#possibly the junes food court specifically

[kumakuma-circus]

not me listening to SNOWFLAKES on loop cuz it's low-key my favorite p4 song and realizing the lyrics like perfectly encompass yu's feelings about inaba and his friends and having to leave.

LOOK AT THIS SHIT. UGHHHHHH. THE PAIN OF HAVING MEDIA COMPREHENSION SKILLS,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[sachirobabe]

Chapter 8

Kuroo Tetsurou x reader

Wc: 3202

Summary: You, a dedicated member of the girls' volleyball team, find an unexpected connection with Kuroo Tetsurou. Igniting a bond over shared passions and stolen moments, love blossoms on the court; all because you met him at a captains meeting.

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Taglist: @merlucide, @lemurzsquad , @02shuuu, @michakune , @ivy-taylorsversion , @scinclaitnoir , @v-e-r-t21 , @bakugouswaif , @siheez

"You sure you don't want to come with?" You sigh into your phone, currently on a call with Himari.

"Nuh uh, no way." You can imagine she's shaking her head quickly, "I'm not going to ruin your date." She squeals.

"We're doing homework." You say, but a part of you is a little nervous to go. You've hung out with him before, but for some reason you're finding yourself caring about what you wear to meet up with him.

"It's a start. Trust me, I'm so rooting for you both." She says happily. "Text me when you're home so we can debrief." She squeals again and hung up.

You frown at your phone and set it down, looking through your closet to find something to wear. Do you wear something comfortable? Cute? Causal? It was pretty warm, as it was later in may, heading to June and July.

You decide on a casual comfy outfit, seeing no wrong in it. You checked your appearance last minute and take a deep breath before waving to your parents goodbye.

As you walk to the agreed destination, you text him that you're on your way. He sees your message as he's sitting at a table, he's been waiting for you. He was so nervous that he left extra early.

The sun beamed down on you, making you sweat a little and in need of a drink. You enter the library and your eyes meet his, you're smiling. A bit too much as you catch yourself excited to do homework with him.

"Hey." You quietly say, "I hope you weren't waiting too long?"

He shook his head, "Not at all." He lied, there's no way he's telling you that he was an hour early. "I got you a drink..I figured since it's warm out you'd be thirsty—or you like to sip on something as you work." He nervously says.

You think it's cute that you can see a hint of pink on his cheeks, why? You're not so sure about that. You can't possibly be thinking he likes you like that, right?

"Thank you, that's so nice of you." You smile and take the iced drink, sipping on it and enjoy the flavor he bought you.

He nods and sips his own drink, trying to calm himself down. He almost chokes on his drink as he spots a few of his teammates in disguise behind a book shelf. He glares at them, specifically Yaku. He just knows this was his idea.

His eyes look at you quickly and is less tense as you haven't even noticed them. You're looking through your backpack and finding a few worksheets. He makes up an excuse that he's going to try and find a book.

You buy it and he gets up and walks quickly over to his teammates. "What the fuck are you guys doing here?!" He whispers, careful not to make too much noise or draw any unwanted attention.

Yaku, Yamamoto, and Lev all wore some shitty disguise. One that consisted of sunglasses and hats—which was stupid in Kuroo's opinion, who wears sunglasses inside?

"It was his idea." Yamamoto and Lev point accusatory fingers at Yaku.

"Oh fuck you guys." Yaku sighs.

"What're you guys doing?! What if she sees you?" Kuroo panicked.

"Relax. I just had to see you weren't lying." Yaku says and crosses his arms.

"Yaku said I could learn a thing or two by coming." Lev says, throwing the libero under the bus again.

"And why are you here?" Kuroo rolls his eyes at the other twos excuses.

"Someone has to be the responsible one." Yamamoto proudly says, but Kuroo was not buying it. None of them were capable of that right now. "Okay fine. Yaku said he'd buy me food."

"Dude?!" Yaku looks at him, "Well, now you're not getting it."

"I said this was a bad idea, for the record." Yamamoto says, as if that was going to make him look more innocent. "And you're still buying me food."

"Guys, please leave. If she sees you guys—in these shitty disguises, she won't want to hangout with me again." Kuroo whines, grasping at anything to get his teammates to leave.

"Bro, relax." Yaku says, "We won't get noticed."

"And what if I did this to you while you're with the girl you like?" Kuroo flips the situation onto him.

"Yaku can't get girls." Lev says and Yaku kicks him, Yamamoto held his mouth to not laugh loudly.

Kuroo's mind was filled with worry, he'd laugh at that joke later. "Yaku, I can't be embarrassed. I'm already nervous as is." He admits.

Yaku senses his captains worries and sighs, "Okay fine. We'll leave, but I just wanted to make sure you weren't lying. I can't stand the fact that you have a girlfriend before me." He glares.

"Oh god, thank you." Kuroo breathes out a huge breath of relief. "I've already taken too long, hurry up before she sees you." The three nod and Kuroo acts casual as he walks back up to the table.

"You didn't find your book?" You ask quietly and look up from your worksheet.

He looks at you confused, but then realizes that was the lie he told you. "Oh—yeah, no. Couldn't find it." He takes a long sip of his drink, watching his teammates pretend they're in an action movie as they leave the library.

The workers all looked at them like they were crazy. He's glad you didn't look behind you, otherwise he probably would've died from embarrassment.

Kuroo takes out his homework and works on it quietly in front of you. After a little you take a mental break, putting away two out of three papers into folders and into your bag.

"You look focused." You smile, he thinks his entire face is red as he feels you stare at him.

"Coach Mori assigns a lot of homework." He chuckles, "How's it going for you?

"Good, I just need to take a break." You say and stretch, "Otherwise I think my brain will explode."

"Oh, I'm sure you're okay." Kuroo laughs. "Miss smarty pants." He teases.

You playfully rolled your eyes, "Ha ha. Very funny."

"You think I'm lyin'?" He quirks an eyebrow, his homework long forgotten about.

You shake your head and chuckle quietly, wary of others studying nearby. "I know I'm smart, way smarter than you." You tease a little, finding the small banter amusing.

He laughs a little too loud and gets a look from the librarian, he smiles widely at you and the two of you quietly chuckle. "You're going to get us kicked out." He says quietly.

"Me? You're the one who laughs loud." You shake your head.

He wants to tell you that he laughs loud like this when he's with you, nobody else can make him feel this way. But, he's taking baby steps right now, he can barely ask you to hangout without turning bright red.

"Hey, you wanna get out of here?" He speaks up after a few seconds.

You raise an eyebrow at him, "I thought we were supposed to be studious?" Your actions are the opposite of your words as you begin putting away your things.

He grins and throws his things into his bag, he stands up and pushes his chair in, waiting for you to finish up and follow him.

"Where are we going?" You ask, finally not having to keep your voice down.

He thinks for a moment, walking beside you. "Do you like ice cream?"

"Of course." You nod and smile.

"I know a place." He says and leads the way, "Kenma and I have been going here since we were kids."

"Himari and I have a spot like that too." You say, keeping up with his long legs.

"Yeah?" He says interested, "What is it?"

"Bowling." You chuckle, "You know that old place deeper in town?"

He hums, "Yeah, haven't been there since I was little. It's still running?"

"Himari and I practically keep the place going." Your laugh was beautiful to him, he needs to hear more of it. "Last time we went was for her birthday, right before school started."

"So, does that mean you're like a pro?" He smiles, thinking he could potentially beat you.

"I'm not bad, but definitely not the best." You see the competitive glint in his eyes, "We mostly go for the curly fries and milkshakes."

He shakes his head softly, "I found the ice cream place the first time I asked Kenma to play volleyball with me." He smiles at the memory, "I practically forced him, so I offered to buy him a cone if he played with me."

"So you bribed him into playing volleyball?" You raised an eyebrow at him and he chuckles.

"I guess so. I would ask him to play a lot, so he and I quickly became regulars at the shop." His eyes leave yours momentarily as he opens the shop door for you.

You thank him, the bell ringing and an older woman looks up from her magazine. "Is that you, Tetsurou?" She pushes up her glasses and smiles warmly at him.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Yuki." Kuroo smiles back at her.

"My oh my, you've grown." She chuckles and closes her magazine.

"Maybe just a little." He chuckles and scratches his neck, "but it's only been 2 weeks."

"2 weeks too long, dear." She says and finally takes notice of you, "And you've even brought your girlfriend, how cute." She claps her hands together.

You think your heart just stopped beating for a second, your mouth opens to deny or say anything, but a part of you kind of liked it.

Kuroo felt his face heat up, he had been telling her about his struggles to talk to you for years. "Oh, we're just—"

"What can I get you two?" She interrupts him, liking the way he blushes at you.

"Don't—uh don't mind her." Kuroo turns to you, "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. It's okay." You chuckle, noticing how his face was more pink than normal. "I've never been here before, what would you recommend?" You ask and walk closer to Mrs. Yuki.

"Well, all of our ice cream is homemade." She smiles warmly, she can see why Kuroo had taken a liking to you. "I'd be happy to let you sample any flavors you'd like."

You smile widely at and thank her. You take a few minutes to read the labels on the tubs, you tried a few flavors. They were all delicious, her ice cream was nothing you've ever tasted before.

"I'll do a scoop of strawberry, please." You say and throw away the little spoon of the sample. She nods and takes her scooper, she gets a heavy ball and puts it in a waffle cone.

You grab it and wait for Kuroo to order, wanting to treat him.

"I'll do my usual scoop of matcha." He tells her, his face is still pink from earlier. She goes to put it in the register, you weren't given a chance to go up because he beat you to it.

"Hey!" You protest, "I said—"

"Too slow." He grins and pays for both of your treats.

"I said next time was on me. Let me pay you back." You go to reach for your wallet and he stops you and shakes his head.

"I invited you here." He smiles, your breath is caught in your throat at his smile, you've always known he was cute, but this was different. He was more than cute.

"Fine, but next time—"

"Eat your ice cream." He says and bumps your elbow on purpose, making your ice cream smudge onto your lips. He laughs, knowing exactly what he did. Mrs. Yuki hands him a napkin and he hands it to you.

"You're so funny, Kuroo Tetsurou." You playfully glare at him and wipe your mouth.

"You kids enjoy." Mrs. Yuki smiles, she can feel her face hurt from watching the two of you. She's happy to see Kuroo so happy.

Kuroo continues to laugh as he leads you outside to the tables. "Eat your ice cream." You do the same thing to him, he licks his lips and smiles.

"How mean." He says and wipes his face as well with his own napkin.

"You did it first!" You laugh and eat your ice cream, watching the green leave his face and onto his napkin.

"It's good, right?" Kuroo asks, seeing your eyes light up at the treat.

"Way too good." You chuckle, "I won't be able to eat store bought ice cream anymore."

"Welcome to my world." He laughs. "She's practically my second mom." He says, looking inside the shop for a moment.

"She's very sweet." You nod, "How long has she worked here for?"

"Her whole life, I think." Kuroo says, "Her father bought the store for her when she was young."

"It's a cute shop. I can't believe I've never came here before." You bit into your waffle cone.

"Yeah, I help her out from time to time." His tongue savors the flavor he got, "She needs help moving her batches sometimes."

"That's nice of you," You smile. "Thank you, by the way. For the ice cream."

He shakes his head, "No problem."

"But for real. Next time is on me." You warn him with a finger pointing at him and he only grins. Already knowing that would never happen, but he goes along with it for now.

You sit for hours there just talking to him, he made you smile a lot. You're trying so hard to keep your mind straight and focused on prelims, but being out with him was just so much fun.

It wouldn't hurt to keep this going, would it? You're still focused during practices and games, that's not changing.

Kuroo looks at his phone for the time and sighs, "It's getting a little late." He notices the sun setting, he looks at your features, appreciating how well the sun hit you right now. He almost wants to sneak a picture, but he doesn't want to seem creepy, he just wishes he could capture this moment forever.

"Yeah, we should start heading back." You say and throw away your napkin.

"I'll walk 'ya." He offered.

"You sure? I swear I thought your house was in the opposite direction." You say.

"Nonsense. I'll just take the long way." He chuckles and you give in, it was hard not to, especially since you didn't want it to end. "Don't want you to get kidnapped." He jokes.

You rolled your eyes, "I'd come back to haunt you."

"Oh, I'm honored." He laughs. "I had a lot of fun with you." He side eyes you for a reaction, you're smiling when he finishes his sentence and that's a win in his book.

"I did too." You say truthfully, you didn't even want to go home. "Who knew? That the nekoma boys volleyball captain was kinda cool?"

"Just kinda cool?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Don't push it." You joke and he laughs along. "I wasn't able to get very close with the other captains, so I'm really happy I got to know you more, Kuroo."

"Tetsurou. You can call me Tetsurou." His face gets hot.

You nod, "Tetsurou." He almost falls to the floor as a pile of putty after hearing his name leave your lips. "Today was fun." You say again, getting his attention, he was still smiling widely.

"We should do this again—if you want to of course, I-I don't want to force you unless you were just being nice—"

"I'd like that." You smile, cutting off his rambling and he lets out a grateful sigh.

"Great. Sounds good." He chuckles, telling himself to calm down.

"Actually..my parents leave tomorrow for a work trip," You gained a little more confidence to ask him to hang out, "And I have this cookie recipe I've been wanting to try, if you'd like to come over and bake with me?"

He feels his heart thump loudly against his chest, he's elated that you're the one who asked him to hang out again. He didn't want to feel like he was being too pushy or persistent. "I'd like that." His face hurts from how hard he's smiled all day with you.

"Great, so again tomorrow? At like noon?" You ask to confirm, looking at your house.

"Yeah, I'll be here." He nods. "Have a good rest of your night, Y/n."

"You too, Tetsurou." You give him a small wave and he thinks you look adorable. Once you're inside your room you're fumbling for your phone to call Himari to come over asap.

"Yeah? Wait—woah, slow down, slow down." Himari laughs on the other end.

"Wait! Don't go yet, he's walking past your house right now." You say as you look out your bedroom window. "Okay okay, come now." You say after he rounds the corner and off to his house.

Himari greets your parents as she walks by, seeing them pack up their car. She runs to your room and barges through the door. "Spill." She smiles ecstatically.

You go on about how you did homework at the library and then got ice cream, basically just giving her the rundown. "And then, I asked him to come over tomorrow after my parents leave to bake cookies." You finish, hiding your face.

"No. Way. You, Y/n L/n, invited a cute boy over." Her jaw drops, before all of this you hadn't been super boy crazy, you had two boyfriends before, but it obviously didn't go on for more than a couple of months.

"I know! I don't know why I did it." You say uncontrollably smiling.

"You like him. You so do." Himari grins, "Don't give me that bullshit about how you don't." She raises her palm to your face.

"I don't." You deny, but you can't stop thinking about him. He gave you butterflies. "We are just friends."

"Wait till Mori hears this now." Himari laughs, "She's going to have a talk with you.”

You groan, "No. She won't. Because this isn't going anywhere."

"Then why are you so excited to tell me about what happened? And why you invited him over?" She catches you in a lie.

You frown and didn't answer her for a minute, "So what? This'll probably fizzle out and go away in a few weeks." 

Himari raises an eyebrow, "Sure." She pretends to go along with it. The rest of the night, you and Himari spent the night together, watching shows and eating popcorn.

Kuroo had the dopiest smile on his face as he got home, he can't even say in words how happy and excited he is. He calls Kenma and yaps for an hour about you.

Kenma doesn't even acknowledge his babbling, he focuses on his pc as he games, but he can't help his curious mind about how you've gotten his best friend smitten for almost three years. It brings a small smile to his face, this means Kuroo will leave him alone so he can game more.

[sapphyreopal5]

With Psychic guy coming back to your DM, is there any news you may be able to part with about Jensen and Danneel? Thank you

Hello Anon, thank you for the ask and apologize for just now getting to this; I started this back all the way on April 27 but apparently never finished, my bad! So really, there isn't a whole lot of new info I can share from him at this time regarding Danneel and Jensen specifically. However, lately he said he received one vision that said "she is no longer worthy of attention", talking about Danneel. I've had people ask me if there's anything legit with Danneel's said projects and this show that was sold. The truth is, all this "selling a show" and "selling a book option" stuff Jensen some about at JIB14 means is that they're in the very early stages of things. Abiding to Biola University, "If you sold a pilot, it means you wrote a pilot and someone bought it in anticipation of producing a television show. By contrast, "I sold a show" likely means you sold a pitch or idea for a show to be recorded as the pilot episode of a TV series". Similar deal with selling a book option, which by the way has a 2% chance of becoming an actual show or movie. All these things mean is that they're in the very early stages of getting 2 SOMETHINGS in the works and that's it. No casting yet, no scripts, no locations being picked or studio setups getting made, nothing like that. Like I said in another post, these things falling through cannot be the said disaster.

However, he also said he believes the collapse of the US dollar is underway and that China and Russia will become the new world leaders based on seeing some visions of red and yellow. I spoke indirectly of the type of seer he is, a decent one but still I know the type. I've said it I believe in past posts and to some people in PMs his stuff requires interpretation work. He spoke of things like how he was receiving that message about Danneel, the said upcoming disaster in May or June, spoke of upcoming natural disasters in Europe and especially the USA where many lives will be impacted, and visions of red and yellow. I believe the real message here is actually not about the collapse of the US dollar but instead a possible disaster going back to a miscarriage of justice or as the Chinese say "snowing in June" (thus the visions of yellow and red). See below the description for the Chinese play from which this saying is derived.

On one note, I did watch the first Hunger Games movie on May 30; my best friend later that day heard the song "Snow Falls in June" by The Northern Pikes I believe via Spotify while driving and saw a few other posts on tiktok and such about "Snow in June".

"The full Chinese title of the play is Gan Tian Dong Di Dou E Yuan, which roughly translate to The Injustice to Dou E that Touched Heaven and Earth. The story follows a child bride turned widow, Dou E, who is wrongly convicted of crimes by a corrupt official for actions perpetrated by a rejected suitor, Mule Zhang. After her execution, three prophesied phenomena occur to prove her innocence, including blood raining from the sky, snow in June and a three year drought. After a visit from the first of Dou E, her father eventually brings the corrupt court official, a doctor and Mule Zhang to justice, thereby indicating his daughter. Today, the phrase "snowing in June" is still widely used among Chinese speakers as a metaphor for a miscarriage of justice the story was repeatedly used and modified by later dramatists and remains one of Guan's most popular works."

Today is 6/24/2024. As a quick overview, there's awareness now within the Fandom that an Anon went to a pro Jensen page claiming Danneel was spotted in France with Jensen only for Jensen to turn around and say how disappointed Danneel was she "couldn't" come and talked about how much she loves French food and listen to French music. Yeah sure okay lol! We also know that on May 8, the brewery closed its one and only taproom. Jensen however was announced on June 6 as being a lead on the Amazon show "Countdown", his first lead role since Supernatural ended. There's also a good chance he will show back up on the CBS show "Tracker" led by Justin Hartley but this sounds more like it's dependent on Jensen's schedule. Of course, there's also a recent post talking about Jensen apparently being told to wear his ring at recent cons and apparently being sad about it from merely days ago. I think that a health crisis was going to strike Danneel but ultimately the higher powers decided this would be a gross "miscarriage of justice".

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On June 10, the taproom property including the house on that property was put on a commercial real estate website Loopnet but seemingly taken down within the week. Interestingly enough, I found a comment on a Reddit post in the Austin beer subreddit from a username I'm 💯 confident is Gino's account stating something like "the asset was put up for sale so they can fund the move". As for why it was removed from Loopnet, I believe they wanted the publicity for free and not have to pay for the Loopnet fees to list the property on their site. Seems to me they are probably looking for a local buyer and want to pay as few fees as possible. Overall point here is, I can see some misfortunes struck them both in the months of May and June.

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After looking at my past readings, recalling some things my guides said and even looking at current world events like the Gaza-Israel war/conflict going on right now and how Russia and China are involved. I don't exactly love saying this but I believe now what this guy was seeing is actually one version of the divine blueprints BUT NOT the ultimate divine plans. This is based off of multiple things, like dreams I've had in recent months and even how things are playing out globally that tell me it is THIS conflict on particular the Bible apparently spoke of not any of the past Israel and Gaza wars or conflicts. I've gotten quite a few readings relating to world politics. Because I'm not super informed on a lot of these topics, I refrain from sharing them since I don't know enough on a physical level to confidently speak on these things.

So, how does this come into play with Danneel and Jensen? This psychic guy did say he saw another "woman of destiny" in Jensen's astrology chart. I spoke of what the story is with this one in another post from a woman one Anon brought up at Purcon. There's another woman on the "black road" where if Jensen ended up with her, let's just say it would legit result in a serious of bad events on a divine blueprints level including the collapse of the US dollar.

I do advise for those who are looking to ask via divination about Jensen's stuff, STOP NOW. I know in my case I've gotten some information but I simply don't get too much about Jensen any longer. There are a lot of dark entities that surround Jensen and his family. I've seen people get strokes of bad luck personally doing back to asking their guides or "guides" about Jensen's stuff. Why? I know the title Jensen's soul once held; many demonic incarnations' astral selves/souls and their respective demons also saw Jensen as a free ticket to gaining redemption aka being allowed to ascend off Earth after gaining a higher self.

Quite a few women have done black magic on Jensen and even Danneel. Why do you think ever since they moved from California to Texas, they've been living in more haunted houses, running across packages containing voodoo dolls with fish hooks attached, dead kittens on doorsteps, Jensen had bad luck landing a leading role job for years after SPN ended, brewery not doing so great, etc. In recent years? It isn't just Danneel's said black magic. They're in fact being hit by others who either want Jensen for herself (thus the whole haunted houses crap and the said crisis that was meant to kill her the guy saw in Danneel's divine blueprints), want Jensen dead (thus the whole Rust incident; Danneel I think just wanted a big pay day but didn't really think of it in terms of insurance payout from his death), or they just want to hurt him.

I mentioned watching the first Hunger Games at the end of May due to the main antagonist being President Snowden played by Donald Sutherland. May he rest in peace, as he did pass away a few days ago at the age of 88 4 days ago on 6/20/2024. From what I've heard, he was a great man who led a great life and family, and had a wonderful career. No mishaps in public that has been spoken of, sounds like an overall great man and a big loss. Sometimes sadly, the snow does truly fall in June...

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To wrap up this post, this will be the last post I make about the psychic guy until further notice so please refrain from sending more asks about updates. He has not answered any messages in weeks and has been, well, consistently on and off since initially speaking. It seems based on other messages he sent that somehow Danneel isn't really worth the attention because in his eyes, the bed has already been made (and to reference a line Jensen said during the Charlotte 2023 main panel, was first kicked out of bed).

[autonom-us-project]

Abortion Rights in Idaho

In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned the ruling of the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which had previously provided federal protections of the right to abortion.

With the responsibility of protecting the right to reproductive freedom left to the states, it can be difficult to keep track of all the constantly changing laws and regulations. To help, we’ve gathered the most important information on your state’s current laws, restrictions, and related details. Below is what you need to know about Idaho’s current abortion legislation.

*Please note, information on this website should not be used as legal advice or as a basis for medical decisions. Consult an attorney and/or a physician for your particular case.

Where does the law currently stand on abortion in the state of Idaho?

Abortion is currently banned in the state of Idaho. 

When did Idaho’s current abortion ban go into effect?

Following the overturning of Roe v Wade (1973) in 2022, the state’s trigger ban went into effect, banning access to abortion from fertilization in Idaho.

For more information on your state’s abortion legislation, see our breakdowns of various abortion bans, restrictions, and protections in the U.S.

Are there any exceptions to Idaho’s abortion ban?

Currently, there are exceptions only in the following cases:

Rape or Incest: In which the pregnant individual has “reported to a law enforcement agency” that they are the victim of rape or incest, and has then provided documentation of this to the physician performing the abortion. 

Medical Necessity: If an abortion is necessary “to prevent the death” of the pregnant individual, as determined by a physician. The law explicitly excludes suicidal ideation or mental illness as valid life-threatening health concerns.

In these cases, an abortion does not violate Idaho law, but still must be carried out in strict accordance with Idaho state law.

The specifics can be read in Idaho Legal Code 18-622. 

What are the penalties regarding abortion in the state of Idaho?

Currently, there are no criminal penalties for a pregnant individual receiving or attempting to receive an abortion.

Those who provide abortion services in violation of Idaho law face a felony charge, punishable by 2 to 5 years in prison. 

This law includes the revoking of a medical, nursing, or pharmacy license, up to 6 months on the first offense, and permanently upon the second offense. 

The specifics can be read in Idaho Legal Code 18-622. 

I am pregnant in the state of Idaho and wish to terminate my pregnancy. What now?

If you believe your pregnancy meets the requirements for a legal abortion in your state, (see the above on exceptions), schedule an appointment with a trusted physician as soon as possible. If not, you will need to arrange an appointment at a clinic providing abortion services out of state. Make sure the state you choose allows abortions at the gestational age your pregnancy will reach by the appointment date.

If you need financial assistance to do this, there are existing funds to help cover both the procedure and travel costs. 

Abortion funds can assist with the medical cost of the abortion itself. Practical Support Organizations, (PSOs), can assist with other costs incurred seeking an out-of-state abortion such as travel, lodging, childcare, provider referrals, emotional support, and judicial bypass for minors, among other needs. Here are a few resources available to those seeking support in Idaho:

Northwest Abortion Access Fund [Fund & PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Idaho. Offers financial aid for abortion, lodging transit (local and long-distance), gas money, food assistance, rideshare, and childcare assistance. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

Idaho Abortion Rights [Fund & PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Idaho. Offers financial aid for abortion, provider referrals, emotional support, abortion doula services, and emergency contraception (the morning-after pill). See their website for more information. 

Chelsea's Fund [Fund] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Eastern Idaho, but you must be traveling to any provider in Colorado, Montana, Utah or Wyoming. Offers financial aid for abortion services. See their website for more information. 

National Abortion Hotline [Fund & PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers financial aid for abortion, transit, and provider referrals. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project [Fund] – Provides funding for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers financial aid for abortion and emergency contraception (the morning-after pill). See their website for more information. 

Abortion Freedom Fund [Fund] – Provides funding for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers financial aid for abortion. See their website for more information. 

Indigenous Women Rising [Fund] – Provides funding for Indigenous individuals Nationwide seeking an abortion. Offers financial aid for abortion. See their website for more information. 

Reprocare [PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers aid in the form of provider referrals, emotional support, language services, and abortion doula services. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

The Brigid Alliance [PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers aid in the form of provider referrals, emotional support, language services, and abortion doula services. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

Regardless of the legislation your state currently has in place, remember that safe and legal options are always available. The most important tool you can arm yourself with in these difficult times is knowledge, so stay informed about changes in legislation and policy where you live, and know that there are always resources available to help you through this ♥️

[shiorimakibawrites]

Daredevil Timeline Thoughts

Assuming that Matt and Foggy weren't exaggerating all that much when they told Karen they had been lawyers for a couple of hours, I submit the following two timelines for how this might have happened.

POSSIBLE TIMELINE 1

Late December 2013 – Early January 2014*: Apply to take Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE).

Late March 2014: Takes the MPRE.

April 1, 2014 – April 30, 2014: Apply to take the New York Bar Exam (NYBE).

Late April 2014 or Early May 2014**: Get results from MPRE.

May 5, 2014 – May 16, 2014: Take end of year exams.

May 22, 2014: Attend graduation ceremony from Columbia Law School.

May 22, 2014 – July 28, 2014: Study for NYBE.

July 29, 2014 – July 30, 2014: Take NYBE***

October 28, 2014: Get results from NYBE.

October 31, 2014: Receive Notice of Certification from the Appellate Division, submits application for admission to New York Bar.

November 2014: Has fitness and character interview, mandatory orientation program, and admission ceremony where the oath of office is administrated in open court.

November 2014 – July 2015: Try to convince a bank to give two baby attorneys with no trial experience a business loan to start their own law firm while doing some kind of work in order to pay for things like rent and food.

July 2015****: Events of Daredevil Season 1 begin.

*I could not find exact dates for MPRE except for this year (2023) so I'm guessing based on those dates.

**MPRE typically gives the results about six weeks after taking the exam.

***Consisting of the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), Multistate Performance Test (MPT), and New York law oriented exam consisting of 5 essays questions and 50 multiple choice questions. New York doesn't start using the Universal Bar Exam (UBE) in combination with the NYLC (New York Law Course) and NYLE (New York Law Exam) until 2016.

****MCU and MCU-related stuff are presumed to take place in the same year they aired unless specifically stated otherwise so Daredevil Season 1 took place sometime during 2015. Judging by the weather we see in the first season, I using the month they began filming in New York City which was July.

POSSIBLE TIMELINE 2

April 2014: Apply to participate in the Pro-Bono Scholars Program*

Late July 2014 – Mid-September 2014: Apply to take Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE).

October – November 2014: Accepted into the Program.

November 1, 2014 – November 30, 2014: Applies for New York Bar Exam (NYBE).

Early November 2014: Takes the MPRE.

Mid-December 2014: Gets results from MPRE.

January 2015 – February 23, 2015: Study for bar exam

February 24, 2015 – February 25, 2015: Takes NYBE.

March 1, 2015: Begin Program of combination of pro-bono legal work under supervision of attorney + classwork under supervising Columbia faculty member.

April 27, 2015: Gets results from NYBE.

ca. May 22, 2015**: Complete Program.

June 2015: Receive J.D from Columbia.

June 2015: Receive Notice of Certification from the Appellate Division, submits application for admission to New York Bar.

June 2015: Has fitness and character interview, mandatory orientation program, and admission ceremony where the oath of office is administrated in open court.

July 2015: Get their business loan for Nelson & Murdock.

July 2015: Events of Daredevil Season I begin.

*New program announced in February 2014 by then Chief Justice of New York Jonathan Lippman.

**Program is 12 weeks long, estimate is based on current year estimated dates on Columbia's website.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

Matt would be encouraged to apply for his exams as soon as possible since he has to apply for disability accommodations and that requires some additional forms and documentation.

Doing the Pro-Bono Scholar Programs satisfies the requirement for 50 hours of pro-bono work for admission to the New York Bar that came into effect in January 2015.

SOURCES

Columbia Law School (https://www.law.columbia.edu/)

New York State Board of Law Examiners (https://www.nybarexam.org/)

National Conference of Bar Examiners (https://www.ncbex.org/exams/mpre/)

New York Unified Court System (https://www.nycourts.gov/)

FURTHER THOUGHTS

Alternately, Matt and Foggy passed the bar a couple years prior to series and worked for a couple of years at a law firm or as a judge's clerk while they built up a fund / prepared a business plan to convince a bank to give them a business loan*. AND actually learn how to be trial attorneys since law school doesn't teach you that.

*Given that they reference being in debt and how expensive Columbia is, any money Jack left Matt was long gone so they would need a loan to cover their start-up costs.

IN CONCLUSION

Any thoughts?

Probably to be continued since this isn't the only timeline related thing that snares the part of my brain prone to overthinking.

[theivorybilledwoodpecker]

On June 21, 2022 — just three days before the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization came out — I got the news: I was pregnant. The timing was less than ideal: I had just given birth to a baby boy only three months earlier. My body had barely recovered from the last pregnancy, and my fiancé and I simply were not ready to have another child. We were both working hard to keep food on the table for our newborn son, and physically, emotionally, and certainly financially, we were barely staying afloat. We just weren’t sure we could make another baby work right now. But after talking to each other, to our family, and to God, we eventually came to a decision together: We would keep the baby. We would make it work. Despite my initial nervousness about how we would afford it as two low-wage workers, I couldn’t help but smile, thinking about welcoming another little one into our growing family. With the same excited energy we felt with our firstborn son, we again started thinking about names and dreaming about who they might become. Then, just a few months later, I got news that no mother ever wants to hear: My sweet little baby tested positive for Trisomy 18 — a severe genetic condition affecting how the baby’s body develops and grows in utero. The follow-up appointments wrenched my heart in two. The ultrasound techs and high-risk pregnancy doctors pored over photos of the fetus I carried inside me — I was now 16 weeks pregnant — and ultimately found that its brain was not developing, it had two holes in its heart, and there was no bone in its nose at all. The bottom line: There was no way this fetus would ever survive. Almost cruelly, they went ahead and told me what might have otherwise been welcome news: “It’s a little baby boy.” Still, my doctor told me there was a 9% chance the tests were wrong and that I could have amniocentesis just to confirm. I said yes without hesitation. A chance is a chance, and I so desperately wanted to hold my baby boy in my arms. But it wasn’t meant to be, and further testing merely confirmed what in my heart I knew all along: I would never meet my sweet boy or see the person he would grow up to be. It turns out, however, the worst was yet to come. Less than a year ago, the next step would have been obvious: We needed to terminate the pregnancy so that the clearly unviable fetus would not cause further complications for my own health. And, frankly, I just needed to close this severely traumatic chapter in my life. But as I would soon learn, this basic and obvious health care decision was no longer mine to make. After the Dobbs decision, Alabama’s trigger law went into effect and banned abortion almost completely — with only extremely narrow exceptions. Despite language in that trigger law that could possibly be interpreted as allowing an abortion in my specific case, the hospital I was at made it clear to me that it did not view it as an exception. If I wanted an abortion, I would need to travel somewhere else. Instead, they suggested I should simply carry the fetus to term and watch it die a slow, painful death before burying it in a child-sized coffin.

This is what forced birthers want.

[protectorcraft]

I posted 17,764 times in 2022

200 posts created (1%)

17,564 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@spiltpencilink

@nbmudkip

@clownkiwi

@/crankyteapot

@combinecremator

I tagged 2,712 of my posts in 2022

#deltarune - 284 posts

#pla - 99 posts

#flashing - 97 posts

#fave - 60 posts

#pla spoilers - 53 posts

#ask to tag - 33 posts

#inscryption - 28 posts

#ref - 17 posts

#leviathan tag - 17 posts

#long post - 16 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#i love swap aus that dont fundamentally change the characters personalities but instead show how theyre affected by their new roles in the

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

she lorem on my ipsum till i dolor

220 notes - Posted June 26, 2022

#4

by all technicality, squidbagging and spawn camping are not illegal in splatoon, but if you engage in them you are basically committing a cardinal sin and everyone on the other team is allowed to hunt you for sport.

1,509 notes - Posted August 31, 2022

#3

imagine youre out on the court playing basketball with your friends and you look up and you see a giant (like, several people long) piece of graffiti that just reads “GRANDMA HAS DIED”.

 you get beaned in the head by the basketball.

this is what playing splatoon is like

3,722 notes - Posted October 2, 2022

#2

mysterious dried thing

mysterious dried thing

7,368 notes - Posted September 14, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

obviously im of the belief that labelling food abd the ingredients it contains as clearly as possible is really good practice, and i highly approve of it

but the specific sense of comedy thats invoked in you when you look at a dish that is almost entirely a certain ingredient and theres a little sign next to it that reads “THIS ITEM CONTAINS [INGREDIENT]” is something that cannot be ignored

22,886 notes - Posted October 25, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[love-fireflysong]

yIt's done. It took me waaaay to long to write this piece out but between June and my computer apparently deciding to kick me in the teeth this month, the fact I made it to 5 full squares completed anyways I will gladly take as a victory! And, just fyi, this WILL be the last piece for this month. I know that there is still another four days left of June, but I am sick and tired of dealing with my keyboard so this is the last fic you're gonna see from me until I get a new laptop hopefully fairly soon. (Unless I decide that I'm desperate enough to try and write things out on my tablet of course...)

Anyways, the First Date trope was specifically requested by @jesus-hotsauce-christmas-cake when I let her know that the one she did guess (road trip) was going to be a second chapter of a twoshot. Which you still might get because I'm very likely going to be sharing the short little summary blurbs I had written down for each trope so people can very easily bully me into writing them anyways if people still wanted to read them. And even though it would be like months and months late, still post them under this bingo board because I can and I had a cool idea for what I was doing with the colours and layout before life decided to say 'NO!' in a very firm voice. (Unless of course the three lovely ladies that came up with this idea in the first place say no obviously)

Rambling over though now I promise. Chocolate Covered Confessions can be read over and AO3 of course, with the full fic also under the readmore as well.

Chocolate Covered Confessions

Trope: First Date Fandom: Until Dawn Characters: Ashley Brown, Chris Hartley Words: 8214 Rating: General (though reader beware there is some almost scandalous hand holding and a couple of scandalously public kisses. You have been warned...) Authors Notes: Oh look, more chrashley fluff. Who da thunk it? Pride month? What pride month? This is just me apparently figuring out how many different ways I can get Chris and Ash to confess their feelings. Because you only read like three of them, I still have another two waiting in the wings. Plus at least three others if you count climbing chrash lol.

Something was...weird. It wasn't something that Ashley could put her finger on just yet, but something was definitely off that was for sure. The problem of course was that she didn't even know where to start looking in the first place, because for the most part her day had been extraordinarily ordinary.

She, Chris, and Josh had planned to go and see a movie Saturday morning a few days back and then hang out the rest of the day. But seeing as they were, you know, best friends that certainly wasn't the issue. Not even close. They always made plans to do stuff like that together. And yeah, okay, so maybe Josh had 'coincidentally' texted them just before the movie started to let them know that something unavoidable had come up and he wasn't going to be able to meet up with them. And when her and Chris had brought up just waiting until a later showing when he was free, he had immediately been quick to affirm that nope, he was going to be busy the whole rest of the day actually. So the two of them could continue with their original plans and they could make it up to him another time.

While certainly suspicious, that wasn't what was wrong though. Josh had been flaking out on their plans more and more, especially when it was plans that took up an entire day. Ashley Brown wasn't stupid. No siree Bob she was not! She knew exactly what Josh was trying to do by leaving her to spend the day with Chris. Alone . And she appreciated it (she really did!), but if Chris was going to make a move then he would have done it ages and ages ago, because she sure as hell wasn't going to do it! Ashley Brown wasn't stupid, but she also wasn't exactly what you would call brave either.

Not that Chris had seemed to notice what Josh was pulling though, he had just sighed and rolled his eyes with a grumbled "fucking typical", and then the two of them had entered the theater to watch the movie. And as per their usual shtick when Josh wasn't there with them, Chris paid for the tickets while she paid for the food and drinks. Or, at least, that was how it normally went. Instead, when she had decided to take a run to the bathroom while he held their spot in the long concession line, she had come back to Chris waiting for her with the pop and popcorn already in hand. After brushing off her flustered apologies, he had explained that shortly after she had left, another cashier had popped on till so the line had gone down in half the time either had expected. And it seemed like a dick move to just wait there until she came back so he had just decided to get the food instead.

She still felt a little guilty about it honestly, even after swearing that she would get both the tickets and food next time.

And, to be completely fair to Josh, he hadn't exactly been missing out on a lot by skipping out on the movie. It wasn't a horror flick (he would never even think of skipping out on that after all) so it wasn't one that he would feel the need to make the two of them watch again with him. Which was more than fine honestly, because if she was to describe the movie in a single word, well, that word would definitely have been 'dreadful'. If she was given a few more words, then she would have easily elaborated and stated that it was 'a boring, plot-hole driven mess, with only extremely over-the-top action scenes and explosions every five minutes to carry any semblance of the extremely loosely written plot'. In other words, she had lost interest in the movie barely half an hour in, and considering that Chris had started scrolling through his phone bored, she wasn't alone in this boat either.

Still, Ashley had resolved herself to sit through this over-budgeted explosion fest if only because movie tickets were horribly expensive. Not to mention the fact that Chris had shelled out money for both the movie and the food. But then he had turned to her, asked if she was as bored to tears as he was, and once he got that confirmation, asked if she wanted to just ditch the movie entirely. And she did—she really, really did—but didn't want Chris to waste the money he had spent more. And then yet another explosion...exploded on screen, and she realized that she was wasting precious hours of her life that could be used to do something more fun and less mind-numbingly boring.

Like watching paint dry. That at least had a semi-cohesive plot.

And so the two of them had walked out, continuing to share the extra buttered popcorn between them (the movie may have been awful, but the popcorn certainly wasn't) as they left the movie theater behind and wandered into the nearby mall. That wasn't the strange thing either. The mall and subsequent window shopping had absolutely been part of their day plans after, even if those had been unexpectedly pushed forward a couple of hours.

Admittedly the art show that the mall was running in one of the empty storefronts was unexpected, but  it had been simply a nice surprise and a great way to kill time. So after paying the $2 entrance fee, the two of them had continued to share the popcorn as they looked at some of the paintings and sculptures that had been on display, giggling childishly at most of them. And okay, so one of the curators had been glaring at them( or rather, at their greasy, butter-covered fingers) the whole time, but that had just been a little rude and insulting. Not strange. And that had stopped almost the moment they had run out of popcorn, Ashley nudging him in the stomach with her elbow as she licked her fingers clean, and the two of them laughing under their breaths at the curator who had looked exceptionally much more at ease once Chris had crumpled the empty bag into a ball.

The rest of their day in the mall had just been spent following the rest of their day's plan, wandering from shop to shop and browsing at all the things that caught their eyes, and then taking a break after a few hours to have a late lunch in the food court. The two of them checked out another couple of stores, these ones to try and get some ideas for Josh's birthday in another month, before moving onto the small arcade on the top floor. As part of their deal and agreement since it had just been Josh and Chris (Ashey not joining the duo until five years later), Chris bought the tokens needed while she scouted out the various games for an empty console and claimed it until he could join her in another couple of minutes.

They spent the next hour in there, trying to beat each other or work together depending on the game in question. They almost never played a game twice before moving onto the next one, in hopes to both try as many games as possible before their self imposed hour ended and to see if they could beat their previous high scores or make it onto the leaderboard in only a single try. But as the hour came to a close, they both made their way over to their final game: one of the racing simulators scattered around the arcade. And as had been done for ten years now, played to determine which of them would be paying for the tokens next time they came.

And once the race ended, with Ashley winning by photo finish for the third time in a row (and celebrating her winning streak by maturely sticking out her tongue and doing an awkward little shimmy dance in the seat while Chris jokingly sulked and pouted), they had finally left the mall altogether and got into Chris's truck. There, he had surprised Ashley with the novel she had been eyeing in the bookstore (or at least, eyeing closer than all the rest she had picked up) and that he had somehow been able to buy without her noticing. And that certainly hadn't been weird, because it had been so exceptionally sweet of him, sweet enough that Ashley had so badly wished that she could thank him properly. But as mentioned before, Ashley Brown was a coward pure and simple, so she had just clutched the book to her chest and beamed at Chris in heartfelt thanks instead.

He may have said something in reply, but Ashley had already settled into the passenger seat and opened to the first page of the book, so she was already long gone. A fact that Chris had anticipated, if the light chuckle he had let out before starting the truck meant anything. And no, Ashley reading a book while Chris drove them to their usual game store across town was not the strange thing either. If Chris hadn't wanted her to read on the drive over and talk to him, then he never would have given her the book now of all times. He would have waited until he had dropped her off home, or not even bought the book in the first place. After over a half a decade of friendship, if anyone knew what would happen after giving Ashley Brown a new book, it was Chris Hartley.

The drive over is done quicker then she had expected, and even then Chris still hadn't let her know that they had arrived until she had finished her chapter. Yes he had certainly teased her about it the entire time, joking about how she would never find someone as understanding of her reading habits then him (he didn't know how right he was, that she didn't want to find anyone else), but the fact that he had just continued to let the music play in the truck and distracted himself on his phone was so unbearably sweet that she decided to let it lie.

The fact that Ashley and Chris hung around in the game shop comparing dice and looking at new books while wincing over the prices for nearly two hours wasn't what was off either. Hell, if anything the fact that they only spent a couple of hours there before leaving was weird! Her, Chris, and Josh could easily spend almost half a day in there flipping through comics and rolling dice to test them out, only leaving because a tired employee was forced to ask them to leave for making too much noise and taking up a table when they weren't playing anything, especially when there was a group that had been waiting for a table for close to an hour now.

Which brought Ashley to where she was right now, sitting at a sticky plastic table under the shade of a cheap umbrella while Chris had run off to get them some ice cream before dropping her off at home. Her new book was open in front of her, the pages crisp white even in the umbrella's shade, but her mind wasn't on the book anymore. A random line had a character mentioning that something had been feeling off all day ever since they woke up ('like everything had been moved three centimeters to the left, so while it all looked normal, nothing felt right anymore'), and Ashley had also realized that hey, wait a second, her day was also feeling just a little wonky too! But no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn't put her finger on exactly what it was. Today had just been a normal day hanging out with Chris after all. They went to see (and bailed) a movie, spent hours hanging out in the mall and at the game store, and now they were each going back home. Nothing unusual had happened, so why did it feel like something hugely monumental had been going on all day?

"Oi. Earth to Ash, you okay in there?"

A light flick to the center of Ashley's forehead has her blink in surprise, and she finds herself back into the present once again. Chris is standing next to her, carefully balancing the two cones in his right hand and his left ready to flick again if needed, and a bemused smile on his face.

"Oh, uh, sorry Chris. Got a little too into the book I think." She closes the book, not wanting to get melting ice cream all over its crisp white pages (and she really hasn't absorbed a single word for nearly ten minutes now), but Chris doesn't hand her the cone just yet.

"Yeah, I'm not buying that," Chris says as he snorts in disbelief. "I know your 'praise be to books' look, and that was not it. That was your 'head full, too many thoughts' look."

"Excuse me? What? I do not have a reading look! Or a thinking look for that matter!"

"Oh you do. You really, really do. Trust me. You may have been staring at that book but there was no way that you were reading, I would bet my own ice cream here on it." Chris brandishes his double chocolate cone at her, then seems to reconsider and switches to show off her own dipped soft serve that he still has yet to actually let her eat. "Actually, you know what? I would eat your dipped monstrosity if I'm wrong."

Ashley sighs, but she can't keep the smile from her face. "It's not that bad this time, oh my god. It's chocolate ice cream dipped in blueberry syrup. This is actually a normal combination for people who go out of their way to order more exciting cones then two scoops of chocolate." She leans forward and places her elbows on the table to support her head in her hands. "But I wanna see you do it anyway, so tell me exactly why you're so convinced that I wasn't reading."

Chris opens his mouth, but immediately closes it a second later, as though he didn't realize exactly what he had signed himself up for here until now. Ashley of course takes it as a sign of victory. "I knew it. So let's see this Chris, I wanna see you eat something that isn't—"

"When you read you get, like, super attentive." Chris's face is pink, and not looking at her but at the book on the table as he bashfully continues. "You become so drawn in to whatever you're reading that you ignore everything going on around you, because all of your attention is now on that book. Pretty sure a bomb could go off right next to you and you wouldn't even notice sometimes. And it's always so easy to tell what's happening in the book when you're reading too, cause your face is always so expressive. Like your eyes get big when something exciting or surprising happens, and when you're really enjoying whatever it is you're reading, you start giggling like a loon."

Ashley is too stunned and, quite frankly, her heart is beating too fast for her to even think of a proper response to that . She manages to squeak out a quiet little "oh, um" but Chris doesn't notice. Not when he's still babbling and not looking at her at all.

"But when you get deep in thought, you're not like that at all. All of your attention goes inward, and everything around you disappears cause all the important stuff is going on inside your head right now. Your mouth falls open just a little, sort of like you're gaping at all the information in front of you. And-and sometimes you'll mouth out what's going on inside your head as you try to fit the pieces of everything together so it's neat and tidy like a puzzle. And even though you have the, like, blankest stare imaginable, it's not empty at all if that makes any sense. Cause your eyes narrow and your forehead scrunches just the tiniest amount so you have a small little wrinkle form like right here—" with his unoccupied hand Chris points at the bridge of his nose right between his eyes "—and it's weirdly, insanely cute? But when you finally figure out the puzzle in your head, your face lights up like a kid on christmas morning and...and..." He lets his words trail off and stops awkwardly there, as though finally realizing exactly what he's been saying this entire time.

His face is almost beet red now, and Ashley is pretty sure hers is too. "Oh, uh, wow. I-I didn't realize you paid any attention to me when I was like that..."

Somehow his face only gets redder, and though he mumbles the words under his breath, Ashley can still make them out. "I'm always paying attention to you."

But not close enough attention it seems, she thinks sadly. If you did then you would have noticed something way more obvious than that. But she doesn't want to embarrass him anymore than he already is (then she already is), and she isn't sure what else she could possibly say that wouldn't be her blurting out that she likes him, so instead she pretends that she hadn't heard a single thing and wordlessly accepts the ice cream that he hands to her, accepting her defeat as she takes a small bite of the blueberry covered chocolate soft serve.

...The blueberry covered chocolate soft serve that he had bought for her. Or, you know, the ice cream he had paid for himself. Just like he had paid for everything today. Kind of like it was almost a, uh, date. Like he had taken her on a date.

Oh .

"Oh boy, let me guess: I was right and your ice cream really is a crime against taste buds?"

Ashley comes crashing back down to reality to see Chris, his face still a little red but the playful smile back on his face as he teased her. And yet, that only makes it worse as she can't help but feel the usual gymnastics routine the butterflies in her stomach perform at that particular smile, only they're a thousand times worse now that's she's realized exactly why today had felt so strange. And she can't help thinking how much everyone else would classify what was just a day hanging out with her best friend as a date. And how much she really, really wished it was one.

"Nope," she unfortunately squeaks out, and clears her throat so she can continue in a more normal tone of voice. "Nope, sorry to disappoint Chris, but the ice cream tastes fine." She takes another bite for proof (and to her credit she's not lying, it tastes more than fine). "Just, uh, realized something funny that's all." And the moment the words leave her mouth she realizes just how badly she's screwed everything up, because there is no way in any world that Chris Hartley is just going to let that comment lie.

"Funny? Oho, well now I'm interested. You mind sharing your glorious epiphany with the rest of the class Miss Brown?"

Taking another small taste of her ice cream, Ashley averts her gaze as she gives what she is kicking herself for is obviously an extremely forced laugh. "Did I say funny? I meant boring, just super boring actually."

"Well now I just want to hear it more."

"No, you don't. Trust me, you really, really don't."

Chris's brows furrow in concern. "Ash? You okay?"

She isn't, of course she isn't. She's now realized exactly what a date with Chris would be like, and it would be exactly like this. With them going to all the same place and doing the same things but she's allowed to hold his hand and kiss him when he does stupid sweet things like buying her the book she's been eyeing and talking about all day. She's never wanted something to be so true so badly in her life. And it's likely this thought in her mind that causes her to blurt out "A date." before she even realizes what she's said.

That only makes the confusion on Chris's face go deeper, which is appropriate considering she's sinking deeper and deeper into her chair in a futile effort to hide or escape as well. "What? Are you saying that you just remember what date it is today? Or that you had something you were supposed to do today instead? I'm not really following you right now Ash..."

This is perfect. It's the perfect excuse, she could laugh and say that she totally forgot what day it was and that she had an essay due pretty soon, or that she was supposed to babysit for a neighbour tonight. Anything really, the sky was quite literally the limit. And instead she just bit her lip and stared at the ice cream melting in her hand before weakly admitting "No, a, uh, date. As in, the romantic kind. I realized that today probably looks like a date to anyone else. Funny, huh?"

She's not sure how Chris would react to that. Maybe a startled laugh, and hand wave as he brushes her off. A scoff as he assures her that this definitely isn't a date, cause they're just friends and that's all they'll ever be. Whatever the reaction she expected, it was certainly not the fumbling for his ice cream as he nearly drops it in his shock, and how absolutely flustered he sounds as he trips over his own tongue. "W-what? I-I-I, uh—I mean, th-this obviously isn't—Who would even—? Wh-what would even give you the idea that we could um, possibly be on a date?"

Ashley shrugs weakly. "Isn't it obvious Chris?" She ignores his even more flustered babbling that no, he absolutely did not see what was so obvious as she continued on, still too nervous to look him in the eyes. "You've kind of paid for everything today."

"I wha—? I mean, no I haven't!"

"You kind of have, Chris. The theater?"

"You know I always pay for the tickets, and it would have just been really rude to make the line even longer!"

"The art show?"

"It was just a couple of toonies! And you saw the face of the worker there, they would have kicked us right out if they'd had to break a twenty. It was just easier."

"Lunch?"

"They-they'd had a special on for a two-person meal at that stall in the food court, and they wouldn't let each of us pay half..." he neglected to point out that Ashley could have easily paid for their lunch, and probably should have, but before she had been able to offer he'd already been swiping his debit card.

"The arcade?"

"Okay, that was my turn to buy the tokens, you know that. That one doesn't even count."

Ashley lifted her eyes from the ice cream to the book that sat menacingly and innocently all at one at the center of the table, it's pristine cover mocking her. "The book?"

"T-that was just a gift! You seemed really into it at the store and friends buy each other gifts all the time—"

There was no describing how soft and nervous her voice got as she asked the question that would put the final nail in the coffin. "The ice cream?"

"I, uh, it was just—um..." Chris let out a breath in a weak chuckle. "Shit, I guess I kind of did, huh?"

Ashley doesn't say anything, and neither does Chris, as the table goes silent. She's bracing herself  for when Chris inevitably shoots her down and confirms that it doesn't matter. That the two of them will never be anything more then friends and that she never should have hoped for anything more and by revealing this she's ruined their friendship for good—

"Hey, uh, Ash?" He sounds so nervous that it immediately takes Ashley out of her anxiety driven thoughts of doom and gloom, but she can't do anything more than just shakily nod to let him continue. "It's, uh, probably like a really, really, really stupid question but—" he takes a nervous breath "—did you want this to be a date?"

Her head immediately shoots up as she stares at him with wide eyes, her breath caught somewhere in her throat where her heart is currently lodged. She frantically rakes her eyes over Chris's face looking for any hint that he's mocking her, or playing some cruel joke on her and her feelings, but all she sees is just nervousness all over a pale, shaking face with what she thinks ( prays ) is a glimmer of undisguised hope. But it's still too much uncertainty, and she's too scared to risk it all on a mere glimmer that she is likely only imagining because she wants it so badly to be real, so she throws the question back at him instead.

"...would you have been opposed if this was actually a date?"

"Nuh uh, I asked you first."

Ashley realizes that he's just as scared at what the answer might be as she is. She wants to tell him, has wanted to tell him for years and years and years. And maybe this is the chance she's been waiting for her whole life. The two of them sitting at a sticky plastic table under the early evening sun, long forgotten ice cream melting in their hands, and she can finally tell him that she's had such a huge crush on him since she was twelve.

"Yeah." The word is less choked out than it is released. Like it's a breath of fresh air and she feels simultaneously lighter and heavier for it. "I-I think I would have liked that. I would have liked that alot."

Chris snaps his gaze up to meet hers, and the glimmer of hope that she had seen earlier has now nearly taken over his face at the disbelieving smile that's threatening to crack his face in two. "Really? I-I mean, uh, I would have been alright with the idea too. More than alright actually."

She can feel her own smile start to nervously match his, and then the first giggle breaks out. His own ecstatic laughter quickly follows her own until the two of them are both giddily laughing at the table, but too embarrassed and bashful to even look at each other now. The giggling abruptly cuts off when Chris lets out a yelp of surprise when he realizes how much of his ice cream has melted onto his hand and Ashley joins him in trying to finish off their ice cream before it's melted entirely. But there's definitely a change in the atmosphere around them now. The contentness and laid back ease that always formed between them whenever they hung out was still there, but there is a charge that hadn't been there before either. An excited anticipation that only surges higher and higher whenever Ashley shyly glances in Chris's direction to find he's looking at her with the same disbelieving smile beaming on his face.

They never say anything more about it as they both finish off the ice cream, but Ashley knows. With that little agreement, the entire day had changed. This wasn't just them hanging out as friends anymore, this was an actual, factual date now, pure and simple. So when Chris hands her a couple of extra napkins to clean herself off, she may have let her fingers brush against his for just a moment. The resulting blush and dumbstruck smile on his face when he cautiously took his hand back so he could clean up the rest of the mess on the table was oh so worth it. And when he returned from his trip to the garbage can and held out his hand as an offer to help her up from the chair, she accepted it readily.

Once she's back on her feet, the two of them drop their eyes to stare at their still clasped hands, realizing that they could easily hold hands the entire short walk back to Chris's truck if they wanted. And she does want that—horribly in fact—but it seems it's still a little too early for either of them to make that teeny tiny but monumental jump to hand holding so they let go awkwardly and slowly, letting their fingers linger against the others before letting go completely. As though giving themselves a taste of what may yet actually come to pass in the (hopefully) very near future.

The short walk back to the truck is filled with both anticipation and dread alike, but unusually silent. Ashley knows it's because she's now a buzzing ball of nervous energy, terrified that saying anything at all will shatter this dream that's apparently coming true before her eyes, but Chris is different. He looks more like he's trying to work up the courage to say or ask something, and is spending all his energy on that alone. So when he reaches out to open up the passenger side door for her, Ashley can feel her heart pick up speed when he stops with his hand on the door handle and looks at her nervously. His mouth opens and shuts a couple of times as he tries to work up the courage to say whatever it is he wants to say, and all she can do is stare at him expectantly as she struggles to hold back an excited smile.

"Hey, Ash, ca—nevermind. It's, it's stupid. Don't worry about it." A second later, he has the door opened for her and the moment she can't see his face, she lets her smile fall crestfallen. But only for a second before a polite one replaces it as thanks when he closes the door for her and continues to his side of the truck. It's fine, she supposes as she buckles herself in, while the two of them have been hanging out all day, it's only been an actual date now for barely ten minutes. And once he drops her off home in just another few short minutes it's going to be over. The fact that she even managed to get this far is franky mind blowing, so expecting anything more from her dreams would just be extremely selfish. She can't have everything she wants all at once, no matter how long she's been waiting for it.

The drive back to her place is also quiet, filled with only the droning of the radio playing in the background. Ashley's returned back to her book, but she knows that Chris knows that she's not absorbing a single word, hasn't turned a single page even. She keeps glancing at him out of the corner of her eye as he nervously taps at the steering wheel, and then tightening his grasp when it looks like he's going to say something, only to return to the nervous tapping when he inevitably backs out at the last second and returns to the frantic pep talk he's likely giving himself. The air that fills the vehicle is heavy and thick with anticipation and it's taking almost everything in Ashley to not start shaking the question out of Chris at every red light they stop at.

But, eventually, they pull up in front of her place and Chris stops the truck. There's a moment where the two of them just sit there, not wanting to leave because leaving means the end, and Ashley schools her face into a cheery smile in an effort to hide as much of the disappointment as she can when she turns to face him and bid him farewell, only to have it fall to confusion when he starts fumbling at his own seatbelt.

"Chris? What are you doing?"

He struggles further at it, frustrated that the buckle's apparently decided that now is the perfect time for it to stick once again. "Trying to get this fucking thing off."

"Yeah, I figured that much. But why are you trying to take it off, you're just gonna leave right away again anyway."

He slows his fumbling as cheeks start darkening in embarrassment. "I, uh, I just thought that was something you were supposed to do after a date, walk them to their door to stay goodnight. I mean, at least I think this is a date now? And, and only if you're okay with it! I can stay in here instead if you don't want me to. I was just hoping..."

The once forced cheery smile on her face is certainly not being forced any longer, if anything she's trying not to show how much the idea of Chris walking her to her door thrills her. "N-no!" Well, so much for trying not to show how desperately she wants that. The startled look he gives her at the unexpected outburst had her trying to control her voice into something less desperate, but considering she doesn't think she's ever going tame the frantic butterflies that have been flapping around non-stop in her stomach ever since the ice cream realization, she's probably doing a terrible job of it. "I-I mean if you want to, it's completely up to you after all..."

"Cool. Cool cool cool. Just, just give me a second." He continues to struggle with his seatbelt buckle, letting out more and more agitated curses escape the longer the thing continues to stick, and Ashley is getting the feeling that if he was able, Chris would have ripped the entire thing straight out of the seat by now. Broken safety laws and ensuing repair costs be damned. The moment he finally manages to unstick the traitorous buckle it's with a cry of victory and relief so exuberant that Ashley finds herself laughing in disbelief and awe that he had wanted to walk her the short ten or so feet to her front door that badly. Thankfully, for both of them, her seatbelt unclicks easily and much more quickly in comparison, only taking another couple of seconds to grab her bag from the footwell and joining him.

The far too short walk up to her door is over before either of them realize it. One second the two of them had been standing awkwardly and nervously by the truck as she fought the urge to reach out and grab his hand, and the next they're standing just as awkwardly and nervously (if not moreso) in front of the front door. Both of them waiting for the other to say or do something to break the tension, but cleanly aware that doing so would signal the very final end of the day, and the date. In fact, just knowing that Chris doesn't want this to end just as badly as her, is what gives her the courage to look at him with a surprisingly heartfelt and soft smile.

"Today was fun."

Chris lifts his eyes from where they had been staring at the dried leaves on the doorstep to match her smile. "Yeah. It was."

"And thanks. For the movie, and everything else." Ashley raises her hand to give the new and still shiny paperback a small wave. "And, you know, the book too. Of course."

"Yeah, it was no problem. Anytime." There's something with how he says the last bit—not really emphasizing it but making it clear all the same that he means 'anytime'—that causes her face to flush giddily as she pulls her lower lip in between her teeth in a weak effort to fight back against the ecstatic smile that forms anyway. And when she sees his eyes lower just a smidge to follow the motion and the way his shoulders stiffen in reaction, Ashley very quickly also finds she's trying (much more successfully) to hold herself  back from just saying 'to hell with it' and throwing her arms around Chris so she can finally kiss him silly and until they're both breathless. But considering that she's too much of a coward to initiate something as innocent as hand holding apparently, there is absolutely no way that something as...as scandalous as kissing him on her doorstep is ever going to happen. Clearly.

And yet, she gives Chris another few seconds to try and work past that blockade in his throat, but when he still can't muster a single word, she decides to just put the both of them out of their misery. Or further into it. It's probably just the same thing really. "I guess I'll see you next time. I'll talk to you later, okay?" She turns away and puts her hand on the doorknob, and tucks the book under her arm so she can dig into her bag for keys, but is stopped when Chris's hand abruptly snakes out and wraps itself firmly around her wrist before she can reach into the bag. And it works—boy does it ever —turning back to him and the hand wrapped around her wrist as excitement just starts to bubble up inside of her.

A second later though, his brain has apparently caught up with the movement he clearly hadn't intended to make, because his face goes beet-red and he's dropped her hand so he can shove both into the pockets of his jeans. He averts his eyes so he's back to staring at the loose gravel and dried leaves under their feet.

"Oh, uh, sorry about that. I didn't mean to..."

"It's fine, Chris." Ashley tries to smile softly at him in reassurance, but it's considering she's gripping the doorknob in an almost vice-like grip in anticipation, it's likely far more eager than she would like. "What is it?"

Somehow, his face goes even redder and he blurts out the question so fast that it may as well have been one word. "CanIkissyou?!"

Immediately, Ashley's gaping at him wide-eyed and her mouth open in shock as her heart's beating so fast that she's pretty sure it's ready to burst out of her chest at any moment. "Wha—"

"I-I mean goodnight. Can I kiss you goodnight? That's what people are supposed to do on dates, right? A-a-a-and I think we agreed that this is a date now, or at least I really, really hope we did. Cause I've wanted to go on a date with you for the longest time and-and-and I didn't want Saundra or-or-or any of your neighbours to see cause I know that would just really embarrass you and me but I've been trying to ask you for the past thirty minutes now cause I've wanted to kiss you since forever but I was scared about how you would react cause I really, really, really like you Ash and I just wanna to kiss you so fucking bad right now you have no idea and—"

Ashley would like to believe that she's brave enough to throw her arms around Chris and drag him down into that searing kiss she's been dreaming about forever and ever, but she doesn't. Even with a confession that is everything she's ever wanted to hear and more. That's not to say that she doesn't want to do it—god does she want to do it—but she's so frozen in place from shock that she physically can't. So instead she just continues to gape at him as he (adorably) rambles on and on, and giggles out an elated little "okay".

His nervous rambling stops dead in its tracks, and he finally looks back up at her, nervous relief evident all over his face. "Really? I mean, are you sure? I'd understand if you didn't want to—"

" Chris ."

That immediately shifts the relief to a different kind of nervousness entirely, one of excited disbelief, but even then neither move to actually initiate this promised kiss for several seconds. Instead just staring at each other waiting for the other to be the first to move, Chris with his hands still in his jeans pockets and Ashley glued to the doorknob with her other hand frozen as it hovers over her bag. Finally, Chris is the first to slowly bend down to meet her awkwardly half turned body, and she unsteadily tries to rock herself onto the tips of her toes without losing her balance completely and falling over. And still, they both pause about an inch away from each other's faces, though whether to give the other an out if needed or just to work through the logistics of how to do this exactly without their foreheads or noses smashing into each other or Chris's glasses getting in the way is anyone's guess.

But finally, mainly due to the fact that Ashley can't lean forward anymore without falling completely on her face, Chris closes that final bit of distance and kisses her. It's a nervous brush of the lips really—a quick peck at best —but they jolt back from each other so quickly that the single action may as well have activated some hidden magnetic repel function that neither had been aware of until this moment. Both of them are staring at each other wide-eyed and breathless as the magnitude of what they had both finally managed to accomplish hit them. The kinda-sort confession and the almost hand holding meant absolutely nothing in comparison to this. Those she could have (and would most likely have) brushed off as her reading too much into innocent statements and gestures when she thought over everything that had happened today in the safety of her room later tonight. But this? This was physical proof .

Looking back, Ashley's not sure which of them moved first. One second they had been staring at each other in disbelief, stuck in the same awkward bent and leaning stature from before, and the next it's as if the magnetic attraction between them reverses its flow entirely. Chris is cupping her cheek with one hand as he kisses her in the way she always dreamed he would, his other hand slowly skating across the back of her neck so he can pull her up closer to him. The book that had once been clutched protectively under her arm was completely forgotten about—fallen to the ground with a sharp crunch as it crushed the dried leaves beneath their feet—as her arms wrapped possessively around his shoulders as she props herself as high as the tips her toes will allow her. She can still taste a hint of the chocolate from earlier on his lips, and the small part of her that isn't being blown away by all of this is wondering if he can taste the blueberry and chocolate on hers as well.

She's not sure how long the two of them stood there on her doorstep, kissing for all the world to see, but she does know that they still separate much, much too soon for her liking. Not that they fully separate of course. She may be back on the soles of her feet, but neither of them have removed themselves from the embrace itself. And with the way that Chris is lightly brushing his thumb over her cheekbone as he just stares at her with the same stupidly giddy grin she's got, Ashley would be perfectly fine if they could just stay standing like this forever.

"So..." she starts, and stops to take a moment to giggle when Chris bumps his nose into hers. "I think that was a perfectly acceptable first date if you ask me."

Chris doesn't let go of her when he leans back to consider her, the comically raised eyebrows in shock doing nothing to take away from the absolutely thrilled beam of his smile. " First date? Why Miss Brown, are you perhaps asking me out for a second one already?"

"I mean, if it's not too presumptuous of me, I suppose I am. I-if you're not opposed to it of course." She can't help the way her nervousness starts to bleed through with that last sentence, already panicking that she's somehow completely misread everything that's just happened and that maybe that kiss didn't mean as much to him as it did to her after all.

His next words completely derail those fears entirely. "Of course I'm not, I would love nothing more than to go on a second date with you. Followed by a third and fourth and even a fifth if you have the time for it."

"I mean, I'm a pretty busy girl but I think I can open up as many days in my schedule as it takes if I need to."

Before she knows it, the two of them are leaning in for another kiss when the sound of pot being dropped in the nearby kitchen through the open window jarringly brings them back to reality and the two of them let go of each other red faced and embarrassed. Oh no, how much of this had her mother heard? Or worse, saw? She wants to leave the doorstep (which is rapidly becoming her favourite place in the whole entire world) even less now, but the longer she takes the worse the excited interrogation from Saundra will be so she starts digging back into her bag to try and find her keys once again.

"I'll text you later, okay? And, maybe, we can talk some more about that second date...?"

The reply from Chris is flustered but eager. "Yeah, totally. I-I wouldn't miss it for the world."

"Cool. And um, the next one's one me. The date that is. It's only fair after all."

"Yeah, right. Only fair. Totally. And, uh, your book..."

She finally finds her keys from where they had sunk to the bottom of her bag, and looks up at him and the paperback book that had fallen during their, uh, intimate embrace. "Oh! Uh, right. Thanks." She could easily leave it at that, but the last few minutes have made her bold so when she reaches out to take the book back from him, Ashley curls her fingers over his and bounces onto the balls of her feet so she can give him one last kiss on his cheek—almost the corner of his mouth really—before finally stepping back with the book and keys in her hand. "I mean it. Thanks . For everything."

"Yeah. No problem. It was my pleasure."

She lets herself have one last glimpse of the stupefied grin on his face just as he turns to walk just a little unsteadily down the path back to his truck. The only sounds being the leaves crushing underfoot and the jangle of metal as she sticks her keys into the door to finally unlock it. A sound that it quickly interrupted by not only the click of the door unlocking, but a muffled shout.

Alarmed, she turns quickly expecting to see Chris having accidentally shut his coat into the door as he is sometimes known to do when the weather gets colder, but instead watches in elated shock as he continues to keep energetically flapping his arms and fist pumping into the air and screaming what she can vaguely make out as 'yesyesyesyesYESYESYES' over and over again.

Suddenly it hits her. Despite the shy confession over ice cream, and then the much more rushed and rambled one only minutes ago, and followed by the kiss(es) that are still sending her heart into rapid fire, Ashley still hadn't believed what all the evidence had been saying. Chris liked her. He really, really liked her. Possibly as much as she liked him even! This wasn't just a one-off event that would now make things awkward between them for the rest of their lives. This was happening. They'd just had a first(!!!!) date and after Chris had kissed her goodbye, she had asked him out for a second one.

And he had accepted .

Ashley fumbled with the door and the moment she was in the house, slammed the door behind her, not even bothering to lock it. She let her bag fall from her shoulder to the floor with a soft thump and slowly slid down the door until she was sitting against it with her eyes wide and breathless. She ignored the surprised clatter coming from the kitchen as Saundra immediately dropped whatever it was she had been doing in and held up the book so she could stare at the once innocuous cover in amazement.

He had bought her this book and the ice cream because he liked her and he had gladly and excitedly accepted to go out on another date with her. And even more if he had been serious about that third date and beyond line.

And not that either would ever know it, Ashley mirrored Chris at that exact moment by placing her head into her hands and screaming as the built up joy and bliss finally exploded out of her.

[ceaseless-enemy]

TURNTABLES AU: THE KRIEGHAUS CORRESPONDENCE LETTERS

CONTENT WARNINGS: mentions of torture methods, evil RHM content, death, corpses, trauma, very vague descriptions of medical procedure

you have been warned

February 27th, 2014

To: Hubert Galeforce

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

I’m surprised you decided to contact me. I was under the impression the Toppats were an “every man for himself” sort of group.

That said, I think you were right to be concerned this time around. The impression General Copperbottom gives off is of someone that believes Toppats are tantamount to war criminals.

I’ll talk with The Lieutenant soon and try to assure things remain as civil as possible in this situation, although I can’t exactly guarantee he’ll be receptive. He seems to be very irritable since Canterbury’s arrival.

April 2nd, 2014

To: Hubert Galeforce

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

He wasn’t very receptive. In fact, he got angry at me for even suggesting that we try for more peaceful resolution. I didn’t expect him to agree with something fully nonviolent of course, but it was like he couldn’t fathom a solution where it wasn’t required.

He went as far as to mention the idea of enhanced interrogation. I reminded him that people are debating about it right now; that a majority of people in the US find it barbaric, and him enacting it would cause unneeded controversy.

Usually The Lieutenant is a very practical and logical man, but I’m worried that what I told him won’t be enough to sway him.

May 17th, 2014

To: Hubert Galeforce

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

He enacted the first set of interrogation techniques that I mentioned in my last letter. I didn’t exactly expect him to do it, but now that he’s crossed that line, I’ll have to shift my goal.

I can’t prevent him from breaking ethical codes, but I’ll try to dissuade him from going into more physical interrogation methods. I don’t have much else to say.

I can barely register it all.

January 23rd, 2015

To: Lieutenant R. H. M.

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

I read what you’ve written down. Your recent activities, and your thoughts behind them.

What’s wrong with you?

I’m serious. I never expected all of this to come from you. Sure, you’ve never been the most expressive person, but you’ve always had a good core. You’ve always cared about people.

The way you talk about it is all I can think about. Like you’re doing menial housework. Like you’re cleaning a window. You hate it, but once you’ve done it, you sound so proud.

I can’t believe that you’d just do that. There has to be something I’m missing. We need to talk about this as soon as you have time off.

February 7th, 2015

To: Hubert Galeforce

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

I talked with The Lieutenant again the other day. I’m a little out of sorts. I’m sorry if this isn’t as succinct or formal as usual. I failed at dissuading him from more unsavory ideas again. It’s like he’s determined to do this.

What does he even have to gain? What does he want from the Toppats? Do you know? Is there even anything specific, or does he only have venom for you because he’s General Copperbottoms sycophant?

I’m sorry. You don’t even know what I’m so upset about. Next week, he’s incorporating more barbaric enhanced interrogation techniques. I can’t guarantee Canterbury’s safety (mental or physical) anymore. If there’s anything I can think of that I can do aside from giving you updates, I’ll let you know.

February 15th, 2015

To: Lieutenant R. H. M.

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

You haven’t come by my office lately. I assume it’s over our disagreements? Look. I don’t want our friendship to end over political differences.

I may not agree with you, but why is that a problem? Please consider: If you understand my perspective, and I understand yours, it can be beneficial to the both of us. As people, as friends, and as military workers. Just food for thought.

I don’t think having only the general as company is good for you.

April 3, 2021

February 29th, 2015

To: Hubert Galeforce

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

The more time passes, the more this escalates. From what I’ve heard, Canterbury’s jaw is broken. There isn’t much I can do for him at the moment. I have no way to access him.

This entire situation; The Lieutenant, The General, having to lie to the higher-ups, having to see my colleagues lie for their own sakes: It’s FUBAR.

This surpasses the legality of what you do. This surpasses legal jargon in general. This sort of thing is ethics.

The most I can do is document, although I don’t know how helpful that is right now. I’ll keep you posted if anything new comes up.

To: Lieutenant R. H. M.

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

I’ve been thinking about the Canterbury situation, lately. More specifically, about his broken jaw. I don’t think he’ll be able to confess anything in that state.

I know it’s pointless to ask you to stop the enhanced interrogations, but may I suggest stopping the waterboarding? It’s impractical.

I just want you to think about it.

May 27th, 2015

To: Hubert Galeforce

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

This will be brief. Not much new has happened, just more torture. It brings me no pleasure to write that so flippantly.

Today, though, was a lot. Several hours ago, everyone in the camp heard screaming. Not just yelling, or your standard screams of distress we’d almost grown used to; this was different. It was inhuman shrieking.

I asked The Lieutenant what happened, but he just shrugged and said “nothing”. He’s never lied about what he’s done before. I believe him.

… What was that, then?

June 28th, 2015

To: Hubert Galeforce

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

Canterbury’s brother was threatened, according to the Lieutenant’s logs. I would recommend checking on him, or keeping an eye on him in general.

The Lieutenant hasn’t crossed that line yet, but I don’t know how long that will last.

[12:23 AM]

July 20th, 2015

To: Hubert Galeforce

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

The Lieutenant has become unrecognizable to me at this point. I never thought he’d go this far. At this point, he’s stopped caring whether or not Canterbury ends up dead.

At first I thought he was never this type of person. A big part of me desperately wanted to believe that General Copperbottom took something small in him and twisted it into something horrible.

The fact of the matter is, The Lieutenant was like this all along. He just never got the opportunity to show it until now.

September 7th, 2015

To: Hubert Galeforce

From: Wilhelm Krieghaus

The Lieutenant came into my office today. He looked so tired. There wasn’t anything else there. He announced: “I killed him.” And sat in front of me in silence for an hour, before leaving.

After an entire year of torture, horror, lying and corruption:

This can’t be how it ends.

The Final Canterbury Log

-Wilhelm Krieghaus

September 9th, 2015

This is the last I’ll write or speak of the matter. After this, I’m done, I’ll wash my hands of this affair, and strive to get court-martialed. Two nights ago, Thomas Chestershire brought H.J. Canterbury’s corpse to me.

I asked him what for, and he told me “The body’s our best chance of getting those two in trouble”. He seems more tired of them than I am. I never really noticed how he felt before I guess. It never mattered.

On top of the conditions Canterbury had been subjected to for a year, rigor mortis had already set in quite a bit. There wasn’t much chance of being salvaged, but dammit I was tired of the constant stress.

So I did what I could.

There was so little left of him at the end of the day, but there was enough. All you really need is a brain; who you are, how you feel, and all your memories. I could have had nothing but a brain.

I had his brain functioning pretty early on, but most of his organs, all his limbs, and his mess of a bottom jaw had to be replaced with advanced augmentations.

It cost me two nights of sleep and basic self-care, but that’s a given.

I have him strapped to the bed currently, for his (and my) safety. His condition is stable but I don’t know when he’s going to wake up.

When I’ve sufficiently explained the situation, I’ll need to find a way to get him to the Toppats undetected and unsuspected (pardon the rhyme.) That is, assuming he will even be able to function that well.

It’s also a possibility that he’ll wake up, with very heavy physical and mental impairments.

I’ll need to make a plan for that.

[sleepdeprivedheretic]

When I Find You

If somebody wants to adopt this fic, feel free. I love to see more of this trope and you all are amazing <3

Notes: :’) I needed a break from work so I wrote a little snippet that I may or may not finish later because I have other things to worry about and another fic that I wanted to really focus on. So, in the meantime, here’s some angst with fluffy ending because reasons :’)  

Au Setting: Au of some sort I guess lol. I um...couldn’t help but make Tai-chan look like the hunter from Little Red Riding Hood, so he’s basically a lumberjack because I have needs.

Warnings: Angst because I love torturing our poor reader ig? Living in fear of the possibility of non-con, reader kinda being a stalker? Improper knowledge of wolf dynamics and other things because of plot, and Fatgum being too heckin’ sweet and understanding. Also, reader is too thirsty lol.

…………

 The pack had adopted you when you were a lone pup, whose rogue mother hadn’t returned to her den with food for you. Your little howls of despair reached the alpha, who decided that it wouldn’t hurt to take you in. It was against the usual behavior and tradition of your wolf-blooded packs, and although the elderly alpha accepted you, your kin did not.

You thought for sure that over time, they would accept you and treat you as your own, but you were wrong. Your smell wasn’t close to theirs, and your furry ears and tail were a different color. An oddball is what you were. Sure you had the same behaviors and characteristics of your fellow wolves, but this was not your pack, and growing up with the obvious glares, odd stares, and blatant ignoring or snapping at you, you knew that you could never fit in.

You had always felt so alone, and when the alpha had passed away, a new one took his place, and all but chased you off. Being stubborn, you tried to talk your way into staying, because not only this had been your home, but you had nothing and nobody else.

It led to a fight, and you were badly wounded in the forest. With a few last harsh words, your new but former alpha had left you to die as the pack ignored your whimpers. Blacking out from the pain, you awoke, snow covered and cold in your human hybrid form with your own blood surrounding you. The wound must have dried over or froze, because now you had a permanent scar on your throat. Not near your scent gland, but close enough to your heart.

You were alone, scared, and scarred, and it confused and horrified you to no end. You needed a pack, you needed stability, and you vaguely thought that if you ran into humans, there might be a small chance that they’d take you in. Your kind was considered a monster in their folklore and myths, but what choices did you have? A lone wolf would surely be snatched up by either enemy packs, poachers, or whatever else. Not to mention, that you were a young and fertile omega who’s scent could lure unwanted attention. Even humans could smell the potent smells that your kind gave off during heats or ruts. You shuddered.

You couldn’t stay here. The blood had coated your human fur coat, making it sticky and smell awful, as well as it’ll leave more questions than answers that you weren’t emotionally ready to give. Chucking it off, you shivered but knew that you would survive if you stayed in your lycan form. Maybe you could scent out a human village and linger there.

 A sigh escaped your lips, knowing that it wouldn’t be easy. Human villages and kingdoms were a rarity in this part of the country. It was nothing but snow and ice and certain death. South is where the old alpha mentioned that although it was productive and rich with food and trade, they were a little more strict around monsters such as the wolf kin. Your legs felt wobbly as you got up from the ground. Your neck was in constant pain and everything was so cold. Yet you started walking. It was an odd feeling, you didn’t really know where to go or what to do, but you felt a determination. You didn’t want to die here. You always wanted a mate with pups and a caring pack, and although your chances of survival was questionable, you wanted to try to live for yourself. The thought of love and acceptance burned hotter than any star that you wanted to chase.  

Shifting into your wolf form, you went from prodding to full out running on all fours. The chilly wind hitting your face and the aurora borealis kissing the stars above you was your only company, for now.

You couldn’t be in your form, forever. You took breaks during your travel, letting your human self sleep in old dens, burrows, or short trees during the day time, and let your wolf form take over during night. Your scar healed over more nicely than you thought it did, but it still showed. You weren’t too weak to catch fish from the river, quickly snapping the lazy salmon in your jaws, but you had to be careful of bears and other predators.

It was as if shock never left you. You were in the twilight zone of being a lone wolf, and it scared you. You had nobody to protect your sleeping self from predators, to hunt with you, nor did you feel at least a little secure like you did in your old pack.  You were very vulnerable, and couldn’t wait to see a human village, soon.  

The thought of having your heat terrified you. Although it happened once every five months, it lasted two weeks, and even then your intoxicating scent lingered on you for three more days before fading. It was close to time for you to gather food for three weeks and try your best to keep safe held within a den. Although a monster to people, you weren’t the only one. Dragons, ogres, orcs, and even fellow hybrids had the capability of scenting you out and entering a rut because of your scent.

It was terrifying. You weren’t accustomed to such trivial, because although your old pack didn’t really care for you, your former father figure, the alpha, would always to make sure that you were protected and left alone. Wolf kin mated for life, but you didn’t know about other dynamics or beings, and the thought of being used and discarded with the possibility of pups from an unwanted encounter scared you.

Just like your mother, a dark thought cut to you. It made you try your best to push forward, and hopefully find safety, soon.

Six months had gone by, and it was late June, and the summer was more evident in the south than your cold northern home. You sweated easily and were huffy and upset. Time dragged on and you felt hopeless as you saw no signs of any human life so far. There were always more “monsters” such as yourself that you tried to avoid. Curious onlookers were the majority, thankfully.

At wits end, you were about to just sleep the rest of the day away. Let yourself worry about nighttime. A strange scent hit your nose. Curiosity getting to the better of you, you wanted to follow it, and so you did. It was the smell of smoke, but burning meat and vegetables were mixed into it. It was so weird and foreign to you, for you ate only fish or what the earth grew, and you knew that you wanted to check it out.

It had taken you a week to get to this forest. The surrounding area had mostly nothing but trees with beautifully dying leaves, those of which were unlike the evergreens you were familiar with. Your feet crunched against the multiple of colors of green, yellow, brown and red and although usually silent, you didn’t mind.

The smells here are mostly faded, and the only fresh scents were those of wild animals, not the fellow beasts or humans that run within your homeland, so you knew that it was a safe place. The smell of smoke, however, was new and farther in the distance in which you have yet to explore. You knew that you should rest, first, but you endured months of no pack had you aching for structure and security, and this very well could be it. It didn’t take you very long to reach your destination.

 Awe didn’t began to cover on how you felt when the sight reached your eyes. Houses and other buildings were nestled within the center of the forest. Your heartbeat picked up when you noticed that there were small chickens running freely, a dog barking in the distance, and most importantly, people. Human people. It was as if a miracle happened, and although you wanted to step into the town, fear gripped you with bitter remembrance.

What if they feared you? Although in human form, you still had your physical wolf attributes such as your ears and tail, as well as you carried your own specific scent that didn’t scream human. You knew that all of that traveling wasn’t for nothing, but now faced with the real thing, you felt scared. You didn’t want to be ran off, again, or hated. Slipping further back into the woods, a sight caught your eye.

Soft and yellow hair poking out from a red cap, brilliant amber irises, a friendly wide grin, all belonged to a tall man walked out into the clearing. He wasn’t like anybody you’ve seen before. He was bulky, muscular, and had a roundness to his belly and face, he was unlike your lithe and limber brethren, and you found yourself appreciating the sight, if you were blunt with yourself. His attire was that of an odd shirt, it was orange and checkered, and he had leather boots with rabbit fur adorning them.

You noticed that he carried and ax, and was holding a bunch of split logs with just one arm. He was pretty strong for a human, and you liked that. Of all the humans, you couldn’t help but find this one the most attractive, and you hushed your omega instincts as they hummed with approval. You couldn’t find a mate, just yet.

 However, you decided that if you were to be accepted within the village, he was the first on your list for courting. Just wanting to get it over with, you kept your human form as you took mental breaths on how to breach the humans. Timidly, you approached the handsome blond first when he reached the edge of the forest. It was probably stupid to creep up on somebody with an ax in their hands when your kin wasn’t very welcomed, but your desires were far more greater than fear.

Alright, you still were a little scared. Hiding some odd feet away in hiding, you let your presence known by stepping on twigs, making them crack. His head snapped up to your direction, eyes squinting in confusion as he readied himself for possible danger. What he didn’t expect was your voice murmuring through the trees.

“Hello.” Was the first thing that came to your mind.

“Who’s there?” A soft yet husky accented voice answered you and you liked it.

“A monster.” Came the reply without a filter. You could have said something better, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“A monster, eh? You gonna eat me, or hide all day?” He chuckled, and you liked the way it reverberated through the trees as it reached you.

“Aren’t you going to kill me if I show myself? My kin really isn’t welcomed with humans. No we don’t eat people.” You kept blurting out. Years of anxiety and being basically alone didn’t grant you favors with talking to people, but your friendly woodcutter didn’t seem to care.

“Hm? What terrible awful being you must be, hidin’ behind those trees and talkin’ so softly? Besides, how do you know that I’m fully human?” He teased lightly, and you couldn’t help but feel your muscles relax a bit as curiosity gripped you.

“I’m a wolf.” You admitted.

A moment of silence followed after that, and then a laugh. You tried to keep yourself from feeling funny in your chest.

“What’s so funny?” You all but demanded

“Nothin’. Just that, you’re suppose to be big and bad, but you’re bein’ so shy and timid, and honestly? It’s kinda cute. Come out, Sugar, I won’t hurt ya. Promise.” He finished laughing, and you kept yourself from humming with approval with the complement and name. Taking a breath, you stepped outside from your hiding place, and the both of you froze as he took you in.

To him you must be a small, feral thing. Your long tunic and pants looked as if they were about to tear with age, your hair was a mess, although you bathed, you still couldn’t get all the dirt off of you, and you were sure that your tail and ears were unkempt, as well. You expected him to change his mind and turn on you, or just run you off. What you didn’t expect, was that his cheeks turned into a shade of pink as his amber eyes softened to a more yellow tone, something that you were unaware of.

“You’re not a monster. No, you’re alright. Come on, let’s get you somewhere to stay.” He broke the silence as he gently held out his hand, and feeling an odd burst of warmth shoot through you, you took it gingerly as he led you to who knows where.

  You were at a home where you can finally feel safe.

………….

I know, it’s short, but I’m focusing on another fic that took me many times to re-write because I wasn’t sure of it. For now, enjoy some stuff n’ thangs.    

[nortonclarissa]

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[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 401

PATENTING PLANTS AND ANIMALS

Should plants or animals altered by microbiological manipulation be patentable in the same way as, say, modifications of penicillin are.

There has been strong opposition to the idea. The issue was discussed in the U.S. and Europe as long ago as the early 20th century. In 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Diamond v. Chakrabarty that: ‘anything under the sun made by man’ is patentable. The court considered a distinction between a product of nature and a product of human invention or intervention as the decisive factor, rather than the distinction between sentient life and insentient matter. In ex Parte Allen, the Board of Appeal held that an oyster was patentable because it had been genetically altered by human intervention. In the end of the U.S. Patent Office ruled non-naturally occurring non-human multicellular living organisms, including animals, to be patentable. More recently, in 1988, Harvard University was granted a patent on a transgenic mammal named ‘Once Mouse’.

Is the situation any different in Europe? In Germany, inventions in the field of biology were not, in principle, excluded from patent protection, the Federal Supreme Court decided in the Red Dove. The European Patent Convention or EPC, signed in Munich and ratified in 1977, came into force on 1 June 1978 in the member states. Article 53 of the EPC provides that European patents shall not be granted in respect of:

a. inventions, the publication or exploitation of which would be contrary to ‘public order’ or morality, provided that the exploitation shall not be deemed to be so contrary merely because it is prohibited by law or regulation in some or all of the contracting states;

b. plant or animal varieties or essentially biological processes for the production of plants or animals. This provision does not apply to microbiological processes or the products thereof.

This article contains three exceptions to patentability of plant and animals.

1. Animal varieties and plant varieties.

2. Essentially biological processes for the production of plant and animals.

3. Inventions which are contrary to ‘public order’ or ‘morality’.

1. What is the meaning of the term variety?

This question was debated by the Examining Division’s decision (EPOR 4 (1990)) in regard to Once Mouse. The application was made by Harvard University for a patent for a genetically modified animal which was to be used to cure cancer.

The application was refused:

a. on the grounds of non-reproducibility under Article 83 of the EPC. Although the application was based on claims related to all non-human mammalian animals, actual tests had only been done on mice: it could not be assumed that the same manipulation could be successfully performed on other mammals without inventive skill; and,

b. on the grounds that the legislators had intended to exclude animals in general from patentability under Article 53 (b).

However the Board of Appeal did not see any reason to limit the claims under Article 83. Also, the Board did not agree with the Examining Division’s interpretation of Art 53 (b) as excluding animals as such from patent protection. They pointed out that the legislators must have intended the phrase ‘animal varieties’ to be more narrowly construed than ‘animals’. The Board, therefore, held the question to the Examining Division.

On reconsideration, the Division decided that ‘Once Mouse’ did not fall under the terms of the ‘variety’ exemption. It concluded that in relation to Article 53 (b) claims directed to non-human mammals generally did not fall within the scope of the terms ‘animal variety’, (race animale).

The ‘variety’ exemption was also considered in the Giba-Geiy Case by the Technical Board of Appeal.

In- this case, the claimed invention satisfied the requirements of patentability but the Examining Division refused to grant a patent because the subject matter fall into scope of the Art. 53 (b).

Contrary to the Division’s view, the Europe Patent Office (EPO) Technical Board argued that 53(b) excludes only plant varieties and it is clear that ‘plant’ is different from ‘plant varieties’. According to the Board, ‘plant variety’ means stability of characteristics within specific tolerances after every individual propagation or propagation cycle. The Board of heed that 53(b) excludes ‘only the plants or their propagating material in the fixed form of the plant variety.’

2. Another problematic clause under Article 53(b) concerns ‘essentially biological processes for the production of plants and animals’ which are excluded with the proviso that ‘this exclusion does not apply to microbiological processes or products thereof’.

Two main question arises here. Firstly: what differentiates ‘essentially biological processes’ from ‘microbiological processes’?

Llewelyn has assumed that ‘an essentially biological process could be defined, most simply, as one where natural methods are the dominant influence’. The EPO defined ‘essentially biological process’ as dependent on the extent to which there is technical intervention by man in the process. If such intervention plays a significant part in determining or controlling the result the process will not be an ‘essentially biological’ one.

It has been held by the EPO Board, in the context of plants in Lubrizal/Hybrid Plants, that the meaning of ‘essentially biological process’ must be judged on the basis of the essence of the invention, taking into account the totality of human intervention and its impact on the result achieved.’ Human intervention may also mean that the process is not ‘a purely biological’ one even though the intervention made by only a trivial contribution.

The Draft Directive established a new and different approach, namely that a distinction must be made between naturally occurring substance itself and the product in a useful form, which results from human intervention in isolating it from its natural environment.

Art 53(b) says that ‘essentially biological processes’ are not patentable but the Draft Directive provides that this only covers traditional biological breeding activities thereby and rescues the interventions in ‘essentially biological process’ from non-patentability.

The most significant element of Article 53(b) is its inclusion of the products of microbiological processes. This means that a plant or animal produced by a ‘microbiological process’ falls outside the scope of the exclusionary provision of Art 53 (b) and is therefore patentable. It could be said that the aim was specifically to enable products of microbiological processes to be patented, i.e. all genetically engineered plant and animal.

Again, the problem is one precise definition. How does one decide that a process which has been carried out is a ‘microbiological’ one? EPO guidelines explain that ‘microbiological’ covers the processes used by micro-organisms and processes used for producing micro-organisms. Also, ‘micro-organism’ includes material such as plasmids and viruses (which have been used to create new plant genetic matter) and cell lines. All such process are patentable. The Draft Directive similarly rules (in its Article 5) that processes which either use or operate upon a micro-organism, or result in a micro-organism, should be considered microbiological and thus eligible for patent. It goes further: ‘the word micro-organism shall be interpreted in its broadest sense as including all microbiological entities capable of replication, e.g. as comprising, inter alia, bacterium fungi . . . and cells.’

3. The third exception is on the grounds of immorality. Art 53 (a) provides that a patent should not be granted in respect of inventions, the publication or exploitation of which would be contrary to ‘Public Order’ or ‘morality’. In other words, if the public considers an invention ‘immoral’ a patent would not be granted.

But, the Examining Division ruled in regard to ‘Once Mouse’ that irrespective of whether the public considered it moral or immoral, such inventions incontrovertibly assisted mankind in the care of ‘widespread and dangerous’ diseases. The Technical Board of Appeal pointed out in its recommendations to the Division that the possible suffering to animals and risks to the environment should be balanced against the invention’s usefulness in meeting human needs (diagnosis, treatment, food supply for a rapidly growing world population) on the other hand. The Division stated that ‘the invention would reduce the overall level of animal suffering by reducing the number of animals used in conventional animal testing.

Considerable doubts remain. Whether or not ‘Once Mouse’ may help save people dying from cancer, who is to guarantee that mice or other animals will not be manipulated to which achieve a cure for baldness or other trivial (but commercially ‘compelling’) purpose. What is the excuse for creating a very unhappy, transgenic rat to cure a widespread but non-lethal condition such as acne?

Genetic engineering should be the subject of general legislation rather than ‘patent law’ especially in respect of ‘immorality’.

CONCLUSION

The development of new features in plants and animals using microbiological methods is a long, difficult, expensive process with no guarantee for success. Therefore patents which have been granted by appropriate and competent bodies need to cover not only the first generation of the altered animals or plants but also their progeny which are then the result of natural breeding: and this was allowed in the claims of the Harvard Patent.

Despite strong arguments on several grounds, a new invention related to living matter should not be prevented from securing a patent. It is also our view that the distinction between patentable and non-patentable should be made on the basis of human intervention (especially in relation to microbiological processes) rather than on the basis of sentient or insentient matter.

However the patentability of human life or any part of human life must always be regarded as unacceptable in principle because human life should not be subject to commercialism: it would open the way to a new form of slavery.

[hopefullystillliving]

Shed Skin Chapter 5

Ceilidh Song

Durant is at his first revel. He loves it. He loathes it. And since feelings are complicated, he is deciding to focus on quite literally anything else. This cider is pretty good.

Chapter 4|Chapter 6

Masterpost|LAOFT

Sympathetic!Deceit, past Unsympathetic!Deceit, Sympathetic!Remus, LAOFT Linda/Percy

Warnings: Linda being a little spooky, the Revel as seen from the perspective of someone 6 days old who’s never had to deal with more than three fae at once: so properly Fey and lightly terrifying (mentions of metaphorical drowning goes with this), being overwhelmed/overstimulated, mention of eating habits that wouldn’t be healthy for a human (Adder only eats one meal a day because he’s snek), attempted underage drinking? Dealing with emotions unhealthily (not dealing with them. At All.)

Words: 1899

Ceilidh: noun. ​a social occasion with music and dancing, especially in Scotland and Ireland.

Title from Fair Folk by Heather Dale, I thought it was apt. So Remus didn’t show up, because I couldn’t make him fit well. He’ll be in the next chapter which REMINDER: I will not be posting until June 27 (I’m taking a week off). All the description of Adder’s inner thoughts was really fun to write, especially about the revel. I’m projecting All Over him, so when he was overstimulated I think it was closer to ADHD than autism, like he wasn’t at risk of a meltdown, he froze because he had too much to process all at once and needed to sort through it. Write what you know, right? On that note, I have the same problem that he does with food. Last chapter how he was thinking about how the meatball was good, but all the herbs made it Wrong? Yeah that’s directly out of my life. Except while he eats almost exclusively meat, I Very Much Do Not Like it unless it’s a specific few types. Another fun thing was writing him being Confused about feelings. And the realization that Linda’s being nice to him because she sees him as family (yes it was quick, no i will not be taking criticism. I adopted him in even less time) is a Very Important Turning Point. I have MANY more thoughts but I don’t want to make this too long, so I’ll leave you with this fae culture note: family and Family are different. Family includes Blood and Bond, so your legal family. (Bond basically refers to vows similar to a wedding but they can be platonic) family, on the other hand, is the human definition, and can include stuff like found family. Fae don’t really get that, (see Grandmother’s perspective of Brian’s death in the prologue :) so there’s some miscommunication going on. But Adder is arguably both family and Family…

☙❀❧-☙✿❧-☙❀❧-☙✿❧-☙❀❧-☙✿❧-☙❀❧-☙✿❧-☙❀❧-☙✿❧

The days passed with a combination of excitement and boredom. Durant’s life was a string of one new and confusing thing after another, so much so that he started getting bored of being overwhelmed. On the other hand, he wasn’t allowed outside very much, to try and avoid rumors spreading before Lyn would be able to counter them, and being confined to one place got dull very quickly. So he had mostly been passing time, waiting until the next revel, where he would be announced. From everything Lyn had described, it sounded much more interesting than exploring the Hill or learning to read. Percy had been teaching him, because while Lyn had duties to attend to, the dead of winter had the Summer kelpie often confined in bed, and had said that it was as good as anything else to do. He thought he was doing very well, but it still got frustrating, having to learn something while making mistakes as opposed to already having the skill. So when he found out that the full moon was four days away his focus was entirely swept away into anticipation for his first revel. And Lyn had said that more fae tended to come to the full moon revels, so his debut would be in front of as much of the court as possible. Needless to say, he was excited when the day finally came.

Lyn had managed to get a pair of sturdy boots and a dark formal coat that fit Durant before the revel, and had lent him a simple golden necklace that was a proper length so long as he looped it twice around his neck. They hadn’t been made for him and it showed, but nonetheless he reveled in the weight and shift of the new pieces of his outfit. He may not entirely look the part, but it went a long way to make him feel like a proper prince. And even if the separate items of clothing felt slightly patchwork together, it did at least make him look somewhat more appropriate for the occasion without access to proper tailoring. Lyn was wearing a velvety dress and several pieces of jewelry, more formal clothing than she typically was inclined to wear, and Percy had come dressed up as well, though her outfit was covered by a heavy cloak that she had tightly wrapped around herself. The sun was setting, and the three were standing by the edge of the clearing as fae had begun to gather. Lyn had said that the revel would start differently than normal, as he had to be introduced to the court before it could begin, but he had to admit that he was appreciating the subtle attention that was being directed at them, and wouldn’t mind if that wasn’t one of the differences she was referring to.

The clearing filled up, and the semi-official royal herold stepped forward to announce Durant to the Court.

    “Presenting: The Bobcat Queen, her Consort, and her ward, the Snake Prince.”

Instantly, whispers filled the air. Their rumors were either going to be proven true or false, and the thought of it all sent a shot of adrenaline through him. Though he carefully schooled his expression into one that was neutral and dignified, he felt like he was buzzing with excitement, and couldn’t stop himself from rubbing his thumb over his fingers, fiddling with nonexistent jewelry. Lyn stepped forward, facing the assembled crowd. She stood tall and confidant, lights flickering over her and casting shadows around her face.  Gone was the woman who's standing he had assumed must be low in the courts. Surrounded by darkness and fae moments away from tipping into chaos, the beginnings of a song already stretching out over the clearing, standing in finery, there was no way she could be mistaken for anything other than a queen.

    “Denizens of the Forest. I have an heir. He is under my guardianship, and any who harm him, harm a part of my family. I suggest you don’t risk it.” Her voice was deceptively light, and it held power that made him shiver like cold never could. But she had said he was part of her family. That tempered the agitation her threat had instilled in him, even though it had been directed to the rest of the court, and made his stomach twist in lots of confusing ways. So he very firmly ignored it. She sent one last long look out into the crowd, and then stepped away. There was a moment of tense silence, before someone broke it with a cheer, and the revel began.

His first impression was that it was loud. The music made Durant’s heart shake, and it was only made louder by the wine and words being passed around and the stomping of dancing feet. The circle in the center of the clearing got bigger and faster as more fae joined in, until it was whirling like a twister, the shifting bodies blurring in his eyes. It was completely overwhelming, and he couldn’t decide if he loved or hated it. His ears were ringing and his bones were singing with the urge to join in, to leap along with the fastest among them and throw caution to the wind. It was all too new, and too much, and he didn’t think he’d ever felt so alive. Though to be fair, he had a grand total of six other days to draw from. Still, he stared into the whirlpool and found himself drawn in, ready and willing to drown in the chaos. That was terrifying. He forced himself to look away with a blink, turning to where Lyn had been standing, only to see her and Percy spinning slowly away, keeping time to the songs, but remaining relaxed, presumably to keep Percy’s cloak from shifting.

Durant tensed, before taking a deep breath. It was fine. It was just a revel, he could deal with this. Or at least learn to. Clearly they trusted him to not make a complete fool of himself, and so he would not. There were plenty of fae that weren’t even dancing, not really, and he was a prince, so he certainly didn’t have to. He could completely avoid the circle if he wanted, there were other things to do. He just had to move.

He had to shake out his limbs and focus on his breathing first, but he managed to unfreeze himself (and wasn’t that ironic for a Winter) and head over to the tables laden with food and drink. The food didn’t actually interest him much, since he had found that he only wanted one full meal per day before feeling satisfied, and he was still only wanting meat, ideally raw. Besides, he would have plenty of other revels to try the food that would hopefully be more appetizing to him by then.

He went over anyways, to grab a cup of what was probably some type of wine, out of curiosity, only to have it taken out of his hand. He whirled around, offended, only to come face to face with an apologetic Lyn.

    “Sorry, but you’re too young for me to allow you to have any of Bell’s stuff in good conscience.” He refused to show that he was startled by her sudden appearance. It made sense that she would come and find him, he should have expected it.

    “Belladonna made that? I thought she was captain of the guard.” He said, forcing himself to sound casual.

    “Everyone needs hobbies,” She shrugged, “And I’ve even helped her, whenever I have the time. Which is how I know that you really shouldn’t be drinking that for a few more years, at least.” His face scrunched up in annoyance.

    “So what can I have?” He asked.

    “Water. Cider. If you absolutely must you can have some of the lighter mead.” She said flatly.

    “Fine.”

    “Good.” They stared at each other awkwardly, before Lyn cleared her throat.

    “Do you want to dance?”

    “What?”

    “I saw you looking at the circle earlier. It’s pretty impressive, isn’t it? But you didn’t try dancing.” He hummed nervously. Was he supposed to? Was it tradition to dance at your first revel? His thoughts were cut off by her continuing, “It can be intimidating the first time. First few times really. So do you want to try with me?” He wanted to protest that it wasn’t intimidating, that this was something fae were literally made for, but the words stuck in his throat. Quickly he switched tactics.

    “Shouldn’t you be with Percy? She gets cold easily.” He figured if it were tradition she would insist, and he could deal with that then, but since he’d seen no proof that it was, he decided his best bet was deflecting. It didn’t work.

    “All the more reason I shouldn’t be by her.” She chuckled, “She’s right by the fire, far too close for me to be comfortable. And she can handle herself well enough, we hardly need to be joined at the hip. You can just say no, if you don’t want to. There’s no shame in not wanting to dance.”

Durant stared at her. She kept changing his perspective of her. Whenever he thought he had a good read on what she was like, she did something unexpected. Namely, that she kept insisting that he choose whether he wanted to do something or not. He appreciated it, obviously, but she was The Bobcat Queen. She had no reason to sacrifice her own desires for his. When he was choosing a room, offering some of her food, even when she had wanted to play I-Spy on his first day. And now, offering to dance with him to make him more comfortable with it, telling him that he didn’t have to. He had never seen her look more regal, and she was letting him take the lead in such a minor thing that it wouldn’t matter if she hadn’t. It wasn’t like he would lose any loyalty to her if she had said that he had to dance, even if she hadn’t offered to do it with him. But maybe that was it. That it was such a minor thing that it wouldn’t cost her anything, but she had something to gain. He didn’t know if he felt more loyal, but he certainly felt intrigued. But as he accepted her offer to dance with a nod, another thought struck him.

She had said he was part of her family. Mothers were Family, he thought, and he knew that there were other types, though he didn’t know their names. Family was Bond or Blood. Percy was obviously part of her Family through Bond, and Lyn’s fathers had obviously been Blood. But where did that leave him? He wasn’t her Child, and he had made no formal Bond to his knowledge. But whatever type he was, did that facilitate her behavior, the unnecessary kindnesses? It must. That’s what Family was supposed to do. He found he felt strangely comforted by that, before something else crossed his mind.

    That’s what Brothers were supposed to do, He thought bitterly, startling himself, just before Lyn pulled him into the spinning circle for his first ever dance, and he very quickly had bigger concerns, resolving to put all thoughts of families behind him until they were needed.

[96thdayofrage]

Convicting a murderous cop has its consequences. The integrity of a juror in the trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is being called into question because the juror attended a march for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. last August, CBS-affiliated WCCO reported on Tuesday. Floyd’s family spoke at the March on Washington, which was intended to commemorate the 57th anniversary of the civil rights leader's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. It also included a voter registration rally, which Brandon Mitchell, the juror in question, told WCCO was the reason he attended. His attire at the event, however, is now being scrutinized after he was photographed in a T-shirt with King's image and the words, “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” and “BLM,” which Mitchell explained were broader references to the circumstances of 2020.

“It was huge to get people geared for voter turnout, so being a part of that, being able to attend, you know, the same location where Martin Luther King gave his speech was a historic moment,” Mitchell told WCCO. “Either way, I was going to D.C. for this event, even if George Floyd was still alive.” Floyd is not alive, and don’t for one second let Chauvin’s apparent desperation to get away with murder obscure the fact that Floyd is not here to see his daughter grow up because of Chauvin. Not Mitchell or any other member of the jury.

Chauvin, who is due for sentencing at 2:30 PM ET on June 16, was convicted of second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter last month. Several clips of witness video presented at trial showed him kneeling on the neck of 46-year-old Floyd for more than nine minutes on May 25, 2020, outside of the Cup Foods corner store in Minneapolis. That video went viral and ushered the case onto an international stage, fueling anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests.

Still, Mitchell, juror No. 52 in the trial, told CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King he didn't feel pressure to reach a guilty verdict "at all … And I don't think any of us felt like that. I for sure did not. I for sure did not feel like that,” Mitchell said. “The pressure more so came from just being in the room and being under stress. But it wasn't pressure to come to A guilty verdict." He told King he was stressed about having to come into the courtroom and watch a Black man die every day. “That alone is stressful,” he said. “Coming in each and every day and having to watch somebody die is stressful enough by itself. So anything outside of that was secondary, just because as a human, it's natural to feel some kind of way as you're watching somebody in agony.”

Chauvin's defense attorney, Eric Nelson, brought up the question of just how much outside opinions of the case might be affecting the trial when he didn’t like how Rep. Maxine Waters answered an interviewer's question about what demonstrators should do if Chauvin isn't convicted. “We’ve got to get more confrontational," she said. "We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.” With that, Nelson brought up the possibility of a mistrial and said the jury should have been sequestered from the start of the trial. “My phone gives me alerts on things that just happened. I mean you can’t avoid it, and it is so pervasive that I just don’t know how this jury can really be said to be that they are free from the taint of this,” Nelson said. “And now that we have U.S. representatives threatening acts of violence in relation to this specific case, it’s mind-boggling to me judge.” Judge Peter Cahill admonished Waters but ultimately ruled that her remarks weren’t grounds for a mistrial.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Floyd family, told TMZ that Mitchell's interview "completely obliterates" any claim from the Chauvin defense that public opinions outside the courtroom influenced the jury.

Rachel Moran, a law professor from the University of St. Thomas, told WCCO an important consideration in the case is whether lawyers did their job in investigating jurors. Mitchell said in a questionnaire WCCO obtained that he never took part in a protest about police brutality and that the phrase Black lives matter simply means Black people "want to be treated as equals and not killed or treated in an aggressive manner simply because they are Black.”

“If he had been asked about it and he tried to hide it, that could be an issue,” Moran said. “But at this point, I don’t see anything, any evidence that he tried to hide it.”

The attorney added that “it’s really important for the viewers at home to know it’s really hard to overturn a conviction, and courts are especially reluctant to interfere with the jury deliberation process.”

Read the transcript of King’s interview with Mitchell from CBS News:

King: 31-year-old Brandon Mitchell was known only as juror #52, and he joins us now. Brandon, we're really glad to see you because all of us wanted to know what happened. So I'd like you if you could, please take us inside the room. I think we were surprised that you're 12 strangers, you didn't know each other, you go in the room — what's the process, and how were you able to reach a verdict so quickly? And good morning!

Juror Brandon Mitchell: Yeah. Absolutely. Good morning to you. First, I want to send my condolences to the Floyd family.

King: Yes.

Mitchell: But when we walked into the deliberation room, the first thing we did is we voted on whether or not we wanted to have our mask on. We made that kind of an ice breaker to get going. We voted to not have our mask on. We took our masks off. We voted for a foreperson, and from there we went straight into the manslaughter charges and took a preliminary vote before doing a final vote on those charges.

King: What was the preliminary vote?

Mitchell: The preliminary vote was 11 of us were already — we were already on board for guilty for the manslaughter. One person was still unsure. And we just went over it as a team, as a group. Each person kind of went down the line on why they thought it was guilty. We did another vote maybe 40 minutes later after we went through everybody, and everybody was on the same page for the manslaughter. It happened really quickly.

King: Did you do that with each of the charges? Is that what you did, took a vote on each of the charges?

Mitchell: Yeah, absolutely. Each charge we did a preliminary vote to see where we were at, if there was anybody that was not on board yet or was unsure. Then we would go around the room, everybody kind of speak on what they think is necessary to speak on. We went over maybe a little bit of the evidence. And then we'd come back with a final vote whenever we thought it was a suitable time.

King: What was the one person unsure about, Brandon?

Mitchell: I think it was just like, the terminology. So within the instructions, some of the terminology can be a little tricky, because it's legal jargon. And so sometimes some of the words can be interpreted differently among people. It was just they wanted to do their due diligence and make sure that they were coming out with the right verdict that they believed in. So they were hung up on a few words. We went through the definitions that were given to us and kind of broke it down from different perspectives to get everybody on the same page.

King: Was there any particular witness that moved you and moved the jury that you said, okay, we're deeply affected by 'fill in the blank'?

Mitchell: So I think as a whole jury, I think Dr. Tobin was the biggest, the most influential witness out of everybody. For me personally, Donald Williams was another person. So Donald Williams and Dr. Tobin --

King: That's the fighter, yeah. The mixed martial arts fighter.

Mitchell: Yeah, so him early on, I felt he set the tone for the rest of the trial. And then when Dr. Tobin came, with him speaking so scientifically but also making it understandable for everyone along with the exhibits that he came with, I thought he just broke it down in a manner that was easy for all the jurors to understand. And I didn't think there was any way to — for the defense to come back after that. I was like, to me, the case was — it was done at that point almost.

King: Did you feel pressure because you knew the world was watching? That, you know, we have to reach a guilty verdict here?

Mitchell: Not at all. And I don't think any of us felt like that. I for sure did not. I for sure did not feel like that. The pressure more so came from just being in the room and being under stress. But it wasn't pressure to come to A guilty verdict.

King: What were you all stressed about?

Mitchell: We were just stressed about just the simple fact that every day we had to come in and watch a Black man die. That alone is stressful. Coming in each and every day and having to watch somebody die is stressful enough by itself. So anything outside of that was secondary, just because as a human, it's natural to feel some kind of way as you're watching somebody in agony.

King: Yeah. I can't imagine, Brandon, what it was like to be able to watch that tape day after day after day, the way you all did.

Mitchell: Yeah. It definitely had its impact on me. There was a few days where I was like, I don't know how I'm going to make it in this next day, especially me as a Black man. And a larger black man, I'm about 6'4", 250 pounds. And some of the testimony is like saying how size can be considered like, you know, is it a risk or threat. Whereas me, I'm a gentle giant. Stuff like that, that affects me in a way that — it's weird. I don't know if it affects anybody else the same way.

King: I understand. I understand what you're saying. How did you all feel about Derek Chauvin, the fact that he did not take the stand? Would that have made a difference to you? We'll never know, but do you think it would have made a difference?

Mitchell: It possibly — it possibly could have. We did talk about, you know, the fact that he didn't. Somebody had brought it up, like they wished he would have, they would have liked to have heard from him. But since it wasn't part of the case, it just is what it is. But yeah, I mean, anything brought in or not brought in, it could have possibly affected it either way. Either way I can't say it would have changed the outcome, but it's a possibility for sure.

King: Do you worry about your safety now? This was such a controversial case. We now know your name, we now know what you look like, we now know that you said you're a large man. Do you worry about your safety?

Mitchell: No, not at all. Not at all. I'm a person that kind of thrives in the positives. So I'm not too much concerned about that. Nor do I dwell on —

King: —the what if's—

Mitchell: —on negativity like that. Yeah, the what if's.

King: And he's going to be sentenced June 25. What do you think is the proper sentence for him, for Derek Chauvin? He's facing up to 40 years.

Mitchell: Yeah. I couldn't say what the proper sentencing would be. You know, I think we came up with the right verdict. You know, guilty on all charges. And you know, I'll let the judge do what he does.

King: All right, thank you very much. We really wanted to hear from you today. It's been a fascinating case that we've been watching.

Mitchell: Yes, thank you.

[autonom-us-project]

Abortion Rights in Minnesota

In June 2022, the United States Supreme Court overturned the ruling of the landmark 1973 case Roe v. Wade, which had previously provided federal protections of the right to abortion.

With the responsibility of protecting the right to reproductive freedom left to the states, it can be difficult to keep track of all the constantly changing laws and regulations. To help, we’ve gathered the most important information on your state’s current laws, restrictions, and related details. Below is what you need to know about Minnesota’s current abortion legislation.

*Please note, information on this website should not be used as legal advice or as a basis for medical decisions. Consult an attorney and/or a physician for your particular case.

Where does the law currently stand on abortion in the state of Minnesota?

Abortion is currently legal and protected in the state of Minnesota.

When did Minnesota’s current abortion legislation go into effect?

The right to abortion is legal and protected in the state of Minnesota, which repealed its Pre-Roe ban in 1974, and repealed the majority of its medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion access in 2023. The right to abortion is protected both constitutionally and legally, and the state of Minnesota has gone on to enact numerous expanded protections for abortion as well. 

For more information on your state’s abortion legislation, see our breakdowns of various abortion bans, restrictions, and protections in the U.S.

Are there any legal restrictions to abortion access in the state of Minnesota?

Currently, there are no restrictions to abortion access at any stage in a pregnancy. 

What expanded protections are in place regarding abortion in the state of Minnesota?

Interstate Shielding: In 2022, the Governor of Minnesota issued executive orders prohibiting executive branch departments from cooperating with out-of-state investigations or extraditions related to abortion services occuring legally in the state of Minnesota

Medical Funding: The state of Minnesota provides public funding for medically necessary abortions.

Clinic Access: Minnesota protects clinic access and safety by prohibiting obstruction.

The specifics can be read in the following Minnesota Legal Codes and Court Cases: Executive Order 22-16, Doe v. Gomez, and 609.7495

I am pregnant in the state of Minnesota and wish to terminate my pregnancy. What now?

If you believe your pregnancy meets the requirements for a legal abortion in your state, schedule an appointment with a trusted physician as soon as possible. If not, you will need to arrange an appointment at a clinic providing abortion services out of state. Make sure the state you choose allows abortions at the gestational age your pregnancy will reach by the appointment date.

If you need financial assistance to do this, there are existing funds to help cover both the procedure and travel costs. 

Abortion funds can assist with the medical cost of the abortion itself. Practical Support Organizations, (PSOs), can assist with other costs incurred seeking an out-of-state abortion such as travel, lodging, childcare, provider referrals, emotional support, and judicial bypass for minors, among other needs. Here are a few resources available to those seeking support in Minnesota:

Prairie Abortion Fund [Fund & PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Minnesota. Offers financial aid for abortion, lodging, transit, food assistance, childcare assistance, and emergency contraception (the morning-after pill). See their website for more information. 

H.O.T.D.I.S.H. Militia Abortion Fund [Fund & PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Minnesota. Offers financial aid for abortion. See their website for more information. 

Justice Through Empowerment Network [Fund & PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Minnesota. Offers financial aid for abortion, lodging, transit, food assistance, language services, childcare assistance, emergency contraception (the morning-after pill), and interpretation services. See their website for more information. 

Our Justice's Abortion Assistance Fund [Fund & PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Minnesota. Offers support and financial aid for abortion, lodging, and emergency contraception (the morning-after pill). See their website for more information. 

Just the Pill [Fund] – Provides funding for Indigenous individuals from Minnesota seeking an abortion. Offers financial aid for abortion, transit, and interpretation services. See their website for more information. 

The Stigma Relief Fund [Fund] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Minnesota. Offers financial aid for abortion. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

Midwest Access Coalition [PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Minnesota. Offers financial aid and support in the form of lodging, transit, gas money, transit (local and long-distance), food assistance, emotional support, rideshare, childcare assistance, and emergency contraception (the morning-after pill). See their website for more information.

The SPIRAL Collective [PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion from Minnesota. Offers aid in the form of provider referrals, transit, emotional support, and abortion doula services. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

National Abortion Hotline [Fund & PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers financial aid for abortion, transit, and provider referrals. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

Women’s Reproductive Rights Assistance Project [Fund] – Provides funding for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers financial aid for abortion and emergency contraception (the morning-after pill). See their website for more information. 

Abortion Freedom Fund [Fund] – Provides funding for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers financial aid for abortion. See their website for more information. 

Indigenous Women Rising [Fund] – Provides funding for Indigenous individuals Nationwide seeking an abortion. Offers financial aid for abortion. See their website for more information. 

Reprocare [PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers aid in the form of provider referrals, emotional support, language services, and abortion doula services. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

The Brigid Alliance [PSO] – Provides support for those seeking an abortion Nationwide. Offers aid in the form of provider referrals, emotional support, language services, and abortion doula services. Provides Spanish language support. See their website for more information. 

Regardless of the legislation your state currently has in place, remember that safe and legal options are always available. The most important tool you can arm yourself with in these difficult times is knowledge, so stay informed about changes in legislation and policy where you live, and know that there are always resources available to help you through this ♥️

[missielee]

Passion

Day 1&2: Fish & Wisp

Fish – such a fascinating creature

It was Olivia’s first passion as well as pet

When she was seven, her dad took her and her sister to the aquarium downtown.

It was magnificent, she said

It was like a different world, she said

Engulfed by a singular color blue, she was mesmerized by all the moving little diamonds around her

Colorful scales glimmered in the tank lights, felt like thousands stars on the sky

They moved oh so gracefully, bubbles curved along their fins

It was like a water dance.

That was at least ten years ago, little Olivia has already turned into a beautiful young woman who is passionate about the ocean life, specifically sea creatures. Fascinated by them, she indulged hours in books on her dad’s shelves and pursued her dream to become, well, quoted on quote “Fish”.

Fish is a peculiar animal. They live in water and absorb oxygen through their respiration system which is the gills. Their body is covered in scales worked as camouflage, protection and swimming aid. Their fins flutter through the current as they sway their body elegantly. What could possibly better than being a fish, swimming freely in the water blue?

“I prefer whale better” Janet voiced her opinion out loud

“What? That swimming elephant? No way!” Olivia eyed her friend in disbelief “That’s not even a fish!”

“It’s a sea creature too so it sorta counts. Also, FYI, that is super mean. That’s probably equivalent to pointing out someone is obese in fish language.” Janet rolled her eyes, continued eating her lunch

“Whale and dolphin are mammals, so not a fish. Beside, would you really want to be a whale? Big, giant blue whale?”

“Uh, whale is my spiritual animal, therefore, yes I’ll be the big giant and BEAUTIFUL blue whale” a glare was directed right back to Olivia “At the very least, I won’t get eaten by other species”

“Other than human, sure!” Olivia sipped her water “You do know that a fair amount of whale was hunted for meat and oil in the past right?”

“Whale hunting was a thing?”

“Yeah, it was like a thing back in 1800s. Products made from whale, mainly oil, are incredibly valuable. A barrel of sperm-whale oil can even went up to 1500$ per barrel” Olivia shrugged “But it wasn’t used much nowadays because many better resource appeared: like Kerosene, vegetable oil, petrol”

“Uh huh, you know a lot about whale for someone who just insult it” Janet smirked upon her “You like whale too, don’t you ~”

“Said the one who have their nose in Moby Dick like twenty times or something. I only know some of the basic thing about whale”

“Hey, that book is a masterpiece! Brave men against the nature! Battling fearlessly! Unlike you and you’re fish tank obsession.”

Olivia couldn’t bother to say back. It’s true that she’s have an itsy bitsy infatuation with fish, but she couldn’t explain it why she adores them that much. Some have told her she could become mermaid like those performs in aquarium shows but Olivia refused. Even though it was her dream to become of them, she absolutely hates mermaid/merman in generally because mermaid doesn’t swim like a fish does, according to her logically research. Since mermaid have different anatomy, their swim movement is up-and-down, which isn’t the normal side-to-side like fish does. In addition to that, mermaid eats fish, explained her dislike towards becoming one. She understood that it’s normal to pray on one to another in the animal kingdom but she cannot stand the idea of feasting on such pretty shiny thing. ‘I mean people might have evolved enough to even eat gold but not diamond, right?’

It’s not the first time she realized turning into a fish is practically impossible. Despite her fascination of the marine life, she apparently have Thalassophobia, which prevents her from any activities near the open water. It was upsetting to Olivia, having to spend her life in pictures capturing a small part of the vast water part. It’s like try to play puzzles with endless pieces and they all have the same shade of color. No amount of therapy could help her reach the board of the ship, the closest she could ever get is the lightly wet sand shore. Moreover, there’s an unexplainable feeling when she reaches the ocean, she hears it whisper her name in sad serenity. And on a more frightening term, it always seems to seep closer and closer to her.

“Livvy? You’re spacing out again. Come on, we’ll be late for class” she snapped out of her daze, turn to see her friend already finished packing her belongings

Checking her phone, 2:45 and her class started at 3, she needed to hurry.

“Oh I almost forgot. You’ll come to the Jake’s party this evening, right?”

“Beach party? Not so sure, you know how I feel about it”

“It’s just on shore. I’ll be there too. Don’t worry, if anyone tries to drag you near the water then they’ll have to go through me” Janet smirked. Three years in Aikido is enough to take anyone down, not to mention she was a three times champion of the city, as if that isn’t intimidating enough but it ensures Olivia enough to have a good time by the sand.

“But this evening already? I thought it’s on 13th?”

“Today is the 13th, Goldfish. Did you fall head over heel for Jake so far that you forgot to check for the actual date?”

“I might have mistaken a Friday for a Saturday. But that doesn’t make me a goldfish! And goldfish have good memory! The five seconds attention span is a myth!” Olivia exclaimed

“I guess your attention span is probably so filled with Jake that you can only remembered that he has invited you~”

The two kept bickering as they walked each other to class, like all the other days.

  It was around eight when Olivia and Janet arrived at the party, and it sure is a lively one. The torch lit up the area but it was no match to the people’s dancing along the live music band. Sound of chatters mixed with the awry waves of the sea like a symphony. Olivia immediately spotted Jake in the crowd by the barbecue, greeting newcomers and grilled the ribs with his cheerful expression bright like sunlight. Janet could guess what millions thoughts going through her bestie’s mind as she pulled her over to the food court.

“Hey Jake, nice buns you got there. Mind if we have a taste?” Jake laughed wholeheartedly  

“Why I wouldn’t mind you two lovely ladies to have a taste of my delicious buns, of course!” A wink sent towards them as Olivia reddened

“I-I-I brought some cakes from Rosie’s! A-And I think it’s a great party!” Jake took the box from Olivia and gave both of them a small dish

“I love Rosie’s cake! This is great for desert! Thanks Olivia!”

And needless to say, Janet had to play the waitress and lead a very blush female to a table while holding two dish of steak.

“Oh Janet! Did you see him smiling at me? He’s so nice!” Janet have a gulp of soda after settling down and listening to her friend’s love rant.

“Eat your steak Olivia or I’ll help you know how it’s like to be fish”

“Alright, no need to do that. I’m not some toddler, you know” Olivia sulked and cut a piece

Olivia notice a newspaper left next to her seat, seemed like it was today’s news. Curious, she decided to have a look since Janet had went to get a second plate.

“BREAKING NEW:  SUCCESSFULLY FOUND THE ONLY SURVIVOR OF THE S.S HARVEY INCIDENT

Olivia Breston, eldest daughter of the Breston family and a bright student at Morrington University, was discovered barely breathing and unconscious on floating remains of the unfortunate ship by the fishermen of Devonne port. Lifeboat was sent immediately to revive and take Olivia to the closest hospital. 17h28 of 13th October, we received news …”

‘No way. Olivia… Breston… That’s… that’s my name!? I… I am dead?’

Janet returned back with a joyful meal in hand.

“Man! Jake sure have a knack for cooking! You’re a lucky one, Olivia!” Olivia didn’t respond, still deep in shock “Olivia?”

Olivia handed her the paper. Janet frowned before realization hit her. Surprisingly, she’s quite calm to react.

“So you found out. Any memory came back?”

Olivia shivered, shook her head.

“I survived, did I? So why… am I here? On this day, I was supposed to be found? But no?”

Janet moved next to her, sat down and comforted the confused girl.

“Do you want to know? Truly want to know?”

A silence between made the air thickened before Olivia gave a nod, reluctantly. Janet rubbed her shoulders soothingly.

“What you read is true. You are the only survivor of the S.S Harvey ship, a research ship directed by your father. You accompanied him on a field trip on 19th June when the ship got caught in bad weather, which later escalated into a sea storm. There was no news from the ship until…”

Janet pointed at the date and then at what supposedly to be warehouse, rather than what’s beside it. Needn’t to guess, Olivia could tell what Janet was trying to show her. But it didn’t explain everything that’s happening at the moment.

“I assume you’re wondering what’s happening right now. Care to take a blind guess?” Janet lighted a cig, savored that nicotine taste on the tip of her tongue before let out a wisp of white smoke.

“I died?”

“Eh, close enough. A coma. If you died, you wouldn’t be here to chit chat Livvy”

“Coma? But then, where am I?”

“Well, some might say it’s your subconscious so let just assume that it is. You didn’t die from the incident but drowning left you stranded in your brain, that’s all I could say.” Janet led her to the water. It seeped up close to their feet but it didn’t frighten Olivia no more

“I’m the fish of my own tank” Janet chuckled

“So you do remember”

“Yeah, I just got bits and bits of it. I chose to stay here, because there’s nothing out there for me, no one is waiting for me. At least I achieved my dream here, well, in a way” Olivia stepped back to clean sand, heart ached as she turned to Janet “Because in here I can see the one I held dear”

Janet tossed the burnt butt cig into the cool sand “Old habits die hard. You know, yet you still want to stay?”

“There’s no point going out there. I rather stay here”

“Alright, don’t keep Jake waiting on the dance floor.” Olivia headed back, blushed to the ear “After tonight, it’ll all be a bad dream”

“Wake up anew right?”

“Totally, Goldfish” Olivia’s shadow faded as now only Janet stood alone, water raised above her ankle. The way the ocean surging was unusual than before. There were whispers, cries lingered in the air. Moaned in pain. The thunder struck faraway on the surface warned the upcoming omen.

 “Time’s running out, Olivia”

--- Missielee ---