#where are all the other young adults?

[hedge-rambles]

So: 11 births a year paints a picture of a sizeable population of fertile adults on the Ninth. So why is the population in Harrow's time, about 18 years after massacre, all considered to be ancient and barren? Why is there apparently no one even close to Ortus in age, considering there were presumably people only a year older than him when it happened?

Menopause hits 95% of people between 45-55, even if we assume conditions on the Ninth favoured earlier menopause, that's still probably going to be around 45-50.

The WHO recommends a minimum of 24 months between giving birth and attempting to conceive again and considering the entire background of the Empire I'm inclined to believe they don't favour rapid-fire birthing (at least with XX carry).

So, 50% of people can get pregnant, birth interval of nearly 3 years, 11 babies born a year = 2*11*3 = presumably at least 66 adults between the ages of 20 and 45. And considering how necros have reduced fertility and again the Empire's views on reproductive choice I'd suggest it could easily be 3-4 times that, because it's hard to imagine everyone was having eight kids each. If we even just assume births were at replacement rate before the massacre, that suggests there were maybe 300 adults in the 18-45 bracket (11*(45-18)=297).

The Creche Massacre was ~18 years before the start of GtN, the younger adults of the time still wouldn't have hit menopause by the time of the first book. There must have been 20 year olds at the time who aren't even 40 yet so why is the Ninth still childless and populated only by the old?

Where are all the people just a year older than Ortus, who he was in the creche with all his life, who he must have know? The gap in the population doesn't seem to just be everyone who was under 18 at the time but also a wide margin above that too...

Some possibilities:

1 - Massive amounts of trauma from the loss of All The Children. Birth control is clearly a perfected art in the Houses and it's possible that a lot of parents couldn't face having another kid after that. Also presumably a number of young adults who lost siblings.

1a - I think of the Aberfan disaster and how survivors and their parents have talked about basically having to leave town because they couldn't handle the resentment from the other parents of the town. Was Ortus isolated purely because there was no one of his age or because his (engineered) escape left him surrounded by people who couldn't stand to even look at him?

2 - Mass flight of the young. The Ninth always had a healthy supply of supplicants from other houses, and I suspect that a number of them would have packed up and returned home after that. Too harrowing (pun unintended). Those who couldn't do that (e.g. Ninth native necros) may have been the last wave of cohort sign-ups from the Ninth.

3 - The books are narrated by teenagers. The populace might not be quite so aged as Gideon says, she's just an arsehole 18 year old and views 40 year olds as geriatric coffin dodgers.

4 - Some unintended necromantic side effect led to mass infertility in the populace. It's possible the necromantic shockwave that Harrow's parents harvested for this also affected the current unborn of the house and the fertility of the adults.

There's something else going on there and it doesn't add up. But I think the Reverend Mother and Father probably weren't expecting all births to halt, instead it would just be a blow to the populace that would recover with time.

ok so very cool that priamhark and pelleamena killed every single child in the ninth nursery in order to conceive a necromancer. except for gideon, who survived for Plot Reasons but like. they didn't know that would happen. and except for ortus, who was ostensibly kept alive to be harrow's cavalier. but like. did they not think even a SINGLE generation past that?? did they not realize that, by killing every child but two, at some point the only adults left on the ninth would (presumably) be harrow and ortus??? did they expect the reverend daughter to PROCREATE with ORTUS NIGENAD???? SHE'S A LESBIAN. WHAT WAS THEIR BACKUP PLAN

[yardsards]

do people who have listened to taz balance but not graduation Know that it was HEAVILY IMPLIED that lup and barry eventually adopted a lil sorcerer child who got disowned by his family for his natural necromancy magic, and they taught him how to use his powers for good and were overall great parents that he looks back on fondly

(and said child grew up to be a dimension-hopping lich, caretaker of the dead, and very sweet adoptive father of a major npc)

[shih-coulda-had-it]

ok i’m doing a reread of my hero academia (and trying to redraw at least one pose per chapter), and i’m just thinking. are there any fics where all might gets de-aged (either physically, or mentally AND physically) temporarily to junior high age during the ten months he’s training izuku?

izuku, only a third of the way through the American Dream plan: all might? all might please tell me you remember me. i’m supposed to be training as your successor.

toshinori, looking age 14 and totally ignorant: you’re my what??

izuku: OH NO

toshinori: hahaha, just joking, young midoriya! :D i remember you perfectly. just as i unfortunately remember this quirkless body of mine--oops.

izuku: q-quirkless??? you were quirkless?!?

bonus points

Toshinori is resigned to asking Gran Torino to assume guardianship rights.

He asks Izuku how Aldera is, gets a vague answer, and then schemes to infiltrate Izuku’s very class. Very confidently, he announces he is Quirkless at the very first day. Results vary.

Gran Torino reviews the American Dream plan. He looks at Toshinori and Toshinori looks anywhere else. In the spirit of teamwork and Quirkless camaraderie, Gran Torino makes Toshinori follow an even harsher plan to match Izuku’s stress level.

izuku, seeing toshinori doubled over and retching: ??!?!?!?

gran torino: doesn’t that make you feel better?

izuku: NO

[thepatchycat]

I have a silly headcanon that the Wolfpack does a thing where every time one of them enters 79’s, they howl, and any other 104th members present in the club howl back. Other battalions find this varying levels of amusing or obnoxious but nobody else (not that many actually try) can howl and get a response—except for the 501st's Echo, who figures out that there’s a trick to it.

Addendum to this is that 104th shinies are encouraged to come up with their own personal howls as part of bonding with the battalion.

Second addendum to this is that howling has also been used as both a rallying cry and an intimidation tactic in battle.

[mars-ipan]

some postgame doodles for pride month

[groenendaelfic]

changes season 3 will probably inspire me to make to the ALaWHEO outline:

(a 1000% serious manifesto)

here I was worried about my Wilmon boning all through the Easter holidays when clearly I didn't write them horny enough

adding a smidge more character growth to Micke (not on my bingo card)

figuring out a way to add Wille relaxedly sitting at a campfire and calling it a rave somewhere

Rousseau getting more than just a few paragraphs dedicated to his fate

more pda and Wilmon getting it on in public places (not really, but Wille bb you have a room with a selection of beds, please bang there and not in idk the music room)

August being recommended to give yoga a try

Farima, Farima, Farima (also not on my bingo card)

Wilmon communicating less

changing the color of the name day / birthday cake (the most important change of all 🎂)

Things from ALaWHEO which are now canon:

Simon having family in Gothenburg

The security service realizing that living on the GROUND FLOOR is a bad idea

spending holiday time at (totally not) Stenhammar

Ludvig's characterization

no one else's characterization (Simon bb what did they do to you?)

[icewindandboringhorror]

sneeping with his legs up over his head for some reason... weird boye

[dnangelic]

like it's just the way that outside of the BATB/POTO 'love what's ugly and ostracized' narrative itself cocteau was gay and everybody hated his gall about it, howard ashman was gay and had to conceal it and died of aids after finishing his work for disney's batb.... rather than have dark be homophobic and spitting in the face of his inspirational roots (the sole canon detail i can't stand) it's much much much more interesting for me to both read and write not someone who's meant to be a pervert (in humor) and an agape lover (in serious contextualization) only to turn and say 'no homo' to the crowd every single time but rather, instead of all that, someone who, simultaneously taking daisuke into account, is both extremely firm yet simultaneously insecure in the struggle to establish their identity not only in regards to themselves but also around others.

that applies to a lot, but i've been considering it especially in regards to dark's gender and daisuke's attractions. dark in my portrayal (while overall 500% nonbinary) is closer to someone bi-gender rather than agender; the feminine aspect to him isn't just theatrics, it's actively also part of his entirety to him, (compared to daisuke's passivity; the ten thousand canonical princess allusions,) and even if nobody ever recognizes it in a cognizant way, it is always, always there, the same way that erik blurs and obscures gender in leroux's novel (my second enormous inspiration, sugisaki's outright admitted primary) and sakurai occasionally discusses his relationship as both a performer and a person as well (my third enormous inspiration and sugisaki's secondary,) (see 1, 2.) simply put, the tragedy of (my!) dark does not ever derive from his being able to choose and sit comfortably and confidently with this sort of identity (in fact, it's one of the few things he can stubbornly, viciously decide for himself [alongside daisuke] as essentially a non-human, autonomous 'angel',) it's instead the way that his personality is so strong and 'anti-feminine' in the eyes of convention that said aspect of himself often gets disregarded for strictly masculine (and regardless, further self-contradictory and therefore isolating,) expectations.

dark himself alone does not care if others do not understand him; this is meant to be one of his far more admirable and impressive traits. he's staunchly independent: he knows who he is, what he's supposed to be, and he knows that if he actively presented himself more femininely (crossdressing to 'pass' essentially,) then people's behaviors WOULD be very likely to change around him, but he doesn't even do that because it goes against his overwhelming sense of pride. he never contorts, he never twists himself, what matters to him is that he and he alone understands himself and knows what he is, what he isn't. but he is, without proper support or acceptance, still alone. even bearing a strong character, the stifling loneliness and inherent, underlying self-sense of broken/wrongness of the 'other,' (god's luciferean problem child, the black sheep, the black-leather wearing punk,) is still inflicted on him. dark exists solely for himself, he exists solely for daisuke, which is simultaneously wherein the inversion and insecurities lie: if dark is canonically the live metaphor for all the aspects of daisuke's self that he attempts to and yet cannot possibly, conceivably repress, from his loves to his faults to his shames and his criminal sins as a thief, then the likes of daisuke's own personal confusions in regards to himself and his attempts at intimacy/socialization with others is the other, hidden side of dark's absolute self-confidence; it's every fear of perpetual isolation, misunderstanding, and abandonment for things outside of daisuke's own control.

queerness in relation to the self (transgender allegory) queerness in relation to others (non-hetero-romanticism) mental illness (depression, anxiety,) etc, etc, dark's thematic basis may at its most general simply be "a secret that feels wrong and that you feel you can't really tell anyone or else you'll get in trouble/won't be as liked as much" but it feels much better to give due respect to each of these primary roots.

[july-19th-club]

first time i watched 'no exit' i was 100% in jo's corner like oh great it's sexist dean time . wheeee let's all watch her learn a lesson about hunting and he can be 'right' in a factual way but he'll be as obnoxious as possible about it the whole time . now i think what's happening here is that he has pretty much instantly samzoned her, as a college dropout from a hunting family who has a contentious relationship with her one surviving parent. EXCEPT that she's a five-foot-something twiggy barely-out-of-her-teens woman who has a crush on him and has never been on a serious hunt before, and he's dismissive/over-vigilant enough with the actual sam, a powerfully-built man with clairvoyant powers and over a decade of experience. bearing that in mind, his behavior towards jo is barely outside his normal realm of bossy and overbearing, and since he knows a little something about how sams will respond to direct orders, he still tells her mother she's not on the hunt with them so as to avoid the fallout until it's over. basically i think the whole dean thing, his most consistent characterization over the course of fifteen years, is his tendency to express even genuine protectiveness through the medium of 'bossy older sibling', and this makes him come off like the worst person on the planet. he frequently IS, but it's actually because of other things and has nothing to do with that habit in specific

[hybbat]

I do think a good chunk of the 'cringey atheist' stereotype did come from the fact that, especially americans, regardless of their actual religious status are just casually christian and refer to things through a religious filter and that isn't seen for how overwhelming/obnoxious/frustrating it is. Its absense, such as when writing a story and things like "oh god" or other casual references are remove or replaced, is seen as notable the same way people find the cast being all women or queer being 'abnormal'.

And I think more people, especially here on tumblr, should take a moment from ragging on some kid being "cringey" saying god doesn't exist or making atheist jump around like dancing monkeys to establish they're one of the good respectful ones before they ever even begin to talk about their own thoughts, and examine why so much content just inserts god into a conversation that had nothing to do with religion like it's the expected norm, the same way they examine the invasiveness of casual heteronormativity.

[rowenabean]

had a chat with one of our local ordinands today and usually I steer clear of theological controversies here but I'm just overwhelmed with how good it is that women can be ordained into our anglican church

she has SUCH a clear story of calling to the priesthood that she has had for fifteen years while she tried to not be a priest. this is SO clearly the correct step for her and I am delighted to see her making it - able to make it

[aceofstars16]

Prayers appreciated I guess. Mental health is still eh and spiritual health isn’t any better.

[the-moogle-of-your-nightmares]

one thing i really deeply wish is that i'd had access as a kid to the plural community and information that are more easily available today, instead of my first experience with plural community which both took it seriously and was nonjudgmental having been 10's era tul/pa.info lmao

[theclearblue]

I've had to read a lot of YA for my book club and wow going back to it the genre just really hates women huh

[theultimatekamehamehavoc]

Random Togami Headcanon 13

TL;DR - Byakuya's bettered himself but he still has a long road of healing. Also, heads up. This one's not happy like most of the others. Gets a bit hopeful at the end but there's still a lot of sad topics here. Viewer discretion is advised. Now that he feels more empathy for others and possesses some capability for putting himself in another's shoes, thoughts he used to have about the lower class make him feel... off. Perhaps guilt or discomfort with himself. It doesn't help though looking at his classmates every school day and being reminded of the mindset he was raised with. It especially doesn't help when he looks at Makoto who helped him. Makoto being the commoner of all commoner's also hurts. He appreciates what Makoto's done to help him but it unintentionally stabs him hard within his chest that he needed someone's help to get to this point and the someone being a commoner he once wrote off. Next, with this empathy, the heir feels better with his life and happiness but fundamentally worse. It's as if he deteriorated though, logically, he knows it's not the case. He knows that the illogical side of his brain covers itself in the hides of reason and rationale. Essentially, Byakuya ends up having a grueling struggle with dealing with these emotions that, for the majority of his life, he buried and repressed. Emotions that both make him feel more fulfilled in life but that tear him apart inside. Bouts where he feels either extremely content with how he's turned out or that dread and despair that he's slipping back into his old ways. In fact, at times, it becomes overwhelming for him to handle which he especially hates. Being overwhelmed is yet another thing he once viewed as a weakness and, to some extent, he still does. Sometimes, to cope, jokes to himself on whether existing itself is something he feels is a weakness. However, though he has a lot of emotions and thoughts that upset him now as a bettered person, one big thing that pains him is that he has the capability and the intelligence to notice all of this. It's the acknowledgment that stings. The heir notices that he has a problem, that he probably needs help, maybe even therapy, but then he spirals more because of that realization. Why should HE need HELP for these problems of his?! He's an independent person! He should logically be able to handle this himself. He's always handled his problems on his own! Why should he now need someone or just a support system of people to aid in his path of healing? He feels gross for that support system being the classmates who he once adamantly despised with such vitriol. With the added empathy, he also feels shame as he doesn't want to hurt any more people in his life now. He has the hindsight to know this now. He questions himself. Is the situation he's in even that big of a deal and should he keep searching for answers on the "why" and "how"? Is it worth it? Comparisons to the peasants he used to once adamantly demonize also do not escape him. He feels worse because, while he's breaking at the seams, countless of other commoners have similar thoughts too. He's not unique and a bit of that stings his lingering superiority. Then, there is the fact that Byakuya feels even worse about this BECAUSE commoners can handle stuff like this and yet, he keeps saying that he can't due to his mental spirals. Either that or the older thoughts of hating commoners bites back by making him feel like he's "acting like one". He knows by this point that he's actively tearing himself down and that he needs to escape this cycle of mental abuse. He feels shame in himself though. He feels humiliated. Pathetic. Overly emotional in ways he's never felt before. He still has that hope though. The hope that he can get through his. The heir's already delt with so much whether canon, non-despair, or an au of some kind. He's continued on despite it all. And, though long ago, he would have pushed some of this hope off for it being too optimistic, he's grown to care less about that sort of thought anymore. Byakuya can do this.

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

the thing about chilshi is that i see it as super one-sided on chilchuck's part and that's some shit he's bringing to the grave with him