#she said was that release during the pandemic then??

[caramello-styles]

I told my sister that today’s fine line’s birthday

[pitviperofdoom]

High School Time Travelers, Part 2

It's finally here! Follow up to this story.

***

“So. Spill. What the fuck is going on with you and Angelique?”

Raph fidgeted uncomfortably, and something within Erin roared out in protest at that. They were in her room, surrounded by her clutter and band posters and the stuff he kept at her house to keep his mom from throwing it away. He wasn’t supposed to be uncomfortable here.

Eventually, he took a deep breath. “I time-traveled last night.”

“I’m serious—”

“So am I,” he said wearily. “I woke up in a house I haven’t set foot in for years, across the hall from someone I promised myself I’d never talk to again. It happened, and if you’re stuck on that part then this conversation can’t continue.”

Erin got up and paced her room, kicking aside her backpack, nearly knocking over the guitar stand in the corner. “What the fuck.”

“That’s what I said.”

“What the fuck, Raph.”

“I didn’t mean to!”

The absurdity hit her instantly—he didn’t mean to time travel, as if they were talking about him forgetting his homework or getting in Monica Dillon’s way during passing period. She wanted to laugh.

But then she remembered some of the weird things Angelique had said—about friendships imploding, about college, about shit not mattering in high school, all with the easy certainty of experience.

“Prove it,” she said. “Can you do that thing where you predict what I’m about to say?”

“I’m not stuck in a time loop, dumbass, yesterday I was thirty-three!” Raph snapped. “I had to go through math class trying to pretend I still remembered my teacher’s name!”

“Okay, okay, Jesus.” Erin held up her hands placatingly. “There’s gotta be something.”

Raph sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I dunno. Anything meaningful and unchangeable I can remember won’t happen for a while, so if you’re willing to wait for the Trump presidency or the global pandemic, there’s that.”

“The what.”

“Wait, who’s president right now? It’s still Bush, right?”

Erin pulled a face.

“Next one’s Barack Obama, he’s gonna do two terms,” Raph informed her. “First black president.”

“Oh, huh. Cool,” Erin said faintly.

“Let’s see, what else, um… Balloon Boy? Has Balloon Boy happened yet?”

“No, what the fuck is Balloon Boy?”

Raph brightened. “Yeah, so at some point this family is gonna release like, a homemade weather balloon? Or something? And there’s gonna be this huge panic because they think their son is stuck inside it, but then it turns out he was fine and hiding in the basement the whole time and it was a hoax.”

“Okay, I’ll keep an eye out for that I guess?” Erin sat down again. “You’re seriously not fucking with me right now?”

“I mean, if you want, we could forget this conversation ever happened,” Raph offered. “Continue with our normal lives, while I keep under-reacting to devastating world events.”

“Christ, I don’t know.” Erin pressed her palms into her eyes. After a moment, she lifted her head again. “Wait a minute, we’re getting off track. What does this have to do with Angelique?”

Raph’s silence could not have been louder.

“Raph,” Erin said, a little desperately.

“First you have to promise you won’t be mad,” said Raph.

“Did you sleep with her in the—” Erin paused to do some arithmetic in her head. “—eighteen years between then and now?!”

“She’s my wife,” Raph blurted out.

Moments later, Erin’s mother knocked politely on the bedroom door. “Everything okay in there?” she asked. “That’s an awful lot of screaming for a Tuesday night.”

Erin continued howling into her pillow. “She’s fine, Mrs. Yokota!” Raph called. “We’re looking at—uh—creepypastas!”

“Creepy what?”

“Uh—crap, are they still called that?—like, ghost stories and stuff!”

Placated, she left them to it. Eventually Erin recovered enough to lie back and stare listlessly at the ceiling.

“Dude.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“What the fuck is your life?” Erin demanded. “How did that even happen?”

“We ran into each other at—so my friend Hazel got roped into being in their college roommate’s bridal party and dragged me along for moral support, and Angelique was in the same friend group but with like six degrees of separation from us,” Raph explained. “It took half the reception for her to recognize me because at that point I’d been on T for a few years, but the second she realized we went to the same high school she turned fishbelly-white, pulled me aside, and apologized for how much of a bitch she was back then. It was really awkward.”

Back then, he called it, even though for Erin it was still right now. “And you married her?”

“Like eight years later, yeah.” Raph ran his hand through his hair, not quite hiding the small smile that stole over his face. “She really turned over a new leaf.”

Erin was silent for a while, mulling over this new information, combining it with what she already had from that afternoon.

“Is your name still Raphael?” she asked. “She sounded really surprised about it. And I know you said you were just taking the name on a trial run, but you really seemed to like it. Not that there’s—you know,” she added. “I know that—just because I picked it, I knew you might not… you know. It’s fine, I was just wondering. If I should call you something else.”

“I did—I do like it,” Raph assured her. “But, uh, some stuff happened. My dad found me.”

Erin’s eyebrows shot upward. “Wait, really? What’d he have to say for himself?”

“That Mom ghosted him when she got pregnant because her side guy had more money.”

“Dude, fuck your mom.”

“Don’t fuck my mom, she’ll ghost you for money, weren’t you listening?”

Erin burst out snickering. “Fuck, sorry, this isn’t funny.”

“It will be in eighteen years,” Raph said with a wry smile. “Hindsight. Anyway, he found me in—he’s gonna find me in two years unless I reach out first. He’s a good guy. My stepmom’s pretty cool, too. And I have sisters? So that’s awesome. And yeah, he had this friend who passed away when he was younger, and he always wanted to name his son after him, but then Mom disappeared and he only ended up having daughters, so when he found me, it kind of worked out.” He hesitated. “I’m Damian. Damian Raphael Harker.”

“That’s such a cool name,” Erin sighed.

Raph—Damian—tilted his head back to grin at her. “Yours is cool, too.”

“Shut up,” she said fondly.

“No, seriously,” he said emphatically. “Your name is unspeakably cool.”

There was something odd in his tone, sticking up and catching like a loose nail. It bothered her, the same way something Angelique said earlier had bothered her.

“Hey, Ra—Damian?” Erin said cautiously. “Earlier, when Angelique sat down with us, she didn’t recognize me.”

“She does, don’t worry.”

“No, she didn’t,” Erin pressed. “It took her a second to realize who I was, and she stopped herself from saying why.”

Suddenly Damian looked deeply uncomfortable. “I, uh.”

She took a deep breath. “Was I dead in your time?”

“Wh-no! No no no no, of course not!” Damian looked horrified. “We played Pathfinder like last week, you’re not dead.”

“What’s Path—no, never mind. Something’s clearly up. If we just played whatever-that-is last week, and Angelique is your wife, then why didn’t she know who I was?”

“Uh…” Damian’s hands had worked their way deep into his sleeves. “You look different, that’s all. You kind of reinvented yourself in college.”

“Oh,” Erin said, momentarily relieved. Then— “Wait.”

“What?’

“Damian. You’d—” She hesitated. “If I was a guy, you’d tell me, right?’

“Oh my God,” Damian mumbled into his be-sweatered hands.

“Damian.”

“You’re... not...”

“You’d tell me, right?”

“See, I don’t know if I would!” Damian answered, in a strained high-pitched tone. “That’s—look. If you were a guy, that’s something you’d have to work out for yourself!”

“Damian, I swear to God.”

“I can’t crack your egg for you, that’s like violating the Prime Directive!”

Erin seized a pillow and started to buffet him with it. “You are such a nerd!”

“It’s your personal journey, you can’t use me to cheat!” Damian cackled, fending her off with a plush horse.

***

“Yeah I’ll get the banana split.” Angie bounced on the balls of her feet, eyes raking over the array of toppings. “Can you put caramel and chocolate sauce on it? And Heath bar pieces, chopped strawberries, and M&Ms.”

“Yeah, sure thing.”

It took all of her self-control not to press her nose against the glass as she watched them make it. Some small part of her balked at the sight of three huge scoops of ice cream and all the toppings, but she quieted it. She had a second shot at being a teenager, and that meant never taking her garbage disposal stomach and body made of rubber bands for granted ever again.

She hummed absently to herself, only to pause halfway through the tune. How did it go again? She tried repeating the first half, only to get stuck at the same spot. Oh, this was going to bug the crap out of her. It wasn’t like she could look it up, not when the song wouldn’t come out for almost ten years—

Her phone vibrated in her purse, and she checked it absentmindedly, zeroing in for a moment on the DAD displayed on the screen. After a moment, she put it back without answering. If it was that important, he could text.

Sure enough, her phone gave a short buzz. New text message—he hadn’t even bothered to leave a voicemail.

DADI need you to talk to your brother.

Angie checked her banana split’s progress with a glance, and replied.

lol why

DADHe’s not listening to me. We both know the courts favor the mother so if we’re going to beat her I need both of you on your A game.

Angie ground her teeth until her jaw creaked.

what do you need me to do

DADJust coach him on how to talk about her. You’re a smart lady, I know you can do it. He’s always getting scuffed up at practice, just have him say the bruises came from her. Throw in a drinking problem if you have to, just keep your stories straight.

why father dearest i’m surprised at youyou want me to lie under oath?

DADJust talk to him, will you? Keep your stories straight, don’t get too outlandish, and we’ll get out of this with everything we want. You’ll never have to hear the word no again, I promise.

ok daddy ill do my best!

DADGood girl. You’re the smartest girl I know. Smarter than your mom, smarter than her bitch lawyer. Love you!

“Order up!”

Angie brought her banana split to the table with the clearest view of the door. It took her a moment to decide how to begin, then nearly a full minute balancing equal parts ice cream, banana, and toppings in a single spoonful. She managed it in the end.

Mood lifted, she unlocked her phone again and made a call. “Heeeey, Anika.”

“Need I remind you that phone calls are billable,” her mother’s lawyer said dryly.

“Yeah, I’ll be quick, I have some incriminating text messages I think you’ll be interested in?”

The sound of rustling papers paused. “Go on…?”

“Dad just told me to lie to the judge,” Angie explained, twirling a thin ribbon of caramel around her spoon. “And to coach Eric to lie to the judge. I took screenshots.”

Anika cursed softly under her breath. “Thank you for telling me. Send them to your mom, okay? Thank you.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

The bell above the ice cream parlor door jingled, and Angie perked up as both Damian (Raph?) and Erin walked in. She waved them over, grinning when both pairs of eyes widened at her treat.

“That thing’s half the size of your head,” Erin pointed out.

“Sure is, you guys came just in time.” Angie nudged it across the table, along with the two extra spoons. “If we split it, I’ll have enough room for a milkshake chaser.”

“You’re a monster,” Damian said delightedly. “Oh shit, are those Heath bars?” He dug in without waiting for an answer.

“They’re peanut butter cups,” she said solemnly, once he’d taken a bite and could probably tell they weren’t. “I added them just to hurt you.” Damian rolled his eyes and dug his spoon back in.

Erin stared at her, probably still baffled by the gentle banter, but at least she looked more curious than infuriated, like instead of being suspicious she simply didn’t know what to make of Angie.

“So, you guys talked?” Angie asked carefully. “Are we… all good?”

“I think so,” Damian replied, shooting a cautious glance at Erin.

“You’re on thin ice,” Erin informed her as she helped herself to the chocolate scoop.

“Fair.” Angie didn’t remember Erin putting up quite as much of a fight, but then, it had been years when they’d reconnected before. This time around, it was still fresh.

“The ice cream helps,” Erin added, slightly muffled by the spoon in her mouth.

“Noted.” Angie paused, weighed her options, and shrugged. No harm no foul, probably. “Hey, you’re a musician, right?”

Erin swallowed. “Yeah, why?”

“And not just a performer, but you write music too, right?”

“Yeeaaah?” Erin squinted suspiciously. Beside her, Damian shot Angie a warning glare.

“If I give you half a tune, could you resolve it?”

Erin was staring at her like she’d grown a second head. “Probably.”

“Great!” Angie hummed the earworm from earlier. “How would the next part go?”

Erin repeated it to herself, nodding along. After a moment, she said, “Probably like—”

And sure enough, there it was. The rest of the chorus’s tune came rushing back to Angie’s memory, and she breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Thanks! That was driving me nuts.” Angie returned to her banana split, ignoring Damian’s growing scowl.

Later, when Erin was in the bathroom and  Angelique was standing in line to order her promised milkshake, Damian dug his elbow into her side. “You’re not as slick as you think you are,” he muttered.

“What?” Angie said innocently. “I didn’t give anything away.”

“You just taught her half the chorus of a song she’s eight years away from writing!”

“I’ve planted a seed,” Angie insisted. “I’ve created a stable time loop.”

“That is not what you did and you know it.” Damian pursed his lips, clearly trying to stay annoyed with her. “I barely avoided spoiling her transition, and that’s after she asked me to my face.”

Angie grinned. “So you haven’t told her she’s a genderfluid punk rocker yet?”

“No. Because she’s not a genderfluid punk rocker yet.”

“And now, when she becomes one,” Angie said with a smile, “she’s going to look back on this day and laugh.”

[reasonsforhope]

"Despite the Central Appalachia ecosystem being historically famous as coal country, under this diverse broadleaf canopy lies a rich, biodiverse world of native plants helping to fill North America’s medicinal herb cabinet.

And it turns out that the very communities once reliant on the coalfields are now bringing this botanical diversity to the country.

“Many different Appalachian people, stretching from pre-colonization to today, have tended, harvested, sold, and used a vast number of forest botanicals like American ginseng, ramps, black cohosh, and goldenseal,” said Shannon Bell, Virginia Tech professor in the Dept. of Sociology. “These plants have long been integral to many Appalachians’ livelihoods and traditions.��

50% of the medicinal herbs, roots, and barks in the North American herbal supply chain are native to the Appalachian Mountains, and the bulk of these species are harvested or grown in Central Appalachia, which includes southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, far-southwest Virginia, and east Tennessee.

The United Plant Savers, a nonprofit with a focus on native medicinal plants and their habitats, has identified many of the most popular forest medicinals as species of concern due to their declining populations.

Along with the herbal supply chain being largely native to Appalachia, the herb gatherers themselves are also native [to Appalachia, not Native American specifically], but because processing into medicine and seasonings takes place outside the region, the majority of the profits from the industry do too.

In a press release on Bell’s superb research and advocacy work within Appalachia’s botanical communities, she refers back to the moment that her interest in the industry and the region sprouted; when like many of us, she was out in a nearby woods waiting out the pandemic.

“My family and I spent a lot of time in the woods behind our house during quarantine,” Bell said. “We observed the emergence of all the spring ephemerals in the forest understory – hepatica, spring beauty, bloodroot, trillium, mayapple. I came to appreciate the importance of the region’s botanical biodiversity more than ever, and realized I wanted to incorporate this new part of my life into my research.”

With co-investigator, John Munsell at VA Tech’s College of Natural Resources and Environment, Bell’s project sought to identify ways that Central Appalachian communities could retain more of the profits from the herbal industry while simultaneously ensuring that populations of at-risk forest botanicals not only survive, but thrive and expand in the region.

Bell conducted participant observation and interviews with wild harvesters and is currently working on a mail survey with local herb buyers. She also piloted a ginseng seed distribution program, and helped a wild harvester write a grant proposal to start a forest farm.

“Economic development in post-coal communities often focuses on other types of energy development, like fracking and natural gas pipelines, or on building prisons and landfills. Central Appalachia is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet. I think that placing a greater value on this biodiversity is key to promoting a more sustainable future for the region,” Bell told VA Tech press.

Armed with a planning grant of nearly half a million dollars, Bell and collaborators are specifically targeting forest farming as a way to achieve that sustainable future.

Finally, enlisting support from the nonprofit organization Appalachian Sustainable Development, Virginia Tech, the City of Norton, a sculpture artist team, and various forest botanicals practitioners in her rolodex, Bell organized the creation of a ‘living monument’ along Flag Rock Recreation Area in Norton, Virginia.

An interpretive trail, the monument tells the story of the historic uses that these wild botanicals had for the various societies that have inhabited Appalachia, and the contemporary value they still hold for people today."

-via Good News Network, September 12, 2024

[project-sekai-facts]

Only one date is ever mentioned in-game, that being 2021. Considering that the Virtual Singer Fan Festa seems to be a stand-in for Magical Mirai 2021, we can assume that the Scramble Fan FESTA! event takes place in September 2021 (the real-life MM2021 was delayed to November due to covid-19, but the pandemic doesn't exist in-universe and MM Tokyo usually takes place at the beginning of September). There are Leo/need Daily Life social media posts that show them attending Magical Mirai, and do state the year of the event, but these can be considered promotional material for the event itself rather than canon material, especially since the characters address in-game that only one year has passed since the start of the story (despite the fact they have celebrated new year's day 4 times now. Timeloop things).

Based on this date, we can actually place exactly when every main character was born. The cutoff date for Japanese schools is April 1st, making Ena the oldest main character, being a 3rd year with a birthday of April 30th, followed by Tsukasa on May 17th, so on so forth all the way down to Kohane, a 2nd year with a birthday of March 2nd.

Considering when Scramble Fan FESTA is set, Ena, who was a 2nd year at the time, would be 17 years old. That would place her date of birth as April 30th, 2004. Additionally, while Kohane, a first year at the time, should be 15 during the event, the game considers her to be 16 due to using a set age for every grade bracket. Regardless, the event setting places her date of birth as March 2nd, 2006.

Based on this, we can conclude that:

Ena, Tsukasa, Rui, and Shizuku were born in 2004

Mafuyu, Kanade, Airi, Minori, Saki, Toya, Nene, An, Ichika, Mizuki, Emu, Haruka, Honami, and Akito were born in 2005

Shiho and Kohane were born in 2006

This also means that Ena, Tsukasa and Rui are all older than the MEIKO software (released November 5th 2004), and everyone except Kohane is older than the KAITO software (released February 17th 2006). Every main character is older than Miku, the Kagamines, and Luka based on this information.

Using the information around set ages*, we can also work out rough estimates for when the side characters were born. For example, Arata, who was 19 during the first 3 years of the game, is 3 years older than the members of VBS who were all considered to be 16. Since the members of VBS were born in the April 2005 - April 2006 school year range, Arata was likely born in the 2002-2003 school year range.

* based on how characters like Youta and Miu, who are said to be the same age as Leo/need, were both confirmed to be 16 years old before the 3rd anniversary age-up. Also Haruka's age is confirmed as 16 at a point in time when she shouldn't be 16. Timeloop things.

Based on this, the oldest living side character, Kounosuke, who was 55 pre-3rd anniversary and 39 years older than Emu, was probably born between April 1966 and April 1st 1967. On the younger side of things, Hanano, who was 14 pre-3rd anni, was likely born between April of 2007 and 2008. I've put the rest of the estimated side character DOBs under the cut.

assumed age as of 3rd anniversary in brackets (literally just pre-age-up age + 1)

Rakunosuke Otori - April 2nd 1922 ~ April 1st 1923 (98 (at time of death. would be 100 if still alive))

Kounosuke Otori - April 2nd 1966 ~ April 1st 1967 (56)

Jean Riley - 1967~1968 (55)

Harumichi Aoyagi - 1968~1969 (54)

Shin'ei Shinonome - 1973~1974 (49)

Mr Yoisaki - 1975~1976 (47)

Ken Shiraishi - 1978~1979 (44)

Taiga Kotaki - 1978~1979 (44)

Mrs Asahina - 1980~1981 (42)

Yoshiki Shindou - 1982~1983 (40)

Yuuka Kazamatsuri - 1990~1991 (32)

Keisuke Otori - 1991~1992 (31)

Shousuke Otori - 1994~1995 (28)

Daigo Kijima - 1994~1995 (28)

Tatsuya Okazaki - 1999~2000 (23)

Yuuki Akiyama - 1999~2000 (23)

Ayaka Saito - 2001~2002 (21)

Hinata Otori - 2001~2002 (21)

Iori - 2002~2003 (20)

Mio - 2002~2003 (20)

Arata Tono - 2002~2003 (20)

Souma Miyata - 2002~2003 (20)

Asahi Genbu - 2003~2004 (19)

Kotaro Mita - 2004~2005 (18)

Sakurako Seiryuin - 2004~2005 (18)

Nanami "Nanamin" Hayakawa - 2004~2005 (18)

Futaba Natsuno - 2004~2005 (18)

Arisa Higure - 2004~2005 (18)

Ayumi Tabata - 2004~2005 (18)

Hibiki Miyake - 2004~2005 (18)

Shuuta Hayashi - 2004~2005 (18)

Ibuki Taniyama - 2004~2005 (18)

Yuina Uchiyama - 2005~2006 (17)

Shouta Hayashi - 2005~2006 (17)

Miu Takagi - 2005~2006 (17)

Youta Yoshizaki - 2005~2006 (17)

Riho Hasegawa - 2005~2006 (17)

Saku Kousaka - 2005~2006 (17)

Mai - 2006~2007 (16)

Hanano Yoshizaki - 2007~2008 (15)

Additional notes (mod is rambling atp):

Rakunosuke died when he was 98 years old. In the WxS main story, Emu says that he died a year ago. Assuming Emu was 15 at the time, they have an age gap of around 83 years. The year of birth listed here was based on that assumption.

We know that Kanade's mother died aged 30, but we do not know when she died. She is still alive in flashbacks set roughly 10 years prior to the events of game.

In the third fanbook, ages were given for Mrs Asahina, Shindou, Yuuki, Asahi, and Arisa as one year less than they are given in this post. The reason for me adding a year on is because of the confirmation in a livestream of Daigo's age being 27. Daigo is meant to be the same age as Shousuke, whose age was given as 27 prior to the 3rd anniversary. When his age was provided on stream, he was grouped with the 5 I mentioned earlier. Based on this we can assume that all their ages are taken from the same time frame, i.e, pre-3rd anni (and this also confirms that NPCs inexplicably don't age but we'll ignore that for continuity reasons).

We do not have confirmed ages for Nagi, Reki, Sakaki, Ohara, MMJ's landlady, Mafuyu's father, Hiiragi, or the members of ReLight yet

Rui suggests that Reki is the same age as him in A Story Where You Are The Star while talking about both him and Asahi in the same sentence. Asahi was since confirmed as 18/19, so it is likely that Reki is also around that age.

Nagi's age is left blank in the fanbook due to it not being revealed that she was dead at the time of publication. She is younger than Taiga, but we don't know by how much, but nonetheless she was likely born in the early 1980s. It is unlikely we will ever know her exact age.

Ohara is stated to be in his mid-30s, placing his birth year as somewhere in the 1980s, likely around 1986-1989. Sakaki is an old college friend of Ohara's, so he is likely a similar age.

No NPCs are given exact birthdays

[zot3-flopped]

Two months prior to its release, would-be doyens of Swift’s Tortured Poets Department have taken its barbed track listing very literally, leading to intense, often nefarious speculation regarding Swift’s six-year relationship with the British actor Joe Alwyn, which seemingly ended in early 2023.

The album’s title, revealed onstage at the Grammy awards, was quickly linked to a December, 2022 interview with Alwyn and Paul Mescal in which they revealed that Andrew Scott started their group chat, the Tortured Man Club. (“It hasn’t had much use recently,” Alwyn said: you wonder if it’s undergone a recent revival.) Swift revealed the leading track list a day later: My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, So Long, London, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, to name a few, sending fans wild with speculation.

Swift, obviously, has every right to sing about her relationships however she wants to (no apologies to Eamonn Holmes). But in the absence of any music, some fans have spread baseless, dangerous and even libellous allegations about Alwyn’s conduct (which, for obvious reasons, I can’t repeat).

Last month, a brief fan-shot video of them dining in a New Orleans restaurant in December, 2022 was recirculated online with AI-doctored audio that made it sound as though Alwyn is saying “you don’t get to tell me about sad,” a line printed on the back of one of the new album’s four physical editions.

When Swift recently told a crowd that she was “lonely” when writing her 2020 album Folklore – some of which was co-written with Alwyn during the pandemic, a lonely time for most – fans took that as further confirmation of their theories. A live medley of three songs that all appear to reference cheating threw petrol on the fire.

Swift could make this stop. She is no stranger to airing her displeasure with the likes of Ticketmaster, Scooter Braun, Spotify and Apple Music, and, occasionally, politicians. Before she released Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) last year, she gave a veiled speech at one Eras tour date effectively asking fans not to go after John Mayer, whom she dated when she was 19 and he was 32 and is understood to be the subject of that album’s Dear John.

“I am not putting this album out so you should feel the need to defend me on the internet against someone you think I wrote a song about 14m years ago when I was 19,” she said in Minneapolis.

But for whatever reason – and obviously, no member of the public has any idea what transpired between her and Alwyn so far – this time she has opted to stay quiet.

Establishing a baseline for conduct is neither commercially risky nor unprecedented: just last week, Ariana Grande said, after the release of her post-divorce album Eternal Sunshine: “Anyone that is sending hateful messages to the people in my life based on your interpretation of this album is not supporting me and is absolutely doing the polar opposite of what I would ever encourage”.

It feels like the endgame of a cat-and-mouse act that’s gone too far. Swift’s gestures towards meaning have led every single thing she does to be considered a kind of marketing, a clue to be solved. It leaves a superstar who’s usually hot on her messaging open to misinterpretation: hints about her personal life are turned by some fans into witch-hunts for anyone perceived to have wronged her; her current silence on politics allows politicians to invoke her name, from the New South Wales police commissioner quoting Swift’s anti-haters lines while defending police to Joe Biden joking that the matter of her apparently much sought-after endorsement is “classified” on Late Night With Seth Meyers.

When Swift made a blandly neutral handwritten post encouraging US citizens to register to vote on Super Tuesday, some fans speculated that her unusual left-leaning handwriting was the real indication of her loyalties – suggesting they’re so starved of substance that they’re reading into empty messages because of this dynamic she has established. (The more likely explanation is the insane way she holds a pen.)

For Swift to only direct fans as to her wishes when it suits her, it weakens her status as a truth-teller. If the comparisons with Dickinson mean anything, she might remember that nothing in the world has as much power as a word feels like the endgame of a cat-and-mouse act that’s gone too far.

[beardedmrbean]

The former top prosecutor in Baltimore, convicted of fraud for lying about financial hardship during the pandemic in order to buy a beach house with money from the federal government , will serve no prison time.

Marilyn Mosby, 44, was sentenced to 12 months of house arrest, 100 hours of community service and three years of supervised release Thursday, Erek Barron, United States Attorney for the District of Maryland announced.

The ex-prosecutor was found guilty of multiple felony charges in two separate trials, one that took place this year and one last fall.

During the sentencing hearing in Prince County, U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby sentenced Mosby to home confinement with electric monitoring and also ordered forfeiture of 90% of the property Mosby bought with the fraudulently obtained mortgage.

Mosby garnered national attention in 2015 when she charged six Baltimore police officers in connection to the death of Freddie Gray. A Black man, Gray, 25, died in police custody  a week after he suffered a severe spinal injury while traveling without a seatbelt in the back of a van on the way to the police station.

Prosecutors had asked for a 20-month sentence

Under the law, Mosby had faced up to 35 years in prison for her fraud and perjury convictions.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sean R. Delaney and Aaron S.J. Zelinsky prosecuted the federal cases. Federal court records show they had argued for a 20-month prison sentence.

“The court agrees these are very serious offenses and that this conduct displays a pattern of dishonesty,” The Baltimore Sun reported Griggsby told Mosby in court. “This dishonesty also occurred when you held the highest office for a prosecutor in the City of Baltimore.”

While Mosby’s crimes didn’t have “victims in a traditional sense,” the outlet reported, Griggsby said Mosby "betrayed people who looked up to her in the community."

The judge went on to acknowledged the former head prosecutor's record of public service, the Sun reported, and said Mosby’s two daughters "weighed most heavily" in determining the sentence.

What was Marilyn Mosby convicted of?

In February, Mosby was convicted of making a false mortgage application when she was Baltimore City State’s Attorney, relating to the purchase of a condominium in Long Boat Key, Florida. The jury acquitted Mosby of making a false mortgage application related to her purchase of a home in Kissimmee, Florida.

Several months earlier, in November, a jury found Mosby guilty of two counts of perjury, in connection to the withdrawal of funds from the City of Baltimore’s Deferred Compensation Plan claiming "she suffered adverse financial consequences" during the pandemic while she was the city's prosecutor.

n a statement released by his office, Barron commended the FBI and IRS-CI agents for their work in the investigation and thanked the Baltimore City Office of the Inspector General for its assistance in the case.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Arthur Delaney at HuffPost:

Former President Donald Trump kept in touch with Russian President Vladimir Putin after Trump left office, according to “War,” a new book by famed reporter Bob Woodward. An aide to Trump told Woodward he was once asked to leave a room at Trump’s home in Florida so he could have a private phone call with Putin. “According to Trump’s aide, there have been multiple phone calls between Trump and Putin, maybe as many as seven in the period since Trump left the White House in 2021,” Woodward wrote, according to CNN, which obtained a copy of the book ahead of its release later this month.

Trump has spoken fondly of Putin over the years; he used the words “genius” and “savvy” to describe Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, for instance. Trump claimed to have been the victim of a “witch hunt” when the Justice Department investigated his 2016 campaign’s contacts with Russian sources. Woodward reported in “War” that Avril Haines, President Joe Biden’s Director of National Intelligence, said she didn’t know whether Trump and Putin have spoken. “I wouldn’t purport to speak to what President Trump may or may not have done,” Haines said, according to Woodward.

[...] Another revelation in Woodward’s new title is that Trump sent Putin a secret shipment of COVID-19 testing equipment in 2020 at the height of the pandemic, when tests could sometimes be hard to come by. Putin reportedly begged Trump not to tell. “I don’t want you to tell anybody because people will get mad at you, not me,” Putin said, according to Woodward. “They don’t care about me.”

Bob Woodward’s soon-to-be released book War revealed that Donald Trump had multiple phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin since leaving office and that he sent Russia a shipment of COVID-19 testing equipment while ignoring our nation during a time of crisis when COVID was ravaging the entire world in 2020.

See Also:

CNN: ‘That son of a bitch’: New Woodward book War reveals candid behind-the-scenes conversations of Biden, Trump, Harris and Putin

[brf-rumortrackinganon]

“Lady C has sometimes-knowledgeable sources but she keeps moving the goalposts for The Big Sussex Takedown”

In part that is a misunderstanding between Lady C and her viewers, in my opinion, in that her big spring reveal was the updating of her book on the Harkles and her interview with Dan Woottan on his new YouTube channel which was launching at that time.

The bullying/bot farm journalist reports were also published around then if I remember correctly.

People thought the reveal would come from the Palace.

We’re talking about two different things.

I used to watch Lady C quite a bit during pandemic days and off and on afterwards. Lady C has been teasing a big reveal for 2 or 3 years now and every time it doesn’t happen when she predicts it, she moves it to the next season. That’s not a misunderstanding by her audience. That’s Lady C moving the goalposts. She’s still doing that, now claiming that something is going to come out in the fall.

The incident that you’re speaking of, I don’t consider that a misunderstanding. I consider that misdirection. Lady C knows her audience hates the Sussexes and really wants their comeuppance. She knows that they hang onto her every word because she has “insider access” because she tells them she does - remember when The Queen passed and Lady C specifically said in a video that she had been authorized by the palace to reveal The Queen’s bone cancer diagnosis so Meghan couldn’t? - so when she teases a “big thing,” she knows her audience assumes it’s a palace action because she’s spent all this time since launching her YouTube channel telling everyone she has palace or family sources. She knows that about her audience, and yet she doesn’t do anything to manage or temper their expectations because she also knows she’ll lose her audience if they don’t think she has insider access/palace sources. That’s why she never told anyone what her big news was until the book was actually published and Dan’s interview actually released - because she knew they’d be disappointed it wasn’t The Big Takedown she’s been promising for 3+ years.

That’s not a misunderstanding. That’s misdirection. She knows she has no audience if she can’t string them along and she strings them along using the promise of palace sources confiding in her that something big is about to happen. So she keeps moving the goalposts to keep her audience around.

This would be a misunderstanding by the audience only if Lady C hadn’t been teasing palace or family sources all the while.

[covid-safer-hotties]

'Vaccine fatigue' blamed as roughly half of people in US will skip COVID and flu shots this year - Published Sept 16, 2024

by Melissa Rudy

A growing number of U.S. adults are hesitant to get recommended vaccines this fall, a new survey found.

The poll, which included 1,006 people, found that only 43% of respondents have gotten or plan to get the COVID vaccine.

Only a slight majority (56%) of adults said they have gotten or plan to get the flu shot this fall.

The poll also found that 37% of those who have gotten vaccines in past years plan to skip the shots this season.

Around one-third of respondents also said they don’t believe they need the vaccines mentioned in the survey — flu, COVID, RSV or pneumococcal pneumonia.

Vaccine hesitancy tends to skew younger, as adults aged 65 and older are the most likely to get the recommended immunizations.

The nationwide survey was conducted by The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in mid-August 2024.

These findings come just weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved updated COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer for the 2024-2025 season.

"We’re at the start of respiratory virus season, when you have the triple threat of flu, COVID-19 and RSV," said Nora Colburn, MD, medical director of clinical epidemiology at Ohio State’s Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital, in a press release.

"Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation about vaccinations, but the reality is that they are safe and highly effective in preventing serious illness and death," she went on.

"Older adults, people with certain chronic medical conditions, and those who are pregnant are especially at risk during respiratory virus season." Dr. Jacob Glanville, CEO of Centivax, a San Francisco biotechnology company, reacted to the poll’s findings.

"It’s obviously not surprising that 37% of people said they had been vaccinated in the past but weren’t planning to this year," he told Fox News Digital.

"We just had a vaccine mandate a couple of years ago, and furthermore, childhood vaccines are very broadly administered, so those 37% are people who wouldn’t be getting a vaccine normally anyway."

The reported rate of 56% for the flu shot is a little above average, Glanville said, as it tends to hover at around 50%.

"Coronavirus vaccination rates are a little lower than for the flu," he noted.

This could be due to lack of clarity with the public over how COVID should be treated post-pandemic, according to Glanville.

"It’s also fatigue due to the COVID vaccines not being particularly effective at preventing symptoms, which causes people to believe that they are not effective (although they do protect against severe illness)," he added.

Dr. Marc Siegel, senior medical analyst for Fox News and clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, said he finds the poll’s findings concerning.

"Both vaccines wane over six months, so a yearly booster makes sense for high-risk groups," he told Fox News Digital.

Siegel estimates that this year’s flu season will be similar to last year’s, which was "moderate," with 25,000 deaths and 400,000 hospitalizations.

"The flu shot decreases severity and number of hospitalizations by about a quarter, and helps to provide community immunity," he added.

For COVID, Siegel warned that the virus’ activity is still fairly high — "especially in the western U.S."

The doctor also warned of a new variant circulating in Europe, which he expects will soon be in the U.S., known as the XEC subvariant.

"It seems to be more contagious — it causes congestion, cough, loss of smell and appetite, sore throat and body aches," he told Fox News Digital.

"The new vaccine should provide at least some coverage."

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, told Siegel that very young children are being hospitalized at a greater rate — "likely because they haven't been vaccinated with the primary series."

"I recommend a yearly booster for the elderly, immunocompromised and those with chronic illness, along with anyone who is at risk for long COVID or has had it previously," Siegel said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued the following vaccine recommendations

Flu: Everyone 6 months and older is advised to get vaccinated against influenza.

COVID-19: The latest version of the COVID vaccine is recommended for everyone 6 months and older.

RSV: The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine is recommended for everyone aged 75 and older, as well as those aged 60 to 74 who have certain chronic medical conditions, such as lung or heart disease, or who live in nursing homes, as they are at a higher risk of severe disease. Pregnant women are also advised to get the vaccine during weeks 32 through 36 of pregnancy.

Pneumococcal: Everyone younger than 5 years and age 65 and older is advised to get the pneumococcal vaccine, along with those who are at increased risk of severe disease.

[fancylala4]

I’m actually kind of surprised that swifties were trashing him instead of defending him because he was Taylor’s man. Since when do they have standards and morals? Especially against racism?

As someone who was a casual listener starting in folklore era until she dated Matty, (my eyes opened so quickly when Matty came in the picture) I didn't know much about Taylor but she seemed matured and grown-up and private.

Now we know that was mostly Joe Alwyn's influence, the hate she got after 1989/during reputation and then the pandemic. But I think a lot of people's eyes opened when she started dating Matty and started being so public again. It went against everyting she said she wanted for years.

But there are also a lot of swifties who think Taylor shouldn't have been called out for dating Matty. I saw album reactions of TTPD, and people saying about but 'daddy I love him': "y'all pissed her of, not me though" and "she's not trashing me, she's talking bad about the fans who critized her fling with Matty, I didn't do that". Many of them still say it was just a rebound even though Taylor released an album saying she's pined over Matty for almost 10 years.

Well I guess the fans who didn’t think Taylor shouldn’t have apologized or broke up with him are the “swifties for trump” type.

But that’s interesting break down on this whole situation. However, I wouldn’t say she grew more mature, but she did grow more private in some circumstances.

[rxqueenotd]

I teased (very briefly) that I would be writing a fic from the POV of one of Daniel Molloy’s daughters. Basically that has consisted of me throwing random dialogue and ideas into word docs and vomiting them at @nyheartbreak every other day. I’m going to slap some teasers below and just put out some feelers and hope that maybe this catches some traction:

"What... exactly are you doing?" Naomi asked, her steps echoing on the apartment floor as she tried to contain the nervous energy bubbling within her. Fingernails grazed her teeth, a physical manifestation of the apprehension she felt, while her father's voice continued on the other end of the call.

"Open the files. I emailed them to you a few days ago," he explained with a sense of urgency. "Listen to them and find the plot holes. You're a pro at that," he added. "Spotting plot holes."

"And you excel at creating them," she retorted smugly. "Last time we spoke, you dropped the Parkinson's bomb, and now you're gallivanting halfway across the world during a global pandemic."

A heavy sigh emanated from the other end of the call. "Listen, kid, I'm fine. I'm getting treatment here," he reassured her, his attempts falling slightly short. "Just give the files a listen. I know work's been iffy with this pandemic."

She scoffed. "I'm freelancing," she stated, with a brief pause before adding, "And planning your funeral for when you inevitably disregard more health protocols and kick the bucket."

"Like I said," he reiterated, "I'm fine. I'm invincible."

"Can you at least time it for fall?" she quipped. "I have this stunning Chanel dress perfect for a funeral—it screams autumn elegance."

"Listen to the files, Naomi," his tone turned serious. "You'll thank me."

"Sure, sure," she agreed, acknowledging her lack of better options. "I'll listen tonight and share my thoughts this weekend."

"Thanks, kid," he lingered on the line a moment longer before ending the call.

"You're welcome," Naomi muttered to herself, retrieving her laptop from its designated spot on the kitchen counter.

____________________________________________

Another snippet:

"By the way, he did read my diary," Naomi announced casually, glancing over at Louis and Armand, who were nestled together on the loveseat, both tilting their heads at her spontaneous confession.

"One of you brought it up before," she gestured with her hand, "I forget who, but someone made the comparison between reading Claudia's diaries and my dad reading mine."

"I paid for that big time," Daniel interjected, rolling his eyes and adjusting his glasses.

"On October twenty-seventh, nineteen thirty-two, I quote, 'What mysteries we are, human, vampire, monster, mortal, that we can love and hate simultaneously, and that emotions of all sorts might not parade for what they are not,'" Naomi recited with precision. "I have a good memory."

"If you swap 'vampire' and 'monster' for 'transient father,' mine and Claudia's entries aren't much different," Naomi chuckled. "Except I left mine out on purpose for him to read."

"And you're admitting this because?" Armand inquired, leaning forward with folded hands resting on his knees.

"Because you seem to draw comparisons almost as threats," Naomi observed, her gaze lingering on his impeccably chiseled face, pondering what he might be concealing. "Bringing up Alice, my sister, Paris, the proposal, and whatever else you can extract from his addled brain," she motioned towards Daniel, who smirked back at Armand. "To me, that's a defense mechanism, especially considering that this interview is between my dad and Louis exclusively."

"And yet," Armand waved his hand gracefully, "here you are."

Naomi grinned at him. "And here you are."

Daniel cleared his throat as Naomi leaned back, finally easing into her seat.

"Let's move on," Daniel suggested, prompting Louis to release a soft chuckle, gazing at Naomi as if he were beholding Claudia once more, reincarnated, and giving Armand hell all over again.

____________________________________________

Thoughts? Opinions? Comments?

[tisthepamseason]

So - Taylor Swift & Florence Welch both have songs called Cassandra. Why is that significant?

✨First- Who is Cassandra, Anyway? EW.

Cassandra is a figure in Greek mythology, blessed with the ability to see the future & cursed to never be believed. She sees the fall of Troy before it happens but can't do anything to stop it (there's a lotttt more Cassandra lore, keeping it basic here).

In the 1940s, a French philosopher dubbed "Cassandra complex" to encompass situations where someone reacts validly & with reason and raises the alarm but is not believed until it's too late.

✨Second- What is Taylor's interpretation of Cassandra?

Taylor's Cassandra remains faithful and places herself into the myth, issuing warnings about untrustworthy individuals that went ignored by her peers, the media, and the general public - invoking her Reputation era. ("You can mark my words that I said it first in a morning warning no one heard"). She's telling the story of her Reputation era through Cassandra, who was famously ignored after giving warnings about the fall of Troy.

She references snakes in her cell, a double meaning:🐍 on her actual cell phone (hehe) & a reference to the snakes mentioned in the myth of Cassandra, where snakes whispered the future to her. She goes on to say, "so they killed Cassandra first because she feared the worst and tried to tell the town"..."do you believe me now?" asking if, after the witch hunts & death of her reputation, we believe her now that the truth has actually come out. She makes a point to say, "when the truth comes out, it's quiet. it's so quiet."

A line that I personally feel is very important within Taylor's story is "they say 'what doesn't kill you makes you aware' - what happens if it becomes who you are?" Changing the famous "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" to "makes you aware" is a very important distinction for her to make. Ever since she was made aware of the shady characters that exist within her world, she has been vigilant in order to protect herself, her art, and her integrity. Next, she worries that the struggles she went through will define her in the same way that Cassandra's struggles continue to define her today, which we've seen carry over thematically in albums she's released since Reputation.

In her outro, she reiterates: "When the first stone's thrown, they're screaming. In the streets, there's a raging riot. When it's BURN THE BITCH, they're shrieking... when the truth comes out, it's quiet. It's so quiet." Taylor Swift has not forgotten the volume of the voices that condemned her, or their apparent silence (lack of apology?) in the aftermath.

✨Third- What is Florence's interpretation of Cassandra?

Florence's Cassandra is a told a bit more in abstract, and comes after Florence believed that the music she was writing, as well as her own personal wishes pre-pandemic, seemed to call upon her the isolation that came during the pandemic.

She starts with, "I used to see the future and now I see nothing"..."Crying like Cassandra, I used to tell the future but they cut out my tongue" and tells a story of a Cassandra who had the gift of foresight, was cursed, and then was ultimately stripped of it & left to cope in the aftermath. Combined with the uncertainty & loneliness felt during the early months of quarantine, Florence's Cassandra is blinded, condemned, and left to question how she fits into the world crumbling around her.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

By Joanne Silberner

April 8, 2024

A hug, a handshake, a therapeutic massage. A newborn lying on a mother’s bare chest.

Physical touch can buoy well-being and lessen pain, depression and anxiety, according to a large new analysis of published research released on Monday in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Researchers from Germany and the Netherlands systematically reviewed years of research on touch, strokes, hugs and rubs. They also combined data from 137 studies, which included nearly 13,000 adults, children and infants. Each study compared individuals who had been physically touched in some way over the course of an experiment — or had touched an object like a fuzzy stuffed toy — to similar individuals who had not.

For example, one study showed that daily 20-minute gentle massages for six weeks in older people with dementia decreased aggressiveness and reduced the levels of a stress marker in the blood. Another found that massages boosted the mood of breast cancer patients. One study even showed that healthy young adults who caressed a robotic baby seal were happier, and felt less pain from a mild heat stimulus, than those who read an article about an astronomer.

Positive effects were particularly noticeable in premature babies, who “massively improve” with skin-to-skin contact, said Frédéric Michon, a researcher at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and one of the study’s authors.

“There have been a lot of claims that touch is good, touch is healthy, touch is something that we all need,” said Rebecca Boehme, a neuroscientist at Linkoping University in Sweden, who reviewed the study for the journal. “But actually, nobody had looked at it from this broad, bird’s eye perspective.”

The analysis revealed some interesting and sometimes mysterious patterns. Among adults, sick people showed greater mental health benefits from touch than healthy people did. Who was doing the touching — a familiar person or a health care worker — didn’t matter. But the source of the touch did matter to newborns.

“One very intriguing finding that needs further support is that newborn babies benefit more from their parents’ touch than from a stranger’s touch,” said Ville Harjunen, a researcher at the University of Helsinki in Finland, who also reviewed the study for the journal. Babies’ preference for their parents could be related to smell, he speculated, or to the differences in the way parents hold them.

Women seem to benefit more from touch than men, which may be a cultural effect, Dr. Michon said. The frequency of the touch also mattered: A massage once every two years isn’t going to do much.

Several studies included in the review looked at what happened during the height of the Covid pandemic, when people were isolated and had less physical contact with others. “They found correlations during Covid times between touch deprivation and health aspects like depression and anxiety,” Dr. Michon said.

Touching the head appears to have more of a beneficial effect than touching the torso, some studies found. Dr. Michon couldn’t explain that finding, but thought it could have to do with the greater number of nerve endings on the face and scalp.

Another mystery: Studies of people in South America tended to show stronger health benefits of touch than did those studies that looked at people in North America or Europe. Dr. Michon said that culture may somehow play a role. But Dr. Boehme said the studies showing the differences between countries were too small to be definitive. “I think the mechanism behind this is biological,” she said. “I think that’s hard-wired and will be the same for all of us.”

In 2023, Jeeva Sankar, a pediatrics researcher at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and a colleague published a rigorous review of skin-to-skin care for newborns. The analysis concluded that touch therapy for preterm or low-birth-weight infants should start as soon as possible and last eight hours or more, a recommendation that the World Health Organization adopted. Dr. Sankar said the new review was important because touch is often neglected in modern medical care, but it was too broad. He would have liked it to focus more on how various forms of touch could be integrated in medical care.

Dr. Michon stressed that the types of touch considered in these studies were positive experiences to which the volunteers agreed. “If someone doesn’t feel a touch as being pleasant, it’s likely going to stress them out,” he said.

A version of this article appears in print on April 9, 2024, Section A, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Reviewing Studies, Scientists Find Hugs Are Good for You. 

[13thdoctorposts]

I just ordered all of Jodie's era on DVD (I'm a physical media lover) and can I say how wonderful and ironic it is to see the thousands of top star reviews for her merchandise and how stuff like certain figurines and her TARDIS figurine are either totally sold out or priced up hundreds of pounds when the haters say she's unpopular and doesn't sell. I mean she even has her officially licensed scarf and everything lol. People love her Doctor.

People seem to take the downward trend of spending during the pandemic as some sort of indictment that 13/Jodie doesn't sell, when in fact in 2018/9 there was a ton of merch that sold just like all Doctor Who merch does, we got the 10inch doll, a barbie, action figures, her sonic, her series 11 funko pop set, 3 novels with matching audio books, 5 YA/Kids books, Comics, games, eaglemoss figures... and thats just off the top of my head and doesn't even include all the generic DW merch... then 2020 came... 13 era merch seemed to vanish... gee I wonder what happened that year that heavily effected the economy, the workforce and businesses, not to mention peoples LIVES? People were losing their jobs, hoping not to get sick, dealing with having sick loved ones and trying to make sure they had enough toilet paper somehow I don't think any shows merch was top of peoples minds, and businesses that were essential to making merch were losing money, making it harder to make things!

I don't believe there has ever been a problem with 13/Jodie selling, unfortunately during her tenure one of the most disruptive events in our generation happened and merch wasn't a priority and even made for fans to buy during that time due to the conditions, restrictions, and economy to know if it wouldn't sell, so its a ridiculous argument.

But as you said theres also a number of items of her merch that are not only expensive if you want one now but you'll be lucky if they even come up for sale because clearly people want to keep them.

For example... 13 Build a Bear, 13 Blush bear from Children in Need, the 2018 SDCC 13 Pop, the 1/5 signature edition Big Chief Studios figure.

You want any of these not only will you have to wait who knows how long for one to come up to buy but expect to be paying a small fortune... However you want a 10th Doctor Build a Bear? They are on Ebay now, more pricey then buying originally from Build a Bear but no where near as much as a 13 Bear when it comes up I've seen 2 come up in 12 months. You want one of the other Doctor Chidlen in Need bears that were release? Yeah you can get them pretty regularly on Ebay too and a pretty good price, head over there now and you'll find them, never seen a 13 one for sale, Big Chief Studios figure? You can find most all the other Doctors, 13 I've seen it come up twice in the last 12 months on Ebay, and only 1 was in its original condition so good luck, and hopefully you have a weeks salary you don't need to buy it if you wanted it they are so expensive, you can still find listings for the 2018 SDCC 13 Pop but you got a spare 250+ pounds to pick it up? Haven't seen any other Doctor pops cost that much if you want to get one.

If Jodie was soooooo unpopular why is she one of the most expensive and elusive Doctors to be able to get merch for when she is technically the most recent Doctor with merch you should just be easily able to pick up.

Jodie also recently had prints of an image she painted sold for charity they were not cheap! There was only 50, they were gone in under 1 day.

Haters are just gonna make things up because the truth doesn't fit their narrative.

[she-karev]

Pregnancy (One Shot Request, Andrew DeLuca x Alex Karev’s Sister Imagine)

Age Rating: 12+

Chapters: One of Two

Fandom: Grey’s Anatomy

Ship: Andrew DeLuca x Amber Karev (Alex Karev’s Sister)

AN: Hey guys I see you liked my last post and I got a one-shot request to do another time skip for Amber and DeLuca. I hope you guys like it and I’m up for one shot requests if you have any. I'll try to post part two by Wednesday.

Summary: Amber gets bored during maternity leave and texts Andrew who comes over.

Words: 1741

October 20, 2022

I sit crisscross on the king bed making a lazy raspberry sound as I flip through the pages of Watchmen. Graphic novels aren’t what I usually read but I got desperate after finishing the whole shelf of books in the study. I’ve read everything from classics like Jane Eyre to new releases like Iron Widow. After that I asked Levi for a recommendation, and he immediately dropped off this huge comic book. The art is good, the storyline is surprisingly relevant to society’s political landscape and the characters are interesting. But it has barely kept me from chronic boredom that comes from maternity leave or as I like to call it, maternity prison.

My little sidekick is in her eighth month of gestation and it’s pretty evident to anyone with eyes given how I look like Pluto. If Pluto had boobs and was wearing her husband’s Harvard shirt with gray sweatpants. After the New Year I told Andrew that I was ready for us to start trying to have a baby. The pandemic was over, I was caught up in my residency thanks to Webber and Andrew was finally back in the O.R. as a general surgery attending. The timing couldn’t be better and around March we found out we were pregnant and then a few months later we found out we were having a girl. There was a bump when the residency program shut down for a bit but it restarted with a new batch of interns and me being promoted to Chief Resident.

Unfortunately, that joy was short lived, I had to go on maternity leave about a few weeks later when the exhaustion kicked in at 35 weeks and I’ve been glued to the bed ever since. And to make matters worse Levi was assigned temporary Chief Resident so that was another cloud looming over my head. The only thing that keeps me somewhat sane in this bed is my husband and baby daddy coming home and detailing every step of his surgeries so I don’t become dumb. Which is why I sent an impulsive text that I’m sure will make Andrew angry at me.

I hear running out in the hall and the door bursts open revealing Andrew in his navy scrubs and blue fleece telling me he came straight here the second he got my text. He looks around worried until he finds me criss cross in the middle of the bed looking healthy as a clam despite my text saying 911. I grin at him trying to look innocent so he doesn’t get too mad at me for worrying him because I was bored and needed contact with the outside world.

“Hi honey.” I greet him normally and he looks at me in shock before confusion sets in his face and I explain, “I might have possibly fibbed in my text don’t be mad.”

“You-” Andrew groans frustrated before laying it out, “You texted me 911.”

“I know.” I take a sip of my water bottle as Andrew walks to the edge of the bed staring down at me clearly peeved.

“I came straight here from work because my very pregnant wife texted me 911 and I was afraid she was in labor or bleeding out. But instead, I find her in bed chilling and acting like she didn’t almost give me a heart attack!” I wince at the exclamation, “God Amber what is wrong that you have to scare me like that?”

“I can’t be held accountable.” Andrew scoffs at my excuse and I continue, “I can’t be held accountable for my misguided actions because your baby and me have gone insane from bed rest and boredom. Will it make you feel better if I said sorry for almost scaring you to death?”

Andrew’s face softens slightly, “Well I think the knots in your hair are punishment enough so yes.”

I look in the vanity mirror to my left and see that my normally composed blonde hair is all over the place due to laying on my pillow for 10 hours. I look back and see my husband grinning amused already past his anger and I frown at that, “Yeah that’s right laugh at your pregnant wife who has permanent bed head let’s see how that ends for you.”

I stand on my knees and crawl over to the edge to face Andrew who chuckles while I pout, “Okay in all seriousness is there a logical reason why you texted me 911 when there is nothing emergent?”

“I’m bored out of my freaking mind.” I explain bordering on yelling while Andrew is looking at me affectionately with his bright green eyes, “I’ve been at home for five weeks, five weeks, do you have any idea what that is like?!”

“I have a feeling your gonna tell me.” Andrew puts his hands on my hips to keep me steady.

I hold up Watchmen to prove my point of how bored I am, “I’ve read all the books in our shelves I always say I’m gonna finish, I tried watching Netflix but you know it just makes me miss human contact more and to top it off while I’m shackled to this bed like that lady in Gerald’s Game my husband is at work saving lives and actually making a difference because unlike me he doesn’t have a big bowling ball under his shirt. And I think the baby is bored too and she sent that text because she’s hungry for more of your surgery stories and a reminder that there’s a world outside this bed. She’s very stubborn about what she wants.”

“She takes after her mother.” Andrew quips in amused and I narrow my eyes at him causing him to chuckle, “Look I know it’s hard being cooped up in here but you heard what the OB said bedrest is important and you were reaching your limit. I had to practically carry you out of the hospital when I found you passed out after your 18 hour shift in the pit.” I groan at that memory because it’s when I admitted I was exhausted and ordered to go on leave until after the baby was born, “You were doing the work of eight people it’s not good for your stamina and it would’ve affected the baby too.”

“You don’t know that.” He raises an eyebrow at me and I continue, “I’m like an M1-A1, it’s a tank and it can survive anything and get the job done.” I look down at my huge belly pouting at my changing body, “I mean I’m already as big as a tank right now and my bikini days are getting narrower by the minute.”

“I never really liked bikini’s anyway.” He’s trying to console me again which he always does when I complain about how big I’m getting, “You look way better in that sweater than some tacky string.”

“Stop being nice, you know my hormones make me unpredictable.” I remind him again, “The nicer you are the more it makes me want to choke hold you.”

“In that case you look like a bloated whale.” Andrew jokes and it doesn’t amuse me at all, “Better?”

“Not in the least.” I sigh and wrap my arms around the back of Andrew’s neck and say sweetly, “Just stay here and tell me stories about life on the outside.” I run my fingers through his wavy hair to add effect but it doesn’t work. He looks enticed but he’s gotten stronger against my seductions over the years.

“I can’t, I have a surgery this afternoon.” He steps back to my disappointment, “Plus I gotta help Marsh with the skills lab for the interns while Hunt is in the ER. And as much as I want to, I can’t stay here because your bored or Grey will reprimand me. Find something to do while I’m working so the time will pass by and you won’t be so bored.”

Suddenly a light bulb goes off in my head on how I can keep myself busy, “Your right.”

He exhales in relief and turns to leave, “Thank god I’ll see you tonight, I love you.”

“Oh no I’m coming with you; you’re taking me to work.” I get off the bed, go to our closet and put a black coat over my clothes and slip into my black crocs. I can see Andrew turning to face me again with an annoyed look.

“That is not happening babe.” He tells me bluntly but I don’t listen as I grab my purse, “Okay you and the baby need to listen to me. I am not taking you two to a hospital with the germs and blood and diseases it’s not happening I’m putting my foot down.”

I widen my eyes at that and he emphasizes by crossing his arms against his chest, “I’m just gonna watch from the gallery and catch up with my friends and see if Schmitt is still alive. It’s not like I’m getting a scalpel come on man.”

Andrew stands his ground, “Nope still not happening, if you want new books order on Amazon and get express, I don’t care about the price as long as it keeps you in bed and following doctor’s orders.”

“I’m a doctor, you’re a doctor, our siblings are doctors and all of our friends are doctors. I’m pretty sure we both know what’s safe and not safe for me and the baby too.” I remind him, “A hospital is the best place for me to kill time because if I go into labor, I just have to walk five steps to a bed in OB. Please take me with you, think of it like take your daughter to work day.”

He looks at my belly and back up at me, “I think we’re a little early for that.”

“Take me with you.” I sternly command.

“No.” Andrew says with finality causing me to narrow my eyes at him as he keeps a composed face. I mimic his stance crossing my arms across my chest and glaring at him to assert dominance. Even in my condition I stand as his equal and he knows it, he knows I won’t go down without a fight so he has to do the same. We stand there silently for a few moments, me in my pajamas and him in his scrubs, waiting for one of us to budge.

Next Part Here

[pinkheart22]

Lover House & "Lost Album"

Did the Lover house hint to the lost album / Karma?

(i don't know if this has been talked about before)

When the Lover music video was released, Folklore & Evermore were not made yet (although who knows with taylor she could have had the idea already) and were made during the pandemic.

when taylor swift climbs the stairs to the Reputation attic, she passes through a closet / wardrobe of what looks to be un-worn yellow outfits.

To get to reputation she'd have to pass through karma

this room only lights up once she passes through it, and dims when she is not in it with different outfits? that have faded in color.

but the basket in the corner makes me think forward to the Karma music video, and Dorothy in the wizard of Oz with her basket. (basket to also keep all her easter eggs haha) While Taylor doesn't have a basket in the video of Karma on the YELLOW brick road, it is associated with Dorothy. Karma could be a fantastical world to Taylor that did / didn't really happen. If Karma is like the land of Oz, and Taylor plays by the books rather than the film, then: According to the Oz books, Oz it is a hidden fairyland cut off from the rest of the world by the Deadly Desert.

so translated, Karma is a hidden album cut off from the rest of the albums.... + there is a briefcase in this room like she had to pack up and leave this album / era.

In the Karma Music Video NEXT to the yellow brick road is what looks to be THE DEADLY DESERT. Anything living that touches it; turns to sand..." or disappears, like the "lost album/karma" And Taylor blows sand on to the 3 reapers.

i believe the 3 reapers represent the 3 characters, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, and Scarecrow from Oz. But in reaper form they are death.

A character known as the Grim Reaper causes the victim's death by coming to collect that person's soul.

Death to her albums / collecting the souls of her albums / the souls of her...

MAYBE a reference to Harry Potter and creating the Deathly Hallows, or becoming the master of Death.

That requires 3 things created by death: the cloak, the resurrection stone and the wand.

Taylor said in Time Magazine she's collecting her stolen albums like Horcruxes and Infinity Stones.

I dont know, but Taylor may have all 3 things. She wears the cloak in The Bejeweled Music Video, She Has all the Gems on in Bejeweled (the resurection stone / infinty stones ) AND is the WAND her QUILL?

Quill pen songs, and everyone in Harry Potter writes with a quill too.

Fast Forward to 2024. Taylor just played Miami Florida!!! and has 3 yellow posts lined up on her instagram feed.

Taylor is also NOT using the TTPD grey-ish filter on her posts anymore. Have we left the Tortured Poets Department? heading into a new era, of lost album / reputation. OR debutation?

Taylors been hinting at a lot of 2's lately. At her recent Miami concerts starting on NIGHT 2 she started playing Behind The Scenes footage never seen before from Karma, Bejeweled, I Can See You and Fortnight music videos. The first 3 being based around her recovering her stolen albums and Fortnight being the definition of 2 weeks. + In the song Fortnight she mentions "Til' nobody noticed my new aesthetic" her NEW aesthetic now, being she isn't using the TTPD photo grey-ish filter on her front cover photos on instagram? They are VERY colorful

(2 Albums, although could be Debut / Rep being the final to reclaim/ a debutation album drop, cause of them playing on night 1, pictures of taylor in her Taylor Swift (debut) era and baby Fearless era)

OR COULD reputation VAULT tracks be the link to the supposed karma / lost album. In her Time Magazine article she says the reputation vault tracks will be FIRE. The color of FIRE is Yellow/Orange.

****NOTE**** Taylor liked a post a while back where a fan called the stair case folkmore and the closet evermore, and maybe she's changed the thought behind the rooms since then? but during lover era, there was no folkmore or evermore.

posted oct 24 2024

@taylorswift

@taylornation