#unclear if it will be a viable one in the long run

[quaranmine]

i need to learn to stop speaking i hate myself anyway i let this percolate in my brain for like 3 hours and now i DO have an idea lmao

woman who is obsessed with fire lookouts watching hermitcraft s10 be incredibly ocean themed: what if i wrote a lighthouse keeper au

[randomwriteronline]

"I can't do anything for the eyelid."

Krakua listened in polite and total silence as Jaller (slightly creaky, emphasis on velar consonants) insisted: "Nothing at all?"

"It's fused into the mask," Zaria (ejective alveolar fricatives, deeper tinnier tone, slightly scratchy) replied curtly: "I can't separate the different protodermis masses anymore, and even if I could the lid wouldn't be able to move on its own after the damage it sustained. The only viable options are to either close it completely, leave it like this, or remove the whole thing."

"A permanently open eye sounds like a nightmare..."

"And there's no saying an operation like that doesn't run the risk of fracturing the brain, either."

"That's a possibility?"

"With how brittle he is, I wouldn't be surprised." the voice shifted, sound waves changing trajectory with a sneer: "How did you even wreck yourself like that, huh? Forgot how to finish a Nova blast?"

Krakua remained perfectly still, breaths quiet, shallow.

After a long pause, Jaller spoke up: "Can the mask be removed?

"Surgically, yes. I could probably shave off a bit of the excess protodermis to make the mass a little more manageable, too. He'll need to be operated on his joints either way."

"What's your sentence on those?"

"Left knee will have to be bolted down so it doesn't risk dislocating abruptly, but it'll survive; I'll leave what to do with the right one up to him in the end, though personally I'd completely re-do it since it's not much better than the calf and ankle - those are too damaged and will need prosthetic replacements. His foot seems fine enough, I'll see if I can salvage it."

"And his other ankle? Hewkii said it was broken."

"It is, and it'll need a thorough welding job. His hip and spine too, on a smaller scale. His chest is only a bit warped, thankfully, so there shouldn't be too many problems."

"About his arm--"

"The problem's organic. Elder Racans promised they'll check on it."

"Thank you. If there's anything we can do..."

"See if you can remedy him some more braces like the one he already had until the prosthetics feel natural and at least one crutch to get around, maybe a small vehicle. He'll need as little weight on his lower half as possible for the adjustment period, and it surely won't be too bad to let him have some support later on, either."

"That's the opposite of an issue. Nuparu will love to keep himself busy for about a day designing and making all that."

A deeper hum closed the conversation with a nod, and the Toa of Iron stalked away to the other side of the room to rummage with a pile of something delicate, of carefully tempered metal and thick crystalline glass, looking for the correct tool.

Their soft tinkering painted unclear shapes in the eye of Krakua's mind as their careful sounds melted into the white noise tracing patterns on the ceiling.

"You've been awfully quiet," a creaky voice whispered at his side.

"Thinking," he replied hoarsely, peacefully.

Jaller smiled: "About what?"

"If my mask can be fixed."

"That's a question for the mask makers," Zaria interjected.

"They'll surely have the schematics for a Suletu," the Toa of Fire reassured his friend: "If not, they can easily get someone to send a print for it over."

But the De-Toa tilted his head slightly: "I want my mask fixed," he insisted: "I don't need a new one. Mine's fine. I just want it fixed."

"It will have to be melted down."

"That's fine. I just want it fixed."

"I think that can be done. It will probably have some added protodermis, though, to stabilize it."

"But most of it will still be the same?"

"Of course."

"That's fine, then."

Liquid lightly crashing against the inside of some kind of vial distracted him briefly: the Toa of Iron laid the object down before he could catch a good glimpse of it and went back to rummaging for yet some other medical utensil.

Raising his volume so he could be heard above the rockus, he did not turn as he asked: "Did you listen to what I said earlier?"

"Yes," Krakua croaked as nicely as his ghastly voice could.

"What do you want for your eye, then?"

"Like this is fine."

"Your knee?"

"I trust you."

"So I have permission to make it a prosthesis?"

"Yes, please."

Zaria turned to him briefly like he'd just spoken in an alien language: "Aren't you polite," he muttered at last, sounding flabbergasted.

Krakua coughed out a little laugh.

Jaller remained in the room as long as he could, keeping a careful eye on the few pieces of equipment slowly piling up on a small tray beside the cot - metal ingots, a sealed glass vial of some nebulous liquid, some kind of half-mask, a chisel, a pair of small scissors, a miniature blowtorch, a scalpel of sorts. He recognized most of them from his time getting a shoulder fixed up in the claustrophobic infirmary in Ta-Koro, his example being used to teach as many Matoran as possible how to treat more dire injuries.

His thoughts soured the longer his gaze lingered on the utensils. A vague sense of calm nudged them to the side: glancing downward, he found the De-Toa staring at him, buzzing faintly yet reassuringly where he laid with a sort of pleasant grimace and a quiet mischievoys request to distract him.

Acquiescing, a short sonar wave left the Arthron.

The Toa of Fire managed a little smile when his friend squirmed with a hissing giggle as the sound gently hit him.

He nodded whenZaria made a definitive gesture, telling him to get out and wait until called again - probably to fetch the safely removed Mask of Telepathy.

His hand squeezed gently the dark armored shoulder one last time: "Remember you'll need to adjust."

"Hm-hm."

"And I'll have your mask."

"Hm-hm."

"So don't disappear again. Got it?"

"Hm-hm."

A stern look: "Got it?"

The battered warrior cackled: "Got it."

Jaller patted him lightly; the next moment, he was gone.

The Fe-Toa's palm was heavier, more concrete: laid across Krakua's chestpiece it seemed to encompass it completely, carefully studying how the protodermis rose and fell beneath it.

"Take a deep breath," he instructed.

Krakua inhaled as much as he could.

"Does it hurt?"

"No."

"Good. Keep going," he ordered as he went to fetch the vial.

The younger being watched him fix the half-mask on top of it, careful not to jostle the liquid too much yet: "I don't need it," he spoke calmly, very quietly. "I can handle the pain."

He watched the rusted fingers clench a little harder around the glass.

The words came out of Zaria in a hiss: "You can't."

No further arguments were had.

It took a couple of tries, but at last the muzzle fit perfectly over the Suletu's mouth.

The anesthetic smelled like something far too clean, scrubbed dry of any hint of life. Krakua shut the one eye that could still be properly shut and breathed the disgusting antiseptic scent in as long and as deep as he could, just like he was told to do, while a palm pressed down on his forehead.

Slowly, very slowly, the odor subsided.

He startled awake when he realized the weight spread on his face was gone as well. His throat rumbled and sputtered like an engine revved up one too many times, hurriedly calling out for Trinuma: no other part of his body understood his intentions, remaining limp and unresponsive inside his frozen body, and so all that came out of him was the low monotone wail of a calculator incurring into an impossible error.

An orange shape entered his field of vision: "Stay calm," (ejective alveolar fricatives, deeper tinnier tone, slightly scratchy) "Stay calm, we're done. Deep breaths."

"Done?" Krakua repeated - borrowing Zaria's voice when his own failed him again.

"Done. The operation's done. It went well. Now breathe."

His chest moved easier now. His back had lost the strange tingle he'd been feeling long enough to forget about, noticing it again only now that it had disappeared. His lower half felt like bits and pieces of a whole: entire body parts he knew had to be there left terrifyingly large gaps in his tactile reception.

His body felt more his with each breath, returning inhabitable little by little. It took a few long attempts, but his neck cleared, and opened, and words began to fill his mouth once more.

"How are you feeling?" the Fe-Toa inquired.

"Weird," he wheezed raucously, a little pained: "Drowsy."

"That's normal," his surgeon reassured him. "Your body is trying to recognize the prosthetics. Try to sleep it off, I'll wake you when Racans arrives to see what to do for your arm."

"My mask?"

Steps moving away: "Jaller's got it."

"Ah... Ah. Right."

He focused on the white noise - conversations out of the door, just far enough for the words to become indistinguishable, blooming into large pixelated patterns of static against the ceiling.

Another part of his body felt a little more familiar.

A whine left him.

Zaria turned back to him: "What now?"

"Wanted to ask," Krakua groaned through his tiredness. "More discreet... With a Suletu..."

He did not miss the scratching sound of tightening joints: "Questions about your operation?" the deep tinny voice hissed, warning him witho uttering any threat: "Or about Toa Zaria?"

The De-Toa craned his neck enough to look at the other.

His interlocutor showed him his back as he fancied himself busy putting his tools back in their rightful place.

"You thought of two things, when I said... I could handle it. The pain."

The creak of glass under pressure: "Be very quick."

"For the second - does it always feel, that bad?"

"Yes."

A soft hum.

Zaria's eye glowered from behind his shoulder: "And for the first?"

"Does it ever get better?"

Silence followed.

His head felt so terribly heavy. He didn't want to sleep.

It would have been so easy, if he'd had his mask. Maybe he should have left it forever stuck to his skull. It hurt horribly, and it didn't work as well as before, but he would have been able to use it now.

His body quivered. He was so tired. He didn't want to sleep.

The white noise on the ceiling curled around him comfortably, locking him in some sort of soothing hold.

Rusted hands rested on his knees.

"You'll need these checked every year," Zaria mumbled: "I'll be waiting for you. And hopefully, I'll... I'll have a good enough answer for you, one of these times."

His gaze met Krakua's.

He got back a comforted smile.

[thosearentcrimes]

Read The World For Sale by Javier Blas and Jack Farchy, two journalists with Bloomberg (and formerly the Financial Times). I'm honestly a bit hesitant to recommend it. Ostensibly a book explaining the rise and current state of the commodities trading business, The World For Sale is really more a series of 15 fairly regular articles, mostly profiles of individual important traders or firms. That's fine, there's nothing wrong with that and the articles are written well, but it's important to recognize that functionally you are going to be reading a collection of financial press articles. If that sounds like something you want to read, then go ahead.

The thing about the financial press is that it is actually quite good. Occasionally the less discerning sort of online socialist will reject the press entirely as a weapon of the enemy, which I think is a mistake. So long as you keep in mind the conditions under which the press operates it can actually be very enlightening. This is particularly the case for the financial press which, unlike the vast majority of news organizations around the world, is in the business of providing useful and accurate information. They are still often ideologically captured or mistaken, you can't blindly follow what they say, but it is a useful source of information. Well, if you want to have some baseline understanding of the world economy, that is. Frankly, understanding the economy is overrated, laymen will almost certainly never make any political or financial decisions in which understanding the economy will be useful. Still, we wouldn't be socialists if we were not relentlessly devoted to being correct despite there being no appreciable effect, would we.

I find that The World For Sale is a good complement to the books about development by Ha-Joon Chang (and for one of them, Ilene Grabel). While the economies of developed states are very complex and the exact implications of current account can be unclear due to the amounts of money flowing back and forth through financial markets, my understanding is that the situation in poor countries is relatively simple. Exports + overseas investments + IMF/World Bank loans have to basically add up to imports + dividends to foreign countries + stolen money hidden overseas (note: stolen money invested domestically is irrelevant to current account), otherwise your currency rapidly becomes too unstable to function. Overseas investments are functionally a loss of economic autonomy and increase dividends paid (de facto or de jure) to foreign countries, IMF/World Bank loans come with strings attached that remove political autonomy, and poor countries generally more or less exclusively export commodities, quite often only a small variety of particularly viable ones. As The World For Sale demonstrates on several specific examples, this gives the commodities markets and the traders who run them an absurd amount of power over poor countries. For obvious reasons, this is very bad.

I mentioned earlier that The World For Sale is primarily a series of profiles of important figures. This is most obvious in the brief narrative sections that most of the chapters start with and return to occasionally. I want to focus on these narrative sections for a bit, because I think they tell you how to read the book in some sense. Effectively, they define for us who the protagonists are, and they humanize them. You can read the book for yourselves, but my impression is that the effect of this is to undercut the explicit criticism made of commodity trading in the book. That said, anyone with the patience and interest to actually read the book likely already has their own ideological framework to apply. The book is written well for what it is. For all the Matt Levine stans et al out there, The World For Sale is not nearly as funny, but is still worth a read.

[hook-line-and-anarchy]

Gonna be annoying and repost this as an original post since I spent so much time writing it up yesterday, partly for my own archival purposes and partly because I'm a little interested in getting input about city living from Twin Cities dwellers and/or the 3 people who might read this:

So caveat that I was born and raised in a suburban-ish city with a population of a little over 100,000. I’ve spent some time in Los Angeles and to a lesser extent in some other big cities but other than that my experience is limited.

In terms of the pros:

The food was consistently incredible. Probably some of the best I’ve had in my life, and there’s an incredible variety of it. Sushi, Indian, Mexican, seafood, ramen, British pub food, Italian.

I’m a big fan of brick architecture, and there’s not a lot of it where I’m from. But Minneapolis has it in spades. Lots of really cool and differentiated brick styles (I'm not super knowledgeable about architecture styles tbh). St. Anthony main has a neat brick road running all along the river bank. There are also a bunch of other cool buildings, fountains, parks, churches, etc.

I think bikeability rankings overstate the extent to which the city has a solid network of protected bike lanes, but it nevertheless does have a fair number of them, as well as multiuse paths. It also has really wide sidewalks, especially downtown. I saw a lot of people riding their bikes around the city which was reassuring (I'm sure that changes in the winter months).

I don't have any lightrail where I'm from and I'm pretty sure I've never ridden a city train up to this point, so I can't compare to other cities. I have some cons to speak about here too, but in terms of pros, I liked using the lightrail way more than using the bus. There were constant announcements about which station was next, and it was never overcrowded, unlike the buses. My friends and I bought a week-long metro pass to use for public transportation. It was a little unclear whether we activated them properly or not, but nobody ever stopped or inspected us, so I assume we did alright. We also were able to use the buses to get where we needed to, for the most part. There's a big long street that runs through downtown that's only open to buses and bikes, which I thought was cool. We did a shit ton of walking on top of using the public transit, and at least in the places I went, walking was very viable. A lot of stuff is pretty easily accessible from downtown, and by the end of the week I started to have a pretty decent mental map of the place (granted, my brain is very bad at 3d maps and my standards are probably low).

The natural environment, namely the parks and ponds and lakes, were very pleasant. There was a pretty fishing pond about a 15 minute walk from my hotel, and the little park admin building next to the pond had borrow-able fishing poles and tackle. They recognized me immediately as the guy who had emailed to ask about the borrowing program a week or two earlier, and they seemed kind of surprised that anyone knew about it, so I get the impression that it doesn't get used very often. It was very useful though, since my friends don't fish and don't own their own equipment. We even caught a few tiny catfish.

We rented some kayaks and canoes on one of the lakes, which was a lot of fun. We also rented a surrey (one of those multi-person bike karts) to ride around a park near the mississipi river. It was billed as being suitable for 6 adults, but it really didn't have the leg room to accommodate someone over like 5'6 feet tall or so. That park also had a little disc golf course but it wasn't terribly well marked and it folded back on itself in some not-terribly-safe ways.

My understanding is that the weather in Minnesota gets extreme in both directions, but during my week stay it was pretty mild and pleasant on the whole. It got a little humid and mildly hot (like 88 degrees F), but nothing unbearable for me. At one point there was a thunderstorm in 80 degree humid weather. There are thunderstorms once in a blue moon where I'm from but nothing where you can see lighting strike on the horizon once per second for an hour straight. I thought that was really cool. I bet the winter weather would kick my ass though, at least until I got acclimated. I noticed that the train stations had heating.

Mall of America is probably one of the great monuments to American capitalist resource waste, but I have to admit that my friends and I had a fun time playing mini golf and doing escape rooms and roller coasters there. Plus we were able to ride the lightrail straight to it.

A lot of strangers were nice and conversational. A girl sitting on the dock at the pond asked me what I was fishing for, a tea shop lady asked how long we were in town, and a waiter at a sushi place jokingly asked why she wasn't invited to join us on our trip. The people at the park admin building were also very friendly. Actually, a lot of people seemed to wonder why we were visiting.

Cons

There's a lot graffiti everywhere in the city, which tbf isn't really a concern to me but it is something I noticed.

I was staying in a hotel in the downtown area, which was convenient, but I don't think a day went by where someone didn't ask us for money. That by itself I wouldn't mind ofc, but a lot of them were kind of forceful and persistent in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. For example, after my friend gave a guy that walked up to us some money, he called his friend over, and his friend followed us as we walked. Another time a guy yelled at my friend as we walked past. Those people kind of crowded around on the street outside the hotel and by the lightrail and bus stations, so it wasn't really avoidable.

I'm glad the lightrail was there, but sometimes it wasn't very clean inside. Puddles in seats, trash on the floor, mysterious sticky substances.

There was also an incident on the train when we were leaving the Mall, where what I presume to be a mentally ill homeless man was being kicked out of the mall, presumably for existing while being homeless and mentally ill. He got into the car with us and, even though there were a ton of empty seats, took a seat right next to my friend, locked eyes on me, and began loudly repeating a series of nearly incoherent phrases over and over again. Place names, mostly, from what I could understand. He made a motion of shooting a gun at one point. Maybe he was telling his life story or something. I felt bad for him, but it was also admittedly uncomfortable, since my friends and I were trying to mind our own business and have a conversation of our own. It was a 40 minute train ride, and we ended up switching to a different train after 10 minutes or so.

There was one time we got on a bus that was full of older school children, maybe middle schoolers, on top of regular riders. I don't know if they were on a field trip and the city couldn't be bothered to pay for a dedicated school bus, or what, but for like 30 stops we were packed like sardines, with no room to sit, and barely room to stand. Some guy behind me was threatening another guy for staring at him or something, too. Unlike the trains, the buses didn't regularly announce the stop names, so it was a lot harder to use the bus without relying on our phones to guide us. There was a time where the bus driver shouted a bunch of times at a guy sitting at the back of the bus, and we thought there was trouble until the bus driver finally walked over to the guy just to hand him his transfer ticket that he forgot to grab.

Another time when we were walking, a guy on a bike was approaching us from the other direction. Instead of slowing as he passed, he shouted "Full speed ahead!" and nearly plowed us down. The guy walking his dog behind us was also dumbfounded.

Fishing bait is ridiculously hard to procure for a city with so many lakes and fishing ponds. We ended up having to walk 40ish minutes to a specific hardware store to get some red worms. Most places close earlier than I expected, too. The downtown skywalks closed at like 5pm, and the department store Target closed at 8pm (where I live it's open until 10pm, and my hometown isn't exactly a nightlife city).

The city in general, and downtown in particular, felt surprisingly empty. Lots of businesses were closed, and there were very few people walking around compared to what I expected for a city of 400,000. A lady at a tea shop told me it was primarily due to Covid and remote work, and I think some people also inevitably brought up the George Floyd protests. Needless to say I probably don't share my opinions on those subjects with most petty-bourgeois/small business owning types, and I wouldn't be advocating to fill the emptiness with a bunch of privately owned mom and pop shops. But nevertheless, the emptiness does lend itself to a kind of uneasiness, a sense that the city isn't very lived-in.

I mentioned that stuff closes early, but that didn't stop people from screaming their lungs out and revving their loud-ass cars at 3 in the morning.

I also mentioned that the train stations have heating, which was a cool feature, but what wasn't cool was that some of the stations had those slanted hostile architecture fake benches that fail to be benches and only serve the purpose of inflicting cruelty. There are, at least, a lot of other places to sit and lie down throughout the city.

For a city that was recently at the epicenter of nation-wide protests against police violence, the Minneapolis government sure seems to be putting a lot of resources into cops still. I swear there were police vehicles on every other corner downtown, and lots of transit cops too. My friend from Portland remarked that Portland is doing more to rebrand toward social workers, compared to what Minneapolis seems to be doing. This probably goes without saying to people who share my politics but the police presence didn't do much to make downtown feel like a safer place.

For the most part I would describe any negative experiences as uncomfortable, but the one time I felt genuinely unsafe was when my friends and I tried to go to a little asia district on the outskirts of Saint Paul. According to the internet, there's an annual festival that happens there over the summer and we were hoping to check it out (we later learned that it would have happened two weeks earlier than our trip, and in any case it was cancelled this year entirely). The district turned out to be one tiny, and sketchy, stretch of street with like 2 restaurants. We walked around for a minute trying to find the event, and when we turned onto a street directly adjacent to the train station, a group of guys standing by their cars immediately started shouting at us, asking where we're from, and making comments that we "looked suspicious". They might have only been making fun of us, but in the moment it was not clear whether they were genuinely angry that we were somewhere they thought we didn't belong. That was uncomfortable enough, but when we walked back to get on the train after giving up on finding the event, another guy sitting on a bench told us not to be there after dark. Needless to say I don't plan on returning to Saint Paul.

Finally, my experience at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport on the day I was leaving to go home was a complete nightmare, but I think that deserves to be evaluated separately from the cities.

Overall, I had a great time with my friends, but I definitely felt uncomfortable on some occasions. Maybe that's down to my anxiety-ridden, quivering-chihuahua personality and the fact that I was raised by conservative parents in a kind of sheltered suburban area. However, right now I don't know if I would feel comfortable and safe living in the city, but maybe I just need to suck it up and acclimate myself and unlearn my prejudices.

[iggysmice]

Fun story! long though, so here's a readmore:

So on Saturday (3/11) I was woken up by my dad telling me I was going to the grocery store with him bc my dad is a fan of communal suffering and also doesn't always like shopping alone.

Why didn't he ask my brother? I don't know, i think its because i tend to be more okay with being woken up and taken somewhere. I can just roll out of bed, run my hand thru my hair so it sticks up in a more organized fashion, and go. its the PNW, nobody cares if you're at a store in pajamas, and in fact it makes sense to most of us bc like, why wouldn't you want to be comfy while running errands? We also tend to wear lounging clothes to travel for similar reasons.

along the way we pick up my buddy venus who lives down the road which is kind of hilarious because she also lived down the road from me when we were growing up. she has to get groceries too and does not have a car right now so my dad helps her out with rides because we live close.

why do i live with my parents at 25? the economy is in shambles and also it's more viable while I'm in school because i dont also have to try and work full time bc i live in a 4 person household so collectively we manage better than we might alone. I am also very autistic and need my mom a lot.

either way i wandered around the store for a while and then we drove back to venus's apartment. She lives on the 3rd floor and this is the kind of apartments that have homeless people smoking meth in the stairwells and sleeping in the halls to be out of the rain so there is not an elevator. actually, the easiest route to her specific apartment is currently blocked because they're doing construction on the walkway. the rumor is that the aforementioned homeless meth users started a fire that compromised the integrity of the wooden walkway. unclear if it happened on purpose and i could see it going either way- homeless people here often have camp stoves they light to keep warm at night because it's not warm here, if one was on meth or otherwise distracted one might knock over the camp stove on accident. one under the influence of substances may also just like, Decide to start a fire.

all this to say i had a long way and three flights of stairs to go to help my friend carry her groceries. at no point did i feel like i was overextending or hurting myself.

that evening my left boob started hurting. This happens sometimes, boob havers all know it to be true, but id just gotten a birth control shot on Thursday and i was late so my hormones were fucky and like, blood clots from messing with those hormones can hurt or kill even young boob havers, so i was a little concerned. i also get HS abscesses on my boobs once in a while which I am going to use as an argument as to why my insurance should cover top surgery someday. i say "boob haver" because its very funny and inclusive phrasing not everyone with them is a woman, even my gender is more "lesbian" than anything else.

so i took some tylenol and monitored the boob. the pain seemed manageable through sunday, but when i woke up on monday, oh boy...

i get abscesses a lot, and they're usually close to the surface and fast growing- very painful as it pushes aside all the structures in your skin and wrecks the tissue. i was once asked if there's any like, feeling of relief when one drains because the pressure is gone and i answered that it hurts too much for me to sense any pressure changes and mostly i just feel relieved that its draining the nasty stuff out because that means its going to start to heal, theres no physical sensation.

the pain and spasms in my boob on sunday were getting to be comparable to that. i figured id sleep and being still would help and id feel better in the morning.

monday morning it was worse. the spasms under my boob felt like i was being stabbed or the breast itself was being pulled violently off of me. it was bad when i sat down but it was intolerable when i stood or breathed deeply.

at this point you might think "kodi, hospital" and i did in fact decide to go to a walk in clinic. for people who arent sure what the differencr between a walk in clinic and a doctors clinic is, there are basically three levels of care, at least in my area of the US.

If you can wait a week, you should make an appointment with your doctor at their office or clinic. This is for things like a cough that isn't impeding you but it's weird it won't go away, or to get a flu shot. If you can wait several hours or even a full day, an urgent care or walk in clinic is ideal. These offer same day care and often large enough doctors offices will also have walk in hours so that even in a moderate emergency you can come to your regular office, which helps when you're hurt or sick. This is the level I sought. If you can't wait at all, like you are diabetic and can't control your blood sugar for some reason, go to the emergency room. ERs are 24hr and usually at large hospitals. you want to go there if you are having appendix pain or have broken a bone. If you won't survive long enough for the car ride to the ER, that's when you call an ambulance. You probably won't be the one who does this.

Anyway, i went to the urgent care at my doctors office. i called my grandma to take me because my dad was at work and i was not going to walk to a bus stop or get in an uber in the state i was in. plus, i just don't like taking ubers because as a tiny little woman, at least externally, you don't generally get into a car with a stranger, so it feels weird to do on purpose.

The reception said there was 9 people waiting ahead of me. i resigned to my fate (sitting in a waiting room in pain all day) and curled up in a chair, supporting my poor boob as much as i could to alleviate the pain. my best guess is that because my check in said i was there for "chest pain on the left side" they prioritized me a little in case i happened to be having a heart attack and they had to call 911 because i was only curled up there for like half an hour. maybe longer. i had not slept and so i sort of took advantage of my positional pain relief in the chair and had a catnap.

they took blood from me and did an ekg, to make sure it wasn't the heart. id been hurting for about three days now and told everyone "if it was my heart id probably just be dead after this long."

The doctor's best guess is that i sprained my pectoral muscle, probably when i was helping venus carry things, because sprains can have a delayed pain response like that. he did also say "since you didn't fall and you don't lift weights i'm not sure how you injured yourself that way" so put that in the pile of Times I Have Confused Medical Professionals With A Condition alongside all the completely asymptomatic sinus infections i got as a child and the extremely linger-y cough i had after a flu as a teenager.

anyway i got a bunch of medication to help me be able to sleep and while it makes me a little loopy, its better than the amount of pain i was in.

[habeascorpseus]

I'm not gonna think of something less obvious. Give us your opinions on Solidaritek.

aaaand the last solidaritek ask! hmm what do i talk ab- oh i know. i wanna talk about fanon. or vibes. for one- theyre the oddcouple. theyre the guys that got teamed together during laser tag during someones birthday party because the birthday person strategically identified theyd be the easiest to kill together- and though they are out first, they last surprisingly long, and end up hanging out the rest of the birthday party, talking long into the night about anything and everything. theyre the couple that moves in together within a month of getting together- not because they expect the relationship to be permanent but because it's more financially viable. theyre the roommates who happen to be dating who's home is covered with sticky notes- not just positive affirmations but also dumb jokes- who always come back home with a trinket that reminds them of the other and so their kitchen cabinets and bedroom drawers are filled with little knickknacks and keepsakes. they take turns making breakfast and its always a little burnt but they eat it anyways because they can't afford to go out. in terms of canon- is ranchers revenge their son or their pet? it's unclear to anyone but the two of them, who have somehow come to the same conclusion without a single word. honestly, they've got the best communication of them all despite really just thinking on the same brainwave and then hyping each other up on what they are revealed to agree on anyways. their love is not like how war loves death and death loves life- rather of coincidences that make you wonder why you didnt experience them sooner. they love each other like a sunny sky loves torrential downpours. how shooting stars love hopeless romantics. how pretty feathers love hiking trails, just on the side of the path where no one will notice them until a particularly imaginative child runs ahead to find it. theyre a relationship built on accidents- not necessarily good ones, but they make the most of what fate has set up for them. and it's the happiest theyve ever been. like i said, 10/10, no notes

[volot]

mugged... as a traveling merchant in hisui, bandits are most definitely a common run-in, for sure. in a land where you have to scrounge to survive and earn your keep? fend for yourself if you've been cast out or don't belong to a settlement of some kind? reject the notions set and live on your own? of course they're going to go to those lengths, and of course the merchants who travel will be likely targets. volo says outright that he's had experience with the miss fortunes in the past, though how truthful it is in that moment ( ie, if they Did in fact swipe his wares earlier or if he's bullshitting ) -- and how likely it is he's just spilling an unrelated truth in the past or telling a white little lie to give reason to "help", considering he cares less about the wares and more for the fact that they swiped a piece of ancient celestica ruins -- is a little unclear, he knows of them and holds distaste for their actions.

( a tangent, but it's well-worth noting that the coat clover wears is a torn-up, raggedy version of the guild coat. makes you think. )

while he can understand the hardship there and why this is happening -- they've been essentially screwed over by the way this world turns and the climate of it all, are out of arceus's consideration, and are struggling to survive and have to resort to these kinds of extreme means -- that doesn't mean he likes dealing with them any. at least not like this. it's annoying, if nothing else: the possible attempts on his safety, the blockage of travel on the road, the occasional big fuss made by the ginkgo guild when they as a whole are hit, the headcanon i once wrote about marking them with those capsules they'd made... if he's honest, he'd slide them things under the table had they approached him a little more amicably about it all; but that isn't really an option given the circumstances, so he deals with it accordingly.

so, it's a little situational. he'll battle them ( i'm no ginkgo guild merchant if i take that lying down!, he says ) if the situation sees fit and he's on the defense -- and this is generally the case for most cases of him potentially being robbed, or having anyone try and stick their fingers into causing him any sort of trouble. being a merchant for 10+ years means you have to watch your back and fend off any trouble that comes. other times, if the situation is viable to bargain from and he can afford to, then he'll bargain so long as he's assured they won't heckle him further and no harm will come his way; throw up his hands and spin some lies to get his way and play nice, fold his cards because he really does not want to deal with this today, and throw them a bone just to get them out of his hair while playing his usual game of seeming harmless and being so unless provoked. it really depends on the factors of who's around, what angle he can play, and how he's being threatened.

the length of this also really depends on what they're swiping, with anything important to him being much, much more serious and he goes from annoyed to angry, whereas his wares... are a minor inconvenience, and just a conversation to get through with ginter and the guild later, but less of a problem for him out of going through the motions.

in the end, though? i think most of all, he pities them in that looking-down-and-pitying-someone way that he usually does. the life they lead is a pitiful one, scorned by this world, outcast -- so, despite his displeasure for these kinds of run-in's, he'll spare them scraps if he can. he knows hisui certainly won't, and arceus definitely won't, and if he has something they want that really means a whole lot of nothing to him aside from just inventory, he'll part with it if he can, whether a battle waged or not. throw in extra, even.

now, let's not worry about him trying to rob some 15 year old of some plates he essentially manipulated them into gathering for him. he's definitely just in doing so and absolutely righteous for it, right?

[britishassistant]

From one gut punch to another, but fluff edition: I think Divus hates when Yuu gets sick. Being a test tube baby, Yuu must have missed out on the natural immunities given by typical pregnancy. So when they were really young they would get ill very fast and very terrible. You can’t tell me that first time parents Roger and Anita wouldn’t panic when faced with the dreaded stomach bug. And who else to watch the pup when they run out for supplies then their “Uncle Crew”. At first, Crewel would consider it an triumph that Yuu could get sick since most of his creations have natural immunity, but that immediately changed and suddenly he was panicking too after Yuu had a pretty nasty burst of coughing. After all Yuu is the first creation that he’s ever made that was meant to be fragile, he’s not exactly equipped with how to deal with that. Nowadays Yuu mostly just suffers in silence, but if Crewel happens to hear that a certain reporter is under the weather, The Perfect will mostly likely stumble back into their apartment to find a care package from him with all their childhood treatments and the decent medicine.

@coffee-or-hot-cocoa said: hahaha how about yuu getting sick with a cold, lol the city must be the verge on a civil war with all the villains arguing who takes care of yuu, no crimes where committed but breaking and entering and the occasional medicine theft, they could've had kidnapped a doctor, but nothing says "look i'm husband material" by treating them to get better by helping them themselves. I keep imagining riddle with trey bringing some soup but then being shoved to the side from jade and floyd, with them bringing blankets and medicine, only to be beaten by the savana trio, by them taking a nap with yuu.

Thank you for the ask, dear anon and @coffee-or-hot-cocoa !

And oh. Oh. That makes so much sense and makes me so soft, I declare it canon.

Because Yuu’s lacking in these natural defenses, they tend to be someone who goes all out when they get sick. By which I mean they’re never someone who can have ‘just a light cold’, because their body just goes to the greatest extreme, from 0 to 100 in a matter of hours. They get awful fevers, migraines that leave them hardly able to think, body-wracking coughs, upset stomachs that mean they’re unable to even keep water down, sore throats which quickly devolve into tonsillitis, and that’s if they’re lucky and their symptoms are mild.

And they’ll still try to go to work in this state, because they’re a dumb workaholic.

Yuuken is in charge of turning them around, sitting them back in the car, and driving them home to rest.

It was particularly scary for Anita and Roger when Yuu was small, because chicken pox hit them like a freight train when it went through their class at school, leaving them ill enough for two weeks that they were contemplating taking Yuu to the emergency room so they could at least get the fluids they were losing via IV drip.

Crewel found it fascinating at first, as all of his creations have natural immunity built into them, so nothing can stop them when they rampage. Seeing one of them laid low by a mere disease, it’s a new experience that needs to be documented to its fullest extent to gather valuable data.

Of course it stops being so ‘fascinating’ once it becomes clear how much #Y26 is suffering, how much longer they’ve been bedridden when compared to normal rates of recuperation in children their age, long enough that the idea of them just not recovering at all becomes a viable option.

That’s when Crewel stops collecting data and starts working on a way to cure Yuu or alleviate the worst of their symptoms.

It’s also why he gets so pissy when he finds out what the supervillains are doing while Yuu’s sick. What don’t those numbskull puppies understand about avoiding stressing out the patient and the dangers of weakened immune systems?! Do they want the reporter to stay ill for longer under their antics?? It’s not like they’ll even be able to remember any of the ‘caretaking’ that they’re hoping will earn them brownie points, given how out of it Yuu always ends up!

He usually descends like a fashionable yet wrathful god, chasing the unruly puppies out of the reporter’s apartment with a rolled up newspaper before they can make the situation worse. The best thing they can do is leave their offerings of soup and medicine for Crewel’s perusal and back off quickly. Attempting to force their way in or sneak Yuu out is a fast way to incur Crewel’s cold fury. The Diasomnia, Octavinelle and Savannaclaw supervillain groups learned that the hard way.

Yuuken quickly won Crewel’s favor when they first met by staying as far away as he could when Yuu came down with flu while they roomed together, and doing exactly what Crewel advised him to after he had to leave Yuu in Yuuken’s care overnight, asking sensible questions when unclear about his directives. That at least showed Crewel that Yuuken was willing to do what was necessary to return Yuu to health rather than fulfill a certain ideal of caretaking that’s ultimately more self-serving than actually helpful.

Yuu wakes up a few days later with a can of tuna perched on their chest, grumbling about the remnants of a headache and wondering how much they’re going to need to play nursemaid after Uncle Divvy got done with their supervillain admirers this time.

[prometheanglory]

*Chapter 6 spoilers*

Is Vinh aware of Idia’s position in S.T.Y.X ? Is she helping him in any way at all ?

VINHGNIHYDE ERA IGNIHYDE INSANITY I WILL NEVER SHUT UP

in truth i’m like . waiting around for some more confirmation from the canon plotline abt how involved the actual dorm itself is with the idia/styx shenanigans but…. wuehheg…. 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

in solidarity of leona and malleus/lilia's overall stance of knowledge, i feel like vinh would be on par with them in terms of general knowledge! if anything, she does have a bit more insight as someone who is in ignihyde and does handle a fair amount of like... internal business inside both NRC and ignihyde?

then again, i feel it'd be much more interesting to the vinh+idia dynamic that she actually isn't aware as people expect her to be? she isn't as close to the shroud brothers as appearances and formalities might suggest. i’ve been mulling over revamping and revising some aspects of my twst ocs and overall i think i wanna lean away from how heavily vinh’s character interjects into the shroud brothers’ but still close enough to maintain a lil pizzazz… 🧐 she’s still viable to being viewed as an unofficial secretary and involved in enough ignihyde bureaucracy to come across as a vice-head, but ultimately that’s all in others’ assumption… to say that she’s seen as a ‘close’ friend of the shroud brothers is also iffy — granted, it’s a little hard to deny that she is definitely a face that is associated with them if either of them are unavailable. a pillar of support and company in some distant way, but there isn’t an actual drive between them to be actual… like, communicative and supremely involved friends. what exists of her awareness is mainly what she’s scrapped together from what rare and vague pieces of themselves they share with each other and her own observations.

she’s likely made the connection by now that idia is of a high-born position, he comes from wealth, and most importantly, he is deeply connected with styx. the exact extent of everything is still unclear to her. she’s probably pretty close to hitting the nail on his head, but this is only narrowly avoided bc vinh has never particularly been one to pry into other people’s affairs. granted, something like styx is something that she can’t really ignore, considering it’s been around for as long as it has.

she was aware of ‘styx’ prior to their rebranding and modernization… but the sierras of ambrosia has never actually had much contact with styx at all. as reckless as their conditions may seem to the common mage, there has been no documented overblot or actual loss of control within the nobles of the mountain or the cloud. if you were to ask anyone who’s lives on the cloud/mountain, they’d be able to tell you that the terrain itself acts as a magical crystal — absorbing magical energy (but instead of storing it, most of it is converted into an incredibly crude form of magic that few beings can handle… hence why only a few groups can exist on the cloud and mountain alike) if there ever were to be styx presence within the sierras of ambrosia, chances are that it’s within the commonfolk instead of anywhere near the mountain or cloud, but i’m sure they’ve probably… stopped by once or twice in history briefly to run a check or so. not a very frequent presence to think about, u know.

I DERAILED A BIT THERE BUT… BACK TO STYX. vinh definitely isn’t helping idia in this case (or at least, isn’t going to help him with the entire styx scenario as the current plot has it but she probably has inadvertently given him a vague push in coming to this conclusion beforehand). as much as she respects idia as a dorm leader, her loyalty doesn’t lie with him. she adheres to the wellbeing of ignihyde.

as far as i’m concerned with this plot so far !! this is idia acting entirely outside of ignihyde and is involving no ignihyde students at all sans ortho (staring blankly at my isolated and self-ostracized dr.frankenstein/genius idia narrative and gripping my seat so hard the cushions rip…. he needs nobody but ortho…) the moment his plans encroached too much on the safety of other students, she was inclined to be opposed to him.

and if im kinda off, then im kinda off 🐳 oh whale

[polandspringz]

I made the decision to watch all of the Case Files of Jeweler Richard in a day and I am ABSOLUTELY LOSING MY FUCKING MIND

(Technically I’ve watched up to episode 11 so I have 1 more episode left but am leaving it until tomorrow because it’s 1 AM right now- but I digress)

Spoilers for up to episode 10 of the anime, and apologies because I don’t know how to do read more on mobile so LONG POST:

Okay so FIRST OFF- On the cover this show isn’t explicit in that it has LGBTQ themes- it’s not labeled as such or with BL or Shounen Ai, the usual genre titles we see in anime. However, when I first tried to watch it a few months ago, within the opening minute I just knew (I just forgot to continue after that first minute until today). A lot of times with anime you can just tell things based on the art style or the dialogue, and if it doesn’t end up having those themes, then you get a situation like Balance: Unlimited where all of Twitter was tweeting “wait, it isn’t a BL???”

That being said, this series DOES have LGBTQ themes, one of the early side characters talks about how she doesn’t want to go through with her marriage because she realized she’s a lesbian or bisexual and is still in love with her old roommate. Another character expresses thoughts about romance and marriage in ways that I’m sure people who are asexual or a romantic can identify with. And this isn’t just with the side characters, oh no. The entire show is centered around the relationship of Richard and Seigi, and oh my god is it wild in how it is presented.

If you go on the wiki for this show, as my sister and I did, you’ll see a sentence along the lines of “Richard and Seigi frequently compliment each other’s beauty and say how much they like one another, to the point that everyone around them believes them to be in a relationship. However it’s unclear if their words are romantic or not.” And then if you go to their relationship page on the wiki, it just says Seigi is Richard’s boyfriend. So what’s the truth? (TLDR: the wiki is right. They’re definitely in love.)

Well the thing that had me rolling is that Seigi says he likes rich. A lot. Specifically throws around the “daisuki” line almost every episode. He says Richard is like a jewel, calls him beautiful and pretty. Richard picks him up in the rain after being dumped. They go alone to fancy restaurants for dinner almost every night. They flirt. It feels almost undeniable that what they’re saying is romantic, and that any kiss confirmation is unnecessary. There is a major plot line during all this though of Seigi trying to ask out his female college classmate however, and the result makes it sort of feel like Richard and Seigi are together but they’re in this open relationship with no labels so Richard just wants Seigi to have no regrets. The plot with the classmate really doesn’t do anything to their relationship. Richard and Seigi still are being as wild as ever.

And the reason I refer to this as being “wild” is partially because while watching my sister and I were riffing on the dialogue a little. For an anime, the show is very progressive in it’s ideas, Richard in episode 1 or 2 straight up calling Seigi out for something he said about a foreign customer and making him promise to not discriminate or judge anyone for their race, religion, sexual orientation, appearance, etc. (My sister literally joked “DONT BE RACIST” and then her jaw dropped when Richard said just that). There’s a multitude of moments in the first half of the show where Richard basically is just glaring at Seigi or telling him off later with a deadpanned expression for being xenophobic or just blunt about things that end up being rude to customers, and it’s because of how surprising it is that the show NEVER misses a moment to be like “YEAH ACTUALLY DON’T BE RUDE” that makes it hilarious. It feels almost unreal when everything you make a joke about happens two seconds afterwards.

Circling back to Richard and Seigi relationship though, early on I called on the idea that the show was going to have the trope of “he’s rich and from Europe so he’s illegitimate or something and he’s going to have to go back and Seigi will run after him in this big airport scene” and I basically got all that. Except that Richard and Seigi don’t meet up again until they’ve both been in England for a while and then we learn that Richard’s family are terrible people because a clause in their dead great grandfather’s inheritance made it so only Richard can inherit this 300 million pound Diamond but ONLY if he married a traditional English housewife. This clause is said to be VERY VERY strict in that it HAS to be an English housewife to the LETTER. And she must be TRADITIONAL. Of course, Richard is refusing to do this. So you’re watching them mess around in England for a bit, I got another cliche/trope I wanted when Seigi fell sick and Richard had to care for him in the hotel room, before the characters suddenly get a phone call and Richard’s cousin goes:

“Hey Seigi! Guess what? Turns out you qualify for the marriage clause! Despite being Asian, the will and the law consider a homosexual civil partnership equivalent to a heterosexual marriage, so you can be with Richard and then he get’s the Diamond! So I’ll see you at the safe where the Diamond will be at!”

(I’m paraphrasing the words obviously but the part about civil partnership was what I specifically remember being said, but forgive me for any errors, as my jaw was on the floor when the show threw that curveball at me).

In case you’re confused, I’m not saying this is bad at all. I’m just saying when watching this show, it feels UNBELIEVABLY HILARIOUS the way these things literally get thrown at the audience. Stuff you would never expect in an anime just punch you in the face repeatedly and I was so shocked from this “viable marriage candidate” twist that I did SENSE was coming (but thought of it more of as a joke, BECAUSE HOW THE HECK DID HE FIT THE CLAUSE OF A TRADITIONAL ENGLISH HOUSEWIFE) I had to pause the episode and rush to spit out the water I just drank before I choked. And if this wasn’t enough to kill me, we learn later on, that the reason this whole crazy clause happened in this dead man’s will was because he wanted to get back at the rest of Richard’s family because the man’s son was marrying a woman from Sri Lanka and LITERALLY SAID “THE WHITE SUPERMACISTS” WOULD HARASS HER so all of this chaos was to give the fortune to their side of the family and piss off the racists. I just cannot believe I’m hearing and seeing all this in a Japanese anime. There was even discussion of how Japan’s traditional gender roles restrict women, and it’s just like HOW IS THIS SHOW SO PROGRESSIVE??? It literally feels like I’m watching a paradox and it’s sad because it shouldn’t but it’s hilarious and enjoyable all the same.

Once again, and sort of a TLDR, The Case Files of Jeweler Richard is an incredible show. It’s an unintentionally hilarious ride that isn’t baiting because it feels like it’s definitely presenting Richard and Seigi’s relationship as romantic coded without needing a kiss or anything. It’s strangely progressive and open minded for Japanese media, seems meta at times, and has left me stunned in ten out of twelves episodes thus far that I’m so sad I didn’t watch it week to week to see the reactions of the fans live. I highly recommend this series if you’re looking for something to just get you to laugh or just a fun story involving two male leads with great chemistry.

Now, here’s a representation of me watching this show:

[youvebeenlivingfictional]

Don’t Treat My Love Like a Habit Part Thirteen

Previous Part | Next Part | Masterlist Pairing: Santiago Garcia x Reader Rating: Mature (this may change) Warnings: Cursing; canon-typical violence (not terribly descriptive); flirting; pining Notes: Set before the movie. Not beta-read. Reina is Spanish for Queen. Happy New Year! 🥳 Summary: Pope and Alex had pulled a couple of stakeouts together in that time, and when neither had come back with black eyes or missing teeth -- in fact, when both had come back and neither had mysteriously ‘disappeared’, you’d taken it as a sign that things were improving.   

“I’ve got eyes on ya,” You said, watching Alex through the monitor. “Well, now I feel self-conscious. I knew I should’ve worn tighter jeans today,” Alex’s voice was quiet as it crackled through your earpiece. “Not a problem from my point of view,” Was Pope’s retort; he was only a few feet from Alex’s position. You rolled your eyes. The two of them had continued to be somewhat combative over the last couple of weeks, but it had defrosted slightly and taken a turn for the teasing. At least, Pope had stopped openly griping to you about him. He and Alex had pulled a couple of stakeouts together in that time, and when neither had come back with black eyes or missing teeth -- in fact, when both had come back and neither had mysteriously ‘disappeared’, you’d taken it as a sign that things were improving.

“Glad it hear it, Garcia. You know, I picked these with you in mind?” Alex answered, and you huffed a laugh, unable to help it. “You know, you two were bad enough apart, you’re insufferable on the same channel,” You teased. “Oh, ouch--” “He and I are not as bad--” “How dare you, Reina--”  “If anything I make it better--” Santiago and Alex hurried to correct you over one another and you groaned, “Alright, alright, I take it back, fuckssake! Eyes up, you’ve got a car approaching.” It had been a tip from one of Santiago’s informants that had gotten you there. When he’d told you that he had a new informant, you hadn’t gone out of your way to ask the questions that you usually would’ve asked. When Isabella had first come up, before she’d disappeared with your best (and only) lead at the time, you’d made fun of him a little, asked if she was hot, if he bothered to get dressed up for her, if they went to his place or hers. This time you’d just taken the information in the same way you did when the guy handed you a tequila shot - with one solid nod and a wince once he’d turned his head. Whatever feelings you had toward the methods Pope sometimes employed, now was not the time to take issue with them. The man was letting you stay in his apartment - sleep in his bed for goddsake. Besides that, the two of you had never been closer. It was beyond being around him so constantly. You felt like you understood Pope on an entirely different level now. “What’ve we got?” You asked as you watched the car pull to a stop on the live feed. “I am seeing… Three people in the car…No one’s making a move to get out,” Alex relayed. “Just give it a minute,” Pope grumbled. Neither you nor Alex replied, just waited for a few tense seconds. And then the passenger side front door opened. “Alright, hang on, hang on,” Pope was cautioning, even as you were working to enhance your stream. You froze, fingers over the keyboard as the picture became clear. “Guys,” You mumbled, “Is that-- Are you seeing--” “Yes,” Alex breathed, even as Pope hissed, “Fuck.” That was Camilo Hernandez. You’d been looking for the man for months. He was distinct, even on a grainy camera feed. “Guys,” You warned quietly, “We stick to the original plan. I know that this changes things, but it doesn’t change how many people we have at our disposal. I’m calling for backup now,” You added, fingers moving swiftly over the keys again, “But if they can’t get there in time--” “Understood,” Alex grumbled. Pope didn’t even answer you. You couldn’t imagine what was going through his head - and fuck, you wanted to ask, but you couldn’t bring yourself to. He needed to be focused on what was right in front of him. You were resolved to only speak up again if it was absolutely necessary - reinforcements were on their way, or another car pulled up. You watched as the other two people got out of the car - one of them being Pope’s informant. She was cute. You whacked the thought back down as suddenly as it appeared. There was no time for that, and the fact, while true, was not a helpful one. The three of them started toward a house not too far from where they’d parked. “I’m moving into position,” Alex warned through the comm. “Right behind you. How are we doing on reinforcements?” Pope asked. You glanced at the messages that had come through. “Eight minutes out.” “You can’t speed them up?” Pope growled. “If I could, I would,” You gritted out, leaning against the desk and watching as the two crept into position around the car. You held your breath as Alex slid under the car to place a tracking device. “Get out of there, ‘Brano, they’re coming back out,” Pope hissed. “I’m not finished--” “Alex, move--” You ordered as quickly as you could. But it wasn’t quickly enough. When you were on that side of the screen, it was never quickly enough. The feed was hazy and sluggish, the actions of the people unclear and moments behind what you were hearing. You balled your hands into fists as you heard gunfire, yelling, the squealing of car tires. You took in a shuddering breath as quiet fell on the other end. “Zambrano?” You finally dared to speak, “Garcia? Someone talk to me.” “‘Brano’s been hit.” --

The way that Santiago had delivered the news was flat, but you knew him better; his voice was tight with the fact, with worry. When you’d finally been able to leave, to meet the two at the hospital, you found Alex in one piece with a woozy ‘just-given-painkillers’ smile and his arm in a sling. The bullet hadn’t hit anything vital - it had passed through his abdomen; the stitches could come out in a week or two. Pope looked like he could’ve eaten the world twice over - his brow was drown low, in frustration or upset, you couldn’t tell; his jaw was clenched as if he was the one that had been shot. “I’ll get him home,” You told your boss quietly (because right now, that was what the man was to you - your boss; this was still work). He gave a short nod and hardly met your eye as he left the hospital room. You sighed, turning back to Alex and shaking your head. “It’s always something with you, isn’t it, ‘Brano.” “Gotta keep it interesting, Q,” He retorted, “Now help me stand up, the room feels like one of those spinny horse up-and-down rides.” “Carousel, ‘Brano,” You smiled in spite of yourself, in spite of the situation as you gave him your arm to steady himself, “A carousel.”

-- You didn’t make it back to your Pope’s apartment until very early the next morning - it was nearly 5:30; the sun had yet to rise. You’d gotten Alex to his apartment and stayed to get him settled. You’d made sure he’d had something to eat, helped him get changed into more comfortable clothing. You’d tucked him in, too, after he’d sworn up and down to call you when he woke up. You only left to check in at the office. The tracker was working. The damn thing that Alex had crawled under the car to place and nearly died working on was working. On the other side of town, while you, Pope, and ‘Brano had been in that situation, Diego’s team had hit a stash house and been able to seize a fair amount of product, cash, and several workers.  The night had viable leads, tangible results, a functioning tracker to show for it.

-- You moved around Pope’s apartment gingerly. You showered first, trying to rid yourself of the night's grime, taking twice as long, as if you could scrub off the feeling of helplessness that had lingered with you. You hadn’t heard from Pope all evening. You hadn’t reached out; you’d figured he’d have his own ends to wrap up, his own questions to ask of his informant, and you didn’t want to interrupt that...Situation. You stepped into Santiago’s room, peering around. You’d laid your pajamas out for yourself the day before, and they were still there, undisturbed on your side of the bed. You crept closer, towel wrapped tightly around yourself as you eyed where Santiago lay, back to you. You reached out, tugging your sleep shorts on. You eyed the tank top you normally slept in next. You were still a little damp from the shower, and you knew that you’d be chilly. You stepped over to his dresser, opening one of his drawers rather than yours and pulling out one of his few long-sleeve shirts. He wouldn't mind, right? They didn't get much use, anyway. 

You dropped your towel and tugged it on, sighing at the immediate feeling of warmth and comfort that washed over you. You shut the dresser drawer gingerly before scooping the towel off of the floor and creeping back out of the room. Coffee. You’d make coffee, head back into the office to see how the tracker was doing and then get some food to bring over to Alex’s. That was the best course of action. You took yours and Pope’s mugs out of the dish drainer, pouring freshly brewed coffee into your mug. As you waited for it to cool a bit, you found yourself bracing yourself against the counter and closing your eyes. You were tired. It had been a long night. You hadn’t taken a moment to rest at Alex’s, more concerned with getting him situated so that you could follow up with the rest of the op. Of course, it was a relief that everything was running smoothly, but-- You glanced back as you heard a creak in the floorboard, your hand instinctively flying to your thigh, where you typically had your gun strapped. Of course you’d just showered - there was no gun to be found. “It’s just me,” Santiago’s voice was somehow soothing even when it was rough as sandpaper from sleep. You sighed quietly, nodding and straightening up to pour coffee into his mug as well. “That’s a relief. I was about to reach for the spatula.” You smiled as he chuckled and crowded up behind you. He curled his arms around you, his face pressing into your neck. “Your nose is cold,” You grumbled. “Give it a minute,” Was his muffled reply. You smiled.

“How are you feeling? Bout last night, I mean,” You clarified. Santiago took a moment to answer. And when he finally did, he mumbled, “We almost got him.” “I know. You’re gonna get him.” “We’re gonna get him. The dual raids were your idea.” “Yeah, yeah. But you guys did all of the heavy lifting.”  You glanced down, absently trailing a finger over one of Santiago’s arms where it was wrapped around you. “Your coffee’s getting cold.” “I can handle lukewarm coffee, Reina.” “...You’re cuddly first thing in the morning.” “Mm.” “Are you always this cuddly first thing?” “Mm.” You rolled your eyes as Santiago lifted his head, nudging his nose against the hinge of your jaw before he stepped away, leaning against the counter. That’s when you realized how… Well, how shirtless he was. You and Santiago always slept with your backs to one another, and you hadn’t exactly gone over to get a good look at him when you’d gone in to get dressed. Did he always sleep shirtless? You turned away as quickly as you had looked, not wanting to be caught out. You’d certainly gotten an eyeful. Whoever this informant was, she must’ve been less territorial than Isabella was. Santiago was hickey-free -- from what you could see, anyway. “How’s Zambrano?” Santiago asked after a few sips of coffee. “In one piece. He’s hopped up on pain meds and has eight stitches on his left side. He’ll be fine. He’s had worse,” You answered, warming your hands around your mug. You felt a tug on the hem of your shirt and glanced down to see Pope fiddling with it. Your eyes trailed up his arm to his face, giving him a bashful smile. “Uh… Ha, yeah, sorry. I took a shower and I was chilly so I kinda… Borrowed it.” You raised a brow as Pope tugged at the hem again. “You want it back?” You teased. “Would you hand it over right now if I asked?” Santiago’s eyes were as dark and as warm as the coffee he was sipping. You huffed out a shaky laugh, feeling yourself flush as you raised your own mug to your lips. He always did like to fuck with you; you took his flirting with a grain of salt. “I’m gonna head out soon, check on ‘Brano and see how things are at the office. Also, considering how picky you are, you’d probably just tell me I was taking it off wrong,” You added as you headed out of the kitchen. You were well into the hall when you choked on your coffee, hearing Santiago call after you, “I could show you how it’s done.” Tag list: @justanotherblonde23​  ; @revolution-starter​ ; @emurlemur​​ ; @badbitxhbuckybarnes ;  @supernaturalcat7​

[rjzimmerman]

The lawsuits will be filed, one or more of the judges in those suits will issue a temporary restraining order or temporary injunction pending a full hearing on the merits of the relevant lawsuit. That will pull us into the beginning of 2021, and assuming Joe Biden wins, the revocation of protection of wolves under the Endangered Species Act will be reversed. But that won’t end the battle. So long as some very loud and political influential ranchers and farmers and equally loud and connected hunters demand that wolves be eradicated, the pressure on the species will continue.

Excerpt from this story from the LA Times:

Heralded as one of the greatest success stories of the Endangered Species Act, the gray wolf will lose federal protections under a Trump administration decision announced Thursday.

The decision from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the second time in the last decade that federal wildlife officials have tried to remove gray wolves from the endangered species list, where they say the animals no longer belong now that they’re thriving in the wild.

Like the previous attempt, which took place under the Obama administration, this latest effort is expected to face legal challenges. Conservationists maintain that wolves have only returned to certain parts of their former habitat and say that the agency is acting prematurely.

“We absolutely plan to challenge it” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, chief executive of the conservation advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife and a former director of the Fish and Wildlife Service under President Clinton. “We believe they’ve declared victory too soon.”

Hunted and harassed, poisoned and trapped, gray wolves were near extinction in the continental United States by the time they were added to the endangered list in 1974. At the time, about 1,000 wolves remained. They now number more than 6,000.

Though thrilled by the population growth, many biologists say the species hasn’t fully recovered throughout its historic habitat. Before humans began a campaign to eradicate them, gray wolves roamed throughout most of the U.S.

Today, they are primarily found in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as the Northern Rockies where they have been successfully reintroduced.

But outside of these clusters, wolves haven’t established viable populations, said Joanna Lambert, a professor of animal ecology at the University of Colorado Boulder. Although parts of Colorado, Utah and California could be ideal wolf habitat, there are hardly any packs in these states. It’s unclear whether gray wolves will be able to expand their range without the federal protections they’ve had for nearly 50 years.

If the courts uphold the Trump administration’s decision, then gray wolves will be subject to individual states’ rules on hunting and trapping, as well as private land owners who run the gamut from tolerant to hostile.

[histrionic-dragon]

A little unusual: An MCU AU idea/partial fic outline

This floated into my head as I floated awake this morning.  My subconscious apparently put together the basic idea of this thread (Tony doesn’t know, but he has super-soldier serum because of Howard’s experiments on himself) with all the fanfics about “Hydra used Bucky and/or Steve’s DNA to try to make another supersoldier” and came up with a rich angst-mine.

Say that one of these Hydra experiments succeeded in the early seventies--succeeded, that is, in that the subject was viable. They have no idea if the super-soldier serum traits have been passed on. The only place with the equipment required to test that is a SHIELD lab, so a few well-placed Hydra minions sneak the two-day-old baby in for testing. But babies cry, and the boss has a habit of wandering around the facilities, especially the labs, when he can’t sleep.

Howard and Maria Stark can’t have children. But when Howard happens upon a baby apparently abandoned in a SHIELD lab, well, that’s concerning for a number of reasons. (The SHIELD agents closest to the lab swear they heard the crying and were coming to check it out, and they think they saw someone run away that way, Director, but they couldn’t give chase because they wanted to make sure the baby was alright.... and as they say this, they kick the super-soldier-serum detection test kit under a nearby desk. Maybe we should heighten the security around the labs, Director Stark.)  But when no one claims the kid, it kind of feels like fate, too. I mean, a child discovered in a lab? There’s really no one better to pass on a legacy of creation and defense to, is there?

They never tell the kid he’s adopted--apparently until the last few decades, that was the norm--and they don’t tell many other people, either, just some close friends, who they ask not to tell the boy either. (Obadiah Stane is surprised at first, and worried about Howard being distracted by a child, but Howard laughs and tells him that will never happen, and if the kid somehow isn’t interested in science, well, maybe he’ll just dump the company on Obie instead! Stane laughs and drinks to that, and it’s forgotten.) Howard and Maria both travel a lot, and everyone just assumes that they were somewhere else during the pregnancy. The child has dark hair and he’s scary smart and he picks up Howard’s mannerisms like the little sponge he is, and it never crosses anyone’s minds that he’s not their biological son.

They wanted him, and they were happy to have him, but even that doesn’t stop Howard from getting sucked up into his work. Despite what he said to Obie, Howard never truly believed his little laboratory foundling wouldn’t be interested in science. If anything, it might even make him more desperate to have the child be the person he can pass on his legacy to. They wanted him, but it doesn’t stop the friction. It doesn’t stop them from arguing.

It’s a little unusual, as he gets older, how he can pull so many all-nighters, handle heavy sheets of metal alone, and has reflexes good enough to escape the worst lab accidents even when he’s tired or drunk or hungover, but that’s genius for you--genius or a skewed but intense work ethic. Probably both. You’d need both for that, right? The endless buckets of money and privilege can’t hurt his ability to get away with things, either. He even keeps functioning longer than you’d expect when he forgets to eat. He’s just...he’s tough, and dedicated, but that’s not so unusual, right?

“The serum amplifies what is already there.” What does that mean if it’s passed along genetically? What’s already there in a newborn? Well: potential. Babies want to grow, and learn, and do. They want to live and create and be loved. Turn that up to 11 and you have someone larger-than-life, a brilliant, grandstanding, partying, hard-working inventor/CEO.

No one thinks of that as superhuman, just a little extra.

And so it’s a little unusual when he stays alive long enough for Yinsen’s jury-rigged car-battery medical device to stop the shrapnel from reaching his heart. It’s a little impressive that he can get up and stagger to the lab after Stane paralyzes him, instead of lying helpless on the couch, frozen, until he dies. Maybe he lives with palladium poisoning for several months without anyone but him noticing the effects because the effects aren’t as bad as they would be for someone else, at first. Whether he’s resistant to Loki’s mind control because of some mysterious boost to his own psychic resistance or because the scepter needs skin contact, not reactor contact, is unclear.

He’s Tony Stark. He’s Iron Man. No one notices if he’s a little unusual because he’s always at some far end of the bell curve.

And then there’s the Hydra data drop, and Steve Rogers with a crazy story, asking him if he can find anything in the data drop, anything to supplement the files Natasha got from Russia. So he looks. The Hydra database doesn’t have much information on the Winter Soldier (they must have kept most of that offline, or there would be no canonical shocking revelation from Zemo; it would have been out there already). But there are a few mentions of a “Project Snowfall” that he digs into because of the loose similarity in theme, just to be thorough. He thinks it’s related from a few redacted lines, and that makes it all the more interesting, because the project was apparently successful, but mysteriously abandoned.

Tony looks at the files. It’s weird biological stuff, mainly, and he’s not a biologist and he’s just skimming, but there’s a date near the end with “viable” and then a date just days later with “confiscated before testing,” which isn’t a term he’s seen before in these files. Not “terminated,” not “tests negative,” but “confiscated,” accompanied by a note on trying again when more secure facilities can be found for the testing process. Then a note on holding off on that because “distant observation of subject” reveals nothing special.

Maybe he wouldn’t think much of it, except for when those final dates are.

And then he thinks of something Obadiah Stane said when he took the reactor out of Tony’s chest.   ....But no. No, that’s crazy.

Tony looks at the files.

Tony looks in the mirror.

Tony, for the first time, looks at his own social security card and birth certificate, and then at the other--ever-so-slightly questionable--documentation around the beginning of his life.

Tony, feeling embarrassed and irritated and--always--curious, asks JARVIS to muck around with Photoshop and face recognition software and pictures of Tony, Howard, and Bucky Barnes.

Tony talks to Pepper.

...I’m not sure what happens next, and how it affects Civil War, because it depends on when Tony and Steve talk about what, and when Tony gets his hands on a DNA sample and shoves two random samples at Bruce and says “just run it. Please,” and refuses to say what’s going on.  (Or whether Bruce is around for him to do so--stupid Age of Ultron taking away Tony’s science bro.) And there are a million ways Bucky could react to finding out, too. I may write one or more ways it could go in this same sketch/outline way later. For now I just have the basic premise.

[chibivesicle]

Golden Kamuy chapter 259 & 260 - predictable events [shrugs]

Chapter 259 starts with a flashback to Abashiri Prison as Boutarou is released from solitary confinement.  Shiraishi asks him what he did to land in solitary, specifically who he beat up - and we learn it was Ueji.  This goes back to the story by Ueji about how he told Boutarou he saw his aunt, a woman that Boutarou has now confirmed never existed.   Since Ueji was messing with Boutarou, he was upset/offended enough that he had no problem killing him.

This shows us that Boutarou seems to be sensitive to joking/teasing/bullying as Shiraishi chides him for his frequent trips to solitary.

This allows for us to see a contemplative/serious facial expression on Boutarou’s face before he continues the conversation with Shiraishi who is picking his nose with his toes? 

This then allows for a wistful looking image of Shiraishi replying that he doesn’t have any family waiting for him outside of prison, and he was abandoned at a temple as a baby.  This knowledge of abandonment is how Boutarou wants to connect with Shiraishi; that they are alone in this world at the present.

This allows Boutarou to ask him if he’d return to the temple, but Shiraishi could careless; he ran away in the first place and it likely doesn’t exist as it seemed to be on its way out.  As expected, he just jokes if he had a lot of money he’d spent it on prostitutes (and implying that he’s filling his emptiness with transactional sex).

Nihei, reminds them the only thing that matters is to use the tattoo as a way to get out of prison and do whatever you want unrelated to the gold.  This is expected for the man who returned to the mountain to hunt.

They return to Boutarou’s goal, to amass a small fortune e.g. the gold and create his own kingdom.  The next page or so just focuses on how he came from a large family with 14 members and how he was the only one who didn’t die of smallpox.  He isn’t just interested in having a large family to compensate for his lost family, he goes beyond that where by becoming the king, he’ll always be remembered and not forgotten as the founder.  He is a man who wants to preserve himself not only genetically through having lots of kids but also through mythology and nation building concepts.

Shiraishi and Nihei tease him a little about his dreams which they find to be completely unrealistic which he is not amused with.  Speaking very frankly with him, Shiraishi points out that Boutarou is a lonely guy and that his dream is a reflection of his loneliness. 

This exchange is interesting to me for two reasons.  1.) This shows us that Shiraishi is an observant guy which we know but it is another instance of it in his past. 2.) He can be very blunt and forward with Boutarou.  I find him to be very assertive with Boutarou, a man who just came out of solitary for beating up another prisoner.  Yet, Shiraishi can speak like this with him and this also alludes to their current time line interactions where Boutarou respects Shiraishi and understands him well - as well as Shiraishi understands him.

This frank openness between them continues on the next page.  Shiraishi jokes back that he’s been a king - and escape king.  But Boutarou’s critique of him is a valid and honest one.

Breaking out of jail isn’t a long term plan.  Having a dream like Boutarou’s is a viable plan, that since he is unwelcome in current society, he’s like ‘fuck this - I’ll just make my own society’  He lost his home and community support and it was clearly influential on him as a child both having a family and then the loss.  So, for him creating his own special home is his driving force in his actions and reason to become involved in the hunt for the gold.

And not missing a beat, he tells Shiraishi he also needs to create his own home if he lacks one - just like him.  The level of frankness between the two of them - they clearly have more than just a passing ‘professional’ relationship.

The manga returns to the current events and Boutarou is telling Asirpa to let go of the door so that she can return to her home with Sugimoto and that they can become a family.  I get it, he knows she has a crush on him and all little girls dream of finding a man and getting married etc etc.  I don’t doubt Asirpa’s crush on Sugimoto, but she is also not the type of young teen girl who would be so simple minded.

Sugimoto is struggling to breathe in a corridor of the brewery as he falls into his rather pathetic monologuing about how pathetic he is.  Nice copy and paste of the rifle there Noda.  We saw it a few chapters ago when Ogata was eyeing Usami’s which was also Ogata’s when Vasily sniped at them.

Why do I not take Sugimoto’s whole ‘boo hoo’ bit seriously?  Because this shows us how he actually sees Asirpa and her relationship with him.  He ‘finally got her back’ she ‘got stolen away again’.  Even with the English translation, the intention is still clear, Asirpa is like an object to him. 

Read these following sentences;

1. Kiro and Ogata stole Asirpa from Sugimoto.

2. Kiro and Ogata kidnapped Asirpa from Sugimoto.

3. Kiro, and Ogata took Asirpa to Karafuto.

As an objective reader of the manga which of these is the most factually correct?  Number 3, at heart Kiro and Ogata had a plan to take Asirpa to Karafuto to learn the code and connect with Sofia.  Yet, this is not the narrative that Sugimoto tells himself or others.  He continues to go with number 1, that Kiro and Ogata stole Asirpa from him and now Boutarou stole Asirpa from him.  Asirpa is something that he possesses.  This is problematic as it shows how unequal their partnership is. 

I’d argue a more equal partnership if he used number 2.  That she was kidnapped which is a word we use to distinguish people from mere objects in English.  Is my argument 100% based on this - not quite since we are working with the translation of the original text, but ever since Karafuto, Sugimoto has acted like Asirpa is something that he and only he has privy to and completely ignores the fact that she is her own person and will exercise free will. 

Therefore, this also pokes holes in Boutarou’s reading that Asirpa will cave to the idea that if he tells her to go home and marry Sugimoto that will solve her problems.  I’m pretty confident that Asirpa does not see her relationship with Sugimoto the same way that he sees her and Shiraishi already made a point about this back before they were to meet up with Tsurumi.

Anyways, back to the action.  We don’t see if Asirpa let’s go of the door, we just see that Koito is aggressively approaching Boutarou with his sabre raised and notices that he has Asirpa.

With is luscious locks, Bouatrou is able to distract Koito and punch him with his long reach.  He goes to shoot Koito, but a shot hits his hand with the revolver and it is Tsukishima close behind.

He orders Boutarou to withdraw, and he dashes out with Asirpa and heads to a lower level where the beer flood happened.

Asirpa is still resisting trying to hold onto the railings of a staircase, making his fast escape a bit of an issue.  She also is able to raise a fundamental question - the gold was supposed to be used by the Ainu to create their own country.  Therefore, if the gold is stolen by Boutarou, she will be unable to protect her own homeland - the one he keeps telling her to go back to.

We get an image of the clear cutting of the forest in Hokkaido that almost killed her and then she thinks of the kotan where Wilk was born that is now a fox farm.  The traces of her Karafuto relatives is already gone, taken over by the Japanese for less sustainable practices. 

Boutarou sweats nervously, he doesn’t have an answer for her since this is now an example of conflict with their own dreams and goals for the gold.  However, this philosophical pause from him, allows for Koito the strike him with his sabre from behind.  Koito prepares for his second strike as Boutarou falls back into the pool of beer.

Asirpa meanwhile still clings to the stair railing as Koito is ready to strike again.

Boutarou swims off and it is unclear where he’s gone to.  Koito is impressed by Boutarou’s toughness as Asirpa coughs on the stairs.  Only then do we hear Tsukishima’s voice asking Koito where he is.  And with that I internally groan.

Me - goddammit Koito!  Why did you go and do almost the exact same thing you did on the ice floe and with Sugimoto.  Don’t rush ahead with no back up.  You just realized he’s a tough guy.  Well, at least this time he tells Tsukishima where he is and to come quickly.

He says that he secured Asirpa and doesn’t notice that Boutarou has emerged from the beer and is clearly going to attack him.  He looks like a gross beer/swamp monster, his teeth visible and eyes covered by his long hair.

By time Tsukishima arrives with his rifle at ready he sees Asirpa and only Koito’s sabre.

[facepalms]

Come on Koito, I’m rooting for you buddy, but please stop running ahead.  You are slowly getting better, but one aspect of being a leader of men is to have men to lead, not leave behind.

And the chapter ends with his heightened tension that Koito has been pulled back under the beer.

I have other deep thoughts (lol. terrible pun) about chapter 259 so lets move onto 260 which goes back a few seconds to show us what happened to Koito.  Boutarou reaches out towards Koito and he’s able to overpower him.

Asirpa tries to crawl away as Koito drops his sabre and is drug under the surface of the beer.  We all know that Boutarou is going to try to drown him as he can hold his breath longer than his victims.

Tsukishima finally reaches where Asirpa is and he flat out asks her were Koito is.  She ignores him and tries to dash away, but he grabs onto her wolf pelt cloak.  The last panel then shoes her as she draws her knife and swings at Tsukishima!

Yes! Asirpa is about to use her knife against him!  There is so much desperation in her behavior.  Koito then reaches his hand up as bubbles come to the surface, and we see Tsukishima holding Asirpa’s hand on her knife.  Tsukishima calls out for Koito and Asirpa tells him that he was pulled into the beer.

He then uses his rifle to hold her against him and still holds her hand with the knife out of the way as he tells himself that Asirpa is more important than everything else.

Koito is held underwater as his boot sticks out and we see that Boutarou is trying to strangle him with his hair (he truly has impressive hair!) as Koito begins to weaken.  We are left briefly wondering if Koito will be abandoned - but come on, we know what will happen.

Tsukishima kicks Boutarou in the head allowing Koito to sit up.  Tsukishima then shoots Boutarou, and we see some blood diffuse out into the beer.  Tsukishima is focused as he ejects the empty shell and Boutarou swims off.

He tells Koito to get out of the beer as he may return, and Koito angrily asks about Asirpa.  She’s heading out on her own, as the smoke causes her to cough her knife out and ready.  Koito is upset that Tsukishima[aaaa] let her go to save him.  This is so interesting to me as it does show that Koito felt that he is less important than Asirpa.  He was willing to potentially die which, despite his impulsive behaviors, this time he at least seems to be aware of it.

Tsukishima can’t look at him as he apologizes and Koito berates him that saving him is not a priority.  This pretty much seals the deal for these two men.  Tsukishima is Koito’s older brother and he has shown that he doesn’t have it in himself to hurt Koito for Tsurumi. 

This is at least one instance where Koito does at least own up and state that he should have followed orders.  So, kudos to more self-aware Koito, though I’m sure he’s still thankful that Tsukishima saved him.

Nikaido is randomly wandering around (clearly no longer wanting to kill Sugimoto) as he finds her.

She again aggressively goes to strike him with her knife.  Asirpa is beyond desperate - is she trying to mirror Sugimoto by just forging ahead and attacking everyone with no thought about harming them?

But just like with Tsukishima, she is immediately overpowered.  Without her poison tipped arrows, she’s at a huge disadvantage.  Emulating your crush’s fighting style isn’t going to work.

Thankfully, karma intervenes and she doesn’t harm him.  Instead, she activates his chopstick dispenser and she’s taken down by a chopstick to the forehead.

This is rather fitting since, she’s been stopped by an item she would find important, chopsticks which along with spoons facilitate one of her loves - food.  And with that she is delivered to Tsurumi who praises Nikaido.

The next page is when things get really interesting.  Nikaido is upset that Sugimoto is alive and Tsurumi blows him off.  Very rough looking Tsukishima and Koito then make it to Tsurumi to see that Asirpa has been caught.  Likely on autopilot, Tsukishima starts speaking . . . but Koito then continues and reports to him as the commanding officer of the two.

He then mid-explaination becomes incredibly uncomfortable unable to speak.  We can’t see Tsurumi’s facial expression, it would be nice to know what Koito sees as he only awkwardly ends stating they were in the brewery. 

Koito is sweating profusely, whatever Tsurumi looked like, he just realized that he should have let Tsukishima do the talking as he’s given away that his fear of speaking to Tsurumi is gone.  The fact that Tsurumi hesitates before telling him that he understands, leaves Koito in shock as Tsukishima is likely trying to not lose it with him.  Since he now knows that Koito has given away something about his changed status towards Tsurumi.  Since Tsurumi is in the realm of super smart villain, I’d guess Tsukishima knows that Tsurumi knows about how Koito learned something about his kidnapping which was what lead to his in ability to speak to him in the first place.  Recall, that when they were in Kagoshima, young Koito could speak to Tsurumi with little issue.

Tsurumi then calls for a retreat and avoid any more fights.  Apparently, he now has enough information to crack the code.  Okay Tsurumi - does this mean you can do so with Asirpa?  Since, he still doesn’t know the Ainu name that is matches with. . . .

Nikaido pouts in the background as Koito looks like he wants to fade into the background.  Tsukishima clearly doesn’t look happy either as he holds Asirpa.  I guess being Tsurumi’s right hand man means he gets to hold onto her?

He likely feels uncomfortable about things since now that Koito has let the cat out of the bag, Tsurumi will likely ask him about what happened between them.

Boutarou exits, pissed off at how he lost Asirpa but seems to be alright overall.  Of course, the next page reveals Sugimoto charging towards him to give Asirpa back. Yep, attack first, ask questions later/maybe Sugimoto.

Sugimoto pretty much has murder eyes as he thinks attacking Boutarou will solve his problem.

Now, the fact that Boutarou has survived this well, tells me that he likely has the same ‘luck’ that Sugimoto has.  He was stabbed by Sugimoto, his ear cut off, slashed by Koito, and shot twice by Tsukishima.  It is pretty damn obvious that Boutarou is to be both a foil and a twin to Sugimoto.  The only difference between them is Boutarou became a criminal, while Sugimoto became a soldier a man with a license to kill under the laws of the government while enlisted in the army.  Since leaving the army, he’s killed many people in the quest for the gold, but that doesn’t make him a ‘good guy’ because he’s a former soldier.

Sugimoto is always trying to tell others how he’s better than they are.  He’s better than the convicts because he didn’t break the law.  But, if we look at his own actions, he may have been worse than some of the convicts having killed more people than they did.  Think of Shiraishi or Nihei.  Nihei killed those hunters, but he refused to go off to war and lost his son in the Sino-Japanese war.  Therefore, we could argue that based on the number of people killed, Sugimoto is far worse than Nihei as he was almost karmic in his revenge.  Furthermore, Nihei even let himself be arrested, he killed the one man but didn’t even fight the police as his revenge was complete and he accepted his fate.

What I’m getting to is that Boutarou is the character who is going to disrupt Sugimoto and make him very uncomfortable and be unable to keep acting like he’s on the ‘right’ side of things.  Sugimoto needs to stop othering the convicts and tell himself he’s better than all of them - his own decisions led him to this just like something drove Boutarou to become a pirate and criminal.

I predict that Shiraishi will rush in to stop Sugimoto from killing Boutarou.  We still need to learn more about their past and what is the full connection between Shiraishi and Boutarou.  There is much more to learn, Shiraishi is too open and frank with him and he lets Boutarou get close to him physically and emotionally.

Hijikata’s group then regroups and decides what to do.  Of course Hijikata being the manly man that he is, states he’ll enter if required.

Kirawus then begins to panic that that no one has seen Kadokura.  Apparently shooting off the firework was too distracting for him and he didn’t keep track of his drinking buddy.  What were you doing man?  Where were you?  You aren’t very good at these sorts of things?

Kadokura apologizes to Hijikata for failing to stick with him to the end as he lie on the floor of the room with the mash pots. We see Kirawus at his most emotional as he cries out and Kantarou holds him back.

Is Kirawus a softy at heart?  I was predicting that he’d have gone in to save him but no, we get a demonstration of Kadokura’s good bad luck as the collapsing building makes a bed for him, tucks him into the futon and even gives him a beer to enjoy.

I personally like this use of extremely unlikely events surrounding him.  Sometimes, I find some of the more crass humor in GK to be not my cup of tea, but this sort of absurdist humor is good.  For a very action and emotionally charged chapter this is a good resolution of the tension. 

Kadokura is rewarded for trying his best by being rescued by the building.  Yep, he’s certainly more competent than he appears.  Is he the secret weapon of team Hijikata? 

Conclusions on these chapters.

As I stated in the title, things are pretty predictable, but rewarding for the readers at least.

Asirpa has shown that when she loses her cool, she leads to her own capture.  Separated from Sugimoto, she makes many poor decisions.  She tries to leave Koito to be killed by Boutarou.  She attacks Tsukishima and Nikaido.  She tried to use the poison arrow on Kikuta.  As a character who started out with a strong do no harm to other humans, she’s quickly sliding into grey.  I think the worst part was almost ignoring Koito.  She is hesitant to tell Tsukishima what happened and uses his pause to try to attack him.

Her capture is the worst outcome of events.  She should have listened to Kikuta and found another solution. She could have just let Boutarou escape with her and bide her time.  It seems that her reckless and aggressive behavior has backfired.  Sure, some readers will be like ‘She was just defending herself!’ but without her arrows, she is at a huge disadvantage and should know when to give up.  I’m pretty sure that this mindset comes from her being with Sugimoto.

Boutarou will team up with Sugimoto with Shiraishi as the mediator.  ‘Cause it is obvious.

Koito is freaked out that he gave away his personal growth, Nikaido is stewing in the background and Tsukishma just looks guilty.

Hijikata’s group will likely retreat with Kadokura leaving Shiraishi, Boutarou, and Sugimoto behind.  Since other than Shiraishi, the other two men are just annoyances to Hijikata.

Ogata is somewhere.  Is he going to continue his sniper battle or will he retreat?  He seemed pretty chill when he walked by Kikuta.  The smoke and fire and chaos will really mess with things, but Vasily is likely losing his cool.

Vasily, the character who had potential but currently is lame may be waiting for Ogata?  Or maybe he could pull back?

Lastly, where is Kikuta?  Does he know that Ogata shot Usami?  I can’t help but seeing him stroll into the headquarters of the 27th and be like “Hey everyone.  What did I miss?” [as he strikes a sexy pose and lights a cigarette].

It would be neat to learn if they at least chatted about something.

Well that is all for now.  Let’s see how the insanity continues to unfold.

[hook-line-and-anarchy]

@bodhisattvawithoutorgans

So caveat that I was born and raised in a suburban-ish city with a population of a little over 100,000. I’ve spent some time in Los Angeles and to a lesser extent in some other big cities but other than that my experience is limited.

In terms of the pros:

The food was consistently incredible. Probably some of the best I’ve had in my life, and there’s an incredible variety of it. Sushi, Indian, Mexican, seafood, ramen, British pub food, Italian.

I’m a big fan of brick architecture, and there’s not a lot of it where I’m from. But Minneapolis has it in spades. Lots of really cool and differentiated brick styles (I'm not super knowledgeable about architecture styles tbh). St. Anthony main has a neat brick road running all along the river bank. There are also a bunch of other cool buildings, fountains, parks, churches, etc.

I think bikeability rankings overstate the extent to which the city has a solid network of protected bike lanes, but it nevertheless does have a fair number of them, as well as multiuse paths. It also has really wide sidewalks, especially downtown. I saw a lot of people riding their bikes around the city which was reassuring (I'm sure that changes in the winter months).

I don't have any lightrail where I'm from and I'm pretty sure I've never ridden a city train up to this point, so I can't compare to other cities. I have some cons to speak about here too, but in terms of pros, I liked using the lightrail way more than using the bus. There were constant announcements about which station was next, and it was never overcrowded, unlike the buses. My friends and I bought a week-long metro pass to use for public transportation. It was a little unclear whether we activated them properly or not, but nobody ever stopped or inspected us, so I assume we did alright. We also were able to use the buses to get where we needed to, for the most part. There's a big long street that runs through downtown that's only open to buses and bikes, which I thought was cool. We did a shit ton of walking on top of using the public transit, and at least in the places I went, walking was very viable. A lot of stuff is pretty easily accessible from downtown, and by the end of the week I started to have a pretty decent mental map of the place (granted, my brain is very bad at 3d maps and my standards are probably low).

The natural environment, namely the parks and ponds and lakes, were very pleasant. There was a pretty fishing pond about a 15 minute walk from my hotel, and the little park admin building next to the pond had borrow-able fishing poles and tackle. They recognized me immediately as the guy who had emailed to ask about the borrowing program a week or two earlier, and they seemed kind of surprised that anyone knew about it, so I get the impression that it doesn't get used very often. It was very useful though, since my friends don't fish and don't own their own equipment. We even caught a few tiny catfish.

We rented some kayaks and canoes on one of the lakes, which was a lot of fun. We also rented a surrey (one of those multi-person bike karts) to ride around a park near the mississipi river. It was billed as being suitable for 6 adults, but it really didn't have the leg room to accommodate someone over like 5'6 feet tall or so. That park also had a little disc golf course but it wasn't terribly well marked and it folded back on itself in some not-terribly-safe ways.

My understanding is that the weather in Minnesota gets extreme in both directions, but during my week stay it was pretty mild and pleasant on the whole. It got a little humid and mildly hot (like 88 degrees F), but nothing unbearable for me. At one point there was a thunderstorm in 80 degree humid weather. There are thunderstorms once in a blue moon where I'm from but nothing where you can see lighting strike on the horizon once per second for an hour straight. I thought that was really cool. I bet the winter weather would kick my ass though, at least until I got acclimated. I noticed that the train stations had heating.

Mall of America is probably one of the great monuments to American capitalist resource waste, but I have to admit that my friends and I had a fun time playing mini golf and doing escape rooms and roller coasters there. Plus we were able to ride the lightrail straight to it.

A lot of strangers were nice and conversational. A girl sitting on the dock at the pond asked me what I was fishing for, a tea shop lady asked how long we were in town, and a waiter at a sushi place jokingly asked why she wasn't invited to join us on our trip. The people at the park admin building were also very friendly. Actually, a lot of people seemed to wonder why we were visiting.

Cons

There's a lot graffiti everywhere in the city, which tbf isn't really a concern to me but it is something I noticed.

I was staying in a hotel in the downtown area, which was convenient, but I don't think a day went by where someone didn't ask us for money. That by itself I wouldn't mind ofc, but a lot of them were kind of forceful and persistent in a way that made me feel uncomfortable. For example, after my friend gave a guy that walked up to us some money, he called his friend over, and his friend followed us as we walked. Another time a guy yelled at my friend as we walked past. Those people kind of crowded around on the street outside the hotel and by the lightrail and bus stations, so it wasn't really avoidable.

I'm glad the lightrail was there, but sometimes it wasn't very clean inside. Puddles in seats, trash on the floor, mysterious sticky substances.

There was also an incident on the train when we were leaving the Mall, where what I presume to be a mentally ill homeless man was being kicked out of the mall, presumably for existing while being homeless and mentally ill. He got into the car with us and, even though there were a ton of empty seats, took a seat right next to my friend, locked eyes on me, and began loudly repeating a series of nearly incoherent phrases over and over again. Place names, mostly, from what I could understand. He made a motion of shooting a gun at one point. Maybe he was telling his life story or something. I felt bad for him, but it was also admittedly uncomfortable, since my friends and I were trying to mind our own business and have a conversation of our own. It was a 40 minute train ride, and we ended up switching to a different train after 10 minutes or so.

There was one time we got on a bus that was full of older school children, maybe middle schoolers, on top of regular riders. I don't know if they were on a field trip and the city couldn't be bothered to pay for a dedicated school bus, or what, but for like 30 stops we were packed like sardines, with no room to sit, and barely room to stand. Some guy behind me was threatening another guy for staring at him or something, too. Unlike the trains, the buses didn't regularly announce the stop names, so it was a lot harder to use the bus without relying on our phones to guide us. There was a time where the bus driver shouted a bunch of times at a guy sitting at the back of the bus, and we thought there was trouble until the bus driver finally walked over to the guy just to hand him his transfer ticket that he forgot to grab.

Another time when we were walking, a guy on a bike was approaching us from the other direction. Instead of slowing as he passed, he shouted "Full speed ahead!" and nearly plowed us down. The guy walking his dog behind us was also dumbfounded.

Fishing bait is ridiculously hard to procure for a city with so many lakes and fishing ponds. We ended up having to walk 40ish minutes to a specific hardware store to get some red worms. Most places close earlier than I expected, too. The downtown skywalks closed at like 5pm, and the department store Target closed at 8pm (where I live it's open until 10pm, and my hometown isn't exactly a nightlife city).

The city in general, and downtown in particular, felt surprisingly empty. Lots of businesses were closed, and there were very few people walking around compared to what I expected for a city of 400,000. A lady at a tea shop told me it was primarily due to Covid and remote work, and I think some people also inevitably brought up the George Floyd protests. Needless to say I probably don't share my opinions on those subjects with most petty-bourgeois/small business owning types, and I wouldn't be advocating to fill the emptiness with a bunch of privately owned mom and pop shops. But nevertheless, the emptiness does lend itself to a kind of uneasiness, a sense that the city isn't very lived-in.

I mentioned that stuff closes early, but that didn't stop people from screaming their lungs out and revving their loud-ass cars at 3 in the morning.

I also mentioned that the train stations have heating, which was a cool feature, but what wasn't cool was that some of the stations had those slanted hostile architecture fake benches that fail to be benches and only serve the purpose of inflicting cruelty. There are, at least, a lot of other places to sit and lie down throughout the city.

For a city that was recently at the epicenter of nation-wide protests against police violence, the Minneapolis government sure seems to be putting a lot of resources into cops still. I swear there were police vehicles on every other corner downtown, and lots of transit cops too. My friend from Portland remarked that Portland is doing more to rebrand toward social workers, compared to what Minneapolis seems to be doing. This probably goes without saying to people who share my politics but the police presence didn't do much to make downtown feel like a safer place.

For the most part I would describe any negative experiences as uncomfortable, but the one time I felt genuinely unsafe was when my friends and I tried to go to a little asia district on the outskirts of Saint Paul. According to the internet, there's an annual festival that happens there over the summer and we were hoping to check it out (we later learned that it would have happened two weeks earlier than our trip, and in any case it was cancelled this year entirely). The district turned out to be one tiny, and sketchy, stretch of street with like 2 restaurants. We walked around for a minute trying to find the event, and when we turned onto a street directly adjacent to the train station, a group of guys standing by their cars immediately started shouting at us, asking where we're from, and making comments that we "looked suspicious". They might have only been making fun of us, but in the moment it was not clear whether they were genuinely angry that we were somewhere they thought we didn't belong. That was uncomfortable enough, but when we walked back to get on the train after giving up on finding the event, another guy sitting on a bench told us not to be there after dark. Needless to say I don't plan on returning to Saint Paul.

Finally, my experience at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul airport on the day I was leaving to go home was a complete nightmare, but I think that deserves to be evaluated separately from the cities.

Overall, I had a great time with my friends, but I definitely felt uncomfortable on some occasions. Maybe that's down to my anxiety-ridden, quivering-chihuahua personality and the fact that I was raised by conservative parents in a kind of sheltered suburban area. However, right now I don't know if I would feel comfortable and safe living in the city, but maybe I just need to suck it up and acclimate myself and unlearn my prejudices.

Spent a week in Minneapolis

[razieltwelve]

Did the FE factions and later the GEA ever tried to artificially create powerful Semblances like Cocoon and the World Below did (in a more ethical way) ? Likewise, did they enhance the children born using reproductive science ? I know this sounds bad, ethically speaking, but if they're already looking for a viable combination, why not look for the best combination possible ?

What people didn't realise until later is that Ragnarok and Saviour weren't the only Semblances to be created via a combination of genetic manipulation, selective breeding, and other unsavoury methods. They were simply the two most powerful ones that survived.

Later, well after Vanille's time, archaeologists stumble across a badly damaged archive from Cocoon's era. After carefully restoring the archive, they learn that Cocoon attempted to make thousands upon thousands of enhanced Semblances. They succeeded a grand total of twelve times.

The failures were... unpleasant.

Keep in mind that Cocoon understood Aura and Semblance genetics on a level that no one in Remnant's history was able to achieve until millennia later.

It turns out that the science of manufacturing a Semblance is basically a crap shoot. The amount of resources required and the expertise involved are staggering, and your success rates are vanishingly small. Even then, of the twelve that succeeded, none of those other than Saviour was so powerful as to change the tide of the war.

Keep in mind that Aura and Semblance genetics is not absolute. Serah and Lumina are genetically identical, but their Semblances are massively different. There are things specific to individuals that are not genetic (e.g., environment, their soul, etc.) that also go into determining what Semblance they get. No method exists, even in the distant future, for consistently controlling these.

The best approach seems to be to get powerful individuals to have children together. If you're really set on producing a particular kind of Semblance, then you'd be better off trying to pair people together who have Semblances similar to what you want. When it comes to reproductive science, the most important thing is to select genetic combinations that lead to stability. This is particularly vital for Semblances that are opposed to each other or are likely to conflict in some way.

That said, there are 'shadow' research programs run by the Dia-Farron and other groups that continue to explore morally questionable territory out of a desire to understand more about how Aura and Semblances work. It should also be noted that there are Semblances that can seemingly predict what Semblance someone will get, but it's unclear how these work.

Probably the most important project in this area is the project to map 'Semblance Space', which is the hypothetical higher-dimensional space that can be used to relate Semblances to one another using higher-dimensional geometry. Although not perfect, it has had some success in trying to predict what kind of Semblances might emerge when two people have children. It has also gone a long way to explaining the 'hierarchy' of Semblances that exist. This approach has been especially fruitful in the AU in which Semblances can manifest because Semblances themselves instinctively organise according Semblance Space.