#least error percentages

[meshitsukai]

#Moviedle #2023-11-03

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[stsgluver]

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐄 — geto suguru

synopsis. somewhere along the way, geto suguru had gone from being your greatest challenge academically to your greatest challenge emotionally

wc. 12.4k

tags. college/uni!au, supposed to be academic rivals to lovers but that lowkey became a subplot sorry, friends to lovers, fluff, mention of being sick , happy ending, not proofread, shoko tells you to have sex

a/n. hi!! this is my first long long fic so thank you to anyone who reads. sorry if it seems disjointed at any point, half of it was written several months ago and half in the last week <3

geto suguru was the bane of your existence to say the least.

if you could split your life into two, it would be distinctly separated as life before geto and life including geto. admittedly, you didn’t really remember life before geto – having been only a child – but from ten years old, he’d been a constant in your life. having moved from a small school where it was relatively easy to maintain your status as top of the class, you were suddenly put in a position where you weren’t the only kid with an above average level of intelligence.

so from ten years old, to now, at twenty, you have found yourself in constant competition with geto. scores didn’t matter as long as you beat him. shoko had started keeping track several years ago – a little tally chart in her notes app to record who was the highest scorer after tests. currently, geto was a win ahead of you, something which you weren’t proud to admit but you blamed it on the flu that had meant you’d missed a week and a half of lectures.

“so close yet so far.”

you jumped at the sound of a voice so close to you. it was a thursday morning, the library was relatively quiet and you’d been so engrossed in the sound of the keys as you typed that you hadn’t heard geto come up behind you. you were fully aware of him now though, his hot breath on the back of your neck as he loomed over you to no doubt read the answer you had been writing.

“maybe if i didn’t have someone breathing down the back of my neck, i’d be able to focus,” you countered, grabbing your bottle of water to quickly unscrew the cap and take a sip, hoping that the cool liquid could ease the heat in your cheeks. his hands were on the back of your chair as his eyes skimmed through your answer.

despite your rivalry that had been established on almost the first day of meeting, you and geto had always found yourself in similar circles. now, at university, the two of you were a part of a small quartet with your other close friends, gojo and shoko. both you and geto had majored in computer science (much to your delight), while gojo had majored in business and shoko in biomedicine. so not only were you stuck with him in your group, you two shared almost every single class together too.

he grinned down at you with that annoying smirk that you’d become all too familiar with, “you consider me a distraction?” anyone with eyes would say yes – with his long, dark hair twisted into a half up, half down do and a loose fitting shirt that showed off his toned arms. you didn’t have to fully look back at him to know why girls were constantly asking for his number.

“what i consider you is an annoyance.” brushing him off your chair, you opened a fresh tab. you still had catch up work, plus your usual studies from your small period off, hence why you had been at the library since it had first opened. you only had an afternoon lecture on a thursday so you’d sacrificed your usual sleeping in day to study.

the last thing you needed was geto playing teacher and critiquing your work.

the male in question laughed as he took a seat next to you, bringing out his own laptop that you half wanted to take a peek at. in less than a week, both of you had a large project due that accounted for a large percentage of your final grade for the year. you had the majority completed, but after reviewing your code, you’d realised that in your ill-state you’d made more errors than you’d realised (it would’ve arguably been more beneficial if you had just accepted defeat and done nothing for two weeks instead of trying). 

“i come bearing gifts,” a familiar voice called out far louder than he should have – gojo rarely entered a library, let alone bothered to learn basic etiquettes. the snowy-haired male had pushed his dark glasses up onto the top of his head, cup holder in one hand with three drinks from the local cafe and a white plastic bag in the other.

gojo took a seat on the other side of geto, dropping the bag unceremoniously on the circular table, its contents (sugary sweets plus some pastries) spilling everywhere. he was more gentle with the drinks and you could have kissed him for the iced caramel latte he passed across to you. you were only three hours in and you were ready to flake and go home.

“oh good,” geto grabbed one of the paper bags with chocolate-filled croissants (gojo only knew food associated with sugar), “some of us are going to be here a long while.” there was no subtlety as he nodded his head towards you, something you were willing to throw your half drunk water bottle at him for.

but as per usual, gojo missed the obvious social context cues and stared eyes wide at the two of you. “why? do we have a test?” 

the four of you had decided to take a language class together (specifically german) so even when you got busy during exams you knew that there would be at least twice a week when the four of you would be sitting at the back of a lecture hall together.

“since when did you study for tests?” geto scoffed, leaning back in his chair, stretching his arms out above his head.

gojo giggled at the notion he was there to study. he’d only come to the library because shoko had plans throughout the day and his only other friends in the whole world were you two. “i just need to know what lesson i’m going to skip.” 

his attendance was horrific. he took two weeks off in solidarity with you so you ‘didn’t feel bad for getting the flu’. if he still felt remotely hung over on sunday evening, after attending one of his regular saturday night parties, he would make the decision then that monday was not the day for him to be attending lectures. if he woke up with a ‘bad feeling’, he took that as a sign that he would 100% die in a freak accident if he attended a lecture and skipped. you would kill to have his trust fund to cushion you if you failed university.

“no satoru we don’t have a test,” you laughed at his relieved look and little ‘phew’ as he dramatically swiped his hand across his forehead. to show his gratitude he offered you one of his excessively sweet croissants which you happily accepted. you knew you needed to get a real lunch soon but you just needed to do a couple more hours of real work before you could slack off.

unlucky for you, those couple of hours turned into the rest of the time the library was officially opened for.

you and gojo had taken an hour long break for lunch, before taking back sushi for geto (on gojo, of course). then both you and geto were in a video call whilst gojo played on his phone, attending your lecture online since neither of you were bothered to make your way back to campus just to come back out to the library.

geto had shown you snippets of his project and you were 70% sure that you were slightly ahead of him. but you weren’t about to hedge your bets and slack off – not when you still need at least two points to put yourself on top again on shoko’s chart. gojo had left a while ago once shoko had messaged him that she was back at your shared apartment. 

“are you walking?” geto asked you as he slipped his laptop into his backpack. gojo had been kind enough to take all of the remaining sweets with him so you only had your textbooks to clear off of the table and the empty wrappers he’d left behind. 

you nodded, grimacing slightly at the window. it was dark outside; it wasn’t winter but you hadn’t completely transitioned to spring evenings when the sun wouldn’t set till beyond seven. “my place is only a ten minute walk.” only a ten minute walk in the drizzling rain for which you did not bring a coat. as large as it was on you, you didn’t think gojo’s hoodie would suffice in keeping you warm (he’d forgotten it at yours after a movie night).

“i’ll give you a lift. can’t have you getting sick again.” he teased, chuckling at his own joke as you shot him a faux glare, lightly nudging his arm as you two descended down the stairs of the library. there was no one else in the library at this point, and your footsteps seemed to echo against the cool tiles of the floor.

“fine,” you sarcastically dragged, although you were grateful for the alternative to walking. 

somewhere along the way, the line between rivals and friends had been blurred. for you, the line had only become messier on your eighteenth birthday when the four of you had dressed up in suits and gone to your local laser tag place. as aforementioned, you’d always been aware that geto was attractive but it wasn’t until the close proximity under the neon lights, when you were a duo against shoko and gojo, did you truly see it. a few gentle touches on your waist to pull you back behind a wall, several whispers in your ear where he’d duck down to your height and you were a goner. 

for the most part, you’d been able to keep it to yourself, focusing all of your energy into being statistically smarter than him as opposed to admitting – or even really acknowledging – your feelings. 

“i was right,” you said, slightly out of breath having just run from the entrance of the library to geto’s car (which was parked as far away as it possibly could’ve been because he’d gone to the gym before meeting you). the light drizzle of rain and turned borderline torental in the thirty seconds it had taken you to exit the library. geto gave you a confused look as he pulled his hair out of his half bun, a slight frizz due to the dampness caused by the light rain. “my first answer,” you clarified, “i was right.”

he was smirking again, the same confident know-it-all smirk, “i know. i like instilling a little bit of doubt, better my odds.” 

“you’re an ass.” you huffed, crossing your arms in front of yourself. you’d reread the question three times and rewritten it once, coming to the same conclusion as before, before giving up and checking the mark scheme that had told you you were right all along. 

“i’ll make you pay for fuel,” geto threatened as he turned on the ignition, reversing the car out of the parking space. his hand was on the back of your headrest as he peered out of the back window.

“you can’t make me pay when you were the one to offer me a lift,” you retorted, playing with the strings of gojo’s hoodie and trying to ignore the close proximity between you and the dark haired male next to you. lucky for you, geto’s car was full of distractions for your wandering eyes, memorabilia of the last three years of your lives all around you.

on the dashboard was a dent from when gojo had hit his head after geto had had to emergency break and the former did not have his seatbelt on (there was a little blood and gojo declared that these were his final moments). the jelly belly car freshener that hung from the mirror was the same one that you had bought him as a congratulations for passing his driving test. there was a polaroid of the four of you graduating hidden in the folded mirror above your head, just the corner peeking out. 

each of you had your own designated seats – gojo was usually in the passenger (you could tell by the sweet stash in the door), you sat behind gojo and shoko behind geto. 

the only downside to geto’s car was the fact the heating did not work whatsoever. since getting the car at seventeen, he said every year that he was going to get it fixed but always ended up having to spend money on far more important things for the car. such as the light up gear stick and customised car horn. you shivered lightly as you wrapped your arms further around yourself, but the wet hoodie did little to warm you up.

geto glanced at you from the corner of his eye and nodded his head towards the backseats. “i have a dry jacket in the back if you’d rather that.”

you contemplated it for a moment before ultimately deciding that you would like to spend the next eight minutes warm. slipping off gojo’s hoodie, you turned to reach behind you to grab geto’s black zip up and slip it on, leaving the hoodie behind for your other friend to claim back. he would more than likely be in here the next day anyways.

the rest of the car ride was mostly silent, other than you critiquing his driving on several occasions – which he claimed you were in no position to do since you did not have a licence of your own. you argued you were perfectly within your rights as he’d had to swerve to avoid a stray cat.

“thanks suguru,” you said as you took off your seatbelt and reached for your bag. he’d pulled up just outside of the entrance to your apartment so you’d only be caught in the rain for a fraction of a second. “do you want me to leave your jacket here?”

“anytime princess.” what had started off as a mocking when you were kids had become your designated nickname and you hated how much you now loved it when geto called you that. you could only hope he couldn’t see your flushed skin in the dim lights. “and don’t worry about it. give it back to me another time.”

you thanked him again, waving him off before you scurried inside and up the stairs to the fourth floor where your apartment with shoko was. the two of you had been in separate student accommodation in your first year, but after six months and several awful roommates had both chosen to find a small apartment to share together. both of you had part time jobs to afford it and while it added to the masses of work you already had with school, it was worth it.

it was only small – two bedrooms, a bathroom and an open kitchen and living room – but it was your little home. as of a weekend, it wasn’t uncommon for geto and gojo to be there too. of a friday evening, the four of you would be huddled in your living room with a random board game (usually cluedo) and an excessive amount of vodka.

“where have you been?” shoko asked slyly, laying across the sofa with a pen in one hand and her ipad in the other. there was a picture of a human heart on her screen, her scribbles annotating it messily. 

“library. suguru gave me a lift home,” you called out to her as you dropped your bag into your room, passing shoko as you headed for the fridge to find something to eat. pushing your hair up into a loose bun, you grabbed a fork for the pot of mango you’d picked up. “when did satoru leave?”

“he was only here for twenty minutes. this place is too small for him,” shoko dropped her stuff down onto the sofa, following you to your little kitchen area. she jumped up onto the counter, happily accepting the fruit you offered to her. “so, geto gave you a lift home then?” she eyed your change in hoodie from the one you’d left in that morning.

“don’t start,” you complained, grabbing another fork so she didn’t have to eat with her hands. it had been shoko’s current fixation to over analyse the relationship between you and geto. you’d made it very clear twelve months ago when she’d first come to you to ask what was going on that there was nothing there. nothing tangible anyways.

“no, i just think it’s so sweet and so gentlemanly of him,” shoko tucked her hair behind her ear as she spoke with a mouthful of mango, batting her eyelashes innocently, “don’t you?” 

your refusal to point blank answer the question is enough of an answer for her. “i think it’s late,” you backed away from shoko and dropped your used fork in the sink. you’d sort it out in the morning. “and i have an eight am class tomorrow.” 

“with geto,” shoko called out before you could fully close your door and you could hear her smile in her voice. you rested your forehead on the cool wood of the door and tried not to think too much about how right she was. it was embarrassing – you were a grown adult, not a teenager anymore. it should be easy to pull yourself together and get over your silly crush that arguably stemmed from the rivalry between the two of you.

he challenged you in a way you had never been before you craved the competition. that was what you wanted from him – a challenge, not his toned body or honey-smooth voice.

when she’d confronted you the first time about your feelings from geto, you’d been honest (the woman was a walking lie detector, there was no way you could have lied). told her that yes you had a small crush but that was all it was – a harmless little crush. when you’d continued on as normal and didn’t make any sort of moves or obvious hints that you still liked him like that, she’d dropped it. 

you’d hoped that that was the end of it.

however, her interest had been revived after the two of you had stayed up a few weeks prior after coming home from a party. shoko had had far more than is recommended for the average person alcohol-wise whereas you had mainly sobered up by now. the two of you were curled up under a blanket watching whatever romcom shoko had found whilst you had made two bowls of cereal.

“if you had to sleep with anyone we know right now or you’d die, who would it be?” shoko had asked with a mouthful that you cringed at. neither of you had bothered to change into appropriate attire or cleaned your faces so it was almost comical to see her in her short dress and smudged make-up eating cereal. 

you nudged her arm gently, careful not to cause any spillages, and with a snort asked, “why would i die if i didn’t have sex?”

“shh,” she was messy and unbalanced as she leaned across to press a finger to your lips, “answer the question.”

you hummed, tapping your spoon against your chin as you mulled over her question. you knew the answer – you were sure she did too – but you didn’t want to come across as desperate. “i don’t know…” there was still a buzz in your system, especially as you thought back on your night out and the crowd of other uni students you’d been with. “definitely not naoya.” you pretended to gag after you said his name and shoko laughed.

he had made the first hour of your outing less than fun as he trailed behind you like a lost puppy. geto was away visiting family, gojo was somewhere on the dancefloor, and shoko was getting drinks from someone so you were left alone and the zenin thought that this would be the day you would accept his love confessions. as if two years of hard ‘no’s’ would suddenly become a ‘yes’.

the mere suggestion made you actually want to be physically sick.  

“he is the worst kisser,” shoko complained, staring up at the ceiling like she was reliving a moment you didn’t even know had happened. you stared at her, mouth agape, because in all your years she had never once told you when this had happened.

“why have you kissed him?” not only was zenin naoya renowned for his lack of respect towards women, the girl sat inches from you was a proud, outspoken lesbian who made it very clear she had zero attraction to men whatsoever.

“gojo donkey dared me to.”

“ieiri.” you deadpanned at your best friend as she snickered at your judgement, waving her hand dismissively towards you. 

“you would do it too for a free drink,” she tried to justify and you shook your head. 

“have some standards.”

you could practically imagine how it played out, gojo in fits of laughter and naoya in shock as shoko pulled him into a kiss (he’d mask it up though and use it as evidence that even lesbians wanted him). if you were lucky, gojo recorded the incident but the likelihood that he would have had the forethought is a fifty-fifty if he was drinking. even when he does remember to record silly things like that on a night out, majority of the time the camera is pointing at him instead of the incident.

“you’d kiss geto for a free drink wouldn’t you?”

you almost choked on your own spit at the forwardness of her question.

“i’m just saying, this whole rivalry thing? fuck it out,” she raised her hands in defence at the appalled look on your face. “the tension is unbearable.”

“you’re unbearable,” you flipped her off.

“you’re late.”

you weren’t a violent person but you think that just one little slap to geto’s perfectly tanned face would have made you a slightly happier person. it wasn’t fair that him and gojo looked happy and wide awake at sixteen minutes past eight in the morning whilst you and shoko looked like you had just run a marathon.

which, in your opinion, you basically had.

and now you were at your stupid language class that you didn’t really even need to be taking with no morning coffee to wake you up.

you huffed as you slid into the seat next to geto, grateful that you always chose to sit near the back so it wasn’t too obvious you’d just come in late. nodding your head towards shoko, “someone locked themselves in the bathroom.”

not only had you not woken up to your first alarm so you were already behind in your usual routine, just as you were about to leave your apartment, you heard shoko calling out from the bathroom saying the door was broken. ensue a fifteen minute battle with you both trying to jiggle the door lock open.

“i said it was a sign we shouldn’t show up at all,” shoko shrugged, grabbing out her pouch of tobacco so she could roll herself her first cigarette of the day. neither of you were overly morning people – especially not without your daily drink and cigarette (respectively of course, shoko found coffee to be too bitter and you weren’t a big fan of smoking).

“shhh.” a girl a few rows in front of you turned her head, giving you all a displeased look.

“shh.” shoko repeated back mockingly, not so subtly raising both her middle fingers up at the back of the girl's head. you bit down on your bottom lip not to laugh loudly at her childishness. the brunette on your right then turned her head down towards gojo and geto, holding out her hands, “one of you pass me your notes.” gojo looked over at you both with a grin, turning his laptop screen to face you. on it? a game of online chess. which he was losing.

“genuinely asking, how have you not failed uni yet?” shoko shook her head in disbelief before turning her attention to geto, “cough up, princess.” she mimicked the nickname geto occasionally used for you and you had to fight every urge not to nudge her in the ribs.

“i don’t know how you plan on topping me if you’re not showing up to class on time,” geto tsked disappointingly towards you as he sent the notes from his laptop to your group chat so you’d both have them. shoko slumped back into her seat, ipad in her crossed lap as she downloaded the pdf.

you ignored his jab with an eye roll, pulling your laptop out of your bag to see what you’d missed. it wasn’t much and it was a beginner’s class too so if you were going to be late to a class because shoko got locked in a bathroom, this was the one to be late for. you were glad, though, that geto always typed his notes because his handwriting was terrible. otherwise you would have to accept you lost the first fifteen minutes of the lesson.

halfway through the class, both shoko and gojo left to go have a smoke and get food (again seperately, gojo had tried to smoke once and had spent the next five minutes on the floor coughing and vowed never to do it again). the white haired male had kindly offered to grab you hashbrowns from the small on campus cafe and you’d accepted the offer after your stomach had decided that it was not happy you’d skipped coffee and breakfast.

that left you and geto alone together. well, not really alone since you were in a half filled lecture hall but the point still stood.

“it looks good on you.” geto’s breath was hot against your ear as leaned down and spoke in a low voice as to not disturb the people around you – it was either that or he too was aware of the crush you’d been harbouring for him and enjoyed seeing your flushed expression. for the sake of your sanity, you assumed the former.

you swallowed at the close proximity between the two of you; he was so close you could practically feel the loose strands of his hair brush against you. he hadn’t bothered to tie it up but you know he’d meticulously straightened it this morning. if you turned your head, there would be less than an inch between you and–

is he complimenting you in his clothes?

you’d worn his and gojo’s hoodies an endless number of times before in the past, this wasn’t anything new. you blame your flusteredness on shoko and her constant teasing at the minute. for the last couple years you’d managed to keep yourself in check.

clearing your throat, your straightened up in the uncomfy red seat. “i was in a rush this morning. you can have it back now if you really want it.” you hoped not – once again it was poor weather and you were relying on this to keep you sheltered from the rain since, for reasons that you were not at fault for, you’d left in a hurry this morning.

out of the corner of your eye you could see geto shake his head as he settled back into his seat. you let out a small breath of relief as you finally got your own bubble of personal space back. “don’t worry about it princess.” 

geto wasn’t oblivious to girls being interested in him – he would brush it off with a laugh and a cocky remark – but you hoped and prayed he was oblivious to the fool you were making of yourself. 

after class, the four of you had headed to your favourite cafe – only a five minute walk from campus but it was tucked out of the way in a little alleyway so that it wasn’t as busy as some of the others. you didn’t need to give shoko your order with how often you came here, you all always got your regulars.

“me and tweedle dee here,” shoko linked her arm around gojo’s as she spoke, ignoring the way she forced gojo to slightly bend down awkwardly due to their height difference, “are going to grab food, you two go grab seats.” 

“c’mon,” geto’s hand was on the small of your back as he guided you between chairs and tables and you could feel the heat emanating from his palm through his jacket. for such a small space, there were far too many tables and only half occupied, leaving the rest as a labyrinth to work through.

“where are you going?” you asked with a small frown when he gently nudged you in the direction of the dimly light corner when there was a table for four right in the window still available. despite the initial shower this morning, the sun had begun to shine through.

“i’m going to the seats in the corner. y’know since there is a sofa,” geto added in a ‘duh’ tone like the sofa was the best thing in the world. it wasn’t even like they were that comfy – too low down and squishy in your opinion. 

“it’s sunny,” you pointed to the light pouring in but he gave you an uninterested look, shaking his head.

“rock, paper, scissors.”

you blinked twice up at him and then down to his hands – one held out in a palm and the other in a fist over the top. the silver of his rings contrasted with the warm colour of his skin and you had to force yourself to look back up at him and not stare shamelessly.  

“we’re adults, i’m not playing that with you.” you deadpanned. this was a gojo response – clearly living together meant that his antics were rubbing off on geto.

geto laughed quietly, blessing you with a teasing smile and raised eyebrow as he nudged you with his open palm and fist. kissing your teeth with your tongue, you muttered an insult about maturity under your breath as you mimicked his stance.

“corner seats it is princess,” geto grinned, hooking an arm around your shoulder to lead you to the sofa after you picked paper and he picked scissors. “do you think that counted as another point to me?” the tease in his voice was evident and the smirk on his lips only riled you up more. not even his arm around you could distract you from your sore loser behaviour.

“no,” you said quickly and with a tone that had him laughing to himself. you weren’t about to lose another point over a child’s game that was just pure luck. there was a lot more integrity behind the tally chart titled ‘who needs to go outside and touch grass more?’ (named by shoko, of course).

the two of you sat next to each other, facing towards the counter so you could see as shoko pointed to various things on the menu and pastries on display. you were all too aware of how close you were when geto knocked his knee against yours as he slipped off his hoodie.

“i can pick you up if you’re going to the library tomorrow,” geto offered as he crossed one leg over the other. his and gojo’s apartment was in the other direction of the campus to yours, but you two did share a morning class – assuming he was driving in and not making the five minute walk then it wasn’t out of his way for you.

“are you going straight after class?” you turned your head to look at up, seeing him already looking down at you. in only his t-shirt, there was a sliver of black ink peeking out from beneath his sleeve.

several months after his eighteenth birthday, you, him, gojo and shoko had gone out for the evening and returned with matching tattoos of koi betta fish. his was fully inked in on his upper arm whereas gojo’s was just the outline on the back of his shoulder. your’s was a mixture of the two and on your lower hip whereas shoko’s was on her wrist. initially it had been both blue and black ink but the blue had begun to fade. 

“i need to go to the gym and then i’ll join you.”

the gym where he would most definitely be removing that shirt and not only show off the tattoo on his arm but the larger one on his back too. this one was much larger – a dragon that swirled around the shape of his spine. he always said that in another life, he would be training to become a tattoo artist and not studying computer science. 

“why aren’t we sat in the sun?” you turned away from geto to look over at shoko, the female in question holding a tray as she raised a brow at the two of you, displeased by your choice of seating. she, much like you, hated the sofas and would have much rather been in the window seats.

geto shrugged, pointing at you accusingly, like he wasn’t the one who wanted to sit here. “yn lost rock, paper, scissors.”

“yn,” gojo whined as he dropped into the sofa seat opposite geto, “one job.” he complained, shaking his head in a disappointing manner, like he cared so much where you sat and was not aching to eat his donut with a sickening amount of icing. you grimaced at his tastes.

“who’s going to meimei’s party saturday?” shoko asked once she’d divided up everyone’s orders. a caramel latte and muffin for you, croissant and black coffee for geto and a blueberry muffin and black coffee for herself.

meimei was a couple years older than all of you but since week one of university, her house had been the go to one at least once every couple of weeks. gojo and geto always got an invite – meimei would personally message them – whereas you and shoko showed up as their unofficial plus ones. it didn’t bother either of you, you were there to drink, not to hang out with the slightly odd and promiscuous woman. 

“yeah,” geto nodded, scrunching his nose up at the bitterness of his drink. you heavily judged both him and shoko for forcing themselves to drink a drink they barely liked. “if satoru goes.”

“i am 100% going,” gojo spoke with a mouthful, dark glasses pushed up onto the top of his head, “i need to redeem myself.”

“what after the dance floor incident?” you giggled, earning a kick under the table from the white haired male. after several drinks too many at someone’s house party, gojo had managed to create a circle in the centre of the living-room-turned-dance-floor. it was entertaining to watch him pull people in and out to dance with him… until the drinks caught up to him and he vomited everywhere. this was not at meimei’s luckily, or you don’t think he’d ever be allowed back

“shush! people won’t forget if you keep reminding them,” gojo whined, earning a sarcastic pat on the shoulder from shoko. 

“are you coming?” geto asked you as though the answer wasn’t obvious. when did one of the four of you ever do anything without the others?

nonetheless, you glanced over at gojo who was looking expectantly at you, “am i really getting a choice?”

“nope!” gojo grinned.

“you’ll pick us all up?” shoko smiled uncharacteristically sweetly towards geto who rolled his eyes and nodded. he was the only one with the car but both he and shoko had licences. though he seemed hard done by in his response, he wasn’t the biggest drinker and even less so compared to shoko. he was the unspoken designated driver.

“black is your colour,” shoko complimented as she reached past you for the straighteners. you thanked her through gritted teeth as you held a bobby pin between your lips, attempting to fix your hair with another one in your hands.

the two of you were in the same shared bathroom that shoko had gotten herself locked in several days prior. your sink was covered in the various skincare and make up products you used. the two plug sockets were occupied with your straighteners and hair dryer. it was a chaotic mess that would be tomorrow’s fun activity in your hungover state.

friday had gone by quickly, geto had even showed up at your apartment to take you to your first class before you went to the library together. you’d discussed both of your projects but for the most part you’d worked in a comfortable silence. in your lunch break, you’d gone to your local chinese takeaway and eaten in his car. for a brief moment, you’d indulged yourself in what your life could be as his girlfriend, spending each of your days like this with him. 

sighing, you slipped a bobby pin into the back of your hair. in a couple years time once you’d graduated and started your careers (albeit in the same or at the very least similar industries), your feelings for geto would dissipate into nothing more than the whisper of a memory. it was the competition, you reminded yourself. that was what created the ‘tension’ (as shoko put it) that had led you to believe you had these feelings.

you could laugh at yourself for how ridiculous and pathetic your thoughts sounded.

tonight however, that was not of concern. tonight, the only focus was on getting wasted.

you had dressed up in a tight fitting black dress that stopped midthigh specially for the occasion while shoko had opted for wide leg pants and a butterfly crop top. 

specifically the butterfly crop top that a mutual fashion student friend of yours had made for her.

you raised an eyebrow at her once you felt your hair was securely up, dragging your eyes up and down the top she was wearing, “are you coming back tonight or…?” 

“or am i getting laid by a certain very hot girl with blue hair? i’m getting laid,” shoko blew you a kiss with a grin. “you should try it some time,” she wriggled her eyebrows at you and it didn’t take a genius to know who she was hinting at.

in regards to her activities post-meimei’s, she had been getting closer to utahime over the last few months. you both knew her from high school but she’d avoided your group like the plague because of her strong disliking for gojo. you loved gojo, you really did, but to some he could come across as a bit much to those who didn’t know him well enough. 

at university, however, where there was a bit more space between the four of you (not by much), utahime and shoko had managed to get more alone time. despite her confident and cocky nature, shoko’s soft affection for the blue haired girl was obvious and you had fully encouraged her to ask her on the first date several months back.

“you know that means i’m going to be stuck with dumb and dumber all evening,” you complained light-heartedly as you stepped out of the bathroom to try and find the shoes you’d be wearing. geto would be happy to hear that though – it meant he only had to find you and gojo when it came to coming home.

the four of you had only ever stayed over at meimei’s once. her house was massive and you all took over one of her guest bedrooms which in itself made for a fun sleepover. however, there’d been a group of guys – zenin naoya included – who’d been trying to coax you and shoko with them to a different room. moving on from then, geto had made it a point to almost always drive.

“oh no, is that such a hardship for you?”

you held up your finger to the brunette who was peering around the doorframe of the bathroom to smirk at you. 

“you need to drop this.”

“nope,” shoko slipped past you, reaching into a pile of clothes to grab your silver strappy heels you were searching for. your living room was in just as much of a state as the bathroom with trial outfits and various accessories laid out on the sofa and floors. “i need some sort of fun here.” you scoffed at her reasoning, her fun at your expense, but still thanked her for finding your shoes.

the only clear space was on the small coffee table in front of the sofas where half a bottle of passionfruit vodka sat with two empty shot glasses. as you perched yourself on the edge of the sofa arm to start tying up your heels, shoko took it upon herself to pour the two of you another shot for the night. 

you grimaced as shoko handed you a full shot glass, but interlocked your arm with hers nonetheless. “three, two, one,” she counted down before you both poured the drinks into your mouths. the distinctive after taste ensued and you coughed at the overwhelmingness. 

“that’s nasty,” you stuck your tongue out and shoko snickered at you, having been completely unphased. 

a low rumbling could be heard outside through the open window of your apartment. you glanced at the clock – they were five minutes late. not that it bothered you since you were still struggling untangling the straps of your other shoe. 

“geto’s here,” shoko said, closing the window and pulling the curtains closed. you hummed in acknowledgement, muttering an ‘almost done’ when the vibrating sound of her phone went off. a picture of gojo wearing bright green goggles flashed up on the screen as shoko answered it. “yeah? yn’s just taking forever to put her shoes on.” you gave her a look. “yeah, i’ll tell her. geto told you to hurry up.”

“i am hurrying,” you shot back, tying the last bow. standing up, you pulled the skirt of your dress down so you didn’t flash anyone and did a little spin. “how do i look?”

“hot. we’re coming down now.”

“–and don’t accept drugs from strangers, i’m not dealing with another satoru situation,” geto said as he listed off the do’s and don’t’s for the evening. do’s including make sure you are always with someone you know and don’t’s including speaking to zenin naoya. not that the latter would be a difficult task. 

gojo was dressed in a white fishnet top and he’d opted to forgo his glasses for the evening. instead, he’d decorated his eyes with blue eyeshadow and gems – his usual going out look since he’d watched euphoria. in the drivers seat, geto looked far more casual in an oversized grey top and baggy jeans but it wouldn’t be far fetched to say that he stood out the most out of the four of you. his sun kissed skin and sharp eyes were alluring to anyone who saw him. the most effort he’d put into his appearance was pulling his half back into his half bun, pulling some baby hairs out at the front to frame his features.

you’d caught yourself watching him from your seat one too many times with shoko even nudging your knee once.

“me?” gojo gasped from his passenger seat, looking back at you and shoko like geto had made some outlandish statement.

“don’t you remember that time you took drugs from that girl because you thought she’d let you hit after,” shoko reminded with an unlit cigarette between her lips (no smoking in the car – another don’t on geto’s list). 

gojo cleared his throat, holding up his hands in defence, “look guys, i will be the first to admit it wasn’t my finest moment.”

that was an understatement. you’d been the one to find him after another party goer had recognised you as one of his friends and told you he was having a bad reaction. you almost felt bad when you found him upstairs in a bath, with a shower running all over him.

“you guys weren’t the ones who had to stay up till 4am while he cried in the bathroom,” geto shuddered at the memory and you were just grateful he’d taken over gojo’s care as soon as you’d called him.

“nope but i did have 15 voicemails from him the next day.”

again, gojo’s head snapped back, singling out only you this time, dread on his features. “you’ve never shown me these.” despite probably going out the most out of the four of you, his tolerance for alcohol was pitiful and his tolerance for any sort of substance was ten times worse. if it seemed like he had no filter beforehand, an under the influence gojo had to be supervised so he didn’t say something to the wrong person and ended up in a&e.

“i’m saving them for a special occasion,” you patted the top of his fluffy (and now also glittery) hair. it would probably end up in your annual slideshows you all did for new years eve. an ongoing tradition where each of you picked out your highlights of the year and made powerpoints with them.

once at meimei’s and out of the car, shoko gave you a quick side hug and told you to stay safe. “i am going to love you and leave you all,” she dramatically waved you away with one hand, the other holding a lighter up to the cigarette in her mouth. presumably, utahime was already somewhere around the back of the house waiting for shoko as opposed to inside where there were several dozen bodies already packed. “have a wonderful evening i will see you tomorrow for the debrief.”

the debrief in question being the mandatory coffee session post party to send each other pictures and make fun of how hungover gojo inevitably is.

“yn, come with me!” gojo slipped his hand into yours and dragged you through the sea of bodies out into the makeshift bar that had been set up in the corner of the living room. meimei’s house was massive, this room alone was probably larger than your entire apartment. geto had followed after you but he’d turned towards the crowd, opting to socialise over drinking whatever concoction gojo was about to make.

turning your attention back to the white haired male beside you, you cringe at the amount of liquid in the red cups. it was oddly graceful how gojo opened cupboards and grabbed bottles with no hesitation, haphazardly pouring them into each cup.

“how do you know where everything is?” you asked, leaning over to take a sniff from the drinks. surprisingly, it wasn’t awful, but you put that down to the lemon flavoured mixer he’d just added.

gojo lightly pushed your head back, shooing you away as he held up a bottle of malibu. after taking a neat sip (which you wanted to point out was not very hygienic but with what he was about to out into his body you doubted he cared), he poured in the final addition to your drinks. “look i’m number one meimei hater but i’d lying if i said i wasn’t a regular at this establishment.”

you scrunched up your nose at regularly attending a place like this. it was fun to a certain extent you could admit, but there was only so much of the pounding music and sweaty bodies that you could handle. “you need a life. beyond women,” you added once you caught his eye watching a short-haired ginger girl weaving through the crowd.

“oh honey i do. i dabble in both,” he winked at the pink haired boy following behind the girl and you quickly nudged him in the stomach with your elbow. you wanted at least ten minutes before he got distracted and tried to sleep with the first person that walks past him. gojo pouted, whining quietly, before making a miraculous recovery in order to hold out your drink to you. “try this.”

there was no countdown this time before you both began drinking. the alcohol burned your throat and the odd mixture of flavours had you calling it quits once the red cup was only halfway empty. you coughed twice as you dropped the drink back onto the table, wiping the excess liquid off of your lips. gojo committed to the entire drink, squeezing the plastic once he’d finished.

“delicious,” he grinned, already looking in the cupboards again to start up another mess. this was how he’d get borderline paralytic so quickly on nights out.

looking off at the crowd of huddled bodies ahead of you, it wasn’t difficult to spot geto who stood a head taller than everyone else. meimei had set up multi-coloured strobe lights that danced red and blue across his skin. he looked so effortlessly gorgeous. 

you couldn’t help but feel disheartened as he ducked his head down to speak to the girl in front of him. you didn’t know her but you recognised her from one of your lectures – one that you also shared with geto and there was no doubt in your mind she’d noticed him before. who wouldn’t have?

reaching for your red cup again, you decided that you could wallow in self pity all you want but you were not doing that sober.

“he looks at you like that too.”

“huh?”

your gaze shifted from geto and the unnamed girl to gojo. the male in question had one hand on a bottle of vodka and one hand on his hip as he looked at you accusingly. your face felt hot at the insinuation that you’d been looking at your mutual best friend in a certain way and you tried to take the vodka bottle from his hand.

gojo held it up above your head, easily out of reach from you as he too stood taller than everyone else. “look all i’m saying is that he was not very happy that you were asking nanami kento for advice on your project and not him.”

you frowned at the fact, willing yourself not to overthink what that could mean. nothing, is what it meant. 

you hadn’t even realised geto had still been in class when you’d spoken to nanami as he’d said he was going to the gym. the blond was smart and with you making a mess of your code when you were sick, you’d wanted a fresh set of eyes on it now that you’d somewhat cleaned it.

“why would i ask him? so he can sabotage me?” you countered. this was your chance to even the scoreboard in shoko’s notes.

“you are so smart, yn, so so smart,” gojo patted your head affectionately, arm slipping around your shoulders as he tugged you close to his body. he smelt like shoko, having stolen one of her perfumes the last time he was over. “and yet you’re dumb as fuck.”

“give me that.” you ignored the insult, which was pretty ironic coming from him of all people, and snatched the bottle from him, unscrewing the cap to fill up your cup.

“you can’t avoid it forever,” gojo sung but you were done listening to his unsolicited opinions, opting instead to console yourself with alcohol.

“have i ever told you how pretty your eyes are suguru?”

“you have. several times. all in the last five minutes actually,” geto sighed and you snickered at the two next to you. 

unsurprisingly, gojo was using geto as a crutch (more like he was being dragged along by the latter but it was all the same) having drunk more than his body could handle. you were faring slightly better but only after you’d given up on your heels. the grass was uncomfortably damp beneath your feet but it was better than falling headfirst into the mud. 

“goodie!” the white haired male giggled, almost tripping onto the ground as he struggled to keep up. you were glad you lived in separate apartments –  you did not want to be there when gojo started coming down from the bubble he was in and spent the next several hours with his head in the toilet.

“you take the front seat,” geto nodded his head towards the passenger side, “i’m going to lay him in the back.”

you obliged with a quick nod, skipping to the seat next to his. there was still the buzz of alcohol in your system and you know had it not been for geto calling it a night, you’d still be in the thrum of people dancing. you were shocked that there had been no noise complaints given the crowds of probably hundreds of students and the loud music still blasting despite having gone well past midnight.

you giggled to yourself as you recorded geto struggle to fit gojo into the backseat. he was like a large child; awkward and stiff and too tall for the small space. by the time geto’d finally managed to get the seatbelt around him, he was practically passed out and leaning across the backseats. you sent the video across to shoko.

“have you heard from ieiri?” geto asked as he slipped into the driver’s seat, pushing the key into the ignition but not turning it. your heart swelled at the concern he held for all of you – ever the gentleman. he’d been the one to help you untie your heels and held them in one hand as he held gojo up with the other, and now he was worried about the final piece of your group who’d already been clear she wasn’t coming home with you. it was basic really, a bare minimum one could even argue, but you were drunk and your feelings were already all over the place.

“yep,” you nodded, scrolling to your most recent message that she’d sent to you about twenty minutes ago saying that she was leaving meimei’s. leaning across the console so that there is only a few inches between your face and geto’s, you hold a finger to your lips and whisper, “she’s with her girlfriend but you’re not supposed to know that.”

it wasn’t not not a secret that utahime and shoko were seeing each other but shoko had been trying to refrain from using ‘girlfriend’ because it was still early days and she didn’t want to scare her off. utahime had never been in a publicly lesbian relationship before.

“mhmm. i won’t tell.” you were close enough to smell the mint on his breath (he probably went out for a smoke at one point) and you couldn’t stop yourself from glancing down at his lips. they were a soft pink and slightly damp from where his tongue had swiped across. in the corner of his lips was a small hole where he used to have a ring. you wondered what the cool metal would have felt like if you kissed him.

the sound of gojo muttering in his sleep brought you back to your senses, somewhat, and you quickly seated yourself back into the passenger seat. you could only hope that the drunken execution was as smooth as you thought it was in your head as you prayed geto didn’t notice your blatant glances.

you could see geto looking over at you out of the corner of your eye and you wanted to shrink away into the seat. you should’ve let gojo pour you another one of those awful drinks. he opened his mouth to say something but when you remained focused on pulling down the skirt of your dress, he chose to just start the car.

a ping from your phone had you frowning at an unknown number sending you ‘hi’. the follow up ‘it’s todo’ and ‘are you still here?’ had you groaning in annoyance at yourself.

“are you okay?” geto glanced at you, worry flashing across his features. you weren’t sure if it was for you or if he was concerned that you were about to be sick in his precious car.

“i gave todo my number,” you sighed. you could vaguely remember doing it after he’d joined you, gojo and several others for jello shots. after seeing geto with the same girl from your tuesday morning lectures, you hadn’t hesitated when todo had asked for your number. a futile attempt at getting back at the male sat to your right. you were already embarrassed by your actions now, you didn’t want to know how you’d feel tomorrow when you were sober.

if you turned your head, you would have seen the way geto’s grip on the steering wheel tightened, the skin of his knuckles turning white. but you didn’t and his voice was unsuspiciously calm as he spoke. “did you want his number?”

“no, maybe, i don’t know,” you rambled out in quick succession, hands moving in front of yourself as you spoke. you had wanted his number but you didn’t want it because it was his number. maybe this was an opportunity for you to stop with your silly crush. maybe you did want his number. taking half a moment, you continued, “well, i mean he’s not not attractive? but–” i want you. 

“but?” geto repeated when you stopped yourself mid-sentence. resting your head against the headrest, you turned to look at him. you found yourself tracing the outline of his side profile with your eyes – from the stray hairs that had clung to his forehead from sweat due to the heat at meimei’s, his brows that were furrowed as his dark eyes stared on ahead at the quiet roads, the soft shape of his nose down to his lips that you desperately wanted to ki– “you’re staring.”

you glanced at the intersection where you’d stopped because of the red light shining down at you, then back to geto who’s full attention was on you now. his own eyes were wandering across you now but his action seemed one of concern than your blatant admiration.

“do you…” you began, all inhibition foregone as you found yourself leaning across the console again towards him. geto’s hands dropped down from steering wheel to lightly hold your shoulders to ensure you didn’t sleep. it didn’t stop you from moving closer – he wasn’t trying to.

“do i…?”

geto wasn’t stopping you but he wasn’t encouraging you either. you stilled entirely when your faces had only a couple of centimetres away from each other. “would you stop me if i kissed you?” your voice was no louder than a whisper to the point you weren’t even sure if he had heard you.

there was a moment, a moment that you swear was real and not a figment of your drunken imagination, where you think geto was fully contemplating your question, just about to close the gap. the harsh sound of a horn ruined the trance you both seemed to be under and geto was back to focusing solely on the road.

you hurriedly settled back into your seat, running your hands across your face and pushing the stray hairs away from your face. your heart was racing, whether it was from the alcohol, the jumpscare from the horn or the realisation of what you almost just did, you weren’t sure.

“jeez, what did satoru give you?” he muttered aloud, though more to himself than you or the sleeping male in the backseat. his little snores may have been endearing if you didn’t also blame him for everything that just took place. ‘he looks at you like that too’ – he owed you at least a week's worth of coffee and doughnuts for putting the thoughts in your head.

“that was ages ago, i’m clear minded.” you were not clear minded at all. you wished shoko was here. you wish you weren’t.

“sure you are,” geto scoffed quietly under his breath. if he was annoyed at you, you needed to start plotting how you’d avoid him for the next few years.

“satoru said something,” you said when the silence became so unbearable you thought your mind would simply implode. the roads were familiar but you knew you still had a while before you got to your apartment. assuming geto didn’t banish you to the side of the street for trying to kiss him.

geto was frowning again and you wanted nothing more for the lines to disappear from his forehead. he was too pretty to get wrinkles. “what did he say?”

“what did you say?” you spun around in your seat to see the white haired male unceremoniously spread across the backseats, mouth hanging open. absolutely no help, as per. “fuck, he’s still asleep.” you closed your eyes as you thought back to your conversation with gojo when you’d first gotten to meimei’s. “he said you didn’t like i went to kento for help.”

“that means i want to kiss you?” geto seemed almost… amused? his usual confident demeanour seemed to be returning as he shot you a glance, the tension from his shoulders dissipating.  

“no, ieiri said that. kinda.” you chose to leave out the specific explicit detail of what shoko actually implied. the hole was deep enough, you didn’t need to dig any further.

“why aren’t you saying anything?” you asked after several beats.

“because you’re drunk.”

“oh.” what did that even mean?

you picked at the black nail varnish on your nails, willing the minutes to go by faster. maybe if you’re lucky you won’t remember any of this tomorrow and geto will pity you enough to never remind you.

“i would let you kiss me,” geto spoke so quietly you were scared you’d misheard him. you even looked back at gojo for confirmation that he had in fact just said those words. he was, however, still asleep and still useless. with one hand staying on the steering wheel, geto used the other to gently stop you from ruining your nail varnish any further. “would you let me kiss you?”

you were finding it hard not to smile like a little kid. you didn’t care what this meant – geto suguru said that he would let you kiss him. a win is a win. “depends if you’re good or not. i have standards, y’know.”

“of course,” he patted your thigh twice before returning his hands to the steering wheel. if you thought your heart was racing before, it was now running loops at a thousand miles per hour. 

several minutes later, geto pulled the car to a final stop. “this is your place,” he said but you weren’t really focused on that, you were entirely focused on him. the car wasn’t moving anymore and he could look and speak (and maybe even kiss you) without any car horns or other external distractions. 

except you weren’t entirely right in that assumption as your shameless staring was interrupted by a particular loud snore from the backseat.

you forgot gojo was still there.

letting out a quiet sigh, you picked up your shoes from behind geto’s seat and pointed several stories up to your apartment. looking up at geto as pathetically as you could muster, since not even embarrassment would convince you to walk on the pebbled path, you asked, “help me?” 

not another word was spoken between the two of you until you had entered your apartment. geto had lifted you from the car bridal style and you’d cherished the few seconds so close to him. he set you down once you were in the building of your apartment but stayed by your side as you walked up the stairs.

“drink this,” geto handed you a glass of tap water he had poured and you thank him quietly as you sip it. he avoided eye contact with you as he passed by you in the direction of your bedroom. when he came back out several moments later he gestured for you to enter the room. “i laid out some clothes for you and put out some paracetamol, you’re going to have an awful headache when you wake up. so whilst you’re being pathetic here, i’m going to be up bright and early finishing that project. then it’ll be me two up.”

you laughed quietly at the notion, walking past him. “thank you suguru.” tiredness was beginning to seep deep into your bones and you craved the softness of your mattress more than you did his attention right now. 

geto was still stood in the doorway, watching you from afar. clearing his throat, he pointed to the keys in his hand – keys for his car, your apartment, his apartment and the sweet safe he kept hidden from gojo. “i’ll lock the door with my spare key. night princess.”

you were an idiot who was never drinking again – that was your only thought when you woke up.

after taking the paracetamol that geto had left for you and finishing the glass of water off, you waited another ten minutes for the painkillers to kick in and subside your headache and then you just lay there. last night definitely wasn’t your worst but it was far from your best. between unopened messages from todo and a large question mark over your friendship with geto, you just wanted the ground to swallow you whole.

‘i would let you kiss me.’

geto suguru would let you kiss him. was that a confession in itself? you groaned, you wished the world was black and white and that was exactly what was meant and you knew that and didn’t have a voice in the back of your head conjuring up twenty other possible meanings.

you’d skipped your usual debrief with the others, sending shoko a message that you were headed straight to the library. she knew your project was important but she also knew that you’d had closer deadlines and still attended both the saturday night party and following debrief. still, she didn’t push you to come and just told you that you’d talk in the evening when you were both home before offering to grab you something sweet from the shops.

you weren’t lying about going to the library – you just left out the whole geto moment. 

after showering and eating some food, you didn’t get to the library till gone noon. nanami was already down there and you apologised for being late. why you arranged to work with him the day after going out, you weren’t entirely sure, but past you clearly expected you to make a miraculous recovery.

several bottles of water and paracetamol kept you functioning enough that you were able to make good progress on your work with nanami proof checking every now and then. gojo’s voice was in the back of your head – you could be spending your time with geto doing this instead of nanami.

that was no hate to nanami, you thought he was super sweet and helpful, but he wasn’t geto. 

you weren’t sure what had been discussed at the debrief but you had received several more cryptic messages from shoko that had made you put your phone on do not disturb. you were already reliving last night’s car ride home over and over in your head, you didn’t need to know everyone else was too.

with the evening creeping closer and the snacks that nanami had brought dwindled, the blond stood up from his seat beside you and nodded downstairs. “i’m heading down to the vending machine, do you want me to grab you something?”

you shook your head, leaning back in your seat and rubbing your eyes. “i’ll just have whatever you get.”

you wanted desperately to go home and back to your bed to sleep for the next twelve hours (had to be up in time for your 8am close, though) but you were dreading talking to shoko about geto. the conversation would go one of two ways; either she already knew and would inevitably tease you or would have to explain it to her, get her live reaction and then be teased. neither seemed fun. 

the sound of footsteps had you turning your head in the direction of possible food. the library was too quiet for your stomach to rumble.

your smile dropped when you saw who was standing next to you.

“hey suguru,” you swallowed, sitting up straight in your chair and pushing your hair back behind your ears. being nonchalant didn’t matter now and no amount of pretending you didn’t try to kiss him last night would actually make it not happen. 

“hey,” he waved before stuffing both his hands in his pockets. he must have just come from the gym – his hair was still wet and he was in his usual post-gym hoodie and shorts. it was odd, to see geto not sure of what to say or odd, appearing almost out of place. a pang of guilt washes over you – you created this situation.

scratching the back of your neck, you pointed at nanami’s seat next to you on your right, “you looking for help from nanami too?”

you were joking, obviously, geto wouldn’t need his help, and you hoped your weak attempt at humour would at least ease some of the tension. he cracked a smile as he raised a brow at you, “why? you think i need it?”

“all i’m saying is don’t come crying to me when i come out on top,” you raised your hands in defence, smiling with him. geto rolled his eyes, clicking his tongue. he pulled out the seat to your left, dropping down next to you. 

that silence settled between the two of you again. geto was hard to read as he looked down at you, his dark eyes searching for something in yours. you swallowed again as you felt your throat dry up.

“are you avoiding me?”

your eyes widened at the forwardness although you tried to play off your shock (extremely unsuccessfully). “why would i possibly do that?” 

geto shrugged, that familiar smirk appearing on his lips, “i told you that i’d let you kiss me and you don’t even want to at least ask me what that means?”

“do i want to know what it means?” you countered quietly. you were glad the library was pretty much empty and you just hoped that nanami stayed downstairs as long as possible. it felt odd to be so publicly vulnerable.

“god," geto looked thoroughly amused as he tilted his head back towards the ceiling and then looked back at you. "you’re dense sometimes.”

you frowned, turning back to your laptop screen with your project. you weren’t here to be mocked. “if you’re here to make fun of me, i’m sorry, let’s just forget this all ever happ–”

geto spun you around, hands on both arms of your chair and suddenly you were back in his car with his hands on your shoulders and your lips brushing against his, “come with me.”

“right now? to where?” nanami was about to return any second, you couldn’t just up and leave him.

“i’ll take you to the sushi place you love,” geto offered, leaning over to close the screen of your laptop. like taking away your access to your project would lead you to the conclusion that going with him was the only possible outcome (as if though there was any outcome in any scenario where you didn’t pick him).

you hesitated at the idea. if he was asking you to go out after saying that you could kiss him it was definitely not a stretch to assume that your feelings were reciprocated.  “like… a date?”

“well princess that’s what girlfriends and boyfriends do is it not?” he posed the question in such a casual and natural manner that you had to bite down on your lower lip to try and control your grin. 

“yeah,” you nodded, interlacing one of your hands with his, “yeah, it is.”

you made a mental note to bring an extra coffee for nanami next lecture as an apology for disappearing.

bonus, several weeks later.

you had come out on top when it came to your project, being only several marks ahead of geto. he hadn’t been all that bothered, saying that he’d let you have the win since you’d had to resort to nanami for help (and he was head over heels for you and would probably flunk every future project and exam if it meant you’d be happy).

you found out that in the debrief that you missed, gojo and shoko practically demanded that geto ask you on a date because they couldn’t allow the two of you to keep going round in circles with each other any longer. needless to say your second debrief with shoko once you came home after your sushi date was a long one that covered both of your current love interests.

for the last few weeks, it had been about adjusting to the new dynamics that a relationship had brought to your group. it was little things like geto picking you up every morning before class and gojo having to decide who to third wheel when it came to parties.

one thing that had not changed was the existence of the list between you and geto.

the german test you had taken the day prior was the first test you’d both completed since your project. this was the deciding test as to who would be on top again.

“wake up, wake up,” you nudged geto’s arm repeatedly, the male in question groaning as he tried to hit you away with a pillow. if someone told you a month ago you’d be waking up in his shirt, in his bed, with him, you would have laughed. 

when your insistent poking didn’t work, you climbed ungracefully across him, your knees resting on either side of his slim waist. that caught his attention and he opened one eye to peer up at what you were doing,

“look,” you practically shoved your phone in his face, the screen too bright for his eyes to adjust to.

“okay?” geto squinted, trying to read the black text unsuccessfully.

you sighed when he didn’t get it fast enough, “it’s our test scores. i have seven more percent than you therefore i am winning.”

“hold on,” he grabbed your wrist as you tried to move your phone away from his face and pointed at the email your lecturer had sent out. “you’re still only second place in the class.”

“yeah wait,” you slipped your wrist from his grip, rereading the email twice as your face dropped in disbelief. 

“what?”

poor geto was wincing again as you spun the screen back to him again, “what the fuck?”

with an almost perfect score, for a class he spent more time playing dress to impress in, was the gojo satoru.

[sinligh]

It’s early summer,

the hopeless romantic in me found her way to the surface when the heat melted couple of my overprotective layers.

so here i am, allowing her a moment of spotlight and myself some vulnerability.

it’s past midnight, I’m sitting in floor of my kitchen eating fruits with a knife

wondering, if it’s really safe to romanticize life?

I indulge myself anyway, and think about how fruits can be considered a love language if you’re starved enough to taste love that’s throughly stained with muted apologies. 

I trust, that when the sun rises tomorrow all my attempts to romanticize life will sublimate and create a thick fog of melancholy that I’ll have no other option but to get lost into.

even so, tonight I’m tired enough to let it be and so i write this, my own report of pathology

officially it’s untitled, but I’m thinking: the pathology of love.

i start by resecting pieces of all the habits that i define my existence based on along with some of the heartache that i held onto for too long

deep down, i know some of it belongs to my mother

At least its mature flavor says so, that, balanced with the sweet essence of an overly ripe fruit that never belonged

Young and brash and an acquired taste.

it’s a poorly fixed microscopic tissue, preserved in a high percentage of feminine rage

Low expectations stained with love and paranoia alike and the question that asks itself:

is it benign or malignant?

is it infiltrating my soul, taking away from my potential to grow ?

It stays unanswered, an unforced error

because i always carry those little versions of me that vary in the percentage of their belief in my own bone marrow

a core biopsy will always show that i still believe.

•••

•Quotes: Anaïs Nin/ Sylvia Plath/ Virgina Woolf/ Franz Kafka/Marcel Proust/ Simone de Beauvoir/Anne Carson/ Andrea Gibson/Anaïs Nin

•Original context:

•Art reference:

1. British School - Head of a girl, c. 1850. 2. Painting ( details) by Richard E. Miller. 3. Paintings by Jen Mazza. 4. Neil Carroll Original Oil Painting Realism Impressionism. 5. The Gross Clinic (details), by Thomas Eakins 6. Wounds of the Earth by xis.lanyx. 7.painting by Herbert James Draper.

[halfagone]

Ghost King Danny Ao3 Statistics

Just like the title states, this post intends to cover everything there is to know about Ghost King Danny fics for the DPxDC crossover on Ao3! Understandably, this is a very long post and there are a lot of numbers involved, so you may want to be prepared!

Did You Know?

There are a total of 1,334 Ghost King Danny Fenton fics found on Ao3. Of that figure, DPxDC makes up 697 fics- a whopping 52.25% of all fics under the "Ghost King Danny Fenton" tag. Danny Phantom, one of the parent fandoms for this crossover, have a total of 439 fics, which amounts to 32.91% of this tag.

But that's just the broader overview of the Ghost King trope for the crossover. Looking deeper reveals more interesting details about this concept and the authors' preferences.

Before we begin, it would be remiss of me not to include a disclaimer about this information. You are otherwise free to ignore this list, but for those of you who are interested on where or how I gathered this data, I thought it would be appropriate to be as open as possible.

Disclaimer

These numbers were gathered through manual labor on the site, Archive of Our Own.

These numbers were compiled in one day- September 12th, 2023, and as such, may not reflect the statistics on Ao3 in, for example, one month from now.

IMPORTANT TO NOTE: These figures only include fics that have been explicitly tagged as Ghost King Danny. While some stories not included in these statistics may have hints towards his royal status, a good rule of thumb is to never assume the trope will be included in a fic until given reason to. The best way to do that is when the author properly tags "Ghost King Danny Fenton" on their work.

These numbers do not include any other crossovers, nor three-way crossovers. Ex: A Danny Phantom, DC, Miraculous Ladybug crossover. This is not to put down these other crossovers in any way, shape or form, but to show a clear, concise overview of the DPxDC community on Ao3.

Fun Fact!: As I gathered the data, I had to manually remove an incredible 57 fandoms and media from the Ghost King Danny tag in order to compile this list. [*] There are countless of other crossovers still going strong to this day, and while this post may not be about them, they deserve a round of applause as well!

No Languages were excluded from these figures.

This list included fics that are not open to guest readers (fics that must be read while you are signed in with your account).

For some of these statistics, please keep in mind that there can be an overlap. For example: Under the Fandom and Character Filters.

As a general reminder, while I took great pains to clean this information as thoroughly as possible, human error is still possible.

[*]: Curious about what that looks like? Here's a screenshot:

These are just 7 of the 57 fandoms I had to remove. I would offer you more, but then we would be scrolling even longer.

However, let's move onto the statistics portion.

Please keep in mind: During this process, I used the 697 figure stated at the beginning of this post to calculate the percentages of each category.

Ratings

The number and percentages of each rating- from greatest to least- are as follows:

Teen - 320; 45.91%

Gen - 159; 22.81

Not Rated - 129; 18.51%

Mature - 75; 10.76%

Explicit - 14; 2.01%

Warnings

The number and percentages of each rating- from greatest to least- are as follows:

No Archive Warnings Apply - 276; 39.6%

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings - 270; 38.74%

Graphic Depictions of Violence - 149; 21.38%

Major Character Death (MCD) - 82; 11.76%

Rape/Non-Con - 5; 0.72% [^]

Underage - 2; 0.29% [^]

[^]: Your eyes are not deceiving you, these fics do not make up even a full percent.

Categories

The number and percentages of each rating- from greatest to least- are as follows:

Gen - 284; 40.75%

M/M - 158; 22.67%

F/M - 63; 9.04%

Multi - 44; 6.31% [#]

Other - 29; 4.16%

F/F - 18; 2.58%

[#]: What does the category "Multi" mean? "Multi" in Ao3 means that there are more than relationship dynamic found in the story. For example, a work features both a M/M and a F/F ship.

Confused about why the numbers don't add up to 100%? Not all authors choose to mark the category of their work since it is not a required selection in Ao3.

Fandoms

The number and percentages of each rating- from greatest to least- are as follows:

Batman - All Media Types - 533; 76.47%

DCU - 173; 24.82%

Justice League - All Media Types - 164; 23.53%

DCU (Comics) - 52; 7.46%

Young Justice (Cartoon) - 24; 3.44%

Shazam! | Captain Marvel (Comics) - 17; 2.44%

Superman - All Media Types - 16; 2.3%

Young Justice - All Media Types - 16; 2.3%

DC Extended Universe - 14; 2.01%

Confused about why these numbers add up to more than 100%? As stated in #8 of Disclaimers, many stories may include two or more of these fandoms.

Characters

The number and percentages of each rating- from greatest to least- are as follows:

Danny Fenton - 664; 95.27%

Bruce Wayne - 433; 62.12%

Jason Todd - 396; 56.81%

Dick Grayson - 297; 42.61%

Tim Drake - 294; 42.18%

Damian Wayne - 287; 41.18%

Jazz Fenton - 215; 30.85%

John Constantine - 176; 25.25%

Tucker Foley - 169; 24.25%

Sam Manson - 167; 23.96%

Relationships

The number and percentages of each rating- from greatest to least- are as follows:

Danny Fenton & Jason Todd - 142; 20.37%

Danny Fenton & Bruce Wayne - 102; 14.63%

Danny Fenton & Damian Wayne - 95; 13.63%

Batfamily Members & Danny Fenton - 92; 13.2%

Danny Fenton & Jazz Fenton - 82; 11.76%

Danny Fenton/Jason Todd - 67; 9.61%

Tim Drake & Danny Fenton - 64; 9.18%

Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson - 58; 8.32%

Danny Fenton & Dick Grayson - 57; 8.18%

Tim Drake/Danny Fenton - 43; 6.17%

Additional Tags

The number and percentages of each rating- from greatest to least- are as follows:

Not Beta Read - 176; 25.25%

Not Phantom Planet Compliant (Danny Phantom) - 145; 20.8%

Danny Fenton Needs a Hug - 104; 14.92%

Bad Parents Jack and Maddie Fenton - 91; 13.06% [!]

Hurt/Comfort - 87; 12.48%

Eldritch Danny Fenton - 87; 12.48%

Other Additional Tags To Be Added - 85; 12.2%

BAMF Danny Fenton - 76; 10.9%

Danny Fenton is a Little Shit - 66; 9.47%

[!]: At this time there appears to be no consensus on what tag to use to describe the Fenton parents. Although "Bad Parents Jack and Maddie Fenton" appears to be the most common, some other tags include:

Jack and Maddie's A+ Parenting

Fenton Parents' A+ Parenting

Jack and Maddy's D- Parenting (This was how the author spelled the tag)

The Fentons' A+ Parenting

The Fenton Parents Are Bad but not evil

Danny Fenton's Parents Bashing

Key Takeaways

To wrap up this entire post, let's look at some at some important or intriguing details we've gleaned from these statistics.

Most stories with this tag are Rated Teen.

Similarly, most stories do not have applicable Archive Warnings.

Gen fics, or stories without romance, make up the most Ghost King Danny fics for the crossover.

Batman - All Media Types sweeps up the competition and can be found in most crossovers.

This may be surprising to some, but Bruce Wayne appears in more crossovers under the Ghost King banner than any of his children.

More people have written about Danny Fenton & Jason Todd in a platonic relationship than a romantic one.

There have been arguments that depictions of Jack and Maddie as bad parents are everywhere in the crossover. Numbers show, however, that for the Ghost King Danny Fenton tag it is very unlikely. Even if there were a hundred more fics that use one of the alternate tags, that would still only be 27.4%. That's little over 1/4 of all Ghost King DPxDC fics. Now, 1/4 might sound like a lot, but when you consider that there are 3/4 of other stories that do not include this concept, or the Fenton parents' skills are irrelevant to the story told, that's not actually as many as it would seem.

---

For more information about these statistics, or the work that went into gathering this info, feel free to ask!

But I hope you all learned something new with this foray of mine. I know I learned a lot about the DPxDC community too. Thank you for reading.

[tribbetherium]

'The Early Rodentocene, 100 years post-establishment.

Before it was a paradise, it was a hamster hellscape.

Without predators to curb their numbers and a nigh-limitless supply of food, the first hamsters, having escaped the confines of Isla Genesis via land bridges that formed during a period of low sea levels, bred incessantly and exponentially. In the span of a century, they numbered in the hundreds of billions, becoming a tidal wave of hungry nibbling mouths that swept through Nodera, and then Easaterra, Westerna and Ecatoria like a rodent plague of continental proportions. They quickly ravaged the local plant life and introduced invertebrates, reducing once-lush grassland into barren wastes and driving many species of colonists to extinction as their numbers grew unchecked, their consumed biomass converted into even more hungry hamsters.

Eventually, having overrun the still-interconnected four main continents, they finally ran out of food, and began starving en masse: heaps upon heaps of tiny carcasses blanketing the landscape for miles on end and emanating the most terrible smell imaginable all across the land as they decomposed, a nauseating miasma of dead rodent times a hundred billion. And yet, in this putrid panorama of death and decay, some life endured. Fungi and microbes and flies and worms soon returned the nutrients of the dead to the soil, and dormant seeds and insect eggs awaiting the end of the scurrying storm burst back into bloom, nourished by the now richer earth. Trees, boasting lifespans measured in centuries, simply held off producing seeds and filled their leaves with distasteful tannins until the menacing swarms died down. Floating seeds and flying insects, blown across the sea from offshore islands and the unreachable Borealia, blew back inland and colonized the continents once again. And, with a new, enriched environment, new life flourishing once more, the world again became a paradise for the few hardy hamsters that survived the armageddon.

Unfortunately for them, it would eventually happen again, over and over, throughout the subsequent centuries. A pattern of extreme global boom-and-bust cycles of hamster populations defined the earliest days of the Early Rodentocene, as the ecosystem as a whole struggled to keep this rampant invading species under control. Time and time again, life would rebound from the devastation, only to be destroyed by the growing swarms once more within a few decades. As the centuries passed, however, the extreme pressure the hamsters put on the other species of the planet began to fuel their evolution: in a matter of just a few millennia, many plants, especially grasses, developed enormous rhizomes that grew deep underground, which continued to live on even as hamsters ate their leaves and stems. Invertebrates followed suit, laying large amounts of overwintering eggs in secluded places to assure at least some would survive, timing their emergence by evolutionary trial-and-error to times when hamsters were at their fewest. Some early plants became tougher, or more toxic, or thornier, while invertebrates retaliated with thicker exoskeletons, pinching mandibles, and painful stings to deter them from being eaten. Other species played an opposite game: instead satiating the predators with such a huge influx at the breeding season that they could not all be consumed, leaving a small percentage to survive and reproduce. Finally, and perhaps the most significant deterrent to the uncontrollable hordes, were the opportunistic microbes and invertebrates that, in the abundance of rodent hosts, became parasites and pathogens to them: ones that became particularly devastating when dense populations were in close contact, spreading quickly and causing large-scale deaths when numbers were too high.

As easily-accessible food became scarcer and starvation, disease, and competition began to take its toll, the population booms gradually became less and less severe as time went on, and the mass die-offs too became less and less devastating. Soon, new life began to flourish alongside the hamsters, not in spite of them, and, with their population levels now moderated by factors that kept them getting too overcrowded, the hamsters, once invaders, now became a part of the ecosystem. Some plants evolved to spread their seeds by having hamsters hoard them, while others relied on the nutrients spread by their droppings to grow. And by 10,000 years post-establishment, the periodic overpopulations and mass deaths were a thing of the past: balance restored to a biosphere disrupted by an unexpected arrival.

The world had changed to accommodate the newcomers: but the hamsters themselves were changed by this brutal cycle. With survivors sometimes as few as a hundred or so persisting each die-off, the gene pools narrowed and grew and fluctuated: and through rampant inbreeding, or genetic failsafes to combat the deleterious effects of lessened genetic variety, a plethora of mutations would gradually emerge in the once homogenous population: mutations that, with the aid of time and natural selection, became the catalyst that would shape the hamsters' future for the millions of years to come.'

---------

[suzukiblu]

☕️🪅 the WIP-Pinata!! 🪅☕️

Due partially to unfortunate circumstances and partially to unfortunate government-made paperwork errors, I am about to be out of the state with effectively zero money for anything but gas and will not be getting paid for like another week, with broken EBT and messed-up health insurance to boot. Oh, and my car insurance is also due, because of course it is, haha. 😅

So! Got this idea from @thisisnotmynamefml; a grab-bag Ko-fi goal! Specifically, a Ko-fi goal focused on filling a few of the eighty billion unfinished WIP Wednesday requests filling up my inbox that I never got to for one reason or another. And I love doing WIP Wednesday, don't get me wrong, but I could use the excuse to clear out some older requests and maybe get at least SOME of my inbox back and semi-usable, hah.

Therefore, for every dollar donated towards the goal, I will go fill a random WIP Wednesday request in thanks. Which means a minimum of three sentences in a random WIP that's previously been posted for WIP Wednesday; I'll just rifle through my very, very full inbox and pick whatever jumps out at me first. I get a less-cluttered inbox and WIP-progress, and everyone else gets a pinata-ful of writing asks!

( also I won't be tagging these with their specific Ko-fi donor's username because it'd take forever and probably confuse people anyway, but if you're interested in donating and have any particular squicks/triggers you'd prefer I avoid, just leave me a note about them in your dono message and I'll make sure to pick something that doesn't hit any of 'em to fill for your percentage. )

My Ko-fi can be found here, for anyone who's considering donating! Thank you for reading. ❤️

[creative-kny-fics]

Hiiiiii! I don't know if you are taking requests right now but if you are I would like to request lee!kokushibo with your choice of ler. In my not so humble opinion there can never be enough of this. Thank you!!!!

The only one brave/intelligent/idiot enough to do it is Douma (he is not afraid of dying or punishment).

Take it as a friendship or a relationship (although I suck at writing scenarios like that-).

Ler: Douma (UpperMoon 2)

Lee: Kokushibo (UpperMoon 1)

A change is noticeable, right? At least that's how it was for Akaza, why?

Well, he was used to EVERY day he was in the Infinite Fortress, Douma was willing to "bother" him but now it was strange... It would have been almost a week, maybe even a week and a half since the last time Douma decided to bother him, it was strange, and although he wanted to have left it that way, curiosity invaded him.

'We haven't seen him either, you could ask Daki or Gyutaro, they probably...-' 'They don't know, I talked to them and they just shrugged, so, it doesn't help me much,' he sighed as he finished.

He opened his eyes and looked at both of them, his gaze was fixed but confused, great, now he had to give them explanations. 'And why so much interest in knowing about Douma? I thought you hated him...'

'And I do, but I find only one thing strange, so shut up and start selling your shit, that's the only thing you're good for. Goodbye'

Akaza simply walked away as he heard Hantengu trying to hold Gyokko back, but it wasn't that necessary, he left as quickly as he could.

This is where random things appear and that was a notebook, it may be normal in another scenario, but not in this one.

'It must be one of Muzan-Sama's research books. I better give it back', was a good idea until the separator fell off.

Akaza cursed in his thoughts, trying to "solve" the "trouble" he would get into if he lost the page. And it wasn't difficult, they were just blank pages, whoever was the owner would only be using half of the notebook.

'Well, that helps me... I think... Wait, this doesn't seem like information on some medicinal flower or plant...'

'Where can it be?! I know I had it with me... It can't go away, and I doubt the employees took it. They wouldn't be able to, so where is it?!', someone finally realized that they lost something. 'Is this the shit you're looking for...?'

'Oooooh it's Akaza-Dono's voice, I'm sorry I can't receive you properly, but I'm on a quest and...-! AGH!!'

Akaza did not plan to continue with this stupid game and grabbed him forcefully by the neck, demanding explanations.

Douma looked at the book and took it lovingly, apparently unaware that Akaza was trying to kill him by hanging him.

'Thank you for bringing it! You don't know how important it is to me, tell me, how can I thank you for your generosity~?'

'How about explaining to me that shit you have written there and why the hell I have the highest percentage...'

'Did you read it? Do you know it's rude to read things that belong to you? But I can forget it because you knew it was mine~'

Douma took the time to explain to Akaza what he had written, it was his "diary", although any book he had would be considered one, no one could read it.

What was written in that book was a kind of record of the UpperMons, but one that indicated how sensitive they were, I guess you already understood what he mean and why Akaza was so upset.

'There may still be some errors, but it is in progress, do you think I got your file right?' Douma smiled "innocently."

But how could Akaza respond? Douma had literally locked him up with his BDA, he didn't want to take the risk of Akaza confusing him and having to repeat history.

He didn't care that he hit him, it was his form of "friendship."

'And why the hell do I have that percentage? If I...-'

'Please Akaza-Dono, are you going to tell me that you don't laugh immediately when someone tickles your stripes~? How about we try it?'

'Touch me and you'll see how I destroy your face with a single blow. Besides, I'll burn your stupid book and tell the others about...', he couldn't continue, Douma silenced him by putting a finger over his mouth.

He only had Daki, Gyutaro and Akaza written, when he asked why the others were not there, his answers were.

"Honestly, with Gyokko I don't even know where I could touch him, his body is like gelatin and it gives me chills a little. I tried to get close to Nakime-Chan, but as soon as she saw me, she strummed her biwa and I was sent back to my cult. And with Hantengu, I just touched him and he started screaming asking me not to hurt him, so I left him..."

Douma shrugged looking at his "friend" and in front of him, he didn't speak and it seemed like he didn't would do. He hated seeing his friend like this, after thinking for a while, he found the solution

'Listen this, I proposed you the following. If you help me with Kokushibo-Dono, I will modify your percentages and give them less, what do you think?'

'It seems totally idiotic of you to think that I'm going to agree to help you do this shit...'

Now we move the scene to Douma explaining to Akaza what he's going to do, while the poor striped demon was trying to believe how the hell he had been dragged into that stupid game

He swore to god that if Douma made Kokushibo tickle him too, he was going to kick him so many times that it would leave him with a pain in his groin. 'And that's all you'll do, I don't think it'll be that hard for you, right?'

'You just want me to write if it's ticklish or not? And how the hell do I put the fucking percentages?'

'I'll take care of that~. Now, let the master do his job!', Douma stretched before slowly approaching Kokushibo.

Akaza still didn't believe it, he could have been doing anything else right now, he was here being Douma's damned slave.

Although the fun part was when Douma tried to lunge at Kokushibo and dodging it, causing Douma to fall to the ground, it was absolutely worth it.

'Can I ask?' 'Nope~ but you can laugh!' 'Laugh about what?'

Kokushibo stopped Douma's hands before he even did anything, making Akaza get excited, maybe something good would come of this after all.

Douma did not seem scared, internally his desires were growing little by little, although with his hands imprisoned he could not do much.

'And?' 'I just want to try something! So if you make yourself comfortable and let me do it...'

'And who said I'm willing to do something I have no knowledge of?', Kokushibo let go of Douma's wrists, crossing his arms.

Douma was still smiling and shrugged, then remembering what Kokushibo said the first time they made a surprise attack on him.

'I want to tickle you, will you let me?' 'Was that all? Well, go ahead you can do it. I highly doubt you'll get a reaction from me, so I'd like to see you try.'

Akaza's jaw dropped to the floor, he couldn't believe it... Were they all idiots now for paying attention to Douma's little game?!

He growled as he tried not to tear the book in one bite.

'I knew you would accept! Now make yourself comfortable and let me do my job!'

Kokushibo took out his katana sheath from his sash and left it a little away, sitting down while supporting his weight on his right arm.

Well, it was moment of truth, can Douma make Kokushibo laugh? We'll see it in the next fic, no lie, we'll know it next.

'Oh man... You really aren't that ticklish...'

'Sorry, it's a nice feeling for me but it doesn't always work. Maybe it only worked the first time just because there were 3 of them, but it's just you...' 'Mmmm, you just gave me an idea!', probably the worst for Akaza, but anyway, we're talking about Kokushibo.

Have you noticed how small the Douma clones can be? No doubt it would break someone's heart to destroy them because of their size, and that someone could be Kokushibo? Maybe...

'What are you planning to do? Oh, I get it... Apparently you need help making me laugh because you can't do it yourself?'

'Mmmm, nope, I just need support to hold you up. I was just warming up, my real test begins... HERE!'

Akaza had long ago given up imagining that Kokushibo would laugh, but that day he was so surprised that he was "asleep with his eyes open" for a while. 'Mmmm, what is that I hear~? Are they giggles perhaps...~?'

'Mhmhmhm n-nooohoho... Wa-wahihit... Do-Dohoumahaha...!'

'That's my name Koku-Dono! Well, it seems that my theory was true! You are more ticklish in places that almost no one would expect to be ticklish! For example...', Douma muttered for a moment.

He couldn't decide whether to go straight for the kill or "take his time", maybe he could also get his ice clones to help him, but he didn't want to risk being, like Akaza, kicked in the face by Kokushibo because of his cold fingers.

Although, we're talking about Douma, so whatever he plans couldn't be anticipated, not even by Kokushibo (lie, he could have known).

'WAITWAITWAIT!! DOHOUMAHAHAHA!!'

'Aaaaaah! So behind your knees, huh? And what happens if...~?' 'GEHEHET AWAHAHAY!! NOHOHOT MY TIHIHI-...!! Aaaaaah... Fuhuhuhuck...'

He couldn't help but laugh, he found it ironic that it was only a few seconds and it made him scream and almost roll on the floor. And Akaza?

Akaza was still in his trance because he couldn't believe what he saw. 'Wow, I didn't realize you had back dimples! Awwww and they're ticklish too~'

'Sto-stohohop sayihihing that wohohord...' 'Eeeeh? What word? Tickle? Are you embarrassed that I say it? Because? Does it remind you that you are ticklish? But if the first time you said tickle me and recently you allowed me to tickle you, can't you stand it~?'

If the Douma clones weren't holding him back, Kokushibo would have covered his face in shame.

But if Kokushibo surpassed Douma in strength, why didn't he? Well, I think you guys already know *wink*

'Look at that face! You're embarrassed hahahaha! I wouldn't have thought that from you, but it's not like you surprised me... Well, ready for my test?'

'Eeeeh? What test are you talking about?' 'Didn't I mention it? You are part of my experiment! I already have some information about you! Do you want to know them? I won't tell you stupid, it's a secret. And I hope my right hand is helping me write down what he's seeing!', Douma looked towards Akaza, laughing as he drew a sign of death and showed it to him.

After giving Kokushibo "enough" time to get some air and stuff, he asked his clones to turn him upside down and try, hypothesizing that if he didn't see, he would laugh more.

And judging by the screech, apparently unhearable according to Kokushibo, it seems he was right.

'Perfect! Akaza, my best friend, come here, I wouldn't want to shout so much and expose our friend more!'

'Number 01, I'm not your friend. Number 02, if Kokushibo does anything to me I will rip out your intestines. And number 03...' 'Calm down! Koku likes attention, he's just too shy to accept it!'

Akaza raised an eyebrow, questioning what Douma just said and expecting a 'forget what I said', but it never came, so he assumed he was messing with her mind, AGAIN.

He took the pencil, ready to write down anything Douma told him, all against his will...

'Well, write down first... Aaaah I know, hands!', Akaza sighed, it was silly for him, but he knew it.

He stopped when he started to hear a few giggles from Kokushibo. And so the dynamic continued, Douma showed him the place, tickled him and said the percentage based on what he believed.

Was there an order? Not at all, he decided the place and seemed to hit the target, he was quite amused by that. 'Dohoumahaha...Are you done...?'

'Mmmm... Noooo~ hahahaha just kidding! Of course we're done! You should have seen that face of yours, so cute!' 'Are you going to let me go...?'

Douma refused, after saying goodbye to Akaza and giving him time to escape, he let him go, using his clones for the last time to put his head on his lap, stroking his hair and playing with him.

'You owe me a big one, UpperMoon 2...' 'Hehehe I know, but it'll be fun, so...~'

'You better not edit your book and give me a high percentage...', both They fell silent when someone coughed.

And yes, Akaza had never left, although his best option would have been to leave before seeing that spectacle between them.

Kokushibo looked at him and smiled, taking Douma by the wrists and reversing positions. 'Well, since we still have the joy of having your guest present, how about we also show him what your reaction is to your own test, hmmm~? If you help me with this, Akaza, I won't take revenge on you for helping.'

'Ooooh now we speak my language UpperMoon 1! Try on your hips, does that always make you scream?'

'Wa-wahahit... You guys can't... The test is for you! It's not for... AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!', oh man, here we go again...

Fic 2: Swap AU

Ler: Douma (Ice Hashira)

Lee: Michikatsu Tsugikuni / Kokushibo (Moon Hashira)

Of all the hashiras, the most difficult to talk to were undoubtedly Hakuji and Michikatsu.

Maybe it was because it was Douma, that Hakuji never directed him, in fact, he seemed to hate him, because he didn't behave like that with children or women...

'Hakuji-Dono, do you think that if I tell Tsugikuni-San to train or go out to eat with me, would you accept me?'

'Why the hell are you talking to me like we're friends? If that's your fucking doubt, then go and ask him, you have the mouth and legs to go there and find rejection!', Hakuji said before speeding up his pace and walking away from Douma.

Douma sighed, Hakuji was so mean and so aggressive towards him, but he was right about something, he should go ask Michikatsu himself. And if the answer was no?

No problem, Douma can be a little "persuasive" and he wouldn't take no for an answer

'Hey Tsugikuni-San! How are you doing?!'

'Good.' 'I'm glad to hear it! I'm fine too! I wanted to ask if you wouldn't like to come with me to eat a little and then train! Or vice versa, what do you say?'

Michikatsu didn't give a response, he just walked away without saying anything else and left Douma without a response.

0Either Douma was very stubborn or he had an extremely high level of self-esteem because for him it didn't mean a "yes" or a "no", so, it was a maybe! It was better than he thought!

'Well Ume-Chan, I need your help to get Michikatsu-San to go out with me!' 'Douma-San, it's not to be indiscreet or a bad person but... You look and sound like a gay...'

'Hahahaha oh Ume-Chan, don't be silly! I just want to be your friend!', Ume raised her eyebrow questioningly, but in the end she agreed, she still doesn't know how, but Douma managed to convince her.

Douma follows Ume's advice to the letter, but despite this, the result is not what he expected, but that does not stop Douma and he swears that he will find the right way to get along with Michikatsu.

'Please Hakuji-Dono! Help me, I just want to get along with him!'

'Douma, for the last time, don't talk to me because I'm not your friend! Number two, why are you putting me in your trouble?! Find a way to talk to him and leave me alone...' 'Ooooh, I notice a small moment of anger in your body, why don't you come here and we solve it together?', Hakuji frowned but started to walk away pretending to be upset, although we all know why he ran away.

Douma would be annoying, but at the same time he is quite persuasive and found a way to get Hakuji's help.

'So, will you help me with my problem?' 'YEHEHEHES!! I SWEAR!! STOHOHOP TIHIHICKLIHING ME!!'

'I'm so glad we get along! Now come on, we have a lot to talk about!'

Hakuji was picked up by Douma so they can start "talking" about their new plan.

No plan was reaching its goal and Hakuji was already starting to get fed up with it, but he knew Douma and knew that he would be able to tickle him in public and humiliate him so that he would continue to help him. 'I have an idea! Why don't you go to Michikatsu, hurt his pride by saying he's not as strong as he thinks and then have your little moment with him...!'

'THAT is an excellent idea! Thank you Hakuji-Dono! See you!', Hakuji watched him leave and sighed in annoyance. 'The worst part about being sarcastic is when people don't know when you're lying or being serious...'

Now with Hakuji's advice in mind, he approached Michikatsu but he walked away knowing what Douma would try and he wasn't going to accept it.

Douma made a huge jump and stood in front of him to make the proposal and Michikatsu obviously rejected it, earning a victorious smile from Douma. 'Ooooh that's wrong with you Michikatsu-San... I thought you were strong but you're just a scaredy cat...'

'What the fuck did you say...?!' 'I say that you sure don't confront me because you are someone weak. Hakuji-San challenges me and always shows his strength, but what about you?', oh no...

'May I know how the hell you ended up with cuts all over your body?! Douma-San, are you crazy?!'

'Hahahaha calm down my child! I'm fine, weeds never die!'

Well, you'll know what happened, the training was a success! More or less... 'And you Michikatsu-San?! How is this possible?! Well, I'm not going to stand or deal with you guys fighting so you and you, friends, now!', Inosuke exclaimed before walking out and locking the door.

Douma smiled at Michikatsu and he blamed him because now they had been scolded and Muzan would probably give them a long explanation about coexistence between teammates and so on. Douma calms down and approaches him and tells him that they can lie saying that it was training.

Michikatsu raised his eyebrow in disapproval and lay down, but Douma sat next to him and smiled, well, Michikatsu had to accept that his smile was cute and inspired confidence, but he didn't like the idea that they would now be scolded.

'Sorry, I just wanted to train with you and know your strength! I didn't mean to insult you like that, I'm so sorry Michikatsu-San...' 'It's okay, no problem'

'Of course there is a problem, I can tell that you are worried about what Muzan-Sama will say, but if we work together it may not be things are going so badly for us', was probably the most honest and sensible thing he has heard Douma say.

He had to admit, he had nerves but he didn't think they were that noticeable, although he accepted Douma's apology, he didn't sound completely convinced, something was wrong...

Douma crossed his arms and smiled, Michikatsu saw it and felt like he had seen that smile before, but he didn't remember where until the image of Hakuji screaming and running from Douma came to his mind.

'Douma, if you dare I'll...' 'Don't you want a massage? Maybe you are very tense, I am a doctor and I can help you reduce your stress! Trust me!', tip of the day, don't trust Douma and his "massages"

Michikatsu tried to refuse but Douma found a way to roll him onto his stomach and sit on his hips, not good.

Although he tried to complain to him, he couldn't do anything, he couldn't even get up because Douma put all his weight on his back to indicate that if he moved too much, it would hurt more. 'Well, I guess I should start with the knots in your neck, one wrong move and you could bend it... Let's see... Hey, why are you laughing?'

'I'm nohohot...! Yohohou're ju-just he-hehahaharing things...!' Douma smiled "innocently."

'Awwww, Michikatsu-San, you're ticklish!' 'N-No! Yohohou...!'

'Ooooh~? I detect a liar among us~ lying is bad Michikatsu-San...~'

Douma's chant was not a good sign, plus it was embarrassing enough to make Michikatsu blush with embarrassment and earned a snort from Douma.

What do you think? Will Michikatsu be able to resist the tickling or will he simply succumb? I consider the answer to be very clear...

'Do-Dohoumahaha! Stohohohop! T-this is incohohonceheivahahable!' 'I'm sorry, but you need a massage and since I'm the closest to you...'

'But this isn't a massage! It's anything but a massage!', 50/50 if it was a massage, maybe Michikatsu was just too ticklish for his own good right now.

Douma laughed and pointed out that it was adorable since with Hakuji it took a few more minutes to make him laugh but with him it was different, earning a growl from Michikatsu which only encouraged him.

Believe me, dear readers, Michikatsu will know how relentless Douma can be and how stubborn Inosuke is and that he won't let him out until Douma ends his tickling assault.

'DO-DOUMA!' 'Aha! So those are your hips, hmmm~? Let's see! Woaaah! Hahaha your hips don't lie! Just one squeeze and you'll scream!', he denied, I mean it was true but he wasn't going to admit it.

It didn't take Douma long to find the right rhythm to have Michikatsu in hysterics for a while, he only needed a small squeeze, for a few seconds he used his thumbs to dig into the bones of his hips and then, he used the same ones to repeat the action above his hip bones. 'DOUMA!! STOHOHOHOP!!'

'Aaaaw! You have to admit, you're more ticklish than Hakuji! Oh man, I can't wait for Hakuji to know! Hey, how do you react to baby talk~? Ooooh a snort? Aaaaw what a cute and smiling baby~!'

Michikatsu covered his face with his hair, he felt so embarrassed with his own reactions that he didn't even know whether to fight or accept that it was just so Douma would stop and thus stop feeling humiliated

'Hey, you didn't ask me to stop. Maybe by chance, you like tickling~? Come on, say it and I'll stop~! Say you're a ticklish baby and I'll stop, I know you want to~'

'I'M TIHICKLIHISH!! I SAHAHIHID IHIHIT!! PLEHAHASEHE DOHOUMAHAHA!!'

'Mmmm well, a promise is a promise!', saying that, he let go.

Inosuke finally opened the door and complained to them about the scandal but Douma assured him that they were just playing and that they are friends now.

Obviously, Inosuke doesn't believe him but he looks at Michikatsu and he confirms what Douma said. 'Well, then I guess they can stay alone for a while without adult supervision.'

'Sure! We're adults now, right Mich-?! AYIE!! O-oh... Hehehe Inosuke... Can you help me?'

'No', it was to be expected.

Douma looked nervously at Michikatsu and laughed in anticipation as he climbed on top of him and using one hand, grabbed his wrists and placed them above his head, slowly bringing his fingers closer together as he moved them.

Inosuke closed the door and as soon as he did, he began to hear Douma laughing and shouting for help, which was ignored by Inosuke, there was real work to do.

Fic 03: KIMETSU ACADEMY

Ler: Douma (scammer)

Lee: Michikatsu Tsugikuni (Muzan's assistant)

If Michikatsu had to describe his work in one word, he wouldn't find the right one.

It was exhausting? Yes. Was it funny in a certain part? Yes. He need a break but his body refused to accept it? Yes. Would Muzan let him take a break? No.

'I notice you are more serious than normal... This is the 5th cup of coffee you've had, why don't you take the day off?' 'I can't, I have to go to work...'

'Katsu... Today is Sunday...', Douma crossed his arms and huffed when Michikatsu realized that it was, indeed, Sunday.

He didn't think that the week would take so long, if Douma didn't tell him anything, he was capable of going to work and finding everything closed, oh well, it was Sunday and he had to enjoy it.

'Haven't you ever relaxed? You seem to be trying to figure out how to do it...' 'I'm trying, maybe this pillow isn't comfortable enough.'

'Well, I know of another pillow that might be comfortable for you!'

Michikatsu raised his eyebrow, the poor guy doesn't know how to take hints and Douma sometimes finds it humorous but also discourages him.

After laughing for a while, he sat down near Michikatsu and placed his head on his lap, caressing his hair and cheek. 'Better?'

'Surprisingly, yes. Thank you. I didn't think I would find comfort in a lap...', virg- ehem, how cute-.

Douma laughed and continued with his "work" of helping him relax, until Michikatsu held his hand, not tightly but Douma stopped to know what he needed. 'Douma... Do you... Do you think you can...? You know... The thing...'

'It depends on what we're talking about, does it start with "s" or with "t"?' 'It starts with...? Wait... DOUMA!', Douma snorted.

It was fun to know that Michikatsu was good and brave for other things except a slightly off-color joke.

Anyway, Michikatsu's response was again the same and, as we already know, Douma doesn't like that and wants Michikatsu to be direct and tell him what he wants.

'Are you too embarrassed to tell me what you want?' 'If I don't tell you, you won't do it, right?'

'I just want to check that you're serious, every time I try you end up rejecting the game and asking me to stop. So, it's to make sure that you are comfortable and that I won't get kicked or slapped!'

Michikatsu took a breath but the only thing he could say was "can you make me t-word?", he wasn't able to mention the full word.

He was ashamed? It is probable. Did Douma find it funny? You already know that yes. Am I making this too long? I like to lengthen

'Aaaaw, I forgot that you're too shy for these things... Okay, how do you say...~?'

'P-please...' 'Good boy!', let this stay between us and Muzan doesn't find out, so shhhh.

The hand Douma used to caress his cheek moved a little to start playing with his ears, smiling slightly when Michikatsu started to blush and fought a smile on his face.

He avoided the teasing, considering that it wasn't time yet, just a few more seconds... 'Is this okay?'

'Ye-yehehes...' 'Do you want more?'

Michikatsu nodded slowly and covered his face with his hand when he felt a pair of fingers caress his neck and caress him slowly.

Douma wanted to ask him if that's why he always wears his suit covering his neck, do you think Michikatsu's embarrassed squeal is the answer?

'Dohohoumahaha! Dohohohon't tahahalk!'

'You know well that I like to talk! Why don't you want me to talk? Aaaaw I already remembered, is it because I talk to you with a baby voice~? Does it frustrate you to remember that you are ticklish and that I am the only person who has the privilege of doing it to you~? Is it because you're a ticklish baby~?'

'All thahahahat! Shuhuhut up! Ple-plehahasehe!', short answer, no.

Douma muttered although he wouldn't do it anyway, it was too adorable and he didn't plan on stopping anytime soon!

But after he thought about it, Michikatsu might want him to stop, although he's probably lying. 'Hey Katsu, do you want raspberries?'

'... Yes' 'That's fine! Come sit on my lap!'

Michikatsu sat down and although he was a little hesitant about what he would do next, he walked over and sat on his lap, although from the look on Douma's face, it might have been too much weight for him.

Anyway, once he made sure everything was fine, he smiled at him and couldn't help but kiss and nibble his ears a little and laugh when Michikatsu tensed but made no effort to escape.

'I'm sorry! I could not avoid it. Well, do you remember the security password?'

'Lotus...' 'Good!', Michikatsu took a breath and prepared himself, he wasn't planning on laughing.

Although when he thought he had it under control, Douma just blew on his neck and when Michikatsu saw him out of the corner of his eye in confusion, he actually blew the raspberry on his neck.

Stopping, he smiled when he saw how Michikatsu had covered his completely red face, but despite this, he was willing to receive more raspberries...

'So... Do you feel better?' 'Yes... Thank you for helping me relax...'

Douma kissed his forehead while resting his head on his shoulder and caressing his cheek, now they were both happy.

[rockanroller]

"Was Hazbin Hotel Rigged or Hand-Drawn?"

disclaimer: do not, and i repeat, DO NOT, use this post to shit on the animators who worked their asses off on this series.

hand-drawn animation is going to have variation in it and that's part of its charm for a lot of people. it really only goes "badly" when that variation becomes too noticeable (such as being jarringly off-model) or when a character's movement isn't executed well. but if you didn't catch it w/o going through frame-by-frame, it hardly matters.

so, getting into it, ppl have been going back-and-forth on this, and viv herself has said it wasn't rigged.

and i think this is one thing she's right about.

many ppl's assumption of it being rigged was due to a lot of movements being weirdly "stiff" or "clunky" and/or characters moving oddly smooth at other times.

i can say i think it's possible rigs could've been used occasionally, or on some shots, but i also think it's more likely the animators moved their drawings in a way that makes them look rig-like as a result.

meaning in animation programs you can actually grab portions of your drawing like a head or a limb and move it, or even just nudge it ever so slightly, to the point you can make some really smooth in-betweens to the point it looks rigged.

that said, a rig keeps a character uniform and consistent.

for example:

with the exception of bits where the character has to move or be interacted with in a way the rig won't allow, which would either need new additions to the rig or to be hand-drawn over the rig.

but see how Rick's head/face/hair and proportions stay the same?

let's compare that to Charlie's head:

we can see Charlie's features vary slightly, and these aren't shots from different episodes, these are shots that are right next to each other. if you're having trouble seeing a difference here's a breakdown:

again: this is *not* me saying this is a bad thing. this type of variation is inevitable with hand-drawn animation, and to many people it's part of hand-drawn animation's charm. and if you didn't notice it and it didn't bother you while watching, it hardly matters.

everything i'm pointing out here is only to show why i think Hazbin Hotel was hand-drawn (at least by majority or a large percentage) rather than rigged.

other points to this include shifting linework such as here:

you can see the lines get thicker/thinner between these frames such as on the inner portions of her eyes, the curl of hair under her right (our left) eye, or how a section of linework on her hair & face suddenly shows up between both of her outer eye-lashes.

which, again, shifting line-weights aren't uncommon in hand-drawn animation, and can be part of its charm. but in a rig you wouldn't see the linework shifting like this, it would remain uniform.

i also noticed portions where linework ever-so-slightly crosses over itself for either a few frames or multiple, which wouldn't be seen with a rig (unless it was rigged poorly or smth.)

when you go through the episodes frame-by-frame these minor variations become more apparent.

reiterating again, however: none of this is "bad" unless it's noticeable w/o going through frame-by-frame.

animation is not intended to be watched frame-by-frame or hyper-analyzed up-close and personal.

animation is *supposed* to trick the eye and create the illusion of movement, so if it wasn't an error that was noticeable it doesn't matter.

an example of a noticeable "bad" error would be something like when Vaggie completely disappears mid-shot, along with the camera & BG snapping and Charlie's compositing disappearing with her pose shifting slightly (watch the legs) all at the same time.

(this is not two random frames taken out of context, these frames are directly next to each other.)

do not, and i repeat, DO NOT, use this post to shit on the animators who worked their asses off on this series.

all this was just to share an analysis of why i think that at least a large percentage of Hazbin Hotel was hand-drawn.

[lucawrites11]

the lionesses' no.1: who should it be?

England's greatest goalkeeper of all time, Karen Bardsley, unfortunately retired in 2021 and there's been a lot of change since. In 2021, three English goalkeepers were taken to the Olympics, with Ellie Roebuck in the number one spot and Carly Telford and Sandy MacIver taking the other two spots on the team. Now, the three goalkeepers being called up to camp are Mary Earps, Hannah Hampton and Khiara Keating. Ellie Roebuck hasn't been called up since she fell out of favour with Man City coach Gareth Taylor and has since suffered a stroke, which she is recovering from. Carly Telford has retired and Sandy MacIver has switched national allegiance to Scotland.

I ran a poll the other day and 44.2% believed that the first choice should be Mary Earps, 40.7% believe it should be Hannah Hampton and 12.8% believed it should be Khiara Keating.

However, I think, against the majority and say that Hannah Hampton should be England's first choice goalkeeper.

before i get into this, i want to say that i spent quite a while discussing this with @wsoc-gay and i want to thank them for that

Karen Bardsley is undoubtedly the greatest England goalkeeper of all time. Fun fact: in her career, Karen Bardsley never conceded more than 1 goal per 90 minutes in a league season. Mary Earps this WSL season has conceded 1.45 goals per 90, Khiara Keating has conceded 0.68 goals per 90, Hannah Hampton has conceded 0.7 goals per 90 and, last season, Ellie Roebuck conceded 1.09 goals per ninety. Hannah Hampton played the least amount of minutes at 900 while Keating and Earps appeared in every match with 1980 minutes played and, last season, Hampton played 1482 minutes.

To look at these pure stats, Khiara Keating is the best goalkeeper and should be England's number one, but the bigger picture needs to be looked at. When Mary Earps had the best season of her life last season, she conceded just 0.5 goals per 90 and Karen Bardsley best season where she conceded just 0.26 goals per 90.

While Khiara Keating kept the most clean sheets and conceded the fewest goals per 90, Janina Leitzig for Leicester made the most saves per 90 closely followed by Courtney Brosnan for Everton. Khiara however had the highest save percentage in comparison to shots that came her way, however she had a lot less shots come her way due to a far more robust defensive line in front of her in comparison to Brosnan and Letizig.

It's the England Keepers that should be compared, though. Mary Earps is consistently weak across her seasons and in her stats with her high claims (catching the ball in the air - often from set pieces) and long ball accuracy, which she attempts significantly less. Furthermore, compared to her competition, she rarely acts as a sweeper keeper.

In contrast, Khiara Keating is weak when it comes to long ball and pass accuracy, though better than Earps, and has made some simple errors leading to goals and conceding penalties. It is clear in her play that she needs to develop more and gain for experience.

Hannah Hampton, is weak when it came to high claims, however, stronger than Earps. She also made far fewer saves compared to her competition, however this can be contributed to her lack of minutes.

In their strengths, Hampton has the most accurate long balls at 46.2% compared to Keating at 43% and Earps at 38.3%. Keating made the most high claims with 13 whereas Hampton made 11 and Earps made 9. Earps had the highest pass accuracy at 79.9% compared to Hampton's 76.9% and Keating at 75.1%. Keating was the strongest at sweeper keeping (coming out of goal into the defensive line to help push play forward).

It is in these stats, that despite her strengths for the time being, Khiara Keating should be ruled out. She has too little experience and is young and needs her first England caps. She made mistakes that led to goals this season. One more season at City as the first choice goalkeeper should give her the ability to compete more as well as hopefully a chance against Ireland later this year to get her first England cap to start building that international experience. Roebuck should also be ruled out for the time being until she's playing again for Barcelona. I will revisit this analysis when she is back in form because there was a reason she was the first choice goalkeeper util Mary Earps came along.

Karen Bardsley's greatest strength was her sweeper keeper style of play and long balls. Her ability to come out of goal and push play forward. Hannah Hampton and Khiara Keating both emulate this play style whereas Mary Earps does not.

Mary Earps plays the game very strictly in goal, which requires her centre backs to work very hard and stay far back. In the case of England, this creates weakness because the midfield is tightly marked by England's opposition and chances can't be created through the midfield when they are playing through the 4-3-3 and these struggles have been obvious throughout the Nations League and European Qualifiers against the strongest teams. Her weakness on corners and set pieces also puts pressure on the centre backs to make the clearances. England fortunately has very effective centre backs, but if this wasn't a case, this would be a major weakness for England. Furthermore, it was a greater weakness with Millie Bright out injured as the best England defender for set piece clearance.

Hannah Hampton plays as a sweeper keeper, she's strong with a ball at her feet and she can send long balls up the pitch. In a 4-3-3, this allows her to take the burden off the centre backs, who in turn can overload the midfield, which pulls the markers out of position and allows chances to be created through the midfield. Her long balls and their accuracy also allow for chance creation over the top. On paper, she is also the better keeper for saves at the moment for England. England, ultimately, have a problem of scoring goals and a keeper that can help them create chances is what they need at the moment especially in the 4-3-3 used by Sarina Wiegman.

Under Earps the formation looks like this with very little movement:

Markers placed on Walsh and Stanway easily cut out the ability to move the ball and long balls can only come from Williamson in the backline who would face pressure from forwards meanwhile full-backs can mark Hemp and Mead out of the game. In order to get the ball forward, Russo has to drop into the midfield to create chances so she isn't in the box for the delivery and the goal isn't finished:

i hope my attempt to draw on my laptop makes it clear

The use of Mary Earps creates a knock-on effect of cutting off England's goal-scoring chances. However, the 4-3-3 under Hampton looks very different with the movements that players can make

The image on the left allows for the movements in the centre, which allows players to occupy the positions shown in the image on the right. Hemp and Mead can also move closer to the box, but the whole thing was already too confusing. The midfield overload, that is so clear in the image, cuts out the markers by overloading them and allows for passes in the midfield. Both Hampton and Williamson are also freed up by the markers being pushed out of position, so chances can be created through long balls. A midfield with a lot of freedom can further push forward and you get players like Stanway scoring goals. Overall, England can create more chances and score more goals and it is this style of play which changed the game in the first half against France to put England two goals ahead.

If England continues to set up in a 4-3-3, they need to use Hannah Hampton, it doesn't matter how many goals are saved if no goals are scored. If England uses a 3-5-2, three centre backs would allow for a midfield overload without the use of a goalkeeper and Mary Earps would be the best choice and I explain this in more depth here and here - this post is already so long but send me an ask if you want a little more elaboration about how Mary Earps specifically fits into this play style.

However, issues are brought up with Hannah Hampton and that is in her experience. It's argued that only Earps is experienced enough, with 50 caps to Hampton's 6 and Keating's 0. Mary Earps made her England debut in 2017 and Hampton only made hers in 2022 and is just 23 to Earps' 31.

On the other hand, when Mary Earps became the consistent England number one in September 2021, she hadn't been called up since her final camp and eighth cap in November 2019. At the point, Sarina made her the permanent number one, taking the spot from Roebuck, she had just 8 caps which is not far off Hampton's 6. However, Hampton has made 4 appearances for England in 2024 whereas Mary Earps hadn't made an appearance for England since 2019 at a camp or on the pitch. Moreover, when Mary Earps became England number one, she had only been the first choice goalkeeper for one and a half broken seasons through the pandemic after a season at Wolfsburg where she was the second choice goalkeeper in 2018/19, she had also just come off a period at Reading where she was again, the second choice goalkeeper meaning that she had only recently begun to get regular playing time half a season before entering her position as England's number one. This is relatively a small amount of experience.

Meanwhile, prior to her Chelsea transfer, Hampton spent three seasons as the first-choice goalkeeper. First, at Birmingham City in 2020-21 and then at Aston Villa in 2021-22 and 2022-23. Upon moving to Chelsea, after half a season she broke out ahead of two of the world's best goalkeeper's: Zećira Mušović and Ann-Katrin Berger (and no one tell me AKB was out of form, she is KILLING it for Gotham). That is very impressive making multiple appearances for Chelsea in both the WSL and Europe which allows her to practice and gain experience against a wider range of players, a privilege no currently afforded to any other England goalkeeper options. Ulimately, I believe that Hampton definitely has the experience at this point to be England's number one IF and especially if Weigman continues to utilise a 4-3-3 formation.

Let me know what you think. My asks and DMs are always open and I love a good debate/discussion about these things :))

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

https://www.adl.org/resources/report/antisemitic-attitudes-america-2024

By: Center for Antisemitism Research

Published: Feb 29, 2024

Executive Summary

In the months since the October 7th, 2023, terrorist attack in Israel, the global Jewish community has witnessed an increase in antisemitic activity, unprecedented in recent years. For many in and around Jewish communities, this period has felt inherently different, a sentiment that has raised several critical questions about the current scope, nature, and implications of antisemitism.

To explore this, the ADL Center for Antisemitism Research has collected data since October 7th related to the scale and structure of the phenomenon of antisemitism in the United States and compared results to past findings.

This study of 4,143 Americans, fielded between January 5th and January 18th, 2024, (with a margin of error of approximately 1.5%) found the following trends:

Anti-Jewish trope beliefs continue to increase, and younger Americans are showing higher rates.

From 2022 to 2024, the average number of anti-Jewish tropes endorsed by Americans increased from 4.18 to 4.31 out of 14. Using the original 11 statements comprising the ADL Index, agreement with 6 or more anti-Jewish tropes increased from 20% of the U.S. population in 2022 to just under 24% in 2024.

In a reversal of past trends, younger Americans are more likely to endorse anti-Jewish tropes, with millennials agreeing with the greatest number of anti-Jewish tropes on average, at 5.4. They’re followed by Gen Z at 5, Gen X at 4.2, and Baby Boomers at 3.1.

In addition to individual attitudes, more than 42% of Americans either have friends/family who dislike Jews (23.2%) or find it socially acceptable for a close family member to support Hamas (27.2%).

Conspiratorial thinking and social dominance orientation are key predictors of anti-Jewish belief.

Belief in conspiracy theories continues to be one of the main correlates of antisemitic attitudes, with an overall average correlation of .378 with anti-Jewish trope belief. Respondents who fall in the upper quartile of conspiracy theory belief endorsed over twice as many anti-Jewish tropes, on average, as those with the least conspiracy theory belief.

Anti-Jewish belief also correlates heavily with social dominance orientation �� the belief that there should be higher status groups and that they should suppress lower status groups. For example, respondents who at least somewhat agreed with the statement that some groups of people are inferior to other groups were 3.6 times more likely to fall in the top quartile of anti-Jewish trope belief compared to those who did not.

There was also a strong relationship with the belief that the problems in the world “come down to the oppressor vs the oppressed.” Those who at least somewhat agreed with this belief were 2.6 times more likely to fall in the top quartile of anti-Jewish trope belief compared to those who disagreed with the statement.

A significant percentage of Americans hold anti-Israel positions, but also support a Jewish state’s right to exist.

Significant percentages of Americans hold certain anti-Israel positions, such as 20.1% who expressed support for removing Israeli products from a local grocery store and 30.4% who said supporters of Israel control the media. Younger Americans take these positions at significantly higher rates.

However, support for an independent Jewish state remains high, with 88.8% saying Jews have the right to an independent country. This is true even among those who take other anti-Israel positions. For example, 83.8% of people who believe that Israelis intend to cause as much suffering to Palestinians as possible believe that there should be a Jewish state.

October 7th and the ensuing Israel-Hamas war has not resulted in major changes in the percentage of Americans who hold anti-Israel positions.

However, in just about every anti-Israel position assessed, increased polarization appears evident. The proportion of respondents strongly agreeing or strongly disagreeing with Israel-related policies grew from the summer of 2023 to the present, whereas the proportion of those who somewhat agreed or somewhat disagreed shrank.

Individuals who held negative attitudes toward Israel-related policies, Israeli people, and Israel-oriented conspiracy theories were significantly more likely to believe anti-Jewish tropes.

Respondents not comfortable buying products from Israel were 3.4 times more likely to be among the top quartile of believers in anti-Jewish tropes.

Respondents who do not think Jews have the right to an independent country were 3.7 times more likely to be among the top quartile of believers in anti-Jewish tropes.

Respondents who believe Israelis intend to cause as much suffering to Palestinians as possible were 4.6 times more likely to be among the most antisemitic Americans.

Respondents who believe Israeli operatives are secretly manipulating US national policy through AIPAC or other influence tools were 7.5 times more likely to be among the top quartile of believers in anti-Jewish tropes.

Views of Hamas are also deeply concerning, with more than half of Gen Z expressing some degree of comfort being friends with a Hamas supporter.

[ Continued... ]

[nextinline-if]

June 25th, 2023 - Chapter 2 Progress DevBlog

I'm pretty disappointed with my progress this week but I had to work late a lot. I started working at a start-up a couple months ago and I really like it but it's been crazy busy. Anyway...

Progress with writing was pretty slow last week. Because the game was beta tested this past week (thank you to those who assisted!), I spent most of my time fixing a bunch of coding errors since I suck. lol. Here's what I did coding-wise (you'll see these changes when chapter 2 comes out):

fixed a bunch of conditional errors and a couple javascript ones where I accidentally added a period (RIP);

re-did some of the color schemes...again. It should be easier to read and I feel like I got the light/dark themes to a better place;

you can now change the font size and you can now choose OpenDyslexic as a font type.

okay, that doesn't sound like a lot. See screenshots at the end for a glimpse!

I wrote 3,293 words... I'm planning to write every day for at least 2-3 hours this week to catch up. Ideally, I would write 2K words a day.

I think there are about 20,000 more words to finish chapter 2? Just my estimate though.

Here is where things stand for Chapter 2...

Word Count (includes some code):

Current demo word count: 59,479

Current word count for just ch 2: 82,920

Total game word count (including ch2): 142,399 and counting...

Next, here's the scene order and what's written/coded/in progress:

Scene 1 - completely written and coded

Scene 2 - completely written and coded

Scene 3 - completely written and coded

Scene 4 - completely written and coded

Scene 5 - completely written and coded

Scene 6 - completely written and coded

Scene 7 - completely written and coded

Scene 8 - completely written and coded

Scene 9 - completely written and coded

Scene 10 - partially written and partially coded (sorry no percentage, I hate math)

Scene 11 - in progress (4 main branches)

Scene 12 - completely written and coded

Scene 13 - completely written and coded

Additionally, because I was so busy, I forgot to log in to Patreon and pause it. I've had it paused for a couple of months because I don't have time to do extra content and I don't want anyone to pay for no reason! However, I slipped up, so I went ahead and left it open right now and uploaded the current build with the incomplete chapter 2. I don't recommend anyone subscribe just to play it since it's not done but it's there in case someone wants to or is already subscribed. I anticipate adding a couple more scene variations next week.

Below are a few screenshots of what the game looks like. There's even a snippet of a scene from Ch2. It's not super different! But I think it looks better?

Oh, if you want to read a couple beta tester thoughts, keep looking, otherwise, thanks for taking the time to read!

Thank you and I hope you all have a great week <3

[culmaer]

Election results have been officially announced

I'm losing my mind at some of the reporting. the ANC in 2019 won 57.5% of the votes (ie 230 seats in parliament) this year, the ANC only won 39.77% of the votes (159 seats). this is a drop of 17 percentage points, and not, as some news outlets are reporting, a decrease of 17%.

I don't even think this is about using statistics to mislead people, because that doesn't make sense in this context. it's just plain wrong and numerous media outlets are making the error (including the SABC and eNCA). worrying re. media literacy etc

anyway. The fact that the ANC has lost it's majority for the first time is not a surprise. but it is —to me at least— quite shock that they dropped by such a large margin. this really ups the stakes when it comes to forming a coalition. like, I genuinely expected them to get like 47ish% and join with a minor party to get the majority and then rule business as usual. but no. the parties which enter into coalition are actually going to be relevant

also, I do like this chart from Al Jazeera, although they didn't quite use the final final results. (also note the dismal voter turnout, that's rather worrying)

[hetalia-club]

Got Bored And Made An Entire Hetalia Baseball League (HBL)

the league is meant to have fictitious and near impossible goals for regular humans to achieve. They are all scaled beside each other accounting for superhuman strength.

Last but certainly not least <3

~Greece's Stats~

Batting Average Regular Season- .286 Projection- .294 Career- .306

Running Speed MPH- 13-14 Hitting Power MPH- 85-90 Regular Season Stolen Bases- 3 Career Stolen Bases- 50 (will only steal if there is a play error)

Greece’s calm and composed personality translates into a steady and disciplined approach at the plate. His reliability ensures he can consistently perform and contribute to his team’s success. His balanced approach makes him a valuable player who can be counted on in crucial situations. Greece is a well-rounded and dependable player, valued for his ability to hit for average, get on base, and drive in runs. His occasional power adds to his overall value, making him a key player in any lineup.

Tsunami Titans- link to their team and positions

Other Players: (will update with link as they are added) America Russia Sweden England Ireland Iceland Canada Denmark Turkey France Scotland Greece Germany Japan Nyo!America Prussia China Nyo!England Spain Austria Italy Norway Romano Finland

breakdown below >> (Chat GTP helped with this part because I'm not good at describing things or sports talk)((it also made me the lay out above I made the stats and it put them in MLB format for me & calculated batting average because math :/ ))

Player Analysis: Greece

Calm and Composed: Greece’s calm and composed demeanor translates into a steady and disciplined approach at the plate. He remains unfazed by pressure, making him reliable in crucial situations.

Reliable and Steady: His reliability ensures that he can be counted on to deliver consistent performance. Whether it’s getting on base or driving in runs, Greece’s steady approach makes him a valuable player.

Carefree Trait: Greece’s carefree nature can be an asset and a potential weakness. His relaxed approach to the game means he doesn’t get easily stressed or overwhelmed by high-pressure situations, which helps him perform consistently. However, this same trait might sometimes lead to a lack of urgency or intensity in critical moments.

Strengths

Consistency:

Greece's batting averages and high number of hits show his ability to consistently make contact and get on base. His regular season (.286), projected (.294), and career (.306) batting averages highlight his reliability as a hitter.

Contact Hitting:

Greece excels at making contact with the ball, as evidenced by his high number of hits (140 regular season, 150 projected, 1900 career). His disciplined approach allows him to avoid swinging at bad pitches and focus on getting on base.

Gap Power:

His doubles (25 regular season, 28 projected, 350 career) indicate that he can drive the ball effectively into gaps, turning singles into extra-base hits.

Disciplined Approach:

Greece’s walk numbers (45 regular season, 50 projected, 600 career) reflect his patience and selective approach at the plate. He waits for good pitches and avoids chasing bad ones, contributing to his on-base percentage.

Low Strikeouts:

His relatively low strikeout numbers (75 regular season, 70 projected, 950 career) show that he has good plate discipline and makes consistent contact.

Weaknesses

Moderate Power:

While Greece can hit home runs (12 regular season, 15 projected, 200 career), he is not primarily a power hitter. His game focuses more on contact and getting on base rather than hitting for power.

Speed:

Greece’s speed is not a standout trait. His focus is more on making consistent contact and driving in runs rather than stealing bases or stretching hits.

Detailed Stat Analysis

Games Played (GP)

Regular Season: 135 | Projected: 145 | Career: 1800

Greece’s high number of games played shows his consistency and reliability. He is a durable player who is regularly available for his team.

At Bats (AB)

Regular Season: 490 | Projected: 510 | Career: 6200

Greece is a regular in the batting lineup, trusted to contribute significantly to the team’s offense.

Runs (R)

Regular Season: 70 | Projected: 75 | Career: 900

Greece's ability to score runs reflects his effectiveness in getting on base and being driven in by his teammates. His steady and reliable nature helps him to be a consistent scorer.

Hits (H)

Regular Season: 140 | Projected: 150 | Career: 1900

Greece’s ability to consistently get hits highlights his skill as a contact hitter. His batting averages indicate he can reliably get on base.

Doubles (2B)

Regular Season: 25 | Projected: 28 | Career: 350

Greece’s doubles show his ability to find gaps in the defense and drive the ball effectively. He uses his balanced hitting approach to achieve a good number of extra-base hits.

Triples (3B)

Regular Season: 3 | Projected: 4 | Career: 45

While not a primary focus, Greece’s triples indicate occasional bursts of speed and aggressive base running.

Home Runs (HR)

Regular Season: 12 | Projected: 15 | Career: 200

Greece has moderate power, capable of hitting home runs when needed. His strength allows him to contribute with some power, although he focuses more on contact hitting.

Runs Batted In (RBI)

Regular Season: 65 | Projected: 70 | Career: 850

Greece’s ability to drive in runs makes him a valuable player in the lineup. His steady hitting allows him to bring in teammates effectively.

Walks (BB)

Regular Season: 45 | Projected: 50 | Career: 600

His walks reflect a good eye for pitches and patience at the plate. Greece's selective approach allows him to get on base and contribute to the team's offense.

Strikeouts (SO)

Regular Season: 75 | Projected: 70 | Career: 950

Greece’s relatively low strikeout numbers indicate a disciplined approach at the plate. He avoids swinging at bad pitches and makes consistent contact.

[dduane]

hello, hope you and Peter are doing well! I wanted to ask a question that almost certainly has been asked before: How do you go about ensuring that a creative project is sustainable/has 'wings' before diving into it? (I'm thinking less of outlining here and more the step before that - assessing how much meat's on the creative bone and what your appetite is, so to speak)

Well, the first thing I'd have to define is what exactly "sustainable" means. "Capable of being started and finished in some medium or other"? That might enter into the equation eventually... but not instantaneously.

There'll be times when a concept arrives in my creative space within a matter of seconds—like someone poured it into my head out of a jug—or times when it seeps in quietly over a matter of days, until eventually some critical number or volume is surpassed and there's enough of it to register as Something New To Do That Could Be Fun*. In either case I normally have at least a few minutes to work out whether anybody but me is ever likely to want to read or view this thing, and (if so) what medium it seems to belong in.

This process I usually refer to as "weighing [something] in the hand of the mind." And here you can insert video of an insert on a woman's hand holding a half kilo bag of sugar, bouncing it up and down a little to see if it's really half a kilo, or just kinda feels like it.

What I have to confess here, though, is that I have no idea how I do this, or from what my skill at the process derives.

Maybe just a lot of practice? Trial and error? As over forty years there've been more than fifty books, and a whole lot of animation, and a bunch of screenplays, not to mention the comics and computer games and audio adaptations and other whatnot. I've had a while to learn when a story will make an okay screenplay but not necessarily a book (or vice versa); or whether something's better as a novella or novelette, rather than as a novel based on a core concept that, like butter over too much bread, is going to wind up looking and feeling like what Bilbo would have described as "thin and stretched".

I really wish I could more clearly quantify the elements that make up one of these assessments. Every piece of work I embark on goes through one. Some attention's paid to the number of characters, the depth of the emotional interactions, the proposed in-story timeline, and the relative size and weight of the plot's payoff... and how all these balance against one another. But once this evaluation has been made, it's then possible to slot the project into the work schedule—and pray that nothing else interferes with it.

Because of course something may. The most severe form of these idea-arrival events doesn't give you a chance to evaluate anything at all. It just grabs you by the scruff of the neck and dumps you in front of the nearest device or material that can be used for writing and says, in a voice that will brook no dissent, "HI THERE YOU'RE WRITING THIS NOW AND IT WILL BE FUN!" (It'll say this even though that may not, strictly speaking, be true.) I thank great Thoth that this isn't that common an occurrence, because it tends to play merry hell with everything you're supposed to be doing during that period. ...Yet the effects can be good. The Door Into Fire did this to me. So have other projects I can't discuss due to NDAs.

Possibly the best note to wind up on here is that Sturgeon's Law applies. If 90% of all sf/fantasy stories are crap, as Ted said, then so are 90% of all their core ideas. (Or so it seems to me.) Any writer who's been doing this work for any length of time will have many, many story ideas in a given day... and know that only a small percentage of them are worth considering for more than a few minutes, or even seconds. Ideas are easy. It's execution that's hard— that costs you weeks and months and sometimes years of effort and sweat; of taking things apart and putting them back together in different shapes and hunting down just the right word.

If you're embarking on this kind of lifestyle: may luck go with you. (Because sometimes even very good work falls afoul of very bad luck.) ...But keep your hopes up: and keep working.

HTH!

*There are other forms of this surprise attack, including the one @petermorwood went through one time that was triggered by a chance line dropped by a studio executive we were having lunch with in the Paramount commissary. Without warning—and after the fact he was as surprised as everybody else—P. commenced to freestyle a series pitch so good that the lunch went on for three hours while it unfolded. Tl:dr; the series got bought and then ran aground on the financial rocks secondary to 9/11. ...But that's a saga for another day.

[mapsontheweb]

Map of percentage of people with European* ancestry, largely based in Ethnic self identification in censuses and in a broad ethnoreligious approach.

The very concept of "European peoples" is contested. "Europe" itself is not a geographical accurate term, given the fact that the borders between Europe and (specially) Asia are historical, cultural and political more than physical. Read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundaries_between_continents#Europe_and_Asia

In the latest version of this map I'm considering all ethnic groups with an European homeland since at least several centuries as "Europeans". So all North Caucasus peoples, Bosniaks, Albanians are considered Europeans.

Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Cyprus and Israel are shaded in turquoise due to lack of consensus in their "Europeanness".

Some groups in the Ural/Volga border as the Nenets and the Kalmyk peoples are not considered Europeans due to their strong historical ties to Siberia and Mongolia, but this is debatable.

West Afroasian Christians as Egyptian Copts and Arab Christians are not considered European.

Mixed race people: different criteria so explanations are given. Mixed race people are often counted separately in  many censuses and follow the one drop rule (one drop of non European blood means that people is out of the European ancestry group and into the Mixed ancestry or even African/Asian group). Whenever this is the case, I just follow the census country criterion. For example, the USA follow the one-drop rule, so African-Americans with 20% African ancestry and  80% European would count  as 0% European ancestry in this  map). Given the fact "Mestizo" and "Colored" are separate categories in many censuses (in Latin America or South Africa) from "White" or "European", I'm considering those 0% European ancestry despite the fact those people probably have European ancestry, because of lack of genetic data (the answer to questions like "are Mestizos 10% European or 90%?" is really hard to find in many countries, so I'm being conservative). Other issue can be found in how people identify themselves in Latin American and other mixed-race countries: a 80% Amerindian 20% European mixed race population self identified as "White", "Caucasoid" or "European" is counted as 100% European ancestry in this map. So numbers are sometimes inflated, and sometimes reduced to some point. Obviously no massive DNA analysis are performed in censuses so we rely on the information they gather based in self identification and this map has to be read in that way. Anyway, I'm not using the one-drop rule, but the genetic admixture rule, in some  cases when the census is not explicit about this and I have to take a decission  AND I happen to have genetic precise data: for example, mixed Asian-European groups in Russia (like Mari people) are counted as (for example) 30 to 70% European ancestry following genetic studies on Mongoloid admixture (which I managed to find) in every Eurasian ethnic group . Also check the sources for more information, a lot of data is gathered from the European Diaspora article so I'm not deeply following every link, but just assuming that data is acceptable and accurate in a broad sense. Ask the original editors of this article for further information. Anyway, numbers and percentages probably  don't change so much after all these calculus, so the map is correct in general (maybe take a +-10% error in Eurasia and +-20/30% in Latin America, where ancestries are much more mixed). In Chile, lack of self identification ancestry in censuses led me to search genetic data as well.

This is NOT a map of the White race, just an "European ancestry" map. Thats the reason North African, Middle Eastern and Indo-Iranian peoples majority territories are not shaded. Anyway, some countries don't specify the origin of "White people" in their censuses so I'm taking "Caucasian" and "White" self identified people in censuses mostly in countries in the Americas as having "European ancestry", so Lebanese ancestry people in Colombia or Morocco ancestry people in the USA are counted as "European ancestry" peoples in this map because of lack of data. Despite of that, numbers and percentages wouldn't be so different considering those details and I encourage everyone who is reading this to do the math and realize these facts.

To sum it up all, generally conservative criteria are taken: the geographical criterion (Middle Eastern Christians and Indo-Iranians are not considered European because their historical roots are in zones of the Asian continent) or the census one-drop-rule criterion (Mixed race peoples with lack of genetic data are not considered European). With other and broader criteria, the map would be completely different and it could be redrawn.

Kurds, Iranians and Kazakhs are not considered here Europeans as ethnic groups that are related or belong to Asian territories.

Source base map: File:Blank_Map_World_Secondary_Political_Divisions.svg

My original sources were a mixture between data in the article ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_diaspora ) where the map is, and in countries where the information is detailed enough are taking numbers from censuses from the Russian Wikipedia for all the provinces, oblasts, autonomous regions, etc(see below), censuses from the USA 2010 (numbers listed in https://www.census.gov\/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-05.pdf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_American ), Australian 2011 census http://www.abs.gov.au/census , and Canada (numbers listed in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Canada ), and taking into account the number of non-European migrants in the countries of the EU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_Europe .

Kazakhstan: Each province was searched, I went to the russian article where ethnic compositions are given (in Russian). For example, the Akmola region: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regions_of_Kazakhstan https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%BA%D0%BC%D0%BE%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C Same with the rest (take all the provinces, look for them in the Russian wikipedia, etc): https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%BA%D1%82%D1%8E%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%BB%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%B8%D0%BD%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%8F_%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D1%8C I continued with the rest. Russia: http://pop-stat.mashke.org/russia-ethnic2002.htm  Brazil: File:People_of_European_Ancestry_in_Brazil.png

Bosnia-Herzegovina:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Bosnia_and_Herzegovina

Kosovo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Kosovo#Religion

Albania:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Albania

Venezuela: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venezuelan_of_European_descent#White_Venezuelan_population_by_Venezuelan_state

Colombia: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etnograf%C3%ADa_de_Colombia#Blancos

This numbers are for "blancos+mestizos", as Brazil and Venezuela separate White and Mixed peoples in  separate categories, I do the same here correcting this numbers using a 0,43 coefficient according to "The 2018 census reported that the "non-ethnic population", consisting of whites and mestizos (those of mixed white European and Amerindian ancestry, including almost all of the urban business and political elite), constituted 86 percent of the national population. The 87 percent figure is subdivided into 47 percent mestizo and 40 percent white " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_Colombia#cite_note-3

Mexico: Censo de 1921 http://www.inegi.org.mx/prod_Serv/contenidos/espanol/bvinegi/productos/censos/poblacion/1921/EUM/RCGH21I.pdf

Quite old but good approximation, mixed race people is excluded as in Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia due to lack of genetic data. Modern Mexican censuses do not provide ancestry data.

Bolivia: http://bolivia.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/Censo_Poblacion_1900_T2.pdf

Old Census but the last one including ethnic selfidentification, probably numbers are not so different today.

Cuba: http://www.one.cu/publicaciones/cepde/cpv2012/20131107resumenadelantado/tablas/4.pdf

Peru: http://espejodelperu.com.pe/Poblacion-del-Peru/index.htm

guided by http://www.forosperu.net/temas/composicion-etnica-y-racial-del-peru-por-departamentos-actualizado.210657/

Ecuador: http://www.ecuadorencifras.gob.ec/resultados/

Chile: http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-98872014000300001&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en

Turkey: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Turkey

Azerbaijan: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_minorities_in_Azerbaijan

Argentina:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317552097_Admixture_in_Argentina?_iepl%5BviewId%5D=7mgiM9aS1rLkhmJH6Fx6jHsg&_iepl%5BprofilePublicationItemVariant%5D=default&_iepl%5Bcontexts%5D%5B0%5D=prfpi&_iepl%5BtargetEntityId%5D=PB%3A317552097&_iepl%5BinteractionType%5D=publicationTitle

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matthew Bunson at Catholic News Agency, via National Catholic Register:

Vice President Kamala Harris leads among Catholic voters over former president Donald Trump, according to the findings of a new EWTN News/RealClear Opinion Research survey two months away from the presidential election. The poll, conducted from Aug. 28-30, surveyed 1,000 Catholics and has a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points.  Catholic voters, like most of the electorate, consider the economy by far the most pressing issue facing the country and oppose transgender surgeries for minors and transgender males competing in women’s sports. They are divided on the question of who should set policy on abortion, U.S. support for Ukraine, and Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.  The findings also reveal a significant gender gap among Catholic voters, while Trump is currently receiving support from 30% of Catholic Latinos. According to the findings, 50% of Catholic voters currently support Harris for president while 43% support Trump and 6% are undecided. Harris is also ahead of Trump among Catholic Latino voters, leading the former president 60% to 30% overall but with 9% still undecided. This is important given the growing size and influence of Latinos in American Catholicism. 

The vice president also leads Trump among Catholic African American voters 82% to 12% and Catholic Asian voters 58% to 35%. Trump carries non-Hispanic white Catholic voters by a margin of 52% to 42%.  Similarly, Harris leads the former president in every age group, with her biggest leads among Catholic voters aged 30-39 and 40-49. Interestingly, her smallest margin is among the 18- to 29-year-olds, Gen-Z Catholic voters (many of whom will be voting for the first time in 2024), where she holds a statistically insignificant lead of 44% to 43%. Among Catholic voters, she has also managed so far to avoid damage from President Joe Biden’s low job approval rating, currently at 49% disapproval with 41% approval, while 10% are neutral.

A Catholic Gender Gap

Especially notable is the gender gap that has emerged among Catholic voters. Female Catholic voters support Harris over Trump 56% to 37%, while male Catholic voters favor Trump 49% to 43%. Similarly, on the generic ballot for control of Congress, 49% of Catholics support the Democrat candidate while 41% support the Republican candidate. Female Catholic voters, meanwhile, favor the Democrat candidate 54% to 35% while male Catholic voters support the generic Republican 48% to 43%. 

[...]

Mass Attendance and Catholic Voters

The poll also found that when it comes to Mass attendance, 12% of American Catholics attend Mass daily or more than once a week, 31% once a week, 16% once or twice a month, 32% a few times a year, and 9% once a year. Harris leads among every category of Mass-attending Catholics save for daily Mass attendees who support Trump 55% to 30%.  Unlike the findings in previous polling of Catholics, in this unusual election at least, regular Mass attendance or adherence to Church teaching may no longer be an indication that the voters will vote for the Republican presidential candidate.

According to the EWTN News/Real Clear Opinion poll conducted between 08.28 and 08.30.2024, Kamala Harris leads all American Catholics 50%-43%. Harris also leads 82%-18% among Black Catholics, 60%-30% among Latine Catholics, and 58%-35% among Asian-American Catholics. Donald Trump leads White Catholics 52%-42%. Female Catholics back Harris 56%-37%, while male Catholics back Trump 49%-43%.

Both EWTN and RealClear Opinion have well-known right-wing biases. The former entity was founded by the late Mother Angelica.

The poll was analyzed on EWTN's EWTN News In Depth on Friday.

From the 09.06.2024 edition of EWTN's EWTN News In Depth: