#remarriage track

[sellenite]

Girl you're FEEDING the Choso simps with your cherry blossom series! I love it sm, and I was hoping you could do a fluffy normal!AU?

Maybe Choso can be a TA/Tutor for an upper division college class and Reader is a senior in undergrad. He can tutor her in office hours, they become friends, then eventually hang out once classes are over?

(I'll let you decide if there's NSFW in there ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))

pairing: TA!Choso x fem!reader contents: fluff, no smut (but implied at end), Choso and reader are both a little shy/awkward word count: 2.9K notes: I thought this idea was so cute, and I had some fluffy ideas for college AU Choso and reader so I hope this is what you were looking for <3 SFW :)

Choso Kamo wasn’t exactly what you would call a “social butterfly.” He never had been much of a talker, even before the twins passed away. But as his undergraduate years floated past him, he had failed to make so much as a single lasting friendship—driven firstly by grief, and second by natural introversion.

When Eso and Kechizu died, Choso had just started his freshman year of college. It was a stupid accident; the two of them driving home from a late football practice—a practice he would have been there to pick them up from if he were home—when they got hit by a drunk driver. They were cruel and pointless deaths, and Choso had a difficult time accepting them.

He didn’t go home after that summer; there was nothing left for him there. His mother had long since forgotten about him, too busy with her new husband and her new family. But he supposed the one good thing his mother’s remarriage gave him was his half-brother, Yuji. Yuji was the only person Choso had left, and he called him almost every week between his graduate studies.

Choso was on a pre-medical track with a specialization in hematology—the subject just seemed to come naturally to him. He felt he owed it to Eso and Kechizu to do something with his life, to help people if he could. It had been hard work—and he had near-permanent circles under his eyes to show for it—but he found an odd comfort in suffocating his misery with never-ending lab assignments and exams. However, his solitary habits left little room for friendships to grow; Choso found most of his undergraduate—and now graduate—nights alone, either with a textbook in hand or on the phone with Yuji. He was envious of his half-brother in a way; making friends always came so naturally to him.

Choso had learned to adapt to his loneliness until he didn’t notice it anymore. So his professor was more than a little shocked when he saw Choso had applied for the teaching assistant position. To be fair, he surprised himself as well, but he was putting himself through college and some financial help was better than none at all. And that was exactly how he had wound up being your Clinical Hematology TA. The laboratory class was known for being difficult, but it was one of the last remaining requirements you needed for your biology degree.

Choso wasn’t the best teacher—you didn’t think anyone would argue against that—but it was obvious he knew his stuff. He never needed notes—let alone the skeletal slideshow projected onto the laboratory whiteboard—when the professor had him lead lectures or experiments, but he was so soft-spoken. The subject of hematology he knew as if it were his closest friend—in an admittedly lonely way—but public speaking was far from his area of expertise. You often found other students zoning out or easily drowning Choso’s voice out with their own quiet chatter.

You followed along the best you could though. Sometimes you found yourself a little confused when Choso’s already-quiet voice would grow more muted, as if he were speaking to himself rather than to an entire class. But you still found yourself listening to Choso diligently. He was charming, in a sad, quiet sort of way you thought. He had an aloofness about him that made him seem somewhat intimidating to you at first; he didn’t talk to anyone unless there was a question, and he didn’t linger for a moment longer after the professor dismissed him at the end of their lectures.

But you felt that was more to him than the cold front he seemed to put up, and every once in a while you could see cracks in his stoic mask. You could see it in the way he sometimes let out a long sigh when he wasn’t needed in class, his deep brown eyes gazing out the window, distantly. The way he always seemed to rub over the same silver ring he always wore on his right hand when he was presenting. The heavy circles under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept in months, half-heartedly covered by smudges of charcoal eyeliner.

Your simple observations began to turn into questions—How old was he? Did he go out on the weekends? Who did he hang out with? What kinds of movies did he like to watch? Did he have a girlfriend?—until (unintentionally) you realized you may have developed more than a small crush on your TA. But you had carried out most of the semester thus far without talking to him, so you doubted anything would change. He was your TA, you were his student; it was best to leave it at that, was it not?

Choso was the TA for your specific class, but there were other graduate students that the professor had to teach in his other time sessions. However (as with most of your other college classes), all TAs had office hours open to students no matter the section they were in. Choso had gotten used to his usually being empty. He didn’t mean to seem cold, or off-putting; it was just in his nature to be quiet. Yet, unfortunately, his modest tendencies led most students to seek help from some of the other, friendlier TAs.

Choso still made sure he was present during all of his office hours, though—it was kind of the job, anyway. But being as he spent most of them alone (sometimes the professor would be present as well), he had started using the time as a dedicated study hour. He found his way to the hematology laboratory and unlocked the door, preparing for yet another hour spent alone in the sterile room. At least there are windows, he thought to himself; he couldn’t remember the last time he had spent more than twenty minutes outside at one time.

But just as he was beginning to pull out his own work, he heard a soft knock at the laboratory door. His brows furrowed in confusion as he looked up, almost forgetting from how many sessions he had spent alone that students were supposed to be at these. You opened the door slowly, a little cautiously even, slightly poking your head in. And you couldn’t help the reflexive way in which your eyes slightly widened and a faint blush spread across your cheeks at the sight of Choso sitting alone at the front desk of the classroom.

“Oh! Hi, I’m Y/N… I’m in your Clinical Hematology class…” You started to introduce yourself, feeling more flustered than you had hoped or expected you would be now that you were talking to Choso one-on-one.

“I know,” Choso said back—maybe a little too quickly, he worried. “I mean, I’ve seen you before… You usually sit by the window, right?” He asked you, in that deep yet soft voice of his.

You mentally kicked yourself for the way you felt your heart fall into your stomach as a small smile formed on your lips. He knows me? You thought to yourself as you nodded back to him, stepping into the classroom a little more.

“Yeah, I do,” you smiled warmly at him, recovering some of your nervousness. You watched as Choso slid a notebook back into his backpack.

“Well… Is there anything I can help you with today?” He asked you politely, and you suddenly remembered the reason you had come to office hours in the first place. You felt your cheeks burn slightly and you hoped that Choso (somehow) wouldn’t notice. You nodded again as you swallowed a lump in your throat, sitting down in the chair opposite the teacher’s desk. You couldn’t help but notice how pretty (albeit tired) his eyes were up close, the brown of them so warm that they almost looked red when the light caught them right.

“It’s this upcoming lab report,” you started gently, trying not to get distracted by all of the beautiful details you never had the honor of seeing—the dark purple color on his nails, his long eyelashes, the way the right corner of his mouth tipped up ever-so-slightly as you sat down… You pulled your lab notebook from your backpack, placing it on the table between the two of you. “I have all of my data from the experiment, but the numbers just aren’t adding up…”

Your visit to Choso’s office hours confirmed two of your suspicions: not only was he intelligent, but he was also much kinder than many might assume at first glance. (And he was incredibly beautiful—with particularly nice hands—but there had never been a doubt in your mind if either of those things were true.) He had this gentle way of explaining things, checking in to make sure you understood before he moved on to anything else. It made you feel like he had done this a hundred times, even though you were confident that he didn’t have particularly busy office hours. You had—somewhat ashamedly—only been able to nod along as he explained where the calculations in your data had gone wrong, nervous that if you spoke your voice may waver and reveal that you were harboring a not-so-secretive crush on him.

And when the errors in your calculations revealed that you would need to rerun the experiment again, not only did Choso offer to help you get set up, but to be your stand-in lab partner, too.

 Choso moved around the room with ease, gathering the blood samples and necessary equipment as if he did this every day—which in a way, you supposed he did. He guided you gently, explaining in his soft voice where you had gone wrong, helping you to learn from your mistakes. He was currently looking through a compound microscope at a red blood cell sample, adjusting the magnification to be at the correct level.

“And if you look here…” He began as he lifted his eyes away from the lens, sliding the microscope toward you. “You’ll see the irregularities in the shape of the cell membrane…” You began to lower your eyes to the microscope, moving to place your hand on the side of the base—without bothering to look—when you were met with warm, soft skin, instead of the cold plastic of the instrument. You quickly (although reluctantly) removed your hand from Choso’s with a small gasp.

“Oh, um, I’m so sorry!” You let out a nervous laugh, looking up at Choso bashfully. You gestured to the microscope a little awkwardly. “After you,” you finished as calmly as you could muster, only to wince at yourself when you remembered that Choso didn’t actually need the microscope anymore—he had just been passing it to you.

Choso shook his head and smiled at you as an emotion you had never seen on his stoic face flashed through his eyes; something akin to amusement, or—if you dared—maybe joy. “No, I insist,” he said with the gentlest trace of a smile gracing his lips. Your eyes lingered on each other’s for a moment longer than necessary before you gave a quick nod and a “Thank you,” before you turned back to look through the microscope. Choso cleared his throat as you bent down to rest your eyes against the lens. 

“Um, as I was saying…” Although he would never admit it, he had only realized when your palm faintly rested on the back of his hand how long it had been since he had touched anyone, since anyone had touched him. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been hugged, let alone hold someone’s hand or kissed them. He was thankful you had been looking through the microscope after that because he could feel the heat in his cheeks reach a blistering height. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts of you and your touch from his mind the best he could as you straightened up from the lens.

You wrapped up the experiment fairly quickly after that, but the awkward yet sweet moment lingered in both of your minds throughout the rest of the meeting. You helped Choso clean up the lab, returning all of the equipment to their proper homes as you thanked him profusely for helping you. He only nodded, a sincere smile on his face as he assured you it was no issue at all. And before you left he called out to you:

“Don’t be a stranger,” a soft, sheepish smile on his face handsome face.

And a stranger you were not. You started going to Choso’s office hours once a week, under the pretense that you wanted to make sure you were prepared for the professor’s weekly exams. Choso never pointed out that you didn’t actually need his help, and he would “tutor” you for a couple of minutes before the conversation inevitably shifted onto more personal topics.

You found out that Choso had a younger half-brother named Yuji. That he didn’t go out most weekends because he kept himself busy with his studies. That his favorite food was tonkatsu ramen with extra pork, and he liked watching horror movies, something he and Yuji did together a lot. That he used to be afraid of the dark when he was a kid, but he never let it show because then his younger brothers would be scared too. The weeks passed and you grew closer to Choso, exchanging little bits of information about yourself until a genuine friendship had blossomed. He eventually told you about his younger brothers, the twins, Eso and Kechizu. How they passed right after Choso started college, and how their deaths had shaped him—in a sad sort of way—into the man he was now.

You had expressed your sympathy, of course, but there was also a quiet respect you held for Choso after hearing his story. He had seemed so calm, unshakable on the outside. To think he had been dealing with so much pain in secret, and for so many years… You didn’t know whether to cry or commend him for his strength. He had opened up to you more than once that day, also revealing how much he had retreated from the outside world after his brothers’ deaths. And how now, he was embarrassed to admit that he didn’t have very many friends.

“Well, I would argue that one is as good a place to start as any,” you assured him with a bright smile, and Choso’s heart swelled. After that day you invited him to hang out with you for the first time. It was just a few days after Halloween, so why not watch a horror movie together? Choso accepted with a boyish grin that spread slowly across his face, the widest smile you had ever seen grace his lips.

The first time you kissed Choso, you were both a little drunk. You had taken him to one of your friend’s parties, an early celebration to welcome in the approaching holiday season. You and Choso had retreated to the kitchen to take a shot together; your suggestion, as you were secretly looking for the liquid courage to finally make a move. But, ironically enough, Choso had the same thought in mind that night. So when you locked eyes underneath the mistletoe strung from your friend’s ceiling, there wasn’t a moment’s hesitation on either end as your lips met. The kiss tasted faintly of pine—that earthy flavor of gin—and tart cranberries, and your mouths were warm and soft against one another’s. The kiss wasn’t hungry, despite the alcohol—maybe a little sloppier than you normally would have kissed—but it didn’t lack any tenderness. The crushes you harbored for each other had flourished over the last few weeks, and the dreamlike satisfaction of tasting each other’s lips for the first time wasn’t something you wanted to rush.

Your first kiss quickly led to your first official date; a dinner celebration in honor of the completion of the semester for both of you. The first snow was just starting to fall as Choso ushered you onto the crowded subway car with him, exploring the city after your meal. Your cheeks were tinged pink from the cold as you huddled close together, chest-to-chest, giddy off of the feeling of your new relationship. Choso’s large palm found your smaller hands, holding your cold fingers to keep them warm as you strolled through the streets searching for hot chocolate. The snow collected on your lashes as it fell, and Choso stopped you more than a few times to brush gently his fingers across your cheek and tell you how pretty you looked. He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this way—if he had ever felt this way—about anyone.

“Like an angel,” he said softly, admiring the before he stole a sweet kiss from your smiling lips. The snow fell around you, softly illuminated by the streetlights as he pressed you to the side of a building lining the empty alleyway. You giggled between soft kisses and gentle touches over your winter coats, suddenly unaware of the chill of the air around you. The touches grew needier as your fingers laced into the soft strands of Choso’s hair, his strong body pressing you further against the wall as his hands slid ever so slightly underneath your coat. You broke the kiss to catch your breath, leaning back against the brick as you traced the deep scar that ran over the bridge of his nose—when you asked him he said he had gotten it when he was younger, too long ago to remember. You smiled up at him somewhat mischievously.

“You know what? I just remembered that I have hot chocolate at home…”

[raelyn-dreams]

Enstars Updated Ages (as of 12/2024)

(Plain Text and Info under the cut, as well as new HiMERU age spoilers)

31-33: Jin Sagami.

29-31: Akiomi Kunugi.

21-22: Rinne Amagi, Nice Arneb Thunder (Sanda Yoshihide).

20-21: Rei Sakuma.

19-20: Eichi Tenshouin, Wataru Hibiki, Chiaki Morisawa, Kanata Shinkai, Tatsumi Kazehaya, Nagisa Ran, Hiyori Tomoe, Shu Itsuki, Niki Shiina, Kaoru Hakaze, Nazuna Nito, Keito Hasumi, Kuro Kiryu, Leo Tsukinaga, Izumi Sena, Ritsu Sakuma, Tsumugi Aoba, Madara Mikejima.

18-19: Yuzuru Fushimi, Hokuto Hidaka, Subaru Akehoshi, Makoto Yuuki, Mao Isara, Mayoi Ayase, Ibara Saegusa, Jun Sazanami, Mika Kagehira, Koga Ogami, Adonis Otogari, Souma Kanzaki, Arashi Narukami, Natsume Sakasaki, Anzu, Kaname Tojo.

17-18: Tori Himemiya, Tetora Nagumo, Midori Takamine, Shinobu Sengoku, Hiiro Amagi, Hinata Aoi, Yuta Aoi, Tomoya Mashiro, Mitsuru Tenma, Hajime Shino, Tsukasa Suou, Sora Harukawa, Hitsugi Kurone/NEGI.

16-17: Aira Shiratori, Kohaku Oukawa, Esu Sagiri.

15-16: Ibuki Taki.

14-15: Fuyume Hanamura, Raika Hojo.

12-13: Kanna Natsu.

HiMERU Spoilers!!!: 19-20

Unknown: Seiya Hidaka, Gatekeeper.

Info / Explanations for the Curious

All ages are from ES2 Era (two years after !).

While Jin and Akiomi's ages are currently listed in !!/ES1 Era as 31-32 and 29-30 on their profiles, respectively, these ages are not widely agreed upon, due to them not lining up with the Main Story's stated ages (which would be one year younger for each). Therefore, I used a wider range encompassing both of these possible ages.

Rinne and Niki never attended high school, and Niki therefore did not graduate with any of the ! Era third years, while Rinne would have been a third year during the War, had he attended.

Rei was held back due to his time abroad in his second year, making him one year older than the other ! Era Yumenosaki third-years, which he graduated with.

Tatsumi and Ritsu were both held back in their second years, due to Tatsumi's hospitalization and Ritsu's chronic absences due to his condition and lack of motivation, making them one year older than the other !!/ES1 Era third-years. Therefore, Ritsu recently graduated from Yumenosaki at the end of !!/ES1 Era March, while Tatsumi graduated from Reimei Academy around the same time.

Kaname was a first year alongside Jun during the Reimei Revolution (while Tatsumi was a second-year). Therefore, had he not been rendered comatose, he would have graduated Reimei Academy with Jun at the end of the !!/ES1 Era, making him the same age as the other !!/ES1 Era third years.

Hitsugi was admitted to the producer course during !!/ES1 Era as a second year, much like Anzu the year before, placing his age as the same as the other current !!!/ES2 third years. (While Hitsugi is 17-18, NEGI identifies as his older sister, likely putting her conscious around the age Hitsugi's original older sister died).

As of Ephemeral Festival, HiMERU is confirmed to be 19-20. This tracks with Akira's impossibly mature writing of children & babies (10-month-old Rei remembering specific details of Ritsu's birth, 3-year-old Hiiro speaking in full complex sentences about philosophy, etc), the possibility of Kaname being an affair baby (HiMERU ran away after his father's remarriage specifically; his father could have cheated on his mother before she died), the fact that HiMERU needs to be younger than Rinne (stated in internal monologue), and general Enstars timeline weirdness.

Seiya and Gatekeeper's ages are unknown, though they are typically estimated to be slightly older than Jin and Akiomi (mid-late 30s), with Gatekeeper seen as older, due to Gatekeeper's long history with Godfather (while Seiya is still an active idol with a late-teenage son).

[phati-sari]

Hello PS! (I sincerely apologize for the upcoming essay, I am fresh off another IPKKND rewatch 😅)

My IPKKND discovery was totally by chance! I was in middle school, very much into the dark, with a heavy past type of leads (ahem. wattpad.) and very much not into any indian dramas. One day, after my exams, they let us go home early for once and I remember being very bored, scrolling through channels and I came across a dubbed version in one of the regional languages. And it was the holi episode! To be exact, the scene where Arnav steps in front of Kushi when Shyam tries to forcefully apply the gulaal on her. I was smitten by how good looking everyone were! I watched a few episodes after that where Kushi authors "100 ways to annoy arnav" and loved it.

After that, school happened again and I lost touch with the drama, but it had etched itself in some part of my brain. Years later, after high school, I was randomly reminded of it and watched the dubbed version, but something felt off, so I watched all the episodes again in hindi through hotstar, actually learnt some hindi in the process and also developed an addiction for adhrak wali chai! And my obsession with IPKKND officially began.

Since then, I've rewatched it a couple of times more and not once have I grown tired of the drama! Another few years later, I come across your blog, which gave me a completely new perspective of the drama and I absolutely had to watch it again! It has now become my rewatch staple!

Now that I've overshared enough, here's my favorite scenes in no particular order:

1. Shashi and Kushi in the sweet shop after payal's first wedding.

2. Arnav-Anjali-Shyam scenes. You can see just how much Arnav looked up to filthy!Shyam. Makes everything all the more heartbreaking.

3. Kushi standing up to Arnav after the warehouse incident.

4. Everything NK!

5. Everything mama and mami!

8. Everything Akash-NK-Arnav!

9. Diwali. I think it altered my brain chemistry forever.

10. The fight in the cafe and kya bolun ab!

11. Everything Payash wedding!

12. The first few episodes after elopement- angst was through the roof! Barun and Sanaya are such phenomenal actors!

13. Buaji ka ghar!!!!!!!!! I love Arnav and Bua ji's dynamic!

14. 24 hour challenge track. I love it everytime Arnav's playful side comes out!

15. Remarriage track. I love how Arnav and Kushi meet each other halfway.

And a few of my favorite phati-sari classics!

1. Articulate singh raizada

2. Sassy singh raizada

3. Akkadu singh laad governer

Things I'd change:

1. 🗣📢 ADD MORE MAMA SCENES!!!! 🗣📢

2. The whole make Lavanya sanskaari bahu thing. I think nani and Lavanya should have been made to meet each other halfway as well.

3. Payal and Akash's relationship. I felt like it had a lot of potential. It was disappointing to see it derail completely.

4. Babli and masala mama. Wtf was even that.

5. Mrs. India. While I understand the rationale behind it, I think it could have been wrapped up in a better way.

I sincerely hope for good things to find you and for this year and all the upcoming ones to be great for you! May you be blessed with loads happiness, success and prosperity✨️- ☃️

Hello!!

Oh my goodness, thank you so much for sending this in! I love knowing about people's 'origin stories'. Don't apologise! I like essays!

Arnav-Anjali-Shyam scenes. You can see just how much Arnav looked up to filthy!Shyam. Makes everything all the more heartbreaking. Yes! I feel like this is not talked about enough in the fandom!

Diwali. I think it altered my brain chemistry forever. Mine too!

And a few of my favorite phati-sari classics! 1. Articulate singh raizada 2. Sassy singh raizada 3. Akkadu singh laad governer HAHAHAH I am so glad my sense of humour translates okay through the recaps. being sassy in the recaps is my favourite thing.

3. Payal and Akash's relationship. I felt like it had a lot of potential. It was disappointing to see it derail completely. Right?! It could have been so much better, I agree.

Thank you for such a detailed and enthusiastic response. I loved reading it, giggled a lot.

[the-au-collector]

Hi I loved your sicktember series you did last year (only just found out you have tumblr XD) !!!!!!

Do you have any information about the 'Time is batman' au? I love it so much

AHHH THANK YOU 💖💖💖

I have... quite a lot about that AU actually. The basic jist is, of course, Time is Batman and adds each of the Links to his family. They're all still named Link in this AU but they still use their LU nicknames. The vague idea I have is to have a series where each of the boys get their own book about how they end up getting adopted by Time. Some will get more books loosely based off their games or if the plot deems it needed, but everyone gets at least one.

So, all of them live in Termina City, which is this universe's equivalent of Gotham. I'm not quite sure how the wider world works yet, but most, if not everything, should center around Termina City. Also, this universe's Justice League is called the Council of Courage.

Ummm I guess here's a rundown of the Links, Malon, and Granny? (putting it below a cut because its kind of long)

Time (Link Treewood I) - Bruce Wayne/Batman equivalent. He's called The Mask. Was formerly a superhero known as the Fierce Deity, but that hero began becoming a symbol of fear instead of hope, so Time changes his persona to be The Mask instead. He's divorced (with an eventual remarriage to) from Malon. He was adopted as a kid by a guy named Deku Treewood, and after Deku's death, was taken care of by the house maid, who insists on being called Granny.

Warriors (Link Castle I) - Called Warrior 16, and he doesn't really have a stand-in. I didn't want Time to adopt him so he became Time's cousin. He has a whole Plot with getting kidnapped somehow, then saved by Lana, and then training with the Sheikah Clan (namely, under Artemis). I'd say more but this whole plot is the B-plot for book 1 lol.

Sky (Link Loftson II) - The superboy stand-in for this AU, except of course he's adopted by Time. He's the son of this world's Superman, called Loftwing (*cough* First *cough*), and a hero called Hylia, who both come from another planet. His parents die and the entire first book would focus on him tracking down their killer and meeting Time. His final hero name is Crimson.

Twilight (Link Treewood II) - his final hero name is The Wolf, and he's the stand-in for Dick Grayson/Robin/Nightwing. He's Time's biological son with Malon, who lives with Malon, and ends up getting wrapped up in the hero stuff because his aunts Romani and Cremia (who work for the circus) get murdered, and his mom gets hurt, so he wants to track down the guy who did it and make him pay. When he's older (like, 18-20) he gets a plot about Midna (who's a witch/magician in this AU) but idk what it is quite yet.

Wild (Link Tearbreath) - The Jason Todd of this AU, but a little more stable (and also mixing in some Stephanie Brown/Spoiler). This special guy has 2 books (at least. Maybe 3)! Indeed, he dies and comes back to life. He knew Twilight as a kid before Twi moved to Termina City permanently. Wild and his family eventually moved to Termina City but tragedy struck and he was left alone on the streets. Cue him getting adopted by Time after trying to get revenge on the guy who conned his family out of money (Khoga). He goes by Zero then, eventually becomes a Champion for the Council of Courage, dies, and is ressurected because of the Sheikah. Legend ends up training him and helping him get back to Termina. Also, he's a mix of Age and Wild. In the beginning, he's called Age, but changes to Wild after being ressurected. He also gets amnesida from being ressurected.

Four (Link Smith) - This universe's Time Drake, except he's poor. Is fascinated by The Mask and figures out who everyone is, but unlike Tim, somehow ends up getting himself in trouble with a derranged scientist named Vaati and getting his soul split into pieces. That's... about the extent that I know his plot. I keep going back and forth about making Shadow the 5th piece of his soul, or his twin brother. It could go either way right now. Oh, and his hero name is Doppelganger because he gets his splitting ability after his soul his split.

Legend (Link Treewood III) - The Damian Wayne of this AU. Also Time's biological son, though this time with Lullaby, who's part of the Sheikah. He's pretty much raised to be a weapon, but when the Sheikah end up going through a civil war or schism of sorts, Lullaby takes him to Time to keep him safe. Cue a whole plot about him trying to re-gain his mother's favor by tracking down Majora (this universe's version of The Joker). What could possibly go wrong?

Hyrule (Link Advent) - He also doesn't have a clear-cut equivalent, bit I also take elements of Jason Todd's backstory for him? And a bit of Duke/Signal too. He's basically a street kid who ends up helping Time during a tough moment and Time immediately is like "I'm keeping him" and no one argues with that because Hyrule is a sweetheart. I think he's going to join the family the same time that Wind is going through his own plot. His hero name is Fairy because he can heal.

Wind (Link Castle II) - illegitamite son of Warriors and Lana. Lana gave him to Wars to keep him safe, so Wind grows up in Termina with Warriors. He doesn't know about the heroing stuff until he's about 8 and accidentally finds out, and ever since then dreams of helping them out. He ends up making up his own persona. As of right now, it's Spirit, because he can see ghosts, but I kind of want to change in case I want to somehow insert Spirit later. Anyways, Wind begins going out on his own in secret. He makes friends with a Robin Hood-type girl named Tetra (alias: the Swindler), and her gang called the Swindlers. When Warriors (and Wind's step-mom, Artemis) find out, Warriors is extremely upset about it initially and this will absolutely become the B-plot of one of these books.

Malon Lon - called Agent M, she doesn't really have an equivalent. She's Twilight's mom, but she ended up divorcing Time when Twi was around 5 because she thought Time was cheating (Time was actually just doing his Fierce Deity thing but never told her about it so he could protect her) and couldn't trust him. Eventually, she agrees to give Time a second chance and ends up helping adopt all these tramatized boys. Of course, there will be a re-wedding for her and Time. Eventually. She goes by Agent M when she's helping from the Depths (this universe's equivalent of the Batcave).

Granny Waker - the Alfred equivalent in this AU. She was a maid for Deku Treewood, and ended up raising Time after Deku died. She's spunky, and she cares so much for the boys. They all swear by her soup. She's known as Agent G when she has to help, though she doesn't like that they're endangering themselves by being vigilantes. Oh, and no one knows her actual name. She just goes by "Granny"

That's it for the main characters! I hope to add in as many extras from LoZ as possible. I already have plans for most of the Zeldas, as well as the main companions (so, Midna, the King of Red Lions, Ravio, Linebeck, the Champions, etc.), and most of the villains. Please lmk if you want to know more!

[108garys]

You’ve posted about Goose a few times so perhaps some more details on his place in Sherman’s backstory?

"Describe my first pet."

This is one of the questions Hector had written down that I aimed to answer when crafting Manny Sherman's backstory and here I'll try to include as much relevant information as I am able.

So first is that Goose is a male Labrador with typical yellowish fur and atypical pale blue eyes(likely meaning there's a bit of something else in there) that is supposed to resemble his owner in a way and even the breed choice was considered for the broader range to be flexible as a pet and hunting dog.

Manny's Uncle Ralph gifted him Goose as a puppy around eight years old give or take, with the caveat that his Mother, Heather, disallowed animals in the house so Manny would have to go to see the dog at his uncle's home. This was in large part to Heather already having concerns about the friends he was making in school and her hopes that giving him the responsibility to make time for the dog would seperate him from bad influences and help smooth over his already strained reaction to her divorce and remarriage(more on that at another time).

Beyond this Ralph lives on a bit of land where he breeds hunting dogs with his closest friend and war buddy(basically an honorary Uncle), Peter, generally considered decent role models and of course if Manny is out in nature he can't be hanging out with the 'bad kids', so the responsibility of pet ownership and learning how to hunt and shoot and track prey went hand in hand and wasn't that out of the norm in his maternal family. This aspect was one of the more constant things in his upbringing but of course there's always that quiet fight of finding it unfair that his dog couldn't stay with him and the counter that it wouldn't be fair to the animal to make it live in less space. Especially when Goose is a hunting dog and not used to potentially being walked where other small animals could be risked due to being seen as prey, as Manny grows older and gets more mixed up in the wrong crowd he's not the most attentive dog owner, as would be expected for a young teen(thus validating the notion that Goose should not be moved) but he still hunts and that bond remains. 

At fifteen, in the standard timeline, Manny spends the summer at his uncle's and if Goose could talk he might have been able to tell you that something had changed, that his boy was not respecting prey as he was taught, that it was not sudden sloppiness in the killing but something else that dogs don't understand but he loves him and his hands are still gentle in Goose's fur, even if something else was there and small prey did not receive such kindness, Goose would defend as best as a dog could because that's what loyalty is and when one day he's gone and Goose can't know that the argument had been had over and over that Goose would not be happy where Manny was going and that it would be better if he stayed where he knew, Goose would surely believe that it would turn out in the end, as dogs tend to do.

That said Manny does leave his home town as soon as he's able and maybe if he did have Goose with him he would have had something else to consider for just a few years longer but thematically and realistically boxing Goose into maybe just a back yard at most would have been cruel and while cruelty was far from foreign to him at that point there's something to be said about putting childhood away and so the answer to "describe your first pet" as the question is phrased is that, like many elements of the background, it was technically very mundane, a bond between boy and dog that lasted for the better part of a decade, but as it always is it's informed by the fact that's not normal in the end and being left behind in the comfort of a dog's abundance is the best ending Goose could have. 

So yeah clearly the existence of this dog touches on a lot of other things and with the decision to leave Goose behind, I just didn't have the heart to make anything bad happen to him and I certainly wasn't giving Sherman sad dead dog sob points so instead leaving him becomes thematic of leaving everything else to persue who he was going to become

I would love more asks of this nature and may as well tag in a few people into the ask

@kassiekole22 @delurkr @ctrvpani @aydeenchan @mybrainrotforreal @conra @eframschweigersskincells @kindheartedgummybears @redran6er

Manny couldn't take Goose but he did get to keep his favourite uncle's hunting knife as a gift... surely nothing non hunting related was ever done with it 👀

Also edit to add probably the cutest Sherman drawing that anyone is ever gonna do, not to soften his character but just because it literally is what it is(I could definitely use a little practice drawing dogs tho lol)

[pejite]

During the winter months, the ebb and flow of farm life softened, granting occasional days of tranquility amidst the seasonal chill. Edwin found solace in this respite from the rigors of farm labor, relishing the newfound opportunity to immerse himself in family time. Wilhelmina, in turn, rejoiced in witnessing her husband's uplifted spirits and increased presence at home.

Upon Edwin's return from tending to the animals at Abernathy Farm, they would retire to the warmth of the lounge, gathered around the crackling fire. There, they would while away the hours, nestled together on the sofa, watching their children's playful antics against the backdrop of the wintry landscape beyond the windowpanes.

"How have you been feeling lately? Everything alright?" Edwin's voice was tender as his hands glided gently over Wilhelmina's burgeoning belly, a silent gesture of concern and affection. She offered him a grateful smile, touched by his attentiveness. "Fine, a bit tired, but it's normal" she replied, turning her head to meet his gaze. "I'm quite certain it'll be another boy."

An intrigued expression played across Edwin's features as he arched an eyebrow inquisitively. "And what makes you so sure?" he inquired, bestowing a soft kiss upon Wilhelmina's cheek.

"Because he's remarkably calm." Wilhelmina explained, her hands resting atop Edwin's. "And you know how serene Thomas and Robert are, almost as if they're not there at times."

Edwin's laughter, low and melodious, resonated through the room. "Well, Thomas didn't give you an easy pregnancy..." His attention briefly shifted towards the lounge door. "By the way, hasn't Thomas been outside for quite some time now?"

During the winter, Thomas spent his days out in the cold streets alongside the other village children, immersed in the joy of the season's snowfall. They would mould the freshly fallen snow into intricate snowmen, create delicate snow angels on the ground, and engage in lively snowball battles.

Thomas had always been of a timid and reserved nature, a trait that still lingered within him. However, the vivacious siblings, Bernard and Beatrice, had managed to draw him and Josephine into their playful escapades and social gatherings. Edwin and Wilhelmina were relieved to witness Thomas forging friendships and relishing the outdoor activities, yet they couldn't shake off their concerns, especially Wilhelmina, who had watched him grow up closely attached to her side.

The morning slipped away swiftly as they lost track of time amidst their festive frolicking. As the evening approached, they bid farewell to Bernard and Beatrice and commenced their journey homeward. Thomas, as usual, escorted Josephine to her doorstep before retracing his steps back home. Along the way, a conversation he overheard between his parents about the potential remarriage of Josephine's mother lingered in his mind.

Clearing his throat, Thomas tentatively broached the subject. "Is it true that your mum's getting married again?" he inquired, his curiosity piqued. Josephine turned to him, her expression uncertain. "I don't rightly know" she responded. "Well, she's met someone and stopped working, so I supose it's possible. My mum hasn't said much to me about it."

Thomas nodded thoughtfully. "We'll still see each other, won't we?" he asked, a hint of worry tingeing his voice.

"Why do you ask?" Josephine queried, her brow furrowed in confusion. "Because my mum says that when a woman gets married, it's normal for her to move to her husband's house." Thomas explained, frowning sadly. "And that man doesn't live here."

Josephine waved off his concerns with a dismissive gesture. "Don't be daft, my mum ain't keen on leaving. We're perfectly content in our own home." She said innocently.

"Ah, well…" murmured Thomas, his desire for Josephine to remain close evident. "What I mean is, I don't want you to go." he confessed, enveloping her in a heartfelt embrace before Josephine could respond.

[coordinateofkaguya]

I really am so excited to see/hear more of Muneuji's sister because she's clearly important to his mindset and getting more into that will be fun…

Like, Muneuji's deal is that after his father disappeared he's been disconnected from everything else. But he also loves his sister dearly, despite the fact that she was born from his mother's remarriage, and therefore wouldn't exist if his father hadn't disappeared.

And Muneuji does noooooooot like acknowledging this. Bringing it up is ultimately what made him snap during his fight with Ushio in 002-A19, and when he was trying to communicate with his father in the old school building, he mentions his mother easily, but then cuts himself off and hesitates before saying "other family" (the fact he says "mother and" before faltering really makes me think he was about to say "mother and Hime" before catching himself)

In his profile, too, he lists his family as "father, mother, younger sister", with no mention of his stepfather… he considers his father and sister to be family on the same level while rejecting the circumstances that led to his sister existing, but he's forced to acknowledge it regardless when actually trying to talk to his father

Of course, he'll be a bit better about this post-main story, since he has acknowledged his issues now. But the core of it still lingers, as shown in his novel—Track 5 has him nervously wondering what will happen after finding his father, and these thoughts are specifically prompted by things like spending time with his sister. He then brushes these thoughts off, telling himself he doesn't have to think about it because there's still time before he finds his father—he still doesn't want to think about it too much. But he's going to have to reckon with it at some point!

(relatedly, I really hope him and his sister don't look alike, just to drive the point home… we can infer from his novel that he takes after his father physically, so I feel this has to be the case, but I wonder if they'll explicitly bring it up)

[phuljari]

imho, the reason why arnav's redemption in ipk is so tragically underwhelming isn't because his apology seems half-assed but due to (as jalebi put it, the fodder for a lot of fics was):

sab tumhari galti hai khushi, kyuki agar tum nahi aati toh shyam aise harkat nahi karta

his apology would have otherwise worked because:

1. he lets his actions speak louder than words. the gifts are his way of taking responsibility for his actions. it's not really an apology, it's a promise

2. the real apology comes during the re-marriage track where he actually says sorry, his remorse is raw and clear on his face

3. technically, the whole remarriage track is an apology to khushi. he's doing all the things she wants, he's doing it for her! he's respecting her beliefs where once he might've insulted them, he's treating her as his equal

4. the only reason it fails to be as impactful is because right after almost losing khushi, he says those words. while it makes sense that characters don't change overnight. it was far too soon for him to flip like this

5. them falling back into their flirty era almost immediately, that was super feelz! would've definitely panned out so much better if they got to be in that phase longer

anyway, the problem isn't arnav lashing out because he's worried about his di, that's all normal! the problem was that despite knowing the entire truth, he chose to phrase it in a way that blames khushi! khushi, who had almost died! khushi, who he had to literally give cpr to revive.

[thegleampt3]

umm asoryuu!

i love them so much my personal yaoi cocaine. i think they kind of got divorced but by the end would be on remarriage track but they still need to talk about 800 billion more things before they can reestablish partnership properly and all of that is going to happen in my beautiful mind. also i love angst of them :')

[thevictoriousone]

This is a very valid point (as someone with enough random aunts and uncles that even my spouse of over a decade can’t keep track)

But I also grew up with 5 close grandparent (one set was divorced and my Mawmaw remarried) and my daughter has 7 grandparents. So the maximum you could use is much higher than you might think if you’ve got lots of divorce and remarriage in your family history.

A rookie mistake is getting out of things by claiming a grandparent died. You can do that a maximum of four times per person, and that's assuming maximum social atomization, where nobody you know is likely to talk to each other and compare notes and realize that five of your grandmothers have died of carbon monoxide poisoning in the last three months. The winning play? Dead Uncles. You can have any number of dead uncles, because who knows how many siblings your parents have? You don't even need to keep the stories straight because if you slip up you can claim it was two separate uncle deaths. You can repeat names, even, one on each side of your family. Uncles often die in memorable ways so you can get flamboyant with the specifics. Motorcycle accidents, firework explosions, prostate cancer, rottweiler training mishap. It won't be that weird that you aren't particularly torn up about it. Maybe you didn't like your Uncle

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

Hello, I hope you are doing well!!

Reading all these recent asks about Arnav and Lavanya and his past relationships... and it boggles my mind how in 2025 these people are so comfortable in basically slut shaming Arnav 😶

He and Lavanya had a comfortable relationship before his family tried to box them into something neither of them were ready for. His former relationship with sheetal was also friendship turned companionship. None of the things in the show support how people are viewing him as basically someone who was in relationships he didn't care for just for the hell of it.

This restrictive mentality is so boomer like to me, some relationships don't work out, that doesn't mean those people are tainted or whatever. No one's self worth is tied up in how many relationships they've had, physical or not.

And there are sooo many fics which go out of their way to say how Arnav is a virgin and his 'magical first time' is only with Khushi and no one else has ever appealed to him in 27-28 years he's been alive.... I just close the tab then and there 😶 He never wanted to get married because of what happened between his parents, why would he be celibate or waiting for "the one" when he never believed in that entire concept...

I think these people have put themselves in Khushi's shoes and are feeling possessive for no reason... Or they're getting confused between Arnav and Barun and want Arnav to be like Barun, idk 😶

It's like the Wattpad kinda writers who write hot, powerful men who are aloof and waiting for one girl to change their life by being her quirky self or whatever.... That trope is so dated istg. And it doesn't even apply to Arnav... He's not cold and robotic, he loves his family a lot, can be kind and longs for company like any other person. It's a fantasy people have created where he loathed everything and everyone pre-khushi and only started smiling or caring for others after her. That's not true at all. She made him come out of his shell, true, but it's not like those characteristics weren't there in him before.

He's a nicely written character, packing him into two parts, robotic pre-khushi and a ray of sunshine post-remarriage is so reductive 🙁

Anyways rant over, thanks for reading 😅

ANON OMG YOU REMEMBER THAT I AM JUST A RANDOM HUMAN BEING EXISTING ON A CORNER ON THE INTERNET - thank you and I love you.

Tbh I always enjoy reading and knowing different opinions. It’s the expectation of me to agree and the anger if I don’t, as if I have a personal win if I think Arnav-La shared good times, or empathy for Anjali because she was in a manipulative marriage or sigh over the fact that Khushi has made major missteps - no this pisses me off further when it’s thought that I have a personal win here.

The older I grow, the more critical I’ll grow because now this show is a fond memory and I love them and like thinking of them in more realistic settings.

Me believing Arnav is sexually active doesn’t make me smarter and someone believing Arnav is a virgin doesn’t make them stupid.

It’s just evident that he has had it, knows about it, and likes it.

But yes I love that you point out that it’s literally Arnav’s family that ruins his and Lavanya’s relationship.

Khushi grows to become someone who can balance his family expectations and who Arnav is (not considering the movie track) - but if there’s anything consistent it’s that his family and he are on very very different levels of understanding.

If Khushi completely caters to the family (like the movie) - then she’s very clearly missing out on what Arnav asked (which is to spend time with her… he’s also trying to navigate eternal love and companionship and what he’s used to in life).

And Arnav easily finds it in himself to give more when he’s being heard. Because khushi understands his atheism and appreciates the respect he gives to her family way more than some rituals - Arnav enthusiastically participates into rituals and activities because she gets him and so does her family.

The reason I’m elaborating on all this is because from my end there’s a lot of thinking when I think of them together and it’s beyond they’re destined for each other.

And as you said as well.

So many things matter for them being in love :)

It’s just a joyful place. And sometimes in life we might find some people with whom things just don’t pan out.

Khushi actually realizes quite belatedly - like his family - that their actions for convincing Nani about Lavanya has kinda ruined Arnav’s relationship. Khushi finds it easier to blame Arnav (and she’s FAR MORE right in blaming him!) but we can see that his family has taken a learning from this and they don’t really push him and khushi together, even though they’d LOVE to have khushi as a bahu.

They want to be supportive and let him take the pace of the relationship. So all of these little things matter :)

Have a nice day ahead Anon!

Love,

- Jalebi

[laclasseworld-blog]

La Classe’s Reliable Apostille Services in India

As global connectivity continues to expand, the need for document authentication for international use has grown exponentially. Whether it is a visa application, studying or working abroad, dealing with a foreign legal position, or conducting business across borders, having authenticated documents is critical.

At this point apostille services are necessary and with over 22 years of experience, La Classe Translation Private Limited is an excellent choice for anyone needing fast, reliable and legally autocorrect apostille services in India and around the world. In this blog, I would like to tell you the exact meaning of apostille and the relevance of these services.

What Is An Apostille?

An apostille is an officially sanctioned certification that certifies that the document is authentic for international use for other countries. The apostille is according to the Hague Convention of 1961 and it certifies the signature, seal, or stamp on some simple document is authentic and that the person signing or certifying it has authority to do so.

Documents carrying the Apostille certification are valid in every country that is a member of the Hague Convention. If you have an apostille on your document, you do not have to go back to the embassy for additional legalization. In India, the only apostilles to have certified are completed by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Categories of Documents require Apostille Services

Countless personal, academic, legal, and commercial documents may need apostille depending on their use outside the country.  Some of the more common documents that will need an apostille include:

1. Birth Certificates

For immigration, family sponsors or citizenship applications abroad.

2. Marriage Certificates

Always needed when applying for a dependent visa or sponsorship for spouse to immigrate.

3. Educational Documents

Such as degrees, diplomas and transcripts for attending higher studies, employment or getting a professional license outside Canada.

4. Death Certificates

When dealing with inheritance, making claims on an insurance policy or legal matters regarding a deceased person outside Canada.

5. Divorce Decrees

Sometimes needed for remarriage, but usually for other legal matters in a different jurisdiction.

6. Police Clearance Certificates (PCC)

To immigration, work permits, and residency applications outside of Canada.

7. Medical Certificate

Usually required in circumstances of international employment, immigrating, or treatment.

Apostille Services in All Major Indian Cities

La Classe Translation Private Limited provides full apostille services in all major cities in India ensuring that our clients stay Inconvenienced and covered all over India. Below is a city-based breakdown:

🔹 Delhi NCR

Delhi serves as home to the MEA headquarters and also allows the most direct access to apostille services. As we have a presence in Delhi, we can ensure fast processing and tracking.

🔹 Mumbai

In Mumbai – as it is considered the financial capital of India, there is higher demand for apostilles for educational, commercial and legalising documents. We support superior coordination in these tasks with an approved center.

🔹 Bangalore

In Bangalore – a city known as Silicon Valley of India, there is demand for apostille services primarily for employment related documents and overseas education.

🔹 Chennai

In Chennai, our services enable professionals and families to authenticate required documents for international travel and legal issues.

🔹 Hyderabad

With increasing international migrants and students, Hyderabad remains a key centre of apostille service- especially for educational and personal documents.

🔹 Kolkata

We support clients in Eastern India through our Kolkata office and provide professional support in document authentication.

🔹 Ahmedabad

Ahmedabad is emerging as a hub for commerce and education, and we can assist with apostille services for personal and corporate documents.

🔹 Chandigarh

La Classe assists residents of Chandigarh by providing apostille services for academic qualifications, birth certificates and legal documents.

🔹 Jaipur

Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, features our complete apostille and legalization services.

🔹 Lucknow

As the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow is an additional key location on our apostille service route with end to end delivery.

Major Global Cities  

Our services are not limited to services from India to abroad. La Classe Translation Private Limited is able to assist clients around the world authenticate their Indian documents or to authenticate their foreign documents via our global partnerships. We help customers around the world who may happen to be living in another country or an international context and want to ensure the apostille process is simple and the following are the location, we cover internationally :

Services in the USA: New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston

Services in Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa

Services in UK: London, Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh

Services in Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth

Services in UAE: Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah

Services in Europe: Paris, Berlin, Frankfurt, Milan, Rome, Lyon, Naples, Florence

We will ensure that we make your documents authentic to ensure that the countries accept them legally.

Apostille Process – Step by Step

The apostille process is generally a five-step process.

Verification by the State

The document is authenticated at the state level by an official such as a university or notary.

Notarisation (if applicable)

In some cases documents need to be notarised before they are authenticated at the state-level.

State Home Department or HRD Authentication

The state government processes and authenticates documents by either the Home Department,  SDM, or depths of HRD respectively depending on the document type.

Submission to MEA

Once prompt state authentication has occurred, the document is then sent to the Ministry of External Affairs, which will affix an official apostille stamp or sticker.

Final Delivery

After the document has been apostilled, it is then delivered to the client via courier or they arrange to collect themselves according to location and circumstance.

Why La Classe Translation Private Limited?

✅ Our Experience Counts

With more than 22 years of experience, we are translation and legal documentation experts making us one of India’s most trusted service providers in these areas.

✅ We Provide Coverage

We provide apostille and legalization services in all major Indian cities, and partners throughout the world.

✅Global Know-How

If you are an overseas client, we can help make the apostille process for foreign documents easier, working with embassies, consulates and local authorities to ensure compliance.

✅Speed & Accuracy

We know that visa filings, job applications and academic deadlines are urgent, and we have the processes and efficiency to be sure that apostilles are completed correctly and in a timely way.

✅Client-Focused Service

Our team works with you personally to provide the support you need throughout the apostille process. We keep you informed throughout the process, we provide updates and delivery of documents along the way, making it transparent and without stress.

Conclusion

Getting an apostille is critical to making your documents legally valid in another country. For personal documents such as birth and marriage certificates, educational documents and business documents, La Classe Translation Private Limited will help you attain the apostille correctly, quickly and legally—either in India or anywhere abroad.

La Classe has a national network, overseas partners and an ethos of professionalism, to be your preferred partner for apostille services. You can trust La Classe to manage your document authentication with care and precision.

[dankusner]

JON HAMM — “Your Friends and Neighbors” and the Perils of the Rich-People-Suck Genre

The first episode of the new Apple TV+ drama “Your Friends and Neighbors” takes pains to explain how one can rake in master-of-the-universe money yet never feel financially secure.

Jon Hamm stars as Andrew Cooper, known as Coop, a hedge-fund guy who finds that alimony, child support, a mortgage, an apartment rental, and private-school tuition are draining his bank accounts faster than he can replenish them.

And that’s before he loses his job.

After he’s unceremoniously ousted by his firm and contractually barred from similar employment for two years, each new expense feels like a punch to the gut.

Dropping off his teen-age son at the home of his ex-wife, Mel (Amanda Peet), Coop learns that he’s on the hook for a new drum set (nearly eighteen hundred dollars) for the boy and three sessions of a skin treatment (forty-five hundred) for their daughter.

A neighbor signs Coop up for two tables at a cancer benefit (thirty grand apiece).

Coop could say no.

Instead, he decides to maintain his life style by stealing from his social circle, figuring everyone has too much to miss what he refers to as “piles of forgotten wealth just lying around in drawers where they were doing no one any good.”

In “Mad Men,” Hamm played a maestro of bullshit, a silver-tongued Madison Avenue copywriter who turns slide-projector trays into carrousels and soda into an elixir for world peace.

Coop is Don Draper’s inverse: he’s the only one among his Connecticut country-club set who sees through the hype.

Once determined to keep up with the Joneses, Coop now delights in pulling one over on them, snatching their Cartier bracelets and Patek Philippe watches while they’re on vacation or at their children’s tennis matches.

Not that he’s new to deception; he’s in a furtive situationship with a woman named Sam (Olivia Munn), a friend of Mel’s who’s going through a divorce.

The local cops aren’t too interested in the mini crime spike—it’s grim having to track down baubles with price tags that exceed your annual salary—until Sam’s husband turns up dead.

Hamm, who had trouble finding a new groove after “Mad Men,” is perfectly cast as Coop, who, like Don Draper, constantly looks both imperious and ill at ease.

His performance is the show’s main asset.

Otherwise, “Your Friends and Neighbors,” created by Jonathan Tropper, is more notable for its shortcomings than its pleasures.

Across nine episodes, it squanders a great premise by shoehorning in that most rote of genres, the murder mystery, and by failing to meaningfully develop its secondary characters.

The sole exception may be a Bronx pawnshop owner, Lu (a fantastically weary Randy Danson), to whom Coop sells his stolen goods.

When Coop tries to negotiate a higher price for one of his purloined Pateks, she calmly dresses him down:

“You’re a man who buys and sells things he never touches. You assign value out of your ass. Your skill is in selling that value to other rich schmucks.”

No one knows better than a pawnshop owner how little value has to do with worth.

Other recent shows about the ethically challenged rich, such as “Succession” and “The White Lotus,” have emphasized their characters’ elaborate personality disorders along with the trappings of the high life.

“Your Friends and Neighbors” flips the formula, to unsatisfying effect.

Coop and Mel, despite their nauseating wealth, are meant to be emotionally relatable: former college sweethearts who can’t admit to themselves that they still love each other.

The show gestures toward a remarriage plot, but it’s hard to know how much to invest in the possibility; Mel’s foibles, including her anger issues, serve more to drive the plot forward than to deepen her as a character.

There’s also an antiseptic quality to much of the town’s luxury.

Coop’s former family home, in a neighborhood where houses regularly cost eight figures, is a gray monstrosity, and parties in the community are occasions for exhausting one-upmanship.

Throughout the season, Coop holds forth in voice-over monologues long on faux profundity, mannered phrasings, and lists.

Reluctantly attending a party that Mel’s new boyfriend (Mark Tallman) throws for his guy friends, Coop catalogues the men’s tastes—“Scotch, cigars, smoked meats, custom golf clubs, high-end escorts”—and observes, unnecessarily, that these commodities arise from “entire industries built to cash in on the quiet desperation of rich, middle-aged men.”

The only person there whom Coop actually likes is his financial adviser, Barney (Hoon Lee), who later confides that his marriage has become so defined by consumerism that spending now feels like a “bodily function”: “We eat, we drink, we buy all this shit. Then we talk about the shit we bought, and then we talk about the other shit we’re gonna buy, and then we go buy that.”

Inevitably, such expressions of anti-materialist anomie run up against the need to seduce viewers with expensive objects.

Coop drives a sleek black Maserati, which at one point is filmed from below, with the vehicle rushing toward the camera—a shot that wouldn’t be out of place in a car commercial.

(True, the trunk pops open at random times, but, with Hamm behind the wheel, the brand comes out just fine.)

Similarly, the specialness of the items Coop steals—a Birkin bag, a Richard Mille timepiece, a bottle of Domaine d’Auvenay wine, a Lichtenstein painting—must be explicated at length.

Coop purports to disillusion viewers, but he is simultaneously creating a list of objects for us to covet—the kinds of possessions that signal to other affluent people that one has made it.

The overwhelming reaction that the series elicits, then, is not sympathy but cognitive dissonance.

How to account for the spate of TV series about rich people being terrible?

By now, it’s become a genre unto itself, all but synonymous with HBO’s drama division.

Gawping at lavishness isn’t new, of course—“Dallas” and “Dynasty” dominated the airwaves during the greed-is-good eighties—but the tone has changed.

In shows like “Big Little Lies” and “The Undoing,” the characters are glamorous, in the way we assume the rich are, but also unhappy and oblivious.

I used to think that the underpinnings of this world view were rather Protestant: you could be materialistic, but you had to endure some moralizing about it.

Wanting had to be tempered by shame.

But it’s equally possible that depicting opulence is an area where TV, which is steadily losing audience share to YouTube and TikTok, can still outperform its competitors.

Influencers have made social media a platform for wealth porn, but their videos still fall short of what Hollywood budgets and finesse can offer—an experience that transports instead of merely tantalizing.

The inescapability of the genre certainly feels symptomatic of our times, when oligarchs can buy their way into power and men like Coop never had to pay for the damage to the economy and to the middle class which the financial crisis wrought.

More than that, though, such shows pander to our heightened consciousness about these issues.

By now, when terms like “inequality” and “one-per-center” have become buzzwords, exposing the panoply of ways that money can warp relationships seems less like daring social commentary than like preaching to a choir that craves both moral superiority and stuff.

Speaking of stuff, “The White Lotus,” perhaps now the poster child for the rich-people-suck genre, raised eyebrows this spring, when the third season was accompanied by branded collaborations with a dozen retailers, including Banana Republic, H&M, Away, and CB2.

It might seem like hypocrisy to treat the show’s noxious characters as aspirational, but you can be a cynic and still be a loyal customer.

Coop notes that his country club, where dues are a hundred thousand dollars a year, keeps its membership rolls full not by providing frills but by stoking fear of what it might mean to not belong.

The club operates by “social extortion,” he says, but “seeing it for what it was never stopped me from falling in line with all the other suckers.”

You might be able to see through Apple’s marketing, too, but the corporation doesn’t mind, as long as you’re still buying.

[phati-sari]

Hello hi bye bye dear Phati Sari! I really like your blog that gives me much needed clarity on ipkknd. I appreciate your POVs that are understanding and empathetic towards each character and no unnecessary hate. Kudos to ya!!

Anyway I always found Khushi's choice of item song and performance tad bit disappointing in the bachelorette party. I did not like 'Namak ishq ka' song for seducing arnav at that point of their relationship (maybe later after remarriage like on arnav's birthday or khushi tryna making up to arnav for her goof ups etc).

I feel Sanaya is a super good dancer and they could've actually done something super sensual and alluring rather than comical and awkward in nature. I just wish they could at least once give khushi a space for expressing her true desire and affection for arnav, that way the consummation scene could have been more electrifyingly aesthetic. 

Do you think this as a missed opportunity to showcase khushi's feminity giving a backseat to her goofy childish-self?

Hello!

Thank you very much! I try really hard to keep things balanced on the blog, so I appreciate your words. I know it annoys a few folks, but I try to remember that this is also the person I want to be in daily life -- a person who recognises that everyone is the hero of their own story, and everyone thinks they are justified in how they behave. I know the characters and their situations aren't real, but they are real enough for the purposes of the blog!

I totally see where you're coming from. There are a few times I get frustrated as well. For example, in Episode 147 where Khushi runs on the spot while screaming because Arnav was in the bathroom with her. From the recap -

Khushi’s reaction was … weird. Maybe it was cute, but in a sixteen-never-been-touched-and-terrified-of-boys way. Yes, she’s eighteen, innocent, pure, virginal, etc etc etc. But Arnav unwrapped her from the fairylights in one of the most sensual moments of her life so far. She was willing to let this man kiss her at his poolside. She’s fallen on top of him, he’s fallen on top of her. He’s pulled her to him and held her flush against his body. The shocked scream made sense to me, and so did instinctively trying to cover herself up. I think she could have been shy, or awkward. She could have even been instantly angry. But the running on the spot was simply weird and made the incident more juvenile than it needed to be.

I understand that Khushi's character is written to be comical and awkward rather than alluring and sensual. Khushi's relationship with intimacy and sensuality is often in keeping with the character, but I definitely think that the creative team sometimes missed the mark completely with how they treated some situations and tracks. The lead-up to the Janmashtami suhaag raat, for example, is awful.

In Khushi's defence at the bachelor party, she clearly did not know the meaning of the song and had just picked something she thought men wanted to see. But I take your point, the sequence could have been more, meant more, had different choices been made.

I think the creative team struggled with a way to allow Khushi to grow up and accept her sensuality given the constraints of 2011-2012 tellywood, and given the inherent misogyny in what they were showing sometimes. Lavanya is allowed to be alluring and sensuous because she's a Certain Type of Woman, and Khushi is Not That Kind of Woman. In fact, she is often expected to be a Girl, not a Woman.

Which. Ew.

Having said all that, this is still one of the most sensuous stories I've seen from the era (and okay, I haven't seen a tonne), the female lead very obviously feels lust, and also features (a technically) pre-martial consummation. While not exactly controversial for the time, it was pushing the proverbial envelope. Which is one of the reasons it was (and continues to be) so popular.

[ashitomarisu]

Listening to J-Pop over so many years and being asked how I can understand what he/she/they are singing.

Me: It's not that I fully understand the song at face value via lyrics. My mind takes and dissects the artist's vocal patterns along with the instrumental. My heart determines what emotion is being conveyed. Since my knowledge of Japanese (kanji) is pretty much limited, I rely on the key words to at least have an idea of what the song is about.

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For example, most of Rikako Aida's discography feels raw, mature, and vulnerable; reflecting her inner self, despite only have written a few of them.

On the other hand, Shuka Saito gives off a mix between free-spirited and down-to-earth depending on the song composition/lyrics.

Nanaka Suwa is...mysterious with the direction she goes in her music. She can be "teen pop" for a moment, then switch to contemporary if need be.

Aina Suzuki is variable, just like her vocals (thanks to that Japanese folk background), but once you get past ringAring, you can tell she blew her vocal cords and had to change patterns a bit. Still, it does not change the quality of her music.

Aika Kobayashi is influenced by Western music, which is present in most of her tracks. Her vocals are literally powerful, especially in ballads where the raw energy is noticeable.

Kanako Takatsuki needs to come back with more music. Seriously. Someone who writes most of her songs, if not all. Her vocals can pack several punches of raw emotion.

Anju Inami; versatile in almost any genre thrown at her. She is meant to be jack of all trades and master of playing facade like the stage actress she claims to be.

Then, there is the “dark horse”: Ai Furihata.

Forget even thinking she would go the same path as everyone else. Her exposure to 80s music inspired the decision to stick with city pop. She writes her own lyrics for the majority of the songs in her discography. The artistry in her music videos are another level of dedication. Her vocals would shock any Love Live fan who has not ever heard her solo projects.

If I had to dive deeper into her lyrical content, it is bizarre. She has a tendency to create facade In a few of her songs that seem cheerful but actually have a darker meaning.

(Disclaimer: I will not have time to explain every single song, but there are a select number of tracks that have left me in shock over the years).

Love Song wo Kakete - the Caribbean vibe only sugar coats the fact this is actually depressing as hell. Breakup I suppose...

The whole Honeymoon single - all three songs must NEVER be heard together or else it is a vicious mental cycle between cheating, divorce, and remarriage. The second track "Midnight Flight, Promised Time", is basically "if you really love me, you'll get your ass back here before my flight goes, or it's over". Secret Sugar, (AKA the "forbidden Furirin song I will never listen to again") is the literal novelty marriage themed track. Imagine being a married couple who gets entranced during honeymoon, finding love in someone else, then cheating on your partner only to find out s/o also did the same damn thing, so you both basically call it off and fly home with THAT significant other and get married to that person instead. WHAT THE LITERAL FUCK?

Poolside Cocktail - this was more recent as the message is right in my face and even more depressing than the first track mentioned.

What exactly is the first thing you would do if you're drinking a cocktail or mixed drink near a pool? I certainly would be as far away from anything dangerous to avoid a freak accident or a fatal incident.

When I discovered the unofficial translation to this song, it left a massive hole in my psyche. To think, Furirin is some sort of troubadour...and perhaps she's hiding something personal.

What confuses me is the context: is she talking about a broken relationship that ended in [REDACTED] by drowning triggered by alcohol intoxication?

4. Purple Eyeshadow - it isn't THAT concerning, but two-timing..."I can't be a good woman".

5. RUMIKO - wait, why are they mentioning loving an underage person?!

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I would mention others but this post might turn into a literal novel. For now, those are just my opinions and interpretations on the Aqours seiyuus with their solo careers.

[literaturereviewhelp]

The divorce rate in the United States has been rising. One rough estimate suggests that almost half of all marriages in the United States result in divorce. But what is worth noticing is that many people try to find happiness and joy in their lives by getting remarried. One research, on the other hand, points out that people who undergo divorce will not be able to fully recover from the trauma that they face. The shock that people experience and its implications on their minds and body is immense and may repair but in the long run will surface one way or the other. People who go through a divorce find it incredibly excruciating to recover from the pain. In many cases, it can not only cripple a person financially, but also makes it tough to socialize. And these effects are apparent in a few individuals even when a person remarries as these instances remain like old scars. The research also pointed out that the people who have been divorced will be more prone to develop chronic conditions like health problems, obesity and diabetes and find themselves limited in movement compared to people who are still successfully married. It will be prudent to mention here that research done earlier has pointed out that marriage has been very beneficial to partners in terms of mental, physical and financial aspects. Therefore, by getting remarried men and women who have been divorced may not be able to recuperate from the pain and suffering they underwent from their divorce but they will be able to come back on the track of a healthy and productive life. This will ultimately help the children of the family as they will find the frustration that their parents felt vanish and find them more delighted and relaxed compared to when they were single (Park 2009). Remarriages are difficult for those families who have seen marriages dissolved abruptly. When a marriage is dissolved due to the death of one partner, it is often very hard to reconsider to remarry, let alone substitute the lost partner. When the family has children, the situation becomes very complex. The reason is that children create bonds with their parents that cannot be easily substituted and also are very hard to replicate. After a parent’s death, children find themselves becoming defensive, protective and distrustful. In moments like, these jealousy and bitterness in children are often noticed not only against the new person trying to marry their parent but also against their parent as they feel that he or she is betraying their deceased parent. There is also another issue that results in children of mature ages. More research and study has been carried out on remarriages and their implication on children has been focused on smaller ages. But the effect of remarriage on adult children has been to some greater extent ignored. Read the full article