who doubted his prowess. He enjoyed it when you flaunted your love for him for everyone to see, though, he won’t admit that out loud but you could tell- he was about as easy to read as a book meant for a two year old. He can try to hide that ever growing grin on his face when you walk up to him on the catwalks and just give him a big ol’ smooch in passing all he wants, it as easy to tell he is madly in love with the way you so easily flaunted your affection in his direction.  He was always hyper aware of the fact humans were more physically touchy than Cybertronians were, and he never really appreciated how much a single touch could affect him until he started seeing you- honestly, he was missing out on so much his whole life, Cybertronians need to get with the times!

-Kissing lovers was a given, kissing family was a little weird to him but sure, but he was baffled that in some human cultures friends just openly hug and kiss each other and it mean nothing more than what a handshake or a high five means. You laughed as you explained that humans were so diverse a kiss means so many things from a greeting to a declaration of love- and some cultures it’s considered rude to not kiss someone when you first greet them. He scoffed and balked at the fact he would ever be expected to kiss someone like Optimus Prime every time he greeted him, that physical affection thing, maybe humans do have the wrong idea after all… It was easy to change him mind with a little wink and a little kiss though, he was so easy to keep on the edge of an opinion it’s kind of cute how he cant make up his mind on whether or not kisses are lame or not.

(04/28/18)

[bigbrothernetflix-st]

EPISODE TEN

“One hour to go until I find out if people are actually keeping me, or if they're all just being assholes and wanting to blindside me.” - jev

HOH: Brianna NOMINEES: Jev & Kiki POV: Nathan FINAL NOMINEES: Jev & Kiki EVICTED: Kiki (4-0)

JEV

I feel this could be the end for me this week, considering I named Brianna as renom last week and she has nominated me previously it's not looking good for me. However, last week after naming her renom, I did send her screenshots from Nathan of him throwing her and Aria under the bus to me just incase she stayed, so I purposefully threw him under the bus for this exact reason and I'm just hoping the move will pay off and there's even a slight chance she'll nominate him and keep me off the block. I'm also hoping she'll recognise that I didn't consider her as one of my initial noms and only named her as replacement because I was put into a shitty predicament last week by Nathan and his veto win, but who knows. I'm extremely proud of the game I've played but it'd suck to leave at F7 after getting this far.

BRIANNA

https://youtu.be/z8bOEMq9gh8

ARIA

So....its been a bit huh,...sorry about that yall pls just take this anaylsis of everyone left k thanks <3

NATHAN

Looking at the whole of his game this man has been targeted since prejury yet his social connections and physical prowess has kept him safe this long- typically this would lend itself to a very strong underdog story but at the same time his attitude this game has been very rocky as he's threatened to quit or just give up multiple times before which may decrease the amount of respect the jury has for him. At this moment in time he can be categorized as a big player due to his numerous fights which could gain jury respect because it does show that he wants to play but im unsure if its enough. In terms of social connections he presents himself as having limited connections with others as he doesnt talk with kiki or jev but has a mutual understanding between him and joshua as they are both big threats/targets leading them to want to keep each other safe. This does bring up complications when trying to eliminate joshua from this game but thats for another analysis. He's constantly threatened the status quo of the house and if it wasn't for his attitude (and maybe the lack of connections to people like kiki and jev) he could be a shoe-in to win. It should also be considered that he has constant correspondence with emma and somewhat of a connections with bri. It should also be highlighted that hes very good at mending bridges considering hes working with someone he previously attempted to nominate (brianna) and had a fight with (joshua) Honestly he's playing a great game and the bitterness visible from kiki/jev does not reflect the jury- its more likely that he can beat me at the end. 

Leaving: f3/4/

Threat: Big/Physical

Winning Chance: 4/5

KIKI

So most players still left in the game perceive kiki to just be coasting along and honestly their win chances are minimal. I think their social game has been slacking as well as they're typically very hesitant to be honest with their game thoughts so they've failed to secure the connections that they need to get them to the end of this game. Their view on the game is also very confusing as they pretended to not know sides to me and no matter what the truth was it was a very bad look on their part. Also on a more personal note they showed that they're willing to snap as seen yesterday in bri's dms and in the live competition channel. In terms of this vote I have hardly any connection to them and if they won hoh next week i know that i would not be safe unlike jev who i've formed a more honest relationship with. I am slightly worried that im taking out someone with no win chance but my first priority will always be house dynamics and to appease the bb gods, they need to leave.

Leaving: f7

Threat: None, likeability

Winning chance: 1/5

JOSHUA

Literally just hand the kid the winning title and pots at this point his control over the game is incredible. He has deals and connections with EVERY single person in this game and I truly feel like he can make the end if we dont take him out here but I can't control nathan at this point. I think he's formed connections to me and nathan through all of us being "big threats" while he has connections to Jev/Emma/Kiki as they were all on the original side and he's somehow escaped the block on someones hoh who he previously put up...this guy is unstoppable wtf. However the entire game IS aware of his skill and its very likely that he gets taken out soon because of this unless he goes on a comp run. I also find it very likely that the jury is rooting for him as he remained respectful with every evictee and had justifications for every eviction beyond just house dynamics and his game has been straighforward with his noms and bold with his connections. Im unsure of how exactly to get rid of him but I believe he thinks we're close (f2 tingz) and I find it unlikely he takes me out although i think hes notices that ive been a bit more closed off this week which is worrying for future endeavors.

Leaving: f6/f5

Threat: Big/Phyiscal/Social

Winning Chance: 5/5!!!!

JEV

Out of everyone left I find it very difficult to think of how Jev is playing, I think he's either playing the most straight forward game I've ever seen or his game has a lot of hidden depths. I mean how I view his game as another player is that he came into this game very unconnected but managed to wiggle his way into stable sides and form good connections where they've kept him safe when possible. Once he gained a side he stuck to it and just played an overall loyal game minus the yelling at nathan when he lied to him. I dont think the jury is very bitter at him but I also don't believe that they're super high on him in comparison to people like joshua. In terms of our own connection I think I might be higher on his trust list due to me being very proactive about using veto on him and voting to keep him- i dont think ill be in danger if he wins hoh but nathan sure will :nicolequeen: There is a chance he can beat me at the end just due to not fucking over all of the jury but the chance we make f2 is very small, he represents the utr social player that joshua might be scared of winning 

Leaving: f6/f5

Threat: Balance/Middle

Winning Chance: 4/5

EMMA

Emma's game is very interesting because its similar to kiki in the fact that she's been coasting or just sticking to her side but she's aware of her flawed gameplay and wants to do better and make moves. However the end is closing end and I doubt she has the time to really make a move although she has been very smart about how she presents herself to others this entire game showing high sense of strategy. I think we're fairly close in a personal and game sense (unless shes just buttering me up for the slaughter as her own big move) so I would love to take her very far in this game. Im unsure of how the jury view her at this point in time but i cant imagine it being very high at this time unless shes manipulating things behind the scenes. At the end shes probably one of the only people I can beat because the jury might want a "big" player to win so she's def an ideal f2 choice at THIS time.

Leaving: f3/f2

Threat: Strategic

Winning Chance: 2/5

BRIANNA

First off I love her so much personally she's seriously the kindest person I've met and i absolutely adore her but also her game has been fairly impressive so far. Her actions have been the catalyst for sides to form and big moves being made- however i can say that I had a hand in a series of these moves but received no blowback (or recognition) for them yet and I'm unsure how the jury will view us as a duo or who can lay claim to the moves made. I think some of the jury may be bitter such as Josh c and Nick but at the same time she'll have fans such as joey and jacob so its a very mixed bad and I think we'll be trying for the same votes which is worrying. She's also fairly good at comps and socializing putting her on a similar stage as nathan and joshua although for some reason she never gets the credit :/ Im unsure whether I want her at the end or not but there is a possibility ill cut her...

Leaving: ???

Threat: Social/Comp

Winning: ???

And i think i dont stand a chance tbh, my jury management has been ass but im gonna do my best <3 also sorry if this was mean fsabhfds

JEV

So Brianna has let me know that she is more than likely going to put me up as one of her initial nominees, meaning I've had to plead my case to her and severely downplay my game thus far in the hopes that she'll hear me out and by some miracle will spare me from the block this week, I'll insert the plea I sent to her at the end of this DR. I just hope she realises that there are bigger fish to fry cough Nathan cough and maybe even Joshua, although I respect him as an ally too much to even consider throwing his name out to Brianna like that. Worst comes to worst I'll just have to gun super hard for veto and take myself down, then work out the play from there if one of the other hot girls are put up in my place, but I hope Brianna isn't dumb and recognises that there isn't a drop of loyalty inside of Nathan and that she'd be stupid to keep him around another week.

JEV

So I asked Joshua if he'd save me if he won the veto, and he straight up said he'd use it on Kiki because he'd "feel bad" since he used it on me the last time me and Kiki were on the block together. It's made me feel kinda shitty because it's kinda solidifying to me that he considers me at least 3rd in our alliance, and that he and Kiki are quite likely a duo together. I have to try my hardest for this veto because I for sure leave over Kiki or the renom.

JEV

So... there is a chance, albeit a slim chance, that Nathan may use the power of veto on me. I've tried to butter him up by playing up to his kind of wildcard playstyle by saying that nobody would see it coming and it'd be the gag to end all gags, but who knows what he might do. He said he's considering it and will keep me in the loop just so I know what to expect. If I stay on the block, I know I hopefully have Aria & Emma's votes to keep me on lock, which means I'd only have to convince Joshua or Nathan to keep me, OR sway Brianna to keep me in the event of a tie, which I think is the most unlikely of the 3. Prior to tonights veto, I would've thought I'd have Joshua's vote to stay, but now I think its clear that Kiki/Joshua are a duo and Me/Emma are a duo, so I don't think I'd be able to sway him to save me unfortunately. However the rest of this week plays out, I have a lot of ass kissing to do which I hate but hopefully I can work a miracle

JEV

So... considering Nathan has promised safety to me this week I didn't quite expect him to go off on me like that in his veto speech but... I'm just gonna take the high road and not even acknowledge the video in house chat, as much as it sucks I just have to let Kiki run their mouth so hopefully people remain inclined to keep them around over me.

JEV

One hour to go until I find out if people are actually keeping me, or if they're all just being assholes and wanting to blindside me. As it stands, it should be 4-0 since all four of them have promised me their vote, but I'm lowkey suspicious about Nathan and Joshua, there's just something in the back of my mind telling me to be wary, I hope I'm just overthinking though

HOST WEEKLY CAST ASSESSMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29822U0WqVk&list=PLFEwPPy8j010XXwntq80VSU0qLNTNpSIN&index=11&t=0s

[ulfwolf]

Observation

an Element of Fiction

"In a way, nobody sees a flower, really, it is so small, we haven’t the time—and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.” Georgia O’Keeffe

“Observation and the inner truth of that observation as he perceives it, the two being tested one against the other: to him [the writer] this is what the writing of a novel is.” Eudora Welty

“The fiction writer is an observer, first, last, and always.” Flannery O’Connor

“To gaze is to think.” Salvador Dalí

“The eye with which I see God is the same eye with which God sees me.” Meister Eckhart

“The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something and tell what he saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, and thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion all in one.” John Ruskin

“There is a difference if we see something with a pencil in our hand or without one.” Paul Valéry

“The surest—also the quickest—way to awake the sense of wonder in ourselves is to look intently, undeterred, at a single object. Suddenly, miraculously, it will reveal itself as something we have never seen before.” Cesare Pavese

“It is essential for a writer unceasingly to study men, and it is a fault in me that I find it often a very tedious business. It requires a great deal of patience.” W. Somerset Maugham

“Mark the greater from the lesser truth: namely the larger and more liberal idea of nature from the comparatively narrow and confined… that which addresses itself to the imagination from that which is solely addressed to the Eye.” J.M.W. Turner paraphrasing Sir Joshua Reynolds

“We lack trust in the present, this moment, this actual seeing, because our culture tells us to trust only the reported back, the publicly framed, the edited, the thing set in the clearly artistic or the clearly scientific angle of perspective. One of the deepest lessons we have to learn is that nature, of its nature, resists this. It waits to be seen otherwise, in its individual presentness and from our individual presentness.” John Fowles

“To be a writer and not a hack, you must clear your mind of cant and allow multitudinous messages to come to you from the souls of your fellowmen. They are the secret source of your abundant ideas. People do not know what they communicate; yet it is they whom you ‘read,’ consciously and unconsciously, and whom you interpret to themselves, in stories, poems, plays, or works of social and moral philosophy.” Jacques Barzun

“The novelist is required to open his eyes on the world around him and look. If what he sees is not highly edifying, he is still required to look. Then he is required to reproduce, with words, what he sees.” Flannery O’Connor

“I should notice everything—the phrase for it coming the moment after and fitting like a glove.” Virginia Woolf

“Your characterizations will never be better than your power of observation.” Ayn Rand

“That close scrutiny is one among many elements that make up the practice of fiction; let it serve as a clue to the value of authentic practice—and to the waste and harm in fictional malpractice.” John Gardner

“[A] writer is forced from all sides to make his gaze extend beyond the surface, beyond mere problems, until it touches that realm which is the concern of prophets and poets.” Flannery O’Connor

“By being a constant, conscious valuer of people, you gather the material from which you will draw your future characterizations.” Ayn Rand

“What conveys honesty? What conveys dishonesty? You can observe these characteristics only by their outward manifestations—by the words, actions, gestures, and subtler mannerisms of people.” Ayn Rand

“I see only what is outside and what sticks out a mile, such things as the sun that nobody has to uncover or be bright to see. When I first started to write, I was much worried over not being subtle but it don’t worry me any more.” Flannery O’Connor

“The eye sees what it has been given to see by concrete circumstances, and the imagination reproduces what, by some related gift, it is able to make live.” Flannery O’Connor

“For the writer of fiction, everything has its testing in the eye.” Flannery O’Connor

“Now learning to see is the basis for learning all the arts except music. I know a good many fiction writers who paint, not because they’re any good at it, but because it helps in their writing. It forces them to look at things. Fiction writing is very seldom a matter of saying things; it is a matter of showing things.” Flannery O’Connor

“In fiction we stand back, weigh things as we do not have to do in life; and the effect of great fiction is to temper real experience, modify prejudice, humanize.” John Gardner

“The true writer’s scrutiny of imagined scenes both feeds on and feeds his real-life experience: almost without knowing he’s doing it, the writer becomes an alert observer.” John Gardner

“We study people carefully for two main reasons: in order to understand them and fully experience our exchange with them, or in order to feel ourselves superior. The first purpose can contribute to art and is natural to art, since the soul of art is celebration and discovery through imitation.” John Gardner

“He must present, moment by moment, concrete images drawn from careful observation of how people behave, and he must render the connections between moments, the exact gestures, facial expressions, or turns of speech that, within any give scene, move human beings from emotion to emotion, from one instant in time to the next.” John Gardner

“Write as if you were a movie camera. Get exactly what is there. Getting it down precisely is all that is meant by ‘the accuracy of the writer’s eye.’” John Gardner

“Getting down what the writer really cares about—setting down what the writer himself notices, as opposed to what any fool might notice—is all that is meant by the originality of the writer’s eye.” John Gardner

“Both because the cogency of his story depends on it and because he has learned to take pride in getting his scenes exactly right, the good writer scrutinizes the imagined or remembered scene with full concentration. Though his plot seems to be rolling along beautifully and his characters seem to be behaving with authentic and surprising independence, as characters in good fiction always do, the writer is willing to stop writing for a minute or two, or even stop for a long while, to figure out precisely what some object or gesture looks like and hunt down exactly the right word to describe it.” John Gardner

“It may feel more classy to imitate James Joyce or Walter Percy than All in the Family; but every literary imitation lacks something we expect of good writing: the writer seeing with his own eyes.” John Gardner

“The noblest originality is not stylistic but visionary and intellectual; the writer’s accurate presentation of what he, himself, has seen, heard, thought, and felt.” John Gardner

“To fail to imitate people as they are, even in a fable which takes as its setting ancient Nubia or outer space, would reveal a lack of the true artist’s most noticeable characteristic: fascination with the feelings, gestures, obsessions, and phobias of the people of his own time and place. One cannot imagine a Dante, a Chaucer, a Shakespeare, or a Racine without characters drawn from scrutiny of real people.” John Gardner

“He [the artist] is one who can see in the country of the blind.” John Gardner

“The novelist must be characterized not by his function but by his vision, and we must remember that his vision has to be transmitted and that the limitations and blind spots of his audience will very definitely affect the way he is able to show what he sees. This is another thing which in these times increases the tendency toward the grotesque in fiction.” Flannery O’Connor

“The writer who emphasizes spiritual values is very likely to take the darkest view of all of what he sees in this country today. For him, the fact that we are the most powerful and the wealthiest nation in the world doesn’t mean a thing in any positive sense. The sharper the light of faith, the more glaring are apt to be the distortions the writer sees in the life around him.” Flannery O’Connor

“The kind of vision the fiction writer needs to have, or to develop, in order to increase the meaning of his story is called anagogical vision, and that is the kind of vision that is able to see different levels of reality in one image or one situation.” Flannery O’Connor

“Any discipline can help your writing: logic, mathematics, theology, and of course and particularly drawing. Anything that helps you see, anything that makes you look. The writer should never be ashamed of staring. There is nothing that doesn’t require his attention.” Flannery O’Connor

“There are two qualities that make fiction. One is the sense of mystery and the other is the sense of manners. You get the manners from the texture of existence that surrounds you.” Flannery O’Connor”

“A view taken in the light of the absolute will include a good deal more than one taken merely in the light provided by a house-to-house survey.” Flannery O’Connor

“Observing [a client] in his or her own element is usually very telling. Behavior is always more revealing than language. If you know what to look for.” Jake Kasdan

“There is that unique moment when one confronts something new and astonishment begins. Whatever it is, it looms brightly, its edges sharp, its details ravishing, in a hard clear light; just beholding it is a form of revelation.” Diane Ackerman

“So much of our life passes in a comfortable blur. Living on the senses requires an easily triggered sense of marvel, a little extra energy, and most people are lazy about life. Life is something that happens to them while they wait for death.” Diane Ackerman

“Be someone on whom nothing is lost.” Henry James

“Knowing the place for the first time is for me a repetitive process, not some sort of single climactic event. There are always knowings for the first time, on even the simplest or most familiar return . . . if one knows how to look for them.” John Fowles

“The hardest thing in the world to do is to write straight honest prose on human beings. First you have to know the subject; then you have to know how to write. Both take a lifetime to learn.” Ernest Hemingway

“Listen now. When people talk listen completely. Don’t be thinking what you’re going to say. Most people never listen. Nor do they observe.” Ernest Hemingway

“You should be able to go into a room and when you come out know everything that you saw there and not only that. If that room gave you any feeling you should know exactly what it was that gave you that feeling. Try that for practice.” Ernest Hemingway

“When you’re in town stand outside the theatre and see how the people differ in the way they get out of taxis or motor cars. There are a thousand ways to practice. And always think of other people.” Ernest Hemingway

“The writer, unlike his non-writing adult friend, has no predisposed outlook; he seldom observes deliberately. He sees what he did not intend to see; he remembers what does not seem wholly possible. Inattentive learner in the schoolroom of life, he keeps some faculty free to veer and wander. He is the roving eye.” Elizabeth Bowen

“I write to live, and I write to share. The Original Creator’s version seems random and fantastic, but there are enough consistencies, if you wait and watch for them, to give remarkable tales. You must wake up terribly to catch them, even though what you produce may be close to dream.” Barry Hannah

“Listen to your broccoli, and your broccoli will tell you how to eat it.” Mel Brooks

“What a strange life it is. Inspecting it for the purpose of setting it down on paper only illuminates its strangeness.” John Steinbeck

“My task is to chronicle those little daily lacerations upon the spirit.” Anthony Trollope

“I enjoy writing: I think I am an honest observer.” Virginia Woolf

(c) Wolfstuff

P.S. If you like what you’ve read here and would like to send me a small gift of thanks, as it were, you can do so via PayPal: here.

[toomanysinks]

Timing and why we’re all VCs

Timing is the single most valuable skill of the modern economy, but I would argue its’s the least understood and also the least practiced.

Capitalism is fundamentally about timing, since market competition is about finding opportunities before others. When should you start a company? What company should you start? When should a VC invest? When should you join a company? When should you switch industries? When should you back a candidate for public office?

Every single one of our professional decisions is about timing, and yet, we do so little to practice and perfect it. Most employees only make 3-4 major career decisions in their lifetimes — hardly enough feedback for this skill to mature. Anyone who has worked in a large company further knows that timing a product launch or a new marketing strategy has more to do with internal politics than reading market forces.

Most of us want to make more money and accelerate our careers, but the truth is that these opportunities are few and far between. Most jobs have limited growth potential. Most startups die. Most VCs don’t make money. Most political candidates fail to get elected. The difference between success and failure sometimes has to do with hard work and tenacity, but far more often with the strategy of timing.

It’s obvious that we can be too late to these decisions of course. We can miss the round of financing, we can start a company a year or two behind someone else and lose the first-mover advantage. But we can also be way too early, ahead of the market and losing out on alternative opportunities that might have been more valuable.

Now, some perceive that “timing” is synonymous with “luck.” There is some truth there, in the sense that life is random and sometimes — completely unintentionally — people stumble upon a treasure chest of gold.

Don’t be distracted by that, because there are also people who just seem to have timing nailed. There are engineers (I know because I have seen their recruiter profiles) who have joined three unicorns in a row in the first handful of employees. There are VCs who get a string of wins that is far from chance. There are CEOs that always seem to guide their companies to the right place at the right time and drive their stock valuations up.

We talked a lot about why we can’t build infrastructure in America yesterday. One of the challenges is simply timing: so many things have to happen at once for these projects to get off the ground, and most governors and mayors lack the timing skills required to get them over the finish line.

How can you practice timing? Start writing down predictions about people, companies, and markets. Check in with the companies you talked with a few years ago — how are they doing? Ditto people you met a while back. Start evaluating your predictions: were they correct? Were they too early or too late?

More importantly, start cultivating networks of friends who have a sense of pulse on the frontiers of the economy. That could mean someone at the edge of a new science (quantum computing or AI) or someone who gets marketing to new demographics, or someone who tracks new regulatory and legal changes. Find a peer group of people who get timing and practice it as a craft.

Between TechCrunch today and my former roles in venture capital, I’ve had the opportunity to practice timing a lot. I have a list of companies that I would have backed, and some have turned into unicorns while others have ended up on the ash heap of history. I’ve predicted some trends well, while flubbed others. I’ve been way too early (a huge bias for me), and sometimes stupidly late.

But all along, I am practicing that timing muscle. It’s the only way forward in capitalism, and it’s worth every investment you can make.

Mithril Capital, management fees, and VC strategic drift

Peter Kim via Getty Images

Theodore Schleifer at Recode reported a rare deep dive into the internal intrigue at a prominent VC firm, in this case Mithril Capital. From the article:

Mithril had its best moment yet last week when a portfolio company, Auris Health, sold to Johnson & Johnson for more than $3 billion — returning at least $500 million to the fund.

All appears well. But behind the scenes, a far different story has been unfolding.

The late-stage investment firm has been a slow-burning mess for the past several months, angering current and former employees, limited partners, and, crucially, [Peter] Thiel himself, sources say.

Among the issues is the firm’s huge management fee … and I guess lack of expenses?

The firm is likely collecting as much as $20 million a year in management fees, sources familiar with the figures say.

We don’t know exactly how much the firm spends, but people close to Mithril say they can’t imagine that the firm, given its staff size, is spending more than half of that on operational expenses. [Mithril Capital founder Ajay] Royan’s salary, like that of other venture capitalists, is not publicly disclosed.

One limited partner called the fees, given the size of Mithril’s staff, “outrageous.”

What? I don’t understand this line of reasoning at all. The firm negotiates a fairly standard agreement with its limited partners, and then the LPs are pissed because the firm isn’t spending the money on massive staff and large, expensive offices? The whole point of delegating investment decisions to a GP is to empower them to organize their firm to win deals and get stuff done. If — and it’s a big if of course — they can do that on the cheap, then why should an LP care at all? Burn the management fee in a fireplace if it makes the deals happen.

Ajay Royan told Bloomberg in 2017 that Mithril does not “charge excessive fees.” But he was not exactly known for being thrifty with management money. Former employees describe Friday catered lunches where costs could run over $100 per person, and Royan was known internally for a “book ordering problem” — a former employee said that “unbelievable amounts of books” would be delivered each week to the office by Amazon to maintain the firm’s extensive library.

Pro tip: take on the mantle of book editor for a major tech publication, and the publishers will mail you books for free. We get at least a dozen at the TC offices every week, which is why we write about books so often around here these days. Alas, no $100 catered lunches.

The wider story here though appears to be one of a firm completely strategically adrift. Mithril is struggling to compete against ferocious competition in the growth-stage equity market. The best deals are obvious to dozens of firms, and the ones that are less obvious have huge risks attached to them that make it hard to write the big checks required.

“[Royan] literally did not want to compete. If there was a process or bidding war or something resembling a competition, he would just walk,” the employee said. “And he would just say, ‘I don’t want to outbid.’”

Mithril is hardly the only VC firm that is strategically adrift. Every time I go back to SF, this seems to be the norm these days among venture capitalists. There is a huge amount of money sloshing around, and very few deals that are in that sweet spot between obvious and highly risky. Startups either get three dozen term sheets or none at all, since every firm is walking around with the same frameworks and metrics in their head.

It’s so rare to actually hear a VC strategy that isn’t generic capital, that has some differentiation on sourcing, and picking, and growing businesses beyond the “we invest in great companies.” VCs don’t like strategy because it means making choices, and making choices means saying no to certain things, and those things might be the next Facebook. So they do everything, all the time, which really means they do nothing. And so we get book ordering problems and expensive lunches and weirdly angry LPs. What a boring mess.

Quality tech news from around the web

Written by Arman Tabatabai

Carl Larson Photography via Getty Images

South California is also seeing declining seed investment

Today, the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (LAEDC) published its updated economic forecast for LA and the Southern California region. One interesting note in the report is an observed slow down in early-stage venture investing. The report highlighted that while growth-stage investments in CA were hitting record highs, total deal count and seed investing — both in terms of total seed dollars and seed deal count — were at their lowest points since 2012.

The data points in LA, Southern CA, and the rest of the state seem to follow the trend of declining seed rounds seen in the rest of the country. While the topic is one we’ve previously discussed and one which has heated up in recent weeks with commentary from Marc Suster, Fred Wilson, and others, it’s interesting to see the trend occurring even in more nascent startup markets.

Will “Diet CA-HSR” even get done as feds look to pull back California funding

The federal government announced that it would be pulling back $1 billion in funding that was slated for the California high-speed rail project through 2022, while also pursuing legal action to help recoup the $2.5 billion it has already coughed up. The Federal Railroad Administration is arguing that the state’s updated plan — completing only a route from Bakersfield to Merced — is starkly different from the plan for which the funds were originally allocated. Ouch.

As stock exchanges compete to attract IPOs, unicorns and investors win?

It might be getting easier for companies to go public around the world. With ample late-stage capital keeping more companies staying private for longer, looser rules from the SEC and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange may be on the way to help entice more IPOs.

In the US, the SEC proposed allowing all companies to market themselves to investors before announcing IPOs versus just those that fall under the agency’s “emerging growth” definition. Across the Pacific, Bloomberg reported that Chinese tech companies have been lobbying the HK Exchange for a number of more favorable rules, including allowing companies to maintain extra voting rights and letting major shareholders buy extra stock in the process. With a serious number of Chinese companies opting to list on foreign exchanges last year, the HK Exchange might be feeling pressure to cough up concessions that could help them win local listings — especially if the US moves forward with friendlier rules.

How Japan lost half its citizens with poor data

The Japanese government failed to pay out billions of yen in government benefits for years due to faulty data. If that wasn’t bad enough, Nikkei Asian Review reported yesterday that the government is struggling to even locate roughly half of those who are owed since they don’t have their current addresses on file.

As simple as it may seem, tracking the indebted is actually a tall task since citizens have changed residences, changed names, and since the Japanese government has historically destroyed benefit applications (containing address info) after the period required to maintain them. At this point, it’s unclear whether everyone who is owed will even end up getting paid, with the Japanese government now offering a prime example of how poor data maintenance and not just poor data collection can make a situation go from bad to a whole lot worse.

Can the race to build roads in Southeast Asia avoid development gridlock?

As we harp on our “Why can’t we build anything?” obsession, infrastructure development in Southeast Asia is continuing to heat up and everyone seems to want a piece of the pie. Japan announced plans to further accelerate investment into infrastructure and urban development in the region — where China is also actively engaged — with initial expansion talks focused on Cambodia and the Philippines. At the same time, a newly unveiled government budget in Singapore and the ongoing election in Indonesia have brought infrastructure development strategies into the spotlight, with open debate on how these projects have been and should be funded.

Obsessions

More discussion of megaprojects, infrastructure, and “why can’t we build things”

We are going to be talking India here, focused around the book “Billonnaire Raj” by James Crabtree

We have a lot to catch up on in the China world when the EC launch craziness dies down. Plus, we are covering The Next Factory of the World by Irene Yuan Sun.

Societal resilience and geoengineering are still top-of-mind

Some more on metrics design and quantification

Thanks

To every member of Extra Crunch: thank you. You allow us to get off the ad-laden media churn conveyor belt and spend quality time on amazing ideas, people, and companies. If I can ever be of assistance, hit reply, or send an email to danny@techcrunch.com.

This newsletter is written with the assistance of Arman Tabatabai from New York

source https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/20/timing-and-why-were-all-vcs/

[crabbiey]

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An individual time of the year of Steven Culture has much more of most men and women details than pretty much almost all Michael Bay’s filmography. It's not some sort of vehicle accident. |I converse from becoming done it a good deal. comments. visually-talking, is profoundly nasty for the reason that it’s a) a negative hoax of another person else’s art work manner with out understandable guiding ideas and b) endeavoring to consists of total just about everything with the expectation a variety of it draws nippers. I essentially really feel there ought to be a pretty simple solution to consider shield aimbots similar to this than with respect to them as childish. You might be an excellent shield code that teenagers benefit from and not have to be for starters a game headline really quite really only built to siphon cash from young people. certainly. virtually impossible to Yup, treasured this Even though Trove Redeem Codes 2016 is a thing I’ve in no way done and many likely won't. 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Also, the by the hour timed gatherings which you could get the foreign currency (during a really low tumble amount) to have a dragon absolutely alter the momentum away from the shield code. about it's 100 % free. Personally, i Assign away from the things you stated was a fact, conversely, you had been pretty much purpose that you simply though it was actually a crappy shield code for any one but young people. Also, demonstrating some major understanding of syntax will help make your needs a heck on the many more influential. You could possibly purchase your kid an dress much like a indulge if they're effectively socialized. find out It will get you cosmetics. If you want to use over 10 for each go, you are designed drastically wrong. |I wasn’t even absolutely voicing my personal thoughts, essentially outlining the author’s subject matter on the OP. All shield aimbots are suitable for babies, just young people performs videogames.. categorization It’s a superb endeavor resolution for Trion, but we’re able to a spade a spade. Immediately after points during the frantic html coding, Markus leaned within the seat, completely satisfied while he discovered the problem sections beginning to fit into house. It’s performing.” You've have got to be kinda poor inside the thoughts? or something that is that way at least… Purpose Almost everything holding encompassing is TRADEABLE, the sole feature you may ONLY manage Needing to be charged is 1 Vitality Group, just 1. Getting in touch with it Minecraft… I consistently cant really feel how retarded that's -.- Continual by using the normal concept on the (remarkable) post, Personally, i don't like myself personally for bothering to answer. you have in no way Responses are evidently labeled ‘Wot I Think”. Due to the fact they I am fortunate enough i easily fit into with a couple of night clubs with priceless the public :) TIL Trove Redeem Codes 2016 is offered towards… Children and kids? Also, these assholes inside the comments. They’re this specific impenetrable subject that, to any one not in the arena, the methodical information articles feel like gobbledygook. |And you should have some amazing versions that can be found. Noisally. Was not it? For… A long while? Yay, snobbery! If it could be that there is a online site which solely catered inside my likes - which are reasonably the most appropriate likes, anybody who does not promote them anything at all anything at all cess-pit - thus establishing several which i in no way desire to visit anything at all about anything at all We do not by now like. Grateful to hear you are weaned out that habit, worried that time hasn't show up at this point in my view personally FWIW, as well as to shed a couple of much more of energy on the planet, whence you needed been originating from was really quite reasonable inside my undertaking although I was thinking you needed been consistently taking part in Air conditioning. OR, you might be a legitimate father or mother, and use men and women infinite F2P technicians to indicate abusive shield code technicians for use on your flourishing little bit game addict even while they’re youthful. |I that would consider with it. I listen to it for the reason that Cube Culture is within limbo. may well as well The MMO attribute could be testing at gatherings, inside your lot of machine conditions they’ve endured on the grounds that releasing on Water vapor not too long ago on the chat worthless junk e-email and also other annoying actions real gamer interaction will probably present with the help of it. Just on the grounds that Please be sure to take part in the shield code in the correct way at the same time you could try mods choosing our modloader (that you simply Fully not addressed) before you decide to judge first. These commenters, and also the article writer need to know , if you feel you are preferable over those who engage in farmville, because you really feel they're youthful or unfamiliar, exactly why would you proper care? It’s blowing my thinking - farmville doesn't result your lifestyle harmfully by any means, it’s basically a electric power electric outlet that many of us taking fulfillment from, but somehow they’re conducting the process drastically wrong. disagree employing the For the reason that both of them becoming voxel and property doesnt entail its a minecraft would-be. We do nothing like it have end up as refrained from consent or telling me… We have now noticed much of Trove Redeem Codes 2016 members at For its basic art work manner with assorted smooth-textured voxel tools and smaller prevent over all size, the absolute number of personalization readily available for your smaller cornerstone is surprising. your cornerstone is everlasting, there's no one destination you can possibly return to to be able to look at it. This might appear strange in the beginning but bear in mind the tasty recipes from ahead of when Except for a couple of primary major tones, it is important to educate yourself on the formula for any color or shade then create it choosing among the primary color or shade disables. |a sufficient In a a smaller amount strict real sense, Trove Redeem Codes 2016 isn't be charged-to-profit whatsoever. Even though indeed being good fun to discover, Trove Redeem Codes 2016 is ideal done simply speaking bursts because of the similar shield code engage in and straightforward dungeon conclusion gatherings. You can even automate it ought to you enable lava to circulate in from Dragonfire Peaks ( Uber-5, Performance Rank 800 ), regardless of the fact you need to be within level of window as well as a level of lava to make certain no Intruders have you. Fantastic Steel Will - Re-establish all health coverage and reduce inbound cause damage to. swifter, and Dracolyte Employing their dog dragon on a single palms, in addition to their reliable team inside the other, the Dracolyte creates the pain to the complete packages of enemies in addition. Trove Redeem Codes 2016 creates members right into a world of infinite possible choices by which position-taking part in and producing collide, hole the case pattern and making it possible for just about everything holding encompassing in making around the area. Trion Worlds’ voxel MMO venture shield code Trove Redeem Codes 2016 goes in Available Beta right now for Ps 4 and Xbox 1. I came across this to become rather unpleasant. additional a It provides a sense of service which i look and feel is missing from rotate based on or any other low legitimate-time platforms. |{You will discover wilderness worlds, neon worlds, chocolate worlds and fae worlds (and more). Loot is instanced The goals it includes an exceptional could be frustratingly inexplicable and if you thorough it first, you need to do it yet again. {}Assuming you have in no way done the Shovel Shadowy event range ahead of when, we'll briefly bust low points to foresee. Your smaller Shovel partner will take flight encompassing, greedily endeavoring to get These shield aimbots are fantastic, and having the full Shovel Shadowy event knowledge of it house, clocking in encompassing 15 hrs of shield code engage in inside our circumstances, generates mtss is essential-have for Turn proprietors - One more really good could possibly be the One more really good a part of the shield code may just be the unlimited realms and worlds you can possibly navigate to each one of these personalized consistent with your quality .Every one market has a number of dungeons and terrains and in all honesty different options are hrs just eradicating enemies and questing up. Until now as expertise Prepare DLC is anxious. Although the remainder of Trion was hectic concentrating on Defiance or becoming fired, somewhat, dedicated workforce was having a great time with polygonial Once holding out to register towards the significantly better a part of one hour possibly even I subsequently acquired 5 minutes with 100 % free-to-engage in voxel property MMO, Trove Redeem Codes 2016. A lot of fun was have by all, adopted by boisterous cursing.