#but it raises the question of why first-world countries aren't doing the same

[melonisopod]

Why do schools in India have architectural techniques to keep their buildings sustainable and cooler in practical ways and meanwhile Phoenix is tearing up more and more desert to put down asphalt (traps in heat) and concrete buildings (also trap in heat) build golf courses (require thousands of gallons of water to maintain) and pump out tons of money to run air conditioning because we have record highs in October?

This is an actual environmental concern for the ecosystem AND a huge health concern for people who have to be outside for any length of time. We need regulations on what's allowed to be built and where because people in Arizona build irresponsibly.

[misty-memories09]

I remember reading orv for the first time and my brain continuously made dokhee and joongdok parallels for me and I ended up crying so bad and flash forward to today, I present to you all the dokhee and joongdok parallels I remember.

I want to start with their interaction during the epilogue 4.

This scene altered my brain chemistry, first of all, Jung Heewon would be as bad of a regressor as Yoo Joonghyuk. Yoo Joonghyuk makes that connection himself, he remarks that his eyes used to burn just as vigorously as hers and then she says "We can do this. We've already done it twice. That's why-!" which is instantly followed by in text pointing out how Yoo Joonghyuk used to think the same thing.

Now, it's not as if these two are the only ones who regressed. The whole kimcom + constellations, Kyrgios and namgung, other incarnations of different countries also did so. Out of this group let's only consider kimcom and the masters. Out of them only Jung Heewon reached out to Yoo Joonghyuk because she thinks like him or, well, how he used to think.

He wonders for a moment if Kim Dokja felt this way because now he can see it infront of him now. Which only makes this worse because Yoo Joonghyuk trying to remove the stain of kim dokja's letters, him reflexively speaking out the words Kim Dokja told him to Jung Heewon before even realising and loosing his breathe over realising it is just so...

Jung Heewon continues to insist on regressing. Even becomes violent about it, if we focus on her words it's ditto how Yoo Joonghyuk was (Yoo Joonghyuk in turn gets to understand what kdj meant even better).

It's funny because Jung Heewon wants to regress for a similar reason to Yoo Joonghyuk from rounds 1st to the 1863rd. To save the world, the only difference between her and him is that the world she wishes to save is Kim Dokja, and she's said this before, and Yoo Joonghyuk wanted to save the world.

Although if Jung Heewon were to become a regressor their reason would be the same, they would be starting it for kim dokja (in addition yoo joonghyuk trying to find himself, and do it his own way because he technically became kdj 2.0 in 0th turn if you think about it.)

Let's dial a little further back to when Kim Dokja returned from the 1863rd turn as squidja a returnee.

Ofcourse there was the uncertainty whether or not the squid really was Dokja or not, however, unlike with ljh and lgy who look at squidja as just a squid in the beginning. Jung Heewon asks who kim dokja is and attacks him because of that claim alone, she believes the skill would not work on squidja if he really was dokja.

For Yoo Joonghyuk, who had kept paying for the midday tryst, did question it and after Yoosung claims that he is Dokja, he raises his blade again. Jung Heewon and Yoo Joonghyuk raise their blades because there is a high chance that Squidja really is Squidja.

They are angry at this slimey squid and it shows, it's not that they want him dead because that is literally what they're mad about.

If we connect the chapters "73rd Demon King" and "Demon King of Salvation"

Jung Heewon and Yoo Joonghyuk both didn't want to use a skill and an item respectively. All of the Kimcom members hesitated but these two just had to have their own section and Kim Dokja convincing them, didn't they?

In the last moments of those deaths, we see this and I start viscerally sobbing, in his last moments of those particular deaths he sees Yoo Joonghyuk and Jung Heewon's desperate cries (and he remarks Jhw scream felt like an auditory illusion). While Yoo Joonghyuk doesn't let go of Kdj's neck until the very end, Jung Heewon tried her best to convince that guy.

However, those aren't the only things that are similar. Throughout the stories we see them trying their best to protect Dokja from very early on in the story;

Whether it be against Gong Pildu's armed fortress, whether it be against the people who were after the bounty, whether it be against the disaster of floods, whether it be against nirvana.

Not to mention they are two of the first people to turn to outer god king Kim Dokja's side.

I have been emotionally compromised while writing this so uhm it became flimsy midway so no proper conveying of my devastations but anyways dokhee and joongdok ruined me on my first read (joongdokhee anyone?)

[hanasonma]

Yuu Explaining Cultures

(can't find any fics about this so I wanna give my own take)

+Haven't proof read anything (suggestions are welcomed)

_

"and even though my mum doesn't get breaks often she would always be there on holidays" Deuce smiled as he drank from his strawberry juice box. They had been discussing and comparing holidays as a substitute while they wait for the other first years arrive for lunch. Yuu placed a hand on their cheek as they thought of Deuce and his mother spending time together appeared in their mind.

"What about you Ace?" Jack murmured as the conversation had slowed down. Ace, picking up on this, put on a sort of wicked grin as he began to explain his traditions his family would do. Yuu had been dozing off for a while and only caught glimpses of what Ace was saying, though they did perk up when hearing something familiar.

"-though my brother's girlfriend started joining in so we had to get more supplies. It was a hassle but she got introduced to Day of the Dead." Ace finished, "Hey! Grim get your paws off my lunch"

"Boo more eating less talking" The beast spat as he plucked half of Ace's grilled cheese sandwich and stuffed it in his mouth.

"Wait-" You began, sitting up straight and looking at Ace "You guys have Day of the Dead too?" Ace nodded as Jack narrowed his eyes at the Prefect. "Is it the same in your world, Yuu?"

"Kinda I mean, I don't remember much but I know some people who traditionally celebrate it."

"Celebrate what?"

"Hi Epel, Sebek" Deuce waved as the two sat themselves at the table. "GREETINGS HUMANS" Jacks ears winced a little but he kept eating his grapes.

"Yuu was saying how they have a tradition similar to ours in their world" Ace explained nonchalantly, though Epel's eyes widened. "I thought you didn't remember anything"

Cutting off Epel, Yuu shook their head, playing with their food for a bit before pushing it to Grim. "Not really but I have slight-" "Ha! Thanks henchmen" "visions and a good familiar feeling."

"YOU MUST HAVE A TRADITION THAT CELEBRATES MALLEUS SAMA?!" It came out as a statement but Yuu found the question underneath and shook their head. "Magic doesn't exist for them, idiot" Ace pointed at his head as Sebek slammed his hands on the table. Epel shrieked, clearly not expecting it, and glared at the two. "Knock it off ya' squealin pigs". "Huh?!" and "Who you calling pigs" flew out as Yuu sat in silence. Deuce attempted to defuse the situation but that added more fuel.

Off to the side, Yuu poked their treat with a plastic fork, watching Grim eat. For once he was silent. Guess the grilled cheese was just that good.

"Henchmen, are there any traditions towards any Grims?" His signature grin appeared on his messy face.

"Nope, but there are some for cats"

"HAH?! The mighty Grim ain't no cat"

"They didn't say you were though you technically are" Jack piped in, clearly done with the yelling and somewhat food throwing beside him.

"Why you-" Grim stood to give Jack a piece of his mind but a quick glare from Yuu made him decide to finish his lunch.

"Well besides that I do know for a fact that some traditions are just apart of the culture." Grim raised his eyebrow but continued to sloppily eat, Jack pushed his tray back, though still paying attention.

"Like Halloween is like worldwide spread -sort of I think but if you traveled to a different country they would have their own 'holidays' or traditions"

"Oh like how we have Halloween?" Deuce piped in, clearly done with the Ace, Epel and Sebek combo.

"Yes, as I said it's like that but some aren't spread worldwide and are only played in that country." "That's weird" Grim said as Deuce nodded his head in agreement. "I believe it" Jack says with a stern face. Guess he takes his traditions seriously.

"There is this one called 'midsommar' where at the end of Spring large groups of people, family and friends, would form a circle around a large wreath. They hold hands and go around in circles singing."

"Sounds fucking culty" Ace spoke, his eyes widen a little. Apparently he wasn't the only one. Sebek and Epel had also stopped yelling to stare at Yuu.

"Well it kinda does but then again I might have gotten some stuff wrong, I don't actually know"

"The Great Grim will never fall for those cult tricks!" He stood and place this paws on his hips.

"I REMEMBER YOU BEING INVOLVED IN HOUSEWARDEN AZUL'S SCHEME" Sebek replied, snaring at the beast while Jack smirked.

"It's true" Ace smiled

"Hey wipe that smile off your face!" Grim pointed "You were there too"

"So was Juice!" "Wait don't bring me into this- and it's Deuce!"

"ANY OTHER TRADITIONS YOU HAVE HUMAN THAT YOU WILL SHARE"

Yuu raked their brain for a bit. It was hard to remember everything that would appear in dreams or late visions.

"Not really, I can't seem to remember"

The silence began again as eyes stared at Yuu who didn't speak. The five plus Grim gave each other looks before Grim patted their arm.

"Hey, you don't need to remember anything, make a tradition here!"

"That's a good idea holy sh-sevens" Epel remarked. Jack and Ace seeming to agree.

"What?"

"Have a tradition towards the Great Grim"

"You know what, sure" Yuu smiled as they looked at the shocked look on Grim's face before he puffed out and replaced himself with confidence.

"Are you sure Prefect" Jack whispered.

Yuu didn't answer only nodded as the school bell rang indecating another class is going to start. Yuu was too busy cleaning off Grim's mess they didn't see Ace watching.

[gelflinggirl1995]

It sucks how polarized we have become... every thing has become like.. either we agree or you're a horrible piece of shit? Like it's so beautiful to see people disagreeing on something and trying to understand where the other is coming from, giving each other grace, educating each other.

Obviously both people have to be willing to question their own beliefs and for some people that's scary so instead defensiveness kicks in. This is what keeps us from learning from each other and finding any common ground from which to build upon...

One example I can think of is the left fighting against itself. The mentality is: if you don't agree with every little thing I think about how things should be, then you're just WRONG and none of what you have to say could be of any value. It's tragic because ultimately we NEED to work together to get anything done, we need to put some differences aside for the sake of unifying and organizing.

Same thing with the working class. The left and right have been told to blame each other for all our problems, fight amongst ourselves, point the finger at each other so we don't look up and realize where the problems are REALLY coming from.

Disagreement is part of life, and it's unfortunate that the moment a disagreement is detected people immediately turn it into an argument where all you're trying to do is prove you are right and the other person is wrong and not only that they actually fucking suck and should be ashamed of themselves for daring having a different view point than your own. Where does that leave any room for... real communication?

Learning? Seeing other perspectives? Getting to the truth of the matter? Even minds changing and coming together?

When I say differences of opinion, that does NOT include the "opinion" of whether any groups of people deserve to exist and have the right to freedom and a healthy happy life. That's where a line is drawn.

I'm not saying that we should all drain ourselves in order to attempt to patiently come to an understanding with every single person we disagree with, ESPECIALLY not with those who aren't open to the conversation in the first place. We have to choose how we use our energy, choose what conversations are worth having.

But it's also not a great use of energy to have your blood pressure raised at the sight of a differing opinion and immediately going into fight mode. Degrade mode. Fuck you mode.

It doesn't even need to be a conversation, just not immediately shaming and de-humanizing people for not seeing things the same way as you.

There was a Buddhist podcast I listened to recently discussing the election results and how to grapple with them and the division in our country right now. They said, "you do not need to agree to understand". I think that is so powerful, and it helps the world feel a little less anger inducing when you see why some people see things the way they do... even if you do not agree.

What do you think?

[sentimental-darkness]

Anything that's "theoretical and perfect" is yet to be tested in the real world, and there always remains a question whether that's even truly feasible when push comes to shove.

I'm talking about high end (very expensive) cell phones that people pay for in installments and yes, they usually are/were affordable/fair because overall interests rates were low. I've also never bought anything expensive like house or car etc, even though I could have, but it doesn't mean it wasn't happening. Plenty of examples in my environment and people still do that even now, hurrying up to the bank to take out a loan for life. Plus, the situation between countries differs so I don't mean to say it's going to be exact same in every place, countries of Eastern Europe will have it rougher. In my place you can already notice the effects of increased wages on overall society but prices rise all the time anyway, so there is hardly any difference to be felt. But how it manifests in society is kind of loss of ambition and resignation, also bankruptcies of small/decent businesses, who aren't able to actually pay their workers (...with required harsh tax on top). People feel resignation if a store cashier earns the same wage as entry/medium level office worker with higher credentials or physical worker with experience and skill, and companies stay at minimum for as long as they can of course... so there is that (some because they can't afford it, some because you want to maximize profits, which isn't unexpected at all). Whether raising the minimum wage helps or not is highly controversial and complex, and any studies that it doesn't negatively effect inflation might have been influenced by some of the prevailing political sentiments (and even then they were not studies about long-term consequences, most likely). It's clear it might have positive psychological effect on some people and even help with productivity, however not all places are the same and long-term effects are hard to study.

But even historically since the beginning of time, in the wider picture, overall long-term economic principles and consequences are the same. If you think magical money printed out of nothing to help economy and/or artificially set wages - so you won't feel any change even though there is inflation - are going to magically fix everything... well, then I don't know what I can say to change your perspective because yours is clearly short-sighted and we're more like at the end of the road rather than the beginning of it, like in 1970, which was almost immediate fallout from the erasure of gold standard, so the current situation is different too. The principles of printing free money and injecting it into economy all the time, with interest rates staying so low for many years, are exactly why we're in this mess in the first place, and artificial regulations/faking it has never really turned out that well in long-term. More of the same = the eventual fallout will be only steeper, I would assume.

I have made a meme to explain how Millennials aren’t destroying industries, the industries are destroying us:

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

[anarchblr]

hi i'm another t1d anon and an anarchist, i'm glad this conversation is happening and i have a few thoughts on the various points raised:

first, the unavoidable need for medical supplies was one of my personal stumbling blocks for a long time that kept me from being open to anticiv critiques, etc, because the people (irl as well as online) who introduced me to those concepts didn't make the effort to differentiate *whether* we would still produce certain items at all vs *how* they'd be produced - you do make that distinction, which i appreciate. i think there's a tendency to feel like our very lives as type 1 diabetics are inextricable from and utterly owed to the structures of modern civ/industrial production, which i think grows understandably out of feeling precarious and often disposable, and out of thoughts like '100 years ago i'd be dead.' but also it isn't easy at all to argue that diabetics are actually living that well in most of the world as it is. if this is the best we can do, i'd like better

second, i think the enormity of contemplating production chains and extractivism and industry itself feels so overwhelming that you don't think you couldn't possibly do something like synthesize insulin yourself - and yeah, probably not just by yourself. i actually used to work with the open insulin project a few years ago, and they operate out of a community-run lab that is theoretically capable of synthesizing at least long-acting insulin (they'd like to get to short-acting as well, since that's the main type of insulin we use). the problem isn't the ability to do it, it's that OI hopes to avoid getting sued for patent infringement and therefore has had to try to invent a non-patented method for producing insulin. absent the patent concern, it's entirely possible to make insulin without the pharmaceutical industry mediating. seeing this really helped me decouple my concept of my own life as tied inextricably to structures of harm that i abhorred but felt guilt for also relying on

at the point i'm at now, i resent that diabetics and others who rely on medical technologies get used as an anticiv gotcha. i don't want to defend systematic harm to all life on the grounds that mine requires it. i don't think it has to. but i didn't feel comfortable saying so several years ago when i was only imagining future scenarios where i'd be left to die (tbh, even if i were an ardent civ defender, it's pretty hard as a disabled person of almost any variety to look ahead to compounding ecological crisis and other instability and not feel deep fear. but clinging to civ isn't my answer to that fear anymore)

and i do still have unanswered questions over reckoning with the amount of plastic that i currently use to manage t1d, and i hope there are alternatives to those technologies as well, or if there aren't, that the amount of harm their production might do can be altered, mitigated, at least lessened

I'm sorry for the late reply, I've been in and out since the entire discourse went down but thank you for this, i agree very much so with your points but specifically re: “the enormity of contemplating production chains ... feels so overwhelming that you don't think you can possibly do something yourself etc.” i think this goes for just about most facets of our lives and why there's such pearl-clutching from wannabe politicians that decry anarchism's aprogrammatic approach. certainly why i did when first starting out anyways. but i ended up coming to the same conclusions you did, re: “resent that diabetics and others ... get used as a gotcha”, for several reasons besides simply being disingenuous talking points to these people.

thanks to the discussion i do have some resources to share with y'all, i hope this helps:

Open Insulin Foundation

We’re a team of biohackers with a variety of backgrounds, and skills, and relationships to insulin and diabetes from many cities and countries around the world, including Oakland, California; Baltimore, Maryland; Paraiba, Brazil; Dakar, Senegal; Yaounde, Cameroon; and Puerto Rico. We’re working to develop the first practical, small-scale, community-centered model for insulin production to make insulin accessible to all. We envision a world in which communities in need have local sources of safe, affordable, high-quality insulin, and where people living with diabetes and their communities can own and govern the organizations that produce the medicine they depend on to survive.

The Open Artificial Pancreas System project (#OpenAPS) is an open and transparent effort to make safe and effective basic Artificial Pancreas System (APS) technology widely available to more quickly improve and save as many lives as possible and reduce the burden of Type 1 diabetes.

OpenAPS means basic overnight closed loop APS technology is more widely available to anyone with compatible medical devices who is willing to build their own system.

We believe that we can make safe and effective APS technology available more quickly, to more people, rather than just waiting for current APS efforts to complete clinical trials and be FDA-approved and commercialized through traditional processes. And in the process, we believe we can engage the untapped potential of dozens or possibly hundreds of patient innovators and independent researchers and also make APS technology available to hundreds or thousands of people willing to participate as subjects in clinical trials.

::

As an aside: neither of these are anarchist projects, and i dare say that “under Anarchism”, community created insulin will look radically than either of these projects, but what will exist in the future can only have its roots what exists today, and this gives us a glimpse of how we might start heading that way.

[wolves-etc]

thoughts on The Last Of Us episode two, roughly as it happens in the ep:

[thoughts on: 1.1 | X | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.8 | 1.9]

— another episode, another mycologist! this professor is dignified and puzzled and it's such a strange change from the postapoc action of the previous episode. I'll be glad to see some blanks filled in though.

— the mounting tension and knowing fear in the examination scene is intense, and the actors are showing it brilliantly. there's a lot of discomfort, too, in the candid display of a corpse that still looks so whole and healthy - before the pandemic gets so bad that no-one can hope for a decent burial, back when it still raises serious questions to see someone with a bullethole in their forehead.

— the moment when someone who knows exactly how scared they should be loses their composure and gets the fuck out of there? that's the moment you know to be really afraid.

— she is just a professor - not military, not in a specialty (at least I think) that devotes as much thought to pandemics as others do, and she is scared. she's on a nice domestic sofa holding a teacup and saucer and she's visibly uncomfortable even thinking about what she knows.

— we already know how this is gonna go. it shouldn't be so affecting to learn that they've lost track of the first people infected. it probably should be so terrifying, actually, to see the people in charge admitting they're not on top of things.

— "bomb."

— yeah, that was a hell of a choice.

— "start bombing. bomb this city, and everyone in it."

— I'm looking over the scene again to get the quotes right, and paying more attention to the side characters 'cos @trivalentlinks mentioned enjoying them in this show, and gosh, yeah. these two are both so nakedly scared - the fear of someone who knows they can't do anything, and the fear of someone who has to anyway - and it's horrible.

— and I have to wonder. if they'd taken her advice sooner, could the pandemic have been prevented? how would she have been remembered, if they did? (how would the country have been judged by the rest of the world?) she's an expert and she's terrified and she's willing to doom a city, including herself and her family, to save the rest of the world, and it would be so easy for her to be framed as a monster.

— heavy stuff, folks. we're nine minutes in and my brain is humming.

— and her bravery, and her humanity, and her fear; and her request not to spend any more time explaining exactly why they're doomed but rather to let her spend her last hours with her family.

— cue gorgeous gross fungus growth intro. a bad time to be eating noodles and a worse time to realise that the camera's slowing down on something suddenly recognisable as a skull.

— I recognise the tests aren't quite the same, but this really seems like a crap world to have a stroke in.

— if we needed confirmation that joel didn't plan to punch that guard, here it is. how afraid and out of control must you be to fracture something in your own hand without stopping? how uncomfortable must that loss of control be for him?

— tess' move here, where she talks to ellie like an adult, is interesting. I've seen scenes like that before that felt like a threat, or like an adult refusing to take responsibility that they should - and this is both of those things, but it doesn't feel like it. it feels like a genuine attempt to get the information they need and give ellie the information she needs to make a good choice. but I don't know if that's just tess' strange brand of tricky honesty again.

— I do like it though. because the options are joel and tess being harsh and callous behind ellie's back, or it's joel and tess being harsh and callous and giving ellie a chance to know about it and help make their decisions. as much as she should be protected anyway.

— ellie's "if she so much as twitches..." "[strangled zombie sounds]" joke here is both very stupid and entirely justified

— "well it's the long way or the we're fucking dead way." "well I vote long way, just based on that limited information." oh tess and ellie are fun <3

— overgrown cities look so cool though.

— how weird must it be to climb over long-dead cars? they used to be something, a part of everyone's lives, and now they're just scenery. part of their old world still right there beside them but so far away.

— ellie: "so there aren't super-infected that explode spores on you?" tess, totally relaxed: "shit, I hope not."

— whoever decided that infected cry out, fox-like, in the distance, I salute you. there may also be a rude gesture involved.

— genuinely scarier that it was far away and just one cry, that they've been okay so far but they're still wary and still have to keep moving. I think they're not scared enough that that was a hunting cry. so it's just... a thing infected do, sometimes.

— oh. oh that's kind of a sad thought.

— JAUNTY MYSTERY SOUNDS ON A PIANO

— JAUNTY PIANO FROG

— I am in love, I am enchanted with our frog friend, I actually happy-stimmed a little. nothing in this is going to beat piano frog friend for me.

— "you're a weird kid." "you're a weird kid."

— this very believable idea of a generation of kids who learned about things like hotels from books, the way I learned about boarding schools. it's sweet. it's strange.

— ellie stroppily taking joel's hand and letting it go quickly after; joel glancing down at it, bloody-knuckled still, slightly broken still - it's a contrast. there's so much angst in the hands and the things they do and are capable of.

— I don't know if ellie learned this kind of grown-up smalltalk from books too but I do love her attitude

— the writhing rippling bodies, holy shit

— THEY'RE A NETWORK. HOW LOVELY. sarcastically but also genuinely that's kind of lovely. and I dig that tess' explanation both shows that and takes the time to make sure ellie understands the danger.

— sidenote but I keep going oooh at tess' hair because it's so nice to actually see a woman going grey, it's really pretty

— joel please don't touch the cordyceps. yes this is good and useful information to have about the fungus drying up but it's also DEEPLY GROSS

— I really don't like the grown-ups not knowing what's up or what killed a dude

— I've seen the odd spoiler on here, right? mostly from the games. and I haven't heard of tess. I'm not sure she's gonna survive like I am about the other two. and that means I am at several times wondering if she's going to die here.

— I HATE THIS. I hate this a lot. at some point during this extended terror scene I had to pause to call my friend a bastard and also put socks on so my feet didn't feel as vulnerable. did I mention I'm bad with horror

— the "if you panic, they'll hear you, so don't panic" situation is fucking evil. I was previously unaware this could extend to "load your gun quietly or else you're dead."

— they're clicking. they're fucking clicking. they're blind and they're clicking I REALLY DON'T WANT THESE TO HAVE ECHOLOCATION. PLEASE.

— you know how shooting rabid animals in the head can aerosolise the infection. I wish I wasn't thinking about that.

— I looked up the tess-taping-her-ankle thing and found half the comments were ppl who were also puzzled and half were like "duh, she sprained her ankle, are you even paying attention?" so probably that's a genuine treatment for sprains I'd just never heard about.

— the almost desperate way she told joel to just take this win? yeah, I think she might not be okay.

— joel checking his watch. the poor bastard. I think looking out over the city and talking to ellie felt a little too familiar there.

— tess hurrying into the building and dragging ellie in front of her? yeah, she's panicking. I do think she wants to get this done before she starts really showing symptoms.

— "I never ask you for anything, not to feel the way I felt-" fuck

— this feels like a lower ratio of infected to story than most zombie stories. they travelled an entire city, went to great pains to avoid them, encountered two, and two of their three people got bitten. it's an interesting change.

— AND AS SOON AS I SAY THAT. THERE'S A FUCKING STAMPEDE.

— "save who you can save." okay, this right there? tess knows him very well. 'cos that's been his strategy from the moment this started. and she's giving him that push, I think, so he can snap back into that mode and actually leave her there to die. or so he'd find it easier to do.

— this is fucking horrible.

— I have never been so scared of a faulty lighter. what's scary, what's really scary here? is the thought that she's going to die not on her own terms, that she's not going to be able to play the last card she has to play, that she's not going to die relatively quickly but would instead be ripped apart.

— ...or kept alive as part of the cordyceps network. I think that's what the "kiss" was about - the way the fungus always seems to sprout out of the mouth in the later stages, the proximity to the brain, her maybe being recognised as infected but not yet connected to the others, which is a thing the others can fix. it's a watsonian explanation, at least. it's horrible.

— but she gets to play the last card she has to play. made of steel, to the end. if I were wearing a hat I'd be taking it off.

— last time they had an encounter with infected, two of their three got bitten. they can't risk that happening again. not with the likelihood that joel's going to be even more protective now, with delivering ellie safely his only goal, and still his only way to get to tommy. they are going to have to be so careful. and that's going to be interesting to see.

[kozutenshi]

"neh, tooru." he tilted his head to the side, looking at your figure arranging the pillows in your small makeshift house.

"i'll definitely marry you when we're older."

he chuckled at your sudden outburst, not coping with what you said. "what do you even mean by that?"

"well, marriage.. isn't that what happens when two people want to stay together in each other's side forever?" your unsure and confused expression made him laugh harder. the pout on your lips made him stop, patting your cheek with a soft smile on his face.

"well then, i guess i'm gonna have to get a ring ready."

BALAY BALAY

— "bahay-bahayan" in Filipino!

— a game played my two or more wherein the kids would act like a real family doing what a family does normally. literally in simple terms, playing house.

— used to play this with my cousin, two other friends, and my childhood friend. yes, my childhood friend was the dad and i was the mom.

sometimes, you wonder which events made things turn out to be how they currently were.

seasons change, and your years of stay in this world had been growing. the amount of times you told a lie or two, the amount of times you cried, laughed, burst out of anger; collectively, this was what our life was.

oikawa thinks the same way too.

the young man sat on the park bench, looking out to the beach of brazil. he should be in argentina right now, practicing the sport he loves, but ever since he got the mail, it was as if a part of him felt too empty to function. his team gave him a week off, and he found himself going back to brazil reminiscing.

he thumbed the gold letterings, almost wishing the letter came with your scent instead of the roses that made the contents painfully obvious.

of course he had opened it, the seal already broken enough to know that he had opened it several times. taking a deep breath, he held his tears back.

how did it come to this?

on the other side of the world, you waited for his answer, the man you stuck with since children. it had been days since the mail was reportedly received. you were nervous, gulping down a lump on your throat to his lack of response. warm arms wrapped you from behind, kissing your temple. "hasn't he replied yet?"

his hand took yours, playing with the ring he gave you and drawing slow therapeutic circles on your skin. you smiled sadly at your fiancee, before shaking your head and melting into his arms. "nope. aren't you supposed to be at work?" he chuckled sheepishly before picking up his things and kissing you tenderly. "yeah. i'm off now. i'm sure he's just preoccupied so don't stress yourself over his response, yeah?" you nodded, sending him off with a loving smile which he returned.

as the door closed, your eyes went back to the laptop screen, begrudgingly thinking of your work before sitting down and continuing it. you didn't know what time it was when you finished, but it was probably an hour or two already when the doorbell rang.

lazily, you stood up and opened the door to find oikawa standing at your doorstep. "yo, n/n-chan." your eyes showed your shock and your body froze, before you relaxed and chuckled. "yikes, i'm hallucinating," you muttered under your breath before closing the door in his face.

"you know.. i'm flattered that you think of me that much that i can be a hallucination.. but for real, i'm 100% human, no alien stuff here."

the "I can't believe you're here" face you had made him chuckle, opening his arms for you to fall into. your scent was familiar, your warmth, your smile, until you dissolved into sobs. frantically, he moved away from you and wiped the tears off tenderly with shaky hands. "what? why are you crying?!"

"tooru! why weren't responding to me?" he chuckled nervously, knowing full well that telling the real reason will complicate things. "i wasn't sure what to answer just yet so i decided to discuss the matter with my coaches first. sorry, n/n-chan. now, can you stop crying, princess?"

it was painful to lie to you, but if it is for what's better, then he'd do it. "don't call me that." you urge yourself to move away and invite him into your apartment shared with your fiance. his eyes scanned the loft, noting the things that mirrored your personality on every shelf, every wall.

"how long have you been here in japan?"

"this is my third day. i'll go back tomorrow."

"ah, i see. then shall we spend the day together?"

"yeah. i did meet the three guys yesterday. it's your turn."

you placed the bowl of chips in front of him, urging to eat while he raised his eyebrows in question. "why didn't you invite me?"

"better question. why are you eating chips this early?" you shrugged, shoving a piece or two into your mouth. "it's not that early. it's like, almost noon."

he rolled his eyes and started eating. the silence stretched on but it was comforting. his eyes raked on your figure, how you were still the same, but different. as if a part of you stayed, the other changed.

"oh yeah. i have to go to that volleyball thing to help takeru with his plays. wanna come with?"

"takeru, as in my nephew?"

"yeah, who else?"

"there are tons of takeru's in this country, y'know."

you shrugged. "well you have no choice. you're coming with. say cheese to the camera. i'll tell my fiancee about you suddenly being here." raising your phone, you snapped a photo to your fiance, telling him you'll spend the day with tooru which he agreed with a "take care" message.

oikawa watched your lips curve to a smile, the same one he fell in love with, only to realize it wasn't for him. was he hurt? no.

numb. that's what he was.

the two of you passed by your previous school, onto the training grounds reminiscing stories after stories. with a pouting takeru, the three of you watched the smaller children train, a fond smile on your face. a small little girl stumbled to you with tears. "mama?"

oikawa saw how petrified you looked for a second before you sat down and tried to ease her. he then recalled how the two of you used to play, hand in hand, eyes to eyes. he sat beside you, patting the head of the child lightly which she seemed to like.

you watched how he calmed her with no words, and how she went from crying to laughing in minutes. a fond smile was on your face when the mother came over and took the child.

"you two look good together. thank you so much for taking care of her."

"thank you but we aren't-"

"thank you. it was no problem ma'am!"

he waved a hand to the child who smiled at him and waved back. his smile was a genuine warm one, his eyes holding adoration, before they shifted to you. "what are you staring at, n/n-chan?"

you shook your head. "i just wondered where you got your skills in calming down a child until i remember takeru."

"I didn't learn it from taking care of him, y'know." confused, you looked at him, his eyes looking somewhere far. "i learned it from you." he stood up, stretching and looked down on your sitting figure.

"c'mon n/n-chan. before they remember who i am-"

"excuse me. you're oikawa tooru, right?"

a highschool girl shyly stood with her group of friends, their phones clutched to their chests. somehow this reminded you of the days when he was innocently playing volleyball with iwaizumi, until a bunch of girls came from the vending machines, clutching boxes of milk in different flavors, some holding milk bread in their hands. you deadpanned when you realize they were holding out their phones for you to take their picture.

"tooru. you better treat me food after this, okay?" he knew your look. the one that made him gulp and feel threatened. "yes, of course, n/n-chan."

and so he did, and before you know it, it was getting dark. the two of you were in the apartment, the credits rolling just like every other times the two of you bonded.

"today was fun."

it's always fun with you. "sure was."

now, unlike before, the silence was deafening. "have you ever wondered.. how things would've worked out if you did something different in the past?"

your question caught him off guard and he tensed up before he suck into the couch. "not really." a lie.

"it might weigh down on me too much if i did."

your chuckle came sad, a hint of pain under it. "i see." now the atmosphere was too quiet. the movie has rolled its credits, the TV flashing a selection of movies again.

painful. it was painfully obvious that something is wrong and you couldn't help but want to cry.

"do you.. remember-"

"will you come?"

your voice was unsure, shaky, loud, when you looked at him with tears in your eyes. "you will, right?" his heart cracked. he knew this would happen already. he flashed a soft smile before taking you in his arms.

"of course i will. it's the wedding of my favorite n/n-chan after all. besides, you know i.."

he pressed a kiss to your forehead, his thumb wiping your tears gently. there was something lonely about his movements, the way he caressed you, as if saying 'this is the last time', or maybe a temporary goodbye. he held you closer, his warmth enveloping you.

"i will always be there."

TRAVELLERS: @doodleniella @kenmakodzu @lyzzklm @mfcassandra @oikaw-ugh @seijohlogy @thesecondapplepienation

[insanities-incarnate]

The Lady Of The League

Chapter 1- A Wedding

Link to AO3

England, 1792

The wedding of Sir Percival Blakeney, Baronet and Mademoiselle Marguerite St Just was a large affair. There were no expenses spared, and everything had been planned to perfection. If one looked around at the crowded venue, it would seem as though the whole English court had attended. This was, of course, entirely possible, as Sir Percy had become somewhat of a loved pet of that same court, and his company was highly enjoyed. The ceremony had been rather beautiful, and tears had been shed by some. Now, the guests had gathered in the ballroom of the Blakeney Manor and were now awaiting the arrival of the newlyweds.

As the great oak doors to that ballroom opened, an almost reverent hush swept the room. In walked the groom, a tall man of not quite thirty, built like a giant, but with a face so kindly you could not help but smile with him, the gold of his hair almost matching that of his wedding clothes, and his deep blue eyes shining with happiness. On his arm was his new wife, Marguerite, who was around five-and-twenty, with long, lustrous curls that cascaded down her back, and eyes that glittered in the bright light of the room. Her wedding dress was quite exquisite, and suited her figure perfectly, drawing jealous stares towards Blakeney, for he had stolen such a beauty all for himself. A little behind them walked Blakeney's own sister, accompanied by her new brother-in-law, looking a wonderfully complementary pair; the lady golden like a goddess, the young man with his dark hair and eyes. Both smiled amiably at the happiness of their now-joined family, and they seemed to enjoy each other's company rather well.

Lady Isabelle Blakeney was a lovely young woman, not long past twenty, and held herself as a perfect picture of English grace. She shared her brother's golden hair and blue eyes, and other resemblances between the two were clear. However, though he held the stature of a giant among the courts, she was petite and delicate. Nonetheless, she stood proudly at the side of Armand St Just, with eyes full of joy, and a smile on her youthful face. It had become quite apparent to most who knew the siblings that, while Percival Blakeney's inheritance did not include brains, his sister's certainly did. She was, of course, as well educated as any polite young woman in high society could hope to be, but there was a certain cleverness to her, an understanding of the world that some never seem to find.

The chatter picked up once again. Drinks were poured, smiles filled the room, and soon, the groom himself stood to speak.

"I welcome you to England, m'dear. I am quite sure everyone will be just as charmed by you as I was."

His speech was short, but full of nothing but love and admiration for his bride.

With a wave of his hand, the music began. Gentlemen offered their arms and ladies accepted, and the many couples danced. While Sir Percy found himself surrounded by his closest friends, a small number of gentlemen with whom he was very close, his wife was with her brother, smiling and laughing with an easy air about her.

"If you will excuse me, boys," Sir Percy said with a smile, "I do believe I owe my sister at least a dance to thank her for her work in today's preparations."

"You are happy, then, brother?"

"I thought it was my job to care for you?" Isabelle simply raised an eyebrow, and her brother laughed good-naturedly. "Of course I am happy. And quite fortunate to have met such a woman as Marguerite."

"I'm glad to hear it." The smile on her face had been ever-present since the early morning, and only grew wider as she danced with her brother. "And now that my match is made, perhaps your own wedding party shall soon grace our halls."

"Perhaps, Percival." She circled him, just as the dance commanded. "When most of the lords and gentlemen of England cease to be idiots and fools, of course."

"Ah. Not so soon after all, then, I see," said Percy, failing to suppress a laugh.

"I wonder, should your attention not be on your new wife?"

"So eager to be rid of me, dear Isabelle?"

"Oh, if you only knew," she teased. "Now, go. Attend to your bride. It is your wedding day, after all!" With a smile, he placed a gentle kiss on her hand, and obeyed.

Soon after, Isabelle found herself on the arm of Lord Elton. The auburn-haired man was the youngest of Percy's gentleman friends, and she made it no secret that he was, in fact, her favourite of the group. The two shared a bond, and enjoyed each other's company, sharing the country's gossips and discussing almost any topic one could imagine.

"Can you believe it, Belle? Percy married, and to a Frenchwoman. I must say, it's not quite what I would have expected of him."

"I cannot say I am surprised, Elton. If you had seen the way he looked at her when they first met, you would understand. He adores Marguerite, and it is quite clear to see why." As she spoke, she found herself drawn to the sight of her sister-in-law, laughing freely with the guests in a way that not many dared to.

"A wild one, to be sure. She was an actress, was she not?"

"Oh, Elton, you should have seen her perform. She was quite wonderful. Percy and I returned to the theatre almost every night of our stay in Paris, mostly at his insistence. Though I cannot claim I was at all opposed to the idea." She took a sip from her glass as the gentleman laughed.

"And what of you, dear? Do you not plan to marry soon?" Isabelle laughed incredulously.

"What is it with you men, concerning yourselves in the matter of my marriage? Percy asked me the same thing not long ago. I should think you are all rather desperate to be rid of my company. Am I so much of a bore, my friend, that you wish to leave me upon the arm of a husband?"

"I could not bear to dream of it. I would miss our talks far too much. Where would I find my fun, if not from discussing the fine young gentlemen of the court with you?"

It was a shriek of laughter that drew Isabelle's attention away from her conversation, and towards a corner of the room, where she saw her brother-in-law, who was being pestered by the Ladies Digby and Llewellyn, and looked rather uncomfortable in their company.

"If you will excuse me, Elton, I fear I must rescue Armand. He has been left quite to the mercy of the vultures," she excused and made her way across the room. "Armand!" she called. "I fear have rather neglected you far too much. How are you finding our England so far?" Isabelle held out her hand, and, were it not for his good manners, Armand would have raced to take it. She could see the relief in his eyes at having been spared of another moment in the company of the ladies.

"Thank you. I was beginning to think I would not escape them," he said gratefully.

"Forgive me for not coming to you sooner, Armand. I could swear, those two are the only people I know who can gossip more than Elton can." She took another glass from a tray and offered it to him, and he accepted it, before practically finishing it in seconds. "I fear you may have to brave many more like them in your time here."

"If I can survive the two of them, I believe I can survive almost anything. I do not think it possible to fear anything more than I fear being left alone in their company again." Isabelle laughed, and offered a heartfelt agreement.

"Your sister looks beautiful, Armand. She certainly suits the attention."

"Yes. Although I cannot help but worry." She turned to Armand, placing a gentle hand on his arm.

"Why do you worry?" she asked, her voice full of concern. He glanced around the room, to the groups of women gathered at almost every part of the room.

"They haven't stopped staring at her."

"Well, yes, it is her wedding-"

"No, it is more than that."

"They love her, Armand. That I can promise you. I learned to read these people long ago."

"Then why do they watch her, like they are waiting every moment for her to make a mistake?"

"Because they wish to be like her." It was a simple statement, more of a fact than an opinion.

"Isabelle..."

"Look at her. Marguerite is wild, and bold, and unafraid. She is everything that we English ladies are told we cannot be." She smiled gently, seeming almost lost in her thought. "They do not dislike her, Armand. They envy her freedom." The young woman's words were quiet, and thoughtful, and there was even some hint of wistfulness hiding behind her smile.

"And do you?"

"Hmm?" It had been a simple enough question that St Just had asked, but

"You say it is her freedom that they are jealous of, but what of you? Do you feel the same?"

"I suppose..." Her voice trailed away from a moment, and her eyes fell to her hand, on which sat a ring, one that she was rarely seen without, which had belonged to her mother, Victoria. The ring had been a gift from Isabelle's late father to Victoria on their wedding day, made to match his own, which had been passed down, and now resided upon the hand of Percy, and carved into both was the Blakeney family crest; a small red flower. "I suppose that I have been far more fortunate than most. After our parents died, it was Percy who looked after me." As she spoke, she fondly recalled memories; Percy pretending to be angry with her, Percy comforting her when she was upset, Percy attempting to teach her to dance. "He refused to shape my life for me the way so many fathers do. He allowed me to make my own choices, to grow into the person I wanted to be. And..." She bit her lip. "And I am absolutely ruining your sister's wedding day, aren't I?" Armand laughed and shook his head, before offering his arm.

"I wonder then, Lady Blakeney, if you would care to dance with me?"

~~~

The guests had been celebrating for at least an hour when Lord Anthony Dewhurst finally arrived, and Percy took it upon himself to be the first to greet his friend.

"Lord, man, you look a mess! Whatever took you so long to arrive?" Before Dewhurst could begin to answer, Percy was speaking once again. "A drink, then, my good man?"

"I am afraid I have not come to drink, Percy," he said simply.

"Nonsense, man! Don't be ridiculous. It is my wedding, and I am telling you that you must have at least one drink-"

"I'm serious, Percy," he hissed, and all trace of joviality fled the groom's face, and he pulled his friend aside, away from the celebration of the party.

"What is it, Tony?"

"The Marquis de St Cyr. He is dead."

"What? How?"

"Sent to the guillotine. And his whole family with him."

"This cannot be true. We arranged safe passage from Paris for all of them. They should have been half way across the Channel by now!"

"We were betrayed, Percy."

"Betrayed? And by whom, I ask you? Nobody knew of the details except for you and I, and Isabelle, but I know you would not dare suggest that my sister had a hand in this. And... And I suppose Marguerite knew..."

"Percy-"

"But she wouldn't. Marguerite feels nothing but the deepest contempt for this new regime of terror that the French have the audacity to call freedom! You cannot mean to tell me that Marguerite, that my wife, would betray me like this?"

"Percy, you have only known her for all of six weeks. I'm not sure that you truly know her as you believe you do. I am sure you can believe that do not wish to be the bearer of this news. But you have to know the truth." From his pocket, Dewhurst drew a small piece of paper, a letter, and gave it to Percy.

"What is this?"

"A letter from your wife to the Citizen Chauvelin. It seems his growing power has managed to creep its hold upon even the most unlikely of people." As Percy examined the letter, his heart fell.

"Yes. This is Marguerite's hand. And her seal. But surely..." He paused for a moment to think. "Dewhurst. I want you to do something for me."

"Anything."

"I want you to write on the bottom of this letter, in French, thanking Marguerite for her help." His voice wavered a little, and he took a moment to re-compose himself. "Sign it with the Citizen's name, and give it to Jessup to deliver to her." As Lord Anthony turned to go, Percy looked him right in the eyes. "She will disavow the letter. And you will see that you are wrong about her."

As Percy waited, he was filled with anxieties. Surely Marguerite would not do this to him? When they had first met, everything had seemed so perfect. It was their third night watching her perform, and from almost nowhere, Isabelle had informed him that she had met Mademoiselle St Just's brother, Armand, earlier, and he had invited them to come and meet her after the performance. It had been a blissful evening, and he had found that the star of the Comedie Francaise was just as charming off the stage as on it, and somehow, she found him equally as pleasing. By the end of that week, they had shared their first kiss, and now, just more than six weeks later, here they were, celebrating their marriage. But still, he stood apart from these festivities, waiting to find out if his wife was as true as she claimed to be. He almost sighed in relief as he watched Jessup, the butler, approach Marguerite and offer the letter. And Percy waited for her to confirm his defence of her, to denounce the letter as nothing but lies and scandal. But instead, he watched as she read the letter.

"A note from the groom, no doubt, telling us all to hurry up and let him enjoy his wedding night!" one of his friends, Ozzy joked.

"No, no, it is a letter from an old friend."

"From Suzanne?" Armand asked, and Marguerite nodded, unfaltering in her smile and poise.

"Yes. She simply wishes me well on my marriage, that is all."

From across the room, Percy could feel his own heart breaking into two. The feeling of Dewhurst's hand on his shoulder did little to comfort him.

"Percy, I am so sorry..."

"No. There is no need for an apology from you. It is I who has been played for quite the fool, have I not?" He gestured to his butler, who came to him immediately. "Jess up. I believe it is getting rather late. I'm sure our guests are rather tired. See to it that they all leave safely, won't you?"

As Jessup began ushering the wedding's attendants out, Isabelle and Armand made their way over, to say their goodnights to the new couple. Percy shook Armand's hand, while Marguerite embraced him. Isabelle offered another warm congratulations to her new sister-in-law, and then came to speak with her brother.

"Percy."

"Isabelle." Despite his pain, he offered the most sincere smile he could to her and held out his arms. With the guests gone and no reputation to uphold with only her family present, she raced to embrace him.

"I am truly happy for you both, Perce," she said to him as she broke away. "And I will offer you my good mornings now, since I do not expect to see the two of you until at least tomorrow afternoon." And then she was gone.

One thing had always been certain that day; that it would be a long night for Sir Percival Blakeney, Baronet. But now, however, it was to be a night that he could no longer spend with his wife.

***

@outlawsassemblerh @chaoticbitheatrekid

AAAAH IT'S HERE!!!

I'm so excited to be sharing this with you all, it has been a work in progress for a while now, and it's all paid off into this, the first chapter!

I hope you enjoyed this, please keep looking out for the next chapter!

[shararsblog]

BENGALURU - INDIA'S CRIME CAPITAL.

(28/07/2021)

Greetings for the day. Here I am beginning with my first blog or post whatever you can say. To begin with let's straight away come to the point. Many blogs have been written till date, with each blogger expressing his heart and mind on various issues. So I am too putting my heart and soul into a subject, which is present throughout the world, and each country has its own law policy when it comes to dealing with i.e. crime.

Here are my experiences of living in a city based in Karnataka in India for four months. Bangalore or Bengaluru as you can call it, is considered as the IT hub of India, a city from where United States of America sources the highest number of software professionals for working in projects in its own backyard. But apart from being the Information technology hub of India, Bengaluru is also the hub for highest number of crimes, along with New Delhi.

Though I have stayed in Pune too a city in neighbouring Maharashtra state another IT hub, and visited Mumbai which is close by, but never ever had this fear psychosis of happening to see gang wars, because the law and order machinery in Pune, Pimpri - Chinchwad and Mumbai was by far very much in control by police authorities there. So why Bengaluru has become lawless? during my four months of stay there, every morning I happen to open the newspapers and the Bengaluru section showed up at least one or two murders, the result being gang wars. The killers regular criminals and their victims also history sheeter's. These gangsters or rowdies carried on with their killings on the streets of Bengaluru with so much audacity, that they never possessed any fear of law. The recent killing of Joseph Babli who himself a rowdy inside a bank in Koramangala, highlights the brazenness of killers, that Joseph was chased inside the bank, and hacked to death in broad daylight in front of scores of customers and bank employees, goes on to show complete failure of law and order machinery in Bengaluru.

Not just this, another murder of a former corporator Rekha Kadiresh that too in broad daylight in cotton pet area of Bengaluru, was an added feather in hat for an inefficient Bengaluru police. Slaying rivals in daytime in full public view, indulging in rowdism, road rage, harrasing innocent people, chain snatching gangs over bikes on prowl in every area, So where is the Bengaluru police in picture, that is the question?

And why rowdies in Bengaluru have no fear of police?

Bengaluru police and Karnataka politicians are to be blamed for this. The answer here lies in police - criminal - politician nexus. Also you may be surprised to know that Karnataka state ranks top in corruption index in whole of India. Power hungry politicians, greed for money and coupled with it the biggest major factor which has led to rise in goondaism is land deals. Bengaluru city is considered as one of hot cakes for real estate market, land grabbing is rampant and where higher acre's of land is involved for deals corrupt politicians, mafias and police are hand in glove.

Though land is very less available in Bengaluru urban areas and even if available, the prices are skyrocket and rowdies ultimately with blessings of politicians get involved. This rowdies - karnataka politicians nexus have blossomed to such an extent, that middle class families, who despite can afford to own plots at higher prices never dare to get involved. The problem begins from the bottom of organizational hierarchy in police department. The rot is so deeper that for example, say five out of every ten constabulary rank officials within Bengaluru police force, are hand in glove with the rowdies, this relates to daily hafta collection or in simple language extort money through these rowdies from hawkers, bar restaurant owners, share in commission arising out of disputed land deals and many illegal activities done by these rowdies. The buck does not stop here, the Bengaluru traffic police have a set target of collection fixed by every DCPs in their respective zones, so regular office goers either in two wheelers, four wheelers, rickshaws, commercial vehicles face the brunt of hafta collection. What an irony! Never ever in the history of Policing across the world, has there been so much rampant corruption, as has been the case with Bangalore police.

Kamal Pant Bengaluru police chief : completely clueless.

But then whose responsibility is it to discipline the Police?

Karnataka is a state, which has seen two parties struggle for power, back in 2018 Congress - JDS (Janata Dal secular) combine wrestled power from BJP (Bharatiya Janata party) headed by BS Yeddyurappa. Kumaraswamy son of former prime minister Deve Gowda became the chief minister, the BJP despite being the single largest party could not garner the numbers required to form the government. But two years later the tide turned completely in BJP's favour, the biggest drama unfolded in Karnataka, with accusations of horse trading leveled by Congress - JDS combine against BJP. The Kumaraswamy govt was reduced to a minority, and it failed to retain power. The BS Yeddyurappa led BJP stormed to power in Karnataka. Power tussles are nothing new in Indian politics, but the sad part is the lust for power has taken a huge toll on law and order machinery in Bengaluru. The Karnataka politicians already neck deep in corruption, have left the city to rot at the mercy of rowdies. Another major factor for rise in hooliganism is the patronage provided by political parties to rowdies, take any party be it the Congress, the BJP or JDS have rowdies seated at their party offices, the favour these goons do for these political class may vary, it may be anything even getting a cup of tea for the party youth leaders or district incharge, distribution of pamplets during elections many other things and obviously the favour is returned, with blessings of these political parties rowdies have a say, in every tender issued by the Karnataka government, almost 99% of contracts sourced out by the local corporation body of Bengaluru i.e. the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has been handed over to rowdies, whether related to garbage collection, disposal, road repair contracts etc. When elections are round the corner, the hooliganism is at its peak, these very leaders are accompanied by these rowdies, threatening people who raise their voices, gangwars involving rowdies from rival political parties, if an in-depth analysis is done of the extent of criminals invasion into political parties, shocking as it may sound close to 80% of these so called party workers are rowdy elements. As it is said, the strong basis for students to pass with good marks in school and later to excel in life and become ideal citizens of the country, the onus lies on the principal and teachers and the education imparted in schools getting students to value good culture, respect for one another, and focus on studies. If one or two students fail in all these aspects, the blame can be put on students themselves, but just imagine if the whole class fails, then obviously the principal, the teachers are responsible. So the same applies to the police force of a state as well, the police department is a big school in itself, and the chief minister of the state is the principal and teachers his respective cabinet colleagues, so they are the torch bearers for these law enforcement agencies, and giving them guidance drafting policies is the sole responsibility of chief minister his cabinet colleagues. But here the entire Bengaluru police machinery has failed miserably and politicians governing the state are solely responsible.

BJP has been at the helm of Karnataka for almost two years now, even in these two years chief minister BS Yeddyurappa and his home minister colleague Basavraj Bommai miserably failed to bring crime rate down in Bengaluru. What can you expect from a police force, when the chief minister himself is embroiled in an illegal land deal. The bench of Karnataka high court led by justice Ravi malimath and Micheal Cunha even refused to give him any relief on the matter. Also infighting within the state BJP, and some leaders unhappy with Yeddyurappa's style of functioning has led to the CM busy trying to save his own govt, fighting his detractors, leave development of state at God's mercy and Bengaluru of course at rowdies mercy. And finally infighting within the BJP took its toll, Mr. BS Yeddyurappa resigned from the CMs post. And as usual came the drama with his resignation, an emotional Yeddyurappa in tears thanking Prime minister Modi, Amit Shah and JP Nadda for giving him an opportunity to serve the people of the state. Mr. Yeddyurappa we can understand your emotions but you should have stopped at that, your immature and misleading comment that, "Bengaluru is turning into a world class city" is the biggest Joke of the millennium. The reality is you and your predecessor Mr. Kumaraswamy have turned Bengaluru into a world class gangsters city.

Former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa : equally responsible for lawless Bengaluru.

Corruption in police department is not something new and is prevalent across India. Also let me make it clear, not all cops are corrupt, there are a few who put their heart out and perform their duties. Even in Bengaluru police department there are officers at constabulary rank, inspectors, senior inspectors, who have excellent track record in curbing crime and have acted tough against rowdies but there are also a few with questionable track record and it is this few dark sheep within the police that has led to rowdies wrecking havoc in the city. Also this time things really aren't good in Bengaluru at all. Though police chief Pant on his behalf is doing everything thing to bring crime rate down, Bengaluru CCB has siezed a large cache of drugs, several drug peddlers have been nabbed, several rowdies homes have been raided a large cache of weopans recovered, but still the rowdies menace has been increasing in Bengaluru rapidly.

Mr Kamal Pant now you also need to bring the hammer down harder on some of your own men, women within the force, who have links with these rowdies. Cleaning must also be done at home. There was a time when Mumbai city in Maharashtra state, also known as the financial capital of India was under the grip of the underworld gangs in 90s, things had totally spiralled out of control due to gangwars, prominent builders, film personalities, small time business men became victims for refusal to pay extortion and some for links with rival gangs.

It took the combined effort of the Mumbai police who formed hit squads later on called as encounter specialists to eliminate the gangsters. And the credit for completely wiping out the underworld from Mumbai, goes to then Mumbai police commissioner Mr. MN Singh. Bengaluru is facing the same problem today, that Mumbai faced in 90s. And Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant will have to take a leaf from what MN Singh did in Mumbai.

Also political interference in police working has been the biggest problem in India. That police work under political pressure is not a hidden secret. And this has been one of the reasons for rowdy explosion in Bengaluru. Rowdies enjoy political patronage, from all three the Congress, JDS and BJP. In Mumbai the police turned a deaf year to political influence, and took on underworld in a spirited way under guidance of MN Singh. Certainly Bengaluru police go weak in their knees when it comes to politicians, and none but Mr Kamal Pant will have to put his foot down on such interferences, when it comes to dealing with rowdies, even if it means confrontation with a ruling party and also take action against political leaders who are linked to these rowdies. Kamal Pant and Bengaluru police have a long long way to go if they want to rid Bengaluru from gangsters. And I have no doubt at all that things have come to a level where Bengaluru cops have to form a separate hit squad to eliminate the rowdies like Mumbai police did.

Also Bengaluru being an IT hub and one of the cities with higher number of foreign tourists visiting for trips as well as official company work, such lawlessness does not augur well for the city, the image of Bengaluru has already taken a severe beating at international level and it will have severe consequences. Foreign direct investment will be hit, if things don't improve, that day won't be far when other countries start issuing advisory or warning to its citizens to deter from visiting Bengaluru, as it has already happened in New Delhi's case, and if it happens in Bengaluru's case prime minister Narendra Modi's 'ache din' or 'good days' of his promise to citizens of India will be dented beyond repair.

[ivarsrideordie]

That is a good question.

Is it a religious conflict ? Yes and no.

I feel like we need to get back at the beginning.

Palestinians are not only muslim, they are also Christians and Jews. You can see it as an ethnicity. They are indigenous of the land. The Palestinians that are Muslim have just been converted to another religion which means their ancestors were jews or Christians.

Now Israel was created after the WW2. At first it was a little territory but then they start a full blown colonization operation people's from the US, Russia or France with no other claims than religion and not ethnicity have decided it was their right to come in a brown country and take their home and land. I'm a french Catholic for example, born and raise, my family can be traced back to the 15th century in Burgundy with no difficulties I'm french french but if I was to convert to Judaism I could go in Israel and claim this territory as my God given right. Israel is just a land of colonizer from all over the world. What right does an ashkenazi have in the middle east ? A Russian? An American? Even sephardic, if they aren't from Palestine but let's say Morocco why should they be able to colonize this land and exterminate the native population?

I'm religious, and I know my religion has made so many terrible crimes in the history of mankind but I would never invade a territory, claim the land and kill the native. I mean as a french I have a lot to atone for, and maybe this is why I can see how fucked up Israel is, because I recognize they are doing the same fucked shit we did like in Algeria for example only they are worst.

Thank you for this. I apologize for calling the people terrorists. I was kind of under the impression that Palestine was more than one religion so thank you for that as well. To me it matters if anyone is killed which is why it's been hard to understand. I've been thinking about this particular issue for the last week. You've given me a lot to think about and have helped me.

Again, thank you so much for this information. ❤

[rocksandrobots]

Of Rocks and Robots Ch. 21 - Fishing Trip

"So what do you wanna do this weekend?" Hiro asked Varian.

The other boy only shrugged his shoulders as he had no idea.

It was Friday and they were both walking home from school while trying to make plans for the weekend. All of their other friends were either away or busy due to Father's Day coming up. Fred was going to accompany his dad on a mission. Gogo was driving down to her father's for a few days. Wasabi had bought plane tickets to fly back to his hometown of Seattle. Karmi went back upstate for the weekend with her parents, and Megan was still grounded, but had a full day planned to butter up her dad. Even Honey Lemon was going home to spend time with her abuelo.

This left Varian feeling a little awkward. In Corona they had a Guardians Day, which was meant for both parents or caretakers in general, but for Varian it was always a day for just him and his dad to spend time together. One of the few times in the year when his father wouldn't work in the field, or go to market, or have business at court.

Varian knew precisely what a day like Father's Day meant and how special time spent with the man who raised you could be. He envied his friends, but mostly, knowing this would be the second year without his dad pained him.

In a way, he was thankful that Hiro shared his delima. Though he certainly wouldn't have wished his predicament upon anyone, it was still somewhat comforting to know that he wasn't alone.

They were a less than a block away from the Lucky Cat, still discussing things to do, when a sleek car pulled to a stop beside them. The window rolled down to reveal a man with blonde hair, a large nose, and a wide smile. He was wearing a plaid shirt and a tan floppy hat.

"Hey Hiro! Go grab your overnight bag and some sunscreen!" He joyously ordered. "Your new brother, cousin, thingy too. We're going fishing!"

Varian could only look on confused, he didn't know this man nor why he wanted to him and Hiro to go on a fishing trip with him. However, Hiro apparently did know him and was also apparently not onboard with this idea at all. He stood with his mouth a gape with a look of horror in his eyes.

After processing this terrible news, Hiro could only sputter out, "But.. but why?"

The man in the vehicle began to offhandedly list his reasons. "Because fishing by oneself isn't any fun unless there's someone else around to show off to. Because I had an awful childhood, whose own father would never take fishing, and now I'm living vicariously through you. Also, you're still my intern and for the rest of the year, I still own you."

The man flashed another wide grin and Varian began to put the pieces together. This must be Krei. Owner of Krei Tech, the man in charge of the portals that brought him here, and also Hiro's boss. Though, this new revelation did nothing to stem the confusion in his mind. He couldn't for life of him see why he was being invited along on the trip nor did he understand Hiro's objections.

"But...but...b, but…" Hiro suttered desperately trying to think of way out of going.

"No buts! I've already talk with your aunt and got her permission, reserved the campsite, and I even bought you both fishing poles!" Still grinning, he reached down beside him and lifted the new poles up for Hiro and Varian to see.

Hiro let out a wordless half groan, half whine in defeat, before turning around and slumping towards the cafe. Varian blinked and looked back and forth between the two of them unsure what to do. Krei waved to him cheerfully, clearly excited for the upcoming trip, and Varian numbly waved back before deciding to follow Hiro and pack his own bag.

                                               ----------------------------

Varian found himself enjoying the fishing trip more than he had expected. The first day was spent mainly getting there and setting up the campsite. The second day was spent fishing, exploring, and just taking in the scenery.

Varian had been allowed to bring Ruddiger along, as Hiro had also brought Baymax. His pet was overjoyed to be back in his natural environment and Varian had to admit that he felt more at home here in the great outdoors than in the crowded streets of San Fansokyo. The big city was fascinating but he'd always be a simple farm boy at heart.

Krei felt much the same way. The businessman hadn't been raised in the countryside the way Varian had, but he had a great love of camping, fishing, and being out in nature. His passion stemmed from childhood summers spent on vacation at something called 'summer camp'.

Varian found he got along with older man well. They spent the ride up chatting about science and it's more practical applications, spent the trip sharing wilderness tips, and fishing out in Krei's boat. Fishing had never been Varian's favorite activity, but he now found a new sense of nostalgia for it and the praise Krei would send his way whenever he caught one helped to fuel his enjoyment of the sport even more. Plus he got a chance to show off his cooking skills after they had cleaned their catch. Not the most pleasant task ever, but Varian could stomach it much better than butchering other kinds of meat.

Hiro however did not enjoy fishing, or camping, or anything to do with the outdoors really. The other teen mostly sulked the whole trip. When he wasn't busy gagging at the worms used for bait or getting scared by the unfamiliar sounds of the local wildlife that is. Mainly he stuck close to Baymax and the tent, bored out his mind and annoyed he had been forced to come long. Varian's enthusiasm only aggravated him further and, if he was being honest with himself, he was a little jealous by how easy things came to the other boy. He'd spent half a year trying to get on Krei's good side and impress him, while Varian had managed it in mere minutes of meeting the CEO.

The only time Hiro came out of his grumpy shell was at night, when they built a campfire and roasted marshmallows. Varian had never had smores before, but they were tasty, if also sticky and a little too sweet. Ruddiger however went nuts over the fluffy sweets and had to be kept from stealing the whole bag of them. Hiro didn't really care one way or the other about the traditional treat, but was more than eager to share ghost stories with the rest of the group. Gleefully recalling with gory detail about the spirit of an ax murderer who apparently stalked the woods. Perhaps it was a little vindictive of him, to try his best and scare the other teen, but Hiro couldn't help filling a little thrill whenever Varian gave a little jump or clutched his pet raccoon even tighter in comfort.

Keri was only amused by the story. He'd heard similar ones growing up at camp. He laughed at the end of Hiro's tale.

"Ha! Kids are still telling that one? Let me tell you a real horror story."

It was about tax audits.

Both boys could only shrug at each other.

"I do not understand the purpose of a 'ghost story'." Baymax observed.

"It's suppose to be for fun." Hiro informed him.

"I see; an adrenaline rush within a safe and controlled environment can be considered a pleasant feeling for some people. However I do not understand how taxes figure into that."

"Uuuuh, neither do we." Hiro admitted, "but I guess fear is subjective. Do you have any stories to share, Varian?"

Varian had to rack his brain on that one. His own life was more of a horror story then most ghost tales he knew, but he didn't want to devel into that. Instead he told a folk legend that his dad had once told him. It had been an old story from his home country; a parable about a rich man who was so greedy that he hoarded a well from the poor townspeople during a drought. Forcing them to pay him tribute lest they die of thirst, but he made the mistake of refusing water to a witch and so was cursed to become a vampire. To spend an eternity in thirst himself and to be forever alone, because he could no longer get close to other people without risking harm to them.

"And so a leader must care for his people, son," he remembered his father instructing him at the end of the tale, "He must share and give back to the community. He who sacrifices love for his fellow man in exchanged for selfish possessions, forfeits his right to live among mankind and to even be called a 'man' himself."

If only his father's words had been true. If real life had been as simple as stories, then Corona would have sided with him and not the evil king who kept the wondrous healing flower hidden away and who turned his back upon people need. But Varian conveniently left out this more personal anecdote.

"Wow." Hiro said flatly. "That's deep."

He wasn't used to horror stories having explicit morals attached to them and didn't know how else to respond. The tale hadn't been scary so much as eerie with an unnerving ending. Unlike his serial killer story, it wasn't anything you could be afraid of happening to you, yet questioning your place in the world was somehow more off putting than simple dismemberment.

The mood was broken however, by Ruddiger stealing Hiro's marshmallow off his roasting stick. It turned out to be last one as Krei had spent the majority of Varian's story battling the gluttonous raccoon over their food stores.

"I know racoons aren't 'mankind', but does this mean he's doomed to be a marshmallow vampire now?" Hiro joked as Varian got onto his pet.

"I don't know. Your robot looks like a walking marshmallow though." Varian shot back good naturedly.

Now out of food, save for leftover fish, they all decided to tuck in for the night.

                                              ----------------------------

Hiro hated the woods. He hated how unfamiliar everything was, how inconvenient it was, and most of all he hated how gross it was. He woke up irritated and sore from sleeping on the thin sleeping bag inside the tent. He couldn't find anything decent to eat for breakfast. He never stopped grumbling while he was forced to use the bathroom outside. To make an awful morning even worst, he couldn't shake the feeling of being stalked as strange animals hooted and howled. One bush in particular shook right when he pasted it. He nearly jumped out of skin when Ruddiger pop out of it holding the last of the fish in its mouth.

He groaned as he watched the raccoon scurry away and climb up a tree a little ways off from the campsite. He didn't much care for the creature, or for wild animals in general, but he knew how important the pet was to Varian and so had tried to be polite about having it around. Still Hiro's patience was wearing thin. The walking bottomless pit had eaten practically everything in the camp.

Hiro reluctantly followed after, debating if it was worth trying to get the fish back. Probably not, he didn't even like the taste of fish all that much to begin with. He stopped in surprise when an apple core fell from tree and nearly hit him. He looked up and found Varian sitting in one of the top branches, raccoon by his side, and reaching up to pick another apple off the tree.

The other teen paused when he saw Hiro. "Hey! Morning! You wanna an apple for breakfast?"

Hiro's stomach growled in response but all he actually said was, "How did you get up there?"

Varian laughed, "Climbed up here. How else you do think? Fly?"

Hiro looked up at him blankly. It was an obvious answer, of course, and he felt silly for having asked it.  

"Come on up!" Varian encouraged. "There's plenty of apples to go around."

"I..I can't." Hiro admitted sheepishly.

"Why not?"

"I don't know how to climb a tree." He mumbled.

Varian looked surprised by this revelation and before Hiro could do anything else, the other boy quickly climbed back down to join him.

“You never climb a tree before?”

‘Well, I did once, with Baymax’s help.” He rubbed the back of his neck self consciously.  

“It’s not like there’s a whole lot of trees in San Fransokyo to climb.”

“Oh, well, it’s easy. Here, I’ll show you. Just put your foot there, in that knot, and place your hand here on this bump in the bark.” Varian instructed, helping Hiro find the footholds. “Now you see that groove up here, place your other foot there, and as you hoist yourself up grab that lowest branch with your other hand, like climbing a really uneven ladder.”

Hiro did so, though not without some struggling, but eventually he pulled himself up onto the lowest branch.      

“Great!” Varian cheered and followed after with practiced ease. “The hardest parts done. Now all you gotta do is swing up the rest of the branches, like so.”

Varian took off, showing Hiro the best way to navigate the tree top. Hiro followed him, mimicking the other boys actions. With great effort he hauled himself up onto the final branch and heaved a ‘wooooph’ in relief of having made it up.

His sigh quickly turned to awe though when he caught sight of the view. The early morning sun sparkled on the lake. Further out a misty fog was beginning to disperse and you could see the opposite shoreline reflected in the water like glass. Beyond that giant redwoods poked out of the canopy of trees and way, way off in the distance you just about make out the tips of blue mountains.

“Woah.” He breathed. Hiro had to admit, you didn’t get scenery like this in the city.

‘Here.” Varian handed him an apple. It was smaller than the ones you’d buy in the store, with pink and yellow skin. Hiro tentatively took a bite. It was crunchy and very tart, but edible. Not to mention it was practically the only food they had left in the camp, so Hiro wound up eating it all and started in on a second one.

“So, where did you learn to climb?” Hiro asked taking another large bite of the wild fruit.

“Oh, I’ve been climbing trees since I could walk.” Varian laughed. “We owned an apple orchard along with the farm. Also the forest is right next to my village.”

Ruddiger joined them, procuring his own apple and sitting right on Varian’s lap to enjoy his meal. Varian scratched his pet’s ear.

“Does he ever get full?” Hiro asked.

“Nope.” Varian replied, and then they both broke into giggles.

Once the laughter had subsided Hiro commented, “I guess that’s why you’re so good at this outdoors stuff. This is the first time I ever been fishing, and with any luck, it’ll be my last.”

“My dad taught me.” Varian quitely confessed. “He’d take me on trips like this sometimes. Try to teach me how to hunt and fish. The fishing is a lot better than the hunting, let me tell you. I never could fire an arrow right and I can’t stand the sight of blood.” He cringed as if recalling a gruesome memory. “But, I guess he was just looking out for me. He taught me the skills he had to live on to survive. Apparently there were no farms where he grew up, the land was always baren. I guess that’s why he prefered gardening to being a knight.”

“Wait, your dad was an actual for real knight?”

Varian nodded, “Yeah, I found his armor after...after the accident. Along with a bunch of other important stuff he never told me about.” He added bitterly.

Hiro didn’t know how to respond to that. So he stayed quiet and let Varian dictate the conversation.

“Anyways, it worked. The fishing did come in handy. I had to do a lot of that, when.. when I was on my own.” He worked his jaw as he mulled over that last confession, his eyes gazing out to into the distance, clearly not seeing the breathtaking view before them.

Hiro’s heart dropped. He had a vague idea of what happened to Varian, but this was the first time it really hit home just how messed up the other’s teen’s life had been before now. He could empathize with losing a loved one, but he had always had his aunt and his friends to depend upon. If nothing else to be there and take of him as he sank into depression. But Varian had to do everything for himself, even while battling that same depression. The idea of having to catch or scavenge for your own food on top caring for you ill father was a nightmare that Hiro could barely comprehend. A nightmare that only somehow got worse.

“Fortunately, there’s a river that runs through my village, and I could set up lines overnight and just go check them in the morning, and we had food stored up for winter. Like oats, bacon, dried peas, that sort of thing. That is, until spring rolled around and the king's guards run me out of my house.” He said irritably.”Then I just had to forage or steal to survive.”

“Be...because you stole medicine?” Hiro asked disquietly. He couldn’t imagine a world so cruel and yet to his surprise the story got even worse.

“Oh no, this was before I stole the flower.” Varian said matter of factly and Hiro just stared at him in horror. Varian heaved a heavy sigh and went on to explain. “My father was the only other person who knew about the sundrop. The king kept it hidden from everyone. I guess when he found out that my dad, was, was ‘gone’, he decided to try and remove me from the picture, so as to keep his secret safe. He made a bunch of false charges about me ‘attacking the princess’ so that no one would believe me when I asked for help or told them the truth about the flower. Then he sent his elite guard to arrest me and I had to run.”

Varian gave a little shrug and added, “I guess after that, ‘treason’ didn’t seem like that big of deal. I mean they were going to throw me in jail either way, and not many people leave those dungeons alive.”

Hiro could barely process what was being told to him. He didn’t know what to say. His stomach churned and his breath shallowed. Varian’s past was far scarier than any ghost story.

Then suddenly he felt guilty. He’d been so caught up in his own grief and his own struggles with readjusting, that he hadn’t actually stopped to think about things from Varian’s perspective. He had thus far grinned and bared the discomfort of having his life turned upside down, because, well because that's what he thought he needed to do in order to be a mature decent person. And while that was true in part, it never occurred to him that this move was yet another upset in Varian’s life, in a long, long string of seemingly never ending upsets.  

Hiro found himself so easily annoyed by the other teen, yet he really had no right to be. Varian was readjusting to whole new culture and way of life in addition to struggling with his grief and trauma. So what if he cooked weird food sometimes, didn’t always know the appropriate conduct to certain situations, or was so super confident in nearly everything he did that it made Hiro self conscious and a little jealous at times. Deep down, Varian was suffering through something that no one in Hiro’s little corner of the globe could fully understand, and the least that Hiro could do was try to be a little more patient and a little more open about letting Varian into his life.

“You know,” Hiro slowly said, trying to ease the conversation and offer a little understanding, “I never really knew my dad. I was just four when he and my mom died. It was always Tadashi who taught me things, like how to ride a bike or how to hotwire a robot. Though he never taught me to climb to tree, so I guess that’s one I owe you.”

He smiled encouragingly at Varian, who nervously returned it. Once again Varian wasn’t used to praise or acknowledgement that he anything ‘right’.

“Maybe, you could teach me more outdoorsy stuff.” Hiro offered. “And I can teach you more about more modern stuff, like how to play Mind Smith II Turbo .”

“That..that’s that video game you like, isn’t it?” Varian asked as he tried to remember what Hiro even talking about.

“Yeah!” and with that Hiro eagerly launched into a detailed description of the game.

Soon the boys were interrupted by Krei emerging from the tent. He stretched sore back and tried to reheat the leftover instant coffee he’d brought. He then promptly spit it back out in disgust. The boys tried their best to suppress their snickers. Keri spotted them anyways.

“How ‘bout we pack it up and go get tacos instead?” He asked them.

“Yeeesss!” Yelled Hiro, who was more than ready to go.

“Sounds great!” Agreed Varian. “We’ll be right down!”

Keri went back in the tent to start packing and Ruddigger scurried down after him, hoping to maybe steal another treat from the camp.

Varian stood up and started to also make his way down when Hiro’s voice stopped him.

“Ummm...Sooo how do you get down exactly?”

                                              ----------------------------

The day ended with a trip to Yaki Taco and a huge feast of fast food nachos and deep fried burritos. Rudiger was once again confined to his carrying cage, but was allowed a cup of some cheese sauce to snack on. Baymax was let out of his charger case to kept an eye on the mischievous raccoon. All agreed it was actually the best part of the camping trip.

“Say, ‘cheese’.” The robot said, as he took a photograph with his internal camera.  

The three guys sing songed the the word even as actual cheese dripped off the burritos they held in their hands, plastering on dopey grins for the camera. Then a few more pictures with silly faces to complete the set.

“Fantastic!” Krei said. “I want copies for the office.”

“Why?” Hiro asked.

“So if any clients come in I show off ‘my family’ to them instead just the photo of my mother. I love the woman but she doesn’t necessarily impress the image of ‘family friendly company’.”

“I knew there was a catch.” Hiro scoffed.

Keri looked wounded. “Hey, I told you, my employees are my family.”

Hiro rolled his eyes but he couldn’t help giving a little smile at that. He knew Krei well enough by now to know that, underneath his seemingly conviving self-serving self, he had a heart, and he wouldn’t have invited Hiro and Varian along if he didn’t care.

“Aunt Cass put you up to this, didn’t she?” He prodded.

“I’m sworn to secrecy.” Krei insisted and they gave Hiro a knowing wink. Then more seriously he said, “I know what it’s like not having your dad around on Father’s Day. So, I figured, why not a fishing trip? It’s better than being stuck at home while your father’s away on a business trip to Tahiti that weekend.”

Hiro raised in eyebrow. Keri had a tendency of oversharing at times.  

“Buuut, enough about me. Who wants dessert!?”

[cool-guysyndrome]

(I was gonna post this to Instagram first but the story got too long so here sees it first skkdhdh)

Title: dammit why do i always give the angst a resolution

TW: anxiety attack, heckloads of angst, swearing because virgil+stress=i get to write swearwords

Patton paced the dimly lit room, becoming more agitated with every step. He didn't know where he was, why he was there, how he got there, anything. It was awful being completely in the dark, thrown randomly into some foreign place with no forewarning or instructions. He had so many questions that it was hard to think at all. Where were his friends? Were they okay? Were they even in the same place as him? What if they were across the country or something? How would he find them? Where even was this country? Was he in a country? Why was he in a weird castle thingy on a mountain? It was scary up so high. What were these weird clothes he was wearing? What was wrong with him? Why could he suddenly create a weird green fire with his hands? Was he going crazy?

Patton sat down and leant against the cold stone wall, trying to steady his breathing. Was this how Virgil felt when he had an anxiety attack?

He looked down at his hands, scared to accidentally replicate the spectacle he had made when he went outside and set a tree on fire.

"Maybe i can control it?" He thought aloud. Worth a try.

Patton shut his eyes and tried to focus his thoughts on the tingly feeling that had spread through his fingertips when he made the fire the first time. Sure enough, he felt a soft heat begin to emanate from where his hands were outstretched, and when he opened his eyes he saw the small green flame dancing across his fingertips.

He found that he could make the flame larger or smaller by mentally compressing it, like a camera's focus lens. It was amazing, but at the same time it scared Patton more than any fear he'd ever felt before. This wasn't a kind power. This was something destructive, something dangerous. If this power was any clue to why he was in this strange place, it was not a comforting one.

Patton released his mental hold on the fire and it dissipated into nothing. He realised with a start that he had been crying while watching it, and he wiped his cheeks dry with a sleeve.

Whatever this was, it wasnt going to be easy, and how his heart ached every time he thought about the others was really not helping. Especially Virgil. Sweet, lovely Virgil, who was always kind and worried for Patton as much as his mother did, was probably hurting just as much as he was. That thought would have killed Patton, but his thoughts were mercifully interrupted by a-

---

-'CRASH!'

"Fuck. Just when i thought my day couldn't get better huh."

Virgil glared at the fallen ornament like it was personally responsible for all the wrongs in the world, which it probably was in his eyes.

He crouched down with a sigh and picked up the broken pieces of ceramic. There were far too many breakable things in this stupid palace for someone as clumsy and lazy as him to be around.

He found some servant to give the pieces to, waving off their apologies and persistent praise. It was exhausting, all this social interaction. Virgil wondered how Roman ever wished for this kind of thing, but he supposed Roman was the only person crazy enough to like it.

He kept walking, slow enough to still pass as a walk, but fast enough that he could escape to his room as quickly as possible. Finally he reached safety, locking the door behind him. He sunk to the floor, exhausted.

"This place is fucking crazy. I think im going crazy." He told the empty room.

"I dont know what they want me to do half the time, and they treat me like the fucking king of the universe more than some stupid prince. I just want to go home and not have to deal with this stupid, stressful, nonsensical place and its mad inhabitants!"

He ran a hand through his hair.

"Inhabitants? What am I saying? Fuck, i sound like Logan."

Logan. The others. Shit. "Great now thats just a whole other problem as well. Wonderful. Fucking fantastic!"

Virgil stood up and took his cape off, tired if the heavy and unnecessary clothes. He started to anxiously pace the room, caught up in a flurry of thoughts that were making it a little hard to breathe.

"Shit. Shitshitshit. The others. Are they safe? I need to go find them. Are they even here? What if theyre in trouble? Logan and Roman might be okay on their own, but Pat..."

Virgils voice trailed off as his mind thought a horrible, terrible thing. Patton. Gentle, bubbly Patton, the light of his life, could be in danger. Or worse, already hurt. Virgil fell back to the floor, every inhale more of a struggle than the last. His whole body filled up with an overwhelming sense of dread that drowned out any of his attempts to calm himself down. His heart began to pound like it wanted to escape his chest, and he pulled at his hair like he wanted to rip it out. He thought he heard a strangled scream from someone nearby. Why were they screaming? He should be the one screaming. Then he realised that it was his own voice, and he was the one emitting the heartbroken cry. He managed to stop his screams but there was no ceasing the sobs that wracked his body as he lay curled on the floor, his mind repeating a single horrible thought a million times-

---

-over Patton's head flew a tiny streak of black, and it seemed to be hurt because it wasnt flying in a very coordinated fashion. One wing was flapping a lot less than the other.

Patton waited for the little animal to settle, then he stood a few feet away from where it had landed on the table.

"Hey, hey, I'm not gonna hurt ya. You look like you need a bit of help, actually, little guy."

He started moving towards the table very slowly so he didnt startle the creature.

"Hey, its okay, im gonna help you, alright? Lets have a look at that wing."

Patton continued to talk soothingly to the little creature until he was close enough that he could reach out and touch it. He saw that the animal was a small black bat, and one of its wings had a splinter of wood in it, not enough to do bad damage, but enough to affect its flying ability.

Patton slowly outstretched his hand, and waited for the small animal to make a move first, as a kind of permission. The little bat looked up at him with big black eyes with a shine of blue in them, and if it were human Patton would have sworn it was studying his face.

Then, all of a sudden, he heard a voice say, "Help?"

He nearly fainted.

"What?! Did you- did you just speak?!"

He watched the bat carefully, but its little face didnt move an inch even though he heard the voice clear as day. "Help wing?"

Patton couldn't help staring at the little creature.

"How are you doing that?!"

"Person help wing? Yes, no?"

"Oh my goodness gracious. And i thought the fire was weird."

"Help wing, yes, no?"

"Yes, yes, sorry, yes, ill help you. May i?"

Patton held out a hand to the bat's wing. The little creature obliged and lay its wing across his hand.

"If i ever see him again, i will definitely tell Virgil about this. He'll hate me for it because he's always wanted to talk to animals."

"Vir..gil?"

"Yea, hes my boyfriend."

"Oh. Boy Friend Virgil." The little animal seemed to think for a second, then it spoke again.

"Boyfriend, Virgil. I, Jazzy. You?"

"What?" Patton took a second to realise what the little creature meant.

"Oh, is that your name? Oh! Its lovely! I'm Patton!"

"Pat..ton. Patton. Patton help Jazzy."

"Yes, thats right, im helping you! By the way, are you a boy or a-

---

-Gurl you are a mess. You're lucky i can pick locks hun."

Remy closed the door quietly and went to sit beside where Virgil still lay on the floor.

"I heard you scream. Good thing i convinced those other losers that I'd handle this." He glanced down at Virgil again, noting his fists still clenched in his hair.

His voice was a bit more firm as he continued. "Virgil. Can i touch you?"

The purple-haired boy hesitated a moment, then shakily nodded through his hands. Remy gently pried his hands down from his hair.

"Can you sit up for me?"

Virgil did.

"Okay. Can you copy my breathing? 4-7-8 yeah?"

Virgil nodded.

Once Remy was sure that Virgil was no longer in such a bad state, he got him to sit on his bed and gave him a glass of water.

"Thanks." Virgil managed as Remy handed him the glass.

"Youre fine, gurl, i get this kind of thing a lot. The staff here get stressed all the time and someones gotta help calm 'em down, y'know?"

"Yeah."

"Besides, gotta have you in top condition so i can 'scold you' as Perce puts it, or as i like to say, roast your sorry ass."

"Really? What did i fuck up this time?"

"Oooh gurl you wouldnt believe it. So much that the cat wants your hide."

"The cat?"

"The cat."

Virgil wasn't quite smiling, but his eyes werent as sad any more.

Remy lay back on his bed like he owned it.

"Nah, I'm messing with ya."

"I know." Virgil couldnt help a small smile.

"Its not the cat, hun, its the rats that cat's chasing that want your blood. Have fun arguing with rodents."

"That bad huh?"

"Nah not really. Percy wants to help you with some stuff you were struggling with today."

"Struggling?" Virgil raised an eyebrow at the other man.

Remy chuckled. "Gurl, you and i both know you aren't really the prince. Gotta have someone in on the secret to help before everyone is."

"Touché."

After Remy left, Virgil lay back on his bed, realising just how exhausted he was. This wasn't going to get any easier. But maybe it could, at the very least, be possible.

[lonelynova]

Opinion Piece

I believe the whole gender thing has gone too far.

Sure, I am one to advocate for self expression for both sides. I in fact was once a tomboy and dressed like one, in some aspects I still am and still do while being into girly things. I even agreed just let the feminine men be themselves, because there is more boyish girls and more girlish boys. Tomyboys and Femboys. Straight, simple to the point. I even agreed to just let trans-people live their lives and leave them alone, if it makes their life happy whats the problem? Same goes with pronouns, I agreed to the main three he/them/her, if it helped others express themselves.

but now? Well...

I can't help question if I want to continue to support it with how far its been reaching beyond its barrier. There was a comfortable stop sign and like a speeding party bus it barreled right through! They don't care who's on the road, that bus has no destination and just wants to disrupt the world.

Those who use "Pronouns" is one thing that has gone way way too far, even past reality for most of them. I don't feel like writing a long paragraph today, so have a list of examples:

Aside Them/He/She, a good handful of them want to accept and believe that identifying as an animal or sound is a gender. Either having pronouns of Xe/Xer or Bat/Bats as examples. That is NOT based on reality.

They want everybody to use pronouns, even all other countries. They call it 'being inclusive', but really they are forcing their belief what gender is into everybody else's business. Doesn't matter if you have a culture, opinion or religion that disagrees with it- Just like the Latinos, they don't have the choice of being called Latinx despite having no consent from the general people.

They try to dismantle that clothing does have gender. A girl going by them/he wearing the most frilly of frills, complaining how people misgender them and how it upsets them, so clothing shouldn't have gender just so people can't misgender her. That dismantles the whole DragQueen and Trans with how clothing is shown being gendered.

You are NOT ALLOWED to disagree with Pronouns, even if its your religion, culture or personal opinions. If you do not respect using pronouns of somebody else you are called every label under the exclusive bigot umbrella. People are forced to comply to use them and demanded respect from them, when the community itself cries when they believe an opinion is forced on them and won't respect other people.

The general community tries to change language of another culture just so they have their pronouns. Not every culture or every populous wants to use pronouns or accompany it, but if they don't then they're seen as bad people.

They want to believe they can just raise a child has non-binary, thinking this certainly won't confuse the child as it grows up or cause some serious confusion. We have yet to see the fruit produced from this new wave of pronoun use, so we'll have to see what happens when those kids grow up and their stories.

They want you to get the pronouns right the first time despite not remotely looking like the gender they identify as, basically no room for mistakes or accidental assumptions.

A good number of the community makes "Cis" people out to be the enemy just for being their biological gender and accepting that.

I've already made posts when it came to Trans people, but this is legit just a public journal of sorts like I've described before.

It just seems like people who wants to be trans or use pronouns hate themselves. They preach self love, but these people seem to be the most miserable and most self-loathing out of anybody in the rest of the world. The world will not bend around them to please them, so it upsets them how reality is they aren't what they want to be. They deny reality with their own logic and justification to why they believe something is real.

Maybe instead of transitioning or using pronouns... Maybe these people really need help in understand what true self-love is and accepting them as they are, instead of what they're not.