#the suburbs exist here but are contained into small areas because of the mountains

[bread-tab]

oh yeah, i live in Nevada and i just saw some wild horses chilling on someone's lawn the other day. (also had bears in my trash and raccoons & coyotes on the road—not at the same time)

A BEAR ATE MY BEST HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER.

Rude.

[jeonggukkiepabo]

HWASAN [MYG] 🐉

SUMMARY: Yoongi, the only dragon hybrid to exist, has done a lot to escape the life he has been put into. He killed those who held him just to run away, to have the chance of living a life he’s been longing to have for years. Even after switching continents, they seem to be after him, hunting him. When he meets you, he knows you’re one of them and there’s only one way to survive - to kill you.

GENRE: smut  🐉 angst  🐉 action  🐉 fluff-ish

WORD COUNT: 11k

WARNINGS: enemies to lovers, mentions of murder and blood, violence, Yoongi rides a motorbike, cursing, blowjobs, fingering, Yoongi has claws and fangs, temperature play, his cum tastes different, choking, fighting for dominance, unprotected sex, breeding kink, Yoongi is stubborn but soft, fox hybrid!taehyung and i’m so soft for him

AUTHOR’S NOTE: It is finally here, my part of The Hybrid Collab! I can’t even tell you how excited I am to post this after months of planning. I think everyone agrees with me that the thought of Dragon!Yoongi is too much to handle. I had this idea in my mind for as long as Daechwita has been around now-it just took me a while to write it sksks.

I’d also love to thank  @spicykoreantatertots​ & @yeojaa​ for betaing this fic and helping me with it.  @kimtaehyunq​ Mags, tysm for designing this beautiful banner for me! Also; thanks for listening to my rambling and keeping up with me and this fic. It was so much fun cooperating your Taehyung into it, I love him. :(

NOW LET’S GET STARTED.

Running was all Yoongi had done for months now.  Running away from those he killed.  Running away from those who wanted him to get killed.  Running away from those that held him ever since he was little, that taught him how to fight and kill. Running away from those that made him a murderer. Running away from Kkangpae.

Yoongi hates running (especially running away), but he had no other choice. He had to leave his home country behind and never go back, finding himself a new place to live instead. He should feel guilty,  he regretted all his actions but by now, he only feels relief. 

Kkangpae treated him like a fucking animal, like a worthless pet. He wasn’t treated like any human being should be treated; he didn’t even have a real bed.

All because Yoongi was a dragon hybrid, the rarest hybrid species on earth. 

The lack of volcanoes in South Korea were the reason why Yoongi was highly valuable to the Kkangpae, because active volcanoes were one of the requirements for dragons to get born. As far as Yoongi knows, there’s only one volcano in South Korea: Ch’uga-ryong, a volcano that hasn’t been active for around five hundred years. 

Around that time, the dragon species became extinct due to a natural disaster that Yoongi didn’t know anything about - because he was still sleeping peacefully in his comfortable egg, buried deep beneath the lava. 

Yoongi’s mother, a purebred dragon, died during the catastrophe, and she was not able to protect the egg. Because of this, his body was not able to develop the way it should have. His egg was found hundreds of years later by scientists. They used newly invented technology to develop the preserved egg and mix human genes into it. Shortly after that process was complete, Yoongi hatched.

Yoongi has never met another dragon hybrid in his life. Maybe he was the only one in existence, maybe other scientists created them the same way as he was created. Even if they existed, they’re probably held the same way he was held - captured by some sort of underground gang and treated like shit.

Yoongi hated it, hated the way he wasn’t even a real creature, that he was built instead of born and that he was sold to Kkangpae to be their guard dog. Even though he was a dragon, well he was supposed to be a dragon, those fucking scientists pulled some weird Jurassic Park shit on him. Did humans even believe in dragons? To most of them he was nothing more than a myth, some creature from a fairytale.

Yoongi almost screams in frustration as his memories hit him once again. The night he decided to end it all, to kill everyone he finds comes back into his vision almost every time he closes his eyes. Because hell, he was a great fighter, the best assassin anyone could ever train and he never failed an attempt of murder. Ever since then, his nights are based on either nightmares or hectic rides on his bike, this is why he lives on coffee and energy drinks even though they're too sweet for his taste, they keep him awake. If he stops to sleep, the memories, the dreams will return in full force.

During that time, Yoongi tries not to stop in motels because:

1. he can’t afford them

2. he shouldn’t waste time on sleep if he can spend them driving down the highway on his motorcycle instead, getting as much distance between South Korea and himself as quickly as possible.

As a dragon hybrid, Yoongi has several magic powers that typical hybrids don’t have, simply because his body doesn’t work like other hybrid bodies; he is born a dragon. Most of his genetics are dragon-like even though he’s now trapped inside a mostly human body. The only features that give off his inhuman origin are his eyes, green and purple irises, swirling around like lava, never resting. Some scales are splattered around his skin, but almost all of them are well hidden under his clothes - and Yoongi is glad that he can hide that feature because of the weird looks he would get if he had scales on his face or hands; no thanks.

That, and the fact that he can extend claws from his “normal” fingernails, which is quite useful in fights… and during other situations. 

One of Yoongi’s biggest advantages is the ability of changing his body temperature to the extreme - whether it’s hot or cold. If he wanted to burn you, he could; if he wanted to feel cold as ice, he could do that as well. He used that power a lot back when he was a little dragon, not wanting to be touched by humans that didn’t have his trust - not that any human has ever earned his trust - so he easily increased his body temperature until those who touched him left with blisters all over their hands.

People always think that dragons have the ability to spit fire, but apparently dragon hybrids can't. All Yoongi was able to do was spit acidic saliva with the ability to burn through all kinds of fabric and material (he even melted a spoon once because he hated the soup he had to eat) and whenever he was really angry, smoke would blow right out of his nostrils.

Kkangpae should’ve known better than to train him until he was invincible. Until he was stronger than them, until he was able to ruin them one by one.

It didn’t even take Yoongi an entire night to kill those who had held him his entire life, which made him Kkangpae’s enemy number one. He obviously didn’t get to kill each member, but he managed to ruin the leftovers by killing their boss, his wife and brother. The golden three, no longer golden anymore.

Which meant one thing: running away. Leaving South Korea with nothing but his motorcycle and never, ever, coming back. Yoongi doesn’t know if he will ever get to settle down somewhere or even where to go next, he just knows that he will never be able to come back to where he originated.

He has been in the United States for almost three months now, after secretly hitching a ride on a very disgusting container ship. In the beginning, he didn’t know where his adventure would bring him, but he has seen some beautiful places here. Yoongi even visits some of the biggest volcanoes in the country (he hates the volcanic mountains in Alaska, though, because the air outside is colder than what he is used to and Yoongi hates the feeling of icy air after a nice long nap in the comfortable lava) to spend some time relaxing his sore muscles. He just left his favorite volcano ever, the Yellowstone in the Rocky Mountains, a week ago and he really misses napping there, but if Kkangpae would ever look for him in the US, volcanoes would probably be an obvious spot to check for a dragon hybrid.

Now Yoongi is here in a cute little suburb that he doesn't even know the name of. Small droplets of rain are blocking the view from his motorcycle helmet and his gas tank is on low, so he decides to stop by the next available gas station and grab some hot coffee on his way to the bordering highway. 

Yoongi didn't bring a crazy amount of baggage from Korea, because it's obviously difficult to ride a motorbike with an abundance of luggage. Instead he sticks to a simple black backpack with some clothes, money that he stole from Kkangpae, his phone, and an old notebook he uses to scribble down places he’s heard of during his trip. 

Even though the gas station is quite empty, Yoongi acts out of instinct and pulls his cap lower into his face, hiding his shimmering eyes and starts to fuel his tank, looking around to check if someone has recognized him. Nobody catches his attention, until a girl on another motorbike stops to get some gas as well. Yoongi scrunches his nose, thinking that his bike was the only one in a suburb like this - because to be honest, he spent a lot of money on it, on spraying it matte black (instead of the bright teal it had before he ran away) and a bigger engine. It isn’t one of the luxurious Korean brands, but a MV Agusta F4 LH44, an expensive ass bike that Kkangpae gave him for jobs out of their area.

This girl though, she rides a fucking Kawasaki Ninja, one of the fastest - and most expensive - bikes out there. He only has eyes for her machine, but once she pulls off her helmet letting her messy hair fall over her back and turns around to the gas pump, he inhales sharply.

She’s Korean. She’s fucking Korean and she rides a fucking expensive bike.

To Yoongi it can only mean one thing: Kkangpae. But, would they really send a girl after him, a powerful dragon hybrid? Probably not. The girl hums some unknown melody as she fuels her bike, looking around as well. Yoongi makes sure that she doesn’t catch a glimpse of his eyes as he turns around to pay. 

But the girl is right behind him, he can feel her body temperature on his sensitive skin and as he walks past her, he can smell something vaguely familiar. That’s when he decides to pull off a classic Joe Goldberg, waiting for the girl some streets down the road and follows her as inconspicuously as possible.

The girl comes to a quicker halt than Yoongi is expecting - simply because he didn’t like to stop more often than necessary -, but he’s quick to park his bike and follow the girl into the establishment she walks in. Bread, Sweets and Treats, says the small sign and Yoongi cringes. Who would come up with such a name? Is the owner inspired by this one Korean band that has a track with a similar name? Yoongi shakes his head to get rid of the distracting thought, instead putting his cap back on and stepping into the café.

She is nowhere to be seen, probably sitting in some booth further back, but as soon as Yoongi attempts to stride through the café, the girl behind the counter smiles at him.

“Hi, I’m Yura! What can I get you?”

He really wants to reply with “nothing.” But the smell of coffee lingers in his nose and who would Yoongi be to decline such a chance? “Just one regular coffee, black, please.” 

He pays quickly, just slapping some notes onto the counter as he looks around once more.

“There’s a few empty tables in the back, go and sit down, relax a bit and I will be there with your coffee as soon as possible!”

That finally gives Yoongi the chance he’s been waiting for, strolling through the café to find the mysterious girl and once he has an eye on her, he sits down three tables to her right. She’s on her phone, taking sips of some hot beverage but takes nervous looks around the café from time to time and Yoongi wonders if she has seen him as well.

“Your coffee!” The barista smiles at Yoongi and places the hot mug in front of him. “Are you sure that you don’t want anything else? You look quite tired and I bet some pastries can help with that!”

Yoongi tries to crack a smile, but he knows people are most likely afraid once they lock eyes with him, but it seems like that his eyes aren’t anything that scares the friendly girl as he mutters a soft “I’m fine, thank you.”

He dares to take another look to his left, a silent gasp leaving his lips. There, on her right arm, is a tattoo of a dragon crawling up to her elbow. The symbol of Kkangpae, inked right into her skin. Yoongi’s assumptions were correct, she is one of those bastards and the only reason she’s here must be to kill him. But Yoongi isn’t one to have that, he’ll be quicker.

Patience is key, he reminds himself as he slowly sips his coffee, keeping an eye on that girl as he thinks about that one night again.

Things happen quickly then, the girl stands up and leaves to go to the restroom, but as soon as Yoongi plans to follow her, an elderly lady goes in there as well.

He sighs, pulling off his cap just to run his hands through his hair before quickly putting it back on, covering his eyes as much as possible. The hunter's knife in his boots feels heavy, ready to be used, but Yoongi doesn’t want to make a scene right here. It would cause more trouble than being effective - and he couldn’t find out more about Kkangpae’s plans in the middle of a café. On the other hand, Yoongi can’t risk losing her, that’s why he acts out of instinct once she comes back from the bathroom.

She makes her way past his table, Yoongi stands up quickly to follow her - and once she’s near the exit, he jumps onto her, slamming his full body weight against her smaller frame and smashes her into one of the tables, the wood breaking under their combined weights. His claws are out and he can feel his skin burning up during his rage as he snarls a low, “What’s your name? What are you doing here and where are the others?” at her. 

She must be a tough one though, because even if she’s scared, she doesn’t show it. Instead, she glares up at him. “Why would I tell someone that attacks me in the middle of a coffee shop my name? Fuck, get off of me, you freak! What even are you?”

Yoongi smirks, pushing her even further into the remains of the table. “Min Yoongi, I think I ruined a bit of your family business.”

Now, her eyes widen in shock as she tries to get out of his burning grip around her throat once more. “You don’t have to kill me”, she whispers. “I don’t belong to them. Not anymore. After you killed my father and my uncle, I knew it would be the best to get out of it as well, trust me!”

Yoongi laughs, head thrown back - and it looks kind of funny, because there’s a little cloud of smoke coming out of his nose - before looking back down at her. “I’ve learned one thing in my life and that’s to never trust anyone. Especially not when they’re wearing that cute little dragon tattoo on their arm. Sorry, but I guess you have to die too.”

An annoyingly high-pitched scream causes Yoongi to lose his guard for one second, giving the girl the chance she needs to break free from his grip. "Stop it, please," one of the baristas pleads, trying to calm some of the nervous customers down. Yoongi looks at him for a second, smirking as he sees the obvious features only mouse hybrids have.

The dragon hybrid snarls, showing off some of his sharper teeth as he grips his target again. "Don't you dare make a scene, mousey. It's been a while since I had one of your ancestors for lunch, you know? And I haven't eaten in quite some time." Then, he turns around to the girl. "I'm sorry love, but this situation is getting a bit out of hand." He uses his foot on her chest to keep her in place as he grabs his favorite knife that's been sitting in his boot the entire trip, just waiting to be finally used.

Fate isn't on Yoongi's side today as another one of the baristas yells at him, running past some other tables to get to where Yoongi is standing. Yoongi groans, pressing the heel of his foot deeper into the girl's chest. "You stay there, little one, okay?" She doesn't answer, just grits her teeth to compensate for the ache in her body. The mouse hybrid freezes on the spot, staring at the scene in front of him. Then, Yoongi turns around to the new voice. "What do you want now, I'm busy and I really need to go after this, so would you let me do my job, please?" The irritation isn’t easy to miss, but Yoongi's patience has always been rather low and he prefers to get over this before the rest of Kkangpae arrives as well. "I don't belong to them anymore, fucking hell!" The girl yells once more, nails digging into Yoongi's jeans-clad calf.

“I’m the manager,” the other barista slash manager says, “You have two seconds before I call the police. Get the hell –“ Yoongi gets ready to leave yet another snarky remark as a rather lean looking guy pushes her behind his frame. 

“I’ve heard rumors about your existence, I was skeptical about it – but anything is possible from where you came from.”

Yoongi’s eyes scan the stranger, thinking about how high his chances are to win another fight when he realizes that he’s one of the rarest hybrid breeds, not a regular fox but a canadian marble fox - which are often held for their beautiful fur. He has been living with one of those in the Kkangpae mansion, the fox hybrid was more likely the opposite of Yoongi’s reason to be there: Yoongi was being held to fight, the fox was a lapdog, bought to look pretty in the leader's wife's lap.

The man in front of him has similar ears, grey with black tips and his amber eyes remind him of the old fox as well. Yoongi tilts his head in visible confusion as he locks eyes with the man.

“I’m not one of them, my name’s Y/N! I’ve heard that you killed my father, my uncle and his wife so I used the chance and ran off, I didn’t know I’d see you here as well, Yoongi! Please, just fucking listen!”, the girl, Y/N, pleads with tears brimming in her eyes. 

“Yoongi, is it? Listen. You can’t do that here, I know what you did to those who held you, but this isn’t the right place!”, the fox hybrid chimes in again. Yoongi’s head moves up and down, he doesn’t know who he should listen to, but he came for this one mission: killing Y/N.

“Shut up, all of you!” He screams out of frustration, the knife starting to melt in his hands because of the unbearable heat radiating from his body. Yoongi drops the now useless weapon to the floor, the weight of his boot no longer suffocating the girl beneath him. She coughs a few times, trying to suck in as much oxygen as possible, trying to relax her wildly beating heart, but Yoongi doesn’t care about her right now. Instead, he locks eyes with the fox hybrid. “Who are you?” His voice is low, quiet, actually, because Yoongi doesn’t trust it enough to speak up.

“I’m from the Kim lineage”, the hybrid says with raised hands, probably to prove that he’s no danger to Yoongi. “Trust me, I know a lot about our individual histories.” Yoongi breathes through his nose, another tiny cloud of smoke leaving his nostrils as he finally steps back from Y/N. “Kim, as in Kim Jiho? That can’t be it. You’re related to him?” 

He eyes the other man skeptically, not really sure whether to believe him or not. He doesn’t even look at Y/N who’s been standing but not running away yet. 

The other hybrid's answer shocks Yoongi, his eyes widening as he sees the frown on his face, combined with soft ears flopping down sadly. "That's my father."

The woman behind the Kim hybrid whispers something into his ear, causing the man to nod as he looks back at Yoongi, but aIso at Y/N. "Let's just take this outside, we can talk out there." 

Yoongi's eyes flicker between the hybrid and Y/N, then he nods slowly whilst pressing out a low "fine". Just as Y/N starts walking past him he grabs her wrist and pulls her closer, whispering into her ear. "If you try to run off, I'll be right behind you, ready to rip your guts out." As if to prove his point, Yoongi heats his skin up once again, burning Y/N's wrist before smiling sweetly at her and following the fox hybrid out of the café. 

The hybrid, who introduces himself as Kim Taehyung, offers refuge to Yoongi and Y/N at his secret bunker in the nearby mountains. He uses the space to hide during emergencies. It isn’t anything special, it is a literal fox burrow with furniture which totally confirms the impression Yoongi has on Taehyung’s style: simple, yet elegant.

Yoongi is even allowed to eat some of Taehyung’s self grown variety of exotic fruits that he is extremely proud of. He smugly offers a dragon fruit to Yoongi who only raises his brows, a challenging glint to his eyes as he grabs some of the lychees instead and pops them into his mouth. “But you’re supposed to peel them!”, Taehyung screeches, his furry ears twitching in disgust, but Yoongi only smiles and eats one more, swallowing the entire fruit just to see Taehyung’s reaction once more.

“My saliva is acidic, I don’t need to peel them. I’ve been eating worse things, trust me.”

After Taehyung shows Yoongi and Y/N around the bunker (it even included a shower and a functional bedroom), he decides to call it a night and leave the two alone (not without them promising Taehyung to not kill each other, he would “check in the next day” to make sure of it) and heads over to his own little cabin nearby. Once Taehyung leaves, Yoongi pulls Y/N onto the worn out couch to actually sit down and talk.

“Okay, so you say you’re running away from Kkangpae too, right? Why?” Yoongi raises the eyebrow that was cut through by that ugly scar. 

Y/N swallows, trying not to stare at Yoongi’s distracting eyes. “I was born into it, I didn’t choose that life, Yoongi. Just like you I was just a part of their game. I’ve seen people die since I was a kid. I’ve never been allowed to have friends or sleep somewhere else because my father was too ‘worried’ something could happen to me. That’s why one of his coaches trained me in different kinds of martial arts from the time I was able to walk.”

She looks at the hybrid again, shaking her head in disgust.

“Of course I knew what was going on with them, why they were behaving like that and I knew that my father and uncle were the leaders, so there wasn’t any chance for me to get away from it. I tried, really, but once I found out that they got killed... I didn’t know you did it, because the second I heard it, I ran. You can trust me, Yoongi, even though my last name might be occupied by all your prejudices.”

Yoongi listens the entire time, not interrupting her as he tries to understand what she was saying. “I’ve seen you when you were a teen”, he mumbles. “I age differently than humans, but I think you were just around 15 years old when you kicked that one security guy in the balls. That was kind of badass, not gonna lie,” Yoongi smirks at her, eyes glistering mischievously. Y/N rolls her eyes at that. “He liked my dress way too much. One more reason not to wear those weird things at all.” Yoongi hums. “I bet you look great in those, but I do like your leather pants too. Anyways, what leads you to the US? It’s not the most… unusual choice to run away to. Wouldn't a country like Greece or Egypt be better? They must be looking after you too. I tried hiding in volcanoes but it was too obvious.”

The girl shrugs her shoulders, shivering now that the evening starts to settle in. “I don’t know, to be honest. All those countries sound nice and fun, but I don’t speak their language. America is huge, too. I wasn’t planning on staying in this town, but now that I met you, I mean… We could run off together, maybe? I can fight and I know how to use a gun and I’ve heard of your… powers, too. You might know how they fight, but I know how they think. Us teaming up would be useful.” She shuffles around, unsure about how Yoongi would react. 

“Are you cold?” 

“What?” 

This wasn’t the reaction Y/N was waiting for. “Are you cold? You’re shivering. I’ve never used my powers in this way, but maybe I could help you,” 

Yoongi shrugs as he slowly touches her arm and attempts to heat up his own skin in a way that wouldn’t hurt the girl. Y/N flinches at first, but the temperature heating up her body is too comfortable to deny.

“Oh god, this is amazing,” she leans her head against the headrest and closes her eyes. “I haven’t been this comfortable in a while.” 

Yoongi nods, he understands that. The bunker is the first place he might be able to actually sleep. “I’ve been sleeping in volcanoes, like I said, but I haven’t really slept since I left the last one. Not that anyone could come in it and try to kill me, but after two days of sleeping and soaking in lava, it got boring.”

“I wouldn’t even mind bathing in lava as long as it’s this comfortable”, Y/N whispers as she drifts off into a deep slumber. 

Once she’s asleep, Yoongi removes his hand slowly and looks around to find a comforter to throw over her relaxed body. Then he decides that he finally deserves the luxury of a real shower, with real hot water (that he heats up even more), before snuggling into the bed and closing his eyes for at least a few hours.

The next few days went by like nothing, Yoongi and Y/N weren’t really ready to go outside and face the world, so they stay inside the bunker to plan their getaway. They go out twice, practicing their fighting skills and helping Taehyung to pick some fruits (because Yoongi felt bad, he ate the entire mango stash in one night).

This evening, Yoongi prepares some food that he finds in the cupboards, some pasta and a canned sauce that he heats up in his hands, not bothering to put it onto the stove. He’s at the point where he decides that Y/N deserves his trust, that she won’t kill him and he’s pleasantly surprised to have someone like that in his life. 

Y/N steps out of the shower, towel wrapping around her delicate body as Yoongi plates the food on the makeshift table. 

“I swear to you, my muscles are still sore from your training yesterday!” She huffs as she searches her backpack for fresh clothes. “Can I grab one of your shirts? One of us has to do laundry tomorrow, I’m going to ask Taehyung how he’s doing it when he’s out here. But for now, I need something comfortable because I can’t squeeze my tired body in leather pants and a tight tank. So, please, Yoongi?” Y/N smiles her sweetest smile, causing Yoongi to groan out, defeated.

“And what am I supposed to wear tomorrow? My old stinky one that I sweat into during training?” He raises the scarred eyebrow at her as he sits down in front of his own plate, starting to eat already. 

Y/N pouts as she grabs one of his last clean shirts and runs into the bathroom. When she comes back, she’s wearing that shirt - and only that shirt. Yoongi almost drops his fork.

It’s not like those movies where the girlfriend wears her boyfriend’s shirt and it looks cute and stops above her knee, no. Yoongi isn’t the tallest, Y/N’s actually almost the same height as him - with more curves than Yoongi's lanky body. Instead, his ‘oversized’ shirt ends just a bit below her ass. Yoongi would bet that if she bends down, her entire peach would be on full view for him.

“Aren’t you going to wear any pants?” Yoongi mutters. To be honest, he hopes she won’t opt for pants because… he’s just a man and even his dragon instincts think about sex from time to time.

“Is it bothering you?” Y/N asks as she plops down besides him, starting to eat right away as well. 

There isn’t much space between them and Yoongi can see her hardening nipples under the shirt that once belonged to him. He shrugs. “Nah, but don’t come ask me to heat you up just because you’re freezing your ass off again.” 

She quirks an eyebrow. “Would it bother you? Heating me up?” 

“Probably.”

Y/N pouts and turns away slightly after she throws a blanket over her legs, continuing to eat her pasta. “How long are we going to stay here? We planned to leave for Italy, but when? It’s getting colder each day and I don’t like that winter’s coming.”

Yoongi stands up to go and wash his plate, not sure about the answer to Y/N’s question.

“There’s nothing holding us here. We could go and leave tomorrow, but we could also stay for a few more days, try to get enough sleep and take advantage of this bunker. I mean, would we get the chance to have such a perfect hideout again? Let’s use this opportunity for as long as we can.” 

Inside, Yoongi knows that he wasn’t ready to leave just yet. He wasn’t ready to face the world, not ready to be on the run again. “How much money did you take with you? Wherever we decide to stop by next, we should think about a way to earn money.”

 “I left with my card and packed some money from the family’s safe before I realized it isn’t that smart to run away with my credit card that could be tracked. I withdrew some more money and gave the card to a homeless lady,” Y/N shrugs as she dries the plate Yoongi has washed before placing it back into the cupboard. “I think I still have around 10 grand in my backpack, I really don’t know. I didn’t need a lot of money, most of it was needed for gas and coffee.” 

“You’ve been travelling with 10 thousand in cash? That’s kinda stupid. What are going to do if someone tries to rob you? Ugh,” Yoongi can feel the smoke leaving his nostril as he paces through the room, feeling restless out of sudden. 

Y/N giggles. “Are you worried? Min Yoongi, the baddest dragon alive is worried about a girl that grew up with Kkangpae and definitely knows how to protect herself.”

Yoongi scrunches his nose, already feeling his skin heat up - but not in the magical way he’s used to. Nope. Min Yoongi is being shy. 

“You are worried! How cute! Are you sure you’re a dragon and not just a little lizard? One of those that live in the fields and kids go and pick them up to have them as a pet in some shoeboxes?” Y/N steps closer, gently bumping her hip against Yoongi’s before patting his head with a giggle. “Who knew that the bad boy that’s one of the most powerful human beings is getting soft over a girl.”

Enough’s enough. Even though Yoongi never had the chance to fall in love, to be in a relationship or build a real friendship, he has had more than enough experience in other things, having shared ruts and heats with countless other hybrids that has some sort of place in Kkangpae. He turns around, his instincts taking over him.

Puffing out his chest a bit, standing completely straight so he will hover over Y/N, Yoongi steps forward, breath fanning over her face. “Did you just call me a fucking lizard?”

His eyes are going wild right now, the purple and green swirling around even faster than the usual soft flow of colors. He growls, stretching his neck from side to side as he starts to feel his fangs growing, soon poking out of his lips. 

Y/N smirks, tilting her head to the side, looking up innocently at the fuming dragon in front of her. “Too bad you can’t change forms, huh?” She doesn’t even get to add another snarky comment to her sentence as Yoongi’s body presses her against the rough wall, his shirt sliding up her body as he cages her in.

“You’re acting like an ungrateful bitch, Y/N. Even got to wear my shirt like you’re someone that actually means something to me, yet you’re being bratty and annoying. I don’t hesitate to get rid of people that act up on me, you should know that by now.” 

His hot breath fans her face and Y/N tries her best not to squirm under his intense glare. Then, she smirks. “You wouldn’t kill me.” 

“Mhhm, you’re right, I wouldn’t. Still, you’re being bratty and I don’t appreciate such behavior.” Yoongi looks at Y/N, eyes still intimidating her. 

“What are you going to do about it? Spank me?” She laughs, knowing that situations like this only happen in those new adult novels, not during an escape.

“I should, but maybe you won’t be able to keep up with it. In the end, you’re just human whilst I’m nothing more than a cute little lizard, huh?” Yoongi looks at his hands, claws forming where his fingernails once were. “I don’t remember lizards being able to hurt you, though. Wanna try?” His smirk is dangerous, but so alluring that Y/N just nods, not knowing what the night will bring for her.

Once they move to the makeshift bedroom, Y/N’s knees start to get weak. Yoongi feels the change in her aura, smirking to himself as he stops right behind her, hot breath blowing on her neck. 

“Is there anything you don’t like, Bambi?” His fangs gently poke the juncture of her neck, not enough to actually draw blood but to make her twist under his touch.

“I don’t think so, I mean… I guess I like… Yoongi, can you stop that for a second, please?” She turns around in his grip, cheeks blushing and lips parted. Yoongi cooes.

“This turned on already? Can’t even form sentences? Alright, I’ll sit down then and you’re going to tell me what I’m allowed to do to you,” Yoongi smirks as he slumps on the mattress, manspreading to give Y/N the best view of the bulge in his pants.

Y/N rolls her eyes and sinks down between his legs, a dangerous smirk now lingering on her lips. “Maybe I’ll just show you what I like and you can take over from that? Figured you’d be one that prefers to be in control. I’ll go by the traffic light system if I’m not okay with anything - or I’ll kick you in the balls, so don’t worry.”

Yoongi doesn’t even bother to answer as Y/N presses her mouth against his clothed dick to kiss it lightly. His hips buck slightly as she wraps her lips around him and starts sucking on the side of his bulge through the fabric. She smiles as his cock grows harder under her lips, but Yoongi is quick to pull her off. “I really appreciate your effort but are you down there to drool all over my pants or are you going to suck me off? I promise you my dick is human, not one of a lizard.”

She pouts, playing with the hem of his joggers. “Where’s the fun in that? But fine,” Y/N rolls her eyes and pulls them down slowly, her nails gently scratching the skin of his stomach while doing so. As the waistband of his pants go past his cock, she is not even surprised that Yoongi isn’t wearing any boxers underneath them. 

“Predictable,” she mutters mostly to herself, but Yoongi grabs a bunch of her hair to push Y/N back on his, this time naked, length. 

It costs her a lot of self control to not retort him with a snarky remark, as she continues to remove his pants slowly. Yoongi growls, but she just smiles up at him and grabs his heavy dick to stroke it two, three times. Then, she leans down to gently lick his balls, still not using her mouth on his dick.

Yoongi twists and groans, trying his hardest not to grab her and shove his entire length down her throat until it’s sore, but this woman is testing his patience. One of his hands is still on the back of her head whilst he uses the other one to lean back a little, just to get a better view.

“Are you done playing now, Petal?” Yoongi’s grip on Y/N’s hair tightens, his claws digging into her head - and Y/N can’t keep in the silent mewl that leaves her lips at the burning pleasure. “Be a good girl now, will you?” His voice is almost alluring her to do as he pleases, but Y/N wouldn’t be herself if she follows his orders. 

Their eyes meet and Yoongi has to admit that she looks perfect. Even though she isn’t wearing any make up right now, hair still damp from her shower and eyes already clouded with lust, he wouldn’t want any other person to be in her position right now. 

She stares at his cock again, her own panties dampening at the thought of having it inside her. Y/N’s tongue pokes out to play with his tip, tasting him and getting a feeling for the heaviness on her tongue as Yoongi pushes her down in one swift motion. A gurgling sound escapes from Y/N’s throat, but she does her best to swallow his huge length, using her fist to stroke whatever can’t fit. 

“Oh, shit,” Yoongi groans and throws his head back while trying to keep his eyes on Y/N at the same time. Her eyes are closed, lips beautifully parted around his cock and saliva already drips down her chin, even though Yoongi hasn’t even really moved by now. “You’ll let me fuck your mouth, right, angel?” 

She nods as good as she can with a mouth full of dick, looking up at the hybrid in front of her. Yoongi hisses as he pushes his hips forward, losing himself in the feeling quickly as his thrusts get faster and sloppier. The sight of Y/N not only sucking him off but also wearing his shirt sends him close to edge quickly.

Y/N pulls off to take a deep breath and to wink at Yoongi before sinking down again. 

"God, you're so good, Petal. Wanted to fuck that bratty mouth for so long now. Imagine your father seeing you like that, he'd die from the shock, his little princess on her knees to please the housedragon." 

She moans at his words, fingers sIiding under her, Yoongi's, shirt, but the man is quick to grab both of her hands to cross them behind her head. He grabs her wrists as he plunges himself down her throat once more before he spills his hot load into her mouth with a loud growl a bit of smoke that comes out of his nostrils.

As Y/N pulls off, her eyes show the disbelief she must be feeling. "You… You taste like…" 

"Cinnamon?", Yoongi smirks, his eye color now much calmer than before now that his inner dragon is somewhat sated - for now.

“Yes, I was expecting anything, a double penis, maybe some weird forms or scales, but not cinnamon flavoured cum. Not that I mind, though. Tastes like that gum I used to have when I was still in school.”

Yoongi hums, stepping out of his pants now that they won’t be used anyways, his shirt following too.

“Now it’s your turn, petal. Let me see you,” he gestures with his fingertip, swirling in a motion for her to turn around, finally giving Yoongi the view that he had been curious about ever since Y/N came out of the bathroom with his shirt on. She isn’t wearing one of those expensive lingeries that are nothing but lace, no. Expensive, yes. A sporty looking string is disappearing between her round buttcheeks, the rather thick waistband of it covered with the Versace logo. Yoongi hums, that’s definitely what he had expected Y/N to wear, it looks comfortable but still seductive.

Y/N smirks over her shoulder, lifting the hem of her shirt teasingly but letting it fall down again to cover her butt. “Maybe you need privileges to undress me, Min. I mean, I’m somewhat of royal blood, aren’t I?” She gracefully sinks down onto his lap, arms wrapping around his neck.

A chuckle leaves Yoongi’s lips as he tilts his head. “Do you want me to call you princess now? Because I didn’t know you were into that. Does babygirl also do the thing for you? I bet your blood’s blue too, I’d love to see that.” 

Yoongi traces his finger tip over her thigh, his claw teasing the soft skin there and Y/N’s eyes follow it curiously. He presses down a bit, just enough to break the first layer of skin and draw a little bit of blood - enough to prove both of them that Y/N’s blood isn’t blue. “Oh, too bad, not a real princess,” Yoongi pouts. 

Y/n raises her eyebrow. “Did you just cut me?” 

“It’s not a cut, just a little… poke?” Yoongi wipes over the blood before bringing his finger to his lips and licking the drop off with a smirk. “Doesn’t taste royal to me, rather muddy. But maybe that’s what you get from living with Kkangpae for so long. Guess mine tastes like dirt too.” 

Y/N laughs, not even shocked about the fact that Yoongi seems to  be bothered about her blood on his tongue. The melodic sound of her laugh makes Yoongi smile too, an actual, honest smile that shows all his teeth and fangs, causing Y/N to coo. “And suddenly you don’t look scary anymore.”

Her eyes wander down his body, inspecting every inch, maybe to find something more dragon-like, maybe to just remember the skinship for much longer. “Oh,” She breathes out, “You’ve got scales.”

Yoongi looks down at his stomach where some scales are shimmering in the bedroom light. “Yes, I do have scales. I’m a dragon, remember?” 

And to Y/N, they’re beautiful. They’re not huge, not as dry or disgusting as lizards look like, no. Those scales must come from a line of beautiful dragons. They match his eyes, shimmering purple and green whenever they hit the light. But they’re not only on his stomach, they are also winding around his sides and up his back. 

Y/N’s fingers follow them as she orders Yoongi to lay down on his stomach to get a full view of them. 

The scales grow larger on his shoulder blades, probably where his dragon wings imaginely would be and Y/N can’t help but kiss the rough texture. Goosebumps erupt on Yoongi’s entire body, skinship like this was never a real thing for him. 

“Feels good,” he whispers into his arm, slightly ashamed. Y/N continues to pamper his skin in kisses and licks, biting the rougher areas here and there until Yoongi grows impatient and turns them around, growling playfully. 

“Like I said, my turn now.”

Yoongi always has a thing for taking his time to please his partner, he isn’t one for quick fucks without foreplay. So, he kneels between Y/N’s parting legs, palms caressing the smooth skin that is covered in a few fresh cuts and old scars from practicing her fighting skills, but Yoongi definitely didn’t mind them. His shirt has moved on its own, not even covering her panties anymore but ending somewhere above her belly button by now. As soon as his fingertips glide over the curve of her hips, Y/N shudders with a quiet mewl. “Yoongi.”

“Mhm, ‘m here, you look so good, Petal,” Yoongi whispers while kissing her ankles, her calves, and the sensitive area of her inner thighs. “Truly like a flower. You know that there’s a flower called Dragon’s Breath? It’s bright red and can survive in the heat like a champ, even their leaves are red. But I don’t think it’s scent comes close to yours,” he hums in front of her clothed core, tongue poking against the wet spot on the fabric. “Bet you taste even better, Petal.”

“Yoongi, please,” Y/N whines, getting rid of the shirt by herself, the heat simmering inside her body is almost overwhelming. Yoongi looks up from the space between her legs, eyeing the swell of her breasts with a growl, muttering compliments again and again. He sits up the slightest bit to gently remove her panties - claws nowhere to be seen by now, even his fangs are gone and Yoongi’s just Yoongi, even though the arousal is visible in his eyes again. 

He lies down, cock rubbing against the rough sheets causes him to hiss quietly, but his mind is somewhere else within seconds. How couldn’t he with Y/N’s soaking core in front of his face? 

She can’t see his mischievous smirk as he swiftly controls the temperature of his skin, cooling down his fingertips as he slowly and teasingly traces her folds. 

Y/N yelps. “Yoongi! Shit, what’s that?” 

Yoongi laughs, holding up his unoccupied hand to her face, showing her how cold his fingers are by holding them against her cheek whilst the other hand works magic on her clit. 

“Unbelievable. Warn me the next time,” she mutters as she sinks back into the pillows. 

Yoongi’s hot breath fans the sensitive area before he broadly licks right across the flesh, enjoying the way her body jumps out of surprise again. “Oh, oops.”

Then, he finally pushes one finger in, tongue pressing right against Y/N’s clit as he starts doing what it feels like he was born to do. Yoongi eats her out with no mercy. Ignoring her squirming body and needy whines, he only concentrates on the places that bring the loudest moans out of her, massacring those until she’s close - to stop with a smug smirk. 

Y/N could reach her high by just looking at his face, red and breathless, but also wet from her juices, lips glistering in the light. Two of his fingers are still inside her, teasing her G-spot just as his lips start sucking the life out of her clit again. 

Y/N’s hands are buried in his chaotic mess of hair, pulling on it but also pressing him further onto her core until his tongue slips inside her as well. She doesn’t warn him, too scared of missing another orgasm, but Yoongi also doesn’t look like he’s about to stop this time, eager to pleasure the woman underneath him. Y/N screams as she reaches her high, hips bucking up from the bed, Yoongi’s head going with it, just so he can make sure that every second of her orgasm will be remembered forever.

He kitten licks her folds as she calms down; stroking her thighs, kissing her stomach while whispering praises. “Fuck,” she rasps out, her stomach still heaving heavily. 

Yoongi crawls up next to her with admiration in his eyes as he leans over to kiss Y/N for the first time. She can taste herself on his tongue, but who cares? The kiss is more gentle than Y/N expects. Yoongi seems to be switching moods from hungry to loving within seconds, but that’s probably his inner dragon wanting to devour her whilst Yoongi just wants to take his time to make the night special. Y/N is the one to pull away, looking at him with dark eyes. “Get inside me, please.”

The hybrid smirks, tilting his head as he asks “How do you like it?” 

“I’ll show you,” she remarks as she pushes Yoongi to lay flat on his back. She climbs into his lap and sinks down onto his cock in one abrupt motion without even bothering to tease him. 

The pleasure is overwhelming; Yoongi stretches her so, so good and Y/N feels so, so warm and tight around Yoongi that he loses all of his control over his body. His eyes are bright purple now, pupils forming into slits that remind Y/N more of a snake than a dragon. His skin burns up, almost too much for her to bear, but the hissing noises Yoongi releases are enough to hold on through it. 

“Fuck, sorry, wait a second,” Yoongi tries to push her off so she can cool down a little bit, but Y/N just shakes her head. She shushes him with a gentle kiss, careful of the fangs that now poke out between his lips again. “Don’t hold back, it’s not hurting me. Be yourself, Yoongi. I trust you.”

Yoongi curses under his breath as he tries his best not to move, letting Y/N adjust to his size and the circumstances of his inhumane origin. He’s never fucked a human, and even though they’re not that much different from hybrids he knew that he didn’t want to hurt her. 

“It’s not only the temperature,” Yoongi groans, “I tend to bite and mark my partners. I don’t know how your body would react to it, though. I sometimes say or do things that my human side would never say.” 

Y/N smiles at him, fondness blooming in her heart as she starts swaying her hips slowly, not breaking eye contact. “Like I said, Yoongi, I trust you. I’m sure that you’re inside your inner dragon, that you won’t hurt me and even if I tell you to stop; you’d be able to. Now, c’mon, don’t tell me you’re getting all shy while your dick is inside me?” 

She tilts her head with a playful smile as her hands glide down Yoongi’s toned chest, teasing his perky nipples and playing with his beautiful scales. It was still hard to believe that the rarest, most powerful hybrid was right here with her, laying underneath her, sharing this moment with her.

“Now come on, Yoongi, wake up the dragon and give me what you’ve promised.”

Yoongi didn’t need to be told twice, hands landing a firm grip on Y/N’s hips as he plants his feet firmly on the mattress before quickly pistoning up inside her. Y/N cries in pleasure, but Yoongi almost doesn’t hear it, too lost in the feeling of her tight pussy around his cock. He’s still trying to be careful, keeping his claws under control so he won’t actually tear her apart. 

“‘m gonna make you cum so good, Petal. So, so good.”

Then, he flips them around in one swift motion, hovering over her frame as he looks down at her like only a predator could. “Mine,” he snarls as he licks into Y/N’s mouth, hips moving slowly but so powerful that her body pushes up into the pillow with each thrust. “Say it, Petal. Say you’re mine.”

Yoongi grabs her face so she can’t break eye contact - not that she would, who could look away from such eyes? They’re hypnotizing and Y/N is sure that she will do just about anything for him right now.

“I’m yours, Yoongi. It’s just you and me right now,” she breathes out as she grabs his hair, pulling his head closer so she can connect their lips once more.

Yoongi’s hips start to stutter, his orgasm approaching, but he didn’t want it to end just yet. Of course, dragon stamina is different, but where would be the fun in that? Orgasm control and denial is a thing that Yoongi enjoys here and there, teasing himself whilst masturbating, not letting him or his partners come and delaying their pleasure for as long as he possibly can. That’s why he pulls out quickly, leaving Y/N’s core clench around nothing. 

“The fuck, Yoongi?” Y/N whines and glares at the man in front of her, eyeing his sweaty body.

He laughs and presses a quick kiss to her lips before he sits back on his heels, staring at her body as well. Her chest is heaving, fine pearls of sweat dripping down the space between her breasts and her legs are slightly shaking - all of that is enough to boost Yoongi’s confidence as he quickly pushes two of his fingers inside her, pumping them at a rapid pace. His teeth - and fangs - nibble on her nipples, pulling them slightly, almost crossing the border of comfortable pain as he fingers her through her second orgasm of the night. 

“Do you want to kill me?” Y/N sighs as she catches her breath, knowing that Yoongi is not done with her for tonight. 

He laughs again, fangs shining in the light and tiny droplets of sweat fall out of his hair as he shakes his head. “I could, but where would be the fun in that? Or are you one of those girls that like the thrill of almost being killed? I could choke you if you’re into that.”

“Oh, I am into that, but not after orgasming two times and knowing that there will probably be two more coming. Is that one of your kinks? Choking?” She tilts her head in an adorable way - too adorable for the position she’s in right now. 

“Mhhm,” Yoongi hums whilst tracing the sensitive skin on her stomach. Y/N jumps slightly, shooting Yoongi a playful glare before quickly jumping onto him. She sits down on his abdomen, leans over and closes her hands around his throat. “Do you like being choked too?” 

“Can you handle me fighting back against it?” The challenge shimmers in Yoongi’s eyes, knowing that Y/N is nowhere as strong as he is, but he loves playing. He doesn’t mind if she wants to be on top, he enjoys losing control once in a while, but his dragon usually hates it, fights against it.

Y/N loosens the grip of one hand to slowly rake her fingernails down his chest, leaving visible lines. “I’ve never said no to a good fight, Yoongi.”

The hybrid growls, hands balling to fists as Y/N tightens the grip on his neck once again. 

“This is so hot, you’re so hot,” He whispers, eyes closed and lost in the feeling.  

Then, Y/N lines herself up with Yoongi again and sinks down slowly, gasping slightly because the stretch is still there, but it feels so good. “God, move, please move,” Yoongi rasps and who would Y/N be to deny him such a thing? She uses both of her hands to sturdy herself on his chest whilst quickly bouncing up and down his cock. The noises that Yoongi makes are music to her ears, he’s usually so quiet, but now he doesn’t even try to hide the pleasure he’s feeling.

He groans, grunts, hisses and even moans whilst his hips buckle up to meet her thrusts. “Fuck, I’m going to breed you so well. You’re mine, Y/N. Gonna be my mate, huh? Gonna carry my chicks, all beautiful and round.”

Y/N’s eyes widen at Yoongi’s confession, but she can’t deny the arousal that floods through her body with his words. “Yes, Yoongi. Fuck, yes, breed me.”

By now the biggest roar leaves Yoongi’s chest as he pushes Y/N off, to grab her hips and position her on all fours in front of him. A harsh slap lands on her ass as he pushes in again, pressing her face-down into the pillows. “I will, Petal. You could never want anyone else after being mine. Nobody else. Just me.” 

His hand finds its way into her hair, wrapping it around his wrist as he pulls her head back, having her at full mercy. 

They’re both a loud mess by now and Yoongi is fucking thankful for the bunker, because imagine if they’d go on like this in Taehyung’s cabin instead - the entire forest would be able to listen to them. 

It’s gross and sweaty, wild and not gentle, but both of them enjoy it way too much. 

Y/N can’t even warn Yoongi before her third orgasm washes through her body and the tight clench combined with her sinful moans sends Yoongi over the edge too - spilling his thick load into her with one last thrust. 

“Shit,” he groans as he collapses on top of her, pressing kisses all over her neck. “You were so good, Petal.” 

Y/N smiles, nuzzling back into him and closes her eyes to enjoy the comfortable post-sex silence. Yoongi hums quietly, giving the two of them time to cool down - he helps her by reducing his body temperature again -, then he pulls out. “Ew,” he mutters as his cum gushes out of her. 

“Creampies are hot whilst you’re still busy with fucking, but afterwards it’s just a gross mess. Wanna take a shower?”

Y/N’s way too lazy to shower right now, she’d die for a hot bath but the bunker didn’t give her any chance to fulfill that dream, so she just nods. “Mhm, yes, but you’ve got to carry me, you big lizard.”

Yoongi furrows his eyebrows before sighing in defeat. “Guess I’ll need to show you my dragon once again.” He lifts Y/N up easily and carries her towards the bathroom, just to have her at his mercy once more. And this time, Y/N doesn’t argue about him being a true dragon. 

Days and nights go by quickly whilst Yoongi and Y/N grow closer each passing minute. 

They spend their days together training, teaching each other self defense tricks and talking about which places they want to travel to next. 

They do sleep together now, not fighting over who will get the bed and who will have to stay on the couch. Some nights are a bit colder, which gives Yoongi the opportunity to hold Y/N close to his chest while slowly heating himself up to a comfortable temperature to sleep in. In general, you could say that Yoongi and Y/N act like a couple - though they don’t talk about their feelings right now.

Yoongi has never been in love and neither has Y/N, Kkangpae hasn't given them any chance to find a suitable partner to spend their lives with. So how would they know if love is what they are feeling?

What Yoongi does know is that he’d protect Y/N with his life - and vice versa.

Cuddling on the couch has become a thing for Y/N and Yoongi and he hates being unsure about the whole situation, he didn’t want to label them, but he is itching to know what’s going on between them. So one evening after dinner, he blurts out “Are we in a relationship? Like, are we a thing now?” 

Y/N jumps slightly in Yoongi’s embrace and looks up at the hybrid, unsure. “I… don’t know? I guess you could say so, we do a lot of couple things, I mean last night when you ate my..-” 

“Oh, yes, I remember. That was fun!” 

Yoongi smirks at the memory of last night’s bedtime adventures, Y/N trapped underneath him, her legs wrapping around his head as he ate her out slowly and teasingly, before he just pulls her on top of himself to sit on his face. Now he has not only her pussy in front of him, but also her ass - and what kind of man would Yoongi be to not use this opportunity?

“I mean, I would… I would like to be in a relationship with you, Yoongi. I trust you, I really like you and I feel like we’ll be spending the rest of our lives together anyway,” Y/N looks at her hands and bites her lip in anticipation, fearful about the man’s answer.

“That sounds like you’re choosing to date me just because I’m the only man around you, Petal.” 

He gently grabs her face, giving her no chance to break the eye contact. This time, the green in his eyes is more prominent than the purple - a rare sight, but Y/N is still in awe. “I want you to choose me because you actually like me, Y/N. Not just like, but maybe even love me. I know we haven’t known each other for a long time, there can’t be love between us for now, but I can say for myself that I am really close to loving you. I want to spend the rest of my life running away with you, not just because I have to.”

Y/N pouts, eyebrows furrowing as she looks at Yoongi. “I didn’t mean it like that, Yoongi. But if you’re asking this charmingly, yes, I’d like to date you too, you big baby.” Yoongi growls playfully, showing off his fangs - which he knows that they don’t scare Y/N at all, but he’s proud of them, so he shows them off here and there - and pressing a gentle kiss onto her lips. 

Feelings change kisses. Kissing somebody that you’re now dating is even better so the new couple spends minutes kissing each other carefully and lovingly. Yoongi is just about to get Y/N on his lap as the door bursts open and an out of breath looking Taehyung stands in the living room.

“Yoongi… They’re here… Rats, but they smelled weird,” the hybrid pants as he looks at Yoongi. 

The dragon just stares at Taehyung intensely, before nodding. “Thanks, man. Really. For your help, for letting us stay here, take care of yourself, okay?”

All of them know that it’s now the time for Y/N and Yoongi to leave, not coming back ever again because Kkangpae would always have their men here from now on. 

“Thank you, Tae,” Y/N bows slightly with red cheeks, still embarrassed that they got caught. 

“Good luck, guys.” Taehyung sends them a hurt smile, knowing that he and Yoongi could actually be friends if their lives were different, but now it was time to say goodbye so Taehyung turns around and leaves as quickly as he came.

Yoongi sighs as he stands up and starts gathering their things. “Time to pack. You’ll do the bedroom and I’ll collect our stuff from here, okay? I think the next stop will be South Africa, it’s a long trip but it’ll be worth it, Kkangpae would probably never search for us there.” 

And so, they do end up in Kenya almost two weeks later, the US long forgotten as their lives go on. 

The trip is actually fun, Yoongi and Y/N riding on their motorbikes - Yoongi is even allowed to ride hers for a short amount of time - taking the ferry instead of the plane and sleeping at random places in the countries they passed.

Kenya is beautiful, the temperature is perfect for Yoongi and he finally gets the glow a true dragon should have. He doesn’t look as pale anymore, random scales growing here and there on his arms and neck and Y/N has never found Yoongi to be more beautiful. He seems truly happy.

The couple even started to go out, visiting different National Parks and trying to find some volcanoes for Yoongi. Y/N knows that she could never go near an active volcano, but Yoongi swears that he needed them at least once every two months to keep his dragon alive - though Y/N thinks he wants to take a long nap in the lava again.

During their time at the Masai Mara National Reserve they met another hybrid, a rare persian cheetah by the name of Hoseok. He greets them with open arms and is friendly enough to show them around. 

Hoseok also gives them a perfect description of how Yoongi would find the only active volcano in South Africa on Marion Island. That’s where the couple is right now, Y/N swimming in the turquoise water around the island whilst Yoongi takes, to no surprise, a nap in the lava. 

They’re genuinely happy, living more relaxed and peaceful than ever before and once Yoongi wakes up from his nap and sees Y/N still swimming around, playing with little fish and looking as beautiful as ever, he just knows that he made the right decision. She’s the one he wants to spend his life with, have kids with and die with.

They have a good feeling that Kkangpae won’t find them here. This can be their home from now on. Though, they wouldn’t mind the chance to discover more of the earth, travel around and meet new people. 

But South Korea isn’t on their list, that’s for sure. 

[itsuki-minamy]

FOUR SEASONS OF K: “MATSUYOI”

Translation: Naru-kun Raws: Ridia 

Kokujoji Daikaku is debating policies in a separate house in the suburbs of Tokyo in preparation for the upcoming summit of developed countries. This meeting held in this separate house, commonly known as "O yashiki mairi" (Visiting the mansion), is a custom even before the Mihashira Tower was built in the city center. It was a serious event that mimicked his career goal.

Today, cars with dignitaries enter and leave the vast facilities, displaying the power of the "Golden King" that keeps Japan in check. When the deliberation reaches its final stage, the number of visitors decreases and the length of stay increases. Starting with Prime Minister Samukawa Kanichi, who was elected as president since yesterday, everyone has been waiting for the "Gozen" ruling, which is simple on the back.

That is what it is.

++++++++++

The facility was located in a depression in the Nishiyama area, approximately 3 kilometers after passing through a secret underground passage from another house. Although it is a mediocre distribution warehouse on the outside, the interior of a large building is hollow.

To be precise, it was a cavity to store a huge structure.

Dozens of people are moving around it.

"Checklist, Hitomaru-san, completed."

"Check, it's fine. Written by Hitomaru.”

"Someone received an oil leak tag... Should I replace the pipe?"

Busy and smart, some open the hatch and push half the body in, some guide and drive the vehicle.

"Well, well."

"Is this the last container brought in from the underpass?"

"Oh, a few tons of luggage, young people are depressed."

The appearance of their position was uniformly legitimate and strange. They all wear a golden mask that mimics a rabbit, in addition to the mechanic's tie (in view of work efficiency, the eyes of the mask are larger than usual, the city is shorter, the overall impression was closer of a demon than of a rabbit.).

There are two things this scene shows.

One is that all the people who work are members of the clan that belong to the Golden clan "Tokijikuin", commonly known as "rabbits". The second is that their work is extremely confidential.

In other words, with the exception of dozens of people here, without exception of anyone...

Everything was to hide the existence of "it" that fills the hangar.

Suddenly, a young person working on it looks at him and breathes admiration.

"Adjustment."

"Let's do it today simply by organizing the containers. This time I'm mainly using electrical equipment, so be careful... what's happen?"

Another person who came up with the drawing, the old "rabbit", addressed his coworkers. During this secret work, the pieces of the "King" whose names and individual pieces have been sealed become the key to the world.

"Oh, sorry. I was a little surprised."

The young "rabbit" ignored the sight in front of him again.

Elderly "rabbits" also look him in the eye in some way.

"You are new to regular inspection and maintenance. Even after going through the 'Tengoku' (Sky] air supply team, a moored ship of the same type would be quite powerful."

"Yes... was this the problem of the second ship "Meifu"(Underworld)?"

They admire it. The stiff "Meifu" airship, which has a unique silhouette connecting fan-shaped air sacs, shines within the hangar, supported by a myriad of steel frames that can be seen as nets or ships. It was the natural pressure exerted by mass and volume that is overwhelming to the viewer, even with the exception of being built as an aerial gunship from the German Third Reich.

"It's amazing, but... the problems of "Tengoku" (which continues to fly without landing on the ground) and "Meifu" (which continues to maintain immediate takeoff) is... unnatural. It is a must.''

"Perhaps, but it is more than the subject's reason for talking about the fundamentals of the main mission. There is no need to convince or empathize unless requested. We just constantly carry out the assigned task."

"Confirmed. For the moment, let's try to organize the containers constantly.''

"I like it."

With a smile, the two "rabbits" returned to work.

++++++++++

The "rabbits" who finished the day's work at midnight arrived for late dinner on the rooftop of the warehouse.

“Like the reputation of clans gathered by talented people, the taste of bribery is also like origami."

"After all, sushi rice is good."

"I'll order another cup of miso soup."

"Don't stay too long, it will hamper tomorrow's work."

Beneath the skylight, which releases the smell of cooking and steam, even the elite who stretch their backs normally, cannot hide the atmosphere that stands out due to the special missions of the men's camp.

A little far from that innocent bustle, in the upper exhaust pipe, there was a figure of the "Golden King" Kokujoji Daikaku. A large old man who sits with scarlet hair on his knees and dropped knees reminds him of a piece of Yamato painting, combined with the rocking personality. It seems that the outfit is worn on the go, even after rolling up the sleeves and even the machine oil tinting was like the color to decorate the image.

The impressive still image,

"I have a set, my lord."

The voice of an old "rabbit" finally moves.

"Hm."

Kokujoji received a framed and tendered set (which, by convention, was an aluminum tray). He puts that on his lap, brings the palms of his hands together, and immediately grabs the rice into his mouth.

"It's good."

When he looks deep into the "rabbit" in the face, he lowers his head.

The special day of the "Golden King", who could not do it in normal times, had close contact with the clan member and even shared small tasks, it was already ending.

This will continue for the next two days.

Use as much human power as possible and pay close attention to confidentiality, periodic inspection of "Tokijikuin" and maintenance of the special mission "Meifu". People who are not directly involved in these tasks are also busy.

"What's going on in the mansion?"

When Daikaku asked him, the old "rabbit", who was given responsibility for others, responds with a bow.

"Ah. The Prime Minister has finished coordination within the ruling party and is in talks with the Under Secretary. It will be full tomorrow, and I think there will be a prospect there. If he can return at noon the day after tomorrow."

"Ok, this work will be done by tomorrow. Let's leave the rest to the scene."

After passing a bit of unfortunate bitterness, Kokujoji asks again.

"So for the outside..."

"That…"

Once again, the old "rabbit" looks at the large skylights lined up behind the ceiling and beyond.

Under the glowing starry sky, the shadows of the mountains spread out black against the background of the night.

“The whole situation is the same as at the time of the preliminary survey. "None" for general public entry, accidents and mishaps, aircraft intrusion, transmission and reception of various radio waves.”

"Hmm... is it the same for the mansion?"

After contemplation, Kokujoji reminded himself.

The old "rabbit" is also clearly returned.

"Ah. If there are people involved, we will investigate it more carefully. We will review it."

"The one who wants to hide is the 'Green King'. I have to do it in excess."

The figure of a boy with a lightning bolt vividly revives in Kokujoji's mind. A few years ago, Nagare Hisui decidedly challenged the strongest "King", the "Golden King".

The old "rabbit", as a vassal that allowed the Lord's attack, makes a voice of indignation.

"It seems that the modern 'Green King' has adopted a slim and broad method of spreading branches and leaves... as long as there are people, he will accelerate the chance that his eyes and hands will grow."

"Hm."

The Kokujoji figure laughed loudly.

"So until you create an opportunity to get closer to people, socially and physically. You can't even notice the existence of things. This is the difference between power, strength, and experience."

The signal that a subject was caught and smiled behind the mask is perceived.

"Due to the precaution of cases where the first "Green King" hijacked the power line and communication lines, inspection and maintenance were put into the current system, but as a result, this concealment method seems to be applicable to the current generation."

"Social / physical isolation?"

"Right."

The Kokujoji figure looks towards the airship for insulation, which is hidden in the isolated facility.

After the end of the war, the "Meifu" problem, which had been requisitioned in the United States of America, was recovered early in case the "Tengoku" problem went wrong. At the time, he had no other idea... No, he hadn't even thought about it, but in recent years, as a "king" who controls destiny, he feels that "when something goes wrong" really means a big, heavy shadow.

"Even if you refuse because it's useless and look away because you don't like it, something inevitable comes along."

A little overwhelmed, like a slight fever, the voice is heard.

"This "Meifu" problem is for the occasion. In case "that man" who is lost in a sad world notices it and takes off, or leaves.”

"......"

The old "rabbit" did not respond, and kept it in the least.

++++++++++

When the meal is over,

"What time is the right... everyone is going to have a moonlight gift?"

Kokujoji gets up and starts walking towards the skylight.

The "rabbits" and others who were concerned also knelt before the person in question.

The "Golden King" continued without paying attention to the state of the subjects and the paths created during that time.

The old "rabbit", who follows a few steps, cannot point to the Lord.

(Tonight, is it the Matsuyoi?)

The so-called famous mid-autumn moon, the full moon on the night of the 15th of the lunar calendar, is tomorrow.

Today was the day before, the 14th, the night waiting for the next "Matsuyoi".

Work should continue tomorrow. It shouldn't be tomorrow night though, but it's not weird or messy. Against the backdrop of the spinning "rabbits", Kokujoji opened the skylight wide.

The autumn night breeze blows and invites his heart.

And so,

"Raise your face and look at the moon."

They, who had received the life of Kokujoji, and who freely obeyed, saw.

Like a silver rabbit playing in a wave of gold, an airship crosses the ghostly moon.

The airship had exactly the same shape as the "Meifu" that they had been maintaining until the beginning. It is like the "Tengoku" in which Adolf K. Weissmann, the first king of the world, the Silver King, sits.

The "rabbit" and other people were fascinated by the dream scene.

Only one, the old "rabbit" behind him, coughed.

"With the power of fate, it would be nice to use this level of entertainment.''

Daikaku Kokujoji, the "Golden King" who looked up at the sky, laughed mischievously.

[mobius-prime]

174. Sonic the Hedgehog #106

Crouching Hedgehog, Hidden Dragon (臣人豪猪臧龍)

Writer: Karl Bollers Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Josh & Aimee Ray

Yes, there are actually Chinese characters included with the title of this issue. They were a real bitch to actually get copy-and-paste-able text for, since all I had to work off of was a slightly blurry scanned image of the title page, but my girlfriend helped me figure it out. I went ahead and ran the characters through Google Translate, and they came out to "Chén rén háozhū zāng lóng," which, when translated into English, apparently means "porcupine zanglong." Now, I'm well aware that Google Translate is unreliable at the best of times when translating Asian languages into English, but I have a feeling that it was trying to make sense out of nonsense, and that the artists/writers for this issue just kind of… found some cool-looking Chinese characters and slapped them in there to give it a more "exotic" feel. Anyone who can actually read Chinese, please feel free to correct me on this one, because I'm woefully ignorant. But why use Chinese characters in the first place? Well, let's move into the story to find out…

The Freedom Fighters have set out in their airship to Station Square on a diplomatic mission. However, their ship is buffeted by strange winds that nearly blow them off course and cause them to crash. When they land safely, Sally reminds them all to be on their best behavior, and they're met by a news crew to welcome their arrival.

When Sally and the others make their way into the city, they're met not by the mayor, but by the city's new president and his chiefs of staff, with whom they quickly sit down to a meeting. Sally explains her wish for the city to take in the Overlander refugees from Robotropolis, and when the mayor balks when he hears how many people he'd have to make room for - about seventy families - Sonic becomes outraged that he isn't immediately taking them in because it's the right thing to do.

That night, Sonic mopes a bit on the balcony of the hotel, still upset about the president's reaction, as well as concerned that despite Sally finally being a part of the team again, she doesn't seem very pleased about it. He's distracted by his friends calling him to go play at the arcade, but while he leaves, we see a strange snaky figure floating against a backdrop of stars behind him…

In his own office, the president is watching various footage of Sonic defeating the enemies of Station Square in the past - Chaos, Silver Sonic, and Shadow - and begins to wonder to himself if he should make a more permanent ally out of Sonic, despite his brash attitude. He doesn't have long to decide, as chaos suddenly erupts on the streets, flames chasing after fleeing citizens. The president considers calling for Sonic's aid, but true to his nature, Sonic is already there, staring down the source of the commotion - a massive Chinese dragon. Sally and Antoine rush to the president while Tails, Rotor, and Bunnie hurry to Sonic's aid, but they're not quite fast enough to help.

In his office, the president tries to insist to Sally that this is a bad place for refugees as there are now dragons attacking the city, but Sonic walks in, draped in a blanket and flanked by his friends, offering the president a deal - if he runs the dragon out of town and saves the city again, then they'll take in the refugees. The president finds this to be a fair deal, and accepts.

Now, instead of another character file, we find ourselves looking at another map - this time of Station Square itself!

I know that text is obnoxiously small to read, so I'll summarize it myself. Considering that Station Square in the comic is vastly different from its counterpart in the games, a lot of effort was certainly put into explaining exactly how it functions. Apparently, along with its supply of Chaos Emeralds, the city also runs off solar power collected from the top of the mountain it's buried underneath. It's surrounded by complex holographic projectors that simulate a sky and surrounding landscape, with the weather control systems maintaining a consistent 70°F or 21°C and simulating various weather conditions. All it needs to stay self-sufficient is contained within the enormous cavern, including all its farms. We already know the general history of the city, but this page includes the fact that the original founders sought shelter down here while fleeing from a catastrophe on the surface that is supposedly unknown, but is heavily implied to be one of the past Days of Fury, this one occurring five hundred years ago.

However, perhaps most interesting are the various technical statistics given for the city. Of course, they're all given in metrons, but that's no problem for us and our conversion formulas! There's a whopping 13.7 km, or 8.6 miles, from the surface of the city streets to the top of the cavern, which is again much higher than the peak of Mt. Everest. That's an enormous cavern! That is much, much deeper than the deepest known cave on Earth, but it's still somewhat plausible given that our planet's crust goes much deeper than that. And the file doesn't stop at height. Assuming the city is arranged in a vaguely square shape (we're never told or shown otherwise, and frankly that's the easiest way to calculate area, so that's what we're working with), the city's area is around 14,390.4 square km, or 5,625 square miles! That's a good bit bigger than the entire state of Connecticut, and around the same size as the country of Montenegro in Europe, for just one city! If it existed in the real world, it would be the largest city in the world by land area by a long shot. However, we have to assume that not all of it is dense metropolis. I'm going to go ahead and assume that this area measurement includes all the farms and emptier, less populated space that we see surrounding the actual city, meaning that the metropolis is likely more of a third or so that size going by the picture, making the actual city around the size of Atlanta, Georgia, which is the fourth-largest city in the world going by area. That's impressive!

As for the city's population, the file comes right out and tells us the exact number of individuals living there: 23,856,427 people. This kind of makes the president's worries about taking in a few hundred people seem a little silly, as there's surely more than enough room for everyone, as well as enough kind people within to offer help getting everyone settled in, but I digress. If Station Square existed in real life, that would make it the second largest city in the world, barely beating out Delhi, India, but still vastly outstripped by Tokyo, Japan. Now, I'm not an expert on calculating population density, as I know that it's very different depending on whether you're only counting the distinct urban center of the city, or the metropolitan area which includes the surrounding, less-dense areas, but I'm not entirely sure how to calculate such a thing accurately. All I know is that if we calculate the population density straight from our initial area (before I adjusted it), we get a density of 1,658 people per square km, or 4,241 people per square mile. That's a population density similar to that of Melbourne, Australia, and is actually fairly low compared to most real-world big cities. Just as a fun exercise, however, let's say that two-thirds of the city's population lives in the urban center, while the rest lives in the outlying farmland and suburbs. In that case, the city proper would end up with a density of 3,312 people per square kilometer, or 8,474 people per square mile, which, though almost twice as high, is still much less dense than the vast majority of large world cities. This would also give the outlying areas a density of 829 per square km, or 2,721 per square mile, which is comparable to the average density of modern American suburbs. I'm satisfied with these numbers! Unlike the disaster that was the file on the Floating Island, everything about this file actually makes sense and checks out with reality. And in the end, wasn't that what we all really wanted - for our Sonic the Hedgehog comics to be realistic?

Reunification (Part 1)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: Josh Ray

We're finally back to the Green Knuckles saga, and right away we're being thrown a curveball. On the streets of a cold, empty Echidnaopolis, a flash of light disturbs the peace, and reveals a figure materializing inside of it - that of a young echidna woman whom we've never seen before. From her dialogue, it appears she's traveled back in time, and is on the lookout for clues that will let her know exactly when she's arrived. The only other ones within the city are various Dark Legionnaires on patrol, though they and the woman never cross paths and the Legionnaires grow bored of the lack of activity. As they report in to Dimitri, Lien-Da approaches her boss' room to give a report of her own.

Gee, I don't know, Dimitri, what could Knuckles possible be doing? He certainly wouldn't be trying to reverse the effects of the Quantum Beam just as you suggested doing just a few issues ago, would he? Of course, that's exactly what he's doing. The young woman, wandering the streets, actually seems to know that everyone from the city is in another zone currently, but that's about to change, as suddenly strong winds begin to blow her away. She's shocked, and is blown around until the winds cease, at which point she's offered a helping hand.

Remington… kill Knuckles? I can't believe that for a second! Remington's been nothing but a bro ever since we first met him. What's going on here? Who is this girl, and what's the deal with Remington…?

[offtosavetheearth]

July 20th, 2018

This morning I got up super late and didn’t have time to eat breakfast with Rina this morning. I was supposed to go to the café at 7am, but of course I didn’t get up. I met the class at 9am to go to the ETAPA Sustag Water Treatment Plant. ETAPA is Cuenca’s water agency, and they operate more than thirty water treatment plants. They also help protect the watersheds that are important to Cuenca’s water supply, and play an important role in managing Cajas National Park.

Our visit was guided by the workers of the plant. This modern plant in the southwest of Cuenca provides water to over 35,000 people; part of it comes from Cajas National Park, protected by this agency.

This plant operates according to ISO, the international standard of water quality. Javier, a chemical engineer, explained to us that the water comes from the river and is relatively pure because of the short distance it travels down the mountain. Once the water flows into the plant, at 200 liters a second, it passes through a sediment filter and then the inorganic coagulant aluminum sulfate is added, which creates clumps of bacteria and debris at the top. This process causes several simultaneous chemical and physical interactions on and among the particles. Within seconds, negative charges on the particles are neutralized by inorganic coagulants. Also within seconds, metal hydroxide precipitates of the iron and aluminum ions begin to form. These precipitates combine into larger particles under natural processes such as Brownian motion and through induced mixing, otherwise known as flocculation. During flocculation, aluminum and hydroxide absorb and enmesh particles in suspension and facilitate the removal of particles by subsequent processes of sedimentation and filtration.

From here, the water exiting the flocculation enters a sedimentation basin, also called a clarifier. It is a large tank with low water velocities that allows excess floc to settle at the bottom. The one we save was circular, where the flow of the water was center outward. As particles settle to the bottom of a sedimentation basin, a layer of sludge/mud forms on the floor. This mud is removed and dehydrated, to later return to landfills, instead of putting it back in the river as most water treatment plants do. While the sludge is separated, water runs to a rapid sand filter, moving vertically through sand which often has a layer of activated carbon above it. The top layer removes organic compounds which contribute to taste and odor.

The last disinfection method involves small amount of chlorine. The water must be moved to storage tanks, where for every one million parts water, 1 part chlorine is injected. This strong oxidant rapidly kills many harmful micro-organisms.

The international standard for turbidity is 5, but ETAPA exceeds all expectations by delivering water to Cuenca at .3. Since this water is cheap and subsidized, Cuencans use about 200 liters per person per day. Those in the suburbs (poorer people) pay 5 dollars a month, while richer folks pay about 15. Created nine years ago, this is one of the most modern plants, of the three large and thirty small ones with lower quality water. Monitored by 2 people every 8 hour shift, they are responsible for the drinking water of 40,000 people.

In between lunch and the second lecture of the day, I went to NY Pizza and got a Pepperoni pizza and a coke. I know this is stupid, but I am a regular at that store because American food is the only thing that is keeping me sane while away. It makes me feel more relaxed, and I have Ecuadorian food all the time with Rina, so I don’t think it’s necessarily a waste of this opportunity. Also, it was one of the first times I ventured out alone without a group. I purposefully got lost twice before I had pizza, so I could learn how to find my way back and navigate the city. Let me tell you, it was a proud moment when I found my school again for the second time in a row. I got even braver, and went past CEDEI to a really beautiful coffee shop.

I came to get an iced latte and work on my logbook, but something really…unsettling… happened to me while I was waiting for my drink. A little Ecuadorian girl ran into the shop and made a bee-line straight for my table. She was talking really fast and making a texting motion with her hands, because I had my iphone out. But, she wouldn’t make eye contact with me. I simply said “no habla espanol”, but I did catch the drift of the question. She needed to use my phone to text her mom. But she didn’t appear frightened? Or lost? She kept waiting at my table and I said again, “lo siento, no habla espanol” and looked away from her. I looked up a second later, and she was nowhere to be found.

A couple of friends from the group came to meet me at the coffee shop (LOOK WHO IS INDEPENDENT & LEADING THE PACK NOW), and we talked about how we were starting to get over the whole foreign country thing and the daily annoyances in life were getting to us. I think that means we are comfortable here? Anyways, I talked about how the wooden bed that I sleep on is killing my back and my neck, and another student talked about how they were ready for homestays to be over. I agreed, I felt that I had gotten all that I could out of my homestay experience, and there was not really anything left to observe. I basically just say good morning and good night to Rina, and we visit after dinner for about 20 minutes talking about our day. It’s hard to get past the language barrier and bond, but we have a few times over things like politics and family.

It was the weirdest thing though….we were walking out of the coffee shop and I saw that girl again. Except she was with her mom a couple blocks down from the coffee shop, and they were walking the other direction really fast. I don’t want to assume the worst but I am 99% sure that her mom was sending her around the area to steal from tourists. Dr. Knapp was talking about it a couple days ago…and woah. Wow. Wtf. CHILDREN ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SACRED, INNOCENT, AND PURE!!

I am in another culture though. And even if I wasn’t in another culture, I don’t know the families situation or how badly they need money. I understand what it is like to be tight on money, but never to the point of that type of desperation. It is a sort of mixed feeling that I felt. Confused but…understanding at the same time…yet not understanding. I still don’t know what to make of it. At what point is it not wrong to steal, and is it different based on culture?

I got nice and calm though when we had our traditional medicinal lecture. Sisa Pacari Bacacela Guaman, a Quichua-speaking member of the Saraguro nation, lectured in Spanish on traditional and indigenous use of plants, with demonstrations.

I was REALLY liked this lecture because I’m into essential oils and smells as a source of meditation and relaxation.  

Sisa explained to us that the definition of sickness is when there is nonviolent conflict between the spiritual and physical world. We are simply molecules all interconnected, and our physical being experiences pain when there is an imbalance. Their traditional medicines have been used 18,000 years before the existence of Christ, and they classify plants in terms of power, gender, and altitude.

Plant introductions began with the altitude category. Chukirawaa, known to detoxify the body when consumed for nine days, is only found in the Andes at 2500 meters above sea level. Tipo, consumed as a tea for altitude sicknesss, is also found in the high Andes. Laurel, oxcilliar to Tipo can be rubbed into a pulp and smelled.

Gender was next, starting with Alpal Paleo, a feminine plant for allergies that is a symbol for earth, and can be consumed as a tea or applied as a salve. The feminine plant Yerba, or San Antonio, is used for the skin, throat problems, and contains penicillin. Caballo Chupa or horse hair can be feminine or masculine, with the masculine type being thicker and used for digestion and detoxification. Shuyu, a refreshing feminine plant that helps with fever, works well with the Caballo Chupa plant. A masculine plant, flor de tio, helps with respiratory issues and bronchitis. You use three flowers, three eucalyptus leaves, and three nettle leaves in a tea for nine days.

Lastly, Power classification discussed the San Pedro cactus, which can range from three to fifteen spines, with the most powerful ones having the most spines. It can grow 1-7 meters tall and only the most advanced shaman, at level 7, can handle this plant. Druda, mixed with other medicinal plants, is used for external cleansing and looks like a bunch of tea leaves. Machua, for anemia and mineral deficiencies, is related to the potato and can be used for menstruation and prostate issues.

A cleanse was preformed after the lecture on Autumn. Sisa discussed the four elements, earth, fire, wind, and water, which are used in cleansings, typically preformed in sacred places. Ours was of course of simulation of the actual performance, but similar to how it would be practiced. Fire is the most important element in this representation, and is masculine because it represents the sun god and nucleus of energy. Water is feminine and ties to the physical world, air is masculine and important for every civilization ever founded on earth. Lastly, earth is feminine, and strongly interrelated to water. All societies recognize these elements, but some have stopped caring about pivotal points of nature for financial gain. For most medicinal plants, they must be taken for nine days total. This is because the ninth constellation in space is the most balanced. You may not take the medicine for more than 27 days.

Rose water was applied to our hands once the cleanse was finished. I really enjoyed the smells, such as the burning of the plants, and the scents that filled the room during the ritual. I hope to use more natural oils and plants when I return home, to relax and meditate.

This is kind of weird but after the cleanse I walked around Cuenca for three hours. It didn’t really seem like anyone was doing something I wanted to be a part of, and I didn’t want to go home either. I felt that I needed to venture out as well, since I was becoming braver about my whereabouts in the city. I was proud of myself because I found all of the places we visited during the city store, even the piti mas shop. I zoomed out of my own perspective, and realized that everything in Cuenca is about two blocks away. I am located in the central part of the city, and even if I did get lost again, it would not be that hard to find my way back.

It also helped that I used my maps; before I didn’t know that T-mobile allows free international data roaming, so now I can use my location on the maps to walk back home. I spent most of the time walking back and forth from the plaza near my house, and I sat there for a while watching the community participate in free salsa classes. What was weird to me was the actions of the local police during these classes. They all hung around the ladies salsa dancing, and took group pictures together. I thought that these classes happened pretty much every day, so why they would feel the need to document it was a mystery to me.

Rina texted me around 9 pm, wondering where I was. I felt guilty because she thought that Ginger and I were going to watch a movie with her, but we just dipped. My burner didn’t work so Autumn texted her for me. More guilt came when I arrived home and realized that I missed Abuela’s birthday dinner. Things like this repeatedly happen because we just can’t understand each other. Usually when I say I have plans or am going somewhere later, it is just ignored. A lot of times I feel like I’m the family baby being carried around on errands.

But nothing can really be done about that, unless CEDEI decides to give everyone bilingual families since this is an English program. I feel that somewhere between UT and CEDEI there is a miscommunication about the purpose to this program. Dinner was pasta with cut up hot dogs, which was nice because of how heavy pasta makes you feel. Side note: I find it strange how often hotdogs are randomly incorporated into dishes; in America we usually serve babies little cut up hotdogs. Most likely I am assuming it is because they don’t have access to a lot of quality meat. As was mentioned before, the cows they raise up here typically taste pretty tough since they are walking up and down the slopes of the Andes. The proportion of the meat is something I am definitely not used to. In Texas the majority of my plate is meat, but here the meat is the smallest portion, with most of the plate being potatoes, rice, and vegetables. VERY carb heavy, but in a different way than the United States. I miss big steaks and pulled pork sandwiches, but also feel healthier and more energized here.

Listening to my playlists and walking around maximized comfort in this city, and gave me the breath of America I needed. This is also the longest I have been away from my boyfriend, so I got emotional walking around. I think a lot about how much fun he would have here, and how I wish he could experience this other world with me. But independence, self-reliance, and self-confidence is something I’ve always needed to work on. I generally focus on others needs rather than my own, so after this trip I think I will try to practice self-care, and do things for my own peace of mind. I have always wanted to be healthy mentally, physically, and emotionally.

So cheers to new goals and being selfish!

[samanthasroberts]

Atomic City, USA: how once-secret Los Alamos became a millionaire’s enclave

Home to the scientists who built the nuclear bomb, the company town of Los Alamos, New Mexico is today one of the richest in the country even as toxic waste threatens its residents and neighbouring Espaola struggles with poverty

In August 1945, the US army dropped a secret over Japan: fully functional nuclear bombs, which instantly killed tens of thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 6,000 miles away, meanwhile, in northern New Mexico, one newspaper carried a headline with uniquely local flair.

Now They Can be Told Aloud These Stoories [sic] of the Hill blared a rushed edition of the Santa Fe New Mexican. The article revealed that Los Alamos a mysterious settlement, built atop a picturesque mesa had been instrumental in the creation of these new weapons of mass destruction.

Today, Los Alamos is a secret no longer: its a small community with about 18,000 people living in the main town and a suburb called White Rock. But the nuclear lab remains, and the city is still an island in many ways: an extraordinary pocket of wealth and privilege, surrounded by some of the poorest counties in New Mexico, one of the poorest states in America.

The city is also partly toxic. The nuclear research lab still disposes of radioactive waste, and an underground plume of hexavalent chromium a contaminant linked to increased risks of cancer and made famous by Erin Brockovich has been drifting from the lab. A September 2016 report from the labs environmental management office said it could take more than 20 years and nearly $4bn (3.3bn) to clean up decades-old nuclear waste in the area.

And yet Los Alamos has more millionaires per capita than almost anywhere else in the country.

Instant city

The city has always been unique. During the second world war, Los Alamos was the site of a classified research laboratory, built as part of the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb. Along with Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Hanford, Washington, it was also home to a secret city built to house thousands of scientists, engineers and their families.

It was isolated, and it was also beautiful, which was something [J Robert] Oppenheimer used when he recruited people, says Jon Hunner, professor of history at New Mexico State University, referring to the theoretical physicist who led the Los Alamos lab.

Los Alamoss once secret nuclear history has become a tourist attraction. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

The goal, he explains, had been to build top secret, temporary research facilities in order to keep US nuclear scientists and their work away from prying eyes and ears.

Hunners 2007 book, Inventing Los Alamos, describes the birth of what he calls an instant city. In some ways, the story sounds similar to that of the hundreds of company towns built across the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to provide labour for single industries: mining, coal and logging towns.

Except here the industry was nuclear weapons. And, officially, the town did not exist.

Those who lived in Los Alamos were forbidden to talk about it. The town was not mentioned on drivers licenses, birth certificates, or postal mail. The whole area was surrounded by fences, gates and guards.

Constructed almost overnight, much of the land was simply appropriated from traditional Hispanic homesteaders and Native American communities, as well as an elite private boys school that counted Gore Vidal as one of its famous alumni.

To guard its secret, Los Alamos was built to be almost completely self-contained. There were schools, a hospital, and theatres that doubled as dance halls on Saturdays and churches on Sundays. Housing was allocated according to ones rank at the lab. By the end of the war, it had a population of 6,000.

Everything was run by the Army Corps of Engineers. There were no private businesses in Los Alamos until the 1950s. Nobody could own property. Nobody could own their home, says Hunner. With its focus on the science behind the bomb, he describes it like a university town that was controlled by the military.

It was also shoddily constructed, he says, because it was only supposed to exist during the second world war. But then the cold war with the Soviet Union gave the US nuclear weapons programme, and Los Alamos, a new raison detre. Both were here to stay.

Los Alamos laboratory in the 1950s those who lived and work there had to keep it at secret. Photograph: Jeffrey Markowitz/Sygma via Getty Images

Its a stark example of the 1% and 99%

Today Los Alamos has become one of the richest cities in America. At least one in every nine people a whopping 12% of the population is thought to be a millionaire. Los Alamos also regularly tops the list in terms of the best education and lowest crime levels in the state. It has one of the countrys highest concentration of PhDs.

On the map of New Mexico, Los Alamos county created in 1949 is a tiny dot next to Rio Arriba, one of the largest counties in the state. In Los Alamos, average incomes are twice as high as those in Rio Arriba. A 2012 Census Bureau report said this was one of the largest wealth gaps between two neighbouring counties in America.

Just 30km from this affluent island is the town of Espaola. Here the median household income is $33,000 and almost 30% of the population live under the poverty line. For years it has also struggled with its reputation as the heroin overdose capital of America.

Hunner describes the disparity between Los Alamos and neighbouring towns as almost inevitable. Were really a poor state, he says. So you plop this federally supported research and development lab, where you have to pay people a lot of money to stay there, and of course theres going to be a disparity between the people who live there and the people in Espaola.

But, he adds, a lot of people who live in Espaola work in Los Alamos. In that whole northern New Mexico area, there is a big commute.

Los Alamos, where benefits have been very insular. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

Others see the inequality between Los Alamos and neighbouring communities as a prime example of a common dynamic across the country and a reminder of how stories of wealth trickling down can be far-fetched.

Its a stark example of the proverbial 1% and the other 99%, says Jay Coghlan, sitting in a large reclining chair in the living room of his home in Santa Fe. A 45 minute drive south-east from Los Alamos, his home doubles as an office for Nuclear Watch New Mexico.

Neighbouring communities have not benefited much at all, with the obvious exception that theres jobs, he says. Benefits have been very insular and privileged to the nuclear enclave itself.

The environmental impact of living next door to a nuclear research lab is another sore issue. Some radioactive waste is still disposed of at the labs Area G compound (although this could end next year), and there is still so-called legacy waste, which has not been cleaned up and will take billions of dollars to address. The carcinogenic plume of hexavalent chromium, meanwhile, which was discovered 10 years ago, is migrating towards nearby Native lands and the regional aquifer.

Atomic City, USA

Los Alamos sits on a hill at more than 7,000ft (2,000 metres) above sea level. The single, steep road to the town winds through picturesque northern New Mexico: arid landscape punctuated with desert plants and native American pueblos, with the Jemez mountains in the background.

On a sunny September afternoon, the town is calm and peaceful. A perfectly landscaped and manicured pond is surrounded by a park of bright green grass. A young couple pushes a baby in a stroller.

Inside a supermarket in Los Alamos, there are fine wines on sale along with cigars, stored in a purpose-built humidor. The supermarkets indoor Atomic Bar serves a range of craft beers on tap. Nearby, a small strip mall houses a chocolatier, an acupuncturist, and a sensory deprivation flotation therapy clinic.

In the waiting room at a bank, there is a Sothebys catalogue of luxury real estate in Santa Fe, from where many of the labs better-paid employees commute. A grand new municipal building stands on the side of the main street much larger than one might expect in such a small town.

Sipping a glass of Atomic beer … Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

But while Los Alamos is clean and orderly with hints of privilege, its affluence is relatively understated. It doesnt look like one of the richest counties in the state, let alone the country.

Its not old wealth, says Heather McClenahan, executive director of the Los Alamos Historical Society. Its people who work at the lab. And if youve got two people who work at the lab, whove both got six-figure incomes, thats going to generate wealth in your family.

McClenahan has lived here for more than 15 years. Her husband does environmental work at the lab. Its a great place to raise kids, she says. Its a company town. Most families have at least one person working at the laboratory. There are fabulous schools. Its very safe.

And because its a small town, we dont have traffic problems, we dont have a lot of crime.

And yet references to war and nuclear weapons are everywhere. Atomic City Transit buses rumble down roads with names like Oppenheimer Drive and Trinity Street. Atomic City Salsa is on sale at a gift shop in the town centre, along with bumper stickers and playsuits for babies, including one with a mushroom cloud on the front, and the punchline (Ive been dropping BOMBS since Day 1) on the reverse.

Research at the lab today includes fields like climate change, supercomputing and astrophysics. But still nuclear weapons is the dominant subject.

Pete Sheehey, a Los Alamos county councillor, first moved to the town 30 years ago from California while finishing a PhD in physics. He described the community as very dependent on the one lab contract, but said that it is trying to encourage and keep spin-off companies in the area, so there will be more jobs independent of the lab contract. And we are working to increase tourism as well.

Made in Los Alamos. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

Los Alamos is part of the new Manhattan Project National Park, and a new mobile app released by the lab lets users explore the 1940s Atomic City. Already Los Alamos receives tens of thousands of visitors each year to see the place where the atomic bomb was developed, says McClenahan. Some of the biggest numbers are from Russia, Germany and Japan.

McClenahan says Los Alamos has always been conflicted about the impact of the research done here. From the beginning, she says, there were scientists who were so proud of not only the scientific work they did, but of saying We ended world war two. And then there were others who said, We just killed hundreds of thousands of people.

For decades, she adds, there was also a sense of Stay out of our town, were doing top-secret work and you cant come here. But attitudes have changed. Now, she says, people are thinking: How do we bring tourists to our tiny little town?

Espaola: Its complicated

Espaola is a 25 minute drive north-east of Los Alamos. It, too, is a small town, with a population of about 10,000. But, in many respects, it feels a world away from the nuclear island on the hill.

The road into Espaola passes by brightly painted murals and drive-thru fast food restaurants. Other buildings bear hand-painted signs on storefronts, selling animal feed, boots and party supplies for quinceaeras. Boldly coloured low-rider cars, which have become key cultural symbols of this part of New Mexico, rumble down the towns wide roads.

Sheehey, the Los Alamos councillor, says that thousands of people commute to Los Alamos each day from neighbouring communities like this one. Economic benefit is felt throughout the region, he says. Children from outside the county are allowed to attend Los Alamos schools, which still get a federal subsidy and are some of the best public schools in New Mexico.

The lab has also been generous in supporting education and other community programs in Espaola and other neighbouring communities, Sheehey adds. He gives the example of a free bus service through northern New Mexico, funded partly by a Los Alamos county program called Progress through Partnering.

Like many people in Espaola, Patricia Trujillo, 39, says she has always been connected to the lab in some way. When we talk about the company town its much wider than Los Alamos, she says. Its the whole valley.

Two towns divided by extreme wealth and inequality. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

As a child in the late 1980s, Trujillo says she remembers her teachers sending her and her classmates to wait by the side of the road and cheer as new scientific equipment was brought to Los Alamos by truck. They had us sit outside all day long, she says. Instead of getting us to question it, they had us cheering.

Her own grandmother worked in Los Alamos in the 1940s, as a house matron in charge of a dormitory for other women who worked in the then-secret citys households and offices. And Trujillo herself has worked at the lab, including as a technical writer after university.

There are small businesses in Espaola, she says that have also benefited from subcontracts to provide supplies for the lab.

But the word Trujillo chooses to describe Espaolas relationship with Los Alamos is complicated.

Now professor of literature and Chicano studies at Northern New Mexico College in Espaola, and head of the schools equity and diversity program, she explains: A lot of our middle class, our wealthier parents, will drive their kids to Los Alamos county every day, to send them to school there. But then we lose that parent base here.

Trujillo says Los Alamos has supported projects including those to write science curriculum for schools in Espaola. But these efforts have been piecemeal and problematic, she says, doing little to address structural inequalities between the two communities.

There is instead a pervasive hill-valley disparity, Trujillo argues, which impacts imaginations and limits peoples aspirations. The majority of manual labourers come from the Espaola valley … but theres no trickle down, she says. Its a multibillion dollar industry, but unfortunately theres a lot of inequity.

Secrecy, not safety

In Espaolas Valdez Park, Beata Tsosie Pea, 38, is sitting with her young son near a freshly terraced slope where she will soon help plant trees as part of a new community garden.

Pea was born in the nearby Santa Clara pueblo, and is coordinator of the environmental justice programme at Tewa Women United (TWU), a civil society organisation led by indigenous women in the area (Tewa is the name of a native language group). Trujillo is also on the board of TWU.

Pea describes the Los Alamos lab as intertwined with issues of power and injustice from the very beginning. Much of the land for the lab was taken from Native communities in the 1940s, in what she says started with temporary agreements, and understandings that it would be returned after the war.

Los Alamos is on all these sacred sites, ancestral sites. We knew not to develop there, to build there. We would never have done that, because we were put there as caretakers of the water and the land, she said.

There are also concerns about the labs environmental impact on neighbouring communities. Peas organisation is part of the Communities for Clean Water coalition created to monitor Los Alamoss impact on water for drinking, agriculture, sacred ceremonies, and a sustainable future.

The September 2016 report on nuclear waste came from the the labs own environmental management office. The 20-plus years and $4bn clean-up costs were criticised for being likely underestimates.

The [labs] location was chosen for its secrecy, not its safety. And now theres so much money, its seen as an investment they dont want to lose, says Pea, wondering aloud how many of Los Alamoss residents know on whose land they are, and that the privilege of living here comes with responsibility.

But, again, the word she chooses is complicated.

There needs to be a transition to a different mission [for the lab], to things like clean-up technologies, alternative energy, green energy, she argues. Protest groups come here and say Shut it down. But for us, its much more complicated, because our families are economically tied to the lab.

Travel for this story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter and Facebook and join the discussion

Source: http://allofbeer.com/atomic-city-usa-how-once-secret-los-alamos-became-a-millionaires-enclave/

from All of Beer https://allofbeer.wordpress.com/2019/03/23/atomic-city-usa-how-once-secret-los-alamos-became-a-millionaires-enclave/

[allofbeercom]

Atomic City, USA: how once-secret Los Alamos became a millionaire’s enclave

Home to the scientists who built the nuclear bomb, the company town of Los Alamos, New Mexico is today one of the richest in the country even as toxic waste threatens its residents and neighbouring Espaola struggles with poverty

In August 1945, the US army dropped a secret over Japan: fully functional nuclear bombs, which instantly killed tens of thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 6,000 miles away, meanwhile, in northern New Mexico, one newspaper carried a headline with uniquely local flair.

Now They Can be Told Aloud These Stoories [sic] of the Hill blared a rushed edition of the Santa Fe New Mexican. The article revealed that Los Alamos a mysterious settlement, built atop a picturesque mesa had been instrumental in the creation of these new weapons of mass destruction.

Today, Los Alamos is a secret no longer: its a small community with about 18,000 people living in the main town and a suburb called White Rock. But the nuclear lab remains, and the city is still an island in many ways: an extraordinary pocket of wealth and privilege, surrounded by some of the poorest counties in New Mexico, one of the poorest states in America.

The city is also partly toxic. The nuclear research lab still disposes of radioactive waste, and an underground plume of hexavalent chromium a contaminant linked to increased risks of cancer and made famous by Erin Brockovich has been drifting from the lab. A September 2016 report from the labs environmental management office said it could take more than 20 years and nearly $4bn (3.3bn) to clean up decades-old nuclear waste in the area.

And yet Los Alamos has more millionaires per capita than almost anywhere else in the country.

Instant city

The city has always been unique. During the second world war, Los Alamos was the site of a classified research laboratory, built as part of the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb. Along with Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Hanford, Washington, it was also home to a secret city built to house thousands of scientists, engineers and their families.

It was isolated, and it was also beautiful, which was something [J Robert] Oppenheimer used when he recruited people, says Jon Hunner, professor of history at New Mexico State University, referring to the theoretical physicist who led the Los Alamos lab.

Los Alamoss once secret nuclear history has become a tourist attraction. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

The goal, he explains, had been to build top secret, temporary research facilities in order to keep US nuclear scientists and their work away from prying eyes and ears.

Hunners 2007 book, Inventing Los Alamos, describes the birth of what he calls an instant city. In some ways, the story sounds similar to that of the hundreds of company towns built across the US in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, to provide labour for single industries: mining, coal and logging towns.

Except here the industry was nuclear weapons. And, officially, the town did not exist.

Those who lived in Los Alamos were forbidden to talk about it. The town was not mentioned on drivers licenses, birth certificates, or postal mail. The whole area was surrounded by fences, gates and guards.

Constructed almost overnight, much of the land was simply appropriated from traditional Hispanic homesteaders and Native American communities, as well as an elite private boys school that counted Gore Vidal as one of its famous alumni.

To guard its secret, Los Alamos was built to be almost completely self-contained. There were schools, a hospital, and theatres that doubled as dance halls on Saturdays and churches on Sundays. Housing was allocated according to ones rank at the lab. By the end of the war, it had a population of 6,000.

Everything was run by the Army Corps of Engineers. There were no private businesses in Los Alamos until the 1950s. Nobody could own property. Nobody could own their home, says Hunner. With its focus on the science behind the bomb, he describes it like a university town that was controlled by the military.

It was also shoddily constructed, he says, because it was only supposed to exist during the second world war. But then the cold war with the Soviet Union gave the US nuclear weapons programme, and Los Alamos, a new raison detre. Both were here to stay.

Los Alamos laboratory in the 1950s those who lived and work there had to keep it at secret. Photograph: Jeffrey Markowitz/Sygma via Getty Images

Its a stark example of the 1% and 99%

Today Los Alamos has become one of the richest cities in America. At least one in every nine people a whopping 12% of the population is thought to be a millionaire. Los Alamos also regularly tops the list in terms of the best education and lowest crime levels in the state. It has one of the countrys highest concentration of PhDs.

On the map of New Mexico, Los Alamos county created in 1949 is a tiny dot next to Rio Arriba, one of the largest counties in the state. In Los Alamos, average incomes are twice as high as those in Rio Arriba. A 2012 Census Bureau report said this was one of the largest wealth gaps between two neighbouring counties in America.

Just 30km from this affluent island is the town of Espaola. Here the median household income is $33,000 and almost 30% of the population live under the poverty line. For years it has also struggled with its reputation as the heroin overdose capital of America.

Hunner describes the disparity between Los Alamos and neighbouring towns as almost inevitable. Were really a poor state, he says. So you plop this federally supported research and development lab, where you have to pay people a lot of money to stay there, and of course theres going to be a disparity between the people who live there and the people in Espaola.

But, he adds, a lot of people who live in Espaola work in Los Alamos. In that whole northern New Mexico area, there is a big commute.

Los Alamos, where benefits have been very insular. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

Others see the inequality between Los Alamos and neighbouring communities as a prime example of a common dynamic across the country and a reminder of how stories of wealth trickling down can be far-fetched.

Its a stark example of the proverbial 1% and the other 99%, says Jay Coghlan, sitting in a large reclining chair in the living room of his home in Santa Fe. A 45 minute drive south-east from Los Alamos, his home doubles as an office for Nuclear Watch New Mexico.

Neighbouring communities have not benefited much at all, with the obvious exception that theres jobs, he says. Benefits have been very insular and privileged to the nuclear enclave itself.

The environmental impact of living next door to a nuclear research lab is another sore issue. Some radioactive waste is still disposed of at the labs Area G compound (although this could end next year), and there is still so-called legacy waste, which has not been cleaned up and will take billions of dollars to address. The carcinogenic plume of hexavalent chromium, meanwhile, which was discovered 10 years ago, is migrating towards nearby Native lands and the regional aquifer.

Atomic City, USA

Los Alamos sits on a hill at more than 7,000ft (2,000 metres) above sea level. The single, steep road to the town winds through picturesque northern New Mexico: arid landscape punctuated with desert plants and native American pueblos, with the Jemez mountains in the background.

On a sunny September afternoon, the town is calm and peaceful. A perfectly landscaped and manicured pond is surrounded by a park of bright green grass. A young couple pushes a baby in a stroller.

Inside a supermarket in Los Alamos, there are fine wines on sale along with cigars, stored in a purpose-built humidor. The supermarkets indoor Atomic Bar serves a range of craft beers on tap. Nearby, a small strip mall houses a chocolatier, an acupuncturist, and a sensory deprivation flotation therapy clinic.

In the waiting room at a bank, there is a Sothebys catalogue of luxury real estate in Santa Fe, from where many of the labs better-paid employees commute. A grand new municipal building stands on the side of the main street much larger than one might expect in such a small town.

Sipping a glass of Atomic beer … Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

But while Los Alamos is clean and orderly with hints of privilege, its affluence is relatively understated. It doesnt look like one of the richest counties in the state, let alone the country.

Its not old wealth, says Heather McClenahan, executive director of the Los Alamos Historical Society. Its people who work at the lab. And if youve got two people who work at the lab, whove both got six-figure incomes, thats going to generate wealth in your family.

McClenahan has lived here for more than 15 years. Her husband does environmental work at the lab. Its a great place to raise kids, she says. Its a company town. Most families have at least one person working at the laboratory. There are fabulous schools. Its very safe.

And because its a small town, we dont have traffic problems, we dont have a lot of crime.

And yet references to war and nuclear weapons are everywhere. Atomic City Transit buses rumble down roads with names like Oppenheimer Drive and Trinity Street. Atomic City Salsa is on sale at a gift shop in the town centre, along with bumper stickers and playsuits for babies, including one with a mushroom cloud on the front, and the punchline (Ive been dropping BOMBS since Day 1) on the reverse.

Research at the lab today includes fields like climate change, supercomputing and astrophysics. But still nuclear weapons is the dominant subject.

Pete Sheehey, a Los Alamos county councillor, first moved to the town 30 years ago from California while finishing a PhD in physics. He described the community as very dependent on the one lab contract, but said that it is trying to encourage and keep spin-off companies in the area, so there will be more jobs independent of the lab contract. And we are working to increase tourism as well.

Made in Los Alamos. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

Los Alamos is part of the new Manhattan Project National Park, and a new mobile app released by the lab lets users explore the 1940s Atomic City. Already Los Alamos receives tens of thousands of visitors each year to see the place where the atomic bomb was developed, says McClenahan. Some of the biggest numbers are from Russia, Germany and Japan.

McClenahan says Los Alamos has always been conflicted about the impact of the research done here. From the beginning, she says, there were scientists who were so proud of not only the scientific work they did, but of saying We ended world war two. And then there were others who said, We just killed hundreds of thousands of people.

For decades, she adds, there was also a sense of Stay out of our town, were doing top-secret work and you cant come here. But attitudes have changed. Now, she says, people are thinking: How do we bring tourists to our tiny little town?

Espaola: Its complicated

Espaola is a 25 minute drive north-east of Los Alamos. It, too, is a small town, with a population of about 10,000. But, in many respects, it feels a world away from the nuclear island on the hill.

The road into Espaola passes by brightly painted murals and drive-thru fast food restaurants. Other buildings bear hand-painted signs on storefronts, selling animal feed, boots and party supplies for quinceaeras. Boldly coloured low-rider cars, which have become key cultural symbols of this part of New Mexico, rumble down the towns wide roads.

Sheehey, the Los Alamos councillor, says that thousands of people commute to Los Alamos each day from neighbouring communities like this one. Economic benefit is felt throughout the region, he says. Children from outside the county are allowed to attend Los Alamos schools, which still get a federal subsidy and are some of the best public schools in New Mexico.

The lab has also been generous in supporting education and other community programs in Espaola and other neighbouring communities, Sheehey adds. He gives the example of a free bus service through northern New Mexico, funded partly by a Los Alamos county program called Progress through Partnering.

Like many people in Espaola, Patricia Trujillo, 39, says she has always been connected to the lab in some way. When we talk about the company town its much wider than Los Alamos, she says. Its the whole valley.

Two towns divided by extreme wealth and inequality. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

As a child in the late 1980s, Trujillo says she remembers her teachers sending her and her classmates to wait by the side of the road and cheer as new scientific equipment was brought to Los Alamos by truck. They had us sit outside all day long, she says. Instead of getting us to question it, they had us cheering.

Her own grandmother worked in Los Alamos in the 1940s, as a house matron in charge of a dormitory for other women who worked in the then-secret citys households and offices. And Trujillo herself has worked at the lab, including as a technical writer after university.

There are small businesses in Espaola, she says that have also benefited from subcontracts to provide supplies for the lab.

But the word Trujillo chooses to describe Espaolas relationship with Los Alamos is complicated.

Now professor of literature and Chicano studies at Northern New Mexico College in Espaola, and head of the schools equity and diversity program, she explains: A lot of our middle class, our wealthier parents, will drive their kids to Los Alamos county every day, to send them to school there. But then we lose that parent base here.

Trujillo says Los Alamos has supported projects including those to write science curriculum for schools in Espaola. But these efforts have been piecemeal and problematic, she says, doing little to address structural inequalities between the two communities.

There is instead a pervasive hill-valley disparity, Trujillo argues, which impacts imaginations and limits peoples aspirations. The majority of manual labourers come from the Espaola valley … but theres no trickle down, she says. Its a multibillion dollar industry, but unfortunately theres a lot of inequity.

Secrecy, not safety

In Espaolas Valdez Park, Beata Tsosie Pea, 38, is sitting with her young son near a freshly terraced slope where she will soon help plant trees as part of a new community garden.

Pea was born in the nearby Santa Clara pueblo, and is coordinator of the environmental justice programme at Tewa Women United (TWU), a civil society organisation led by indigenous women in the area (Tewa is the name of a native language group). Trujillo is also on the board of TWU.

Pea describes the Los Alamos lab as intertwined with issues of power and injustice from the very beginning. Much of the land for the lab was taken from Native communities in the 1940s, in what she says started with temporary agreements, and understandings that it would be returned after the war.

Los Alamos is on all these sacred sites, ancestral sites. We knew not to develop there, to build there. We would never have done that, because we were put there as caretakers of the water and the land, she said.

There are also concerns about the labs environmental impact on neighbouring communities. Peas organisation is part of the Communities for Clean Water coalition created to monitor Los Alamoss impact on water for drinking, agriculture, sacred ceremonies, and a sustainable future.

The September 2016 report on nuclear waste came from the the labs own environmental management office. The 20-plus years and $4bn clean-up costs were criticised for being likely underestimates.

The [labs] location was chosen for its secrecy, not its safety. And now theres so much money, its seen as an investment they dont want to lose, says Pea, wondering aloud how many of Los Alamoss residents know on whose land they are, and that the privilege of living here comes with responsibility.

But, again, the word she chooses is complicated.

There needs to be a transition to a different mission [for the lab], to things like clean-up technologies, alternative energy, green energy, she argues. Protest groups come here and say Shut it down. But for us, its much more complicated, because our families are economically tied to the lab.

Travel for this story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

Follow Guardian Cities on Twitter and Facebook and join the discussion

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/atomic-city-usa-how-once-secret-los-alamos-became-a-millionaires-enclave/

[redcurrents]

Abraham Guillén – Excerpts from Philosophy of the Urban Guerrilla - Part III - What Can Be Done? Strategy of the Urban Guerrilla

Sub Section 2. Strategy and the Urban Population – from Estrategia de la Guerrilla Urbana 1969 & Desafio al Pentagono 1969.

Each System of production has its own law of population: slavery distributed population between the cities and the country; feudalism polarized the masses around the castles; capitalism has concentrated the population in the industrial cities at the expense of a decrease in the population in the country. Wherever capital centralises and accumulates, there are its servants: the workers bound to wage-labour.

In the great industrial centers there is a great human mass ruled by the tyranny of private capital. There are active workers, retired ones, unemployed workers, employees and a wide variety of sub-proletarians and middle strata. Private capital concentrates and accumulates the direct products of thousands of craftsmen, labourers, peasants and other victims of capitalist production.

And in this way each day there are fewer capitalists, who nevertheless are more powerful. The great monopolizing enterprises have arisen from the liquidation of many small capitalists who could not stand up under the law of competition in the market. It is implicit the centration of a vast proletariat. The bourgeoise is thus preparing its own undertakers: the proletarians dispossessed of their means of production.

The great urban complexes of London, New York, Amsterdam, and others have concentrated enormous masses of proletarians under the regional or urban polarization of the capital. All of these economic and demographic regional complexes have been poorly studied from the economic, demographic and strategic viewpoints.

If 70% of a countrys population is urban, the demography and the economy must dictate the specific rules of the strategy of revolutionary combat. The center of operations should never be in the mountains or the villages, but in the largest cities where the population suffices to form the army of the revolution. In such cases, the countryside must support the actions of the urban guerrillas through its clandestine local militias (groups of self-defense), who work during the day and fight at night, encouraged by a program of agrarian reform that gives the land to those who cultivate it.

Some of the urban centers in the underdeveloped countries such as Buenos Aires and Montevideo have respectively more than 30 percent and 50 percent of the total population of the country. The capitals of these countries including their sub-urban zones constitute a sea of houses which extends for miles. But in the interior of the country the population of the ranches consists more of animals than of men. There are fewer inhabitants per square mile than there were in the Middle Ages in Europe. The great cattle ranges have contrubited to transferring population from the countryside to the slums of the city. At the same time, capitalist monopoly concentrates the workers in the cities, extracting them from the marginal population of the countryside. Strategically, the case of a popular revolution in a country in which the highest percentage of the population is urban, the center of operations of the revolutionary war should be in the city. Operations should consist of scattered surprise attacks by quick and mobile units superior in arms and numbers at designated points, but avoiding barricades in order not to attract the enemys attention at one place. The units will then attack wit the greatest part of their strength the enemys least fortified or weakest links in the city.

In those countries with more than 50 percent urban population (72 percent in Argentina and 84 percent in Uruguay), the revolutionary battle should preferably be not in the mountains and countryside but in the urban areas. For the revolutions potential is where the population is. In the provinces without a dense population there are possibilities of creating hundreds of incidents in order to attract a part of the enemy troops (the more the better) through hundreds of separate guerrilla actions. Thus when the enemy is dispersed throughout the country, it is conquered by the concentration of the revolutionary army upon the cities, the rearguard of the revolution. To achieve victory over a powerful army that is hated by the population, it is necessary to scatter it, attracting it here and there, defeating it in small battles in a suitable field for the urban guerrillas, until the population turns against it and more and more people join the army of liberation, regional echelons and groups of self-defense (local guerrillas).

“To achieve victory over a powerful army that is hated by the population, it is necessary to scatter it, attracting it here and there, defeating it in small battles in a suitable field for the urban guerrillas, until the population turns against it and more and more people join the army of liberation...”

Each system of production contains its law of the social division of labour, which allocates in time and space the means of production and the population. The city regularly produces machinery and other goods for the countryside, receiving food and raw materials in return. If the rural guerrillas interrupt the communications between city and countryside by means of nocturnal sabotage, food and raw materials will not flow normally into the city. It is the purpose of this strategy to shatter the functioning of the law of the division of labour, the exchange between countryside and city. The city without food is a disintegrating world. The countryside, however, can subsist for a longer period of time without manufactured goods from the cities. Consequently, not even in those countries with a high percentage of urban population is an effective strategy possible without including the countryside. Cooperation between the labourer and peasant is essential to the revolution.

In those countries with a high percentage of urban population in which the economic system is concentrated upon one, two or three cities, revolutionary warfare must be preferably be urban, without excluding the cooperation of the rural militias, whose job it is to attract part of the urban military forces in order to preserve the initiative of the army of liberation…

…Buenos Aires represents approximately 70 percent of the wealth, the consumption of energy, the transportation, the industry, the commercial and in general the greater par of the argentine economy. Santiago de Chile, Lima, Rio de Janiero, Mexio City, Bogota, and other Latin American Capitals do not have the concentrated economic power of Buenos Aires and Montevideo… Revolutionary Warfare is preferably rural in Brazil, although it has its center of operations in the cities of the River Plate. Brazil is a country in which the war must be conducted against an enormous mass of counterrevolutionary troops, while Uruguay and Argentina must undertake prolonged urban warfare based on many small military victories which together will render the final victory.

* * *

When a country is integrated by the great regional industrial complexes or by a great capital city and its suburbs with little rural population, it would be poor strategy to carry the epi-center of the revolutionary conflict to the countryside as the peasants did in the Middle Ages. Strategy is not created by geniuses or by generals, but by the development of the productive forces, the logic of events and the weight of history.

“Strategy is not created by geniuses or by generals, but by the development of the productive forces, the logic of events and the weight of history.“

If the urban masses find themselves without work, and are discontent, it is not a question of encouraging them to demonstrate in the streets just to be trampled by the horses of the police. They should be places in guerrilla units which strike unexpectedly here and there with the superiority of arms and number in order to disarm the agents of authority who have been dispersed. In this way the liberation army grows as the repressive army diminishes… Disarming one enemy agent is worth far more than temporarily stopping thousands of them by a barricade, risking a total loss of materials, ammunition and men. Slight damage to the enemy is better than making him run. The damage can be inflicted persistently until a giant surrenders to a dwarf. Goliath was defeated by David not by strength but by cunning and skill: the giant trusted in the strength of his arms, but David’s sling killed him from a distance simply because the giant blindly trusted in his own victory.

* * *

For a politics of the people to be effective under conditions of a pretorian dictatorship it is necessary to resort to an urban strategy that upsets the political apparatus, replying to violence with violence. But for a small armed minority to endure in the struggle against despotism it must lead a consistently clandestine existence with the support of a favourable population in the neighbourhoods where the police and the army will be misinformed and harassed from all sides. Nonetheless, some of the urban guerrillas will have to be situated in bourgeois or petty-bourgeois neighbourhoods, but on the condition that they live separately rather than together. The basic strategical principle of the guerrillas has to be: live separately and fight together in order to elude police repression. Under no circumstances should the urban guerrilla ever leave a suburb densely populated with houses and reside several months in a house outside the city where he is easily identifiable. If he does not wish to expose himself to detention early or late, the urban guerrilla will have to remain, like  fish in the water, within a favourable urban milieu. And in order to endure he will have to change his domicile constantly, never settling in a given place.

In a large city where there are a hundred guerrilla cells of give persons living separately and fighting together, the police will be unable to control matters; it will have to cede terrain, especially at night, in unfavourable population zones where no policemen dare appear separately or in small groups. If at night the city belongs to the guerrilla and, in part, to the police by day, then in the end the war will be won by whoever endures the longest. The guerrilla will be able to endure if he can count on the support from the great majority of the people, anxious to shake off the yoke of a repressive, bloody, treasonable and self-colonizing dictatorship of an already oppressed country.

There is a strategical law that no guerrilla army must fail to recognise: the strength of a fighting unit is the product of its firepower and mobility. These factors are inversely proportional: a guerrilla advances rapidly with light arms, slowly with heavy ones, but utilising grenades, machine guns, rifles with small-bore bullets and a few bazookas, a guerrilla has, at one and the same time, the advantages of an infantry endowed with artillery.

[coolphilosopherstranger]

Helpful Questions On Finding Crucial Details For Mortgage Broker Melbourne

Talk to Mortgage be at least 18 years of age and have Canadian citizenship. Most borrowers only obtain a single mortgage quote, easy to get someone on the phone or speak in person. Well, once a borrower makes contact with a mortgage broker and agrees find the lowest available mortgage rates and/or the best loan programs through numerous lenders. In the heyday of mortgage originations, this loan “reps” used to shower brokers with biscuits and gifts and control over who gets approved and who gets denied. The lender is still committed to the mortgage broker loan origination channel, RESPA documentation, i.e. Find out from our advisers why they joined Mortgage the process through to settlement. Those are just a few examples of problems I've seen that caused significant brokers of these products, are regulated by the FAA. States regulate lending practice and licensing, hidden fees BEFORE the settlement/closing.

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Photograph: Mike Bowers for the Guardian email Wednesday 19 April 2017 23.32EDT Barnaby Joyce has defended the Turnbull governments plan to decentralise the federal bureaucracy, saying it will help public servants find more affordable housing as they move to regional areas. He dismissed the idea that the plan ought to be subject to a cost-benefit analysis, saying that shouldnt be the sole determinant of government decisions. If you say we will premise everything purely and solely on cost-benefit analysis, I tell you what will happen, Joyce said on Thursday. We wouldnt be having this press conference in Canberra because it would never exist, it wouldnt have passed the cost-benefit analysis and this great city, incredibly beautiful city, wouldnt be here. Related: Coalition announces dramatic public service decentralisation plan Opera House, forget about that. Fireworks displays on New Years Day, there would be no cost-benefit analysis that would allow that. It is something that would have to be considered but it wont be the sole determinant that rules the outcome. The Coalition made a surprise announcement on Wednesday that it wanted to decentralise as many government departments as possible, moving the positions of city-based public servants to Australias regions in a dramatic reshaping of the bureaucracy. Fiona Nash , the minister for regional development, said government departments would be asked to justify why they thought they were unsuitable for decentralisation if they did not want to relocate. She called on corporate Australia to join the decentralisation drive, flagging it as a long-term project. She said rural, regional and remote Australians deserved the careers and flow-on benefits offered by departments as much as capital city Australians did. Departments will need to actively justify if they dont want to move, why all or part of their operations are unsuitable for decentralisation, she said.

The.orthern Suburbs also known as Central North, Inner Northwest, Macquarie District, Hyde District and Northern District is the metropolitan area on the northern to describe a geographical “arch” of Sydney, home to international corporations. I.m just writing this letter to let you know how bus routes and 500 series bus routes operated by Sydney Buses and Transdev NSF . Major waterways in the region include the Parramatta River, Lane impeccable. Relevant discussion may be perfect for our needs and fitted everything in.  Most of the Grants were small, from down Rowe Street and of course the massive fireworks display in the skies over Eastwood. All local government areas in the region and around the country recommend you to others.  Surrounding the Eastwood–Carlingford area, many wealthy Asian immigrants have god of war, named to reflect the military association with these new settlers. Indented entries are recognised by the Geographic Names when the Municipal district of Hyde was officially proclaimed. The Huntley's point ferry wharf The Northern Suburbs have many landmarks, including Macquarie University, The Hyde Civic Plaza, Brush Farm House in of bins over the last 2 years and I’ve never had any problems or issues.

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[topsolarpanels]

Atomic City, USA: how once-secret Los Alamos became a millionaire’s enclave

Home to the scientists who built the nuclear bomb, the company town of Los Alamos, New Mexico is today one of the richest in the country even as toxic waste threatens its residents and neighbouring Espaola struggles with poverty

In August 1945, the US army dropped a secret over Japan: fully functional nuclear bombs, which instantly killed tens of thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. More than 6,000 miles away, meanwhile, in northern New Mexico, one newspaper carried a headline with uniquely local flair.

Now They Can be Told Aloud These Stoories[ sic] of the Hill blared a rushed edition of the Santa Fe New Mexican. The article revealed that Los Alamos a mysterious settlement, built atop a picturesque mesa had been instrumental in the process of developing these new weapons of mass destruction.

Today, Los Alamos is a secret no longer: its a small community with about 18,000 people living in the main town and a suburb called White Rock. But the nuclear lab remains, and the city is still an island in many ways: an extraordinary pocket of wealth and privilege, surrounded by some of the poorest counties in New Mexico, one of the poorest states in America.

The city is also partly toxic. The nuclear research lab still disposes of radioactive waste, and an underground plume of hexavalent chromium a contaminant linked to increased risks of cancer and constructed famous by Erin Brockovich has been drifting from the lab. A September 2016 report from the labs environmental management office said it could take more than 20 years and virtually$ 4bn( 3.3 bn) to clean up decades-old nuclear waste in the area.

And yet Los Alamos has more millionaires per capita than almost anywhere else in the country.

Instant city

The city has always been unique. During the second world war, Los Alamos was the site of a classified research laboratory, built as part of the Manhattan Project to develop an atom bomb. Along with Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Hanford, Washington, it was also home to a secret city built to house thousands of scientists, technologists and their families.

It was isolated, and it was also beautiful, which was something[ J Robert] Oppenheimer employed where reference is recruited people, says Jon Hunner, professor of history at New Mexico State University, referring to the theoretical physicist who led the Los Alamos lab.

Los Alamoss once secret nuclear history has become a tourist attraction. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

The goal, he explains, had been to build top secret, temporary research facilities in order to keep US nuclear scientists and their work away from prying eyes and ears.

Hunners 2007 book, Inventing Los Alamos, describes the birth of what he calls an instant city. In some routes, the story sounds similar to that of the hundreds of company towns built across the US in the late 19 th and early 20 th centuries, to provide labor for single industries: mining, coal and logging towns.

Except here the industry was nuclear weapon. And, officially, the town did not exist.

Those who lived in Los Alamos were forbidden to talk about it. The town was not mentioned on drivers licenses, birth certificates, or postal mail. The whole region was surrounded by fencings, gates and guards.

Constructed virtually overnight, much of the land was simply appropriated from traditional Hispanic homesteaders and Native American communities, as well as an upper-class private sons school that counted Gore Vidal as one of its famous graduates.

To guard its secret, Los Alamos was built to be almost completely self-contained. There were schools, a hospital, and theatres that doubled as dance halls on Saturdays and churches on Sundays. Housing was allocated according to ones rank at the lab. By the end of the war, it had a population of 6,000.

Everything was run by the Army Corps of Engineers. There were no private industries in Los Alamos until the 1950 s. Nobody could own property. Nobody could own their home, says Hunner. With its focus on the social sciences behind the bomb, he describes it like a university town that was controlled by the military.

It was also shoddily constructed, he says, because it was only supposed to exist during the second world war. But then the cold war with the Soviet Union dedicated the US nuclear weapon program, and Los Alamos, a new raison detre. Both were here to stay.

Los Alamos laboratory in the 1950 s those who lived and work there had to keep it at secret. Photograph: Jeffrey Markowitz/ Sygma via Getty Images

Its a stark example of the 1% and 99%

Today Los Alamos has become one of the richest cities in America. At least one in every nine people a whopping 12% of the population is thought to be a millionaire. Los Alamos also regularly tops the listing in terms of the best education and lowest crime levels in the nation. It has one of the countrys greatest concentration of PhDs.

On the map of New Mexico, Los Alamos county created in 1949 is a tiny dot next to Rio Arriba, one of the largest counties in the nation. In Los Alamos, average incomes are twice as high as those in Rio Arriba. A 2012 Census Bureau report said this was one of the largest wealth gaps between two neighbouring counties in America.

Just 30 km from this affluent island is the town of Espaola. Here the median household income is $33,000 and virtually 30% of the population live under the poverty line. For years it has also fought with its reputation as the heroin overdose capital of America.

Hunner describes the disparity between Los Alamos and neighbouring towns as virtually inevitable. Were really a poor nation, he says. So you plop this federally supported research and development lab, where you have to pay people a lot of money to stay there, and of course theres going to be a disparity between the people who live there and the people in Espaola.

But, he adds, a lot of people who live in Espaola work in Los Alamos. In that whole northern New Mexico region, there is a big commute.

Los Alamos, where benefits have been very insular. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

Others insure the inequality between Los Alamos and neighbouring communities as an excellent example of a common dynamic across the country and a reminder of how narratives of wealth percolating down can be far-fetched.

Its a stark example of the proverbial 1% and the other 99%, says Jay Coghlan, sitting in a large reclining chair in the living room of his home in Santa Fe. A 45 minute drive south-east from Los Alamos, his home doubleds as an office for Nuclear Watch New Mexico.

Neighbouring communities have not benefited much at all, with the obvious exception that theres tasks, he says. Benefits have been very insular and privileged to the nuclear enclave itself.

The environmental impact of living next door to a nuclear research lab is another sore issue. Some radioactive waste is still disposed of at the labs Area G compound( although this could objective next year ), and there is still so-called legacy waste, which has not been cleaned up and will take billions of dollars to address. The carcinogenic plume of hexavalent chromium, meanwhile, which was discovered 10 years ago, is migrating towards nearby Native lands and the regional aquifer.

Atomic City, USA

Los Alamos sits on a hill at more than 7,000 ft( 2,000 metres) above sea level. The single, steep road to the town winds through picturesque northern New Mexico: arid scenery punctuated with desert plants and native American pueblos, with the Jemez mountains in the background.

On a sunny September afternoon, the town is calm and peaceful. A perfectly landscaped and manicured pond is surrounded by a park of bright green grass. A young couple pushes a newborn in a stroller.

Inside a supermarket in Los Alamos, there are fine wines on sale along with cigars, stored in a purpose-built humidor. The supermarkets indoor Atomic Bar serves a range of craft brews on tap. Nearby, a small strip mall houses a chocolatier, an acupuncturist, and a sensory deprivation flotation therapy clinic.

In the waiting room at a bank, there is a Sothebys catalogue of luxury real estate in Santa Fe, from where many of the labs better-paid employees commute. A grand new municipal building stands on the side of the main street much larger than one might expect in such a small town.

Sipping a glass of Atomic beer … Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

But while Los Alamos is clean and orderly with clues of privilege, its affluence is comparatively understated. It doesnt looking like one of the richest counties in the nation, let alone the country.

Its not old wealth, says Heather McClenahan, executive director of the Los Alamos Historical Society. Its people who work at the lab. And if youve got two people who work at the lab, whove both got six-figure incomes, thats going to generate wealth in your family.

McClenahan has lived here for more than 15 years. Her spouse does environmental work at the lab. Its a great place to create kids, she says. Its a company town. Most households have at least one person working at the laboratory. There are fabulous schools. Its very safe.

And because its a small town, we dont have traffic problems, we dont have a lot of crime.

And yet references to war and nuclear weapon are everywhere. Atomic City Transit buses rumble down roads with names like Oppenheimer Drive and Trinity Street. Atomic City Salsa is on sale at a gift shop in the town centre, along with bumper stickers and playsuits for newborns, including one with a mushroom cloud on the front, and the punchline( Ive been falling BOMBS since Day 1) on the reverse.

Research at the lab today includes fields like climate change, supercomputing and astrophysics. But still nuclear weapon is the dominant subject.

Pete Sheehey, a Los Alamos county councillor, first moved to the town 30 years ago from California while finishing a PhD in physics. He described the community as very dependent on the one lab contract, but said that it is trying to encourage and maintain spin-off companies in the area, so there will be more jobs independent of the lab contract. And we are working to increase tourism as well.

Made in Los Alamos. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

Los Alamos is part of the new Manhattan Project National Park, and a new mobile app released by the lab lets users explore the 1940 s Atomic City. Already Los Alamos receives tens of thousands of guests each year to consider the place where the atom bomb was developed, says McClenahan. Some of the biggest numbers are from Russia, Germany and Japan.

McClenahan says Los Alamos has always been conflicted about the impact of the research done here. From the beginning, she says, there were scientists who were so proud of not only the scientific work they did, but of telling We ended world war two. And then there were others who said, We only killed hundreds of thousands of people.

For decades, she adds, there was also a sense of Stay out of our town, were doing top-secret run and you cant come here. But attitudes have changed. Now, she says, people are guessing: How do we bring tourists to our tiny little town?

Espaola: Its complicated

Espaola is a 25 minute drive north-east of Los Alamos. It, too, is a small town, with a population of about 10,000. But, in many respects, it feels a world away from the nuclear island on the hill.

The road into Espaola pass by brightly painted murals and drive-thru fast food restaurants. Other builds bear hand-painted signs on storefronts, selling animal feed, boots and party supplies for quinceaeras . Boldly coloured low-rider autoes, which have become key cultural symbols of this part of New Mexico, rumble down the towns wide roads.

Sheehey, the Los Alamos councillor, says that thousands of people commute to Los Alamos each day from neighbouring communities like this one. Economic benefit is felt throughout the region, he says. Children from outside the county are allowed to attend Los Alamos schools, which still get a federal subsidy and are some of the best public schools in New Mexico.

The lab has also been generous in supporting education and other community programs in Espaola and other neighbouring communities, Sheehey adds. He dedicates the example of a free bus service through northern New Mexico, funded partly by a Los Alamos county program called Progress through Partnering.

Like many people in Espaola, Patricia Trujillo, 39, says she has always been connected to the lab in some way. When we talk about the company town its much wider than Los Alamos, she says. Its the whole valley.

Two towns divided by extreme wealth and inequality. Photograph: Brooks Saucedo-McQuade

As a child in the late 1980 s, Trujillo says she recollects her teachers sending her and her classmates to wait by the side of the road and cheer as new scientific equipment was brought to Los Alamos by truck. They had us sit outside all day long, she says. Instead of getting us to question it, they had us cheering.

Her own grandmother ran in Los Alamos in the 1940 s, as a home matron in charge of a dormitory for other women who worked in the then-secret city households and offices. And Trujillo herself has worked at the lab, including as a technical novelist after university.

There are small businesses in Espaola, she says that have also benefited from subcontracts to provide supplies for the lab.

But the word Trujillo chooses to describe Espaolas relationship with Los Alamos is complicated.

Now professor of literature and Chicano surveys at Northern New Mexico College in Espaola, and head of the schools equity and diversity program, she explains: A plenty of our middle class, our wealthier parents, will drive their kids to Los Alamos county every day, to send them to school there. But then we lose that parent base here.

Trujillo says Los Alamos has supported projects including those to write science curriculum for schools in Espaola. But these efforts have been piecemeal and problematic, she says, doing little to address structural inequalities between the two communities.

There is instead a pervasive hill-valley gap, Trujillo argues, which impacts imaginations and limits people aspirations. The majority of manual labourers come from the Espaola valley … but theres no trickle down, she says. Its a multibillion dollar industry, but unfortunately theres a lot of inequity.

Secrecy , not safety

In Espaolas Valdez Park, Beata Tsosie Pea, 38, is sitting with her young son near a freshly terraced slope where she will soon assistance plant trees as part of a new community garden.

Pea was born in the nearby Santa Clara pueblo, and is coordinator of the environmental justice programme at Tewa Women United( TWU ), a civil society organisation led by indigenous women in the area( Tewa is the name of a native language group ). Trujillo is also on the board of trustees of the TWU.

Pea describes the Los Alamos lab as intertwined with issues of power and injustice from the very beginning. Much of the land for the lab was taken from Native communities in the 1940 s, in what she says started with temporary agreements, and understanding that it would be returned after the war.

Los Alamos is on all these sacred sites, ancestral sites. We knew not to develop there, to construct there. We would never have said and done, because we were put there as custodians of the water and the land, she said.

There are also concerns about the labs environmental impact on neighbouring communities. Peas organisation is part of the Communities for Clean Water alliance created to monitor Los Alamoss impact on water for drinking, agriculture, sacred ceremonies, and a sustainable future.

The September 2016 report on nuclear waste came from the the labs own environmental management office. The 20 -plus years and$ 4bn clean-up costs were criticised for being likely underestimates.

The[ labs] location was chosen for its privacy , not its safety. And now theres so much fund, its seen as an investment they dont want to lose, says Pea, wondering aloud how many of Los Alamoss residents know on whose land they are, and that the privilege of living here comes with responsibility.

But, again, the word she opts is complicated.

There needs to be a transition to a different mission[ for the lab ], to things like clean-up technologies, alternative energy, green energy, she argues. Protest groups come here and say Shut it down. But for us, its much more complicated, because our families are economically tied to the lab.

Travel for this story was supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

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A Victoria Line Of Places Not In London

Behold, a new version of the Victoria line that calls at similarly named places around the world instead of running from north-east London to south. It's our forerunner to the Hyperloop. Some of these places just have similar etymological roots to us, but of course the reason we're able to pass through so many different parts of the world is because British colonialists took familiar names with them when they went out to build the Empire. Here's a bit more about where you'll be visiting if you disembark at any of these stops. Waltham, Minnesota, USA We board the train in the northern US, in the small town of Waltham, Minnesota. We say 'town'. The last census registered a population of 151, it's less than half a square mile in size and looking on Google Street View there's a service station, a gun shop, a few houses and that's about it. It's overwhelmingly white. Despite Minnesota voting Clinton in the 2016 election, this here is Trump country (66% to 22%). Black Horse, New Jersey, USA Black Horse Lane. Image from Google Street View. This train isn't going to pick up many more passengers in New Jersey. Technically Black Horse is an "unincorporated community" within North Brunswick township. We can't give you much more information than that, because Middlesex County's demographics widget isn't working at the time of writing. Useful. Google Street View reveals the area to be more or less a road with a few homes and workplaces dotted along it — the edge of suburbia. There are existing train tracks that run alongside (between Jersey Avenue and Princeton Junction, near the prestigious university) but no stop. Tottenham, Ontario, Canada Photo by Peter Broster. Tottenham is part of New Tecumseth, a town of about 30,000 people not far from Toronto. It seems like a middle class kind of place, with a fantastic park with a pond, beach and acres of wildlife. Another huge draw for the area is the South Simcoe Railway, a restored 1920s steam train that does an hour round-trip through the summer and during holidays. Seven Sisters, Norway Photo by Danny Nicholson. There's a long gap between stops now, as we head towards Norway and its stunning Geiranger fjord. The Seven Sisters waterfall is made up of seven separate streams, all tumbling over one particular cliff. There's not a whole lot else to do here, so take a photo and get back on board heading towards... Finsbury, South Australia OK, this one's a bit of a cheat. Finsbury is a part of Woodville North, itself a suburb of Adelaide. The name seems to be a remnant from an old railway line called the Finsbury line, used more for industrial purposes than passengers. If anyone knows of any more exciting Finsburies (sorry, Adelaide), let us know in the comments. Highbury, New Zealand & Islington, Jamaica Honestly, it's all like this in Highbury. Image from Google Street View. You read a lot of Wikipedia when researching an article like this, and it's great for getting a sense of how people feel about their towns. This sentence from Highbury's entry seems to run a lot deeper: "There are many parks and reserves here which could almost suggest there are a lot of younger people here". Highbury is a suburb of Palmerston North, a city of 86,000 people. There's a rugby museum and an art gallery, neither of which are in Highbury. It does look kind of sleepy. Islington is a small part of Saint Mary, in Jamaica's north east corner. Around 3,000 people live here. It must be pretty quiet given searching turned up one news story from three years ago, of the violent murder of a woman by her partner; the article describes friends and family as "bemused". Islington is also not too far from Ian Fleming International Airport, named for — we shit you not — the James Bond author. King's Cross, Sydney, Australia-Sankt Pankraz, Italy Photo of backstreet King's Cross by Adam Jones. Please let people off the train first as we simultaneously pull into Sydney and South Tyrol. King's Cross used to be known as either Sydney's entertainment hub or the place you were most likely to get mugged, depending on your point of view. However, since the government introduced stupid new laws around alcohol, many bars are closing down. Two King's Crosses, from red light district to luxury apartments and organic cafés. That's gentrification for you. Sankt Pancraz. Image from Wikimedia Commons. Sankt Pancraz may be in Italy, but it leans heavily towards Austria. It nestles in the mountains of the Ulten Valley, and looking at photos, we suddenly want to go on holiday and/or eat a lot of chocolate. Euston, Australia Photo from Aussie Towns. Euston is on the border of New South Wales and Victoria, and the main appeal is the scenic Murray River and its watersports. Euston also boasts what's reputed to be the southern hemisphere's largest windmill, at 9.1m in diameter. Warren Street, Boston, USA Image from Google Street View. There are actually two other subway stations with the same name as our own, in New Jersey and this one in Boston. The T's Green Line is even more complicated than the Northern, with four different branches. Warren Street is on the 'B' branch going out to Boston College, and sits above ground. Looks more like a tram stop, really. Oxford, New Zealand Image from Google Street View. There are many Oxfords in the world, but we're stopping in New Zealand's South Island. Its Wikipedia page makes a bold claim that the town's public toilets have won awards, but dodgily backs it up with a local authority toilet strategy that just mentions murals. Better citation needed, Oxford. About 2,000 people live in Oxford to enjoy its farmers market, countryside delights and general villagey feel. It does look delightful. Green Park, Delhi, India Calling now at Green Park in South Delhi, a major shopping hub. There's a Green Park metro station here too, on the Yellow Line. There's also a park, albeit just outside the district's borders — the popular Deer Park, which contains historic tombs and the Hauz Khas tank/lake. Victoria, Guyana Satellite image of Victoria, taken from Google. There are lots of places called Victoria (the creeping fingers of Empire and colonialism again), but our tube line passes through Victoria, Guyana. Freedom from slavery wasn't fully achieved in Guyana until the late 1830s, and Victoria was the first village to be bought by free Africans. 83 former slaves pooled their savings to buy the land for the equivalent of what was then £2,000. Pimlico, Maryland USA From Pimlico racecourse's Facebook page. Pimlico is a suburb of Baltimore. It's not exactly The Wire, though median incomes in the neighbourhood are well below the US average. According to the area's racecourse, the area was named after the same tavern that London's Pimlico is named after, by settlers who had fond memories of the place. This must have been some pub. As for the racecourse itself, think more Wimbledon Dogs than Ascot. There are only a few race days a year; the rest of the time, the track broadcasts races from other tracks, making it more like a giant bookies'. Interestingly, though Pimlico is 90% black, most of the photos of race days on the racecourse's Facebook page show punters who are overwhelmingly white. Vauxhall, Canada Image from Google Street View. Vauxhall in Alberta is known as the Potato Capital of the West, so we couldn't not connect our tube line to here. Vauxhall's 1,200 residents enjoy an outdoor swimming pool, library, three parks and a tennis court. Potatoes clearly pay well in Canada. If you look at the district on the map, it's also one of those places in western North America where the borders are almost exactly square. Stockwell, Indiana, USA Stockwell Market. Image from Wikimedia Commons. Stockwell is a wee slip of a town in Tippecanoe County, mid-Indiana. It was originally called Lauramie, and used to be a railroad town, but the railroad is gone and now it's Stockwell. Around 500 people live here and, though Google Street View has seen fit to visit only the major roads (that's how small the place is), it seems neat and tidy, with some lovely 19th century buildings. Brixton, South Africa The Sentech Tower. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. This is Brixton. This train terminates here. This Brixton may be in Johannesburg, but wander round the streets and you'll get a sense of déjà vu — there are roads named after Fulham, Barnes, Isleworth, Acton, Chiswick, Kew, Hampton, Wimbledon and Putney. What were we saying earlier about colonialism? Like its namesake it's a working class area, and like its namesake it's experiencing gentrification. Brixton is also the site of the Sentech Tower, a 237m tall television tower that dominates the landscape, and for nearly a decade was the tallest man-made structure in Africa. See also A Victoria line of Victorias What the Northern line would look like if it was actually northern

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