#this post reminded me to go actually look up the timelines on wikipedia we know Jason's had the street kid backstory since the 1980's

[asexualzoro]

list of reasons i find Brook ridiculous

for brook’s birthday, ive decided to follow up my other two posts of this genre by dragging yet another idiot swordsman. i have everybrook open on my phone next to me. here we go

- first and foremost his most ridiculous crime is existing. as he’s already so ridiculous as a character, im going to talk only about things hes done

- i want to know, did Brook make a conscious effort to change his laugh to sound like his favorite song? how long did it take? what was the in between period like? what did his crew have to say about this? the rumbar pirates were big on playful teasing, did they let Brook live this down? 

- ALTERNATIVELY: was brook’s laugh already like that? is that why bink’s sake is his favorite song? is that why it was York’s favorite-- oh we only made it two bullet points before i made myself sad

- relatedly i cannot make fun of anything Brook did in his backstory it will make me too sad. hes spared for now

- i DO want to say from a writing standpoint its so fucking ridiculous to me that he mentions twice being a convoy captain in the past and it never comes up again. oda?? why even bother to include something that cool if you weren't even going to do anything with it?? you could have said hes just always been a pirate but no. oda?? oda

- there was that bit where a bunch of people thought Brook was satan and addressed him as such (i think Satan-sama in the original, and the translation i read was like... Lord Satan or Lord Demon or something). not only did Brook never correct them, but he also ran with it and later used this case of mistaken identity as a reason to threaten to eat a man’s heart 

- also both men and women were showing him their underwear in that bit. bi rights

- those satanists let Brook get kidnapped while saying they would try to summon him back. do you think they're still at it

- Brook is older than... basically every old man in the series. Garp, Whitebeard, Rayleigh... all of them. something about that is so weird to me and i cannot place why

- Brook has seen and can prove the existence of an afterlife in One Piece canon and its then never addressed again

- Brook missed so many huge events while being dead. im looking at a timeline rn and these include the obvious, like, roger’s execution and subsequent effect on in-world culture and society and whatever. but also things like the destruction of ohara (which was in his home sea), the founding of the world power known as the revolutionary army (which was about 20yrs ago), and the births of every other member of his crew. wack

- he seems to know about stuff related to the pirate king post time skip, and i wonder if thats because someone told him or he’s just playing along now. maybe he just thinks Luffy made up the term pirate king cuz it sounds cool and he wants to support his captain’s interests

- if he DID ask though, like, who did he ask? his managers? did he pull aside some fan asking for an autograph at a concert like “hey, you look like a knowledgable young lad, mind helping me out?”

- i would love to be there when someone takes the time to explain roger, the pirate king, raffle, the One Piece.... and Brook asks them “what is the One Piece?”.... and someone has to look him in the eye (...or not) and tell him “i don't know” 

- Brook has technically died of fright (his soul left his body), like... at least once? it was luffy’s fault

- Brook was an urban legend on the florian triangle and i doubt he even knows that about himself

- when they're heading to fishmen island Brook gets all scared when they encounter a possible ghost ship and Usopp slaps him

- when captured by big mom he sleeps so godamn soundly and securely that he is harder to wake up than she is and this fact nearly gets a bunch of his crew killed

- Brook is the only character i can think of who has ever broken the fourth wall. he only did it once. maybe seeing the afterlife means he now knows hes in a manga. or maybe being isolated for 50 years just made his head be not screwed on right

- speaking of, there’s a bit in WCI at the wedding where Brook is decapitated. i don't know how it goes in the anime, but in the manga like... no one is shown to have decapitated him. his head just pops off. maybe he was just having fun

- also the bit where he rips the fake face off in wci. when someone calls him gross he cries

- there’s a bit in fishmen island where Brook is trying to ask Nami if he can see her panties (disgusting bastard) and he inadvertently protects her from being dehydrated by some guy they were fighting. except the panel setup reminds me a lot of / mimics ace protecting Luffy from Akainu, and it haunts me

- speaking of bits from fishmen island that haunt me, there's a page where it’s strongly implied Brook fucked a mermaid (maybe two). i will of course include the page here

- yeah. sorry. 

- when Brook first meets the strawhats he invites himself inside because “it’s cold out!” but he later admits in punk hazard that he cant feel cold. he was just lying

- no one introduces himself to Brook except Luffy for the entirety of thriller bark

- half related, Franky cradles Brook in his arms / carries Brook around for like a full scene in thriller bark 

- there's a link two second bit in film gold where the crew is just relaxing while they're planning for how they're going to get Zoro back and they're all shown eating burgers from pirate mcdonalds or whatever. and Brook is eating a burger and hes so messy that hes got burger on his forehead, and Franky is next to him just looking at him

- Brook also wears fake skin in that movie

- Brook has a running gag where he gets upset when things refuse to eat him and i was going to make a joke about it but im wondering if maybe hes just afraid of being left behind........ made myself sad again

- he cries when a dragon won't eat him tho

- Brook admits to reading monster hentai when talking to Sanji and Kin’emon and if i have to be burdened with knowing that so do you

- when hes trying to figure out the weakness of the zombies on thriller bark he overhears one ate a salted fish and lost its shadow and immediately assumes “oh, must have been the fish!” idiot man

- where does his sword cane go when hes not using it. it just appears. where does he store it

- there's a bit where the strawhats all use a combo attack at thriller bark and the first step is firing an electrically charged Brook in a slingshot through oars/oz. he ends up in a wall and no one ever pulls him out. i don't even think the manga shows how he got down

- enemies post time skip regularly assume Brook is dead when they manage to knock the crew out and it makes me wonder how popular of a rock star Brook actually was

- Brook goes on a mini rant to no one while they're descending to fisherman island where he wonders aloud how he sees without eyes and it makes me lose it

- this isn't Brook technically but Nekomamushi is based on a song Brook’s voice actor wrote about his cat.

- Brook literally doesn't have a brain. like i know we all know that but its so fucking funny. we make jokes about other strawhats only having one braincell or whatever but Brook straight up 100% just has a seashell where his brain is supposed to be 

-  why does he have rubber glove looking hands when hes haunting the castle at wano i fucking hate them

- relatedly, there’s a bit where Brook mentions he’s been, at kinemon’s interaction, sitting in a well for like... possibly days? is he okay

- honestly i love everything about Brook’s actions as a ghost in wano bc its so fucking funny but my FAVORITE fact is that Brook is in the wikipedia article about starving skeletons

im leaving you with that. appreciate ur local skeleton today

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Beth’s Template in S11

Okay Bethyl Enthusiasts! Here goes!

I’ve been promising to talk to you about exactly what I think will happen in S11 with Beth’s arc, and that’s what I’m going to do today. I’ve had a basic idea of things for a while, now, but these bonus episodes and their epic symbolism have really kicked things into high gear. They’ve helped me see things more clearly and even helped give me a more definitely (disclaimer: though still somewhat fluid) timeline for how/when it will all happen.

So, of course we all hoped to see her in ep 22. But if he we had, it would have had to have been in a coda. Like a preview of some kind. Because they didn’t quite get to the part of the story where I’m expecting to see her. But I’ll get into that in more detail.

So, we’ve been saying for a while that we think she’ll come through Eugene’s storyline, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on here. Because that’s specifically what I think we’ll see in S11. @wdway has found a TON of Beth symbolism around Eugene. She did most of her investigating and reporting over the long, CoVid hiatus, but I haven’t gotten around to posting much of it. Maybe I still will. We’ll see. There’s been so much to talk about lately.

Let me also state that, while I firmly believe we’ll see Beth in S11, I don’t think we’ll get to the point where Daryl will see her. And yes, that kinda sucks. But they probably won’t have their reunion until the spinoff. I know the Bethyl reunion is what we’re all waiting for, but hey, at least once we see her, we’ll know it’s coming, right?

So let’s start by going through the relevant template.

I’ve mentioned parts of this before, so I apologize if any part of it is repetitive. But it will help you if  you understand not just what I believe we’ll see, but why.

So, let’s return to 6x08/09. At the end of 6x07,  the church fell and all the walkers got into Alexandria. Eugene ends up in a garage with Tara and Rosita. They can’t get into the house connected to the garage because the dividing door is locked. After a discussion between the two ladies about whether they’re going to give up hope or else “do something,” Eugene offers to pick the lock and they get inside.

Inside, Morgan was keeping Creepy Wolf Dude (who I’ll abbreviate CWD) in the basement. He brought Denise (Beth proxy) in to patch up his injury, which she does. Carol wants to kill CWD and tries, but Morgan stops her. He’s on his “all life is precious” kick and ends up body slamming Carol, so she passes out. But when his back is turned, CWD also hits him over the head, so Carol and Morgan are both down for the count.

Just then, Eugene, Rosita and Tara enter, but CWD takes Denise hostage and leaves.

Everyone with me?

Okay, let’s start with Denise. Because of the way she died, Daryl’s reaction to her death, and AALLLLLL the Beth symbolism around her, she’s clearly a proxy for Beth. So what I’m going to argue is that this little sequence is a foreshadow and template for how she’ll be reintroduced into the show. Notice how Daryl isn’t present in any of these scenes. So again, this is how we, the audience will see her. Not how Daryl will first see her. Kapish? Okay.

So, I think Eugene unlocking the door to a new place represents him finding or “unlocking” a new community. Kinda like the one he, Yumiko, Zeke, and Princess are now in the process of discovering.

How did we come up with that? I honestly don’t remember in detail. Like I said, it’s something we’ve discussed for a long time. I think we started with Denise=Beth and worked backward from there. It kind of feels like out of all the members of TF, Eugene will see her first, but then she’ll be taken away from him right away.

Now, he’s in the midst of discovering new people/a new community. A few other pieces of evidence for this:

1)      Before they run into the garage, right after the church falls, Eugene gets on the radio and calls for help. Remember, Daryl hears him? So that parallels to Eugene talking with Stephanie via the radio.

2)      If you go through the dialogue of Rosita and Tara in this scene and compare it to dialogue in the scene in 10x16 between Yumiko and Ezekiel (the scene where his horse dies) the parallels are ridiculous. They aren’t the exact same lines of dialogue, but the meanings and chronology of it is almost exact.

3)      In terms of Denise = Beth, before she patches up Creepy Wolf Dude, she says to him, “show me the wound.” In Rick’s dream in 9x05, we heard Beth’s voice say, “What’s your wound?” It’s almost like they were trying to show us that Denise = Beth and that this template would play out with her return.

Okay, I hope that’s all clear. Shit’s about to get really interesting.

Before we continue, I want to remind you of THIS POST I did about 5x09. If you haven’t read it, I suggest doing so. I talk about the radio voice in 5x09 and how it talks about “attacks against the republic.” We couldn’t have known what that meant before, but now it’s clear that it’s a foreshadow of the CRM and the CRM war, which won’t happen until the spinoff.

It’s super interesting because Andrew Lincoln was the radio voice (he’s currently with the CRM) but he has his English accent. (I’ll tell you why that’s important in a minute. It wasn’t a casual or irrelevant choice on the writers’ parts.) So if that suggests Rick being with the CRM, which he is, it’s kind of interesting that Beth’s voice, singing “Struggling Man” also comes out of the radio at first, before we see her sitting there singing it. That suggests that she, too, will be with the CRM and part of the CRM war. None of Ty’s other death hallucinations spoke from the radio. I’m just saying.

The voice there even mentioned brutal attacks against the republic, including setting people on fire and hacking them with machetes. And that’s important because that’s just what the wolves did at Alexandria, and in the above template, we have CWD taking Denise (Beth). So it���s all interconnected.

But even so, I’ve had a hard time nailing down what it means and what the story line will actually be when Beth return.

Enter episode 10x21 and @bluesandbeth​’s inspired research.

In ep 21, Carol snoops around in Daryl’s room and finds the book “The Golden Age of Piracy.” Now, I’ll admit I didn’t look into this reference very extensively because I THOUGHT I knew what it meant. We had a “pirates” reference between Daryl and Carol in 10x01, when they first discussed leaving together on his bike. Since we already know they’ll be leaving together for the spinoff, that conversation was a foreshadow of what will happen in the spinoff. And if you’ve been following my posts,  you know that I see their whole arc in the bonus episodes (6x18 and 6x21) as a foreshadow of that same story line. So to me it was just another confirmation of the spinoff arc.

Then @bluesandbeth contacted me because she’d been looking into the Golden Age of Piracy book. She looked up the author and found out some interesting things. This author is real and basically wrote two kinds of historical books. (X) Books about piracy, and books about the American Revolutionary War. The author wrote a book called Greene and Cornwallis. (X)

Yikes! Yes, Greene is a real person and a patriot who stood against Cornwallis in the Revolutionary War. But what are the chances the writers use an author who just happens to have written a book with Beth’s last name in the title?

Historically, Nathaneal Greene was George Washington’s top general and right hand man during the war. I’ll come back to him. For now, it’s enough that he shares Beth’s last name.

I immediately hopped online to see what @bluesandbeth​ was seeing and look for more. And boy did I stumble upon a treasure trove!

I noticed a second book by this author called Swamp Fox. (Full title is Francis Marion: Swamp Fox.)

Now, you may wonder why that caught my attention. It’s not anything I ever posted about. It has to do with Leah. While me and my fellow theorists were discussing her and episode 10x18 endlessly, we noticed that Leah often wore a fox-fur scarf:

We conjectured back and forth about what it meant. Foxes, just like most animals, can have many different symbolic meanings depending on what culture you’re looking at. They’re often seen as sneaky and wily and deceptive, so we wondered if it was a reference to the writers “deceiving” us because Leah is a hallucination. But that was about the best we could come up with.

Well, when I saw the title of Swamp Fox, I immediately thought of Leah. And of course symbolically, Leah = Beth. So I decided to investigate.

And guess what? When I started reading about the Swamp Fox book, all the stuff from the S6 template above and the 5x09 stuff about Beth being part of the CRM war started clicking into place so fast, it made my head spin.

The Swamp Fox is about Francis Marion, a real man and patriot who also fought against the British during the American Revolutionary war. He’s the guy Mel Gibson’s character in The Patriot is based on. He faced down Cornwallis (one of the main British generals during the American Revolution) and was awesome at guerilla tactics and staying hidden. You know, in the swamp. Hence, they called him Swamp Fox.

Does that sound familiar to you? Think about what Andy Lincoln/Radio Voice said in 5x09 about Guerilla warfare and attacks against the Republic. You could describe Francis Marion’s military career any better if you tried.

And then I went to Wikipedia to look up general information on Marion and pictures of the British flag are all over the place.

Okay, this is another thing that won’t be very familiar to you because I haven’t focused on it much. In one of the episodes of TWB, Julia Ormond’s character is at home and we see a huge British flag hanging on her wall. Not surprising, given that she’s British. But it was such a huge, blatant symbol, and the camera focused on it for so long, that we figured it had to mean something. We just didn’t know what. The best we could figure is the colors (blue and red) and the fact that there’s both a huge X and a T/cross on the British flag.

Well, I now know what that symbol represents in TWD world. Reading about Marion and seeing the British flag on his Wikipedia page made it all make sense to me.

In short, Francis Marion, a.k.a. The Swamp Fox = Beth. She’s going to be the second-in-command general/guerilla warfare expert against the CRM. That’s why they had all that stuff in 5x09 when we saw her and heard her sing. The reason for the British flag is that Julia Ormond’s character = Cornwallis.

Read up on Francis Marion HERE.

(This is also why I said it’s important that in 5x09, they had Andrew Lincoln use is British accent for the radio broadcast. It’s meant to be from the point of view of the CRM, which symbolically represent the British in the template.)

So they’re using the American Revolution as a loose template for how the CRM war will go.

Back to Nathaneal Greene of Greene and Cornwallis? Yeah, same thing. Greene was George Washington’s direct under-general and right-hand man. Kind of like a…second or new sheriff? In the CRM war, George Washington = Rick and Nathaneal Greene = um, Greene (Beth).

More on Nathaneal Greene HERE.

But here’s the thing. None of that is going to happen until the spinoff. So why am I talking about it for S11? Well, it has to do with Charleston.

You can look this up on Wikipedia for more details, but Charleston was an event that was huge for Francis Marion. It was Charleston, South Carolina in that case. And it was a stronghold that the colonists were holding against the British. Then one day, the British attacked and took everyone there as prisoners of war. Marion WAS stationed there at the time, but he wasn’t there when the attack happened because he’d BROKEN HIS ANKLE in an accident and left the city to recuperate.

Okay. Anyone recognize Charleston in terms of Eugene or TWD world?

When talking to Stephanie over the radio, he got her to finally tell him where her settlement was. Any guesses? Charleston.

Now, in this case, it’s Charleston, West Virginia, but I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the writers went with the same name, even if it’s a different state.

So, here’s how I think it will play out.

I don’t think Stephanie’s group is actually the Commonwealth, or at least not the major, Commonwealth city everyone knows from the comic books. They DO have the white storm trooper guys, so I think they’re linked to the CW somehow. Like maybe they’re a branch of the CW in the same way Grady might have been an outlying branch—or at least in communication with—the CRM.

So again, maybe they’re PART of the CW, but they’re not living with the main group.

So, I think Eugene’s group will be taken to Charleston in S11 (that should happen next) and they will see Beth there. I have no idea if Eugene will recognize her or not. Given that we still don’t know what went down during the missing 17 days after Coda, and Eugene was hurt, we don’t know if he actually saw Beth at all or if he was out during that time. I’ve agonized over this a lot, but understanding this new template, I’ve come to realize that it doesn’t really matter. Maybe he’ll recognize her. Maybe he won’t. But either way, he’s not going to be in the same place with her for long.

I think soon after Charleston will be attacked. Now, historically, it was by the British, right? And because Julia Ormond’s character = Cornwallis, it’s got to be the CRM who attack Charleston. And we’ve seen them do this with other communities in TWB, so it makes sense.

But here’s where I had the S6 template wrong for a long time. Because CWD takes Denise, I thought a group would attack Stephanie’s community and take prisoners, and Beth would be taken with them, while Eugene and the others were left behind. 

But because of the Marion/Swamp Fox/Charleston thing, I think the opposite is true. Sounds like Eugene and co will be taken as prisoners by the CRM. Why did they do it the opposite way in S6? Because they couldn’t have had all the Alexandrians taken and Denise left behind. It just wouldn’t have worked for that S6 storyline. The point is mostly the separation. Eugene gets into a new place, briefly sees her, and then they’re separated.

So Charleston will be attacked and all the people (probably including Eugene, Yumiko, and Zeke) get captured by the CRM. If Beth is Marion, then she won’t be there when it happens.

I’m wondering if she’ll be out in the woods, hunting or getting supplies or something, and this is where she’ll step in the bear trap, injuring her ankle. That would fulfill all the bear trap symbolism around her, including Alone when she stepped in the small game trap. Just a guess on my part, but I think it’s highly likely.

Even if I’m wrong about that detail, I think she’ll be away from the Charleston community, just as Marion was, when the CRM captures the people there.

This is why it doesn’t really matter whether Eugene recognizes her or not. If he doesn’t, and they don’t realize they know the same people, she won’t know that Maggie and Daryl are (relatively) nearby. I think at this point she’ll go to try and rescue the people from the community who were captured (if she’s been with them for awhile, there are probably people there she cares about) and that’s how she’ll run into Rick and first cross paths with the CRM.

She and Daryl will meet down the road at a later date.

Even if Eugene DOES recognize her and she knows about TF, I still think she’s going to go try and rescue her friends before attempting to go to D.C. because they’re in more immediate danger and she’ll have some loyalty to them.

So, this is what I think we’ll see in S11. And I have no idea where it will cut off. Maybe the last thing we’ll see with Eugene in S11 is the fall of Charleston. Or maybe that will happen in episode 2. I really have no idea.

But I’m going to mention one other thing before I stop for today. I know this is getting wrong.

Who is Creepy Wolf Dude in this template? I mean, the wolves attacked Alexandria, so we could assume it’s just the CRM, and maybe a particular person in the CRM. Might be.

But rewatching 6x08, something caught my ear.

Morgan and Carol were arguing about whether or not to kill Creepy Wolf Dude, right? She keeps saying he needs to die. Morgan keeps saying no. And then we have a really interesting conversation.

Carol (talking about wolves): They made us kill. We had to stop it. I had to stop it.

Morgan: Where there’s life, there’s possibility. Even if we never let him out—

CWD: I’d get out.

Morgan (talking over him): Even if we never let him out, he could know what he’s done.

Who else killed and made TF kill? And rather than killing this person, they put him into a cell, vowing never to let him out. But he got out?

Negan! They’re basically talking about Negan’s fate after AOW here.

And guys, that’s CRAZY. I think CWD = Negan.

And I have more evidence for this.

In the TTD after 5x09, I remember that Nicotero was on it. And they were talking about how intrigued CWD was by Denise. I think it was Chris who said something like (and I paraphrase), “I guess it wouldn’t be right to say he fell in love with her or anything…”

And Nicotero corrected him and said CWD kinda did fall in love with Denise. Maybe not in a lifelong, deep, abiding love like we see with Bethyl/Glaggie/Richonne/Etc., but he’d never met anyone like her and he was intrigued by her. He fell in love with her as much as a killer like him could fall in love with someone.

Then, in 7x16, we had Sasha’s death. We went on and on about all the Beth symbolism around Sasha in that episode. It was ridiculous! Kind of like these bonus episodes had been. And Negan…kinda liked Sasha. I mean, I don’t think anyone would have described it as falling in love, but he liked and respected her. Said she had beach-ball-sized lady nuts and he truly respected her and was sad to see her die.

So I think these are both templates that point to what will happen next.

(BTW, Eugene was present for a LOT of Sasha’s final episodes.)

The main reason we always thought Beth would show up with the Saviors is because of the Negan (bat, actually) symbolism around her. But if she and Negan have a major arc together or interaction later on, all of that will suddenly make sense.

So again, I’m not sure if we’ll see this in S11 or if it will come later, but I think after Charleston falls, Negan and Beth will somehow meet (maybe he leaves the communities at some point) and have a lot of scenes and episodes together.

All right. I’ll stop there. Do I know any of this for certain? Of course not. As always, it’s subject to change. Especially the details. And the instant I see anything that changes my thinking or makes me realize I interpreted something wrong, I’ll let you know.

But my biggest point is that this really SHOULD be the next thing we see with Eugene’s group. Of course, this is TWD and it might still take us 8 or 10 or more episodes to get there as they have a lot of things to focus on S11. But it’s coming. And soon.

Remember that S11 is scheduled to start in June. So we don’t have long to wait. (Yay!)

Thoughts?

[sword-dad-fukuzawa]

The Curious Case of Kagami Jishi

Manga spoilers, as well as for the latest translated chapter. 

As things tend to happen, a niche and obscure topic happened to catch my fancy. Fukuchi’s ability name is “kagami jishi”, translated literally as “Mirror Lion” but also as “Lion Dance” in earlier versions. A quick Wikipedia search won’t actually tell you what Kagami Jishi actually refers to, though, as the article on Fukichi is rather short and doesn’t have a detailed bibliography.

So I went to wikipedia.jp, and Google’s auto-translate was really my best friend at this point. Kagami Jishi refers to a kabuki dance, not a novel or poem like I originally assumed, for which Fukuchi wrote the lyrics. By jumping links, the plot goes like this:

A servant is ordered to dance. She does so, emphasizing her youth and beauty, and she portrays watching cherry blossoms and camellias. But then she gets a lion mask, and there appears to be a struggle between her and the lion. Eventually, the lion takes her over entirely, and she becomes the lion. Butterflies appear, which taunt the lion. The climax is when the lion shakes his mane. 

I’ve never watched a kabuki performance, and I don’t know much about it, but this did intrigue me. So I thought I’d look to see if Kagami Jishi was performed recently, or if there was somewhere I could read the lyrics. A cursory search turned up a blog post, which detailed one person’s experience of watching Kagami Jishi at Carnegie Hall. The post was from March of 2016, which isn’t actually that long ago. 

They mentioned that the person performing it was Ichikawa Ebizō XII. A quick wikipedia search shows that Ebizō XII...died. In 2013, three years before the post. I can only conclude that it was a typo and they meant Ichikawa Ebizō XI, his successor, who is still alive.  Ebizō XI, according to wikipedia, did perform at Carnegie Hall in February, 2016, so the timeline matches up. 

I’m not likely to go watch anything at Carnegie Hall or to go to Japan anytime soon. But I did find out that there was a documentary made for Kagami Jishi, filmed in black and white in 1936, called by the same title. Did I find a copy of this movie, made nearly 90 years ago? Hell yeah I did. It’s on YouTube! With English subtitles! Here!

The funniest part of the narration is when the very proper narrator says that the actor’s greatest asset is how he’s...corpulent...which lets him play curvy women. 

Please do note I know nothing about kabuki dances, and these are the observations of an outsider. If you watch the dance, it starts off fairly slow. But the point when the lion spirit takes her over shows in how it’s dragging her by the hand, even as she stumbles trying to get away, and into an empty room off stage. She’s frenzied, almost desperate. It strikes a contrast between her slow, careful moves with the fans from the previous parts. Watching it was an interesting experience.

Sidenote--while Jiraiya, from Naruto, is heavily based on The Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya, his aesthetic and kabuki-inspired character design comes from this particular kabuki dance. 

My new goal in life is to get my hands on the lyrics and get them translated. All I have right now is a single page, also gotten off of a wikipedia link. 

Why am I so obsessed with this random kabuki dance? No idea. But wandering through the Japanese side of the internet like a lost maiden in the woods was surprisingly educational. What I am interested in, actually, is whether or not Kagami Jishi reflects Bungou’s Fukuchi. Asagiri, after all, does do his homework. 

We learned in the most recently translated chapter that Fukuchi’s whole deal is that he was “born” on the battlefield, bearing witness to many unspeakable horrors and committing many of them. He thinks that the existence of nations is the reason war exists, and seeks to bring them all down. Basically, he’s a bit of an anarchist. 

Reading about Kagami Jishi, and the woman who was taken over by the lion, reminds me of him in a way. She used to be happy and human, but at the climax of the dance, she loses that humanity and exchanges it for pride. And isn’t that the ultimate prideful thing, to believe you know what’s best for the world? It isn’t her fault, but it happens all the same. 

I’ll leave you all with that thought. Hope this was interesting, at the very least! Stay safe.

[agirlinhell]

just a casual reminder that:

THIS BLOG AND ITS MUSE CONTAIN PRETTY MUCH ALMOST EVERY MAJOR TRIGGER. THIS BLOG IN ITS ENTIRETY IS EXTREMELY TRIGGERING. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

If you proceed to read this blog’s content after the multiple content warnings that I present in the blog’s rules page, you are responsible for whatever happens. I informed you of what is present. Do not try to claim I did not give you an adequate warning.

I write a lot of “horrible” shit. I literally write a sweet and innocent girl turned assassin and killer in her own right in the apocalypse for a muse - there’s very little I have an issue with writing in detail. This blog is riddled with mature content. With that said, I won’t be roleplaying with anyone under the age of sixteen. This should be obvious but just because I write disturbing content DOES NOT MEAN I SUPPORT IT.

On the topic of Clementine, she is a very morally grey character - she is neither good nor evil. She will not always be kind and sweet to your muse. She won’t always do the morally “right” thing. She will not hesitate to resort to murder, manipulation, blackmail and torture if it means getting what she wants.

Please don’t have your muse presume to know what Clementine is thinking, unless if your muse is some kind of telepath. Just because you know what going on OOCly, it doesn’t mean your character knows. Characters who seem to know more than they would is irritating and really annoying. Clementine is very charismatic, persuasive and secretive and as such, it is difficult to know exactly what she’s planning or thinking.

My Clementine has been - and still is - very lonely, and did not have friends or family for most of her life, as everyone else had either betrayed her or died, and even with her friends and accomplices, most of her friendships were merely for survival purposes. It’s fairly easy to forget that the timeline of Episodes 3 through 5 of Season One lasts only about four days. In the space of less than a week, Clementine has lost everyone she’s ever loved. She finds her parents infected, Lee is either dead or infected, and every single other person Clementine has come to rely on and know in the past three months — everyone, from Duck to Lily to Kenny to Ben and everyone in between — has died systematically over the course of a few days. Omid and Christa are the only ones who survived, but she had only met them during that four day timespan. It gets even worse as the seasons progress and this is no understatement in the slightest.

Clementine is age eighteen-nineteen and over in her default verse, as it is set post-The Final Season. With that said, most asks will be answered when Clementine is an adult, unless if the ask specifies for a specific verse.

For the love of all that is good and holy, DO NOT STEAL MY HEADCANONS FOR CLEMENTINE.

There are people I have a lot of threads with. It's inevitable that sometimes it'll appear as if I only reply to one person or the same 2-3 people simply because they're the only ones I have a lot of replies from. If you can't handle it looking like I've only responded to so called "faves" all day, when I owe you less than 5 things, don't follow me.

While Clementine in the majority of her verses is a human, there will be alternate universes where she is a vampire, werewolf, crossroad demon, shapeshifter/druid, deity, etc. and because of this, she will be very powerful and in some scenarios, even overpowered in the case of her deity verse. However, I do not powerplay/godmod/whatever else. It’s hard for some people to grasp, but for example, in my vampire or deity verses, Clementine does not give a shit about yours enough to waste her energy on them. For example: I have a verse where Clem is a goddess, and yes, she could know everything about your muse, but trust me -- she’s not going to act like it or even acknowledge what she could know. She doesn’t care to go through your muse's brain to figure out what they’re thinking. The only real metagaming you’ll see is deity!Clementine knowing your muse’s name when they haven’t given it out. I will IM the fuck out of you before I do some crazy shit with her anyway. I only ask you don’t act as if she is not a powerful goddess in said verse - because she is and she will destroy a muse that pisses her off.

Have a rules page and an about page for your character. I don’t care if your character is canon. I will not follow you if I can’t find an about section. Linking to the wikipedia/whatever page of your canon character does not count.

I don’t follow people who post ooc a lot. Blog updates, headcanons, activity notices, etc are not ooc per say but an excessive amount of them can be.

I have a really big issue with people who post super negative stuff all the time. I’d rather not have to deal with your problems on top of my own, thanks.

I absolutely will not follow you if I have to put in a ton of effort just to make it so I can actually read your information. I don't give a fuck about the "aesthetic" - just give me something to work with.

I do not follow every single blog one person has. It feels like you’re taking up a ton of my dash/followers, and it drives me insane.

I don’t follow people who are only here for shipping. If you're here just because you want to ship with Clementine, you came to the wrong place. My Clementine is not just a shipping facet.

If we do not interact within three months of becoming mutuals, unless if there’s a hiatus on your part, I will softblock/unfollow you. Interaction means a starter (or ask) and a reply. If I write you a starter and you never respond, it is not interacting.

The more we talk ooc, the easier it is for me to reply. It makes me more comfortable writing with you, and I often chat about our muses, making it a lot easier to come up with ideas and giving me a lot of muse and inspiration for our threads.

Memes can be awkward and harder for me to answer if we’ve never interacted before. I understand that a lot of people prefer memes as a means of getting things started, but I would really rather plot if you’re trying to get a thread of any substance going. I don’t mind starting with a meme, but I can almost guarantee you it’s not going to go very far if it’s our first thread.

Don’t pester me for replies. Feel free to remind me about a thread by liking my last reply to it or sending me an IM, but I will be really annoyed if you remind me more than once or twice within a month.

If I don’t like the post, I didn’t see it. Please tell me about it.

I’m a part time college student with shit mental health and confidence issues. I can be slow as hell some days and fast as fuck on others.

Once a thread is longer than two paragraphs (medium sized), it sometimes takes me 948728923660700 years to gain motivation for it. It will literally exhaust the hell out of me, but I am not against longer threads, in fact, I totally encourage them. It just takes me way longer to gather muse, time, and motivation to respond to them. If we have a longer thread together, I expect you to be patient as hell. Obviously, I will not mind waiting forever for your reply either.

I'm not going to bother with a million poorly slapped together ships for the sake of the muses involved "being cute" together. Most ships will need to be plotted, yes, even canon ships like Louis/Clementine and Violet/Clementine. My muse is not going to like yours without special circumstances and an extra push from me, especially since Clementine is demiromantic and demisexual.

I almost always answer asks in the form of a starter (questions are the common exception). Don't feel obligated to continue every ask I respond to.

Please, for the love of god, like a starter or ask response if I post it for you. I hate not knowing if you saw it or not. I will send it to you if you haven’t liked it within a few days of being active.

I have discord if for whatever reason mutuals want to speak to me outside of tumblr’s IM system - I also RP on discord - it's for mutuals only and you must let me know who you are beforehand.

[vera-invenire]

VnC Liveblog - Chapter 7

.All chapter liveblogs are linked HERE.

Hey, note for people following along: the last two chapters (5 and 6) didn’t show up on the main Vanitas no Carte tags because Tumblr filters out any posts that have outside links in them. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But they’re done and the links for them are right up there. ^

Now, on to chapter 7!

Methinks MochiJun is running out of art for the chapter covers. That’s okay, I like this guy’s face.

OH MY GOD ARE WE GETTING WORLDBUILDING I AM EXCITED

So. Paracelsus. Famed physician and alchemist, called the Luther of medicine. He’s got a wikipedia page that I’m not gonna link to here *shakes tiny fist at tumblr* but probably the most interesting thing about him (if not the most important, in this context) is that ‘Paracelsus’ was his pen name. His real name?

Theophrastus von Hohenheim. Yeah. That von Hohenheim. Or at least the original one he was named after.

More pertinent, I think, is the fact that Paracelsus was a doctor, like our main character. He had a reputation for disdaining conventional medical thought (as this was the 1500s, this was not unwarranted) and for prioritizing practical experience over unproven theories preached by people with silly titles. Going by Vanitas’ fight with Orlok, I think he would have liked Paracelsus.

With Paracelsus involved, we now have a timeline for Babel -- it occurred sometime during the first half of the 1500s, creating vampires, astermite, the border, and, apparently, a number of disasters.

(the sudden appearance of vampires among the human population might have been disastrous enough, but I wonder if there were other things that were thrown out of wack.)

I don’t...quite get this formula business yet, so I’m gonna wait to comment on that until it’s more clear.

Nice job breaking it, Hohenheim.

This is like the tenth time the church has been mentioned, when are they gonna show up?

Hello, Creepy Teacher. Still without eyes, I see.

But not all coal and not all humans were altered.

And what is that on Teacher’s lapel, a clock with wings --

...time flies. You think you’re clever, don’t you.

...he’s planning on using Noé, the last Archiviste. Noé is key to something. What are you planning, Creepy Teacher.

Memoire 7 Bal Masque

Night of Sneering Masks

Lord Ruthven has a real swanky place, don’t he.

On the one hand, I want to go to a ball like this. On the other, it is full of vampires. Who, admittedly, seem like fairly decent people on average -- when they’re not losing their minds and going on murderous rampages.

Kinda looks like the Charlatan parade, though, no?

Hm, Domi is a bit shorter than Noé than I thought she was.

...wait, wait, wait, hold up. let’s zoom in here.

that’s Domi??? that looks like Unnerving Boy. crap, is she Unnerving Boy? i was joking about that before.

Glad I’m not the only one making that connection. The narrative wants this decadence to remind us of Charlatan. re: we shouldn’t trust it.

Domi: That guy’s gonna keep a low profile, right?

Vanitas: *seducing ALL the ladies at the ball*

Y’all knew he was an unrepentant grandstander. What did you expect.

(note: Vanitas knows sleight of hand)

(note: vampires can smell humans)

Hahahahaha, “I don’t understand how vampires define ‘friend’“ is my new favorite line, right along with “several different kinds of unfortunate”.

So my question is, can he only see the memories while he’s drinking? Or can he revisit them whenever he wants?

Vanitas adapted to the usefulness of that collar real quick.

I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN, I KNEW THAT DUM-DUM WOULD LEAVE THESE TWO ALONE AND SHIT WOULD HIT THE FAN

this is gonna be good

So spoketh Dominique de Sade. Never has a character been more aptly named.

(yo, is that Ada’s iron maiden. and a tortured stuffed white rabbit in the corner, too. the spirit of Vincent is alive and well.)

Meanwhile...Noé has found a new toy.

precious cinnamon roll, too pure, etc etc

ohoho, I think we know this kid.

HI, LUCA. And Jeanne can’t be that far away.

These guys are bodyguards, or retainers? Dressed like plague doctors, nice touch.

Luca (Lucius?), this is the man who held you hostage, why you lying.

Uh-oh. Something is clearly wrong with Jeanne.

...you might even say, she should probably see a doctor. *baddum-ting* (I think she’d prefer to die of consumption)

But it seems to be something she’s suffered from before? Is it her breathing or her throat?

Likely the same sister who lent Domi the collar and chain. Sister has interesting hobbies.

“I was all excited!” Yeah, this game is gonna be called Ha Ha, Surprise, I’m Kinkier Than You.

Point, Vanitas.

But Domi rallies nicely.

This is where we start getting real; Domi doesn’t fuck around when it comes to Noé. But does she really need to threaten to carve out Vanitas’ eye with a knife??

...throw more knives at him, Domi.

This is why you need to learn to keep your mouth shut, Vanitas. (also check the misogyny, I don’t want you to turn into Vincent, please)

She brings up some very good points.

Ooo, and it looks like something she said hit home. ...or one of the knives stabbed him. Nah, the black border means a brief flashback of some kind.

...Vanitas hates the Vampire of the Blue Moon. Well, well.

So why did he take his name?? And his Book???

(omg, did he steal the Book)

He’s cracked. He’s gonna do something stupid and/or reckless.

HE’S GONNA THROW HIMSELF BACKWARD OFF THE BALCONY. 

Well, he did say he was gonna get their attention.

(”you’re worried about Vanitas? you should be worried about me.” “no, wait, i mean, i’m here to save vampires. yes. out of the goodness of my bitter heart.”)

The chandelier’s made of bones, it’s a vampire ball, why wouldn’t it be.

Poor Domi’s like, ‘crap, I pushed the punk too far.’

The cajones on this kid.

Like, seriously, isn’t he supposed to be hiding the fact that he’s human...?

This is revenge for always wandering off and disappearing, Noé.

The gloves are coming off again and this time it’s not a bluff.

Holy crap, that’s a lot more extensive than I thought it’d be. Looks a lot like the moon and spider-webbed sky above Altus Paris, doesn’t it? And this mark is lower on his arm than we saw earlier.

Actually, let’s go back and compare. This is from chapter 4 --

So in chapter 4, we saw marks on his left arm. But...is it the same kind of mark? And how many marks does he have?

Branding is something you do to livestock.

The eyes look like the moon look like the brand. (ha, how much you want to bet the moon over Altus Paris is red and Vanitas’ mark is blue)

And the hourglass is front and center once again. He wears that thing for a reason and that reason is connected to the Vampire of the Blue Moon.

So was he really granted some kind of power, or is this another bluff? Then again, the power could be the ability to use the Book.

I’m starting to think the Vampire of the Blue Moon isn’t the only one who hates vampires...

(”fighting monsters is best left to other monsters”)

I would not trust a doctor who looked at me with a face like that, i’m just saying

And now this crusade to save the vampires makes much more sense.

In doing this, not only will Vanitas get the pleasure of having the vampires he’s curing at his mercy, but with each vampire he saves he sticks it to the Vampire of the Blue Moon.

This was never a charitable cause. This is a fuck you to the entire world, the original Vanitas in particular.

Everyone: “oh shit, this guy’s even crazier than we thought.”

Did he...not mean to say that part out loud...? Or did he see something in the crowd?

Guess we find out next chapter! Which is -- HERE.

[welcometothisby]

Thoughts about the Time Period of The Scorpio Races, Including a Riveting Discussion of Tape.

There is so! much! analysis! happening here! I love it! I’m just going to put it all under the cut! 

@laizydaizy​ reblogged your post “What year do you think the story takes place in? (I don't think they mentioned it in the book) it doesn't seem very...”

I’m glad u like my ask! For my opinion I think the 1940’s would work pretty well. There’s also the thing going on where puck is the first girl to race which is pretty important because the 1900s was a very important time for women’s rights and I feel like the progression of this is shown throughout the story. Also like u said the setting is pretty timeless so you can’t really tell but I’d just place it in the 1940’s for my own ~ aesthetic ~ ALSO keep in mind thisby is an island which means technology would come to it much later

Hurrah! It was you! Thanks for sending the ask! I definitely think the reporter’s line about women’s suffrage is important, because it makes less sense the farther you get from the movement. The 1940s created many opportunities for women, so that seems fitting. I personally haven’t found any references to the war within the text, but I am curious about how it would have affected Thisby, both during and after the war. Since Thisby may or may not belong to the UK (we never learn the answer to George Holly’s question about home rule), we don’t know if they would have been involved or neutral. Whatever the case, I can imagine the waters around Thisby were teeming with U-boats!

@booknerdathogwarts​ reblogged your post:

Hello deary!

I just wanted to help clarify the timeline on the Scorpio Races.

You said 1930’s or 1950’s, but I’d like to add that duck tape- Puck actually says ‘black tape,’ but Finn was using it to patch up the seats of the Morris- wasn’t invented until WWII, putting the timeline in more of the 1950’s era. It’s possible it was a different type of tape, but the tape invention timeline comes down to surgical tape in the late 1800’s, masking tape in the 1920’s- which could possibly have been the tape Finn used, but masking tape on leather? Nuh uh.

Duck tape was made in the field during WWII for minor repairs, and honestly if I were to tape up a leather seat of a car, I’d use duck tape.

Hello, hello! 

Oh no! Brought down by TAPE! ;) Seriously though, no clue is too big or small, too extraordinary or mundane. Well spotted! I am most impressed by your knowledge of the history of tape! :)

You make a very compelling case! I will concede that one has to do far less acrobatics to make the technology fit if it has a 1950s setting. However, I am not afraid of a few somersaults and, as such, I will go to great lengths to justify my delusions an earlier setting!

A perusal of Wikipedia tells me thus: “In 1930, the magazine Popular Mechanics described how to make adhesive tape at home using plain cloth tape soaked in a heated liquid mixture of rosin and rubber from inner tubes.” As it’s not described as a roll of tape and inner tubes are black, I submit that Finn made his own “black tape.” See, I will not be dissuaded from my 1930s aesthetic! ;)

(But you’re probably right and it’s post-WWII duck tape! Drat!)

@skatzaa​ replied:

im sure im not the focus of the last part, but ive never weighed in on the time period question before, though ive read p much all your posts on it bc its drives me nuts. i dont even have anything productive to add, im just distraught over how much maggie left vague for the #aesthetic haha (but if pressed, i would also pick the 30s. the 50s just feel too...modern for me, even on a tiny island in the "middle" of the Atlantic, like Thisby, ya feel?)

I TOTALLY FEEL.

Yeah, I think there’s a difference between an island having a distinct identity from the mainland due to choice and necessity and an island untouched by the march of time. I don’t think the latter is true of Thisby, as the characters and their culture are very much pulled between tradition and modernization.

I also can’t square the mainland fashions of Sean’s childhood (bowler hats and canes and “wives who look like dolls”) with a 1950s timeline (with the event in question taking place a decade or so earlier)! Also, while social change did happen, it seems like much of the 1950s was about trying to undo the changes brought on by the war and get back to the way things were before, especially in regards to women. In the book, the traditionalists were trying to stop change from happening in the first place, which is a theme that appears to fit well with the interwar period, in my opinion.

I guess it comes down to this for me: attachment. The world of The Scorpio Races reminds me so much of the communities in National Velvet (1920s) and I Capture the Castle (1930s), which were both written within a decade of the respective settings and just sparkle with life. Historical fact or reality aside, I’m willing to accept some things as anachronisms if it means I get to experience that same stillness of the past on the cusp of colliding with a bustling world of change.

ANYWAY, thank you all! I’ve loved hearing your thoughts and learning new facts! And while it is sort of annoying to me that Maggie is so coy about the time period, it does at least give us the space to let our imaginations run wild! We get so many personal, alternate universes as a result, and so I guess that’s pretty magical? :)

[tobinifesi]

The Word I Needed To Know Right Now

How Tom Hanks called my attention to the word that emphasizes the essence of these crazy times

Words are capable of demystifying and filling blank spaces. 

If you walk into an empty hollow hallway in a forgotten and mysterious building in the middle of nowhere, your eyes will capture the nothingness that surrounds you and your brain will calculate the probability of something - someone or some creature - springing out from one of the hollow ends of the hallway. However, the moment you make a sound or utter a word, an echo fills the hallway, detaches you from your anxiety and reminds you that you are, in fact, safe; thus weakening the mystery of the empty space. 

Sometimes, our minds are filled with such empty spaces. When this happens, there are gaps in our thought, comprehension and interpretation of our reality. Things don’t add up. The details don’t make sense. It becomes increasingly difficult to control the narrative. We are thrust into a world of uncertainty and unknowns. So much might be said but none of it resonates with you. This goes on until you stumble on a word - somewhere and somehow - that bridges the gap and fills the blank spaces. 

Amidst the realities of the world today, I recently stumbled on a word. The word doesn’t necessarily solve the issue at hand but it gives me some much-needed perspective on the state of things as they are and have always been. Most importantly, it sets me on a path towards having a deeper understanding of the nature of our societies during pandemics like the COVID-19. 

Before January 2020, I had never heard the word ‘coronavirus’ despite my academic background in the sciences. I may be wrong but I do not believe that it has ever been a popular term amongst laymen and biology undergraduates. Keep in mind that the word ‘coronavirus’ isn’t the word I’m referring to in my last paragraph (or in this article’s title and subtitle) but I found it interesting when I heard it. It was a novel word to me and so, as I lay in my bed on the evening of January 23, I googled the word ‘coronavirus’. 

The first two Wikipedia pages I read agreed that the coronavirus wasn’t exactly a virus. It was actually “a group of related viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds” and the novel coronavirus (now known as COVID-19) just happens to fall into that group. Suddenly, the news article I had been reading earlier that day about the Chinese government imposing a lockdown on Wuhan, the capital city of the Hubei province, began to make sense. The news made sense but the idea of locking down an entire city didn’t make much sense. I marvelled at the thought of a lockdown. At the time, I could barely imagine what that would look or feel like. 

It seemed crazy to me. 

I needed some clarity on the current situation meant for us in the long run. I wanted to know what the world might look like after almost half of its population are either advised or forced to stay within closed doors and away from each other. 

As of March 23, I had been on a province-wide lockdown in British Columbia for 12 consecutive days. By this time, the World Health Organization had labelled the novel coronavirus a pandemic. Even after 12 days of staying at home, I was still a little bit confused about what all of this meant - and how it could affect our societies. There was no news of a possible end date for the stay-at-home mandate. Later that week, an article written by The Atlantic’s Joe Pinsker suggested four possible timelines for the pandemic. His best-case scenario was one to two months and his worst-case scenario was 18 months. Neither of the two timelines made sense to me. I needed some clarity on the current situation meant for us in the long run. I wanted to know what the world might look like after almost half of its population are either advised or forced to stay within closed doors and away from each other. 

The 13th chapter of the biblical book of Leviticus describes the mosaic law regarding skin diseases - specifically, leprosy. The law is quite straightforward: once an individual has been diagnosed with a skin disease, “the priest is to isolate the affected person for seven days.” (Leviticus 13:4 NIV). With the proclamation of the mosaic law, isolation became the ideal response for dealing with skin (and many other forms of) diseases in those times. By the time Jesus Christ arrived on earth, isolation was still the norm. In Luke’s version of the gospel, as Jesus “was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” (Luke 17:12-13 NIV). Notice the verse suggests the lepers stood at a distance. They did so because they knew they ought not to come in close contact with others. Hence, isolation. 

By the 14th century, isolation was still a thing. At the time, the bubonic plague was ravaging cities and communities across Europe and Asia. Measures had to be taken to curb the continued spread of the infection. One notable measure was taken by the port authorities at Ragusa (now known as Dubrovnik in Croatia.) The officials established a trentino that ordered the isolation of ships arriving at the port for a 30 day period. Within the next century, other European communities - like Venice, Genoa and Marseilles - began to introduce similar laws. During this time, the 30 day period was increased to 40 days. In other words, the trentino became a quarantino. 

Quarantino (or Quarantine) is derived from the Italian word for 40, quaranta. Many historians have suggested that the introduction of the 40 day isolation period was inspired by the biblical or Christian references to and significance of a 40-day period. The observance of Lent, the great flood in the days of Noah, Moses’ stay on Mount Sinai, Jesus Christ’s fasting period in the Judean deserts and the period between his resurrection and ascension have one thing in common - they all happened in 40 days. Just as many historians believe there is a correlation here, many others dispute it. 

Nevertheless, the term ‘quarantine’ was born from the terms ‘quarantino’ and ‘quaranta’ in the 14th century. Since then, many quarantine laws have been passed in several countries around the world and the outbreak of any major diseases always calls for such laws to be invoked. Quarantine laws were invoked in the 18th century when the yellow fever epidemic hit Philadelphia, in the 19th century when cholera epidemic arrived in Canada’s Quebec City, in 2003 during the SARS pandemic as 30,000 Torontonians were quarantined (although in Canada, the law was actually introduced in 2005, its stipulations were observed in 2003), in 2014 when the Liberian government ordered the isolation of a local neighbourhood called West Point during the Ebola outbreak, on January 23, 2020, in Wuhan, and on March 25, 2020, when Canada’s Minister of Health, Patty Hadju, ordered all travellers entering the country to be isolated for 14 days. 

Despite being such a significant term over the last seven centuries, the word ‘quarantine’ and its fascinating history don’t shed much light on the essence of the times we are in. One thing is for sure: history is being written as we speak. Generations will speak of the plague that caused at least half of the world to stay indoors. The stories that are being lived out right now will inspire the creation of books, artworks, movies, documentaries and music that will ensure these moments aren’t easily forgotten. Yet, you can’t help but wonder what the world will look like then. 

Like most people, when I heard about the coronavirus in January, I didn’t think much of it. I knew it was a tragedy in Wuhan but I didn’t think it would become a global tragedy - one that would have large-scale disastrous impacts on global healthcare systems, economies, infrastructures and laws. On March 1, I was on a phone call with my friend - Solace - and we agreed that a pandemic was coming. 10 days later, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, charactered the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. Later that day, an NBA player - Rudy Gobert - tested positive for the disease and as a response, the NBA 2019-2020 season was suspended. The next day, Tom Hanks, his wife and Sophie Trudeau (the wife of Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau) all tested positive for the disease. 

That day - March 12, 2020 - was the first day I heard the term ‘flatten the curve’. I heard it while listening to a live broadcast of British Columbia’s Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry’s daily coronavirus update. She had urged British Columbians to avoid large gatherings so we could ‘flatten the curve.’ Another novel term that didn’t make much sense to me and although I now understand the message behind the term, it does little to help me understand the depth or importance of the situation we are in. It wasn’t until four days later that I found the word I had been looking for. 

Four days after announcing he had tested positive for COVID-19, Tom Hanks shared an Instagram post. In the post, the Cast Away actor attempted to encourage his 8.7 million followers by sharing a picture of some toasted bread slices covered with spreads of vegemite, accompanied by a caption that read:

“Thanks to the Helpers. Let’s take care of ourselves and each other. Hanx”

There it was. The word I needed to know. 

In Hank’s caption was one word that put the puzzle together for me. The caption references a famous quote from one of the longest-running children’s television shows, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. On the show, the host - Fred Rogers - is quoted as saying,

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, "Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

Decades later, this quote - specifically the line, “Look for the helpers.” - continues to be repeated and referenced during times of discomfort or shared crises.

Tom Hanks must have been acknowledging the helpers when he gave a nod to Rogers’ quote in his caption. By including the word ‘helpers’ in that caption, he was calling attention to the individuals around the world who have been and continue to risk their lives or provide essential services or assist the elderly or make key and life-saving decisions or share messages of hope and comfort or obey the law and stay at home to help curb the rapid spread of the diseases he had just tested positive for. 

The word ‘helpers’ is the word I was looking for. 

I am a Christian. I believe my help from God and the ultimate helper - the Holy Spirit - lives within me and gives me more peace than I can actually fathom. According to my belief, the Spirit of God in me counsels and comforts me - and for that, I am grateful. However, just as I believe there is a helper within me, I believe that there are even more helpers around me. Some are within my reach and others are far from it but, as Rogers said, I must look for them and acknowledge them. 

As you read this, there are healthcare professionals around the world who are risking their lives to care for and treat patients who have been infected with COVID-19. The majority of these professionals are working without adequate resources, information, time or physical and mental energy. They are being stressed and stretched by the influx of patients storming into their workplaces. Many retired professionals have come out of retirement and the elderly amongst them - who are highly susceptible to being infected - are knowingly putting themselves in danger. These are the helpers. 

There are community and world leaders who have been forced to make key decisions despite the fact that they can’t guarantee the outcomes. Presidents, prime ministers, premiers, governors, government officials, religious leaders, activists and heads of organizations and families who, despite being personally affected by the pandemic, must still lead and speak to and for their communities. They must listen carefully to experts, make the right calls, invoke the necessary laws, enforce orders, inspire hope in a seemingly hopeless situation, mourn the loss and sufferings of their community members and continue to do this regardless of how long the pandemic lasts. These are the helpers. 

There are employers and employees who should be at home. If they had their way, they would be with their families indoors all day and far away from scenarios that could get them infected with these diseases. However, our communities need their services. As such, they risk their lives by continuing to work at the grocery stores, deliver food and essential items to our homes, protect our communities by maintaining law and order, work in call centres for healthcare and emergency services, be first responders to emergency situations, work as caregivers for children, the elderly and individuals with disabilities, serve in organizations that support vulnerable populations, immigrants and refugees, manufacture goods and provide services necessary to keep our infrastructure and industries in good condition, and document and share information through media outlets. These (and many other essential occupations not referenced here) are the helpers. 

Yet, there you are. 

You are baffled by this crisis. It has affected your daily routine, income, wellbeing, peace of mind, plans for the future, family and fellow community members. You are not sure what the future holds for your family, career or immediate plans or what to do while you’re home or how you will fend for yourself after being laid off or what will happen if you get infected. Despite this, you listen to healthcare experts, obey the laws invoked by your government, stay at home as much as possible, practice physical distancing if you must go out, encourage people in your communities by sharing messages of hope and refocusing their attention on information that edifies them, work or live in uncomfortable conditions for long periods of time, donate to or volunteer with organizations supporting vulnerable populations, check in on family members, friends, and those in isolation, pray and virtually support those who are anxious, ill, mourning the loss of loved ones or in need, and maintain your sanity in these crazy times. You are the helper. 

No words can describe how much the world is hurting right now but I realize that I don’t need such adjectives. I need a noun that defines who we are, have always been and will be after the pandemic subsides. We are helpers and this is a call to the helpers. Humanity can’t survive without human beings and human beings can’t survive without help. The good news is that, in many ways, we are the help we need. Each and every human being is the helper we need right now. Humanity needs us to do our part. More than ever before, it needs us to unite and stay united. This is the essence of the times we are in - to remind us that we need each other. 

If you walk into an empty hollow hallway in a forgotten and mysterious building in the middle of nowhere, your eyes will capture the nothingness that surrounds you and your brain will calculate the probability of something - someone or some creature - springing out from one of the hollow ends of the hallway. However, the moment you make a sound or utter a word, an echo fills the hallway, detaches you from your anxiety and reminds you that you are, in fact, safe; thus weakening the mystery of the empty space. 

By acknowledging the word that defines us, we can weaken and demystify the mystery of this pandemic. The echoes of our daily, and sometimes seemingly small, decisions and actions can fill the void and remind us that we are not alone. We are safe because we are helpers and are surrounded by helpers.

I believe that my help comes from God and a helper lives in me. Yet, it is equally important for me to acknowledge and call on the helper that I am and the helpers that are around me. 

Helpers, help!

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Two Books Offer Unconventional and Divergent Approaches to Investing

Ric Edelman disappoints in his new investing book, left. Gary Smith offers economic formulation to assist discover fee stocks in his new e-book, “Cash Machine.” stock trades

With the stock market up notably since the first of the year, and technological innovations continuing to roil the corporate landscape, how the need to you make investments proper now?

Two new books provide very one-of-a-kind answers, with each taking an unconventional method.

Inside some distance higher one, “Cash Machine: The Exceedingly Simple Strength of price investing” (Amacom, $27.ninety five), Gary Smith, a Pomona College economics professor, says you must deal with price shares. In the evaluation, in “The Reality About Your Future: The Cash Manual You Need Now, Later and lots Later” (Simon & Schuster $26), Ric Edelman says you Need to determine out the way to capitalize on trends disrupting how business is commonly performed.online trading

Permits begin with Mr. Smith, who does a first rate process explaining his position.

“Rather than looking to expect brief-time period zigs and zags in stock expenses, price buyers evaluate character shares and the marketplace as a whole with the aid of searching out properly groups that have low inventory costs relative to their dividends, income, and belongings,” he writes.

Mr. Smith makes use of an analogy to make his case.

“Think about an inventory as a System that generates cash each few months — coins that take place to be called dividends,” he writes. “The important thing query is how a great deal you’ll pay to own that Gadget for you to get the cash. This is the inventory’s intrinsic fee. value traders purchase a stock because it is a less expensive Money System, producing bountiful cash it is hoped over a few years.”

Are Blogs Better Than Books

Do you study blogs in the niche that pursuits you? Have you ever wondered whether blogs are higher than books? read on for insights.

Blogs can be specific along side pics and hyperlinks. However, they honestly omit out on something super or the opposite. Alternatively, books are there to offer all the data which include superior subjects.

There may be no better feeling than reading an e-book and flipping through its strong pages. You get the actual contact feeling which blogs cannot offer. Looking at the PC display screen may be horrific for your eyes due to the UV rays it radiates. Notably, There is nothing higher than a good book to have in hand with all the facts, snapshots and references.

Weblog sites can trade through the years and you can lose song of them.

Whilst that is the case, books are usually reachable in your e-bookshelf.

It is good to make to be had the first 4 or 5 chapters of the e-book you’re authoring inside the form of a Weblog. Then after that supply a hyperlink on your e-book whether or not you’ve got made the selection to encompass it on a loose site or promote the e-book on Amazon. A Blog will as a substitute help to attract more readers for your e-book, be it a digital one or a tough replica. So blogs assist in promoting your books, now not update them.Christians books

Blogs are incredible in that they assist provide you statistics

Day by day or weekly in chunks and you can soak up them speedy and tirelessly. But seeing the extent of content material inner an e-book might also crush you. However, it is books that you have to examine ever considering grade 1 till likely, your better schooling. Blogs are a brand new generation However accumulating information from books and making notes will continually work.

Amazon book search

Why is a library full of books so enriching? Can blogs update some of these books? As I’ve mentioned earlier, blogs are a new generation Whilst books have been there from time immemorial. Aside from books, you’ll locate other records in the shape of newspapers, magazines, tabloids and journals at a library. Can blogs update some of these? Therefore, I go along with my preceding declaration that yes, a library full of books and records is strong, insightful and knowledgeable.amazon DVD’s

Summing up, the above reasons justify why books will continually be higher than blogs. Have you ever concept in any other case? I’m hoping this text has been able to spotlight my point of view concerning books and blogs.

Unconventional Blueprint

On a hot, humid day in Atlanta, Georgia, I had a verbal exchange with myself.

“How did I arrive at 21 years on the job and do I now have sufficient income to justify my tough paintings?” “Have to I assignment myself to pursue profits via unconventional ways?” “What factors contribute to gaining access to a couple of streams of money?” How do societal elements play acquiring other streams of income?

In line with Wikipedia, Ralph Waldo Emerson, he writes: “He says that only a man who’s self-reliant could be successful and any outdoor influences might cast off from non-public delight.”

This quote is important for me since it answers most of my questions shifting forward.

For instance, it is not about one silver bullet taking pictures into the sky, it’s about how am I able to rely on myself to make sure the outcomes for my life.

There are three factors to take into account for a success blueprint: self-reliance, personal duty, and making your personal choices.

1. Self-reliance is crucial to all a hit humans. Knowing that to get things performed

You have to rely on yourself. it’s essential to take the lead. As an instance, in case you are pursuing a university degree and the lessons have increased. The concept would be to store the money to offset the growth or borrow money for a scholar mortgage. A few would possibly argue that if I’m able to borrow from my parents, which allows me no longer collect the debt after commencement. Unluckily, self-reliance approach the character takes control without involving others.

The 2. personal obligation is the capability to be held liable for your very own actions and selections. As an example, if you have been given a vehicle and the car is overall before it’s paid off, the individual need to replace the auto. What if my credit and earnings are insufficient? Right, here again, the individual must locate a person who is willing to be a co-signer. No ensures.

3. W.I.T. – Something It Takes- This strategy is a win-win state of affairs. It method that a character will receive a task that they don’t love, simply to make ends meet. Abraham Lincoln stated, “I will put together and one day my risk will come.” This approach doesn’t require settling for whatever, it is taking at some point at a time until you reach your intention. The important thing word is “Whatever.”

The blueprint for success is a diffusion of factors, which propels us into our fulfillment.

It would not require societal approval, yet in nonetheless; it locations the person on the coronary heart of fulfillment. It doesn’t evaluate to others definition of achievement, timelines or socioeconomic reputation; it relies totally on the person. Our master teacher reminds us, 2 Peter I: 3 He has given us the entirety we want.

With all three elements, a man or woman can tap into their God speed blueprint and cultivate it until one is absolutely satisfied with the results. It’s far totally a blueprint that is given to all at delivery, that is similar to a fingerprint. It fits most effective one individual inside the world.

Investing As a Kenyan Living in the Diaspora

The populace of Kenyans dwelling inside the diaspora is expected to be at three million. This group is said to comprise of properly-knowledgeable people, dwelling mainly within the US, Canada, and Europe. But, Kenyans residing abroad are cautious in terms of making an investment their difficult earned cash returned domestic.

Kenyans in the diaspora planning to make investments returned home have heard horror stories and misgivings from other human beings who have been conned by way of agents or their very own families. If you live overseas, you need to be very wary when it comes to investing your cash.internet affiliate program

One institution this is the installation to help buyers inside the diaspora is Manyatta Capital.

Started by means of a Kenyan citizen who lived and labored within the US for extra than 10 years, this company facilitates Kenyans residing inside the diaspora buy land thru syndication. The company swimming pools together some of the overseas buyers who buy stocks into one undertaking. This venture is then subdivided and shoppers are issued with man or woman identify deeds.

The buyers can then choose to construct flats, construct their homes,

Or lease out that land – the choice is as much as them. It’s far recommended to chorus from managing spouse and children as your money may go down the drain due to many elements. As an instance, sending money to a relative who is aware of nothing approximately investing is assured to stop badly. Every time possible, lease an attorney from a distinguished company to handle your investment procedure for you. It is pleasant to spend greater on a legal professional who will ensure your funding is respectable, negotiate for you, and cope with ownership manner for you, rather than sending hundreds of greenbacks to a relative who would possibly end up getting conned themselves.legal marketing ideas