#someone on reddit found the original article

[professorfcknmoriarty]

Sam Reich, BUSTED!

[delphi-shield]

outfit control ↪ leon s. kennedy

DI!Leon / fem!reader age gap implied, power dynamics at play, soft dom leon mdni - 18+

First of all, this man is not doing a 24/7 dynamic. He doesn’t mind playing, and he doesn’t mind power dynamics outside the bedroom from time to time, but he is so goddamn tired. He cannot be responsible for your every action. He’s going to snap if he has to micromanage you. He requires a firm ‘scene start’ and ‘scene end’.

Look me in my eyes and tell me where Leon ‘You’re Pulling Me Off Furlough Again?’ Scott Kennedy has found the time to be an experienced dominant.

Dude spent years unable to form lasting relationships. He’s got experience, but he’s rarely had the chance to cultivate anything close to a dynamic with someone.

So, yeah, not exactly ‘World’s No. 1 Dom’. He’s doing his best out here, and his best is fumbling and awkward and endearing. 

Sex? No prob.

Communicating openly about his wants and desires? Hm. Perhaps a slight prob.

He wasn’t even sure he was going to like having all the control that you wanted to give him.

However.

If there’s one thing about Leon, it’s that he’s gonna study. He’s gonna learn the ins and outs, and he’s going to improve. Dude likes to learn. He goes down rabbit holes all the time. If you look through his bookmarks, half of it is just wikipedia articles he hasn’t finished reading yet. When you ask him to try this with you, it’s like you’re handing him homework. He takes this shit seriously.

He’s not gonna ask you about what you want, he’s going to go on a several hour long deep dive.

He’s holed up in his office in the late hours of the night, scouring the internet and leaving behind a very incriminating search history. You don’t even know how many burner accounts this guy has. Ever since you showed him the power of adding ‘reddit’ to the end of a google search, he’s been unstoppable.

(“Did you know that the origins of BDSM date back to Mesopotamia.” “Leon, it’s four in the morning. Please just come to bed.”)

He eased you into it, more for his sake than for yours. Straight up picking out your outfits was a little much for him, especially if you were actually planning on leaving the house that day. It’s not a humiliation thing for him, it’s more the thrill of control and seeing you all dressed up like he wants.

So he starts small. Picks out your jewelry, asks you to wear your hair a certain way, things that are somewhat innocuous in his mind.

Once he gets comfortable with that, he asks you to select a couple outfits for him to pick from. Send him a picture of you wearing the outfit he picked, he’s gonna be thinking about it all day long.

Sometimes he’ll pick out every piece of your outfit himself, but he still has you pick out options for him to choose pretty often. He knows your wardrobe pretty well by this point, and he puts together surprisingly competent outfits that you never would have paired yourself.

He’ll put together an outfit for you and sometimes there’s just? A new dress? New panties? You have never seen these before. He denies buying them for you, insists that you just have too many clothes to know what you have in your closet. He delights in spoiling you, and even more in surprising you with clothes like this.

This is absolutely not an everyday thing. (Again, see above – too busy. Would explode if he had to take full responsibility for your well-being.) He’s only just starting to take care of himself, don’t make him try to take care of you, too.

Gets legitimately pouty if you don’t wear what he picked out for you. God help you if you changed clothes without asking him.

Wanna see a grown man mope around? Wear a different shirt.

His idea of a punishment is a funishment. Good luck getting him to actually punish you. He’d much rather overstimulate you until you’re crying, your hand fisted tight in his hair, pleading for him.

Highkey wants you to pick his clothes out too. He’s not going to tell you this. You’ll have to read his mind.

You picked out his tie for him exactly one time and he’s been riding that high ever since. He would much rather try to trick you into picking things out for him.

(“Can you grab my tie for me?” “Sure, which one?” “...Oh, y’know.”)

It’s like pulling teeth to get this guy to tell you what he wants in this regard, I’m so serious.

Also he’d love to coordinate outfits, especially for special occasions. He’s not into matching, but he loves to have a theme, something that unifies the both of you. If it’s subtle and it signifies the two of you as together without screaming it to the world, then he absolutely adores it.

"Excuse me." Your step pauses. Leon's practically pouting from his seat on the couch, arms folded over his broad chest.  “What?” You ask, smothering a smile. “I don’t think that’s what I set out for you.”  He taps his thigh, waving for you to come over to him. You gravitate towards him and stop short. You know damn well that he wants you to sit on his lap. You give a little spin instead, showing off the outfit you had selected. His brow furrows, his forehead creasing at your brazen display. “You don’t like it?” You ask, innocently enough. Leon scoffs. His hand encircles your wrist, tugging you closer. “I didn’t say that,” he says, urging you to his lap. This time, you relent. “You look very nice. But that’s not what I set out for you, is it?” You shrug. Play dumb. He can’t prove shit. “Your memory must be going, old man.” Leon tuts, tugging at a lock of your hair. His hand splays over your thigh, warm and encompassing. To his credit, he keeps his eyes on yours, not on the enticing expanse of skin that’s been bared to him so readily. “Pretty sure the dress I picked out for you was longer than this. You trying to tell me something?” “I plead the fifth.” “I guess we’ll take it to a jury of your peers, then.”

[viaviv124]

Smart people of tumblr, i have a question because i just thought about something and haven't found an easy to understand answer.

So, in tf2 the characters are mercenaries. But like, by definition mercenaries are foreigners, right? Like specifically foreigners hired for fighting.

Now the thing is though, Soldier, Engineer and Scout specifically are american and New Mexico is in america. And a definition i got while trying to figure out my answer on google was this from a reddit post:

What makes a mercenary today is dictated by the 1949 Geneva convention article 47. Paragraph (d) voids your original question in a modern context ("is neither a national of a Party to the conflict nor a resident of territory controlled by a Party to the conflict"). For this reason, a mercenary can not fight in his own country, he is no longer considered a mercenary if he does.

They later on also specified that if someone fights for their goverment that's a soldier and when fighting against the goverment that's a traitor, terrorist, insurgent or however the goverment wants to call them.

BUT THE THING IS they're neither fighting for nor against their goverment. They fight for companies that beef with eachother over land. A private issue, so to speak.

So what would the technically correct terminology be? Hitmen? Lsckeys? Another word entirely i'm not familiar with?

[celticcrossanon]

I found this article hilarious in a pathetic way.

Someone who is not a fan of the Parkles, summarized this article in an amusing way that royal watchers like us can appreciate: https://www.reddit.com/r/SaintMeghanMarkle/comments/1degeu0/who_couldve_been_in_touch_with_in_touch_to_leak_a/

The original article: https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/prince-harry-cant-take-royal-family-drama-any-longer/

*

Hi TeaWithBooks,

I can not stop laughing at the headline. Harry is the one who created all the drama in the first place, along with his wife, and now he is acting as if he is a victim of it. If he didn’t want to lose his place in UK society, maybe he should not have acted like he has in the past five years.

Just another case of DARVO from the Harkles.

link to reddit article: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/SaintMeghanMarkle/comments/1degeu0/who_couldve_been_in_touch_with_in_touch_to_leak_a/

Link to article

https://www.intouchweekly.com/posts/prince-harry-cant-take-royal-family-drama-any-longer/

[brekkie-e]

I’ve seen some Reddit posts and articles thrown around talking about how Jaheira and Minsc shouldn’t have been resurrected for BG3 because it’s impossible to do legacy characters like that justice. And honestly, I really disagree. Talking with Minsc was a surprisingly refreshing aspect to the game for me, personally? It made me appreciate him in a different way, and I thought the relationship strife they explore between the two of them was interesting. It was one of the only areas of the game that explored inter- party dynamics. Jaheira’s guilt and constant fear that she’s never doing enough was so compelling to me. Getting to explore her home and see the dynamic with her kids was a nice break from all the horny nonsense going on with the origin companions.

I also thought that it was so interesting getting to see a city Druid? A good contrast to the cloistered life of the druids in the grove. She may have left the wilds behind, but she uses her skills for good in a way that the druids of the circle can’t compare to. Plus! Discussing the fact that there are many spellls in DnD that can extend people’s lives was a good drop of lore! And I appreciated they explored the classic “woman is afraid of aging” trope but from a new angle? She’s so devoted to her work and her duty that she’s afraid of aging out of being able to do what needs to be done. She can’t let go of that control, and it even affects her personal life. Her relationships with her children have suffered because of these choices. If she let’s go of that burden because she’s found Tav, and realizes that someone else will rise up to take her place- she can finally be free to put down her blade and live the life of peace she’s earned with her family.

I didn’t romance Jaheira, cause honestly it always felt odd to me that it was even an option given her BG1 plotline, so I don’t feel like it ruined my Bhaalspawn’s narrative that she’s back in the hero business without them. That being said, I can understand why that might have really put a bad taste in certain player’s mouths if she was their love interest.

[raincitygirl76]

I’m still on the YR subreddit from time to time, and I think someone there may have found the real life inspiration that led Lisa Ambjorn to create the series. They posted some very interesting info about a real-life elite Swedish boarding school called Lundsberg Skola that got shut down (temporarily, alas) in 2013 for severe physical abuse.

The Swedish Schools Inspectorate had repeatedly investigated Lundsberg Skola before over similar claims, but its incredibly influential alumni network had managed to keep it from being shut down until 2013, when the Schools Inspectorate declared that students were not safe there, and must all be removed. It’s educated multiple Swedish royals.

Lundsberg was allowed to reopen after firing their headmaster and instituting new anti-bullying policies. They’re still open, still charging insane tuition fees, and the Swedish elite are still sending their kids there despite well-documented abuses and decades upon decades of rumours about brutal bullying to which the staff turn a blind eye until a victim has to be hospitalized, the hospital notifies the police, and the media find out.

I’m a little skeptical that a new headmaster and a shiny new policy will actually make a dent in a culture of violence that goes back to 1896. Call me a cynic. And it’s insane that people are actually still paying to send their kids to this place that, in the Guardian article, an anonymous student described as “Lord of the Flies”. You’d think a simple Google search would have parents running for the hills.

Here’s the article from 2013 announcing the shutdown. Interestingly, the shutdown happened because of anonymous complaints from existing students about abuse the staff ignore. The article suggests the children of nouveau riche parents might be less loyal to the Lundsberg system than the children of old money families, where multiple generations have attended, and everyone considers the brutality and the culture of silence normal.

Here’s the Wikipedia page in English. Check out the list of alumni, which includes a bunch of Swedish royalty:

And here’s the link to the original Reddit post. The Reddit post also includes a link to a Spotify podcast about Lundsberg. I didn’t link to that because I haven’t listened to it. The Guardian article and Wikipedia were bad enough.

Here’s also a link to the school’s official website, but it’s all in Swedish. I clicked through a few promotional pictures of shiny students and shiny buildings. Every teenager I saw looked happy, like they weren’t in Lord of the Flies. And every single teenager in the photos I saw was white. I didn’t do an exhaustive search, though.

[jinx-on-mars-19xx]

I’ve heard the witch claims about mf before, but never took it too seriously…would you mind linking that stuff about her being a witch? I’m curious…also I’m not super in ig so she actually went to GQ thing and stayed in the car? That’s so weird, even for her…it’s giving Kylie Jenner sneaking in the dumpster. But like how did people know she went and just stayed in the car? Are there pictures? This is all so weird. I can’t believe he still hasn’t said anything…plus people on Reddit are all like, this is so great! (his side) and hers is like (mainly on fauxmoi) she’s fucked forever and I am just like hoping she’s faking it and that they break up yesterday 🤦🏻‍♀️

I will never understand the people backing her and believing her narcissistic narrative. I hate to admit it but I did back in the day too. I loved her long before I even knew who he was but when you look into any of her claims from the past they fall apart. She says something or implies something about someone and takes it back the second she's confronted with it, or worse, gaslights everyone acting like it's just the media messing with her words. I was all for them dating at first but things just crumbled.

I don't have a link to the witch thing I mentioned before but I'm sure there's stuff on Google. The joke I made about people saying she's bringing the antichrist came from a screenshot @triplexdoublex sent me. I'll post them cropped.

It's mostly just silly to me, I mean she loves people thinking she's a witch. She wants people to see her as dark and mysterious. I suppose basic is boring and originally she wanted to keep up with his 'aura' or whatever.

There were photos from the GQ party or I wouldn't have heard about it at all. I found the article again. It does feel strange for her to hide in the car, like she wanted to be seen but not. I'm amazed he only went for 45 minutes, he's normally way more into parties.

She has people everywhere believing he's awful so I don't understand having a kid with him. It seems like her fans would get just as annoyed as his fans for the opposite reason. He doesn't have to say a word to defend himself and the things she's implied still fall to pieces, that's how I ended up finding issues with her. I'm not sure they're faking though, that would be a lot to look past for anyone on either side. And the reddit community behind him only say how awesome it is because the few who think themselves rulers of his fan base are all obsessed with them as a family, you get blocked for saying the wrong thing. At least that's how it comes across on Instagram.

[bunnywand]

if i had to guess, as someone who’s vaguely familiar w/ how reddit posting works, i’d say the nge subreddit probably has some sort of automod system that lets posts thru as long as a) they’re not anything Too egregious, b) the user is a member of the subreddit + c) the user has some sort of post history??

..but seeing as a) i hadn’t joined the subreddit til after i tried posting + b) i’ve never posted on reddit b4.. i think my post has got stuck in some sort of “awaiting mod approval” purgatory, where it’s waiting for an Actual mod to check over it 🫣

anyways, here what i was trying to post abt, my uk edition of the “perfect collection” from 2004 that arrived 2day 😁

as far as i can tell, it’s The first uk release of the entire show in one box, and (if it’s the same as the us version) with the Original video and audio, before they remastered and redubbed it for the “platinum collection” releases, which is p cool?? 😲

and it seems to be So incredibly rare and obscure, that apart from a couple of articles i found from 2004 saying it was coming out here, i haven’t actually been able to find any other information or photos abt it online?? 😵‍💫 which is why i tried asking abt it on the subreddit but.. i guess i’m still waiting for those answers now.. ☹️

[ohplagg]

I Love Yoo Timeline Part 1/4

The Evidence Part 1

This is part 1 of 4 of my I Love Yoo Timeline as of Episode 241.

Part 1 and 2 consists of laying out all the detailed evidence with descriptions, screenshots and episode number.

Part 3 consists of explaining the evidence, connecting the dates and some math because the I Love Yoo universe (or as I like to call it, Yooniverse) uses letters instead of numbers to represent official years.

Part 4 is the I Love Yoo Timeline.

----

Seeing Nessa alive in Kousuke's flashback of his highschool graduation day made me question everything I though I knew about the timeline so I have read, reread, and re-reread this webtoon; I've researched old reddit and tumblr posts, Quimchee's old Curious Cat answers, the wiki, and so much more.

(Just in case someone is worried, all information presented is free and publicly available. I was told that in Quimchee's patreon I could possibly find more exact information but I decided against looking there since I wouldn't be able to share my findings outside of patreon and my goal is for everyone who is a fan of I Love Yoo to be able to see this mega post.)

Because of the huge ammount of information I've decided to split my original post in 4 different parts so it's easier for everyone (including myself) to come back and find the information without having to endlessly scroll.

I encourage you all to go read/reread I Love Yoo with the new information you learn with this timeline in mind because oohhh boy does the story hit different. (Also take that opportunity to like all the episodes to support Quimchee!)

----

Turns out there's a lot of information in a 7+ year old, 240+ episode long webtoon; who would have though? Not me!

Anyways, there's so much information scattered all over the place and everything is so connected to everything that it was hard to organize it.

The evidence and information is in ' Whatever Order I Remembered It' order , but even so I tried my best to keep it organized by categories.

----

Episode 222 News articles

Here we got a lot of information in the presentation of news articles. So I'll keep this information as it's own category.

Let's read them up close.

Let's start with "Randulph Hannesson appointed as temporary Chairman of Hirahara Corp"

In it, it states how in March 27, 20WZ Rand gets appointed as temporary Chairman of the Board. At the same time, according to the public, he is "seeing" (dating?) Yui. Before becoming temporary Chairman of the Board (which we know he became permanent) he was CFO of Hirahara Corp. And before that he "founded a successful finance firm, Hannsesson Finance, which Hirahara Corp. has since acquired."

Now let's focus on the newspaper that's right under. In it, it talks about how an ilegal immigrant woman was found dead (assumed to be suicide) and her son is no where to be found. All arrows point to this woman being Nessa, Nol's mom.

It doesn't have a title but it does have a date. Newspapers normally publish these type of news the following morning from which the news happened meaning that Nessa died December 21st, 20XP

No wonder Nol hates his birthday week.

On the US Asia Daily Herald newspaper, "Chairman of Investment Giant Hirahara Corp to Step Down." When Rand was still CFO he was one of the witnesses that helped Young-Chul Kim be held accountable for all the SA he did. So that's where Nol got his sense of respecting and standing up for women. And that this happend in Octobre 31st, 20WY

Not really adding information to the timeline but just in case someone doesn't know, Yu-Jing has the police department interview transcripts for Nessa's death investigation

Lastly we have "Prestigious Prep School Closes SA Investiagtion With No Charges Filed" where it states that on March 20XW the 16-month long investigation of 50 years of SA with over 100 cases was basically dismissed.

Right before Nol was sent to the mental facility

Episode 150

Episode 150 starts with a flashback right after the brother incident where Nol is getting locked up in the mental facility ambulance. (This is confirmed in episode 210 because the dialogue matches up with the one in Kousuke's flashback)

And right after the flashback we get this news article that Yu-Jing has. "Troubled Child, Aftermath of the Hirahara Extra Marrital Affair."

So now we know that the brother incident that got Nol into the mental facility happened 1 year after the supposed marriage reconciliation between Yui and Rand.

Episode 210

We see a glimpse of the immediate aftermath of the incident.

It happened at night while raining.

Kousuke doesn't know what happened.

Yui's hand is bruised.

Nol is taken directly to the "Hirahara Mental Health Institute"

I'm very proud of my following discovery

The trees have no leaves.

Why is leafless trees so important and why am I so proud of my finding? Because trees lose their leaves during the Fall and by Winter they are completely leafless. This whole scene has all trees leafless meaning that it's winter. But hold on, it can't be winter winter because it's raining and not snowing. Bingo. It's early winter. And winter starts December 21st.

Episode 239

The pain I felt reading this after I figured out when in the timeline this happens.. my heart hurts.

This is the brother incident (at least the start of it).

Nol had no prior connection/relationship to the Hirahara's before this (he used the address on the letter's Rand send his mother to find them)

Nol went to Kousuke's house because he needs help, because he has no where else to go because his mother is gone.

If you're having a hard time keeping up, all this basically means the night Nessa died Nol went to look for Rand and his other family for help which is also the same night the brother incident happened which got Nol locked up in the Mental Facility which is why in both news articles Nol's whereabouts are unknown, because he was immediately taken away. (and all of this happened on his birthday :D).

After Nol got out of the mental facility

Episode 99

Nol presents himself using the name Yeong-gi.

Dieter and Nol met on the summer right before their first year of highschool.

Dieter met Nol before Soushi did.

At this moment in time it's been 5 years since Nol last saw his mom.

Episode 157

Nol was trying to befriend Soushi at the same time Kousuke was still in college.

Episode 155

Nol got out of the Mental Facility "roughly 6 years ago"

Nol spent "almost 2 years" inside the mental facility.

Kousuke mentions that the Yeong-gi name was something he started using after he came out of the Mental facility.

Episode 205

A while after Nol got out of the mental facility, Nana arrived.

"Until recently, I've been by myself."

Episode 129

Nana and Yui met for the first time after 5 years

-------------

This is just part 1 of 4. Go keep reading:

Part 2: The Evidence Part 2

Part 3: Math and connecting the dots

Part 4: The Timeline

[houseofbrat]

Okay I know that photo was egregiously edited but where is all this journalistic integrity when it comes to airbrushing actors or politicians in big fancy media spreads. Also— you know every giant news conglomerate will try to use AI images as soon as humanly possible so they don’t have to pay actual photographers. I’m glad they killed this photo but it just seems odd as I would imagine doctored images are quite common in news media.

ETA: thanks for all the feedback I also found this article helpful https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2024/03/11/kate-middleton-photo-standards/

I work in PR/comms. This is not airbrushing. Speculation is the photo was cobbled together from earlier photos; e.g., that there's no photo at all, just a "collage" of sorts, and that's why KP can't release the original.

But the media are consistently blaming the current situation on how “protective” Prince William is, and how it’s specifically his relationship with privacy that has been the cause of this. That’s what they’re saying on every media channel. Yet this is a man who has just let his wife cop the whole blame for the thing. The double standards and the continued media protection of William is distasteful. Nothing he’s done thus far in this situation has been to protect his wife or children, it has been to protect himself.

I was just going to say William's not doing anything to help himself here. I agree with the news agencies that are saying KP's only real option now is to disclose everything: the nature of Kate's procedure, the reason William missed King Constantine's funeral, and the original photo. One could argue that they don't HAVE to, as the royal family is entitled to privacy. But if they WANT to fix this mess, that's what needs to happen.

For someone who isn't supposed to be in the public eye until after Easter, she's managed to be top of mind pretty much everywhere.

I’m from Brazil and everyone is talking about it. Almost as much as the death of QEII.

And the general consensus seems to be that she was thrown under the bus.

I wonder what the opinions of other countries and cultures are.

I mean, if this was Harry disappearing for weeks while Meghan is posting weirdly doctored photos of him, I think we can readily expect that the UK press would not have been so genteel in their coverage of the situation.

This also seems like the type of story that was made to go viral with the true crime crowd on social media; woman disappears after a sudden surgery, her husband is seen acting oddly in public, her kids haven't seen her in weeks, her husband is posting photoshopped pictures of her with the kids on the joint instagram account, and the only time she's been spotted in public was with huge sunglasses on or looking away from the camera in a dark car.

While I do think there is some truth to the article, the author fails to mention the viciousness Kate was subjected to in the early years of her dating William. There are numerous videos online of her being chased and harassed by paparazzi. Videos of them waiting for her to arrive at the airport while hurling slurs her way. She even had topless photos published without her consent! She did not have it easy. It was only after the marriage and the birth of her children, the media seem to turn more positive towards her. There was an article on CNN discussing the colour of Kates baby when she was pregnant with George. The article claimed the baby may have a darker skin tone due to her ‘commoner genes’! Yes, you read that right, the article was about Kate and not Meghan. I think that’s the sick misogynistic nature of the media, the royal women are always take the biggest beating. It was wrong when it happened to Diana, it was wrong when it happened to Fergie, it was wrong what happened to Kate, it was wrong when it happened to Megan and now it’s wrong It’s happening to Kate again.

William and Charles have entirely separate offices.  It really just looks like Charles is letting William determine his own course of action and that includes letting him make his own mistakes.

Has Kate stopped cooperating with TRF? Is she refusing to sit for photographs? Refusing to make an appearance or return to work?

The only leverage she has is to refuse to do their bidding. IMO, this is what's happening. She has ghosted TRF and told them to figure out the PR crisis on their own. She is mad about something.

Behind the scenes, the press knows that something is up. This is why they are making a big deal about the photograph. They are pushing TRF to admit they created it out of thin air because Kate refused to sit for a photograph with her children.

I wasn't a conspiracy theorist before this week but it feels like something very weird is happening.

Everyone needs to ask themselves: why is KP no longer protecting Kate? They used to always bend over backwards to protect both W&K, but now they are sacrificing K so W doesn’t look bad. The statement she clearly did not write taking the fall for the photoshop is absolutely meant to place the blame solely on Kate (which is ridiculous because clearly the photo had to be approved before release). They’re trying to make her look untrustworthy as a source, and we need to all be asking WHY is KP doing this to one of their principles? Why don’t they want us to trust what she’s saying or posting? They are trying to subtly separate Kate from KP instead of insulating her, creating a KP vs Kate dynamic. It definitely feels like things are turning on her and she’s not playing by their rules anymore…

Dropping this opinion piece here. It is not saying anything new, really, but it is illustrative of how the good faith and favourable and fluffy press that Wills and Kate have been enjoying for years now is vanishing up fast, and more importantly, the angle of "actually, Harry and Meghan might have been right all along" is starting to gain traction, which is amazing since KP's incompetence is only helping to feed this narrative. 100% a self inflicted wound: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/13/opinion/kate-middleton-scandal.html?unlocked_article_code=1.cU0.yIUn.JReERm0NfWrW&smid=url-share

I am just here in my corner eating popcorn and enjoying the primo tea.

I am starting to think the Occam’s razor here is that Kate is not cooperating.

The Mother’s Day picture was supposed to function as an update on her health and it turned out to be fake, so of course the speculation will continue. She could take a cell phone snap and release it and all of the noise would settle down. It’s extremely telling that she doesn’t.

i just can't believe there's a photoshop thread about the royal family. it's hilariously absurd how badly they fudged this whole thing

I’m still baffled by the lack of leaks and/or sightings. I have to imagine that if Kate stepped foot in public, someone would have snapped a photo. That seems like a long time to be sequestered, especially when we’ve been made to believe she often does her own grocery shopping.

This is exactly right. They could have said someone on the team photoshopped it - and Kate is on the team. They didn’t have to bring her name into it. To hop from “never complain, never explain to throwing Kate under the double bus is gob smacking.

According to Cosmopolitan not even Kate's senior staff knows what is going on with her. I get people not knowing her medical ins and outs, but how is she not talking to her staff? https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a60186817/kate-middleton-shroud-of-secrecy-concerning/

[bluebamb00]

VOLUME 25 COVER HAS BEEN CLEANED UP,

and im here to talk about it. (Major spoilers... if you didn't think of that before)

First of all, we have 5 different people in the picture:

Fukuchi

Fukuzawa

Dazai

Fyodor

Possibly Atsushi? (The legs behind Dazai)

Analysing the main elements of the picture that stand out the most, we can see that:

Fukuchi and Fukuzawa are side by side; behind them is a coloured background. Fukuzawa's side is white, and Fukuchi's is black. This should represent the good and evil, (I'm going to absolutely reach here) but it could also represent the symbol of Yin and Yang.

The symbol of Yin and Yang is halved into white and black, with a small amount of white in black, and black in white. So, according to this logic, perhaps Fukuzawa may do something evil in the name of good. This could range from wiping out a good majority of Yokohama to anything. But this could also mean sacrificing someone.

And following that, Fukuchi may help the Armed Detective Agency. As there is a little amount of good, there is a chance Fukuchi will help the Detective Agency with defeating Fyodor. Taking into account the fact that he is most likely dead, it could mean that he has already helped. In the image, the Shintō Amenogozen is stuck into the ground. The Shintō Amenogozen is a sword that belonged to Fukuchi before being merged with the Holy Sword Soluz Levni. When a sword is stuck into the ground, it sort of looks like a cross. And this was actually done in some cases in real life, when headstones couldn't be placed at that moment.

This is one indicator that Fukuchi is not saveable, and might be killed off. And to quote our favourite beauty, Koyo: "A flower that blooms in the dark can survive only within the dark. If you pursue the light, its heat will burn you up in the end." Applying this logic to the fact that Fukuchi looks ashamed in the original cover image, and that he is surrounded by darkness, it is safe to say he may not recieve a spot in the light.

The Shintō Amenogozen is also on Fukuzawa's side of the cover. It sits right under his image.

This could mean that the sword someday comes into Fukuzawa's possession.

Seperating Fukuzawa and Fukuchi is the demon himself, Fyodor.

Surrounding Fyodor, there is a dark aura. Just finding some posts on reddit and the general internet, most people tend to say that anyone with a dark aura has secrets deeply hidden. Secrets. Extremely dark secrets, with an additional tie to dark magic or dark powers.

Fyodor's ability has already been revealed, so only God knows what other secrets he could be hiding. But in Fyodor's hands, he holds what appears to be a rook. From an article I found speaking of the symbolism of chess pieces,((https://steemit.com/life/@iamthenerd/the-symbolism-of-chess) Here is the link if you'd like it ^^) the symbolism of a rook is essentially brute force.

"The rook is brute force. It is a disregard to beliefs. It is the equivalent to "Hulk smash!". "

Relating the rook to be a direct use of force is a beautiful analogy for this cover especially. Fyodor revealing the nature of his ability could be one way of using "brute force"; a reveal of one of his secrets. (I call the 'nature' of his ability one of his secrets, as it had not been revealed beforehand and a lot of us had honestly been mislead by that scene of Fyodor and Karma in my humble opinion) Another way this rook could reference brute force is following his ability reveal. When he causes a tripolar singularity.

"Just as in real life, we do not pull out our rooks until the board has developed a bit....There is a time and a place for the rooks where they are highly effective. The only trick is to make sure you keep account of the rest of your board and never "just use" your rooks unless it's all you have left!"

Following what this source says about the rook being a possible last weapon, this tripolar singularity could be the last thing Fyodor has left for him at the moment. As always, the protagonists win in the end, but this could represent the end of Fyodor being a main antagonist and finally bring an end to his cruel antics! Sorry Nikolai.

In all his glory, lays the detective Osamu Dazai.

In the cover, Dazai is laying with his eyes closed, but he carries a determined look on his face. Surrounding him are Japanese Camellias.

There is a lone camellia right next to his heart, and a camellia stabbed right through with one of the Hunting Dog's swords that sits above his shoulder.

The meaning of the Japanese Camellia can mean a many of things:

Devotion and Undying Loyalty

Bravery and Perseverance

A Symbol of a Noble Death

As I said before, Dazai dons a determind look. This could link into both the Devotion and Perseverance. He is determined, but for what?

Well, my best guess would have to be saving the Detective Agency. The stabbed camellia above his shoulder could represent how the Hunting Dog's had come close to defeating him and his plans behind the scenes, but had not defeated him. However, as the camellia represents loyalty, the stabbed camellia could represent a part of him that has been betrayed or could be betrayed by his loyalty.

We all know about the transfer of one Agency member to the Mafia, and I think it's safe to say a majority of the BSD fandom hates it. (I SURE DO, I DON'T WANT DAZAI TO GO BACK WAAAAHHHH) Dazai could be chosen to transfer to the Port Mafia.

However, although this may seem insignificant, the light is shining on Dazai. In BSD as a series, the ADA is represented as 'The Light' and the PM as 'The Dark'. Dazai is still shining in the light, and the light is also shining on the camellia on his heart. This gives me the small amount of hope needed to say that Dazai will remain in the Armed Detective Agency, and that his devotion to the ADA will truly be seen by all.

Dazai also keeps on his bolo tie, which I have seen mentioned by a lot of people to be a symbol of his connection to the ADA. His bolo tie is in no way damaged or harmed, and it reflects in the light. This would also symbolise him remaining in the ADA.

Although, there is a hefty chance he could be. Mentioned in the part of Fukuzawa and Fukuchi, I say that there could be a sacrifice made by Fukuzawa to maintain good. This could be 'sacrificing' Dazai and putting him down as the transferee.

Also, I'd just like to add, it's most likely to early to be deciding who goes to which faction. Like I said, though, I cannot predict what Asagiri will do.

In the background of the sky Dazai lays in, we can see a pair of legs running.

There is no one else I can think of when I see those high legged trousers. Atsushi. Atsushi not being in the main focus, but being in the background, could insinuate that the rest of the ADA will appear in the story quite soon as support characters in this part of the story.

-

All in all, I have reason to believe that this may be one of the final volumes of the DOA arc. The usage of Fyodor's rook - his final(?) piece- is giving me that impression heavily.

I have never posted any of my theories before. I hope anyone who reads this takes my thoughts into account.

[theheartlandsblog]

hello @neonxdecay ! i remember you! i WAS in the middle of drafting an answer for you, but it turns out that if you save a drafted answer for later on mobile, then the ask just gets straight up deleted, as does the draft. 😑 so here's where the answer is going to be now, and sorry about that!! thank you for your kind words.

i'm also SUPER glad you asked. i love talking about history. i got wordy (I CANNOT OVERSTATE THIS, IT'S HUGE) so it shall be underneath the keep reading/expand post prompt. this will all be about the 19th century, ya know, cowboy times, just FYI. just let me know if the hyperlinks work. 🤎🤎🤎

i'm going to talk about my russian history first! undeniably, the very best sources i've ever come across are these two books - EAST OF THE SUN by benson bobrick, and THE FAMILY ROMANOV by candace fleming. they're both nonfiction books about russian history, but not textbook-y - instead the authors have written an actual, compelling *story* of the history. these two have taken me a LONG way.

EOTS spans the entirety of russia, begins in antiquity and ends in the 1980s/90s - the book itself was published 1992. it talks about everyone and everything - the native people of eurasia, the immigrants, the europeans, the wildlife. TFR, on the other hand, focuses on the ruling family of russia, when they still had kings/queens and such (the romanovs!), and their impact, both good and bad, on the country. combined, they're a fantastic perspective on pre-revolution russia, which is the russia that existed in RDR's timeframe, which i've found really hard to get since interest in pre-revolution russia seems so slim - ESPECIALLY here in the states. it's profoundly difficult to find conversation in the USA about russia that isn't heavily biased and stereotyped. i'm ukrainian from my dad's side, so it's a passionate matter for me. i enjoy every second.

i also study the russian language! just knowing about what people speak helps you understand them. i've been working through it on duolingo for a little over a year, and i know duolingo isn't fantastic (and neither is my russian), but it is all i have access to at this moment. i'll watch movies in russian, videos of RDR gameplay where the game is in russian, i'll literally go to r/russian on reddit and just read the discussions there. i like to read wikipedia articles on timely occasions like the construction of the trans-siberian railroad, or what traditional clothing for the poorer population was like, and even what the plant life is like.

i think the key ingredient is ravenous, ravenous curiosity. i do all of this for my russian characters in HOMEWARD. i am so compelled to tell stories, and from whom they originate hardly matters to me. i love history!! i am a nerd!!

now, onto my american history, which is thankfully a lot more easy to find when you live here, and is a little more accessible than books and language programmes! for this, i am extremely happy to report that youtube is my go-to and is a delightful way to learn.

i started with studying CLOTHES. i have an enormous playlist full of videos on history of anything, from all about the world, and 19th century american clothing remains the overwhelming majority. literally just studying clothing will by default teach you more than simply *clothing* because then you have to learn about what materials they were made from, so what was grown or what animals were raised for that, and then you learn about who the people were in charge of making them, and what culturally influenced aesthetic, modesty, wealth, etc, etc, etc... i know it sounds a bit wild, but if you're gonna study any history, choose someone's clothes! ♡

channels like bernadette banner, the sewlo artist, nicole rudolph, and abby cox are treasure troves of information about historic attire. i love these women!!! studying history is a lot easier when you find someone passionate about it. don't go dragging yourself through a college textbook to try and learn, unless you're passionate about that.

but you know what? let's go deeper than that. let's start getting even *more* niche into history. i guarantee to you that it's out there. here is a playlist by a channel called real pixels which describes in detail how historic relevance and accuracy relate to RDR2. here is a video by a henry films, showing off the real-life counterparts to RDR's towns. here is a video by a channel called early american (this entire channel is a GOLDMINE) about what it was like to do laundry! here's a video by a lost leadville, about old western accents! i've watched all of these, and i watch them often, again and again and again, and i watch them as i write, and i watch them for fun, and THAT is how you learn.

but you mentioned and asked for books, and boy, do i have some american history books for you, too! here's two - WALDEN by henry david thoreau, and STATIONS WEST by edwin d. culp.

WALDEN is an autobiographical account of the real mister thoreau, who voluntarily lived alone in a little cabin he built on the shore of the real walden pond, in concord, massachusetts. evelyn miller from RDR2 was based on him! the book was published in 1854, and is an irreplaceable source of what it was like to live in young america, not-yet post-colonial, that wary, small culture, sometimes even that abject poverty, that wilderness. STATIONS WEST is a little different. it's half pictures and half text, and though it's focused on a fairly niche subject (trains!), it's proved a fascinating collection of primary sources for 19th century living in the united states. newspapers describing accounts of travel, pictures of railroad maps that people scrawled on, ticket stubs with prices of 10, 15, 20 cents. i heavily referenced a lengthy newspaper story from there just to emulate how english was written back then, for the letter that reverend swanson wrote to arthur in chapter 4 of HOMEWARD!

you have to get creative with it! to me, nothing is enough - names and dates aren't enough - pictures aren't enough - sometimes, even whole books aren't enough. i ask myself how can i apply this history? how can i bring life back into it? how can i use it in a context that is not words and static depictions on paper? how does it make me happy? where do i see it echoed today in my present day life?

FINALLY, i also read historical fiction - as in fictional stories that were published in the time period - and i think that step is literally just as important as reading nonfiction. i could go on about this one for ages, but my god, i already have, so i will leave you with this: storybooks from then are delightful on their own because they're books (who doesn't like that!!), and doubly so when you're approaching them to research, because they provide cultural context to when they were written, examples of how written english has changed, and sometimes they're a little more accurate to life back then than a period piece is now. here's two - for my russian fix i'm working my way through WAR AND PEACE by tolstoy (published 1867), and i've just finished TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA by jules verne (published 1870), this is a ✨️french one, but was (and is still) loved around the world.

so, holy bejeezus, i think i'm done showing off some of my sources and explaining how i use them. if THIS doesn't answer your questions then i have no idea what will. thank you for asking such an engaging question, this was a lot of fun! 💐 ⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡ here's one of my cats sitting on my books while i got them out, as a treat.

[my-name-is-siduri]

The Search for Pet Shop Boys: The Musical

Image source.

Yep, I'm back at it again with an essay about an obscure Pet Shop Boys topic. For those that are just skimming through, here's a quick summary: Closer to Heaven (not to be confused with the song of the same name) is a musical created by the Pet Shop Boys in collaboration with Johnathan Harvey. While the cast recording album is easily available online, a complete video recording of the musical has never been released. Despite this, a few officially recorded segments as well as amateur recordings have surfaced over the years.

tl;dr I have created a Youtube playlist that contains every publicly available recording of the Closer to Heaven musical that I could find.

Want to know more? Read on.

While I could go into depth about the history, making of, plot, and critical reception of the musical, it's already been done by others on the internet who went into far more detail than I ever could. If you want that info, I would highly recommend reading Wayne's page about the musical as well as its Wikipedia article. Both of these pages helped me a lot in my research.

(As a side note, I attempted to contact the Closer to Heaven fan club linked on Wayne's page. I received an email back from the server saying that it's not longer in use. No fan club membership for me...)

And so began my search for a shred of footage from this musical. Youtube was my first pick...and I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are indeed a few clips that have been uploaded! There were enough clips that it was possible to compile them into a playlist!

What Has Been Found So Far:

The first nine minutes and fifty-six seconds of the musical, My Night (2001)

Closer to Heaven (2010)

Shameless (2010)

Friendly Fire, including a few of the lines leading in (2001)

Closer to Heaven reprise 1, does NOT include the lines leading in (2001)

The last four minutes and thirty seconds of the musical, note that all the clips available are of the Positive Role Model ending and not the Vocal ending (2001, 2010, 2015)

miscellaneous clips that I haven't been able to identify with certainty (2001, 2019)

For good measure, I also checked Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Dailymotion, Vimeo, and Archive.org. Nothing came up on any of those sites. Granted, the effectiveness of these websites' search features wildly vary, so it's not impossible that there's something there, but buried.

I did find quite a few photos on Twitter of both the 2015 and 2019 productions. Enough, in fact, that I decided to start a Pinterest board to curate them and others. After some digging around online, I even managed to find a few pictures from earlier productions. So there's that as well.

So where does this search go from here? There's a few possible leads:

Amateur Recordings

I'm pretty sure this is the extent of this branch of the search. If any more video exists, it's way too buried for me to find. Really, the only way any progress could be made in this direction is if someone suddenly uploaded more footage one day (which does happen, but is hardly guaranteed).

2001 Official Recording

Small amounts of footage of the original 2001 production of Closer to Heaven has shown up in news coverage of the time and A Life in Pop. If I'm remembering correctly, a few sources from the time mentioned that Neil and Chris had wanted to do a home release of the musical at some point. Why that never happened, who knows. What happened to that footage, and if it still exists, is also not known.

I have to be honest, I'm not going to even try to pursue this route. It feels like the only way this will ever surface is if someone suddenly gave it to go ahead for it to be released. Not impossible, but I'm not holding my breath.

2019 Official Recording

Looking back at the 2019 production trailer, you might notice that it's a montage of several scenes in the musical. Now this is a complete guess, but it really feels like there's more footage than just what's seen in the trailer...perhaps even the entire musical?

Above The Stag, the company that ran the 2019 production, does have a contact email available on their website. I've heard from others who attempted this search in the past that contacting them has been fruitless. Still, I wanted to cover my bases. I sent a simple email asking if they recorded the rest of the musical and, if so, is it available for viewing anywhere. I'll provide an update if I ever get a reply.

Other Official Recordings?

If there were official recordings of any of the other productions, I found no evidence of them in my search. But if they do exist, they're probably even harder to find than these two.

Conclusion

I'm not the first person to search for a recording of Closer to Heaven, and I probably won't be the last. I'm not really sure if this is more progress than others have made before, or if this is just retreading old ground. In any case, I hope that making these compilations helps someone out.

And of course, I'd like to make a call here. If you have any recordings of Closer to Heaven, PLEASE make them publicly available and let us all know!

Thanks for reading, everyone!

[gemsofgreece]

https://twitter.com/nonregemesse/status/1665090309636644866?t=Wam_pcFXnis0kcl45Kg2Uw&s=19

Welp even Brits can't escape this nonsense. Teaching at universities that an important part of England history isn't real to make it anti racist?? How is it anyway??

In general i think it's some false stereotypes that has to do with skin colour otherwise i don't know why people in Europe view parts of their history as racist (and i fear USA started it).

I saw it when you sent it to me but now the Twitter link seems to have been taken down, so I found the Telegraph article on Reddit (because it’s behind a paywall in their own website)

I would like to comment on your use of the word “even”. Western Europe has been way more submissive to the expansion of American wokeness and it has been a few years it largely inflicts itself on it. It is not like in the east, where this is still more like an external trend we try to resist to, it has largely been embraced there. Of course we are talking about the problematic, hugely toxic new movement that has lost all sense and respect for historical truth in its effort to establish equality and justice in the very special and one-sided way it alone understands it. I am obviously not talking about any well-based, founded and studied movements for inclusivity of all groups of people or the respect and support of their rights in our lifetimes, which is CRUCIAL.

Back to the article, apparently Anglo-Saxons did not exist according to the University of Cambridge and the reason behind their non-existence is an attempt to stop nationalistic sentiment of British-born people claiming an Anglo-Saxon ancestry, therefore suggesting they originate from tribes coming from North and Central Europe, and therefore being white by heritage. Of course the Anglo-Saxons are one of the historical groups that make the genetic make-up of the old Brits, not the original or the exclusive one. I don’t understand why Cambridge feels the need to lower its IQ by 100 points and self-inflict a blow in its reputation just to converse with the potential dimwits who might feel superior for may or may not having some part Anglo-Saxon descent (also how can this be proved anyway?). But this is the problem with wokeness: instead of rising intellectually above its opponents, it falls on their level, except from the other side. The results are laughably sad, like in this case.

On the other hand, maybe the article is sensationalising (or the University is exaggerating) the fact that the Anglo-Saxons were more of a cultural group that developed any sort of unity after establishing themselves for long in Britain and not prior to that. They usually landed there in large spans of time as small groups of people migrating from NC Europe without any particular ethnic unity and sense of identity. It’s not like a full blown nation called “Anglo-Saxons” landed there and took Britain by force. From the little reading I did anyway, I am not all that knowledgeable on English history, even though it is fascinating and I would love to learn more in the future.

In any case, it’s evident by its arguments that the University did this for political reasons and not for reasons of exhaustive historical accuracy. And again it’s a different thing to say Anglo-Saxons were not like what the nationalists paint them to be from saying they never existed at all.

In the Reddit thread, someone has reposted the whole article.

Also spot on Greek-relevant comment in this thread under the cut:

🙃

[phatburd]

violence!: 4, 14, 22

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

If we’re talking about my most recent block, it was on Reddit where the dude tried to argue gender essentialism at me. Basically, he asserted that my call to write women like people was bullshit and that women should be written like women (weak and helpless). Yeah, I did not and do not have the emotional bandwidth to deal with that shit.

Even better though, when other people in the thread brought up Ellen Ripley as an example of where a role was originally written for a man but Sigourney Weaver was cast instead. The dude then stated he had never watched any of the Alien movies, but he read the Wikipedia article on Ripley and assumed she must be a boring and poorly written character because she was a woman.

Yeah, dude … delete your fucking account. All of your accounts, everywhere.

Tumblr blocks? Yeah, it was the Nth blog that posted the TOG van speech verbatim and declared JoeNicky to be the most perfect thing ever. Went into the blog, found their AO3, blocked that, then blocked their Tumblr. Because clearly this person and I have nothing to say to each other, and I’m tired and I get petty when I’m tired.

14. that one thing you see in fics all the time

Making the bottom in an m/m ship extremely feminized, sometimes straight up infantilized. This isn’t to say there aren’t feminine gay dudes in RL, because there are. I’m talking about fan works.

I don’t know if it’s out of ignorance, sexism, misogyny, or just boring-ass heteronormativity, this idea that someone has to be the “girl” in a same-sex pairing. And every time I see it, I’m reminded of this little cartoon:

I don’t really get top/bottom discourse and especially the need to assign specific personality traits to the top or the bottom. It was something I set out to not do in my m/m Bessimu fics. I wanted to write them as equals, and I think I succeeded.

(FWIW, I see Bessimu as both being switches, because that’s more fun. I also find it hot to write Bessières as a power bottom dom and Murat as the submissive service top, and it’s not what one would expect when judging them by their public personas.)

22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

From The Old Guard? Those three and a half thousand years that Andy spent alone as the only immortal on the planet (as far as anyone knows).

I’ve been wanting to explore that period and, yes, it’s fucking intimidating. Historical documentation is more miss than hit once you start going back to certain points in human history.

Three and a half thousand years is a really fucking long time. What did Andy do, where did she go? What did she see? There’s a lot of potential to mine there, and maybe I’ll do it someday.

For the Napoleonics? Joseph Fouché is a fucking amoral bastard, but I think people forget he tried to save Marshal Ney. Ney, being Ney, was either politically naive, stubborn, and/or he just wanted to fucking die already when he refused Fouché’s offer of fake papers and an passport to sneak out of France in the aftermath of Napoleon’s second abdication.

(I’ve also read that Laurent de Gouvion St. Cyr was the one who offered the passport and papers, so take the above with the proverbial grain of salt. St. Cyr did vote for exile in the final trial, which lends weight to that too.)

I also have a shitload of question marks around Bessières’ final years and the way it gets treated by academics, but that may be better off in a post of its own.

For Star Trek ... no one ever really talks about what kind of influence Sisko might have had on the Bajorans other than just being the Emissary/Space Jesus. Like, did baseball become a national sport and baseball leagues spring up all over the planet? Is there ticky-tacky Emissary merchandise one can purchase, like humans have in real life of the Pope?

(Sisko did show up on a pack of Bajoran tarot cards in Lower Decks, and I squealed over that, ngl.)

Thanks for asking! 😘

[saintmeghanmarkle]

Yet another instance of MM stealing someone else's story by u/Corvus_Ossi

Yet another instance of MM stealing someone else's story I saw a tweet about this earlier but can't find it now, so I found the original Harpers article (linking directly because it's about HMTLQ and POW).On a visit to Kings College, HMTLQ and Catherine shared a blanket in the car (there are photos in the article). It must have been a cold day.MM later claimed that this happened to her, but there are no photos supporting this claim. Yet another case of her stealing someone else's story to shine up her own personal narrative.I've never known (well, once, but briefly) such a prolific liar. She lies about everything, even things she doesn't have to lie about and which will get her into trouble later. It's just astonishing. post link: https://ift.tt/4HpfLkK author: Corvus_Ossi submitted: August 09, 2023 at 03:27PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit