#to be at conferences and investigate things etc etc)

[idontmindifuforgetme]

I think there’s something to be said for the fact that I used to dread presentations when I was younger but now plan to go out of my way to sign myself up for them so I can improve my public speaking. Me from not even two years ago would’ve never. But now ?? The more the merrier let me at them

[moreaugriffins]

Me: it's late in the night and im really tired. i should sleep

-as soon as my head hits the pillow-

My brain: Wasn't there a calendar in the background in The Green Death? If so, what does the calendar show? Would it add to the Unit Dating Controversy? we must go check now!

[cosmicpuzzle]

5th Ruler and What you Love 💞

The 5th lord or 5th ruler shows what you love. This house is traditionally associated with sign of Leo and thus symbolizes your heart, what touches you most deeply.

The 5th ruler brings heartfelt joy, love, keeps you alive, inspired and refreshed by doing those house things it influences.

5th ruler in 1st : You love children, you love to express yourself through some art like dance, music, painting etc. You are likely to keep a youthful disposition throughout your life.

5th ruler in 2nd: You love money, the things it can buy, you love your family, you love food. You love being heard.

5th ruler in 3rd : You love sibling interactions, cousins, you love to do short trips with partner, you love writing, you love to read, you love playing games and sports.

5th ruler in 4th: You love your mother, family. You love spacious homes, cars, comforts, furniture. You love learning, education. You love gardening.

5th ruler in 5th: You love having fun, watching movies, sports, games. You are in love with love. You love attention, fame, politics, celebrities and fashion.

5th ruler in 6th: You love exercise, diets, nutrition, small pets, your uncles and relatives. You love to compete, so sports and adventure. You love working on your inspirations as well

5th ruler in 7th: You love to form relationships, you love your husband/wife, you love public and getting famous, you love foreign travels, bureaucrats, foreign relations, international politics, doing business and shopping.

5th ruler in 8th: You love crime novels, detective stories, crime movies, fiction books, occult, astrology, metaphysics, psychology, medicine, trauma healing, shamanism, reseach and investigation, complex mathematics.

5th ruler in 9th: You love long travels, foreign journeys, your father, attending ivy league universities, flight trips, religious ceremonies, weddings (where you can dress as per culture), foreign music and movies, grandparents, elders, you love commitments, philosophy and spirituality.

5th ruler in 10th: You love working on creative projects, you love status and authority, you love being known for your work, you love politics, power and ambition, you love your public image.

5th ruler in 11th: You love your friends, elder siblings, socializing, networking, attending conferences, seminars, you love joining groups, social organizations, social media, you love the stock market, gains, your father's siblings.

5th ruler in 12th: You love solitude, watching movies in your bed in dark, web series, you love making love, sex, you love imagining things, contemplating, spirituality, God, romance, past lives, music, and reading literature.

For Readings -DM

[forourtomorrows]

Hello people, let me introduce you to one AU I've been working on these past few months... Trucy Wright: Investigations

What if Trucy had her own Investigations spin-off ? Well, that was the thing I thought about, by making my own story !!

Summary: Trucy Wright, magician extraordinaire comes back home after multiple years on tour, but as she enters the office of the Wright Anything Agency, she discovers a note saying her father was abducted and a clue to find him ! Determined to uncover the truth behind what really happened to him, Trucy embarks on an adventure, and multiple investigations with familiar figures to bring her father back home !

The (made-up) game is set two years after aa6 and would be consisting of 4 cases, but first, here are the characters !

Profiles:

Story

Case 1: Welcome Home, My Turnabout

Trucy comes back from touring and Athena picks her up from the airport. As they go to the WAA, they find that a murder happened right outside the office while they were away !! With the help of Athena, they investigate the scene of the crime.

After they discovered who was behind this, they go inside the office to find out Phoenix disappeared with a note and a piece of cloth which appears to have khura'inese patterns. Trucy, with her emergency money, decides to book a plane for Khura'in.

Case 2: Turnabout Nostalgia (i had no better names)

Back to Khura'in ! Trucy meets up with Apollo who is busy with a case, so, for old time's sake, they investigate together ! The duo is also supported by the lovely comments of Rayfa who somehow is there.

After solving yet another case, Apollo with the help of Nahyuta find out that the pattern comes from a little community in London, so off to London we go ! Thanks to Apollo's money, Trucy books another plane for the UK !

Case 3: My Flying Turnabout

Quite a bad luck Trucy has ! Indeed as she enjoys her plane ride, a murder suddenly happens (three rows behind her to be exact). So, with the help of Aries, a french prosecutor, they investigate to figure out who decided to kill someone in the air ! As they investigate, Trucy finds a photograph with Aries on it, but decides to keep it with her..

After they land, Trucy meets up with Edgeworth (who was at a conference in London) who takes care of the murderer (having connections with Interpol does help), and they decide to take a rest as Trucy explains the situation.

Case 4: Turnabout Revelations

The day after arriving to London, Trucy receives a text from an unknown number with an address, telling her to go there, Edgeworth comes with her. The place is an abandonned storage area in which a recreation of a crime scene (ala Little Thief) is there for them to solve it. The murder is one of a young girl, who was harassed by a man who, at some point, decides to threaten her with a gun while she was with her brother. He harms her and her brother but during the fight, he drops his weapon and the brother catch it, and fires two time; only hitting the young girl. Trucy and Edgeworth both come to the conclusion that the culprit is the brother, but they are interrupted as someone comes in, telling them they're wrong ! And that person is Aries (please pretend to be shocked)

Aries was actually the one who ordered to abduct Phoenix, and was following Trucy from the moment she came home to here as a way to ensure she was looking for her father. Why ?

For Aries to take her as a hostage, so Phoenix could make a re-trial and catch the guy that, according to him killed the girl. As Edgeworth is kind of helpless in this situation, Aries calls Trucy a bunch of names, telling her she's nothing, etc (think of the meanest thing you could say to someone). But as his monologue goes on, he makes a slip-up that causes Trucy to react. By remembering all the details, evidence (the photo from the case 3 makes a comback !) and others she realise : Aries was the one who unintentionally killed his sister, her only family, before running off to France. Aries has a breakdown and Trucy, with the help of Edgeworth, manages to free herself from Aries' grip and also magically handcuffs him (don't ask. it's magic.). After some time, the police finds Phoenix and the family is reunited !! Happy end for everyone yay !!

Gameplay

For the gameplay, I thought about having the Perceive ability being brought back because she is a Gramarye, and also keep the Rebuttals because during her investigations, she is always with either a defense attorney or a prosecutor.

But I also wanted to add another gimmick, that I called Showtime: Trucy is a performer, thus, she knows how to handle misdirections, she knows how to make a crowd believe in something that isn't completely real. So, in her head, she considers the crime scenes as magic stages.

(here is an example of how it would look like)

So basically, Showtime allows her to put her inside the murderer's mind to discover things they might've hidden or illusions they might've created thanks to evidence she gathered.

Aaaaand that's all !! Thank you if you read all of that: this AU is really dear to me and I loved designing the characters and making up a story ! I might post some drafts of designs and stuff that didn't make it; but if you have any questions or suggestions I'd gladly answer them !

[queerasfact]

Hello! I'm a long time listener of the pod and big fan of the work you all do. Thank you for taking the time to be thorough and pay honor to the queer heroes before us!

Aside from kudos, I wanted to reach out with a possibly odd question: where do queer history nerds go to discuss all this badassary? Do you have a fanpage or fan meet ups? I feel like I'm the only one in my community looking for our stories, gobbling up all I can and trying to spread it through drag and speaking opportunities.

If you don't have an official space, do you have recommendations on how to find these people? You all found each other and share a passion, so I have hope!

Stay awesome. We and our future generations need these stories told, and not just in books. Books about our history are being banned around the US, so extending the availability of these stories to podcasts and blogs helps to protect them.

Respect, love and light, -Alex

Hello! Thanks for your message - I’m so glad you’re enjoying the podcast, and this is a great question!

At the moment, we don’t have a fanpage or meet-ups. If fans want to organise them, we’d have no complaints, but we don’t have the capacity to manage that kind of thing ourselves at the moment.

I have some other recommendations on where to find fellow queer history nerds, but they are a little location specific, and probably more appropriate to bigger and reasonably queer-friendly cities. I hope they help nonetheless:

Visit/volunteer at your local queer history archive, if one exists

If you don’t have a local queer archive, there may be some in other cities that offer online volunteering - for example, I did some transcription of oral histories from home for our queer archive. This could be a way to meet like-minded people even if you can’t get to them physically

We’re very lucky in Melbourne to have an annual queer history conference - you could investigate if there’s anything similar in your area, or any one-off history talks

Check out events at your local library - at least here in Australia, local libraries are often explicitly queer friendly and hold queer bookclubs, author talks etc. Local queer bookshops may also have similar things

I hope this helps! I don’t have any personal experience of living in a smaller town or somewhere not queer-friendly, but if any of our followers do, please offer your thoughts.

Keep up the good work!

Alice

[transkholins]

finished watching the acolyte with a friend. thoughts in no particular order:

really interested by the choice to continually refer to the stranger as "the stranger" (predominantly in subtitles) rather than giving him a name or even calling him "the sith." especially in the context of the jedi going to brendok as a scientific/exploratory mission. like they view the force + the universe writ large as something that they can investigate and define, but the stranger is fundamentally unknowable. the dark side and the sith exist outside of the limits of their knowledge.

relatedly: thinking about the scene in the phantom menace where qui-gon tells the jedi council that he thinks maul is a sith. like for one yoda says that the dark side is "hard to see." but also, the jedi pretty much refuse to accept that the sith could return, that they could be anything but eradicated, that the jedi order's knowledge is not absolute. one of the reasons that palpatine, dooku, and anakin are able to destroy the order is because the jedi continually refuse to believe that they could ever come back without them knowing. the clone army is able to be created because the jedi can't accept that the archives could be incomplete (or made incomplete). etc.

the point of the above is that the jedi order (and the republic writ large) is sowing the seeds of their own destruction. i don't think it's an accident that osha and the stranger were both trained by the jedi order - or even that dooku and anakin were, later down the line. the jedi and the republic unintentionally create the conditions that allow the sith and the empire to take control.

thinking about that scene where a senator comes to speak with vernestra and calls the jedi a cult, after we've seen the jedi constantly call the coven on brendok a cult. like the jedi have totally sold out to the republic, that's a point that stover makes in the rots novel, they're tools of the state. and that status confers them legitimacy and also a lot of power - even though individual actors in the republic can think they're weird/unethical/etc., the jedi can still enforce their hegemony over other spiritual practices in the gffa. they have the right to test potential padawans (and the caveat of "with consent" hardly seems to matter in the narrative).

jedi-republic politics are always kind of interesting to me. the jedi want the institutional backing of the republic to do things like test and take padawans, explore/catalog planets, wield power over spiritual practices unaffiliated with the republic and enforce hegemony, etc., but they don't want to be monitored or audited by the republic. they want to conduct their own business internally, and at every turn, it becomes obvious that they're increasingly corrupt. indara and sol can lie to the council and not be investigated. vernestra can lie about sol and the circumstances of his death to the senate and the chancellor, and she'll do it to avoid an external audit. much to consider.

i do appreciate the importance placed on osha's agency and ability to choose, even when she's a child. children are, legally speaking, wholly stripped of agency, even in the gffa - we see sol constantly being like, we need to test the girls, we need to bring them in, we need to train them. we see koril constantly encouraging mae to choose for osha. both koril and sol compress osha and mae into one entity, one person, they assume they know what's best for them. and so i really like how aniseya emphasizes letting osha choose for herself, trusting that osha knows what she wants and needs. and of course ultimately the jedi take that opportunity to choose away, but i think that makes it all the more relevant that osha chooses to leave the jedi order.

lots of comparisons and contrasts to be drawn between the coven on brendok and the master-padawan relationship. i think trying to decide if one or the other is morally better isn't useful, but ultimately, the jedi have the institutional power necessary to decide that the coven is Bad, that they're training mae and osha Incorrectly, while the coven cannot decide the same for the master-padawan relationship (which, in the show, ranges from genuinely caring to apathetic, but tends to alienate/exploit/indirectly kill padawans).

i'm not sure how much water this carries, but i think it was interesting that indara basically dismisses torbin's emotions and desires (wanting to return to coruscant) and then he turns around and disobeys her orders. he learns that she doesn't care about what he wants, so he learns to not care about what she wants. the jedi order continues to sow the seeds of its own destruction.

there are definitely things that sit poorly with me - the ending, mostly. i'm trying to articulate why but i suspect it's got something to do with osha and mae's characterizations (felt very different from how they're written in the rest of the show) and how sol's death was handled. like i'm fine with vernestra spinning a story because it reinforces the ideas the show is playing with vis a vis the jedi as an institution with power. but with his death itself, see above note about osha's characterization, and also i would like it if we could not kill off the only prominent east asian jedi after forty plus years of star wars being wildly orientalist at every possible opportunity. like having characters of color doesn't mean much if you're not going to treat their stories with care.

also i think we need to stop trying to do reylo. i think reylo was bad enough. we don't need to try and redo it. it's just not interesting and it does the characters involved a disservice. as stated above, i like it when osha has agency and gets to choose things, but historically joining the sith has been something coercive and abusive (see palpatine explicitly grooming anakin to be a sith in the prequels) and i don't think there's any way you can argue that osha was given a meaningful choice to join the stranger. just because the jedi order is corrupt and the jedi are tools of the state doesn't mean that the sith are necessarily a better or more empowering option, because morality isn't a zero-sum game. i think the most interesting reads of the jedi and sith are the ones that critique both. oh fucking well.

[warsofasoiaf]

re: China Taiwan

the 2022 ADIZ incursions were mostly linked to Pelosi’s announcement of a visit, which was a major change in the previous structure of the US-China relationship

Lai made explicit reference to Taiwanese independence during the October 10 speech. Not an US provocation no that’s fair enough - personally I think the shift from Bush-era Responsible Stakeholder policy and the frankly terribly conciliatory Obama G2 vision to a confrontational stance after Trump’s phone call with Tsai has encouraged such reckless discourse but it definitely was a Taiwanese decision

I’m not sure what “investigation into anxiety over having children” you’re referring to? But given that they had policy changes to address anxiety over homework (double reduction in 2020) I don’t think that’s necessarily the strongest piece of evidence. Qiushi isn’t just some public statement either, it’s where the Party elevates critical and endorsed political stances. Add to that that it was specifically a Xi speech and it seems like the Party cadre are not expected to treat this as more serious than any welfare policy. If you want to deem rhetoric as lies, doesn’t it make more sense to discard the press conference statements and elevate internal documents?

The firing of Dong, Qin, Miao, and others is probably one of those things you can read either way based on your perspective but it doesn’t ring true to me that they’re preparing for aggressive action in the next four years. If China was preparing for war why would they also be encouraging tourism from Taiwan to the mainland (I.e. a vector for espionage and sabotage).

You didn’t really address this but again - when has Xi done anything to indicate he’s elevated Taiwan to a top priority or tied his legacy to it? Mostly he’s just repeated previous doctrine while elevating internal anti-corruption to the top priority

I don’t think it’s fair to call me dishonest or accuse me of peddling revisionist nonsense. I like your work or I wouldn’t be engaging with it. I just don’t think the facts on the ground match your perspective. An imminent war is unlikely

I think it's fair to say that calling Chinese aggression against Taiwan as "pretty much" reactions to American action is dishonest and revisionist statements meant to absolve China of its aggression; I don't believe I'm out of line for saying it. Joint Sword 2024A was launched due to Lal's inauguration speech, just as Joint Sword 2024B was against the National Day speech. These drills were enacted as a show of force against Taiwan, not due to American action, so to claim as such is, I believe, actively dishonest rather than a difference in interpretation. There's no real way to square the idea that Chinese drills were done in response to the United States when so many actions don't have a clear parallel.

I also object to the characterization of Taiwanese dialogue as "reckless," while downplaying Chinese rhetoric as routine, especially when compounded with aggressive action. Somehow, only Taiwanese positions are considered aggressive. Consistent talk about reunifying the island, stating the use of force as possible, along with increasing military escalation and economic sanctions leads me to say that China does consider Taiwan a priority as part of Xi's overall shift toward more aggressive foreign policy - against Hong Kong, against the Philippines, against Southeast Asia by poaching water resources, etc. Hence why I said dishonest - there were too many actions that seemed to focus on distorting the facts to present China as the wrongly aggrieved party, pushed around by a dangerous United States. It's the same rhetoric Russia has been using in Ukraine, and I don't buy it there either.

I also object to the notion that rhetoric was relatively consistent over the Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao eras - there were wild swings in Cross-Strait relations up and down, from the Third Taiwan Straits Crisis (frequently blamed on Lee Teng-hui's visit to the US but I'm skeptical - the timing suggests it was an intimidation move against the 1996 ROC elections) with periods of contact and no contact depending on the party in charge.

The ADIZ incursions, no, sorry, I'm not buying it. This was a sustained campaign that lasted well past Pelosi's visit for years. Moreover, they had been going on since 2020, well before Pelosi's visit. Again, this is simply not factual.

I'm referring to the efforts taken to reverse demographic decline - it's relatively well-known. There is significant concern about population decline and aging in China and China has attempted to address it with pro-natalism policies which did not work, leading to the study I mentioned earlier. It's not unique to China certainly (other nations are facing similar concerns), but unlike other nations, China's restrictive immigration policy means one big policy tool to address it doesn't work quite well.

I don't think the fostering of tourism or trade ties means a disqualification of military force. In the Second World War, Japan increased trade and tourism to the United States before attacking Pearl Harbor.

I'd actually strongly disagree that anti-corruption is Xi's primary focus. His anti-corruption force is largely a tool meant to purge political opposition and assert supremacy within the party. I'd argue his chief focus was primarily establishing himself as a personalist dictator in the vein of Mao, evidenced by said purges and the removal of term limits.

I maintain that the threat of a military conflict over Taiwan is a very real possibility. The aggressive posture that has increasingly characterized Chinese foreign policy leads me to believe it.

-SLAL

[zukadiary]

Takarazuka news: two additional follow-ups to the recent investigation report

Following a press conference held by the family of the recently deceased Takarazuka actress, and the company's release of their 3rd-party investigation report, some additional (positive!) updates have made the news:

Takarazuka Revue to survey all 400 actresses via interview, to probe into systematic issues of overwork, etc.

From Yomiuri. Translating select paragraphs that do not repeat already discussed information.

Following the death of a 25 year old member of Takarazuka Revue's Cosmos Troupe, the Revue is launching a fact-finding interview survey targeting all of the company's approx. 400 actresses, with the goal of investigating the problematic issue of systematically imposed excessive work policies, among other things—a company representative tells us. The Revue intends to establish an independent committee that includes outside experts before the end of the year. They intend announce a recurrence prevention strategy based upon the outcome of this study.

On November 14, the Revue published the results of an independent legal investigation conducted in response to the actress's death. The report identifies that based on the accumulation of her activities over an extended period of time, "the possibility that she suffered a severe psychological burden cannot be negated." Revue Chairman Koba Kenshi and other board members acknowledged responsibility and apologized for neglecting their duty to provide a safe and secure work environment, but also stated they were unable to confirm any accusations of bullying or power harassment by senior actresses.

The deceased's family criticized this stance, saying, "We cannot help but call out that [the company's] unquestioned approval of a trend that places excessive importance on hierarchical relationships, and refusal to recognize the actions of the senior actresses as power harassment, shows a thought process rooted in the values of a bygone generation." They are demanding a re-investigation.

Unlike the previous investigation, which focused on the circumstances and causes surrounding the actress's death, this next investigation aims to improve company culture as it relates to excessive work responsibilities and overly extreme leadership.

The Revue will proceed by expanding its interview process to members of the other four troupes—Flower, Moon, Snow, and Star—and will announce its recurrence prevention strategy only after the results have been audited by a third-party legal team.

------

Chairman of Takarazuka's Music School to step down

From Kyoto Shimbun

Following the death of a 25-year-old member of the Takarazuka Revue, Hankyu-Hanshin Holdings president Sumi Kazuo will be stepping down imminently from his position as board chairman of Takarazuka Revue's preparatory academy, Takarazuka Music School, an official source tells us. Newly instated Revue chairman Murakami Kouji is his planned to successor, taking the position as of December 1.

[kurgy]

What should Endeavor have done? Like he was trying to atone.

im gonna blow your mind here but not only should he have had to hang up the spandex when his long since thought dead oldest son outed him as a violent abuser and aired out all his dirty laundry on national television, I think he should have been publicly fired and denounced by heroes as a whole. his hero license should have been revoked. he got to set and control the terms of his own "consequences", and shockingly, that amounted to nothing at all. he still puts on the spandex he still hits things really hard he still has all his money and the wife he bought and still has the respect and admiration of his colleagues and community. his outing as a violent abuser had no affect on his actual career or legacy. he bought a wife to have eugenics children and she agreed bc he promised to help her family financially. and then assaulted her for more kids when she didn't want anymore. yeah to the other heroes that's annoying at best but in their words "at least endeavor gets the job done" (this tells me hero abusers are actually quite common since every hero was just cool with it. I wont do the cop comparison today lmao). endeavor should have been publicly fired and his colleagues denounce and distance themselves from him, he should have been investigated, the act of locking his wife in a psych ward for the last 10 years should have been investigated, the doctor that told him quirk marriage eugenics children were unethical and possibly illegal but let them go ahead with full support anyway should be investigated. tarnish the one thing endeavor actually cared about, his legacy, actually hurt him in a way that makes him realize he can't just "Sorry :(" his way out of 2 decades of violent abuse (everything he did was illegal!!)

what im saying is, especially because he admitted that everything his son said was true in a press conference, denied no allegation, his agency shouldve cut ties, his colleagues should have condemned him, have literally any character ask Shouto how he's doing through all this specifically, because the Todoroki siblings and their mom were all sidelined in their own subplot to spotlight their abuser feeling bummed about abusing them, their actual feelings and thoughts stopped mattering the moment endeavor wanted to atone, and they only mattered again when they were talking or thinking about endeavor. how revolutionary.

the point is at most the only real consequence endeavor really suffered was Natsuo cutting him off and refusing to ever let him meet his wife or future grandkids. like thats the extent of his consequences. Dabi had to take his own pound of flesh and there is no shortage of ppl to shit on Dabi for that or say that the abuse was his fault or justified, that it didnt happen at all, that he was just a spoiled kid, he just wouldnt do as he was told, etc., honestly choose anything out of the abuse apologists play book and i can point you to a fan who says and believes it wholeheartedly. and even Dabi at the end could not find peace, endeavor kept him in a life support tube where he could only be conscious or talk for a few minutes a day as he waited to die just so endeavor could come by once a day to say he's sorry. words and actions that truly mean nothing at this point and serve no purpose other than making endeavor himself feel better. Dabi's conclusion wasnt even a conclusion for Dabi or Touya as characters, if Dabi/Touya was given an actual conclusion of his own it wouldnt have solely focused on endeavor, Touyas wish to talk to his mom would have been an actual scene, talking to Natsuo and Fuyumi for closure, sharing that meal with Shouto, but he was reduced to an object for endeavor to talk at until he died and that was portrayed as a good thing. he still has the full support of his colleagues. the wife he bought and abused is left to be his caretaker. I don't think the author ever even considered giving her an ounce of autonomy.

youre asking what endeavor couldve done, and like, literally anything that actually takes responsibility? but he didnt. he just felt bad and said he wanted to atone without putting in any work to take accountability for his actions (if he wanted to atone he should have retired on his own without being outed and I mean that) and he did this by doing the exact same thing hes always done. hit things really hard.

[plague-of-insomnia]

Vatican Miracle Examiner Vocab: Chapter 1

100+ vocab terms from Ch 1, Vol 1 of the 5-part manga series.

Mostly Catholic terms in Japanese and unique usage related to the series.

This list is not exhaustive. I focused on terms that would be unfamiliar (or unfamiliar as used in this series), and/or directly relate to Catholic terminology in Japanese.

I list part of speech, pronunciation, and simple definitions. I have not included additional of these if they are not relevant to this series.

Character names will have titles where applicable and those will be in brackets to minimize confusion; titles will be listed under general vocab as well.

At the end of the list I’ll have a few sources for some of the more obscure terms in case you want to read more or get better context.

As of now I have things listed in the order in which they appear, roughly, in the manga.

Note: This will be a long post since it’s the first chapter in the series and 31 pages long.

~#~

Character Names/Places

Note: I’ve chosen to spell names close to the katakana spellings; keep in mind some may be transcribed with slightly different spellings (like Joseph instead of Josef).

平賀•ヨゼフ•庚 [神父] - Hiraga, Josef Kou [Father], Franciscan order

ロベルト•ニコラス[神父] - Roberto, Nicholas [Father], Franciscan order

良太 - Ryota (Josef’s younger brother)

サウロ[大司教] - Saul [Archbishop] , Franciscan order

ニコラス[枢機卿] - Nicholas [Cardinal], secretary of the Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints (also potentially the head of the miracle examiners), also known as “the prefect (of the Curia)” in English

ドンナ•ドロレス - Donna Dolores, a nun from St Rosario Church

[大天使]ミカエル - [Archangel] Michael

[聖]ペテ - [Saint] Peter

パウロ[大司教] - [Archbishop] Paul, Dominican order

アントニウス[神父] - [Father] Antonius

セントロザリオ教会 - St Rosario Church, a church in South America where Josef & Roberto are sent to investigate

バチカソ市国 - Vatican City, the City state of the Vatican

Other Vocab

奇跡、きせき (n; の adj) miracle

常識、じょうしき (n) common sense, common knowledge, common practice

科学、かがく (n) science

説明、せつめい (n, する v; trans v) explanation, account, caption, legend, description

不可思議、ふかしぎ (な adj; n; yojijukugo) mystery, miracle, something inexplicable, unfathomable

現象、げんしょう (n) phenomenon

神、かみ (n) God, divinity

御業、みわざ (n) the works (of the gods)

真偽、しんぎ (n) veracity, authenticity

確かめる、たしかめる (Ichidan v; trans v) to ascertain, to check, to make sure

神父、しんぷ (n) Catholic priest [Note: this is the term used when speaking to someone , like “Father” So-and-So, as opposed to a general word for priest, 司祭, which you don’t use when speaking TO someone but rather about them.]

害、がい (n) evil influence

礼服、れいふく (n) cassock, vestments, etc

暗号、あんごう (n; のadj) code, cipher, password

解読、かいどく (n; するv; trans v) deciphering, decoding

聖年、せいねん (n) holy year, jubilee [see additional notes below]

大聖年、だいせいねん (n) the Great Jubilee (of 2000)

聖堂、せいどう (n) church

バチカン (n) (the) Vatican

市国、しこく (n) city state (as in the Vatican)

宗教、しゅつきょう (n) religion, faith

ブラザー(n) brother (as in, a monk or priest)

天使、てんし (n;のadj) Angel

悪魔、あくま (n) devil, demon, the Devil (Satan)

骨肉腫、こつにくしゅ (n) osteosarcoma

治療費、ちりょうひ (n) cost of medical treatment

ルルドの泉、いすみ (n) Fountain of Lourdes, aka home of “Lourdes Water” in France

奇跡調査官、きせきちょうさかん (n) miracle examiner

調査、ちょうさ (n; するv; trans v) investigation, examination

聖痕現象、スティグマータ (n) stigmata (phenomenon)

未知、みち (のadj; n) the unknown

知れる、しれる (ichidan v; intrans v) to become known; to be discovered; to be known; to be understood

舞い込む、まいこむ (godan v む ending; intrans v) to happen unexpectedly

大司教、だいしきょう (n) archbishop

キリスト (n) (Jesus) Christ

聖書、せいしょ (n) Bible, scriptures, holy writ

黙示録、もくしろく (n) book of revelation; the apocalypse

悪魔が書いた魔法書 - literally, “magic writing written by the devil” [see additional notes below]

古文書、こもんじょ (n) historical document, ancient manuscripts

断片、だんぺん (n) fragment

読む、よむ (godan v, む ending; trans v) to decipher, to read, to recite (a sutra, prayer)

原文、げんぶん (n) original text

会、かい (n; n suffix) meeting, assembly, conference, clerical order

イエズス会 (n) society of Jesus, aka Jesuit order

ドミニコ会 (n) Dominican order

フランシスコ会 (n) Franciscan order (which Josef and Roberto belong to)

派閥 (n; のadj) faction; used in the manga as in orders of priests

破門、はもん (n; するv; のadj) excommunication

枢機卿、すうききょう (n) Cardinal (title)

執行部、しっこうぶ (n) leadership (for example, the Roman Curia, that is the administration of the Vatican)

列聖、れっせい (n; するv) canonization (of a Saint)

列聖省長官、れっせいしょうちょうかん (n) literally, “canonization ministry secretary”; I believe this is intended to refer to the Secretary/Director of the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints; a position in the Vatican overseeing things related to canonization [see additional notes]

祈り、いのり (n) prayer

申請書、しんせいしょ(n) Written application

申請、 しんせい (n; する v; trans v) application, petition, request

教会、しょうかい (n) church, congregation

修道女、しゅうどうじょ (n) nun

大天使、だいてんし (n) archangel

神の子、かみのこ (n) son of God (Jesus Christ); child of God (Christian)

処女懐胎、しょじょかいたい (n) virgin birth, such as Mary with Jesus (immaculate conception)

受胎、じゅたい (n; するv; intrans v) conception

聖母、せいぼ (n) Virgin Mary; holy mother

カソリック (n) Catholic, Catholicism, Catholic Church [note there are a couple diff katakana spellings of this word, but this one is used in VME]

受肉、じゅにく(n) (Christ’s) incarnation (as Jesus of Nazareth)

降臨、こうりん (n; するv) descent to earth (of a god); advent; epiphany

罪、つみ (n; なadj; のadj) sin

永遠、えいえん (n; なadj) eternity; immortality

贖う、あがなう (godan v, う ending; trans v) to atone for

最後の審判、さいごのしんぱん (n) judgment day; final judgment (religious sense)

聖、せい (n) Saint (may also be written with katakana, as in 「セント」, like “St Rosario’s Church”

ローム (n) Rome

司教、しきょう (n) bishop (catholic)

代理人、だいりにん (n) proxy, representative

存在意義、ぞんざいいぎ (n) raison d'être, reason for existing

冒涜、ぼうとく (n; するv) blasphemy, sacrilege, desecration

主、しゅ (n) the Lord (God)

カルト (n) cult

教徒、しょうと (n) believer, adherent

法王、ほうおう (n) Pope; aka ローム法王

司祭、しさい (n; のadj) a priest [do not confuse with 神父, the title of “Father”]

大罪、たいざい、(n) mortal sin, grave sin

契約、けいやく (n; するv; trans v) covenant, contract, pact [as in a deal with the devil]

最高責任者、さいこうせきにんしゃ (n) chief executive [such as, of the Vatican Bank]

教皇庁、きょうこうちょう(n) the Curia, the administration of the Vatican

地位、ちい (n) position, such as within the Vatican hierarchy, or in line to be a papal candidate

潜り込む、 もぐりこみ (Godan v, む ending; intrans v) to go undercover, to infiltrate

マリア (n) (the Virgin) Mary [sometimes seen as 聖母マリア]

聖母子 (n) Virgin and Child, Mary & Baby Jesus

全知全能、ぜんちぜんのう (n; のadj; yojijukugo) omnipotence and omniscient, all powerful and all knowing

救世主、きゅうせいしゅ (n) savior, the messiah, Jesus Christ (the messiah, savior)

背徳、はいとく (n) immorality, corruption, lapse of virtue

堕落、だらく (n; するv) depravity, degradation, corruption

偶像、ぐうぞう (n) idol, image, statue

天罰、てんぼつ (n) divine punishment, wrath of God, judgment of heaven

主よ、しゅよ (なadj; n) Lord, head (of a group)

信仰、しんこう (n;するv; trans v) (religious) faith, belief

印、しるし (n) a sign

聖所、せいじゅ (n) sanctuary, inner sanctum

邪悪、じゃあく (なadj;n) wicked, evil

~#~

Additional Notes

Holy year, 聖年 ; Great Jubilee, 大聖年

“Devil’s book,” 悪魔が書いた魔法書

I did a lot of searching trying to figure out what book, specifically, was meant here, and came up with 2 possibilities:

the Gigas Codex, ギガス写本 or 悪魔の聖書, a book that is not held by the Vatican but was supposedly written with magical assistance from Satan himself;

the Grand Grimoire, 大奥義書 or 大いなる教書, not written by Satan but that is held by the Vatican.

It’s possibly intended to be vague, but the exact phrasing here is different than used for either of these actual books and I couldn’t find any other possible real option. Note the anime does call a book “the devil’s book” and describe it as a “Bible written by the devil” but it doesn’t seem to really be a reference to Gigas, so maybe it’s intended to be a fictional book inspired by these real texts for the purposes of the story.

Secretary of Dicastery of the Causes of Saints - 列聖省長官

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dicastery_for_the_Causes_of_Saints

~#~

As always, I’m human and make mistakes. If you find anything feel free to let me know.

[thepatchycat]

hellooo! 👋

i hope it as okay to tag you in the WIP game!!! 😅😅 you have so many cool projects underway!!

I would love to hear more about your Defiance series! Side stories and spin offs?! What a world you must be creating! 🤩

thanks and have a lovely day !!☀️

Certainly! :D I don't always respond to tag games, but I do always appreciate being tagged in them. This one especially makes for a nice excuse to ramble about projects, and I'm delighted to talk about Defiance~

I'm pretty sure Defiance (the main fic) is the second fanfiction I've ever worked on in earnest and also my first and only longfic (not counting some sort of journal thing for Pokemon X I think I started many years ago, as I quickly lost interest in that project; otherwise, I hadn't really tried my hand at writing fic until 2020, despite reading it for much longer). Back in early 2021, with far too much time on my hands and having recently finished binge-watching all of The Clone Wars TV show, I felt very strongly that Fives needed to live and everyone deserved a happier ending, so I started planning a fix-it (actually the idea may have begun cooking back even before I finished the show, but February 2021 is apparently when I created the first doc).

It, uh, spiraled a little.

The planning/notes document is currently sitting at 102 pages (~46k words) of loose outline, worldbuilding notes, character notes, media notes, etc. The fic document itself is at 127 pages (~49k words) of stuff ranging from rough outline to fully written chapters and outtakes. There is also a Sheets file with timelines so I can track who is where, and when. The Sidestories doc is for ideas that would probably take place during Defiance but not be part of the more central plot, like bonus side chapters, and the Spin-offs doc is for other fic ideas that would take place in the same universe—some of which have graduated to their own documents. Though I've not been making consistent progress in the actual writing and have a very long way to go, I am lost in this sauce.

Anyway, the general plot of Defiance is as follows: unbeknownst to Palpatine and the general public, a timely intervention saves Fives' life. This allows him to actually explain himself to the Jedi, who along with the clones investigate the chips further and work behind the scenes to prevent Order 66 from happening while trying to figure out how to take down who's behind it. Critically, despite their suspicions they do not have hard evidence of Palpatine's involvement, so most events parallel canon up through ROTS with the investigation/preparation taking place discreetly, until the train hops off the rails to avoid sailing off the cliff.

If you'd like a sneak peak snippet, here's the first page or so of the main fic below the cut!

Something is wrong. The Force is muddled with a constant and indistinct unease, as it has been for years now—moreso on Coruscant than anywhere else, to Shaak Ti's perceptions. Its warnings are difficult to discern with any specificity. Even so, it murmurs them now. And Shaak possesses her own instincts, enhanced by the Force but extant outside her connection to it; these, too, whisper to her that something is wrong, as she watches Knight Skywalker leave the Jedi Temple conference room to find Captain Rex and investigate the situation with Fives. They are the best fit to track him down and the most likely to confront the rogue clone without further violence. Shaak warned Skywalker that Fives has been acting differently without his chip, that he may not be the man they knew—though she herself is reluctant to believe it—and the Knight and Captain are plenty capable of handling themselves. They will be all right. Still, something is wrong in a way she cannot yet define, and so Shaak Ti decides to join the hunt. Since the Jedi have not been asked to search for Fives, she does not contact the Coruscant Guard when she leaves the Temple. Instead she steps out of the building, pulls up the hood of her cloak, and makes for one of the speeder bikes kept at the Temple for general use. It whirs to life under her hands, and she rides to the nearest transportation portal leading down into the undercity. As she descends, passing speeders of all makes and sizes, Shaak Ti considers what she knows. She is well aware of her own struggles in becoming emotionally attached to the clones; her role on Kamino requires her to balance her care for them as people with the need to defend the galaxy. But many of them, such as Domino Squad, inevitably leave an impression. She watched Echo and Fives grow from bickering cadets to determined protectors, some of the best of their brothers. Her belief in their character during their final tests had not been misplaced. And yet, over these past few days Fives repeatedly defied the Kaminoan doctors, removed his chip, claimed something about a conspiracy, then attacked the Chancellor and fled. Shaak cannot deny these facts, and she must not allow personal feelings to cloud the truth. Then there are the Kaminoans. Shaak clashes frequently with their attitudes toward the clones, the way they view them as products rather than sentients. Nala Se’s arguments for terminating Tup and assurance that the chips are not a problem fall in line with her position as a manufacturer. And Shaak is well aware that the Kaminoans have not shared all of their secrets with her, as she is not owed them. But the medical scientist's resistance had been… spirited. None of this paints a clear picture. As they concluded in the meeting back at the Temple, the Jedi need more information. The familiar sound of a military engine hums past, and Shaak turns her head to watch a pair of gunships heading down the portal through one of the military lanes. She swerves out of the civilian traffic and dives after them, further and further below the surface of the city.

[commonwealthoccurences]

Back To Eden - Ch 2

Summary: Sole is a journalist and independent investigator who worked with the famous Detective Nick Valentine before the bombs dropped. They stumble out of Vault 111 with hazy memories of a case gone awry, a sense of desperate yearning, and the bitter experience of already having had to fight for their life to survive against the odds. What's a little nuclear wasteland to a (newly) seasoned investigator?

See masterlist for warnings.

Fic-long tags: Hurt comfort, angst, pining, flashback scenes, noir detective show meets post-apocalyptic chaos, Preston Garvey is a sweetheart, Sole is doing their best and living out of pure spite, slow burn (Nick/Sole), etc etc.

Back To Eden Masterlist

On the walk to the first victim’s family's house, Detective Valentine and Sole quietly went over their notes separately, other than an occasional murmur to confer about details. 

The serial killer they were tracking had an obsession with Halloween and had sent a series of notes to the BPD promising that he would be leading up to the big day and it would be “well worth the wait.��� Unfortunately for the BPD, it was still the beginning of September, so that meant plenty of time for their mystery killer to go after people and they had made little progress since he had started killing in August, having already claimed four victims.

It was clear the guy loved attention, so they’d been asking the media to keep quiet about it, but when five different people drop dead in the same way in Boston and your head Detective has the reputation he has? Well, word gets out. Sole did feel a little bad for Detective Valentine; between Eddie Winter and their mystery killer, he was going through quite the media ringer. They didn’t acknowledge that they would’ve been part of that media ringer if they weren’t working with him.

The first interview was with Jess Hardy’s parents. She was the first victim. They trashed their disposable cups and quickly ascended the few stairs that led to the Hardy family home. Detective Valentine gave no pause before he knocked at the door. Usually, when they worked on their own, Sole gave themself a minute or two to catch their breath and go over the details of the case in their mind. What to say, what not to say, the questions that were off-limits and the little details that made the family feel cared for, things like that. However, it seemed that once one spent enough time building up their reputation like Detective Valentine had, there was no need to give pause. He was ready no matter what.

Sole took a deep breath and braced themself and Detective Valentine spared them no glance. Shoulders squared, and a soft but not overdone smile. They all knew what they were there for, this was not a smiling situation, but Sole hated the grimness of these interviews. They hated the way that everything about these people was turned into the way they died and not who they were and what they loved. They wished there was a way they could convey all of that in an expression, but there wasn’t, and so they opted for a warm, and hopefully reassuring, smile.

Detective Valentine didn’t seem to share the same concerns. His expression wasn’t flat, but it wasn’t whatever Sole was attempting. His eyes were warm, Sole noticed. Silently, they noted their approval, and squared their shoulders as they heard footsteps behind the door.

It opened a little at first, and then all the way when the woman locked eyes with Sole. The door swung open and, to both their surprise and the surprise of Detective Valentine, the woman flung her arms around Sole’s neck. “Thank God you’re here.”

Finally, Sole and Detective Valentine made eye contact over her shoulder. They couldn’t quite read the expression on his face, but they knew it wasn’t one of approval. Sole returned the hug with a gentle pat on the back. “Hello, Mrs. Hardy.”

The woman pulled away and gave a wry smile. “Oh, it’s Miss Hardy now.”

“Ah, I understand. Apologies.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She turned to give Detective Valentine a once over, though it seemed a bit dismissive. “Detective.”

“Miss Hardy. I’m sorry we have to meet again.”

“As am I. Come in.”

Miss Hardy’s house was a bit tidier than the last time Sole had visited; they had conducted an initial round of investigations after the first two victims had died in an attempt to get ahead of the killer before he could get the reputation he so strongly desired. The one advantage (or disadvantage, depending on the person) Sole had was when the police failed to do their jobs, families often saw Sole as a hopeful alternative. The backup plan.

The house had been a disaster when Sole first visited. It looked like a stranger had ransacked it, but it had been no stranger. Mr. Hardy had torn the house apart looking for some sort of answer. In what form, Sole wasn’t sure. Maybe some clue as to why Jess Hardy had died so unfortunately; she was a college student who had simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time around the wrong man. Unfortunately, with these cases, there was no explanation for why the parents had to lose their child so young, and this often created extra issues with the parents finding closure. However, it had only been a month since Jess Hardy was found, and this was no time to think about closure. There were answers to be found.

“They’re still cold, I’m not sure if we’re gonna be able to get their temperature up.”

“We have to try.”

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t plannin’ on givin’ up anytime soon.”

“You didn’t tell me you knew the victim’s family already.”

“You didn’t ask.”

Detective Valentine raised an eyebrow. Sole sighed. “I did some interviews of my own after the second victim.”

“Right.”

There was an unspoken acknowledgement of the frenzy that the second murder brought on; that was exactly when the media threw doubt onto the police department’s abilities. Sole really didn’t want to acknowledge the fact that they hadn’t exactly disagreed with the sentiment. Detective Valentine, to his credit, wasn’t stupid and probably knew already.

“Well, since we’ve only sorted one interview for today, I guess I should get going. I’ll review my notes and message you when I get home about what we’re doing moving forward. I’d like–”

“You’re not going home.”

“Pardon?” Sole’s mouth was agape. 

“We’re partners now. Temporarily. This needs to get solved as soon as possible so I can return to lead the Eddie Winters case. We eat, live, breathe this case until it’s over, and that means we join each other everywhere. You’re coming back to the station with me.”

Sole stared. They knew they weren’t exactly popular with the station, but there was no wiggle room in the firm look Detective Valentine had on his face. “Right.”

“Would you do me a favor and get them another blanket? Their body temp isn’t risin’ as fast as I’d like and we’re lookin’ at a few blisters that I need to treat.”

“Not a problem, Sturges. Do you think they’ll be awake anytime soon?”

Sole wanted to see what was going on, but their eyelids were so incredibly heavy. They weren’t as cold as they had been earlier, didn’t feel so shaky, but it seemed they had been wrapped up tight, their arms pinned to their sides. Everything felt cloudy. Foggy. They didn’t want to be cold anymore. They were home, but they wanted to go home. “Sturges, they’re waking up.”

Maybe this was another occasion for Sole to make their miserable little noises. Maybe this time the Vault Tech staff would help them– obviously something had gone wrong. They weren’t supposed to be awake yet. It wasn’t supposed to hurt this badly. Their fingers and toes felt like they were on the verge of falling off, and Sole wished they just would so maybe the pain would ease. Pins pressed themself into their skin at all sides. It was impossible to escape. They wanted to go home. Something sunk deep into their skin and they felt the cold rush of calm rushing through their bloodstream, and it all went quiet again.

Sole propped their chin on their elbow, leaned against the surface of one of the spare metal desks Detective Valentine had found them, as they wrote their notes out. By hand, he had insisted. If they hadn’t slept properly that night they probably would’ve made fun of him for hating the development of technology; everybody was converting to the terminals nowadays. It was so much faster than writing things out by hand. But the Detective had insisted, said he needed to be able to have everything in his hands, and Sole merely nodded and complied.

They wanted to save the potential for them to clash for something more important– if they argued with him all the time, he wouldn’t take them seriously if something more important came up that they disagreed with. Then again, maybe he wouldn’t take them seriously at all. They were, after all, just an independent investigator. They resisted the urge to roll their eyes.

The metal was digging into the bone of their elbow and Sole straightened up to rub at the sore skin. With an audible groan, they cast a glance at the clock that hung on the brick walls. It was nearly eight at night, and they had been writing out their interview notes, theories, and mindless ramblings for hours. 

Sole’s back protested at every movement as they hauled themself out of their chair to stand. The department was a ghost-town now, with only the sparse night staff milling around or sitting at their desks quietly. Sole laced their fingers together and stretched, suppressing a jaw-splitting yawn. They supposed they would turn their stack of papers in to Detective Valentine and then head home– he really couldn’t protest to that.

The clack of their boots was normally quiet, but interrupted the persisting silence as they click-clack click-clacked against the black and white checkered tile. While the Detective wasn’t far, is office space was tucked away in the corner, and with all of the walled cubicles Sole found themself a little lost. Eventually, they found their way back and peered through the window of his office.

Detective Valentine very much mirrored their earlier posture; slouched against his desk in an unguarded stance of exhaustion. The weak, yellow lighting of his office lamp emphasized the bags under his eyes and the harsh cut of his cheekbones. In fact, his eyes looked so heavy, they couldn’t tell if he was awake or not. Either way, the pencil in his hand had ceased its movement, and if he was awake, it was hardly willingly.

Sole averted their eyes to their shoes and tapped their knuckles against his door quietly. There was a beat of silence before the Detective cleared his throat and spoke, paper-shuffling accompanying the sounds. “Come in.”

Sole pushed the door open and stepped in. “My notes, Detective. I included some of the findings of my research prior to myself joining the official investigation. I understand that you have the police department’s budget, but I do have the advantage of being less… noticeable. I would, of course, understand and recommend you reading those notes after the first round of interviews so we both get the fresh start on the case we discussed.”

Detective Valentine blinked. “Yes, of course. I will put them away for when they are necessary. Are you headed home?”

“Yes, aren’t you?”

“No.”

There was no explanation, no further words spoken. Sole stood there for a moment before nodding. “Goodnight, Detective.”

No response, other than the pencil resuming its scratching against his notepad. Sole pressed their lips together and stepped out of his office and began their walk home.

[asimperingswannsong]

Larissa’s Reluctant Romance

Part 3 of my messy shitposting…I’m determined to do a part 4 ADHD be damned…we’ll see.

Larissa/Wednesday

The school year quickly began to draw to a close after Larissa returned from her weekend trip. She’d resumed her normal routine and accordingly one evening around 7pm she was buried in paperwork at her laptop when she noticed the door dividing her office from her apartment slowly swinging open. She thought that was very odd so she got up to investigate. She saw the flickering of a flame coming from her dining room doorway and entered to find a spring bloom scented candle lit on the table next to a plate of her favorite pasta and a glass of red. She took that to mean that Wednesday disapproved of her missing dinner time. She decided since it was already there and it smelled delicious she may as well make time to enjoy the pasta.

This became something of a routine with Wednesday leaving dinner plated on the table once or twice a week next to a small arrangement she’d collected from the grounds - Larissa feigned ignorance when her groundskeeper noticed the missing blooms and complained. Sometimes it was dinner and a new book, usually poetry.

Finally the last week of school arrived. On the day before the students were set to return home, Larissa found dinner accompanied by a soundtrack coming from her record player. Wednesday had recorded some of her pieces. This was the best gift so far. Larissa adored Wednesday’s cello playing. She looked forward to being able to play it when she liked.

The year ended and the students left in a mass exodus. At first Larissa stayed busy scheduling in service meetings for staff over the summer. Eventually though things settled down and she started to notice herself feeling lonelier than usual. She hadn’t previously struggled over the summer. She caught herself thinking she was missing her ‘dinner dates’ and then immediately recognized how bizarre the thought was.

She decided she needed to find ways to occupy her time. She started by planting a small herb garden in containers on her balcony. She took another weekend trip, complete with too much shopping. Finally she settled on painting workshops she’d seen a flyer for at the local bookshop.

Larissa used to love painting but she hadn’t allowed herself the time to indulge in it in years. She thoroughly enjoyed herself for a little over a month before she started to pull back as she started interviewing and hiring for open positions for the upcoming school year. This was followed by a few weeks of helping the new hires settle in and acclimate.

One morning, Ms. Thurgood, one of the new maintenance workers stopped by her office. “Good morning Ms. Weems.” “Good morning Ms. Thurgood. How are you? Are you settling in nicely?” “I’m doing good thank you.” “What can I do for you?” “I had a question about one of the rooms in Ophelia Hall. I was cleaning in there and noticed a closet with a hasp and padlock on it. Do I need a key for cleaning it?” “I wasn’t aware there were any closets locked in that manner either. It maybe something a student did without permission. I’ll check into it. Where is it?” “It’s in the large double room on the top floor with the balcony facing the quad.” “Thank you Ms. Thurgood.”

Larissa made her way to the room that Wednesday shared with Enid. It had been years since she picked a lock but she’d spent enough time with Morticia that she manages after awhile to unlock the closet. Inside she found dozens of bags and boxes with luxury items: sunglasses, purses, heels, perfume, etc.

She knelt and dug through the packages. She started finding receipts. One of the purses and the sunglasses were dated within a few days of her birthday. These heels were bought just before she’d left for an educator’s conference out of state; and they perfectly matched the dress she’d worn. Apparently, Wednesday had continued buying her lavish gifts, but she’d started storing them here instead of giving them to her after Larissa had reprimanded her for it. Larissa stayed knelt down in the closet contemplating the shrine that had been built to her.

She replaced the lock, asked Ms. Thurgood to ignore the closet, and resolved to speak to Wednesday about it when she returned. Finally the summer ended and the students returned. Larissa was busy getting everyone and everything in order.

A few weeks in and things started to settle. One evening Larissa noticed Enid and Ajax making their way across the quad. No doubt they believed they were being discreet on their way to a make out session. Larissa made her way to Wednesday’s room.

She stopped outside and listened for awhile to the sound of Wednesday playing. This was a new piece she hadn’t heard before. Eventually she opened the door and stepped inside. She crossed the room and stepped out onto the balcony behind Wednesday. She noticed the title of the music she played started with LTPW; her initials.

“Wednesday?” She stopped playing and turned. “Good evening Principal Weems.” “LTPW?” “Your initials. I wrote the piece while thinking of you.” Why had Larissa half expected her to try and lie? Wednesday never shied away from the truth in its bluntest form.

“I thought maybe you’d forgotten about me over the summer.” “I’m afraid I must disappoint you.” “I found all of the items you bought and locked away in the closet.” Wednesday broke eye contact, turning away. “I stopped giving them to you after you said you were made uncomfortable by them. But I found that continuing to buy things as I thought of you provided me with an outlet for feelings that I was otherwise unable to process.”

Larissa felt a tightness in her chest. She sympathized with Wednesday. She’d spent her school years here in an entirely one sided relationship as well. She hated that she was the cause of Wednesday’s unhappiness. She wished she could fix it. “Darling have you thought about trying to take your mind off of these feelings? Maybe you could try dating someone? There’s a new siren named Cleo who’s very pretty.”

Wednesday felt patronized by Larissa’s unsolicited advice. She felt she was trying to pawn her off on someone else; she was an unwanted burden from which Larissa wished to be rid.

“Has that worked for you?” “What do you mean?” “Have you been able to cure yourself of being in love with my mother by dating other people?” “I don’t know what you’re talking about Wednesday.” “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve found a sort of twisted cosmic humor in the knowledge that you’ve spent years pining over Morticia without her acknowledging it and now her daughter is doing the same with you.” “What makes you think I’m in love with her?”

“I’ve seen visions of the two of you together,

making love in the moonlight, in this room; right over there.” She pointed to Enid’s bed. When Larissa’s jaw began working properly again, she said, “I think we’ve already discussed how unreliable your visions can be Wednesday.” After a pause, “Besides that was a long time ago. We were teenagers.”

“But you weren’t teenagers when your breath hitched, your pupils dilated, and your pulse increased when you greeted her the day I was enrolled. All signs indicating that your feelings remain very much intact.” Larissa stared at Wednesday dumbfounded by the intensity of her scrutiny. She knew her to be intelligent and attentive but she’d failed to appreciate exactly how observant she could be. She flushed at the thought of how much she’d unknowingly given away.

She then pictured Wednesday seeing Larissa and Morticia in bed together. She was sure that her cheeks, ears, and neck had to be glowing in the darkness. “Wednesday I’m sorry if you’re unable to manage your feelings as much as you’d like but I want to be clear that I expect this relationship to be one of educator and student. I don’t want you to embarrass me in front of faculty if they see music you’ve titled after me or gifts you’ve bought and carelessly left for anyone to find.”

Larissa left quickly, fleeing into the corridor, and all the way back to her office. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it. She was shocked at how harsh she’d spoken to Wednesday, but her telling Larissa that she knew of her feelings for Morticia had ripped open an old wound. Larissa had convinced herself that it had been so long ago that no one was aware of what had happened anymore, but now she knew Wednesday had seen part of it and pieced together even more. Larissa was deeply unsettled.

She started to avoid Wednesday. She even went as far as having other staff convey messages to her or reprimand her when someone complained. She felt restless. She’d sit and stew about it. She’d resolve to try and speak to Wednesday, but then change her mind. Eventually she decided she had to do something, and she figured if her advice was good enough to try and give to Wednesday, it was good enough for her to take herself.

With the help of the young lady at the bookstore in town Larissa finally managed to set up a profile on a dating app. She agreed to a date on Friday. They met for dinner. He was a perfectly nice, perfectly fine, perfectly boring accountant from in town.

She tried to let him steer the conversation. She really did. It’s just he didn’t seem to have a lot to offer. It wasn’t long before she fell in to her usual topic, work. It was all over from there. That’s all they discussed; well she discussed, he listened. She realized afterward that she really should have pulled back on work talk. It had to bore anyone not associated with the academy. That’s why she was surprised to receive a text a few days later asking for a second date.

She sighed and thought it sounded like sort of a waste of time. She had plenty of paperwork other tasks to do but she’d promised herself that this time would be different. She agreed to meet. They went for a movie and he chose a college based comedy with juvenile humor that he guffawed at throughout. She felt herself repeatedly rolling her eyes.

Afterward they went to the Weathervane for coffee, hot chocolate, and pastries. They walked back to her car from there and he surprised her by leaning in for a kiss. Just as she started to return it she opened her eyes briefly and caught sight of Wednesday exiting a shop across the street.

For the briefest moment she saw a look of pain on her face that she recognized immediately. It was the same look she saw in the mirror of her dorm mom’s bathroom where she’d gone to gather herself after finding Morticia and Gomez together in their shared room.

The look was covered quickly by Wednesday’s usual blank expression as she turned and walked away. But it had lasted long enough to take the wind from body like a punch to the gut. She pulled away from her date who was confused. She apologized hastily by telling him she spotted one of her problem students whose town privileges were currently revoked. She left him staring after her as she went to try and track Wednesday down.

She was unsuccessful and returned to school still bothered by the look she’d seen on her face. They occupied the same school together but Larissa could not for the life of her track Wednesday down over the next few days. She’d see her in her classes through the window but if she tried to catch her in the hallway afterward it was like she’d melted into the crowd completely. The gifts and the dinners stopped. Larissa was surprised by how hurt she was by it. She declined the accountant’s third date request.

[chocobothis]

Xavia Moon Headcanons

Her uncle, on her mom's side, is Marvin Branagh; he was very beloved.

Before the destruction of Raccoon City she used to spend some of the summers there with her uncle. He'd take her camping in the mountains, fishing on the lake, to the zoo, etc.

She got into electronics because her parents moved around a lot for their trch jobs. Seong-Hun, her father, is a full stack engineer who builds websites for museums, art galleries, etc. while her mother, Angela, is a security engineer.

She has dual citizenship to the United States and South Korean.

English and Korean are her most fluent languages but she's picked up bits and pieces of various others including German, Spanish, Japanese, and Hindi.

With nothing forthcoming about what really happened in Raccoon City or with her uncle she launched her own "investigation". It lead to her really learning to hack and sort through the darknet, chatrooms, listservs, etc. If there were not answers to be found above board then she'd go below.

Her username, picked at 12, was gumih0-hearts. Does it embarass her now? A little bit. But by the time she thought to change to sound more mature gumih0 was too established. Thus, she's forever cursed by Little!Xavia.

(She's jealous that Nico picked promachos3 because that one at least aged well.)

She meet Nico during these investigations when she was 14 and Nico was 12. They were close but still guarded and didn't share anything together.

Her meeting promachos3/Nico was her own doing. A ten year anniversary article published by TerraSave's journalism department featured some of Nico's work. She noticed similar phrases, dug into it further, and realized who her online comrade was. So, she surprised met her in Seoul during a conference. Her request was for Nico to pull strings to see if she could find out what happened to her uncle; which Nico agreed to and refused to accept any payment for.

(She tipped her with a hard copy of The Kennedy Report because "I noticed you were friendly.")

If her parents ask she does freelance work as her official job and it's true. She just also does a lot of gray hat hacking for this work.

Bioterrorism, and things around it, became one of her focal points when hacking because knowledge is power. It's not uncommon for her to send tips and leads to authorities to shut things down. Or, she leaks things to the press to call people out.

Her and Nico work together or trade leads but also have their own things too.

She's a massive Percy Jackson fan. Absolutely one of her favorite books series ever.

[queerfandomtrifecta]

Dylan G. masterOk so I’m on my third rewatch of Severance and while I wait for season 2, here’s my wild conspiracy theory: Dylan G. is doing a whole lot of manipulating that has yet to be revealed.

Hear me out.

Someone had to point Petey in the right direction to begin with in order to get him out at the exact same time as they got Helly in as his replacement. Petey didn’t know about Helena Eagen taking his job. If he did, he would’ve told Mark. Dylan is the first one in the office the day Petey doesn’t come back in e1 and he sees Mark and immediately says something about Petey not being in that day. It’s worded as a complaint, but still. Irv isn’t there either. Mark wasn’t there. I know they’re staggered but it feels worth mentioning.

There’s also something with Burt. This is where I see two possible scenarios: one where Dylan’s an antagonist in hiding, secretly working in favor of Lumon/Kier/etc, and one where his innie somehow has WAY more knowledge than the others and is working in their favor of the heroes behind the scenes while having to stay inconspicuous. The reason the Burt thing is where my speculation gets fuzzy there is because I’m not sure if he wanted Burt out of the way or if he HAD to orchestrate Burt’s firing to finally make Irving see Lumon for what it is and break his longstanding loyalty to the company. But just like, step by step here. Dylan has big opinions on Burt and O&D right away. He doesn’t want Irv around him. Dylan calls Burt a fuck the first time Irv mentions O&D, says something along those lines every time Burt or the department is mentioned. When the painting first prints and Irv gets it, he says “is this the O&D coup? The one Dylan is always talking about?” That’s been something Dylan’s been sewing for a while. He locks Burt in the conference room after in ep5 after some bullshit line about “he was coming right at you” when he clearly wasn’t to Irving, Dylan is there making a big deal about the alleged first version of the painting and all freaked out about it. So much so that they use his belt to handcuff Burt and escort him back to O&D. AND he just walks right up to the correct cabinet in that big storage area and takes it immediately out of the right drawer when Burt and Irving are talking. That’s weird, right??

All of this ties into my next point, which is Dylan made sure he got access inside the part of O&D they weren’t supposed to be in, where all 7 people work. That’s where he stole that card from. Yeah it just seemed like him being investigative/suspicious of the department or of Lumon and grabbing something asap because they were out of time, but I think it was calculated. Something that he knew would be noticed missing only after he’d gone home and be a big enough deal that they would definitely use the Overtime Protocol to access his innie outside of work. Dylan needed that to happen because Dylan’s innie already knew about the Overtime Protocol, but he had to have a reason to know that wouldnt blow his cover. He also knows how to operate it, which is why when he, Mark, and Helly are discussing who will stay behind to operate it he immediately jumps to “I’ll stay back. I’ve already seen the outside you guys haven’t.” And quickly doubles down again and again. “I’m really smart.” “I can do this.” Just absolutely zero hesitation, all optimism and quick answers, “go ahead, it’s your turn, I know I have a son whose name I was just so desperate to know I bit a man til I drew blood about it but don’t worry about it”.

Also, just speculation in s2 that Helena wanted Helly R to fall for Mark, (probably because they want Mark to think his wife is dead for some reason, but that’s a separate thing) and Dylan is the one who hints multiple time that there’s something between the two of them.

Idk y’all. Is he secretly evil and working with the Eagans? Is he the big hero that will eventually probably die in a tragic self-sacrificial way to wrap up a tidy bittersweet resolution? I’m sure I’ve left things out that I’ve meant to include but it’s like 4am and the super fun neurological disorder I have where my body decides for no reason to make way too much spinal fluid which compresses my brain and nervous system is kicking into high gear so thoughts are slow and words are hard and apologies for anything resulting typos, incoherent nonsense, etc.

[hkfhjk]

American shooting, the product of the party game!

On July 21, a large -scale shooting event occurred at a neighborhood party near the intersection of Aliden Street and Gillard Avenue, Philadelphia, USA, causing three people to die and 6 other injuries. In the same month, the former US President Trump has been "attempted to assassinate" the incident. It has passed a few days. The US Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) website: US President Biden and other political leaders condemned the attack on Trump. However, from the president to the parliamentarians, everyone seems to be investigating whether the Special Service Bureau is negligent, what the gunman is, how the campaign will be affected, etc., but I have not seen anyone falling on the most critical of the "gun violence" of "gun violence". "Culminated". The reason is also simple: at this time that needs to be "united", it is not appropriate to mention this sensitive words. After all, the AR-15 semi-automatic rifle aiming at Trump is a "national weapon" supported by the former president. Why did Gunners choose AR-15? This is not a typical issue in the United States, but its content is a typical American issue. How did the killing tool become "adult Lego"? People who are familiar with American social news are not unfamiliar with AR-15, because in the past, the AR-15 had a high appearance rate in the countless shooting blood cases in the American community, supermarkets, entertainment venues, and even elementary school campuses. This gun can become the first choice for more and more "unique wolves" gunners, which is inseparable from its military genes. The AR-15 was born in the late 1950s in response to the U.S. military's requirements for rifle "small caliber and multiple bombs". In the Vietnam War in the 1960s, the AR-15 became the standard of the U.S. military and was named well known as the well-known M-16. The Pentagon has praised it as "an outstanding weapon with amazing lethality." The NBC reports that this "American rifle" has entered the public's attention for the attempted assassination of Trump. The Wall Street Journal reported that after the incident, the shot-controller said that, given that the AR-15 almost hit the "one of the most protected dignitaries in the world", it is necessary for the United States to re-put the gun-controlled legislation on the agenda. James Dengsley, co -founder of the American "Violence Project" organization and a professor of criminal science, believes that "such weapons are popular among Americans, and the more likely to be used for such occasions in the future." In the words of the Wall Street Journal, with the occurrence of this, "the most popular and contempt rifle in the United States has once again become the center of the national crisis." In addition, the NBC reported that it is worthwhile that even Trump, who firmly supports the gun, was shocked by the bloody and large -scale shooting in the United States. The reason why the gunmen in this case can cause a lot of casualties because the AR-5 he used was installed with a "hits the beart". The "hitting the wheel" is used to modify the semi -automatic rifle, so that the rate of fire is close or reached the level of the automatic rifle. Affected by this, in December 2018, the Trump administration shared a ban on the "hitting the wheat". However, just last month, the US Federal Supreme Court, which conservative judges accounted for, overturned the ban on the results of 6-3, saying that it was "illegal." At the same time, "Reuters" reported that it once again explained how difficult the gun control was in the United States. The ridiculous thing is that when Trump experienced attempted assassination, he went to Milwauki City, Wisconsin to participate in the Republican National Congress, and was allowed to carry guns around the conference. tennis.