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owlsbride · 1 year

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One shot: Kakashi x Sakura.

Secret trainings lead to secret conversations to secret feelings, Will Sakura win this time?

You can't always win.

"This..." Sakura said, trying to catch her breath, "this has to stop, Sensei."

"What?" Kakashi asked in his dumbfounded bored tone, "What does have to stop, Sa Ku Ra?" he finished rising on his elbows, looking at Sakura from his position under her.

"Sensei, please," she was already sitting next to him, recovering some of her personal space lost moments ago, "you know what I'm talking about, and it has to stop."

"Sakura, let me remind you that you came to me asking for this. I only please your wishes." A close-eyed smile was painted under his mask, and Sakura hated that idiot expression.

"Oh, come on, Kakashi, don't tell me you don't enjoy it too." She was again losing the train of the conversation, and she knew she would lose her point too.

"I've never said I didn't; on the contrary..." Kakashi said, lifting his chin in a very arrogant Hokage way, "but is you the one complaining and asking me to stop what you asked for."

"Because it's unfair!" Sakura pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Ok... Now I'm not following you." Kakashi said, looking straight at her.

"You are impossible, Sensei..." Sakura spoke, looking tenderly at him. "It's unfair that every single night we train you let me win." There, she finally said it.

"Oooh..." Kakashi said, full of surprise, "Wow... Do you...Do you really think I let you win?"

"Yes, I do!" Sakura said, looking at the sky. To look at him at this moment was too hurtful because she was not only feeling frustrated about her skills but because she wasn't capable of making him see her as a woman who was hopelessly in love with her former teacher.

Sakura had to recognise that it was true that she never told him anything nor made any insinuation about her feelings. Even if, with time, they became close friends and shared a special kind of intimate relationship, nothing seemed to evolve into a romantic dynamic between them, and she felt that it was all her fault.

"Maaa~ Sakura, you can't think that I let you win." He seemed confused, caught off guard, like a little boy discovered doing some mischieve, disarming Sakura to her bones.

"Yes!" She began making eye contact for the first time in what seemed a lifetime.

"Ok, tell me, how do I do it, how do I let you win?"

"Let's seee..." Sakura started, "First you are the great Copy Ninja..."

"Ex." Sakura was sure he would make this problematic.

"Ok, ex, but you know, like thousands of jutsus, you mastered the Sharingan, and you are not even an Uchiha. You are the Hokage, you have years of training and fights, and were a prodigy. And your name is like a dead sentence to our enemies."

"That's all in the past, Sakura. You are talking about ages ago." Kakashi said with longing in his eyes.

"Ok, but what about now? Ah?" Sakura attacked again, "I do your medical exams, and you are more vital than ever for the results. Without the Sharingan draining your Chakra, you are stronger, faster and more robust than any young shinobi."

"I guess what you mean by robust is fatter, right?" How was he capable of making her blush like when she was thirteen.

"Sensei!"

"Easy... If I din't know you better I could say you are in love." And again, that infamous smile.

"What? No... I mean..." She was in serious trouble now and was giving away too much about her feelings in a conversation that was supposed to have nothing to do with feelings.

"Sakura..." Kakashi began turning serious again, "why can't you praise yourself for once? Suppose everything you said is true, but I'm not in my twenties anymore, and you are not thirteen, either." Was he noticing her? "You are a young woman full of strength with the same training I once had. You are Tsunade's direct disciple. Your chakra control is outstanding. You are a great doctor. I really don't understand how you can doubt so much about yourself." He looked so intensely into her eyes that she felt like flying or dying. What if she kissed him right there?

Would it be that bad if she kissed Kakashi? Of course, it was out of all limits and boundaries. He was not only the Hokage, but for God's sake, he was him, Hatake Kakashi, and she was just she, after all, the always tiny and invisible Sakura. She was abandoning the conversation once more. Daydreaming about the possibilities of one little forbidden kiss, not realising that, in truth, she was bothered about not losing a training fight combat against Kakashi, which was very ridiculous. He was right. Instead of being proud of herself, she felt her victories as undeserved gifts.

"Sakura... Sakura?" Kakashi said, waving his hand in front of her face. "Are you still here?"

"I'm sorry, what...What were you saying?" Sakura returned to reality and had to remind herself that she was not thirteen anymore.

"I was saying that everything you say about me it's true, and even if it hurts, losing the Sharingan maybe it was a kind of a blessing, but you are the new generation now, and you are better than anyone of us, the old ones."

"Do you really think that, Sensei?" Sakura knew her voice was trembling, and she didn't care. "So you don't cheat on me and let me win?"

"Sakura... I thought you know me better by now..." Kakashi said in his beautiful soft tone, and Sakura was melting right there, "I hate losing. I wouldn't even do it on pourpuse."

"Oh... Ok." She didn't manage to say anything else.

"Besides, as Hokage if I have to put my life in somebody's hands, undoubtedly it would be yours," Sakura noted the soft movement but did nothing about it. Kakashi was tugging a revel strand of pink hair behind her ear. "I bet not even Naruto or Sasuke are competition against you."

"Yeah... them..." She let the phrase hang in the air.

"What about them?" His neutral tone suddenly sounded overly uninterested, even for Kakashi.

And Sakura knew that that was the question, 'what about them'. Especially about Sasuke Uchiha. But should she tell Kakashi her feelings? The truth was that she was spending more and more time with Sasuke, but nothing was coming out of it. Once, it used to be her teenage dream, but now it was her adult nightmare, it was obvious that they were not meant to be, but they were forcing this kind of frozen relationship in which they only walked together for hours in silence without even holding hands.

"Well..."Sakura started looking anywhere but in Kakashi's direction, "you know Naruto, he is doing it fine. He is thrilled with Hinata, I think there is a future there..." Sakura spoke with truth and hope in her words. She loved Naruto and his bright, and she knew he deserved his happy ending.

"Yes, I see that too." Kakashi said with what Sakura understood as longing, but he immediately shifted his position, and everything in him changed, "and Sasuke? I heard you two were dating."

Sakura choked on her words.

"You don't need to answer me, Sa Ku Ra. I just want to be prepared if a Chidori comes flying straight to me if he discovered our little secret." Kakashi joked, and she blushed as if secret training was the equal of a sin.

"I don't think the Chidori is his worst attack right now." She smugly answered.

"Yeah... I thought so." And he didn't say anything else.

The soft summer breeze was hypnotic during the summers in Konoha. Even if it was hot enough, like to swear once or twice, the weather was enjoyable, even more if Sakura was seated by night side by side with his secret love, Hatake Kakashi. Even now, that losing a battle was not the worst thing, but speaking about Sasuke was.

"We..." she started, "We are not dating dating, Sensei."

"What do you mean with dating dating? I'm older than you but not that much, Sakura... I don't think things had changed so much since..." But She interrupted him.

"Don't play smart with me, Sensei," Sakura said exasperated, "I mean that we are not... together, like, you know...like..." she was biting her lower lip to the point of almost bleeding. "We are only knowing each other."

"Don't you already know each other a lot?" Kakashi was doing this so on purpose that it almost felt innocent, but she knew better: pestering her was one of his favourite things.

"Of course we know each other a lot..." It was becoming impossible for her to speak. Where were all her eloquent words when she needed them the most?

"We know as comarades, as friends, as team mates, even as enemies, but..."

"But love and romance are something completely different, right?" And for the first time in a while, she observed his face trying to avoid thinking in the moon reflected in his eyes. "I mean..." He continued, "relationships are something else."

Sakura didn't answer. She only sighed in frustration, wrinkling her nose and forehead like she did when trying to solve something. Sasuke was a puzzle, she was a puzzle, for the love of God, they were a puzzle, and she wasn't even trying half her best to do something about it.

"Sakura?" Kakashi asked in a whisper. "Do you love him?"

"Of course I care for him, Sensei! Why? Why are you laughing at me?" Sakura was already towering over Kakashi, still sitting easily on the fresh green grass. Arms crossed over her chest, angry red face and her foot tapping the floor beneath her.

"Did you hear my question, Sakura? Smile in his voice.

"Yes, and I answered you." Sakura replied stubbornly.

"Yeah... I think you need another round."

And in just one soft movement, Sakura was pinned to the grass below Kakashi's body. Arms over her head entangled painfully delighted with his. Too close to avoid his eyes and cologne but too far and questionable to madly kiss him there. Kakashi got closer to her. His mouth to her ear and the soft fabric of his mask over her neck drove her crazy.

"Care is not love, Sa Ku Ra." He began teasingly, "I didn't think I have to teach you that." And he went back to look into her eyes. "And you were right... You can't always win."

"What?" She retorted, to what statement she didn't know.

"Ma~ Sa Ku Ra! You were right... Maybe sometimes I just let you win."

And in a puff of air, he disappeared, letting Sakura lying down on the grass with her heart beating uncontrollably out of her chest. She was mad. Mad about being cheated, mad about her and Sasuke, mad about her lack of answers and most of all, she was profoundly and crazy mad about Kakashi.

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corvidcall · 1 year

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I posted 18,037 times in 2022

That's 1,739 more posts than 2021!

401 posts created (2%)

17,636 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@sassytail

@omgitsseddie

@blazing-spectre

@starlit-mansion

I tagged 3,204 of my posts in 2022

#anime life - 339 posts

#hermitcraft - 176 posts

#iswm - 127 posts

#homestuck - 106 posts

#fnaf - 96 posts

#ofmd - 88 posts

#deltarune - 80 posts

#markcu - 75 posts

#disco elysium - 60 posts

#splatoon - 54 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#yucky but its fine for other people i guess. good in other things but gross as a primary condiment. yummy!!!! i love mushrooms. yucky and gi

My Top Posts in 2022:

i had a dream last night where i was in a high stakes game of magic the gathering, and even though im very bad at magic the gathering, i was extremely winning because WotC just came out with a new set of cards for like. Pride i guess? and they didnt want to seem homophobic so they were very OP.

anyway heres my best recreation of two of the gay mtg cards

(the lyrics on the lesbian card are from Dodie's song "She" - I don't remember exactly if those were the lyrics on the card but i DO remember looking at it and going "oh i guess they got Dodie involved in this? ok")

110 notes - Posted April 16, 2022

i think it's really funny when people criticize something they don't like by calling it "soulless". saw someone say that about squishmallows, and said that instead of buying that soullless crap, you could spend the same amount of money buying a real stuffed animal

now, i don't care if they do or don't like squishmallows, but i am fascinated by the premise. squishmallows dont have souls, but other stuffed animals do? is toy story real? are beanie babies going to christian heaven?

319 notes - Posted September 19, 2022

None Of You Know What Haiku Are

I'm going to preface this by saying that i am not an expert in ANY form of poetry, just an enthusiast. Also, this post is... really long. Too long? Definitely too long. Whoops! I love poetry.

If you ask most English-speaking people (or haiku-bot) what a haiku is, they would probably say that it's a form of poetry that has 3 lines, with 5, and then 7, and then 5 syllables in them. That's certainly what I was taught in school when we did our scant poetry unit, but since... idk elementary school when I learned that, I've learned that that's actually a pretty inaccurate definition of haiku. And I think that inaccurate definition is a big part of why most people (myself included until relatively recently!) think that haiku are kind of... dumb? unimpressive? simple and boring? I mean, if you can just put any words with the right number of syllables into 3 lines, what makes it special?

Well, let me get into why the 5-7-5 understanding of haiku is wrong, and also what makes haiku so special (with examples)!

First of all, Japanese doesn't have syllables! There's a few different names for what phonetic units actually make up the language- In Japanese, they're called "On" (音), which translates to "sound", although English-language linguists often call it a "mora" (μ), which (quoting from Wikipedia here) "is a basic timing unit in the phonology of some spoken languages, equal to or shorter than a syllable." (x) "Oh" is one syllable, and also one mora, whereas "Oi" has one syllable, but two moras. "Ba" has one mora, "Baa" has two moras, etc. In English, we would say that a haiku is made up of three lines, with 5-7-5 syllables in them, 17 syllables total. In Japanese, that would be 17 sounds.

For an example of the difference, the word "haiku", in English, has 2 syllables (hai-ku), but in Japanese, はいく has 3 sounds (ha-i-ku). "Christmas" has 2 syllables, but in Japanese, "クリスマス" (ku-ri-su-ma-su) is 5 sounds! that's a while line on its own! Sometimes the syllables are the same as the sounds ("sushi" is two syllables, and すし is two sounds), but sometimes they're very different.

In addition, words in Japanese are frequently longer than their English equivalents. For example, the word "cuckoo" in Japanese is "ほととぎす" (hototogisu).

Now, I'm sure you're all very impressed at how I can use an English to Japanese dictionary (thank you, my mother is proud), but what does any of this matter? So two languages are different. How does that impact our understanding of haiku?

Well, if you think about the fact that Japanese words are frequently longer than English words, AND that Japanese counts sounds and not syllables, you can see how, "based purely on a 17-syllable counting method, a poet writing in English could easily slip in enough words for two haiku in Japanese” (quote from Grit, Grace, and Gold: Haiku Celebrating the Sports of Summer by Kit Pancoast Nagamura). If you're writing a poem using 17 English syllables, you are writing significantly more content than is in an authentic Japanese haiku.

(Also not all Japanese haiku are 17 sounds at all. It's really more of a guideline.)

Focusing on the 5-7-5 form leads to ignoring other strategies/common conventions of haiku, which personally, I think are more interesting! Two of the big ones are kigo, a season word, and kireji, a cutting word.

Kigo are words/phrases/images associated with a particular season, like snow for winter, or cherry blossoms for spring. In Japan, they actually publish reference books of kigo called saijiki, which is basically like a dictionary or almanac of kigo, describing the meaning, providing a list of related words, and some haiku that use that kigo. Using a a particular kigo both grounds the haiku in a particular time, but also alludes to other haiku that have used the same one.

Kireji is a thing that doesn't easily translate to English, but it's almost like a spoken piece of punctuation, separating the haiku into two parts/images that resonate with and add depth to each other. Some examples of kireji would be "ya", "keri", and "kana." Here's kireji in action in one of the most famous haiku:

古池や　蛙飛び込む　水の音 (Furu ike ya　kawazu tobikomu　mizu no oto) (The old pond — A frog jumps in The sound of the water.)

You can see the kireji at the end of the first line- 古池や literally translates to "old pond ya". The "ya" doesn't have linguistic meaning, but it denotes the separation between the two focuses of the haiku. First, we are picturing a pond. It's old, mature. The water is still. And then there's a frog! It's spring and he's fresh and new to the world! He jumps into the pond and goes "splash"! Wowie! When I say "cutting word", instead of say, a knife cutting, I like to imagine a film cut. The camera shows the pond, and then it cuts to the frog who jumps in.

English doesn't really have a version of this, at least not one that's spoken, but in English language haiku, people will frequently use a dash or an ellipses to fill the same role.

Format aside, there are also some conventions of the actual content, too. They frequently focus on nature, and are generally use direct language without metaphor. They use concrete images without judgement or analysis, inviting the reader to step into their shoes and imagine how they'd feel in the situation. It's not about describing how you feel, so much as it's about describing what made you feel.

Now, let's put it all together, looking at a haiku written Yosa Buson around 1760 (translated by Harold G. Henderson)

The piercing chill I feel: my dead wife's comb, in our bedroom, under my heel

We've got our kigo with "the piercing chill." We read that, and we imagine it's probably winter. It's cold, and the kind of cold wind that cuts through you. There's our kireji- this translation uses a colon to differentiate our two images: the piercing chill, and the poet stepping on his dead wife's comb. There's no descriptions of what the poet is feeling, but you can imagine stepping into his shoes. You can imagine the pain he's experiencing in that moment on your own.

"But tumblr user corvidcall!" I hear you say, "All the examples you've used so far are Japanese haiku that have been translated! Are you implying that it's impossible for a good haiku to be written in English?" NO!!!!! I love English haiku! Here's a good example, which won first place in the 2000 Henderson haiku contest, sponsored by the Haiku Society of America:

meteor shower . . . a gentle wave wets our sandals

When you read this one, can you imagine being in the poet's place? Do you feel the surprise as the tide comes in? Do you feel the summer-ness of the moment? Haiku are about describing things with the senses, and how you take in the world around you. In a way, it's like the poet is only setting a scene, which you inhabit and fill with meaning based on your own experiences. You and I are imagining different beaches, different waves, different people that make up the "our" it mentioned.

"Do I HAVE to include all these things when I write haiku? If I include all these things, does that mean my haiku will be good?" I mean, I don't know. What colors make up a good painting? What scenes make up a good play? It's a creative medium, and nobody can really tell you you can't experiment with form. Certainly not me! But I think it's important to know what the conventions of the form are, so you can appreciate good examples of it, and so you can know what you're actually experimenting with. And I mean... I'm not the poetry cops. But if you're not interested in engaging with the actual conventions and limitations of the form, then why are you even using that form?

I'll leave you with one more English language haiku, which is probably my favorite haiku ever. It was written by Tom Bierovic, and won first place at the 2021 Haiku Society of America Haiku Awards

a year at most . . . we pretend to watch the hummingbirds

Sources: (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

Further reading:

Forms in English Haiku by Keiko Imaoka Haiku: A Whole Lot More Than 5-7-5 by Jack How to Write a Bad Haiku by KrisL Haiku Are Not a Joke: A Plea from a Poet Who Has Had It Up to Here by Sandra Simpson Haiku Checklist by Katherine Raine

964 notes - Posted October 17, 2022

there's a post (possibly a genre of posts?) that i see frequently where OP is mad about self care posts that are like "it's okay if you didn't brush your teeth today uwu" and op is mad because they didn't brush their teeth for a long time and now they have huge dental bills and i take umbrage with their idea that it was tumblrs fault that they didnt brush their teeth and if only people had been less nice to them, they would have known to brush more

listen, i didn't brush my teeth for many years. feeling bad about it didnt make me brush more. knowing that people thought it was gross didn't make me brush more. being shamed and guilted about it didn't make me brush more.

what DID help was figuring out what was actually the barrier between me and doing it, and then removing those barriers, even if they felt silly and like they shouldn't be barriers at all

for example:

PROBLEM: my toothbrush is too big to fit in the cabinet and I can't leave it on the counter, so I have to keep it in my bedroom and remember to bring it with me to brush

SOLUTION: buy a new, smaller toothbrush. i know i already have a perfectly good one that's nicer than the new one i bought, but a cheap toothbrush i actually use is a million times more valuable than an expensive brush i dont

PROBLEM: i dont want to brush immediately after i wake up, it feels gross and makes me gag

SOLUTION: i set an alarm for a few hours after i wake up and do it then. the teeth dont know the difference!

PROBLEM: i hate mint and i hate cinnamon. most toothpastes are mint and the ones that aren't mint are cinnamon

SOLUTION: start buying kids toothpaste. this has the added bonus of i think it's fun and whimsical

Being mad at yourself for not brushing isn't going to help. You KNOW you should be brushing your teeth. People who don't brush their teeth aren't UNAWARE that their dental hygiene is important!!! Posts that say "if you didn't brush your teeth, you don't need to feel ashamed about it" aren't hurting people, because shame and blame don't help people form healthier habits, and frankly, it's weird to pin the consequences of your unhealthy habits on people for not shaming you more!!!

27,908 notes - Posted February 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

for the record. i dont post cringe to keep the twitter users at bay. i do not post cringe at all. if you cringe at my posts, thats on you, not me. i am simply having a good time on this webbed site and if that makes you cringe, i am sorry for whatever you see in me that shames you so.

29,443 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #long post #my magic the gathering dream deserved more attention tbh. that was the funniest shit ive ever experienced

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islamicbiotic · 2 years

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Shadowrun Hong Kong:

-You can’t get me to care about tabletops. That’s for virgins! Unless you add in a heavy serving of guns and neon. I… kid… a little. But anyways, I got the trilogy for free on GOG like, a year ago, and only now have I ripped into just one of them. I tried to figure out which one was the first, but apparently Hong Kong is actually the LAST game in the series? They’re all standalone, so I wasn’t missing anything… but… it’s fucking Hong Kong. They’ve been cyberpunk since before Bill “Technomancer” Gibson was born. It would have been my first choice for a game like this.

-I didn’t realize how much I liked having… an Asian-centered fantasy story like that. I have a hard time with fantasy in general, but having familiar-looking names and faces, along with all the sci-fi mechanics, made it go down a lot smoother. Special mention to one of my favorite side characters: Jomo, the Indonesian ork who acts as your getaway driver and sings sea shanties in Bahasa.

-SRHK reminds me a LOT of one of my favorite games of all time, Transistor. Mostly in the scenery, *some* of the gameplay and the isometric view. I’ll admit, most of the 3D models in SRHK don’t feel as natural as the models in Transistor.

-I really loved the writing. Take this how you will, but I could not stop thinking about what it would be like if BioWare was in charge of this franchise. Mostly from a gameplay perspective. Like imagining Mass Effect’s third-person shooting and attention to lore with employing spells and actions like Borderlands. Taking on the Rat King with Gobbet very much felt like a Mass Effect loyalty mission, and I mean that as a compliment. The middle part was a lot of various side quests, which I noticed some critics didn’t like, but again, comparing to Mass Effect, I saw it more as an opportunity to take all of the missions at my own pace. Also, speaking with my crew after every mission… total Mass Effect move. They buried the humor. There were quite a few times I burst out laughing at the text (here’s looking at you, Ku Feng!)

-My crew! Which I also loved. They’re not my top-tier RPG crew like Azura and the rest of FE Fates, or a certain Commander who should go, but they feel right for the story, regardless. They’re all misfits who try to be hard, but are all softies (even Racter, to a degree). Helping Raymond out in the end, felt fulfilling. They feel a lot like the Guardians of the Galaxy. They’re no one’s first choice, but if they’re there, I’m happy.

-My favorite mission probably had to be either Exit Stage Left (and giving a vampire advice to be the best version of herself), or Whistleblower (the one with the Irish black ops elf and the Korean crime syndicate. I love jobs that end in giving you the choice to kill your boss).

-I didn’t like the combat. This isn’t my first time with a tactical RPG (big fan of Fire Emblem as well as Ticket to Earth), but… it felt like there were times where it felt like I had entire turns wasted because all my shots missed. Matter of fact, I started spec’ing my PC towards magic, but I quit because literally NONE of my magic bolts would land. I know that I just needed to invest more in the magic routes, but… still.

-I really want to like the Matrix. I love the design of it, but the stealth parts of it seem at odds with the way in which you move through the overworld. Like 3/4 into the main campaign, I would just use cheat codes to cheese my way through entire rooms of watchers. I would probably enjoy it more if they abolished the trace meter. That said, I loved seeing Is0bel glide through the Grid and blast drones like that.

The similarly-named DLC story, Shadows of Hong Kong:

-It was… cromulent. “Interdimensional demon queen” as a final boss is a tough act to follow. I would compare having Krait be the final boss to making it so that in Episode 8, that one riot baton stormtrooper from Episode 7 would be the big bad (still more enjoyable than Adam Driver).

-I don’t hate the main story, but I felt satiated by the end. I’m glad to see Raymond healing after that entire ordeal at the beginning of Shadows.

-Shadows doesn’t reveal any big truths or anything. It doesn’t make the world feel deeper like the Champions’ Ballad, or provide major character development like Burial at Sea. I also hated the Sophie’s Choice it provided at the end. Why can’t I keep Duncan happy AND kill Qiu?

Main story: 8/10

Shadows: 6/10

#shadowrun #shadowrun hong kong #srhk

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farshores · 2 years

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4, 6, 10, 12 and 21 for the Dragonborn asks?

Under the cut cus it gets kinda long!

4. What are your Dragonborn's philosophies, mantras, codes of honor and the like? How steadfast are they in these beliefs? How do they influence their interactions with the world?

Uhh idk how to really explain Tei's mantra tbh? I mean they are an assassin & in werewolf mode they will munch upon whoever is unlucky enough to be in their path (provided Tei doesn't know them). But if I had to find words for it, it's a very "you respect my space, I respect yours" sort of deal! Unless you're a threat to Tei's power (post-DB dlc) or a loved one's safety, or a target for the Brotherhood, Tei won't really bother you. They do have some sort of honor system, it's seen amongst their teammates, but it doesn't exactly extend to the public, if that makes sense?

Like...they won't kill you in front of everyone (unless they need to make a point), but they don't have a strong sense of code to not consider dealing with you later. Also, major line in the sand for them is harming children - if Tei catches you, you won't even have time to say your prayers. Hell, if it weren't for the kids being at the orphanage during the Aventus mission, Grelod would've probably been mauled on site by a very angry werewolf.

6. Does your Dragonborn favor melee, ranged weapons or magic? A mix of all three, or maybe none?

Tei specializes in two-handed weapons (axes especially) & has experience in unarmed combat, so they tend to favor those two. They have some experience with crossbows/lore-friendly rifles, but don't use em much & is of the belief that reliance on magic for combat is uh...weak...

10. Has your dragonborn ever been cursed? If so, what is the nature of it?

Uuuuh Tei views being Dragonborn as a curse, if that counts? It's a painful experience for them, both due to the opponents that arise from their role & the physical+mental toll being LDB has. Hell, part of the reason Tei openly accepts/works with their draconic nature rather than suppress it like Paarthurnax is because doing so hurt.

12. What is your Dragonborn's occupation, be it current or otherwise?

Other than current leader of the Dark Brotherhood (Tei isn't Listener, that role falls to their adopted son Ram-ku. But even then the faction works more like how Astrid was doing it lol), Tei just does different bounties - be it as a Companion or just with their team - & the occasional dungeon dive. A lot of their wealth comes from hauls from dragon nests or whatever smithed armors+weapons they sell! I kinda hc they set up a lil blacksmithing business in Ivarstead & it does pretty well cus hey, stuff made by the Dragonborn.

21. Is your Dragonborn stealthy, "Stealthy" or loud?

They're moving around with heavy armor & got a huge ass tail that's bound to bump into something - better to rush whatever is there instead of sneaking poorly.

Unless it's in water, they're a rather stealthy swimmer (though HA can cause some issues) & can be a threat should sead water be dark or murky.

#anonymous #ask meme #ask memes #thanks for the ask!#jeerteiperdes

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spyoikawa · 3 years

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still on that saiki k brainrot so hear me out-

metori, saiki, teruhashi, aren and hairo with an s/o who really loves to bake/cook-

no thoughts just Reader learning how to make coffee jelly for saiki (like maybe they make him a tower of coffee jelly for an anniversary or his birthday-). no thoughts just Reader cooking something for metori who pretends to not want to eat it cause it’s ‘peasant food’ but ends up really enjoying their cooking. no thoughts just cooking/baking date with teruhashi. no thoughts just teaching aren how to cook/bake and having a food trade with him, bringing him lunch/a snack to school. and no thoughts just hairo hyping Reader up while they cook/bake and making stuff for him to bring to class rep meetings-

thank you! <3

the excitement I got got I saw teruhasi- i don't see a lot of writing for her and I get happy when I get to do less than common things! Thanks!

I'm running low on creative juices, so please I hope you don't mind if I use the exact scenarios you suggested 💀

Note: some of the things I wrote felt really rude so please don't mind the tone tags in parentheses, also i have not edited this yet

Saiki, Teruhasi, Hairo, Aren, and Saiko with an S/O who can cook/bake

♡romantic♡

Saiki Kusuo (italics = saiki telepathy)

Although it was undeniably tasty, your boyfriend's obsession with coffee jelly was not only getting out of hand but also quite expensive-

I mean he spent 3,000 yen for one serving-

But yanno what it's ok, coffee jelly is easy to make, and this gives you an excuse to hang out (not that you need one)

"Ok Ku, i had an idea"

I like it, just make sure you teach me how to do it too

"Rude. I wasn't finished"

You did in your head

As endearing as it could be sometimes, Saiki's mind-reading could be a pain occasionally

You wound me.

"Good. (/j)"

After a long debate over recipes and serving sizes, there it was, in all its glory, your first batches of coffee jelly

it was heaven

You did end up sharing the recipe with him, but it still became a little tradition to make the coffee jelly together

It just tastes better that way :)

Kokomi Teruhashi

In the midst of your TV and cuddles date, Kokomi huffed and turned off the TV

But of course it was rude to just turn off the TV, so she offered to play a board game instead

You did play with her, but your curiosity was begging as to why she wanted to change the activity

"Hey Kokomi, this game is fun, don't worry... but why'd you turn off the TV so suddenly?"

"Oh, it was nothing! I just thought you would like this game, and I wanted you to enjoy yourself more!"

Now, that's the answer the most perfect girl in the world would give

But Kokomi is still human, there's gotta be something wrong

You spent a while thinking to yourself about what you were watching, you two agreed on a documentary, then after the documentary, the channel played a cooking show with a guest baker/cook Makoto Teruhashi- oh.

So that was it

At the end of the round, you stood up and offered your hand to pull up Kokomi with you.

"Hey, wanna make a bet?"

She looked up with a bit of curiosity.

"I bet you, I can make your favorite dish, far better than Makoto can"

She smiled a bit, "sure!"

Her favorite food was simple, so you taught her to cook it and added in some other things just for fun (and so she can't recreate it without your secret ingredients)

Now you guys have cooking dates often and always find ways to spice up foods (and beat Makoto at whatever he was doing on tv)

Hairo Kineshi

my thoughts and prayers go to you

we all saw what happened when he tried to make crepes

but in his mind, it was a learning opportunity

You guys were taking an after-school stroll, the weather was really nice, it would be a shame if you two just went home and did nothing. Walks like these tend to get sentimental and nostalgic, so your conversation subconsciously started to drift towards school life.

"And do you remember that time we had to get kuboyasu, kaido, and nendo to play on a baseball team? Oh my god thank god it didn't go too poorly, that one player really pulled through at the end..." you laughed out

"Haha I do remember that, I can't believe we got them to play, it really could've gone worse" He smiled as he remembered that day, but then his eyes drifted up to a bakery across the road. "Speaking of poor experiences..."

after he explained to you he and kaido's crepe disaster, you couldn't help but tease fun at him for a bit

but you did agree to teach him more about cooking and baking

he's a bit too passionate about cracking eggs, but hey, at least you can work faster

after many, many burnt crepes and pans, there it was, a fallen appart, incorrectly folded, but still a properly cooked crepe sat there in all its beauty

it kinda looked like this

Although he does learn many different things with you, crepes will be the thing he makes over and over again, even when he has it down to a science, just because it's the first thing you taught him, and he will keep that sweet memory forever (get it. sweet? Cause crepes? Im funny i swear.)

Aren Kuboyasu

He actually knows how to cook pretty well

He's not really sure when he picked up cooking, its kinda just stuck around, but he enjoys it, it makes him seem more goody

and he can treat you :)

I will die on my "aren lives for the most basic/domestic activities hill"

cooking with him is always an experience, he will play music in the background, and pull you aside to dance at random times

also does that really hot thing where he stands behind you, reaches around to hold your hands, and basically has you in a cage while showing you how to do something

it's one of those spontaneous things to do, if there's nothing else to do, might as well make something to eat

firm believer in "if you have to eat to live, you might as well eat delicious foods" so he will always try out new things with you if its healthy and tasty

"bab look at this show" you called out from where you were sitting, there was a cooking show/food documentary on, and it was showing a special food. "it says this chicken has a secret sauce they dip it in"

he walked over to the tv and watched it for a couple seconds, thinking a bit.

"...wanna figure it out?"

"yes. I'll make the chicken if you figure out the sauce?"

"deal."

will you ever know if you got the secret sause? Nope, but you did figure out a chicken recipe that is good as hell

he probably writes down all the recipes you "invented" together for safekeeping and so he can return to it later, but he refuses to show it to anyone

Saiko Metori

as much as I love him, we all saw in that one episode how picky he is while eating, and is probably a bitch to please while cooking/baking

so after a lot of convincing, you got him to sit in the kitchen with you so he can watch you bake for the two of you

in reality, all you have to do is give the dish a fancy rich-sounding name, you just have to be really careful with what you say

like this 💀

you decided to bake for him today, baking is a lot more "by the book" than cooking, so you thought he would take a bit of comfort in knowing it was done in a professional way

"alright tori, so I think I'll make a heavy pastry made with fine cacao and extracts, baked into a rich dessert for a fine sweet palette"

"you're making brownies aren't you"

"🧍‍♂️"

Told you, you have to be as specific as possible

He does eventually get interested in what you're doing though, as he never really sees his personal chef cook, and wants to help you by the end

He really did enjoy it! It quickly became one of his favorite treats

But funny enough, no matter how many bakeries he tried or how many times his chef tried, they never tasted the same

(you put in special spices as your own little mark on the treat)

so he ends up having you over for more cooking dates

Which he really does enjoy btw

as a tsundere he will look all annoyed and probably call you a plebe, but these are his favorite types of dates

#saiko metori #saiko x reader #metori x reader #kuboyasu x reader #saiki x reader #teruhashi x reader #hairo x reader #saiki k hcs #kuboyasu hcs #hairo hcs #saiki hcs #saiko hcs #teruhashi hcs

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samwisethewitch · 3 years

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The Little Gods: Spirits of Place in Modern Paganism

In a previous post, we talked about gods, goddesses, and the many ways they can be worshiped in a modern pagan practice. However, the gods are not the only group of spiritual beings honored by modern pagans. While building relationships with deities makes up the bulk of practice for many people, a lot of pagans work with other groups of spirits as well, or may even work more closely with these “smaller” spirits than with the gods. One of these groups is the ancestors, the spirits of deceased humans who are part of our lineage — we’ll talk about them in a future post.

The other group of minor spirits commonly honored by modern pagans, and the topic of today’s post, are what I like to call the Spirits of Place. This is a broad category that includes land spirits, spirits of natural objects like trees and rivers, and spirits of man-made locations like a house or office building. Depending on your personal beliefs, it may also include animal guides, spirits of inanimate objects, and/or spirits honored in specific cultures like the fairies or the elves.

The idea that the world around us is spiritually alive and aware is present in some form in almost every culture and religion, and the worship of these Spirits of Place is well-documented in most historic pagan religions. For example, much of Irish folk spirituality revolves around appeasing the fairies, which we can understand as a special type of land spirit — this continued long after the conversion period, even after the worship of the Irish gods had faded into obscurity. Many Norse pagans honor the landvaettir (land spirits) and husvaettir (house spirits), which have survived in more recent Nordic folklore in the form of spirits like the Danish nisse or Swedish tomte, who are still honored at Christmas in some parts of Scandinavia. In Roman paganism, the lares, who are both land spirits and the guardians of man-made homes and are closely connected to the ancestors, are given a place of honor. Eclectic pagans may pull from one or more of these practices, or may honor their local spirits in their own unique way.

Honoring the Spirits of Place is not exclusive to pagan faiths. Practitioners of New Orleans Voodoo honor the ashe, the sacred energy, of the Mississipi River, one of their most prominent local landmarks. In Shinto, places and objects are said to have their own kami, which can be understood as gods or as spirits. Even in Christianity’s strictly monotheist system, God is often understood to be physically present in the world around us, a philosophy known as panentheism. I offer these non-pagan examples not because I think pagans should copy these other religions, but because I want to make a point about how pervasive the belief in Spirits of Place really is.

Connecting with the Spirits of Place can help us to engage more mindfully and in more meaningful ways with the world around us. When we accept that every plant, animal, rock, and building has its own spirit or soul, we interact with those objects in a more intentional way. We learn to think about our home not just as a place where we live, but as a spiritual entity that we have an active relationship with. We learn to think of our gardens not as a plot of dirt filled with plants, but as a community of land spirits and plant spirits all working together to provide us with nourishment. We learn to think of our cities not as concrete jungles, but as huge collections of spirits as diverse and fascinating as their human inhabitants. When we open our eyes to the spiritual world that exists alongside our own, we begin to see how the spiritual permeates every aspect of human life.

Connecting with Spirits of Place also offers a way for us to personalize and localize our practice. The Spirits of Place in Los Angeles will be very different from those of Brooklyn, Berlin, or Mexico City. Your local Spirits of Place are closely related to your local biome, as well as to the cultural groups that have influenced your community.

Because of this, the best way to connect with your own Spirits of Place is to learn about where you live. Research your local flora, fauna, and weather patterns — how is your ecosystem unique? Learn about local history and about the cultures who have influenced your area. All of these influences will give you some ideas for how to honor the spirits in your practice.

For example, I live in a temperate climate with four true seasons, clay-based soil, and lots of rain and humidity. Some of the local plant spirits that I feel closest to are the black locust tree, the magnolia tree, poke weed, and the birch tree. Some of the local animal spirits I feel closest to are the crow, the red-tailed hawk, the coyote, and the white-tailed deer. My local land spirits are as steadfast and strong as the nearby Appalachian mountains.

I live in the South, so our local spirits are also shaped by a history of racial oppression and persecution. They have witnessed the displacement of the Cherokee people, whose stolen land I live on today. They have witnessed the transatlantic slave trade and the continued oppression of Black people with Jim Crow and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. They have witnessed devastating poverty in rural communities, including those of my ancestors. These scars run deep, creating a reverberations that I and other Southern folks still feel today. However, with the trauma of the South comes a rich diversity of influences, creating a unique culture unlike any other in the world. My Irish and Scottish ancestors brought their culture with them when they came to these mountains, where it mingled with the cultural influences of our Black and Latino neighbors, the Cherokee influences of our land, a deeply held Protestant Christian faith, and a special brand of magic that is unique to the South. All of this influences my local Spirits of Place, and I try to keep all of it in mind when interacting with them.

I honor my Spirits of Place by learning to identify local plants, respectfully and ethically foraging from those plants, and using them in my spiritual practice. I honor them by feeding the crows, and by greeting the deer when I encounter them on walks. I honor them by remembering the original inhabitants of this land, by supporting Native rights activists, and by donating to nonprofits that support the Eastern Band of the Cherokee, who originally lived in my area. I honor them by actively working to address the issue of racism in the South, up to and including attending Black Lives Matter protests and campaigning for an end to racialized police violence. I honor them by listening to my Cherokee, Black, and Latino neighbors and following their lead on Cherokee, Black, and Latino issues. I also honor them by practicing sustainable gardening techniques, working to lower my environmental impact, and by giving back to the land whenever I can.

If you don’t live in the same geographic area as me, the way you honor your Spirits of Place may look totally different. Don’t be afraid to make this practice your own — once you connect with your local spirits, they will be your guides.

Types of Spirits of Place

There are many, many types of spirits that fall into this category, and the list in this post is not meant to be exhaustive. My goal here is to give you an idea of some of the forms these spirits can take, so that you can begin to recognize the Spirits of Place that surround you in your own life.

Land spirits: These are spirits of specific geographical locations or features of the land. They may be as big as the Mississippi River or as small as the rosebush in your backyard. As you might imagine, these spirits don’t move around much, as they usually don’t venture far from the location they are tied to. In my experience, land spirits have a very stable, steady, and earthy presence.

Our relationship with the land spirits is a direct reflection of our relationship with the land itself. If we live our lives in a way that hurts the land by polluting it or stripping it of resources, it will be much harder to build a healthy relationship with the spirits of that land. The best way to live in right relationship with the land spirits is to treat the land you are living on with honor and respect.

In my personal practice, I call on the land spirits for help in my garden. I make offerings of food that is safe for local wildlife if they decide to help themselves, such as unsalted peanuts, birdseed, bread, or fresh fruit. When I make offerings, I make sure to thank the land spirits for sharing their home with me and for providing me with abundance. You might honor your local land spirits in a similar way, or you may find that another approach works better for you.

House spirits: It is not only natural places that have spirits — man-made buildings also have a spirit of their own. If you’ve ever stayed in a very old house, you probably felt its unique character while you were there. Every building has its own soul of sorts, which embodies the place, the way it is used, and the different people who have lived there. In my experience, these spirits tend to take on the energy of the people who live in or frequently use their building — the spirits of a happy home may have a kind, friendly presence, while the spirits of a dysfunctional business where employees are mistreated may have a mean streak.

Many of us overlook the spiritual importance of our homes. Our home is where we can be most vulnerable, and in most cases it’s probably where most of our daily spiritual practices take place. Our home is the base of operations we come back to at the end of each day. A home that feels safe, comfortable, and welcoming is important to our mental, emotional, and spiritual health. To maintain a healthy home, we need to maintain good relationships with the other people living there — but we can take this even further by striving to have a good relationship with our home itself.

Spirits of objects: Objects also have their on spirits. This applies not only to naturally occurring objects, but to man-made things as well.

Most people with even a passing interest in witchcraft or New Age spirituality are aware that crystals have unique energies and personalities and can act as spiritual allies. What many people don’t realize is that this is not something that is unique to crystals — all objects have a unique spiritual presence, and all of them can be powerful spiritual allies if you take the time to connect with them. A rock from your backyard can be just a powerful as an expensive crystal. So can a favorite sweater, your grandmother’s antique dishes, and even your cell phone.

The best way to connect with the spirits of objects is to talk to them. Tell them that you appreciate the role they serve in your life, and verbally thank them for their help. I find that these spirits don’t typically require offerings in the traditional sense — instead, you can practice reciprocity by keeping their homes in good condition. For example, if you want to connect with the spirit of a favorite stuffed animal, make sure the toy itself stays clean and in good repair.

Plant and animal spirits: Plant and animal spirits are different from spirits of objects because they are physically alive. Plants and animals live and breathe just as we do, which can make them a little easier to befriend and understand than the spirits of inanimate objects. If you’re not quite ready to start talking to your hairbrush, plant and animal spirits can be a good place to start.

Animal spirits are the easiest by far to connect with. Any pet owner will tell you that animals have souls that often seem just as complex as those of humans. Dogs and cats, for example, clearly feel love, joy, sadness, and pain just as humans do. Pets are an excellent way to begin connecting with animal spirits, because you already have a relationship with them in the physical world.

Next time you have a few minutes alone with your pet, try meditating on their spiritual presence. Can you feel their energy? Can you sense the wisdom they carry in their soul?

If you had a pet that died, you might try reaching out to them to see if they want to be involved in your spiritual practice. Dogs especially are very loyal to their owners, and can be called on for protection even after death. If you have ashes or bones from your pet, or if you have items like a collar or a favorite toy, you can include them on an altar or some other special place and make regular offerings of treats or pet food in exchange for their protection.

Some pagans, especially Wiccans and other neopagans, choose to work with familiars, which are a special kind of animal ally. There is a common misconception that a familiar is any animal you feel especially close to, but that isn’t quite how it works. A familiar is an animal that serves as a spiritual ally — traditionally, by helping witches with their magic. The familiar can be a living animal, but it is more often a purely spiritual being.

These animal spirit allies exist in other forms in other pagan religions. In Norse paganism, the fylgja is a spiritual guide that often appears in the form of an animal. The animal form the fylgja takes is closely related to the personality of the person it is attached to, and they are often tied to that person’s fate. In Irish folklore, the fetch is a spiritual double of a human that often appears as an animal. In Kemetic polytheism, one of the parts of the soul is the ba, which often appears as a bird with a human head and which represents a person’s personality. In all of these cases, the animal guide can be understood as an extension of the practitioner, rather than as a separate being like the familiar.

Plant spirits are a little bit different. In my experience, these spirits are quieter and more reserved than most animal spirits, and they tend to work in more subtle ways. Plant spirits are still, steadfast allies that tend to work behind the scenes, so you may not have as many face-to-face interactions with them as you do with animals or land spirits.

The best way to begin connecting with plant spirits is to start keeping a houseplant. As you care for your plant, talk to it! Tell it how much you appreciate it, and thank it for its contribution to keeping your space beautiful and safe. Appropriate offerings for plant spirits are exactly what you would expect: water, fertilizer, and plant food.

Cryptids and folkloric creatures: In the modern era, folklore has given way to urban legends and created a new kind of mythology. Like traditional folklore, urban legends are spread by word of mouth and change organically as they are told and retold. Many urban legends are tied to specific locations, and many of them feature strange and mysterious creatures who can be understood as modern land spirits.

For example, the Loch Ness Monster can be seen as the spirit of Loch Ness. The Jersey Devil is tied to the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. Mothman is tied to Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Although these are some of the most famous modern cryptids, most towns have their own urban legends — if you ask around, you’ll likely find stories of some kind of spectral guardian tied to your area. My college campus has a handful of its own urban legends, including one of a female spirit who appears to warn students of coming disasters. Find out who your local cryptids are, and look for ways to incorporate them into your practice.

These different types of spirits are sometimes filtered through different cultural lenses, which changes the way they interact with humans. For example, an Irish fairy is very different from a Japanese kami, even though both technically fall into the larger category of land spirits. If you feel drawn to a specific tradition’s approach to working with the Spirits of Place, I advise you to do your own research into that tradition — including making sure that it isn’t part of a closed cultural practice which you are not party to. Look for sources written by members of the living culture of that tradition, rather than books written by outsiders.

Connecting with the Spirits of Place

Here are some activities you can do to strengthen your connection with the Spirits of Place:

Make offerings. As I mentioned above, you can honor the spirits with offerings. Just make sure that, if you leave offerings outside, you only offer things that are biodegradable and are safe for local wildlife. If you don’t want to leave physical offerings, you can offer acts of service like picking up litter, watering plants, or volunteering at an animal shelter.

Create an altar. Altars are an excellent way to create space in your life for the spirits. My herb garden doubles as an altar to the land spirits, with a small Green Man statue to represent the spirits and a place where I can leave offerings. I also have a table indoors where I keep most of my houseplants, which is also a sacred space of sorts. The type of altar you create and its location will depend on the spirits you want to connect with — the possibilities are limitless.

Start a compost pile. Compost piles make excellent offerings to land spirits and plant spirits. While compost isn’t quite as simple as “just throw all your leftover food in a pile,” it’s not difficult if you know what you are doing. When composting, it’s important to maintain a balance between carbon-rich “brown” material (leaves, undyed paper, cardboard, etc.) and nitrogen-rich “greens” (fruit and veggie scraps, coffee grounds, egg shells, etc.) — you want about four times as much brown as green in your compost. There are some things you shouldn’t add to your compost, like meat, dairy products, and greasy foods. Start your compost with a layer of brown material — preferably twigs or straw to allow good airflow. Alternate layers of green and brown materials as you add to the pile. Every time you add to your compost, verbally express your gratitude to the land spirits. Your compost should be moist, but not soggy — you’ll know it’s ready when it’s dark and crumbly and smells like soil. Use it on your garden and in your houseplant pots, or donate it to a local community garden.

Hold a territory acknowledgement. A territory acknowledgement is a way to insert awareness of indigenous people whose lands were stolen from them. You can acknowledge indigenous territory at the beginning of public religious events, or at the beginning of your private rituals. This practice will help you develop a deeper understanding of the history of your land, which can help deepen your connection to it as well as honoring its original inhabitants. A territory acknowledgement can be as simple as: “I acknowledge and honor this land, which is called [indigenous name of your area] and is home to the people of [indigenous nation].” Make sure you take the time to learn the correct pronunciation for these indigenous words. You can find out who originally lived in your area and what they called it by visiting native-land.ca.

Donate to conservation efforts. Instead of making physical offerings, make a donation to an environmentalist cause and dedicate it to your Spirits of Place. Look for groups that work in your local area, such as nonprofits dedicated to fighting deforestation and climate change, groups that protect rare and endangered native plants, or wildlife rehabilitation centers. Even volunteering at an animal shelter can be an appropriate offering to animal spirits.

Start a garden with native plants. Do some research into your local ecosystem — what plants are native to your area? Which of them are edible? Which of them have spiritual uses? Buy or forage seeds from these plants and start a 100% native garden. Growing and eating food that is native to your area can help deepen your connection to the land, the local plant spirits, and the cycle of the seasons.

Replace mainstream cleansing herbs with native plants. White sage, palo santo, frankincense, and sandalwood, some of the most popular cleansing herbs among modern pagans, are all endangered due to over-harvesting. Instead of buying endangered plants from far off lands, try to find a native plant you can use instead. If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere where rosemary or lavender is native, you’re in luck! If not, try researching some of the plants in your backyard — you might be surprised what you find. Most plants in the Salvia (sage) family can be burned as incense to cleanse and consecrate a space. This family includes over 1,000 species spread out over Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Many trees also have cleansing properties, especially coniferous trees like pine, cedar, and juniper. Find out what is abundant in your area and find ways to incorporate it into your rituals.

Go for a hike. While bringing the Spirits of Place into our homes can be deeply meaningful, it’s also important to get out there and meet them on their own terms. Try to make time to get out in nature, and be open to connecting with the spirits you find on these trips. You don’t have to go far — even hanging out in a backyard or city park can allow you to connect with the land.

Feed the birds. And the squirrels, and the deer, or whatever other critters you have. Now, I am not recommending approaching wild animals and trying to befriend them. I am also not recommending feeding animals people food. Nature often rests in a delicate balance, and directly feeding wild animals can make them dependent on humans, which could be dangerous for them. While feeding local animals can be an excellent offering, it’s important to do it in a way that is safe and non-instrusive. It’s best to leave food in a place you know is frequented by animals, then let them find it after you’ve gone. Bird feeders and squirrel feeders are a great way to do this.

Clean your house. One of the best ways to honor house spirits? Keep their living space clean! Try to keep your house tidy and be a good roommate to its spirits. Try not to let clutter pile up, and take time to sweep, mop, and dust every once in a while. You can even ask your house spirits to help you keep the house clean — just make sure you’re also doing your fair share of housework, or they may get upset about the unfair arrangement.

These “little gods” of places and objects are often forgotten, but they are an important part of daily pagan practice. While the gods rule over grand concepts and forces of nature, and the ancestors are tied to our family and community, the Spirits of Place make up the ground we stand on, the air we breathe, and the places we call home. Perhaps more than any other group of spirits, they are truly the gods of the everyday.

Resources:

Water Magic by Lilith Dorsey

Southern Cunning by Aaron Oberon

Simply Living Well by Julia Watkins

The Way of Fire and Ice by Ryan Smith

A Practical Heathen’s Guide to Asatru by Patricia M. Lafayllve

Where the Hawthorn Grows by Morgan Daimler

Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham

Temple of the Cosmos by Jeremy Naydler

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ga-yuu · 3 years

Text

~Kurama~Main Story Chapter 16~

Warning!! This chapter contains attempted murder and strong language

Chapter 15

--------Part 1--------

Yoshitsune: “First of all, I apologize because we assume that you might be in danger.”

Yoshino: “Danger...?”

One morning, Yoshitsune-sama visits my room and his first words made me blink.

Yoshino: “Why am I in danger?”

Kurama was also sitting next to Yoshitsune-sama, and he opens his mouth casually.

Kurama: “I’m told there are people in this mansion who wants to assassinate you.”

(Ehhh....)

I felt the blood draining from my face.

Yoshitsune: “Our army is being reinforced in preparation for the first war against the Shogunate. Not a few of the new recruits had a grudge against the Shogunate for one reason or another.”

Yoshino: “But why would they want to kill me...?”

Yoshitsune: “It’s still unconfirmed but Yoichi is working on it. Until this matter is settled, I want you to stay in this room, just in case.”

Yoshino: “....Okay.”

My voice trembled when I replied.

(I was prepared to put myself in danger on the battlefield one day.)

(But I never thought I’d see the day when my life would be directly threatened in this way.)

(No matter how kind Yoshitsune-sama and the others are....my presence is not interesting to the soldiers of the Rebels)

My fingertips are as cold as if they were immersed in ice water.

Kurama: “Why are you trembling?”

(Kurama...)

Yoshino: “No, no no, I was just surprised. But I’m fine.”

Kurama frowned when he saw me forcing a smile.

Kurama: “......... Take this.”

(Hm?)

I took what was offered to me and it was a whistleblower.

Yoshino: “What’s this for?”

Kurama: “It’s got my spell on it. In this big mansion, I’d be able to hear it from anywhere.”

(Wow! That’s amazing!)

Kurama: “I want you to use it.”

--------Part 2---------

Kurama: “I want you to use it.”

I was stunned when he looked straight at me.

(I’ve been feeling a bit out of sorts since that night in the garden with Kurama....)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. I’ll do my best.

2. I’ll take good care of it.

3. That’s reassuring.(+4/+4)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yoshino: “That’s reassuring.”

Kurama: “I’m giving you that this time because it’s special. I don’t like to be treated as a shikigami used by humans.”

Yoshino: “Ohh, umm....thank you.”

Yoshitsune: “It’s only good for a few days. I want it to be a good luck charm in case of emergency.”

I agreed without a second, but....

.................

......That night.

Yoshino: “Eh, you haven’t caught the killer yet?”

Rebel vessel 1: “No. Although we are still in the middle of our interrogation, Yoshitsune-sama has asked me to report to you urgently before we take our leave.”

Yoshino: “Thank you.”

(Even though he is under interrogation, can I be a little relieved....?)

After the retainer has left, he breathes a sigh of relief.

My body slowly relaxed and I realise that I was more nervous than I thought.

(Yoshitsune-sama probably gave me the report so that I could sleep a little more calmly. I must thank him tomorrow.)

(Let’s read and sleep for the rest of the day.)

I reached for the tabletop to read the history book I had borrowed to review the knowledge Kagetoki-san had taught me.

..............

Yoshino: “Oh, no! I was told I had to return this book by today.”

(I’d forgotten all about it in the assassination fiasco.)

(I thought I’d ask someone to give it back to library.)

Perhaps it was the noise of the assassination attempt, but the vassals passing through the corridor were not in the mood to be approached.

However, I felt bad about calling them all the way.

(Because it would be unpleasant for the Rebels to take up my errands as a member of the Shogunate that everyone hates.)

Yoshino: “....The library is not far, so it should be fine, right?”

My heart ached for the thorn that I could not pull out.

(But something is bugging me----)

(Because I know that the Rebels, like everyone else in the Shogunate, are fighting for their friends and their beliefs.)

I was walking in the corridor while thinking about this, when----

(Nn.......!?)

Suddenly, a hand reaches out and covers my mouth, pulling me hard from behind.

Yoshino: ”Nnn...nnn....”

Man 1: “Shut up!”

I was pushed into a spare room and the sliding door slammed shut roughly.

Yoshino: “Nn....what the!”

Man 2: “How dare you, a member from the Shogunate walking around with her head held high in front of our eyes.”

------Part 3------

Man 2: “How dare you, a member from the Shogunate walking around with her head held high in front of our eyes.”

Man 1: “Yeah, I’ll avenge my comrades who were caught.”

Two men stood in front of me with swords.

(They’re going to kill me-----)

My blood froze with fear and my toes began to tremble.

(So there are two people!?)

They smile mockingly at me as I slowly back away.

(What should I do? I’ll buy some time and then....)

I remembered the whistleblower in my pocket and reach out for it------

Man 2: “...Our former comrades were killed in the war against the Shogunate.”

(If I call Kurama, he’ll surely kill them....)

(But, even I’d hate my enemies if they killed my friends....)

The words came out of my mouth in a rush----

Yoshino: “Look, we can talk this over...okay?”

Man 1: “Huh?”

(....I’m sorry. I know I’m being reckless, but....)

The faces of the two men became increasingly grim.

Yoshino: “Please, I beg you. I won’t tell Yoshitsune-sama and the others about you.....”

Man 2: “Are you kidding me? Woman!”

Yoshino: “No I....”

They held down my body as I tried to escape and I struggled.

Man 1: “Shut up! We’ll finish you off quickly and you won’t feel a thing!”

(NO!!)

I saw the white blade shining brightly while he was on top of me.

Regret and fear nearly overwhelmed me when----

Kurama: “Footsteps and squeaks like rats in the night.”

(Kurama!)

The men stopped moving when they heard a low voice.

Man 1: “Kurama-sama!”

Kurama entered the room and narrowed his eyes coldly at me.

Kurama: “.....What are you doing, Yoshino?”

Yoshino: “I...”

Man 1: “Kurama-sama! Please don’t move!”

The man screams while pointing the sword at my throat.

Kurama: “Who gave you permission to move? I forbid you to move against my will, not even a finger.”

Men: “!”

As soon as they felt the space distorting, their faces were filled with astonishment.

Man 2: “W-What is this?”

Man 1: “I can’t move!”

(Maybe he used Kotodama!?)

Kurama: “If you come in my way again, I’ll block your breathing.”

It was a blizzard of frost and they both lost their blood, their mouths still tightly shut when they should be free.

Kurama(glare): “Yoshino. Answer me. Why didn’t you call me?”

-------Part 4------

Kurama(glare): “Yoshino. Answer me. Why didn’t you call me?”

A stinging, deadly energy emanated silently from Kurama’s body and filled the room.

(....If I give a bad answer, he’ll kill everyone in this room including me.)

Yoshino: “I....I was almost killed.”

Kurama: “Why didn’t you blow the whistle when you knew you were?”

I can’t breathe properly because I feel the mass of air around me has increased so much.

Yoshino: “B-Because.”

I struggled to speak under the cold stare.

Yoshino: “I thought it would only be natural that there are people in this house who hates me because I’m an enemy. So, if we could talk it through....”

Kurama: “Oh. So, you want to die.”

(......!!)

Yoshino: “No, I----”

Kurama: “You already declared right in front of me that you’re on the Shogunate’s side. Then, why are you trying to make peace with these guys? I despise with all my heart anyone who would describe that warmth as kindness.”

The low voice, crushed my rebuttal.

Kurama: “Yoshino---is it horrible to be hated for real by someone who is right in front of you?”

(Ah.......)

I couldn’t even speak because it was so true.

(Yes, I didn’t want to be the bad guy.)

(I’m afraid of the malice directed at me by someone else, so I tried to look away from it.....)

(As a result, I almost lost my life.)

(If I die, I won’t be able to help everyone in the Shogunate anymore, but I made the wrong decision.)

Kurama: “Be proud to be an enemy that someone hates, if that’s what you’re willing to do with your life. If not, you may disperse here and now in disgrace.”

(.....Those serious eyes.)

With all the energy in my body, I looked straight back into Kurama’s eyes.

Yoshino: “-----I don’t want to die. Even if someone hates me.”

Kurama: “If you want to live, you must beg, and you must risk the lives of others.”

---------Part 5---------

Yoshino: “-----I don’t want to die. Even if someone hates me.”

Kurama: “If you want to live, you must beg, and you must risk the lives of others.”

Kurama snapped his fingers high in the air.

Men: “....!”

As if on cue, the bodies of the men escaped from the Kotodama.

Man 1: “Fuck you!”

Yoshino: “!!”

(No, I want to live!)

I pushed the man’s chest and scream as I struggle.

Yoshino: “Help! Kurama----”

Kurama: “That’s right. Beg me from the bottom if your heart.”

Strong wind blew around the room.

Man 2: “What the hell!?”

One of the men winces as he is cut down by an invisible blade of wind.

Man 1: “Ku...”

The other one, who was cutting at me, immediately seized his hand and removed his sword.

Kurama: “Surrendering already? You got no guts at all.”

(Finally....!!)

Man 1: “I-I heard you were a foreigner. Why would you use such great power to protect a woman of the Shogunate?”

Man 2: “Yeah! We’re just trying to avenge our friends.....”

As I sit there stunned, the men screamed at me.

Kurama: “It is the prerogative of the strong to choose where they wield their power. But before you accuse me of being unworthy.....”

The blood colored eyes took the men in their stride for the first time and penetrated deep into them.

Kurama: “You took Yoshino by surprise in a place where its not a battlefield. It seems to be for a great cause, but it’s only a matter of venting your resentment on an entity that you’re sure has the upper hand. What a pathetic petty way to live.”

Men: “Nn...........”

(Kurama.........)

I can’t help but be drawn to the way he says it with such strength and grace.”

(To everyone, Kurama is fair and merciless.)

(But, I’m sure that’s because.... Kurama himself is not ashamed of his life to anyone.)

The tension that I had felt earlier had dissipated, and I could feel the hot blood flowing through my body.

Kurama: “Yoshitsune will be the one to deal with you. It’s stupid, I’m not even interested in your life or death. Don’t ever stand in my line of sight again. Also.......”

(!!)

As if remembering, Kurama grabbed my hand and pulled me up.

Kurama: “This woman belongs to me. If you have a problem with that, you can tell me who owns her.

Chapter 17

#ikemen series #ikemen genjiden #ikemen mc #ikemen genjiden kurama #main story translations #otome #cybird #cybird otome #cybird ikemen

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honeypirate · 3 years

Text

You’re Lucky

Soulmate AU where they share a birthmark that is in the same shape and place.

Bokuto Koutarou x Fem!Reader

I’ve read through this a few times but I’m sure there are things I have missed while editing.

4k+ words

You stared at the mark in the reflection in the bathroom mirror. Steam filled the room from your particularly hot shower, your skin red and the mirror foggy except from the stripe down the middle you made with your hand which just had stripes of water beads on it. You sigh as you watch your reflection touch the owl shaped mark and trace it’s outlines. “A soulmate mark on my ribs, useless” you whisper as you leave your bathroom, steam shooting out the door when you open it.

“Hey y/n!” Yukie says as you come into morning practice, you wave at her as you pick up your shoes from the door “sorry i'm late!” you say and make your way over to her around the boys practicing, sending a glance in Bokuto’s direction and blushing when you find him already looking at you. You wave with your fingers and he grins before waving back “Up front!” Akaashi else yells, successfully getting Bo’s attention.

You were their third manager who was also a third year, you helped where you could but honestly you just loved volleyball. Your passion for the game was why the coach allowed another manager the same year as the other two when you joined your second year. The energy was intoxicating and you loved to watch the growth of the players. Plus it didn’t hurt that they were all so cute, especially Bokuto who has become your close friend. Your energies just matched perfectly and you always knew what to say to get him out of his depressive funks.

You were talking to the other managers about the training camp coming up the following week while the boys were cleaning up, the whole time Bo was watching, fire in his eyes and excitement when he heard your words about being able to come to the camp too. “HEy! You're going to come to the summer training camp right?!” he shouts when you exit the gym and you giggle “of course Bo! It’s so intoxicating to see your energy playing! AH I mean all your guys energy.. Everyone's energy. It’s really fun is all I mean!” this boy is so damn clueless it hurts but at the same time you were grateful he just kept on talking even after your rambling and flusters.

After practice and meetings you walk to the bus stop with Bokuto, Akaashi, Konoha, Yukie, and Kaori. After a very animated conversation about which soulmate mark was superior, you all agreed that a name on the wrist is so much better than thoughts in your head and tied with thoughts being written on your arm because that could be entertaining. The one you had, an hidden mark, was 8 on the list, and no one asked to know what yours was so you never told them. From this conversation you realized that no one cares about Bo’s either. The rest of them have very obvious ones, a birthmark on the face, words on arms, ones that told you that you weren’t theirs so you never brought any attention to it.

You’re on the bus sitting next to Yukie, with Bokuto and Akaashi behind you. You get a call from your mom and answer just in case it was an emergency “hey darling!” he voice was so loud that Bokuto behind you could hear the conversation “my friend from work said her son has a rib birth mark!” Bo’s ears perked up at that. “She did? Did she say what shape it was in?” he hears you mom squeal “she said it was in the shape of a lion! That’s yours, right honey?” you pinch the bridge of your nose and Bokuto can feel the sadness creeping in until you say “No mom. Mine is shaped like an owl” Bokuto’s face turns red as he stares at the back of your head as you get up to get off the bus at your stop, waving at the guys and mouthing “see you tomorrow” behind you as you continue your phone call.

An owl. Your soulmate had a matching rib mark that looks like an owl. He knows exactly who your soulmate is because that mark is very familiar to him, he’s been looking at the same mark every time he’s shirtless.

After that he talked to Akaashi about it and they came up with an idea to breach the subject without it being weird like he was creepily listening to your phone call. Since you were all going to the training camp in a few days he’ll just take off his shirt while you’re around, during a game he’ll pretend he’s too hot, then you’ll know too and he won’t be creepy. Perfect. Perfect except now he doesn’t know how to be around you, he already wants to run to you, hold you and never let you go. Now he has to keep this secret. He had Akaashi promise to keep him on track with the plan.

The next day was Friday and then the summer training camp on Monday. You showed up to practice in the morning and the moment you walk through the door Bokuto is right by you “good morning y/n!” He practically sings and you laugh “good morning Bo!” You say and pat his shoulder, he has way more energy than you have ever seen this early. He was smiling at you with a glint in his eye like he knew something you didn’t, which he did and he was dying to yell it from the rooftops but Akaashi comes up to him and drags him away whispering something you couldn’t hear.

All practice his eyes were on you, a smile on his lips, every time you would make eye contact he would beam at you so brightly your heart would skip as you smiled back and waved. The other managers asked if something was up but you just shrugged “there’s always something up with Bo. I just go with the flow”

At the end of practice the coach announced that because there is the training camp you could have the weekend off, you were so excited to be able to sleep in for once. “Hey do you wanna hang out tomorrow since we have the day free?” Bo whispers from behind you and Akaashi smacks his arm “hush it’ll be fine” Bo says to him and he rolls his eyes. You laugh “of course Bo! Wanna get lunch?” He nods enthusiastically and you chuckle “come over to my house at noon and we can go to that place you keep talking about” he beams “the new noodles place?! YES!” He shouts and the Coach glares at him, making you and him chuckle as you turn your attention back to the meeting.

The next morning you wake up naturally without an alarm which is something you haven’t done since you started school. You stretch out your arms and smile as you reach for your phone, opening it you see a few texts from Bo, opening them you start to chuckle. “Good morning beautiful!” Your heart flutters as you read the word beautiful, then you notice the time stamp of 7 am. He was up for two hours already. The following text said NOODLES!!!! In all caps and with four exclamations, you could feel his excitement through the letters. The last text that was received just thirty minutes ago said “wake up please I miss you!” Your heart skips again, he was always saying exactly what he meant and you loved it, but you knew it couldn’t be like this forever, he most likely had his own soulmate out there and when he finds them he won’t be like this anymore. You text him “good morning Bo! If you want to come over early feel free! I’m going to make some breakfast!” His text back is immediate “oh thank god! I’m already here” you laugh as you hear the doorbell and throw off your covers, excitedly running down to answer it.

“Bo bo bo b-bo-ku-to “ you sang as you made your way to the front door, you open it and grin up at the grey haired boy, before you could say anything he’s pulled you into a hug, his arms under yours and wrapped around your waist, his head buried into your neck. Your heart rate skips and your stomach flops like crazy, this was so much more intimate than any hug you’ve ever shared with him “H-hello Bokuto!” you say and he chuckles, his breath hitting your neck and giving you goosebumps “hello Y/N!” he basically whispers into your ear. You feel your face warm and you quickly pull yourself from his grasp, hiding your face as you turn to quickly walk into the kitchen “What do you feel like eating? I think we have ingredients for almost anything ha ha “ you say awkwardly as you retreat away from him, trying to calm your heart rate and breathing

After breakfast you head up to your room to get ready, it wasn’t new to have him hang out while you do your makeup, you would get dressed in the bathroom and then sit in front of the mirror on the floor while he connected to your speakers and played music or read a book you had on your bedside table. What made it different this time was the way he was watching you from his spot laying on your bed, a small smile on his lips as he played music and watched as you expertly lined your eyes, admiring how effortless you made it look. You feel his eyes on you and you quickly swipe blush across your cheeks and nose so it wasn’t obvious that you were blushing before making eye contact with him in your mirror, he winks with a grin and you chuckle and stick your tongue out at him.

“Noodles noodles noodles tasty tasty noodles” you were singing under your breath as you walked down the street to the restaurant, Bokuto was watching you from the corner of his eye, a smile on his lips from how adorable you are. He always thought you were special, always jealous of who your soulmate would turn out to be, had a crush on you since the very first day he met you when he yelled his signature heys and you returned them to him with the same energy. He adored you and he never would have admitted how hard he fell for you if he didnt know he was your soulmate.

“This was an amazing idea Bokuto!” you said as you take your first bite, he chuckles and nods enthusiastically, swallowing before saying “we are definitely becoming regulars here” you nod “oh yeah!” when you finished eating you just pushed your bowls aside and talked, talked about loads of things you never have before. Your families, your future plans, your favorite sleeping position. Just anything that came up, never running out of subjects. “Ice cream?” he asks and you nod “you are brilliant Bo this is why we are friends!” he laughs, his cheeks flushing as he stands quickly and takes your hand, pulling you up and not letting your hand go even as he starts walking.

After a few blocks, your conversion still flowing even as you focus on on the fact that his strong large hand was still holding yours in his, fingers laced together. “Hey Bokuto” you say as you get to the ice cream truck “yeah whats up? Do you want to share? I wouldn't mind it but feel free to get whatever you want, my treat” you chuckle “thanks bo, I will keep that in mind but uh.. I was wondering if you meant to be holding my hand still” his face flushes and he looks down at your hands together, to be honest he didn't do it on purpose, it just felt right and he didn't want to let go of your hand.

“I can let go if you want” he says, trying to fight the feeling of sadness he can feel coming on, he couldn't get sad at this because you wouldnt understand that he was sad that his soulmate didn't want to hold his hand. He wanted to stick to the plan he made with Akaashi. You chuckle softly and squeeze his hand “i'd rather you didn’t, actually” you say, stomach flipping as he beams at you after you say that, you squeeze his hand and he feels his heart rate skip.

You eat your ice cream as you walk around the city, your hands stay laced together, if you let go for any reason, you reach out for each other the moment you can hold hands again. Both drawn together. When the sun goes down you shiver, instinctually moving closer to him as you walked through the park “are you cold? Do you want my hoodie?” you shake your head “it’s okay, i'll be fine until we make it back to my house” he drops your hand and grabs his hood, pulling it from his body swiftly and then handing it to you, the look in his eyes saying”no, i will absolutely not be taking no as an answer” you chuckle and put it on, saying thanks from beneath the fabric as you slide your arms and head through the holes. You push the hood from your face and bury your face in the comfort of the neck, “you always smell so good Bokuto” his face blushes and he scratches his neck, reaching out for your hand and lacing your fingers together. “K-koutarou, you can call me Kou” he says and you smile, giving his hand a squeeze. “Then you can call me y/f/n as well. Do you wanna watch a movie in my room?” he nods “yes please! Wanna watch Ant Man? It’s so funny!” you laugh “of course! Then we might as well watch both, and if we’re going to do that then we should watch every marvel movie that has Ant Man in it!” he starts to jump on his toes “hey hey hey! We must be cut from the same cloth! You are a woman after my own heart!” you chuckle, trying to hide how flustered you feel, at some point this relationship will end when you both meet your soulmates, didn’t mean you couldn't have this one day though “makes sense that we get along then!” you say and he nods “yes, it really does” he says wistfully, like he was thinking of something he was longing for.

You watch Ant Man, then make some popcorn and watch Ant Man and the Wasp, then you watch Civil War, but before Ant Man even makes an appearance in that one you are falling asleep on his shoulder, hand still in his and your breath hitting his neck as you listen to the actors talk, your ears coming in and out of the sound as you fall deeper, your body pulsing with drowsiness and the last thing you remember is his soft chuckle and kiss to the side of your head.

Your alarm wakes you up at 6 and you groan “turn it off turn it off turn it off” a sleepy voice says besides you and you nod with your eyes closed before reaching over and hitting the button “sorry” you whisper, still half asleep as you roll over, burying your face into Bokuto’s chest and drifting back to sleep in the warmth of him.

When you wake up again he’s running his fingers across the back of your neck and arm, you are pressed into his chest and when you open your eyes you are greeted by his smiling face. Your cheeks flush bright red and you quickly roll off him and sit up “what happened?” you ask and he laughs “you fell asleep and I tried to leave after the movie but you had a death grip on my shirt and hand, i didn't want to wake you because you looked so cute” he laughs and you force a laugh out, feeling so awkward by the fact that it felt so good to be with him, and your cheeks flushing even darker at him calling you cute. “What time is it?” you ask and he sits up “uhh it’s 11:43” you laugh and feel a little of your awkward feelings disperse “i slept so good” he chuckles and stands, stretching his arms above his head and you pause, staring at the skin of his back that showed, toned muscles and dimples above his shorts waistband. “me too actually. I heard your parents leave for work so good thing we won't be getting in trouble today” he turns around, sending you a knowing look for catching you ogle him and you roll your eyes making him laugh.

You hide in the bathroom as you pull yourself together, this isn’t the first time he’s slept over but usually he sleeps on the floor from crashing out after a sugar high and movie marathons. Not cuddling you. Not making your goddamn heart beat out of your chest. Jeez what are you going to do? If this keeps up you don’t think you can continue being his friend, if you fall for him and he finds his soulmate it’ll rip your heart out. And if you find yours first you don’t want to hurt him. You’ll have to just keep your distance. You wash your face and brush your teeth and then exit the bathroom, your mood bland as you head back to talk to Bokuto.

“Hey Kou” his face brightens as you walk back in the room and you look down at the floor, your heart tensing and your stomach heavy like a brick as you finish your sentence “I uh I have to do some things today alone so uh I don’t think we can hang out too much today” the mood in the room shifts as he gets sad “ah that’s okay y/n. Don’t worry about it.” He clears his throat and comes over to you “see you tomorrow yeah? Yay training camp!” He fakes being happy but you see right through it, he feels like you do, sad to be without him and sad at your obvious terrible lie. He wraps his arms around you and you decide to make it a good one, a good last hug. You wrap your arms tight around his neck and press your face into his chest as he holds you tight.

You make it to the bus in the morning early and alone, usually you would have walked with Bokuto but today you sent him a lousy excuse as to why you wanted to walk alone. You sit in the middle row by Yukie, pulling up your hood over your face and putting in headphones so you could pretend to sleep and not have to talk to anyone, successfully ignoring Bokuto and putting a little more distance between you both.

“I don’t know what’s going on” Bokuto said to Akaashi as they were putting their stuff in their room for the week “we hung out Saturday and it was amazing and now she’s avoiding me and lying and it’s so obvious and sad because she doesn’t look in my eyes” Akaashi shakes his head “Bokuto just ask her” his eyes brighten at the idea and he takes off running through the door and out towards where he knew the girls room was.

“Hey guys!” He was breathing heavy and smiling as he appeared in your doorway, your back to him facing Yukie, you didn’t turn around or say anything you just retreated into yourself more. “Hey Bokuto what’s up?” Yukie says and chuckles “can I speak with y/n alone for a moment?” He says and the other girls nod and stand to leave. You feel your heart drop and your stomach rises to your throat.

You stand up and turn when Yukie leaves, closing the door behind her. You don't say anything, you just nervously play with your fingers as you look at the ground instead of at him. “Why are you avoiding me?” he asks, straight to the point. You clear your throat “Bokuto I.. . I don’t want to catch more feelings for you because I know when we find our soulmates it will be hard to let you go. So i think it will be best for us to spend time apart” the gears turn in his head, his heart hurt at you calling him Bokuto again but he’s happy too. You are distancing yourself because you have feelings for him already. Little did you know you were soulmates. He pulls you into a hug and sighs into your hair “as you wish” he whispers and then kisses the top of your head before quickly leaving your room without another word.

Bokuto realized he had to do it today, he couldn't wait any longer, he would wait until a few games go by then during lunch he would take off his shirt around you and you would know. Easy peasy. The first game goes by, then the second, you leave during the third for a managers meeting and to help make lunch and then finally, finally the third game is over and it’s time for lunch.

He whips off his shirt and colored vest and pants as he catches his breath, placing them over his neck as he places his hands on his knees as he breathes. You bring him over his water bottle “thank you Y/N” he winks and you blush and look away. He brings the bottle to his lips, exposing his birthmark as he drains it. You go to walk away from him but the mark catches your eye. You freeze and he notices, a smirk on his lips as he watches you. “Yo-your soulmate mark, is an owl?” you ask, your voice quiet and he nods “sure is! Do you like it?” he asks and runs his fingers across the mark. You clear your throat “uh.. Uh yeah. It’s cute. Real cool Kou” you are in mid panic, you just told him to stay away from you and now you think he’s your soulmate. How are you supposed to tell him now?! “Yn..?” he asks and before he can reach for you, you have turned to walk away fast “sorry Koutarou i gotta..” you don't finish your sentence you just run.

You run down the hallway to the very end and stop, the doors in front of you locked or you would have gone father. You place your palms against the door and lean down, trying to steady your breathing, and then whip up to look behind you as you hear feet running up. He has his hands outstretched, a look of concern on his face “what’s wrong?” he asks and you feel yourself start to hyperventilate “I.. I “ you can’t speak as you look into his eyes, your breaths uneven and panick. he comes up to you, taking your hand and placing it on his chest “hey hey hey, it’s okay. Breathe with me” you nod as overwhelmed tears fall from the corner of your eyes, his other free hand runs through your hair slowly, your other hand going up to rest beside your other as you look deep into his golden eyes. After a few minutes your breathing has matched with his, he reaches up and wipes away the stray tears on your cheeks “I’m sorry Kou I just got really overwhelmed. I just told you I wanted space but now you’re my soulmate. I didn’t know what to do” his cheeks flush “It’s okay love, I’m here with you” your eyes widen a little “did you know?” you whisper and he blushes and looks down sheepishly “I eavesdropped on your conversation with your mom on friday. I didn’t know how to bring it up so i thought i would wait until i could show you” you slap his shoulder “Koutarou! You should have told me immediately. God we could have had such an amazing weekend! But no! You let me kick you out!” he chuckles and falls to a knee “i’m sorry darling! Please forgive me” he kisses your knuckles and you blush “you’re lucky you’re cute” you say and he stands, pulling you into a hug as he laughs “I’m lucky you’re mine” you lean back and cup his cheek “you got that right” you grin before he dips down, pressing his lips to yours.

#haikyuu #haikyuu imagines #bokuto koutarou #kotaro bokuto #bokuto koutorou #haikyuu bokuto #bokuto x you #bokuto x y/n #bokuto x reader #koutarou x reader #koutarou x you #bokuto koutarou x you

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heyitsyn · 3 years

Text

Yellow

psa: okay i know yall are about to blast me on this even though i’ve put this warning up here, i know kuroo’s eyes are hazel or something like that. but i actually headcanon him to have somewhat yellow or even gold eyes so we’re sticking to that for now, okay? okay

kuroo x reader (tsukishima x reader in the end)

angst....

Look at the stars Look how they shine for you And everything you do Yeah, they were all yellow

I came along I wrote a song for you And all the things you do And it was called "Yellow"

all your life you thought he was the one.

growing up with kenma and kuroo, you naturally found your soulmate mark pretty early on. it was a normal Sunday afternoon when you noticed something seemed to be off the moment you laid your eyes on the rooster’s face.

‘hm’

that was the first sound of curiosity that caught the attention of the man himself. a grin made its way on his face as he realized how deeply you were staring at him.

‘oya? am i cute, baby chibi?’

at the mere age of 10, kuroo was already the ultimate teaser he is today. the shameless and sarcastic grin has been carved on his ridiculously adorable face and kuroo tetsuro was never one to miss an opportunity to tease. combined with an older sister, kuroo learned the ways to flirt to a lady despite his initial shyness towards people in general.

then you came.

with your signature f/s (favorite smell) scent, you were the only one he could smell as his own soulmate mark was the lack of scent.

but there was one problem.

it is said that usually when you meet your soulmate, you would regain what you lost.

however, how come it was only a small part that he got back?

shouldn’t he be able to smell his mother’s cooking or the grass outside?

maybe that’s how he found himself drawn to you.

the questions and questions ended in one single answer.

he met you through kenma.

as a neighbor of the pudding head, kuroo often came over to kenma’s house to play since he was the only friend the older boy had. then maybe around the fifth time he came over, he saw you there.

you were standing in your tippy-toes and kuroo watched you try to get a box of fruit snacks on top of the fridge but obviously, you were too short. the poor kid felt himself freeze up at the sight of another kid in the kitchen but then he remembered kenma telling him the other day that a relative was coming over.

you must be the relative.

and a very good smelling one too.

kuroo’s ears turned red when he remembered what his sister told him.

‘it will come one day, tetsu. they will come one day. you will know it immediately when you see them’

it was like an invisible trail only seen by him trailed to you and he imagined it to be yellow.

there was no particular meaning to it but he just knew it was yellow.

‘come on!’

you mumbled repeatedly.

as much as tetsu found the sight amusing, he felt slightly bad for you the moment the 5-minute mark hit. even though he was nervous to speak to you, he mustered up all his courage and walked over, only to startle you with his voice.

‘watch and learn, chibi’

he cringed a little after he said it but he pushed it to the side.

in amazement, you watched as this boy effortlessly heaved himself on the counter and stood up to easily grab the box of snacks. you cheered once his fingertips touched the box but apparently, your noise of happiness scared him and his sock-cladded foot missed the marble top and instead sunk to the air.

‘watch out!’

you shrieked and dove to try and catch him but you didn’t realize how pointless it was as you both still fell and got hurt anyways.

the position was something your young mind didn’t register as anything suggestive.

but his intense gaze made you blink and fluster even more when he laughed and you found yourself comparing him to the cutest boy in your kindergarten.

this boy might be the first one to be cuter than akaashi keiji himself.

‘thank you’

you whispered in appreciation and tetsu nodded, moving himself up before offering you a hand to stand too.

unfortunately for you, colors were never in your life.

i guess you could say that your world was filled with black and white with the occasional appearance of grey.

it never bothered you until twice in your lifetime.

you wanted to see akaashi keiji in full color and you also wanted to see this boy’s eyes.

it looked sharp and reminded you of something your cousin and your cat had in common.

eventually, that desire went away and you went back to living your colorless life.

however.

the moment your 9th birthday hit, you noticed something different.

you were over at kenma’s while your parents were doing something (probably a surprise party). tetsu was over too and by now, he was already accustomed to you and he liked you, even more, when you helped get the volleyball whenever it strayed away.

‘oh! chibi-chan!’

he greeted when he saw you lounging around on kenma’s bed, reading a princess book, while the bed’s owner was by your feet playing on his games.

‘oh! hello, ku-kun!’

you waved, not even looking up from the page, only for him to pull a sour face and whine.

‘aaaaaaa, call me something cute, chibi-chan! i want a nickname too! it’s not fair that kenma gets one and i don’t! and pay attention to me too!’

kuroo childishly complained and you opened your mouth to scold him for being annoying when your heart thrummed violently and your eyes found his.

they were very light.

you didn’t know what the color name was since you’ve been stuck with this problem the moment you were born.

but you were interested to learn just to know what color kuroo tetsuro’s eyes were.

right now, you had no name for it.

all you knew was that they were very pretty.

as you got older, his eyes were the only thing you could see that was outside the black and white and grey spectrum. not even the apple you ate or the school uniform could be identified by a single color.

but his-his were yellow.

the perfect shade of not being too light and not being too dark, they evened out to be something as beautiful as gold.

oddly enough, he was the only person you could see yellow in.

added to the fact that you were still cursed of not having the full color wheel, kuroo’s yellow eyes were the only colorful thing in your life and your cousin even dyed his hair the same color to see if you could identify it on another person.

but nope.

just kuroo.

and that’s what made him so special.

sometimes, you could even see it glow brighter.

you reckon it’s just the lighting but what you don’t know is those short glowing pulses of his eyes were actually the times he realized that he falls in love with you.

so for every time they glow, it was his soul’s indirect way of saying he loves you.

‘chibi?’

kuroo snapped you out of your staring and you found yourself back to the rooftop of your high school while kenma was sipping his juice and playing at the same time.

‘oh’

you mumbled.

kuroo smirked and he scooted closer to peck your cheek before leaning close to your face. even he was flustered at the strongest smell of f/s and it was his own personal drug with no sense of limitation.

the same for kuroo, your scent would get stronger and it would happen occasionally at the most random times.

like now.

but kuroo was a smarter boy and quickly connected the dots that with your strong scent and the clear scream of love in your eyes, your strong scent was your own indirect way that you love him.

and he swears to any higher being up there, that he would always love you more.

‘what were you thinking about, chibi-chan?’

he whispered and your eyes widened at the up-close view of his face and noticed they were glowing again.

you wonder why.

your line of sight moved and you couldn’t help the way your eyes traveled downwards to his lips.

‘oh? you want a kiss?’

he teased and you could feel your ear bursting with how flustered you’ve become but thankfully, kenma decided to save you.

‘oi, kuroo. don’t suck faces when i’m here’

he chided and kuroo sighed heavily then pouted.

‘fine. i guess i can wait. but you owe me double the kisses’

this idiot knew what he was doing to you.

that was your kuroo.

he was everything you wanted and everything you needed.

yet the moment you laid eyes on the tall middle blocker of karasuno, everything faded away.

being the manager of the volleyball team meant you were obligated to go to practice matches with them and as you walked over to the entrance of the gym, you felt the world stop.

there, karasuno stood and your eyes settled on the tall player with the glasses. his height made his noticed quickly but to you, you noticed him immediately with the reasons of suddenly being able to see other colors and because his own hair color was this familiar shade of grey that only meant you couldn’t see the true color.

by the corner of your eye, there was a bright sight.

the hair of some other karasuno player shone brightly and his short height didn’t even register in your head as volleyball material, rather him being the confirmation of what just happened.

‘tetsu’

you almost sobbed and kuroo knew something was wrong by the way your scent started fading.

‘chibi-y/n’

he frantically asked and you looked at him, now seeing the bright color of his jacket.

his eyes still shone in color but now, they all blended with the rest of the colors.

it was all mixed--muddled.

‘kuroo’

you whispered and tetsu knew he should appear professional so he grabbed your waist and pulled you close by his side to silently tell you it was going to be okay.

but by god, it wasn’t.

as the karasuno players introduced themselves, you finally put a name to the tall middle blocker.

‘my name is tsukishima kei’

his velvet voice traveled to your ear.

you swallowed a lump in your throat and you asked kenma what this tsukishima guy’s hair color was.

‘yellow’ was all he said.

it was like thunder boomed in the distance.

it all made sense.

‘hey, y/n?’

kuroo quietly mumbled. you tore your eyes away from the sky and looked at the boy laying beside you with your arms around him to warm you both from the cold summer night at his apartment rooftop.

‘hm?’

‘how come,,,, why can i only smell you?’

your eyes stared at his face but his own refused to look at you.

‘why can i only see your eyes? its the same concept. and honestly, im too scared to find out’

you admitted and that was when tetsu finally looked at you and you might not be able to see anything else but his glowing yellow eyes made up for it.

‘i am too’

you smiled softly before leaning up to kiss his lips.

‘then we don’t have to find out’

you’ve heard from tetsu’s sister before about the taboo tales of twin flames and the differences between soulmates and twin flames.

your mind knew this would happen but your heart refused to accept it.

kuroo tetsuro was the boy you stayed up thinking about and dreaming of the simple wedding and the house with children’s laughter filling up the silence of the street.

but then that grinning and handsome face of your tetsuro became replaced by the face of this person--this stranger.

and there was nothing you could do about it.

tsukishima kei may have given you the colors of the world.

but only kuroo gave you yellow.

okayokayokay i know this kinda sounds confusing so imma write out this quick explanation, okay?

so basically, this is a story about soulmates duh but also partially twin flames. so when you turned 9, you saw kuroo and you thought he was your soulmate immediately because he was the only person who you could see colors to. oddly, it was yellow (i know its supposed to be hazel but please bear with me!!) and so therefore yellow became kuroo’s special thing to you. and i also talked about how their soulmate marks were only partial like kuroo could only smell you and nothing else and you could only see his eyes and its color and nothing else. this goes along with the idea that you can have multiple soulmates in your life but only have one twin flame! as sad as it sounds, he isn’t your twin flame. and when you guys were questioning about it, that was my way of kinda showing this knowledge that not everyone with the soulmate prompt probably thinks about when they make soulmate fics. your twin flame is your endgame or your partner for life. they are your person and your soulmate are just people that are special to you like theyre right under twin flame.

tsukishima kei is your twin flame, not kuroo. kuroo is one of your soulmates that you’ll meet in your lifetime and he was your color of yellow. and i kinda mentioned that despite seeing all the colors in tsukki, you couldnt see his hair color and it’s grey, meaning its a light color but you can’t actually see it bc your soulmate curse blocks it. thats why you ask kenma his hair color and its yellow so you kinda make this connection like ‘how come i still see tetsu’s eye color which is yellow but not tsukishima? or even kenma’s hair?’. bc that color belongs to kuroo. it indicates and reminds you that he’s still one of your soulmates and essentially helped you grow and connected with you deeply. you mistook that connection for romantic love when it was only meant to be platonic love. i mentioned somewhere up there that the topic of twin flames is taboo so its not really known by like everyone so that would maybe explain you and kuroo’s ignorance about it. the same goes for kuroo. say your scent is lavender. he can’t walk into a store and smell a candle of lavender bc its not from you, ya feel? i dont know i suck at explanations but i hope i cleared the air with this one!!

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artielu · 3 years

Text

[Yes, this is long, but it is worth your time to read the whole thing.]

January 6, 2021 (Wednesday)

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

This morning, results from the Georgia senatorial runoff elections showed that Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff had beaten their Republican opponents—both incumbents—by more than the threshold that would require a recount. The Senate is now split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, so the position of majority leader goes to a Democrat. Mitch McConnell, who has bent the government to his will since he took over the position of majority leader in 2007, will be replaced.

With the Democrats in control of both Congress and the Executive Branch, it is reasonable to expect we will see voting rights legislation, which will doom the current-day Republican Party, depending as it has on voter suppression to stay in power.

Trump Republicans and McConnell Republicans had just begun to blame each other for the debacle when Congress began to count the certified electoral votes from the states to establish that Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. The election was not close—Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes and the Electoral College by 306 to 232—but Trump contends that he won the election in a landslide and “fraud” made Biden the winner.

Trump has never had a case. His campaign filed and either lost or had dismissed 62 out of 63 lawsuits because it could produce no evidence for any of its wild accusations. Nonetheless, radical lawmakers courted Trump’s base by echoing Trump’s charges, then tried to argue that the fact voters no longer trusted the vote was reason to contest the certified votes.

More than 100 members of the House announced they would object to counting the votes of certain states. About 13 senators, led by Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), agreed to join them. The move would slow down the count as each chamber would have to debate and take a separate vote on whether to accept the state votes, but the objectors never had anywhere near the votes they needed to make their objections stick.

So Trump turned to pressuring Vice President Mike Pence, who would preside over the counting, to throw out the Biden votes. On Monday, Trump tweeted that “the Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.” This would throw the blame for the loss onto Pence, but the vice president has no constitutional power to do any such thing, and this morning he made that clear in a statement. Trump then tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”

It seemed clear that the voting would be heated, but it was also clear that most of the lawmakers opposing the count were posturing to court Trump’s base for future elections. Congress would count Biden’s win.

But Trump had urged his supporters for weeks to descend on Washington, D.C., to stop what he insisted was the stealing of the election. They did so and, this morning, began to congregate near the Capitol, where the counting would take place. As he passed them on the east side of the Capitol, Hawley raised a power fist.

In the middle of the day, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani spoke to the crowd, telling them: “Let’s have trial by combat.” Trump followed, lying that he had won the election and saying “we are going to have to fight much harder.” He warned that Pence had better “come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country.” He warned that Chinese-driven socialists are taking over the country. And he told them to march on Congress to “save our democracy.”

As rioters took Trump at his word, Congress was counting the votes alphabetically by state. When they got to Arizona, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) stood up to echo the rhetoric radicals had been using to discredit the certified votes, saying that public distrust in the election—created out of thin air by Republicans—justified an investigation.

Within an hour, a violent mob stormed the Capitol and Cruz, along with the rest of the lawmakers, was rushed to safety (four quick-thinking staffers brought along the electoral ballots, in their ceremonial boxes). As the rioters broke in, police shot and killed one of them: Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran from San Diego, QAnon believer, and staunch Trump supporter. The insurrectionists broke into the Senate chamber, where one was photographed on the dais of the Senate, shirtless and wearing a bull costume that revealed a Ku Klux Klan tattoo on his abdomen. They roamed the Capitol looking for Pence and other lawmakers they considered enemies. Not finding them, they ransacked offices. One rioter photographed himself sitting at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk with his feet on it.

They carried with them the Confederate flag.

Capitol police provided little obstruction, apparently eager to avoid confrontations that could be used as propaganda on social media. The intruders seemed a little surprised at their success, taking selfies and wandering around like tourists. One stole a lectern.

As the White House, the FBI, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security all remained silent, President-Elect Joe Biden spoke to cameras urging calm and calling on Trump to tell his supporters to go home. But CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins later reported that she spoke to White House officials who were “genuinely freaked… out” that Trump was “borderline enthusiastic” about the storming of the Capitol because “it meant the certification was being derailed.”

At 4:17, Trump issued his own video, reiterating his false claims that he had been cheated of victory. Only then did he conclude with: “Go home, we love you, you’re very special.” Twitter immediately took the video down. By nighttime Trump’s Twitter feed seemed to blame his enemies for the violence the president had incited (although the rhythm of the words did not sound to me like Trump’s own usual cadence): “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”

Twitter took down the tweet and banned the president for at least twelve hours for inciting violence; Facebook and Instagram followed suit.

As the afternoon wore on, police found two pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., as well as a truck full of weapons and ammunition, and mobs gathered at statehouses across the country, including in Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, California, and Georgia.

By 5:00, acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller issued a statement saying he had conferred with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Vice President Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and had fully activated the D.C. National Guard.

He did not mention the president.

By late evening, Washington, D.C., police chief Robert J. Contee III announced that at least 52 people had been arrested and 14 law enforcement officers injured. A total of four people died, including one who died of a heart attack and one who tased themself.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone urged people to stay away from Trump to limit their chances of being prosecuted for treason under the Sedition Act. By midnight, four staffers had resigned, as well as Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, with other, higher level officials also talking about leaving. Even Trump adviser Stephen Miller admitted it was a bad day. Quickly, pro-Trump media began to insist that the attack was a false-flag operation of “Antifa,” despite the selfies and videos posted by known right-wing agitators, and the fact that Trump had invited, incited, and praised them.

Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis laid the blame for today’s attack squarely at the feet of Trump himself: “Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, and effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.”

The attempted coup drew condemnation from all but the radical Trump supporters in government. Former President George W. Bush issued a statement “on insurrection at the Capitol,” saying “it is a sickening and heartbreaking sight.” “I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election,” he said, and accused such leaders of enflaming the rioters with lies and false hopes. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) was more direct: “What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the President of the United States.”

Across the country tonight are calls for Trump’s removal through the 25th amendment, impeachment, or resignation. The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have joined the chorus, writing to Pence urging him to invoke the 25th. Angry at Trump’s sabotaging of the Georgia elections in addition to the attack on our democracy, prominent Republicans are rumored to be doing the same.

At 8:00, heavily armed guards escorted the lawmakers back to the Capitol, thoroughly scrubbed by janitors, where the senators and representatives resumed their counting of the certified votes. The events of the afternoon had broken some of the Republicans away from their determination to challenge the votes. Fourteen Republican senators had announced they would object to counting the certified votes from Arizona; in the evening count the number dropped to six: Cruz (R-TX), Hawley (R-MO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), John Kennedy (R-LA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).

In the House, 121 Republicans, more than half the Republican caucus, voted to throw out Biden’s electors from Arizona. As in the Senate, they lost when 303 Representatives voted in favor.

Six senators and more than half of the House Republicans backed an attempt to overthrow our government, in favor of a man caught on tape just four days ago trying to strong-arm a state election official into falsifying the election results.

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

[Heather Cox Richardson is a Professor of History at Boston College. She has daily posts on Facebook that summarize the day's political events and puts them in historical context. The Facebook post link's first comment are her citations to sources.]

#read the entire thing #domestic terrorism #fuck trump #heather cox richardson

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comrade-meow · 3 years

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This is a transcript of a speech by developmental biologist Dr Emma Hilton delivered on 29 November 2020 for the ‘Feminist Academics Talk Back!’ meeting. This talk was originally published by womentalkback.org

Sex denialists have captured existing journals We are dealing with a new religion

Thank you for the invitation to speak today, as a feminist academic fighting back.

As ever, let’s begin with a story. And, trust me, by the end of this talk, you’re going to know a lot more about creationism that you expected:

1. In the 1920s, in concert with many other American states, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed the Butler Act, making it illegal for state public schools to: “teach any theory that denies the Story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible.” In other words, banning schools from teaching the theory of evolution.

Three months later, Tennessee science teacher John Scopes was on trial, charged with teaching the theory of evolution, a crime he was ultimately found guilty of. He was fined £71 – about £1064 in today’s money – so it could have been an expensive affair for him, had he not got off on a really boring administrative technicality.

Yet, despite the evidence against him and his own confession, he was an innocent man. Scopes was not guilty of teaching the theory of evolution. He admitted to a crime he had not committed. He even coached his students in their testimonies against him. So why would he admit to this wrongdoing of which he was entirely innocent? Why would he contrive apparent guilt? In protest. In protest against a law he viewed as fundamentally incompatible with the pursuit of scientific truth.

2. The history of creationism and education laws in the US is turbulent and often opaquely legalese, especially for those of us unfamiliar with US law. Some of the methods of the wider creationist movement, however, will be immediately recognisable as they are employed by a new movement, one which seeks to erase another scientific truth, the fact of sex.

Method 1. The framing of human classifications, whether it’s species or sex, as “arbitrary”. This leads to the premise that such phenomena are “social constructs” that need not exist if we chose to reject them. That truth must be relative and consensual. Never mind that these “arbitrary” classifications appear to be surprisingly similar classifications across all cultures and civilisations.

It also necessarily spotlights tricky boundary cases – not really a personal problem for the long-dead evolutionary missing links, but a very real problem in the modern world for people whose sex is atypical and who are constantly invoked, even fetishized, as “not males” or “not females” to prove sex classification is somehow no more than human whimsy.

People with DSDs have complex and often traumatic medical histories, perhaps struggling to understand their bodies, and they deserve more respect than to be casually and thoughtlessly used as a postemodernist “gotcha” by the very people so horribly triggered by a pronoun.

Method 2. The distortion of science and the development of sciencey language to create a veneer of academic rigour. Creationists invented “irreducible complexity” and “specified complexity” while Sex denialists try to beat people over the head with their dazzling arrays of “bimodal distributions arranged in n-dimensional space”.

Creationists, unable to publish in mainstream science journals because they weren’t producing, well, science, established their own journals. “Journals”. Sex denialists have captured existing journals – albeit limited to more newsy ones and to occasional editorials and blogs about gender (which is not sex), about how developmental biology is soooo complicated (which does not mean sex is complicated – I mean, the internal combustion engine is complicated but cars still fundamentally go forwards or backwards), about how discussing the biology of sex is mean (OK, good luck with that at your doctor’s surgery). Many such blogs and articles are written by scientists who simultaneously deny sex to their social media audience while writing academic papers about how female fruitflies make shells for their eggs (no matter how queer they are), about the development of ovaries or testes in fish and about how males make sperm.

The current editor-in-chief at Nature, the first female to hold this position, studied sex determination in worms for her PhD, and she now presides over a journal with an editorial policy to insert disclaimers about the binary nature of sex into spotlight features about research on, for example, different death rates in male and female cystic fibrosis patients.

The authors of the studies are not prevaricating or handwaving about sex, but the editorial team is “bending the knee”. I used to research a genetic disorder that was male-lethal – that is, male human babies died early in gestation. I’d love to know if this disclaimer would be applied there.

Method 3. Debate strategies like The Gish Gallop. This method is named for Duane Gish, who is a prominent creationist. What it boils down to is: throw any old argument, regardless of its validity, in quick succession at your opponent and then claim any dismissal or missed response or even hesitation in response as a score for your side. In Twitter parlance, we know this as “sealioning”, in political propaganda as the “firehose of falsehood”, although Wikipedia also suggests that it is covered by the term “bullshit”. So, what about intersex people? what about this article? what about an XY person with a uterus? what about the fa’afafine? what about that article? look at this pretty picture. what about what about whataboutery what about clownfish? The aim is not to discuss or debate, it is to force submission from frustration or exhaustion.

Method 4. The reification of humans as separate from not just monkeys but the rest of the living world. The special pleading for special descriptions that frame humans as the chosen ones, such that the same process of making new individuals, common to humans and asparagus, an observation I chose because it seems superficially silly – it could have been spinach – requires its own description, one that accounts for gender identity.

3. In the Scopes trial, which saw discussion of whether Eve was actually created from Adam’s rib and ruminations on where Cain got his wife, Scopes was defended by a legal group who had begun scouting for a test case subject as soon as the Tennessee ban was enacted. This legal group claimed to advocate for:

“Freedom of speech for ideas from the most extreme left such as anarchists and socialists, to the most extreme right including the Ku Klux Klan, Henry Ford, and others who would now be considered more toward the Fascist end of the spectrum.”

The legal group so keen to defend the right to speak the truth, in this case a fundamental, observable scientific truth? The American Civil Liberties Union, a group whose modern day social media presence promotes nonsense like:

“The notion of biological sex was developed for the exclusive purpose of being weaponized against people.”

and

“Sex and gender are different words for the same thing [that is] a set of politically and socially contingent notions of embodied and expressed identity.”

and shares articles asserting that biological sex is rooted in white supremacy.

Since the Scopes case, the ACLU have fought against many US laws preventing, or at least compromising, the teaching of evolution. I cannot process the irony of a group of people historically and consistently prepared to robustly defend the truth of evolution while now denying one of the most important biological foundations of evolution.

4. How do we fight this current craze of sex denialism? A major blow for creationism teaching was delivered in 1986 while the US Supreme Court were considering a Louisiana state law requiring creationism to be taught alongside evolution. The Louisiana law was struck down, in part influenced by the expert opinions, submitted to the court, of scientists who put aside their individual and, as one of them has since described “often violent” differences on Theory X and Experiment Y, to present a unified defence of scientific truth over religious belief. 76 Nobel laureates, 17 state academies of science and a handful of scientific organisations all got behind this single cause, and made a very real change.

Support for creationism has slowly ebbed away and the US is in a much more sensible position these days, although I still meet the occasional student from a Southern state who didn’t learn about evolution until college.

Sadly, one of the Nobel laureates has highlighted how unusual this collective response was and that he could not imagine any other issue that would receive the same groundswell of community support. Although he forged his career listening out for the Big Bang, so maybe I need to go through the list and find the biologists.

Part of the problem petitioning biologists to speak out is not necessarily fear of being cancelled or whatever, but simple lack of awareness of the issue, or incredulity that it is being taken remotely seriously. I’ve been working on a legal document and was discussing with a colleague about my efforts to find a citation for the statement, “there are two sexes, male and female”. He laughed at the idea that this would require a citation, told me to check a textbook, then realised that this statement is so simple that it would not even be included in a textbook.

And he’s right. I can find chapters in textbooks and hundreds of academic papers dedicated to how males and females are made, how they develop, how they differ, yet very few that feel the need to preface any of this with the statement “There are two sexes, male and female”. It is apparently something that biologists do not think needs to be said.

But of course, I think they are wrong, and that we live in a time where it does need to be said, where some aspects of society are being restructured around a scientific untruth, and where females will suffer.

Without recognition of and language to describe our anatomy, and the experiences that stem from that anatomy, mostly uninvited, we can neither detect nor measure things like rates of violence against women, the medical experiences, the social experiences of women and girls.

And, as for creationism, the reality of sex perhaps needs to be said by those with scientific authority, in unambiguous terms. Otherwise, we are living in a society that tolerates nonsense like there is no such thing as male or female, that differences evident to our own eyes are not real, that anatomies readily observable and existing in monkey and man alike do not actually exist. I’m sure this last assertion has the full support of the creationist community. And perhaps, as for creationism, a true tipping point will be tested when it is our children being taught these scientific untruths, or worse, when it is illegal to say different.

5. At the end of his trial, the only words Scopes uttered in court were these:

“Your honor, I feel that I have been convicted of violating an unjust statute. I will continue in the future, as I have in the past, to oppose this law in any way I can. Any other action would be in violation of my ideal of academic freedom—that is, to teach the truth as guaranteed in our constitution, of personal and religious freedom.”

I do not exaggerate when I say we are dealing with a new type of religion, a new form of creationism and a new assault on scientific truth. I also do not exaggerate when I say it may take a high profile court case to rebalance the public discourse around sex. There is only so far letters and opinion articles can go.

Two things I predict: 1. It will not be defended by the ACLU, and 2. With the recent proposals on hate speech law, it will probably involve a Scottish John Scopes, who finds themself in front of a judge for the seditious crime of discussing the sex life of asparagus at their dinner table.

Dr Emma Hilton is a developmental biologist studying aspects of human genetic diseases, and her current research focuses on a congenital motor neurone disease affecting the genitourinary tract, and on respiratory dysfunction in cystic fibrosis. She teaches reproduction, genes, inheritance and genetic disorders. Emma has a special interest in fairness in female sports. A strong advocate for women and girls, Emma tweets as @FondofBeetles.

#Anglo.txt

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daily-rubbersoul-redux · 2 years

Text

Weekly Summary (1/28)

(Side note: As this is the first weekly summary, it will be covering everything that has happened recently that is STILL RELEVANT, even if it happened more than a week ago. enjoy :])

Ok so here we are, summary 1! I uh. Am not super sure how to format these yet, so bear with me lol-

But for now, I'm thinking of using sections like this:

I. Character Specific Happenings

(note: may or may not be relevant to current plot(s)

Posters asking students to be friends with Dao'shin have been plastered around the school. They still have not been taken down.

The Great and Illustrious Lady Brigitte Von Couronne has become the vice principal of Budo-Ga Oka. So far she's been busy setting up a desk for herself and familiarizing herself with her, Intern Boy's, and the student councils responsibilities.

Mai and Rizo's anniversary is coming up; Both are working on plans to celebrate.

Mae seems to be in a worse mood than usual due to her sister, but seemingly has plans to turn her mood around.

Laurence has apparently taken an interest in the art of catching serial killers. Surely nothing will come of this.

Mira you good? (see: troubling google searches related to parents)

Saino has been doing Saino Things. If laser-shooting flowers suddenly appear, you know who to blame.

Aleino has finally made it back to work. Hooray for homeless looking moral-less science man.

Jacian is Still MIA.

Mel is still out of the computer, and has been working on getting his business back on it's feet. It's been semi-successful sofar.

II. New Characters

Suikai Satsujin: A second year teacher at Izumi-Ku. He specializes in science, but is well versed in nearly every subject. He spends his time after school talking to students about academics, social life problems, or just anything they may need to really. He enjoys helping students out, and is always willing to do so. He also seems to be an incredibly skilled cook, and has a bit of a passion for it too. He looks like a Whimsicott too, fluffy haired mfer-

Daito Yasai-Ne: He's not relevant at all yet, and hasn't actually shown up; I'm just including him since he was on a doodle sheet i posted this week. More info will be given when he becomes relevant (which will be this coming week hopefully h-).

III. Plots

Kaiji Futamo's Heart Throbbing Adventure

Kyō and Kaiji have.... Kinda made up. Sorta. They're working on it.

Kaiji has been suspended, and the girl who lead the charge on Kyō now has a big scar on her face a la knife. The bitch deserved it.

Kyō's parents and sister finally got her to sit down and accept some first aid. She's pretty much healed at this point.

Kaitso has plans to try and get the two to meet up soon. He's hoping it goes smoothly. It probably won't.

I just realized all 3 of them have names that start with K wtf lmao-

Celari's Big Break

Celari has suddenly become a depressed mess, going as far as to turn into alcohol, something she hasn't done in nearly 40 years according to her. Seems it may be related to Jeya.

Jeya meanwhile has seemingly been acting completely normally, besides the fact he's been sleeping in the guest bedroom.

Apparently everyone but Sumi knows what's up, and have been trying to hide it from her (seemingly successfully).

I have once again forgotten that Cris lives in this household. Goddammit. ....Let's pretend that I established that he got his own place, I actually have been planning this I swear-

Jim made an appearance :] Seems a drunk Celari told him what's going on. Will he appear again? Who knows!

The Mystery of the Disappearing People...?

Apparently people have been disappearing and reappearing in the same location with no memory of what happened, almost like they're being spirited away.

The Betting Girls have made a bet about whether it's related to someone at Budo-ga Oka or not. Because of course they would.

Most of the victims seem to be highschoolers, but it's an even mix of kids from both schools.

Annnnd that's it (i think (hope))! Hope this is enjoyable/helpful, and feel free to suggest improvements for next time :]

#weekly summaries #feel free to block this tag if you want lol #woooo this was actually easier than i thought it would be #i hope i didnt forget anything hhhh GOD PLEASE MAN #ok ok anyways im done now lol bye-

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clearlyshycherryblossom · 3 years

Text

January 6, 2021 (Wednesday)

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

They carried with them the Confederate flag.

Twitter took down the tweet and banned the president for at least twelve hours for inciting violence; Facebook and Instagram followed suit.

He did not mention the president.

In the House, 121 Republicans, more than half the Republican caucus, voted to throw out Biden’s electors from Arizona. As in the Senate, they lost when 303 Representatives voted in favor.

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

#tw #tw politics #us #us politics #tw us politics

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osakaso5 · 4 years

Text

IDOLiSH7 5th Anniversary Special Story: Opening Doors...

Chapter 4: A Discussion With No End

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6

Toma Inumaru: First off, what comes to mind when you think of idols?

Mitsuki Izumi: Fun!

Riku Nanase: Popular?

Tamaki Yotsuba: They get to go on TV! They're celebrities!

Momo: They're bustling and happy, I guess?

Gaku Yaotome: Spotlights.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: And dancing.

Tenn Kujo: Singing. Though I'm not sure how you can express singing through food...

Torao Mido: Also... Oh, I know. They do more stuff than you'd expect.

Yamato Nikaido: Right. They can be or do just about anything.

Nagi Rokuya: Emotional. Moving. They want to make your heart quiver, and they succeed in doing so.

Sogo Osaka: Popular celebrities who can change into just about anything, who sing and dance...

Minami Natsume: I wonder what sort of food would be like that...

Tamaki Yotsuba: Hmm... Wheat flour?

Iori Izumi: Wheat flour’s definitely versatile.

Riku Nanase: But I don't think it's got idol vibes. It's only really popular as a base for other foods.

Tamaki Yotsuba: Ah, okay.

Haruka Isumi: What about eggs?

Gaku Yaotome: Eggs?

Haruka Isumi: Ah, yes. Uh... Well, there's a lot of people who like eggs, and they can become just about anything, so...

Tamaki Yotsuba: Pudding's made of eggs, too! Isumin, you're a genius!

Haruka Isumi: O-oh yeah? Well, it's not like I care if you compliment me or not!

Torao Mido: He's the brother of your girlfriend, so you should be polite to him.

Tamaki Yotsuba: She's not his girlfriend!

Haruka Isumi: She's not my girlfriend!

Tenn Kujo: The brother of your girlfriend? What's this about?

Mitsuki Izumi: Oh, you don't know, Kujo?

Tenn Kujo: Are you talking about my sister?

Tamaki Yotsuba: She's MY sister!

Yuki: Not to interrupt your conversation or anything, but are you sure you want to do this while the cameras are rolling?

Yamato Nikaido: Calm down, Tama. We can talk this over later.

Tamaki Yotsuba: ...Fine. Later.

Tenn Kujo: .........

Riku Nanase: Ku... Kujo-san, you still have me!

Tenn Kujo: Ah... Thank you.

Riku Nanase: Ehehe.

Momo: ...How weird does this conversation have to be to anyone who doesn't know these kids' true relationship?

Mitsuki Izumi: It'll be fine! Isn't Re:vale always like this, too?

Momo: I guess so~! Yuki's always got me by his side!

Yuki: I know, Momo.

Gaku Yaotome: You've got me, too.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Exactly. And me!

Yuki: Thank you.

Tenn Kujo: They were clearly talking to me.

Sogo Osaka: Well then, our idol-themed dish will be something with eggs.

Iori Izumi: Osaka-san!? Did you just hit the brakes on our current conversation!?

Sogo Osaka: Ah, sorry. I thought we'd settled on it...

Toma Inumaru: Sogo... You're steamrolling this conversation harder than I expected...

Mitsuki Izumi: You've got it all wrong. He's only trying to force the conversation along because he doesn't know what else to do.

Nagi Rokuya: OH... I too have experienced this.

Nagi Rokuya: When my family is having a hard time planning for a party...

Nagi Rokuya: They begin bulldozing others.

Minami Natsume: I'm well aware. Though it is interesting to hear about how the ruling classes deal with these sorts of problems.

Momo: It's not like he could do this normally, though. You gotta be a little overbearing when you're dealing with 16 people!

Momo: Thanks, Sogo! I agree that we should make something with eggs!

Sogo Osaka: Thank you. And thank you for the suggestion, Isumi-san.

Haruka Isumi: Ehehe... You're welcome!

Toma Inumaru: Oh, by the way... Should we make a Western or Japanese style dish?

Gaku Yaotome: So basically, idol bowl or idol plate?

Minami Natsume: The plate sounds stylish. It might turn out like a children's lunch special.

Torao Mido: But didn't you make a Good Luck Snake Skin bowl last time?

Minami Natsume: Yes.

Torao Mido: Why didn't you make a plate back then?

Minami Natsume: Who knows. Perhaps I had no interest in appearing stylish or childlike at the time?

Gaku Yaotome: I'd prefer a bowl. It's got more of a kindred spirit to it.

Minami & Torao: Kindred spirit...

Gaku Yaotome: On a plate, all the stuff is cleanly separated, and there's barely any unity there, right?

Tenn Kujo: Can you stop assigning personalitites to food?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: I kinda get where he's coming from, though. Stuff like oyakodon and katsudon do have a kind of unity already.

Gaku Yaotome: Right!?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: A ŹOOĻ bowl would make your group stick together until you're in your 60's!

Toma Inumaru: Yeah, maybe.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: But a ŹOOĻ plate would probably end up driving you all into going solo.

Haruka Isumi: Uh... I guess we should go with a bowl, in that case..?

Gaku Yaotome: Right? Unity is crucial to a group. We're making our menu in the bowl form, with eggs.

Yamato Nikaido: With all these hot bowl takes being thrown around, we've got basically no choice but to go with a Japanese dish...

Mitsuki Izumi: Good thing you're already a big fan of Japanese cuisine to begin with, you geezer.

Yamato Nikaido: Yeah.

Mitsuki Izumi: I can't say I have any complaints about it, either! Raise your hand if you wanna make something Japanese, guys.

Tamaki, Nagi, & Riku: We do!

Minami Natsume: Very well. Let's unite our friends, and devour them.

Torao Mido: Stop talking like a movie villain... I don't mind Japanese food, either.

Toma Inumaru: "Idol bowl" sounds nice and simple!

Haruka Isumi: I'm cool with Japanese, too.

Mitsuki Izumi: That settles it!

Riku Nanase: Yep!

Tamaki Yotsuba: We're having Japanese and eggs!

Mitsuki Izumi: Great job, picking out a second direction to take our flavor! We've gotta be geniuses!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Well done, everyone! Let's give ourselves a round of applause!

Clap clap clap

Haruka Isumi: ...Are you guys always like this?

Iori Izumi: Yes, we are.

Minami Natsume: Hee hee. I like it. You're very self-encouraging.

Momo: Okay! Let's keep the genius ideas coming!

Mitsuki Izumi: What other ingredients do we choose? If all we've got is eggs, we won't even beat some egg on rice.

Gaku Yaotome: It's got great potential.

Riku Nanase: We chose eggs because they're popular and can do anything, right? What else are we working with?

Nagi Rokuya: Let me think... A sunny side up egg and rice bowl.

Nagi Rokuya: While it is a friendly dish, it does not evoke the idea of idols, or anything special.

Yamato Nikaido: I think sunny side up eggs suit idols pretty well. Wouldn't some wieners made for a nice duo with that?

Momo: Like me and Yuki? By the way, do you think I'm the egg or the wieners?

Yamato Nikaido: Uh, I don't really care...

Yuki: Wouldn't you be the sunny side up egg, since you have such a sunny personality?

Momo: I'm so happy you'd say that~!

Mitsuki Izumi: Momo-san, didn't you use to be Yuki-san's fan?

Mitsuki Izumi: Did he ever remind you of an egg and some wieners back then?

Momo: Ah... Nope, not at all. He was like, more special... Like something you can't just get at a supermarket...

Yuki: I guess that means I've been downgraded to common produce over the years.

Mitsuki Izumi: That's exactly my point. I like eggs fine, but to me, someone like Zero is...

Momo: A rare encounter!

Mitsuki Izumi: Right! Someone I don't just get to see whenever!

Tenn Kujo: I get it now.

Tenn Kujo: Idols and fans can't meet whenever they want. Only a few times a year, during lives.

Nagi Rokuya: Yes! They are not something you can see in your refrigerator every day, but special, like a cake.

Momo: Oh, I know! Why don't we make something seasonal!?

Momo: Something you can't eat the whole year round, that you need to really wait for!

Tamaki Yotsuba: Like watermelon!

Haruka Isumi: Or kashiwa mochi?

Torao Mido: Don't you mean seafood? Depending on the season and where you live, it can even be considered a luxury.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Some kind of seasonal seafood dish. Sounds good!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: High grade meat can feel special too, but seafood and fruit are harder to come by depending on the time of year.

Gaku Yaotome: Right. And fruit probably won't fit into our bowl, so we can narrow it down to seafood that goes with eggs...

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Like lobster?

Minami Natsume: Lobster and eggs sounds good. I like both.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: They're really good!

Iori Izumi: Not to mention red and yellow are bright colors that go well with our idol theme.

Torao Mido: Then again... You can just go buy lobster at a supermarket these days.

Toma Inumaru: What if we use some super rare kind of lobster? We could probably find something like that online.

Yamato Nikaido: Right. We're gonna be traveling for our ingredients, anyway. Let's look it up.

Haruka Isumi: Super rare lobster...

Iori Izumi: ...What is with your phone case..?

Tamaki Yotsuba: Isumin, you got a new case. It's like, scary but cute.

Haruka Isumi: I got it from a fan. Apparently it's the gothic lolita version of some popular rabbit mascot.

Momo: Now that we've all got our phones out, they really show off our personalities!

Yuki: And don't those of us who are the same age have similar phones? Like Mitsuki-kun and Torao-kun.

Torao Mido: Oh, you're right.

Mitsuki Izumi: Nope, our cases are made from totally different materials.

Torao Mido: Where?

Mitsuki Izumi: See?

Torao Mido: Ahaha! Nevermind that, your screen's cracked to hell.

Mitsuki Izumi: Ahaha! I drop it a lot!

Momo: I wonder if all the age twins here have similar phones. What about you, Nagi and Minami?

Minami Natsume: Would you like a look? Here you go.

Nagi Rokuya: Have mine, as well! It is Cocona-themed, of course!

Yuki: These two are so different you might as well be a full generation apart.

Momo: I guess not everyone of the same age is similar.

Sogo Osaka: Ah... I found some kind of lobster that's both seasonal and very rare.

Yamato Nikaido: Oh, which one?

Sogo Osaka: This.

Yamato Nikaido: Manami Bay's local specialty, the "Dancing Lobster".

Yamato Nikaido: It can only be caught for a limited time, and its body has been tempered with flavor by the tides. Its name comes from how lively its movements are.

Gaku Yaotome: Sounds like a treat...

Toma Inumaru: Sounds super tasty...

Nagi Rokuya: OH! A dancing lobster! A lobster that dances like an idol! I shall become a lobster and dance, as well!

Tamaki Yotsuba: Ahaha! What's up with your movements!? You pretending to be a lobster?

Nagi Rokuya: Yes! Join me, Tamaki!

Tamaki Yotsuba: Lobsters, lobsters~! Dancing lobsters~!

Yamato Nikaido: Ahaha! What are you guys even doing?

Sogo Osaka: Ah, Yamato-san. May I have my phone back?

Yamato Nikaido: Oh, my bad. Did you need to check something?

Sogo Osaka: No. I just wanted to film their dancing.

Yamato Nikaido: What are you, their dad?

Torao Mido: It's gotta be for surveillance...

Sogo Osaka: N-no, it's not. We can use the video for the show.

Iori Izumi: I found a good spot to get our eggs, as well. There's a place called Dearest Eggs, which raises their chickens in a stress-free environment.

Haruka Isumi: Huh? Lemme see.

Iori Izumi: Look, right over here.

Haruka Isumi: Oh, wow. The chickens are organically fed and get to listen to music...

Iori Izumi: It seems like a nice place, doesn't it?

Haruka Isumi: Yeah. Mom chickens who grew up listening to music. They're like idols too!

Iori Izumi: Haha. ...What is it, Nanase-san? You're pointing your phone at us.

Riku Nanase: I thought you guys might start dancing, like Tamaki and Nagi!

Iori Izumi: We will not!

Haruka Isumi: But since I'm our team's variety expert, maybe I should..?

Iori Izumi: Get a hold of yourself, Isumi-san. Isn't ŹOOĻ supposed to be the anti-society idol group?

Haruka Isumi: What kinda scary title is that..?

Tenn Kujo: As our team's representative, Yamato Nikaido has agreed to dance for us.

Yamato Nikaido: As if. There's no way I'll...

Riku Nanase: Yamato-san! Turn towards my camera!

Yamato Nikaido: R-Riku...

Mitsuki Izumi: Riku's our leader's weak point...

Riku Nanase: Since their name is Dearest Eggs, your dance has to have that kind of vibe, too!

Yamato Nikaido: .........

Yamato Nikaido: D... Dearest~. You're the dearest eggs~.

Riku Nanase: Ahaha! That's so cute!

Mitsuki Izumi: Ahaha! He really is dancing!

Nagi Rokuya: OH! So cute!

Tenn Kujo: Let's give him a round of applause!

Clap clap clap

Yamato Nikaido: That's enough, already! ...Hm?

Minami Natsume: Hee hee...

Yamato Nikaido: What, Natsume-chan? Were you filming me, too?

Minami Natsume: Yes. I thought I'd send this to a certain senior actor from my former agency.

Yamato Nikaido: Wait... The hell you will!

Yuki: I'll send him a video, too. Do the dance one more time.

Yamato Nikaido: I said no!

Toma Inumaru: The Dancing Lobster, Dearest Eggs... We found pretty good ingredients.

Sogo Osaka: Right. All we need now is something with more neutral colors, to balance their brightness...

Toma Inumaru: Balance, huh. Idols aren't all about flashy centers, after all.

Toma Inumaru: Drawing attention to the centers by dancing behind them is an important job, too.

Toma Inumaru: Could we use some kinda greens to bring out the lobster and the egg?

Yamato Nikaido: Like me?

Yuki: Like me?

Haruka Isumi: Like me?

Toma Inumaru: We're not talking about your color schemes!

Nagi Rokuya: OK! If it is green we need, then I shall nominate green beans!

Mitsuki Izumi: Beans sounds good! I bet even the kiddies will eat them just fine! Does anyone have any suggestions?

Torao Mido: ...Come to think of it, the cook at a tea house I was at served me beans.

Torao Mido: It was some kind of dish made with high class edamame...

Mitsuki Izumi: Whoa, that sounds delicious. Was it any good?

Torao Mido: Yeah, very flavorful.

Toma Inumaru: Sounds good. Can we ask that cook about them?

Torao Mido: I don't know the number to that place. I'll ask my assistant.

Toma Inumaru: Assistant?

Mitsuki Izumi: You've got an assistant!?

Torao Mido: Technically, they're my brother's PA, who gave me a ride. I'll message them.

Mitsuki Izumi: Oh.

Torao Mido: Haha, even I know an idol's job isn't anything special enough to warrant an assistant.

Mitsuki Izumi: .........

Torao Mido: What's with the frown? Ah, I don't mean to say that it's a menial job or anything. Especially since I'm so popular.

Torao Mido: Oh, a response. The place is called... Agh!

Torao Mido: ...Why did you slap my arm?

Mitsuki Izumi: An idol's job is special!

Torao Mido: .........

Mitsuki Izumi: It is!

Yamato Nikaido: Hey, Mitsu! Sorry, this guy can be kind of hot-headed.

Sogo Osaka: Mido-san. Mitsuki-san is right, RedFest was an important job.

Torao Mido: Sogo...

Sogo Osaka: So important that I'd love to be the personal assistant of any artist who performed there.

Tamaki Yotsuba: You never told me you wanna be a PA.

Yuki: Same here.

Momo: You wanna be a PA too, Yuki!?

Mitsuki Izumi: Don't talk like that when you're popular and have been getting plenty of work. Think of how that makes me feel.

Torao Mido: .........

Torao Mido: General...

Mitsuki Izumi: What is it, private!? ...Wait, who are you calling "general"?

Torao Mido: No. I was talking about the beans... They're called the "General's Edamame".

Mitsuki Izumi: Oh, you got a reply already? General's Edamame, now that sounds good.

Torao Mido: Don't you think something named aftera military commander is a weird background element for our dish?

Mitsuki Izumi: Nope, if anything, that just makes it more reliable! You know what they say about actions over words. Here, Nagi. Doesn't this look good?

Nagi Rokuya: OH! Beautiful! Such big and pretty green beans!

Torao Mido: Haha... Okay, I guess that's my rec, then.

Toma Inumaru: Eggs, lobster, beans... Since we've got four teams, we might wanna come up with at least one more thing.

Iori Izumi: Haven't you all forgotten something very essential?

Toma Inumaru: Essential?

Iori Izumi: Our bowl still needs rice.

Riku Nanase: Oh yeah! Rice is really important!

Tamaki Yotsuba: I wonder what kinda rice suits idols.

Nagi Rokuya: It is not comparable to idols, but I know of a rice that is like a live venue.

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Live house rice..?

Gaku Yaotome: Or live rice, for short..?

Tenn Kujo: Why did it have to be shortened..?

Nagi Rokuya: YES! The live rice is like the the light of glowsticks.

Nagi Rokuya: As for its true name... Er, Mitsuki, it is the rice you made the other day.

Nagi Rokuya: You bought it to help nourish Tamaki, because he refuses to eat vegetables... Er, mi... mi...

Riku Nanase: Miracle Rice!

Iori Izumi: Are you talking about millet rice?

Nagi Rokuya: OH! That is it! Millet rice!

Mitsuki Izumi: Millet rice is like glowsticks to you..? Ah! You mean because of all the grains that are mixed in!

Sogo Osaka: I guess it does resemble the brightly colored lights at a concert.

Haruka Isumi: When you put it like that, it's kinda cute! Sure, why not? I like millet rice too.

Riku Nanase: I like it too! What about you, Tenn-nii?

Iori Izumi: Ah, you idiot...

Tenn Kujo: .........

Gaku Yaotome: Yeah, I do.

Iori Izumi: Huh?

Tenn Kujo: Huh? Why are you the one responding...

Gaku Yaotome: Because I'm the guy with the hot tenn-per. Right, Nanase?

Riku Nanase: ........! Right!

Riku's Thoughts: Yaotome-san covered for me..!

Ryunosuke's Thoughts: Gaku! He risked himself for Tenn and Riku-kun..!

Toma's Throughts: Gaku Yaotome's such a cool dude...

Iori & Tenn's Thoughts: There's no way they're going to buy that excuse.

Sogo Osaka: In any case, our final ingredient will be millet rice.

Yamato Nikaido: Here it comes..! The steamroller!

Tenn Kujo: He bulldozed us into changing the topic...

Momo: Sogo, it doesn't hurt to raise your voice in times like this.

Sogo Osaka: I see...

Sogo Osaka: Millet rice!

Momo: Wait, that's it!?

Toma Inumaru: Ah... I guess I should yell too...

Sogo Osaka: Ah, right. On three...

Sogo & Toma: Millet rice!

Mitsuki Izumi: Ahaha! You guys are so cute! The most wholesome project leads ever!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Congrats!

Yamato Nikaido: I don't really get what's going on, but congrats!

Toma Inumaru: Thanks! We've finally got four ingredients!

Sogo Osaka: That's great!

Minami Natsume: As for our particular blend of millet rice, this brand seems good. The "Radiant 16-Grain", which is popular with women.

Nagi Rokuya: OH! Radiant! It really is like glowsticks!

Yamato Nikaido: And it's got as many grains as there are of us, making it perfect for our idol bowl!

Riku Nanase: Does this mean the idol bowl is complete!?

Iori Izumi: Not yet, but we've got all the ingredients.

Mitsuki Izumi: So, which team gets which ingredient?

Yuki: Let's make the youngest member of each group play rock- paper-scissors.

Yuki: Who's the youngest member of Team Peace?

Riku Nanase: It's me!

Tenn Kujo: What about Team Honor Students? Iori Izumi or Haruka Isumi?

Iori Izumi: It's probably me.

Tamaki Yotsuba: And from Team Rascals, it's me!

Nagi Rokuya: OK! And I, from Team Celeb!

Momo: Okay, get started! Rock, paper...

Iori, Tamaki, Nagi, & Riku: Scissors!

Iori Izumi: I won.

Yamato Nikaido: Ichi, the lobsters! Get us the lobsters!

Iori Izumi: Do you really like lobster that much, Nikaido-san?

Yamato Nikaido: There's a higher chance that we get to eat something good if we go to a fishing harbour!

Iori Izumi: Ugh... Are you fine with this as well, Kujo-san and Isumi-san?

Tenn Kujo: I don't mind.

Haruka Isumi: Sure.

Tamaki Yotsuba: I won the next round!

Mitsuki Izumi: Great job! Where do you wanna go, Tamaki?

Tamaki Yotsuba: I wanna go eat eggs. Are you guys cool with that?

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: Sure, why not? I'm sure fresh eggs will taste delicious!

Toma Inumaru: And they might have some kinda regional pudding that you can't get anywhere else! You like pudding, don't you?

Tamaki Yotsuba: Ahaha! Yeah!

Nagi Rokuya: I have won the next match!

Riku Nanase: Aah! I lost!

Gaku Yaotome: Don't worry about it, Nanase.

Momo: Where do you wanna go, Nagi? It's either the Radiant 16-Grain or the General's Edamame!

Nagi Rokuya: The Radiant 16-Grain, which was my idea! I want to witness it for myself!

Sogo Osaka: Okay, I guess we'll be getting the millet rice.

Torao Mido: Doesn't really sound like a job for Team Celeb, though.

Riku Nanase: Where does Team Peace want to go!?

Yuki: Hehe. The beans are the only thing left.

Minami Natsume: That doesn't sound so bad, does it? I'm sure the General's Edamame will be delicious.

Gaku Yaotome: Right! Let's make the most of it!

Riku Nanase: Yeah!

Iori Izumi: ...Our meeting is finally over.

Mitsuki Izumi: Phew... But it was fun!

Ryunosuke Tsunashi: It's the first time all of us have gotten together for a long chat like this!

Nagi Rokuya: It was very lively!

Yamato Nikaido: I'm beat.

Torao Mido: There's still plenty for us to do.

Momo: Okay, wrap things up, you two!

Sogo Osaka: Yes.

Toma Inumaru: Ah, um...

Momo: Come on, louder...

Sogo & Toma: Meeting over!

All: Good work!

Clap clap clap

To be continued...

#idolish7 #anniversary story 2020 #translation #i7 #trigger #re:vale #zool #other translations

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