#foundation to decrease world suck

[mcb3k]

Hey y'all, it's P4A time!

The Project for Awesome (or P4A) is an annual event where we raise awareness of charities that make the world a little bit of a better place and we raise money to redistribute to charities voted on by our community. Legally speaking, the Project for Awesome is a project of the Foundation to Decrease World Suck (or FTDWS), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The FTDWS exists to fundraise for the benefit of other nonprofits and only awards grants to organizations that are 501(c)(3) or foreign equivalent classified charities. The nine board members are John Green, Hank Green, Mike Green, Marie Ann Fernandez-Silva, Valerie Barr, Taylor Behnke, Benny Fine, Rosianna Halse Rojas, and Angela Lin. In 2024, we raised a grand total of $3,530,889.25, including several generous matching donations. 50% of donations went to Save the Children and Partners in Health, and 50% of donations were split between 30 charities chosen by the Project for Awesome community. You can see a list of all the charities that have received P4A grants here.

You can watch the live stream here:

You can also go to the perks page and donate using this link!

I have gotten the digital download bundle for the past several years, and it's a nice little treat that keeps delivering throughout the year. But they also have lots of other perks, so you should definitely check it out!

[myelkajou]

bon mwa eritaj ayisyen! toujou sonje ke ayiti kapab, e pèp ayisyen pral! 🌺

important to remember that silence isn’t just cowardice, but also compliance. respect haitian sovereignty, and support positive HAITIAN-LED initiatives if you care for haitian people like many of you claim to. any monetary contribution counts, and a single share could pass over so many waves—but feel free to share any individual links yourselves.

here, you’ll find the most comprehensive link to read up on & keep informed by. but here are also some quicker, condensed graphics (one & two). in essence, the roots beneath the forest of issues that many speak so ignorantly about today, goes back to the seeds sown by the first colonizers where they called "the new world". it goes back to the systems of oppression that they've created, and left behind for their descendants to foster over the centuries, to today—which has sprouted into rampant anti-blackness/indigeneity alongside anti-haitianism in the caribbean-latam (as well as beyond the region), apartheid & ethnic-cleansing, religious colonialism through stigmatizing indigenous practice [vodou] to push missionary work in its place—and, like it can't get any worse, destabilization & foreign occupation disguised as “intervention”. *all* urged by core group (the u.s., france, spain, germany, canada) and unsurprisingly endorsed by our own “siblings” in the region who allow themselves to be used as pawns to violate our sovereignty, states of caricom & latam. and, of course this violence wouldn't permitted without the illegitimate puppet governments who pride themselves on being haitian yet their actions say everything but, seeing that all they really care about is clawing onto power & blood money—who've been installed by core group, elites of either mulatto or purely european settler origin, and foreign oligarch families that began settling on the island long ago. at the end of the day, they all join forces because they all want a piece of the same pie; a haiti without haitian people, and to suck our lands dry.

descending from people who've resisted comes with a hefty price, and it's one that we will continue to refuse. this is the work they won't tell you about on the island.

grown in haiti operates from jakmèl, with the intentions of giving back to our land. they train/work with haitian farmers to restore the soil and replant trees, while also reviving and protecting indigenous ecosystems. click here if you'd like to make a donation, and scroll to the bottom of the page for their socials.

lakou tanama makes a home in many areas on our island, with the hopes of expanding to our diaspora—using afro-indigenous practices to nourish communities & offer support to people who've been heavily impacted by the rise of the organized violence. click here if you'd like to donate.

the haitian association of psychology continues to assist the growing wave of people right in the center of, or nearest to the calculated violence—who've been experiencing mental health difficulties as a result of the following issues; abuse, displacement, food scarcity, illness & injury, and inadequate resources. click here if you'd like to make a donation, and click here to reach their fb page.

the fontaine foundation operates from the capital, providing healthcare, education, and a promising future for those in the belly of the beast. click here if you'd like to make a donation.

haiti diaspora 360 sees to the self-sufficiency of displaced families drawn to the nearest southern departments of haiti, while trying to get as much of their youth in school as possible. click here if you'd like to make a donation, and click here to reach their website.

mouvan peyizan papay, operating from central plateau, focuses on sovereignty; supporting farmers there in plato santral (where haiti's agricultural market is strongest), providing education & legal aid, plus putting together logistics—altogether decreasing reliance on foreign assistance. click here if you'd like to read more, see the progress being made & donate.

cojeha, operating from the northeast department, serves as a center that empowers & provides opportunity to the haitian youth there, as well as the communities that they come from. click here if you'd like to read more, see the progress being made & donate.

otrah, by and for trans haitian people in haiti, is accepting donations to foster a safer space for the community, especially queer youth. they’re working on destigmatizing hiv, as they they provide diagnostic & treatment care for it. click here if you'd like to make a donation.

p4h global is involved in many ways—with our agricultural movement in the north (as well as the canals/bridges), strengthening haitian educators, assisting those displaced in the capital & the nearest surrounding areas, helping migrants at the colonial border, and even waste management projects. if you'd like to make a donation towards any of these, click here.

[nomsfaultau]

Long and kinda dumb questions lol, sorry if you already answered them before

What’s the survivability rate if a reader ever got sucked into the Fault Universe? Considering F!Philza had that meta moment of seeing the reader’s eye so he might recognise the reader’s presence(?), along with the void more than ready to devour anything from the real world, etc. How many seconds would a reader survive before dying?

What would happen if you put an Everything Bagel (like in EEAAO) into the void?

depends where you drop. If it’s inside the Foundation, they’d probably do some testing and figure you’re human and were just caught in the effects of an unknown anomaly. That is, sorta assuming you don’t register as an incomprehensible eldritch being akin to a 3D object showing up in Flatland due to being a full person instead of a character. I think potentially you can see the words woven into all characters and objects and setting. But the characters are made to act like people and it’s not like they’d know hey you actually have an independent and vibrant inner world whereas they only exist in their actions, so I figure you’d still register as human. As long as you reveal know knowledge of what’s happening or the story at large, best case scenario they amnestize and catch and release you. Now they will also try to recruit you, since a good chunk of their recruitment is people who witnessed anomalous events. But if you’re adamant but not suspicious you can walk out a very confused but free man. Past that just avoid Indiana/Illinois and you’re golden. A reader could survive Fault an entire lifetime with no/little impact from the plot. Potentially could run into a random anomaly, but like due to it being a story it may be that those don’t exist outside of one’s directly introduced in text. People might not exist unless mentioned, or may only be cardboard cutouts with decreasing resemblance to independent functional humans the further you get from characters that have agency in the plot.

……..at which point it’s a good question to ask things like, do places exist if the POV characters haven’t been to them? Is there a line scratched across the world from their journey, the rest of existence lost in a fog of war style? Or is it only in islands of when a scene occurred? Does the world only render around where a scene is currently happening, vanishing the moment the main characters move on? What happens if the world around you stops existing and you’re left there, the only thing real in a sea of words. Do you starve if left in a void? Or did eating ever serve you to begin with, each bite tasting like ink? Does your body need air? Can you even breathe in a story or is it only sentences and syllables pretending to be air? What is pain if only a description? Perhaps you’re the only one that can even die in a story, the rest never alive to begin with, revived every time someone starts at the first page.

haha anyways Phil would not recognize the reader since you’re not the reader anymore, absorbing his inner thoughts and consuming his story. Also not very very cosmically big anymore, more people sized. I suppose if you explain what’s happening to Phil he’s very offput, but mostly because he wouldn’t believe you. And if he did his existential crisis would be so strong that he turns into a little pile of letters since his body is defined by his internal perception. Oops. Buh bye Philza!

And if you run into the void they just will eat you no matter what. Wilbur won’t be able to stop it or even have time to react. You’re like…a five star Michelin meal after eating pictures of food ones entire life. Just an absolute snacc. So if the world doesn’t exist around the main characters and the moment you’re close the void eats you, you die immediately!

As for the Everything Bagel, the entire universe of the movie Everything Everywhere All At Once would be devoured. Shame. I hear it was a great movie

[gayandtrashy]

From Gubbins which is a game Hank partially owns and his proceeds go back to The Foundation to decrease World Suck!

[sebeth]

Royal Rumble Marathon: 1992

The Royal Rumble marathon continues into 1992.

Spoilers for past Rumbles…

The undercard:

The Orient Express vs the New Foundation.

We see footage of the Mountie defeating Bret Hart. The commentators noted Bret wrestled with a high fever and is now out with the flu. I’m assuming Bret was sick as it would be an odd choice to change the title on a house show three days before Bret’s advertised match against the Mountie at the Royal Rumble. Roddy comes to Bret’s defense and will take his place against the now-champion Mountie.

The Mountie vs Roddy Piper. Roddy gets a huge reaction. Roddy wins his only WWF/E title when he defeats the Mountie.

The Bushwhackers (with Jamison) vs the Beverly Brothers (with the Genius). This re-watch marathon is bringing back memories of performers I haven’t thought of in decades. Jamison? That’s a blast from the past. If you’re too young to remember Jamison, think of a nerdy Rick Moreno type combined with a dash of the “Eugene” gimmick.

The Legion of Doom vs the Natural Disasters. Last year at the Rumble, Tugboat was helping Hogan fight Earthquake, now he calls himself Typhoon and has formed a tag team with Earthquake. I recommend the “Dark Side of the Ring” episode on Earthquake, it wasn’t “dark” per se but it was an interesting look at the man behind the gimmick. I never liked the Legion of Doom’s presentation in the WWF. The Road Warriors in the AWA/NWA were scary and intimidating. The team went to the WWF and their mystique/aura decreased by 75%.

Sean Mooney interviews a newly-turned Shawn Michaels with footage from the infamous Barbershop attack on Marty Janetty. The Rockers break-up has to be one of the all-time heel turns.

Hype vignettes before the Rumble: Flair, Savage, Sid Justice, Repo Man, Davey Boy, Jake Roberts, Undertaker, Hogan,

Marty Janetty and Nasty Boy Knobbs have lost their spots in the Royal Rumble due to injuries (though I think Janetty’s was in-storyline only as this took place a week after Shawn sent Marty through the barbershop window). Nikolai Volkoff and Haku will take their spots.

For the first time the Rumble has a point as this year the winner will become the WWF World heavyweight champion. If I remember correctly, the title was vacated/held up due to a Hogan/Undertaker storyline.

The entrants in order of appearance:

Davey Boy Smith

Ted DiBase (accompanied by Sherri Martel)

Ric Flair (accompanied by Mister Perfect)

Nasty Boy Sags

Haku

Shawn Michaels

“El Matador” Tito Santana (Such a lame gimmick for Tito)

The Barbarian

Kerry Von Erich

Repo Man (formerly known as Smash of Demolition) It’s a silly gimmick but I love it

Greg “The Hammer” Valentine

Nikolai Volkoff

Big Boss Man

Hercules

“Rowdy” Roddy Piper

Jake “the Snake” Roberts

“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan

IRS (Mike Rotunda)

“Superfly” Jimmy Snuka

The Undertaker

“Macho Man” Randy Savage

The Berzerker (John Nord)

Virgil

Iron Sheik (referred to as Mustafa, accompanied by Adnan)

Rick “the Model” Martel

Hulk Hogan

Skinner (Steve Keirn)

Sgt Slaughter

Sid Justice

The Warlord (accompanied by Slick)

Flair wins the Rumble to become the new world champion. Hogan is the worst babyface ever – he has a hissy when Sid eliminates him from the Rumble, helps Flair eliminate Sid from the Rumble after his own elimination, and then chases Flair from the ring so he can’t celebrate his victory. Hogan continues to have a hissy at Sid. I never liked Hogan as a child and rewatching his storylines as an adult I can understand why all his “frends” eventually turn on him. He sucks!

Only the first two entrants received entrance music. Managers were allowed to accompany their charges to ringside but could not remain in the area (the WWF flip flops on whether managers could remain at ringside during the early years ).

First time Rumblers: Ric Flair, Nasty Boy Sags, IRS, Berzerker, Virgil, Skinner, Sid Justice

Highlights: Heenan having a panic attack the length of the Rumble over the possibility of Flair’s elimination, Flair’s performance, Savage accidentally eliminates himself but Taker throws him back in to continue in the Rumble. Flair sets a new endurance record for the Rumble

March to Wrestlemania: Hogan and Sid have their confrontation to set up their Wrestlemania match.

Wrestlers and others who have passed on: Gorilla Monsoon, Bobby Heenan, Howard Finkel, Mr. Fuji, Owen Hart, Jim Neidhart (we have six deceased individual within 5 minutes of the event starting), Lord Alfred Hayes, Roddy Piper, “The Genius” Lanny Poffo, Bushwhacker Butch, the Legion of Doom, Earthquake, Mean Gene Okerlund, “Mister Perfect” Curt Henning, Paul Bearer, Jack Tunney, Davey Boy Smith, Sherri Martel, Kerry Von Erich, Nikolai Volkoff, Big Boss Man, Hercules, Jimmy Snuka, Joey Marella, Virgil, Iron Sheik, Adnan.

Total number of deceased performers: 28, passing the previous Rumble by seven.

Rating: 8 out of 10

[ineffablelyobssesed]

y’all should get Gubbins, it’s fun and free if you want it to be and 10% of all the money it earns goes to the Foundation to Decrease World Suck :)

[cheesey-rice]

I wish the foundational methodology of lawmaking was more intentional and specific.. like instead of having lawmakers argue and make predictions about what affects legislation will have on things like crime or public health I wish that like the execution of laws was actually conditional on specific targets. Like with drug laws for example, the target of the 21 and older purchasing age for alcohol is to decrease health and safety issues that arose from 18 year olds accessing alcoho and proliferating it into k-12 institution age groups. But imposing a legality is like. An incredibly and increasingly unspecific thing. Like individual departments and counties executing legislation will have different policies about what to do with kids caught drinking. Like in a small town where the guy who works at the police station went to the same highschool as your dad or whatever kids are probably going to be treated somewhat compassionately/with regards to their future taken into consideration, which shows the pro side of increased personal discretion given to the executor of the law. On the other hand, you get rich white policemen from suburbs 'promoted' to big city departments and shuffled around to districts where they know no one and are specifically trained to see all strange faces as less than human, resulting in notable, broad category discriminatory factors having a large affect on how the legislation will be executed. This is where the letter of the law becomes especially important, because, with a high rate of incidency that puts strain on available resources, automated procedure is the most resource efficient and will thus be largely defaulted to over time. The thing that is so frustrating is that these executors also have access to SO MUCH INFORMATION about incidency and outcome of legality that never gets factored into that initial hypothesis/intended outcome of the original legislation because the methodology of legality is too reliant on things that largely remain consistent over long periods of time like the obvious stuff of "murder sucks" and "getting stolen from sucks" and attempts to stick square pegs into circular holes to solve things that are actually complex, like in what world does it make sense to force someone who sold weed to survive to live in an institution for decades? It only does if your general intention is 'more people in the world should suffer' when clearly the intention of drug legislation is improvements in health and safety. Like I know that currently people do research about law and legislators reference it when deciding whether or not to revise previous legislation but I just feel like it would make more sense if intentionality was built into original legislation with specific measures of success or failure that would like automatically bring a policy up to having to be discussed again. Like even if a policy works well for the first few decades the moment it fails in a certain category doesn't it make sense to at least adjust the specificity verbiage in a way that precludes some of the possible executionary errors leading to the negative result? Obviously no single system of government will never be perfect for everyone but when societies and languages variate over time in a way that makes keeping the same legal codes verbatim from centuries ago an eventual practice of esoterica it makes more sense to have a legislative methodology which emphasizes and somewhat automates in-built needs for variation and change. Obviously like city and county level politics allow for this variation somewhat under a democratic system but the basis of legal bodies by land border instead of affiliations/population numbers is extremely inefficient.

[hauntedkittennerd]

Yes it goes on an on, my friend

OK, yesterday we announced a new merch store (very exciting :) ) and since then the wheels have been turning. With our main project being over (though hopefully the ball is still rolling like wild) we have become, primarily, a fundraising operation. (1 of 2)00

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Small Steps @SmallStepsspeak  Jan 11, 2019

(2 of 2) We have never been an official non-profit organization, because filing legal paperwork is expensive, but we have always (and always will) operate as a not-for-profit project. We want to maintain your trust, which was not a problem when we were doing other (okay...2 of 3)00

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Small Steps @SmallStepsspeak  Jan 11, 2019

(3 of 2) projects, because the proof was in the effort we were putting in. With fundraising now at the forefront, we have a decision to make, and need your help. We can either: 1. become an official 501c3, which is still more than we can swing; (oops, looks like we need a 4th)00

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Small Steps @SmallStepsspeak  Jan 11, 2019

(4 of 2...sorry) 2. Continue with the fundraise-and-poll plan. or 3. Pick, officially, a single non-profit to raise funds for. Like the Foundation to Decrease World Suck. They are a trusted, official non-profit with similar goals, and we could donate during the P4A each year. So:10

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Small Steps @SmallStepsspeak  Jan 14, 2019

By a unanimous response, (see previous posts for details) all money raised through our merch sales (check out the new store!) will be donated to the Foundation to Decrease World Suck during their annual Project 4 Awesome fundraiser. Thank you for your continued support! 🙂00

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Small Steps @SmallStepsspeak  Jan 14, 2019

Results - By a unanimous response, (see previous posts/Twitter for details) all money raised through our... https://t.co/rPOUBYkdAI00

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Small Steps @SmallStepsspeak  Feb 9, 2019

4ocean is Actively Cleaning our Oceans and Coastlines - These guys are working on cleaning up the ocean,... https://t.co/59qlJjSq0v00

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Small Steps @SmallStepsspeak  Jul 1, 2019

Motivation - What motivates you: to start a new project? to keep going when you’re stuck? to change the world for the better? https://t.co/Ou9XwgDzin00

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Small Steps @SmallStepsspeak  Jul 1, 2019

Welcome to Small Steps 2.0 - If you’re here, you have a project idea or the motivation/ability to help people with theirs, and you believe in the power of community to change the world (or you want to, or you’re related to someone who pestered... https://t.co/7yNZ1WRMnb00

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Small Steps @SmallStepsspeak  Jul 2, 2019

Inspiration Tuesday - For this #inspirationtuesday, we are pleased to share an interview with Mr. Ira Cross. Mr. Cross is a community organizer currently working at the Mahoning Valley Veteran’s Services Commission.  How do you define the term... https://t.co/0cTZNNQIWl

[projectforawesome]

Perks available now at projectforawesome.com/donate! 

Less than 48 hours until the livestream starts!!!!

[relaybeacon]

The 2021 Project For Awesome is NOW and runs until February 14 at noon Eastern Time (9 AM Pacific Time, 5 PM GMT). Browse through the charity-promoting videos on the website, check out the livestream for highlights and featured videos, vote for your favorite charities, and donate to the causes!

[lithiumseven]

DFTBA everybody! Happy P4A! Come over and help decide where donations go by voting for videos! And if you are able please donate! We just passed a million and we’re only an hour in guys let’s keep it going

https://www.projectforawesome.com

[proudautisticgirl]

Autism Awareness tshirts ($20)

Shirts are $20 each! They are red with white lettering that says “#RedInstead” with a group of children joining hands below it. On the back, white lettering reads “‘different, not less’ -Temple Grandin”. Proceeds go to The Foundation to Decrease World Suck. These shirts are to raise awareness for autism. Fundraiser goes from November 10-24. Thank you to everyone who buys one!!

[effyeahnerdfighters]

The nerdfighter poetry book comes out November 20th!! This is a collection of poems written by nerdfighters (who are all super talented and creative), and all of the proceeds will go to the Foundation to Decrease World Suck. This is an amazing way to celebrate Nerdfighteria while also helping decrease the amount of suck in the world.

You can preorder your Kindle copy of the book now! The paperback version is not available for preorder due to the limits of self-publishing, but rest assured you’ll be able to order a physical copy to hold in your hands on November 20th.

[quercussp]

Project for Awesome 2017

Have you been noticing that the world sucks particularly bad? Well there is something you can do about it! It's that time of year again - it’s time for Project for Awesome! Time to donate to the best charity in the world - The Foundation to Decrease World Suck!

projectforawesome.com

[tumblingdoe]

HERE ARE SOME GIFT IDEAS FOR VALENTINE’S DAY OR WHENEVER! Please give it a watch and a like ; o )

[popopretty]

Storm Bringer Spoilers (9)

I finally finished the translation of the last part in the epilogue where it is explained why Verlaine was still alive and how he became after that. Verlaine and Rimbaud’s relationship is just so sad :( 

Please feel free to re-translate. Just be aware that I don’t speak English or Japanese as my native language so I may make a few mistakes here and there. Also, some meanings might be lost in indirect translation. 

...

Going back in time.

The Demonic Beast Guivre appeared in the wood. Adam blew himself up. Chuuya opened the “gate” and defeated Guivre.

Four minutes and thirty seconds after that.

The place was the site of the collapsed highway overpass. Crushed foundation materials, concrete, wires, steel frames, cylindrical forms and such were scattered and piled up like dead bodies.

On the top of that place, Verlaine was in the progress of vanishing.

He couldn’t bend the tips of his fingers. His breathing was shallow. His vision was so dark and hazy that he couldn’t even see the stars. Verlaine is nothing more than a sealed string of codes. When the singularity lifeform that acted as his main body disappeared, his heart was slowly stopping due to the life-sustaining energy being depleted.

Verlaine’s thoughts were just as shallow and slow as his breath. Even on the verge of being engulfed into the hollow of death, his heart didn’t flinch one bit, nor did it seek for anything.

So this is death, Verlaine thought in his disrupted consciousness. It is not such a big deal as I thought. No groaning in pain, no crying of regrets, no distraught with fear either. It is flat and thoroughly empty. In the first place, my life is not a life that has anything to regret at this point. It is a life that should not have been born from the beginning. I didn’t live in a way as to regret anything either.

It’s just that, I caused troubles to so many people. The French government, my assassination targets, Port Mafia, brother. In the end, I didn’t get anything, even with all of that. That only is like a stain my life’s trail, that I regret a little.

Well, whatever. As you can see, I will die soon so forgive me.

His fingers grew colder and eventually he didn’t even feel the cold anymore.

His heartbeat weakened. And after a brief spasm...

It stopped.

His heart.

A few tens of seconds passed.

Verlaine realized that he was still breathing. At the edge of his field of vision, he saw something red. He turned his eyes to that. 

A crimson red cube was passing through his chest and surrounding his heart. That thing was making his heart move.

What the hell is this? Verlaine was confused. It was not because he did not know what the crimson cube was. He was confused because that was something he knew so well.

Why is it here?

“This is the first time I saw you in such a terrible state.”

How nostalgic was that voice.

Verlaine couldn’t believe his own ears. And when the person entered his sight, he started doubting his eyes too.

“No, no...”, Verlaine spoke in a whispering voice. “This can’t be happening. You can’t possibly appear here.”

“Exactly”, the person nodded. “However, showing up in the most unlikely places, at the most unlikely times, isn’t that what a spy is?”

That was Arthur Rimbaud.

A fuzzy outer jacket. A thick scarf around his neck. A pair of earmuffs made from rabbit hair on his head. Long, black hair and somewhat gloomy eyes.

He was the person who saved Verlaine from the lab, and his partner. And the person Verlaine betrayed.

The subspace created by the crimson cube was the sign of Rimbaud’s skill. All substances inside it can be manipulated at Rimbaud’s will.

“Paul, what have you learnt in the world of spies?” Rimbaud sounded surprised as he asked.

“That if you don’t throw away your feelings, you won’t be able to complete the missions, it taught me that much. But what are missions? And what are feelings? Is that to vent out all of my hatred towards human? Or is that to get a little brother? I rushed into this without knowing clearly which one was the mission, and this is the result. If I hadn’t told brother the way to stop Guivre, I would have been able to kill off all those hateful humans.”

“Ahh... I see, you are Rimbaud’s hallucination.” Verlaine said as if he was ridiculing himself. “You are the illusion that I see on the verge of death, the death reaper my guilts are showing me. Otherwise, there is no way Rimbaud who died one year ago would appear here.”

“I’m not a hallucination, neither a reaper. I am a ghost.” Rimbaud shook his head. “I have been waiting for you, in this country.”

Verlaine stared at the other silently, as if he was trying to understand what that existence over there actually was.

“No way, there can be no ghosts.” Verlaine finally shook his head. “Not because it’s unscientific. If you were a ghost and not an illusion, you would not be saving me like this. You would definitely curse me to death.”

“Why?”

“I betrayed you, and tried to kill you.” His cold voice echoed through the night.

Rimbaud didn’t say anything, he looked back at the collapsed Verlaine with calm eyes.

“What’s with those eyes? Be mad at me more, resent me more, punch me, kick me, strangle me, Rimbaud!”, Verlaine screamed, still lying on the ground. “I shot you from the back. That’s why that explosion happened. You were caught up in it and lost your memories, then died in this foreign country not even knowing who you were. If you are a ghost, then there is only one reason that you became one. That’s your grudge towards me, isn’t that right, Rimbaud!”

“It’s the opposite.”, Rimbaud shook his head. “I waited for you because... I wanted to apologize.”

“Apologize? For what?” Verlaine frowned, not getting what he just heard.

“I wanted to help you. And I thought that I was helping.” Rimbaud leaned forward, holding his hand over Verlaine’s chest. “But what I actually gave you, was nothing more than the one-sided sympathy of a man who pretended that he understood. I can’t allow myself to just apologize. I have always been thinking about what I could give. And I finally got the answer on the verge of death. This is it.”

Under Rimbaud’s palm, the space cube grew bigger.

The thing that was at Verlaine’s chest earlier started to expand as if it wanted to shallow his whole body. Then it became huge enough to shallow both Verlaine and Rimbaud inside. That was the subspace created by Rimbaud’s skill. Inside it, Rimbaud is capable of doing anything. Except for bringing the dead back to life.

That exception seemed to be happening.

Verlaine noticed his own fingers twitching. They bent. It wasn’t an illusion. His eyes were also moving. His muddy vision gradually became clear.

“This is...”

Verlaine moved his arm. He twisted and raised his upper body up. He looked at his palm, at the back of his hand, squeezed it, then released it again. He felt his fingers being warmed up by the blood flowing in.

He tried to ask what was happening so he looked at Rimbaud who was there.

Rimbaud was not there.

He collapsed.

By Verlaine’s side.

“What is this?”, Verlaine asked in shock. “I see, you... you used your skill on yourself?”

“A method that I could use only once in life.” Rimbaud said with a faint smile on his face. “But it worked well.”

<The skill to turn humans into skills>

That was Arthur Rimbaud’s skill.

Transforming dead humans into a skilled lifeform, and using them freely inside the crimson subspace. The person who is turned will have the memories and physical capabilities of their past lives, they can even use skills. It is a skill worthy of a spy that is considered the most elite in Europe, the heresy of the heresies. 

Rimbaud used that skill on himself.

“It’s nothing to worry about. I am already dead.” Rimbaud said weakly. “What is left here is just information. But even if it is like that, I feel good. Because I could leave this to you.”

Rimbaud’s body started to glow in red. The way it glowed was familiar to Verlaine.

A redshift. (*TN: A term referring to an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy. In astronomy, it happened when an object is moving away from us. Good luck Googling.) 

“Wait!” Verlaine who realized what was going on, reached out to the collapsed Rimbaud.

“Wait, Rimbaud. Don’t disappear!”

“Because you didn’t like my birthday present.” Rimbaud laughed apologetically.

“Just take this as a birthday present instead. Happy Birthday. I am happy you were born into this life.”

After that, the subspace contracted sharply, sucked into Verlaine’s heart and disappeared.

All that remained was the debris, and Verlaine, and the cool breeze of the night.

Verlaine walked two, three steps with the stunned look on his face. He looked around then sat down on the debris.

“Ha...hahaha.” He looked down and let out a dry laugh.

“Hey Rimbaud, you waited one year for me just to do this? For something like this?”

Verlaine knew, what Rimbaud had done.

To save him, Rimbaud had turned himself into a self-contradictory typed singularity.

Rimbaud, who had turned himself into a skill, used that skill again on his own self who was born as a result of that. Then he continued to apply that skill on his new self that was born. And by repeating this progress, he created a self-contradictory typed singularity. Then he gave that singularity to Verlaine, in place of the Demonic Beast Guivre.

Verlaine tried to stand up but he didn’t have enough strength and dropped his knees on the debris. He was weak. Perhaps, the singularity that Rimbaud created did not have an infinity output like the unlimited energy that the usual self-contradictory typed singularity emits. He could no longer use his inexhaustible gravitational skill like he did before.

But Verlaine didn’t find it particularly regrettable. 

Because he was regretting the thing that he just lost that very moment more.

“Why, Rimbaud?” Verlaine looked up to the sky. “Why did you smile at the end? I betrayed you, and you died because of that, you know?”

He knew the answer. He just didn’t want to understand.

Rimbaud, the man who freed him from Faunus and gave him the freedom to live.

Rimbaud, the man who trained him and raised him into a spy, the person who got through all the dangerous missions with him.

Rimbaud, the man who shyly handed him his birthday present.

“Why did you smile?” Verlaine spoke with a trembling voice. “If you turn yourself into a skill, you are no longer human. You will be nothing more than a piece of surface information with a human’s memories and personalities. You knew that for sure. Still why did you wait for me? Why did you have to go that far for someone like me, when you didn’t even know if I would come or not?”

Verlaine finally came to his senses.

The reason why he let Chuuya know how to defeat the Demonic Beast Guivre at that time.

He hated humans. He thought that it would be okay if everyone died. Yet, he gave out the hint to destroy Guivre. That was because he didn’t think that everyone should die, equally. 

There was only one exception.

One person worthy of affirming human beings.

“Sorry, Rimbaud.” Verlaine whispered behind his clenched teeth. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t live up to your friendship. I’m sorry I didn’t thank you when I received the birthday present. I am finally grieving the fact that you are not here anymore now...”

Verlaine said so with his trembling voice, as he sat still and looked up to the sky with his eyes closed.

He remained there for a long, long time, looking at the night sky.

...

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

...

Time pours on everything equally.

Verlaine didn’t die. After surviving with the life he got from Rimbaud, he was confined in Port Mafia’s underground shelter. That was what Verlaine wished for. There was already no place for Verlaine in the outside world. He had lost most of his gravitational skill and the only place he could escape the long and big hands of Europe was the hideout deep underground.

Also, he had no interests in the outside world. There wasn’t anyone he wanted to kill, nor anyone he wanted to meet. Apart from Rimbaud. 

And Rimbaud was no longer there.

At first, he just sat in the basement and spent all his time reading and writing poems. When he became bored with that, he started doing what Rimbaud used to do. Training the younger generation.

He hammered his assassination skills and knowledge into the Mafia’s elites in an underground training space. Gin, Izumi Kyouka, and many more.

Those mafias under his discipline all became top-class assassins in a short period of  time.

Verlaine didn’t reveal his feelings to anyone. He never told his apprentices nor the Boss the reason why he kept desiring that crippling life underground. 

When he was not training his apprentices, he just sat on his wicker chair, waiting for something. He never told anyone what he was waiting for. If he was asked persistently, he would just say “for the storm”. No-one knew what that storm was supposed to mean.

Six years later, Verlaine now has become an indispensable central figure in the Mafia, and risen to the position of one of Mafia’s five executives.

He is still sitting on his wicker chair, waiting for his storm even today.

...