#uc theories

[silly-goofy-mood]

*stands in front of my red string board and begins furiously pointing at stuff*

Okay so

We know the party's memories were tampered with, most likely using magic.

Marian's sword is bloodied and there's blood all over the cellar.

I don't think she actually killed someone. I think somebody did it in her cellar using her sword and framed her because she wouldn't have an alibi due to the memory loss.

The reason? Probably the same as the reason everyone else got mind wiped - and honestly, probably the same reason Celia went missing: they got too close to the truth. I'm not sure why Marian would be specifically targeted in this case, since idk how much she actually knows about the Weird Magic Stuff going on in the city, but maybe she knows more than she lets on! (Or maybe i just suck at listening and Owen did in fact say how much Marian knows about stuff)

Also it is very possible that she just killed someone lol

[trivalentlinks]

Let F be a Floer homology theory. For the purposes of this talk, you can assume it's any Floer homology theory you like, and if you don't like any Floer homology theory, then pretend you do like one and assume it's that one

-- a conference speaker

[power-chords]

As soon as the discourse of the campus becomes a libidinally fraught fantasy about children to whom something might happen, we find ourselves on the theoretical terrain mapped by the Lacanian theorist Lee Edelman two decades ago in No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (2004). As I have previously argued in this magazine, in the discourse of the campus the student turns out to be a type of the Child—the organizing trope of the heterosexist ideology Edelman calls “reproductive futurism.” Reproductive futurism is, among other things, an ideology of security: the sacrosanct Child, “the telos of social order, …the one for whom that order is held in perpetual trust,” must be protected at any cost; the naturalness of heterosexuality and the gender binary must never be questioned. Katehi’s narration of the primal fantasy of the campus exhibits reproductive futurism at its most histrionic. In the imagined body of the “very young girl,” collective anxieties about the Child and about social reproduction—always raced; note, again, the specter of miscegenation hanging over the narrative—are given pornographic form.

And then thought stops abruptly: whenever there is a risk that something might happen to the Child, the time for thinking is over. It is time for action, reaction. Time to call the police. That actual UC Davis students, engaged in an act of passive resistance, were hurt as a result of this frenzy to protect the “very young girls” of UC Davis belies the phantasmatic status of the latter.

Viewed through the lens of Edelman’s argument in No Future, the fantasy of the campus appears as an allegory of the nation-state. The future of the nation itself is taken to be at stake in what happens “on campus.” Both nation and campus are supposed to be securely bounded, to keep safe the Child; in both cases, this safety proves impossible to guarantee, and this ineluctable exposure—to violence, to liability, to non-affiliates—spikes the panic. When there is “campus unrest,” panic flares because the campus is supposed to be where unrest does not happen, where the Child is safe from reality. Panic nudges both campus and nation toward ever more extreme, ever more militarized practices, aesthetics finally subordinated to terror. Borders, checkpoints. An especially shrill Columbia Business School professor has taken to demanding, on any media platform he can access, that students who chant “Free Palestine!” should be expelled and banned from the Columbia campus.

The Child must be defended. So, enemies must be banished. So, a camera must be installed. So, a wall must be built. But let it be covered in ivy!

—Samuel P. Catlin, "The Campus Does Not Exist: How campus war is made," Parapraxis Magazine. Emphasis mine.

[kerink]

dr. carlos dave robles, age 46 years, from pamona, ca. graduated with his ba in marine biology from uc santa barbara before being accepted at the university of what it is. after graduating at the university he became a professor and later achieved tenure. he took what was meant to be a brief sabbatical to test his theory about a strange town, which brought him a substantial amount of funding and a fair deal of notoriety. after a few years of inconsistent correspondence with the university a search team was sent to find him, with no luck. eventually dr. robles' position was filled and his portrait was removed from its place in the university, as he was considered not only lost but disgraced.

[sillyteecup]

The Wrong Way

Roman Reigns x black!o.c

Jey Uso x black!o.c

Chapter 3

Warnings:

18+

Strong language

Slut shaming

Taglist: @wrestlingprincess80 @nbanenefrmdao @vebner37 @theninthwonder @tshepisho @lensilver @trentybenty @empressdede @queen-shadow22 @becauseimher @jstarr86

A.N: I would like to apologize to anyone who was expecting Main event Jey Uso. No pookies, this is 2021 Jey, or as I like to call him, "crashout Jey"🤭. Anyway, a delightful bunch our characters are yes? I honestly can't wait to get them to fully interact so we can see where this shit storm is going😭😭. Anyway here's chapter 3 of The Wrong Way. I hope you like it. Enjoy.❤️

The journey to Lori's new pris-home was long and silent. The Wiseman had arranged for her and her maidens to be seated in their own section of the jet with Sami for supervision. He said it was by the order of the Tribal Chief, which was a pleasant surprise to Loreal. However she still wasn't sold on the family.

Her maidens however were elated. Although they had not directly interacted with or even seen the Bloodline outside of Sami and the Wiseman, the closeness in proximity to the family was enough to spike their excitement levels. That paired with the opportunity to fly private with their Mistress. Previously When Lori and her family traveled, Lord Byron would have the Maidens fly commercial and in separate seats. No one understood why, and when Lori would protest he would be dismissive. So naturally, their current arrangement brought them joy.

While the maidens drank cocktails and shared hushed theories of how the palace would look, Lori sat opposite Sami in silence. His jaw often twitched as though he wanted to say something to her, but he never did. While he was slightly more relaxed away from the Tribal Chief, he was still on edge. Fidgeting with his rings and shifting relentlessly in his seat. All of the sudden movement was starting to annoy Lori.

"Sir-" she began, only to be interrupted by Sami.

"Sami. Just, Sami is fine, Miss Loreal," he said nervously with his hand up.

"That doesn't seem very inappropriate," Lori pointed out with an arched eyebrow.

"Well, Sir isn't exactly my title so calling me by name is as appropriate as it gets," Sami explained with a shrug.

Lori tilted her head as a look of confusion washed upon her features. "You are part of the most powerful family in the world, and you do not have a title?" she inquired.

Sami nodded before replying, "Well yes. But also no," he said vaguely.

"I don't follow," Lori said, folding her hands over her lap.

"I am a part of the Bloodline don't get me wrong. But I wasn't born into it, therefore no title. Well, unless you take, 'Honorary Uce' into account, but otherwise no title. Just good ole' Sami," Sami rambled, finishing his explanation with a nervous chuckle.

"Ah, I see. Honorary Uce Sami is quite the mouthful, but so is Miss Loreal. So you will call me Lori," Lori said jokingly to try and ease Sami's nerves.

"Lori," he sounded out slowly, as if testing it on his tongue. "I could work with that. Just not around the Tribal Chief," he added, his anxiety seeming to spike at the thought of Tribal Chief Roman.

"I'm sure he would not mind. At least until after the wedding," Lori shrugged, but Sami shook his head.

"Oh he would. He's very big on the title thing. Says it has to do with showing respect and humility," Sami explained.

"I don't think he'd care too much about showing me respect, I am after all an outsider. On top of that I am damaged. No one respects a damaged woman. They only seek to humble her," Lori said dryly, earning a soft small from Sami.

"I respect you, Lori," Sami said softly.

Lori's eyes softened. "Sami, while I appreciate the sentiment, you do not know me. You have no reason to respect me."

"Actually, I do have a reason. A couple actually," Sami stated, confidence slowly oozing into his tone making Lori smirk playfully.

"And praytell Sami, what are they?" she asked him.

Lori's smile grew at Sami's grin. His posture had slowly started to relax throught their conversation, and judging form his demeanor, he seemed very friendly. A stark difference from the family that took him in.

"Well, you're head strong, you're confident and you're kind. Well, at least kind to me and your maidens," Sami listed, counting his points with his fingers.

In a weird way, Sami reminded Lori of her mother. Although Azalea and her daughter hardly spoke, whenever they did, Lady Azalea always made sure to encourage and reassure Loreal. Lady Azalea would tell her that she was beautiful, intelligent, confident and kind. She would also remind Loreal not to let anyone take advantage of her kindness. Thus, her hot headed nature and occasionally cold demeanor.

"Thank you Sami. It might not mean much, but you have my respect as well," Lori replied softly.

She could've sworn she had just seen a tear roll down her new asset's eye.   

➽──────────────❥

Roman exited the jet, followed by his cousins. His hands rubbed at his temples as a headache had begun to set in from Jey's incessant complaining, paired with Jimmy's snarky rebuttals. He already tried his hardest to limit his time with the twins due to the constant bickering, always preferring Solo's quiet company above them. But if there was one thing he loathed, it was traveling with the twins because that meant he had to listen to every grating word.

Alas, however, the trip was over and he could finally get rid of them.

"It just feels so fucking disrespectful, you know? Of all the bitches yall could've picked, it had to be the one that's been around every street across the seas! I'm a prince man! I deserve better!" Jey complained for what was probably the 90th time since they had left the Moore house.

Roman had taken it with silence as he, to some extent understood his cousin's frustration. He knew that Jey felt undermined by the choice for his fiancé, and that he felt like a second-class citizen. However, Roman was not the one who chose Miss Loreal Moore, Rikishi, Jey's father was. And the last thing Roman wanted to do was involve himself in the affairs of a father and his son. Even if it was simply a power move.

Also, aside from her unfortunate status, Miss Loreal Moore was actually a good pick. Lord Byron held quite a lot of political influence across the seas and according to the file Lord Byron had sent to Paul, she was highly intelligent, she had a leadership streak, and she was incredibly ambitious. All of that was enough of a sell as it was, but it was at the meeting where she truly caught Roman's attention. Her defiance, to Roman, was a sign of strength.

Roman liked strong women.

Miss Loreal Moore was not a pushover, and that was a quality that she would need most in being part of and dealing with his family.

However, most of all, she was astoundingly beautiful.

Roman had hardly found himself in positions where he was taken by a woman's appearance. Apart from Nadine, he barely even noticed the women around him, but Loreal was a different story. Her piercing brown eyes, her glossy, plump, two-toned lips, her the stud on the left side of her wide nose and her deep, brown skin that seemed to glimmer in any atmosphere. That, paired with her breathtakingly curvy figure made it a mission for Roman not to stare at Miss Loreal Moore throught the meeting.

Miss Loreal Moore was going to be his cousin's wife in about a month. His thoughts on her looks were then thrown to the back his mind. They did not matter.

"I know you not talking, Mr 'I fuck every bitch that breathes in my direction'," Jimmy commented from his brother's side.

"Man, this is not the fucking time to be joking and shit! This is my fucking life we're talking about and I'm supposed to spend the rest of it with a ho?" Jey hissed, making Roman's temper flare up.

Clearly Jey was struggling to understand that this wasn't about him anymore. That this was a sacrifice he had to make for the family to prosper and maintain their power. Roman only hoped that Jey wouldn't fuck the engagement up, otherwise he would have to punish his cousin, and the last thing he ever wanted to do was hurt the man he considered his right hand man.

Jimmy waved him off before saying, "Man I don't see no difference. You a ho, she a ho-hell yall are perfect for each other if you ask me," Jimmy snickered.

"Well then it's a good thing nobody fucking asked you."

"Enough!" Roman grunted, immediately shutting his cousins up. He could've sworn he saw Solo's lips twitch into a grateful smile. But it was gone as soon as it appeared. Jimmy pressed his lips together in a thin line while Jey downright scowled. Roman sensed that his cousin had long passed the stage of dissatisfaction. He was angry, but he knew not to direct it at the wrong person.

"I understand. I understand that you don't like the fact that you're marrying a damaged woman. But you had your opportunity to choose a good woman for yourself," Roman started as he began to get in Jey's face.

"You had the chance to get you a fresh one, but you fucked up by deciding to fuck around with every whore that smiled at you. So if you wanna complain about the quality of woman your father found you, take that shit up with him, but never forget the chance you had to prevent that shit," Roman stated as he poked Jey in the chest to emphasize his point.

He then leaned in to whisper in his cousin's ear, "It's not about you anymore Uce. Get that through your thick fucking skull! This is about our family! This is about what's best for all of us," his tone was menacing as he reminded his cousin of the situation.

He stepped back to see Jey still scowling, but nodding in understanding. That was good. All Roman needed was for him to understand.

"You can still do your shit on the side, I'm sure she won't give a fuck anyway," Roman suggested. His short encounter with Miss Loreal Moore, although short, showed him that the regard she would show for his cousin was low.

As much as Jey knew about her reputation, Roman theorized she likely did not care in the slightest as she barely wanted to marry him in the first place. The only thing Roman worried about was her willingness to actually be a part of his family. That was a huge factor to take into consideration. One Roman would do everything in his power to sway in his favour.

"Yo Uce, your ho may be a ho, but she a mighty fine ho for sure," Jimmy said with a snicker.

Roman's eyes snapped to the open jet that had just landed. There she was, gracefully making her way down the stairs, wearing what seemed like her usual, disinterested, yet mildly irritated expression. Right behind her were her four servants, or maidens as her father had called them. The young women, each with eager smiles on their faces made their way down with their mistress's luggage and their own. Finally Sami stepped out holding another one of her bags. A gesture she rewarded with a kind smile that shocked Roman.

And angered him.

Roman watched in an unexplainable annoyance as Miss Loreal Moore conversated with Sami as she and her travel party made their way to him and his cousins. While the sight of her laughing at his jokes seemed to piss him off, the sound of her laughter did something to him. Something akin to casting an enchantment. However, it was washed away as soon as it was chanted. This was not the time.

"Miss Loreal Moore, I should hope that your flight was comfortable," Paul said as she approached.

Her happy expression quickly turned neutral, as if she had just remembered her situation all over again.

"It was. Thank you," she said curtly, her now scrutinizing gaze cutting through Roman's family and Paul in one clean swoop.

Paul, as though he had felt the slits of her irises like a blade to his skin, cleared his throat nervously before speaking again. "Well then, I'm sure the long journey has left you and your maidens in need of some rest. Tomorrow will be quite the long day," Paul said with a nervous chuckle.

Miss Loreal Moore's features never wavered from the stony expression she wore. Roman could feel her sizing him and his cousins up. He almost smirked at how shamelessly she glared.

"I agree Wiseman. But I must ask, will my fiancé be accompanying me to the palace?" she questioned, finally shifting her gaze to him. The bitterness in her tone was subtle, but still noticeable to Roman's ear.

Paul looked taken aback, not expecting her question as she seemed to not want any part in their marriage. Then it clicked in Roman's mind, she didn't know that Jey wouldn't be staying at the palace during their engagement. He then shot a glare to Sami who he had told to clue her in on what would happen next. Sami shrunk beneath the sharp glare.

"Oh, Miss Loreal, that's not-traditional we don't-" Paul began to sputter, being cut off by Roman's low tone, but gentle.

"Is that what you want, Miss Loreal?" Roman asked, attempting to gauge her reasoning.

She shrugged in response, saying, "Well we are to be married. It would only make sense for us to acquaint ourselves with one another."

Roman nodded then flashed a charming smile. "Then that's gonna happen," he said.

The moment Paul and the women were out of ear shot, Roman's gaze morphed into a deadly glare. "If you fuck this up, there will be some very dire consequences," he warned in a cold, low tone.

"Wiseman, please lead Miss Loreal Moore and her ladies to the car. Jey will catch up in a second," Roman requested, turning to face an irritated Jey.

Jey nodded silently, prompting Roman to release him. Jey ran to catch up with Paul and the ladies, while Roman turned around and headed to his own car followed by Sami and his remaining cousins. He contemplated having a little 'talk' with Sami, but decided against it.

If Miss Loreal Moore trusted Sami, then Roman would use that to gain her trust as well.

[fluentmoviequoter]

Rich for a Night

Requested Here!

Pairing: David 'Deacon' Kay x fem!detective!reader

Summary: To catch a thief targeting wealthy couples, you go undercover with your husband Deacon.

Warnings: fluff, Deacon & r are held at gunpoint, a Bugatti gets wrecked :(

Word Count: 2.5k+ words

Picture from Pinterest (1x19 "Source")

Masterlist Directory | Deacon Kay Masterlist | Request Info/Fandom List

“It doesn’t make any sense,” you lament. “The robberies always occur after big events, dinners, charity galas, but there’s no other connection.”

“Catering company?” your desk neighbor suggests.

“Different for every event. No one worker has been at every event. Planners have alibis, there’s no similarity in looks or where victims live, even banks. The only lead we have is wealthy couples getting robbed, sometimes at gunpoint, after an event.”

You drop your head into your hands as you reconsider the entire case. You’ve looked through every guest list, and everyone has alibied out, even though only a few couples overlapped and attended every event. They got robbed, too, as it turns out. The first two robberies had a connection: they both banked at the same place, but after that, the connection disappeared.

“It has to be someone near the events,” you murmur. “Maybe it’s someone who has access to Los Angeles socialite calendars and is just hanging around the events and picking people at random.”

Your phone rings, and you sigh before you answer, “Detective Kay.”

“Detective, there’s been a murder,” the caller says.

“Let me get you someone in homicide.”

“No, this is related to your burglary case. Or at least that’s what the homicide detective thinks. It looks like a robbery gone wrong.”

“What’s the address?” you ask as you pick up your cell phone and keys. “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

On the drive into the hills, you add this new twist to your thoughts on the case. You agree that this location, the schedule, and everything about the setting of the crime match your investigation. The murder is either a progression or a mistake. Maybe the burglar was interrupted, or the victim tried to stop him. Before you can create too many theories, you arrive at the scene and flash your badge to enter the house.

“What have we got?” you ask the homicide detective surveying the scene.

“Forensics is going over everything now, but it doesn’t look like anything was taken. Single gunshot to the chest was our cause of death.”

“Nothing was taken?” you repeat. “Then why do you think this is related to the thefts?”

“Because of that,” he answers, squatting as he points under the makeup vanity. “A bag filled with jewelry pushed just out of reach. Almost like a dying woman was trying to protect herself and her home.”

“What else did you find?”

“Not much. Seems like this happened pretty quickly. Alarm was disabled at eleven-oh-five p.m.”

“After the murder mystery theater on the yacht,” you add. “Date night gold for the rich.”

“Hence, why we think this is your case, not ours. They’ll try to recover the bullet during the autopsy and run ballistics.”

“Until then, it’s mine to decipher. Thanks, detective.”

“Could I make one suggestion?” he inquires as he removes his gloves. You nod, and he says, “This seems like the perfect opportunity for a UC. Even if you don’t come face-to-face with the burglar, you get to know a bit more about the victims.”

“Even more if you go undercover yourself,” your partner adds as she walks into the house. “Progression or accident?” she asks, pointing to the victim.

“I can’t go undercover,” you argue.

“Why not? You get to play dress up. Plus, you’ve got a tactically trained and incredibly attractive husband you could take with you. No one would question your right to be there with Deac’s old money vibe and your, well, everything.”

You look around the scene, a luxury environment as an outward acknowledgement of all the victim worked for, or as it may be, didn’t work for, and decide it truly is your best option.

“I need a Rolex.”

Browsing the rows of the evidence locker with a small box in your hand, you wonder why so many rich people get arrested. So far, you’ve gathered a Rolex Daytona worth at least $100,000 and three pairs of sunglasses from Cartier, Ray Ban, and Dolce and Gabbana.

“Perfect,” you whisper as you find an envelope with a Tiffany ring and a pure obsidian band.

With these accessories and the dresses your contact who works with the UC division is procuring for you, you do not doubt that you will fit in. You still need a car, but you know just the people to ask about that.

“I need to check these out, Ally,” you request as you slide the evidence onto a desk. “For case 9212024.”

“No problem,” she answers as she begins logging case numbers and photos into her computer. “Who’s the ring for?”

“My husband.”

“I pity the criminals you’re after.”

“At least they’ll get a nice view while we put the cuffs on.”

“What are you doing here?” Rocker asks as you enter SWAT HQ.

“Lovely to see you too, Donovan,” you reply with a smile. “Do you greet your wife like that?”

Rocker shrugs and hugs you quickly before he directs you to where 20 Squad is reviewing warrants.

“Sergeant Kay,” you call as you enter.

“Oh, hi!” Street greets.

“This is a surprise,” Deacon says as he moves around Street to hug you.

“I have something for you,” you begin. You pull the obsidian ring from your pocket and lift the Cartier aviators from your side. “A proposal.”

“Is this a married couple thing or am I just confused?” Street whispers.

“You don’t want me to answer that, playboy,” Luca replies, slapping his back.

“Why?” Deacon questions, smiling even as he narrows his eyes at you.

“It’s just a date,” you promise.

“To do what?”

“I’m still working the string of burglaries targeting rich couples. We’ve got tiny leads that add to enough of a clue that I want to go undercover at the next big event to try to find something. I have to work faster because a woman was killed during a robbery last night.”

“Why not take someone more familiar with the case?”

“Do it, Deac,” Street whispers. “Just for the watch.”

“What watch?” Deacon asks.

You lift your hand to show the Rolex Daytona hanging loosely around your wrist. “There’s a look to people like this. I’ve got everything except a date right now, and you’re the best option for more reasons than I can list, Deac. If you can’t, I get it.”

“No, I want to,” he states, taking the sunglasses from your hand and sliding them onto his face. “Let’s catch a burglar.”

“Oh, that’s just not fair,” Street complains.

“Street,” you call. “I need something from you and Luca too.”

“Alright,” you announce after you secure your earrings. “We just moved here from New York, have our accounts set up, moved into a newly renovated house in the hills and are scoping out the local charities because we’re budding philanthropists.”

“And luring a thief,” Deacon adds as he gently tugs the strap of your dress to straighten your neckline.

“Mostly that.”

“I’m following your lead tonight, detective.”

“I like the sound of that.”

“Your ride is here,” Street says on the other side of your door. “And you’re welcome, but don’t get used to it. Luca and I may be brilliant, but we’re not get a free Bugatti loaner every week brilliant.”

“I never said it had to be a Bugatti,” you whisper to Deacon.

“I can hear you, ya know,” Street calls. “You are wearing a wire. So, keep it PG, Deac.”

Deacon smiles as he leans toward the tiny microphone hidden in the seam of your dress strap and answers, “10-4, good buddy.”

Street groans, and you gently push Deacon’s shoulders to straighten his tie. He looks good, though you expected no less.

“Let’s be rich for a night.”

“Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Napier,” the chauffeur greets as he opens your door. “Beautiful car. It's number 17,” he adds as he hands Deacon the card to pick up the car after the event. “Enjoy your evening.”

“Thank you,” Deacon answers, nodding as he shakes the man’s hand and passes a $50.

You wait on the curb as Deacon rounds the back of the Bugatti and wraps his arm around your waist.

“If he scratches that car, Street will kill me,” you say through your smile.

“Good thing it’s not Street’s car,” Deacon replies. “Let’s go, Mrs. Napier.”

You smile while you loop your arm around Deacon’s bicep and follow him into the concert hall. Innumerable couples are finding their seats and milling around the open area of the hall as they discuss charities, recent events, and bank account balances. With Deacon, you have no concern about looking out of place, and your confidence is assured when three different women look over at him. One of which looks away from her husband to do so.

“Good evening,” a woman greets, smiling as she approaches you. “My name is Andrea Campbell and I’m hosting this evening’s event. Forgive me if I’m mistaken, but I don’t recall meeting you.”

“No, ma’am, you haven’t,” Deacon says, carefully extracting his arm from your hold as he offers to shake her hand. “I’m Dan Napier and this is my wife. We just moved here from upstate New York and wanted to see the charities of Los Angeles.”

“Oh, how wonderful! Mrs. Napier, I am an advocate for women in philanthropy, so if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me. I truly hope you enjoy this evening’s show and the presentation.”

“Thank you,” you offer before Andrea is called away. Once she’s out of earshot, you stifle a laugh and whisper, “I’m surprised she even saw me.”

“Mrs. Napier, is it?” a man asks, allowing as he pauses directly at your side, out of Deacon’s reach. “My associate Andrea mentioned that you were here. I believe you recently opened an account at my branch of United Banks. Hopefully you can spare some time soon so I can show you around LA.”

He walks away before you or Deacon can speak, and you’re left to watch him and wonder why he chose to acknowledge you.

“Think he’s a suspect?” Deacon murmurs into your ear as you turn toward him.

“No,” you answer, moving your professionally styled hair as you shake your head. “Just a man with a roving eye. We have no evidence that our guy goes after women any more than men.”

“But he killed the woman last night.”

“The husband called it in, though. He was in the house when it happened. Said they were both tied up and she managed to get free and went into the bedroom to confront the thief. He’s scared, he doesn’t like being watched. Nothing like that guy.”

Deacon nods and pulls you close, smiling before he kisses you quickly. You slide your hand into his and follow him to your seat.

During the concert, nothing of note occurs. Even after it ends, you’re welcomed to Los Angeles by several couples, but no one sticks out as a possible suspect. So, disappointed and back at square one, you exit the concert hall and stand at Deacon’s side as he asks the chauffeur to fetch the car.

Just as the Bugatti pulls up, the man who parked your loaner car moves behind Deacon and presses a gun against the small of his back.

“Get in the car, Mr. Napier. I’d hate to shoot through your wife’s pretty dress,” he demands quietly. “Now.”

Deacon moves his hands slightly to show the man that he’s unarmed and mumbles, “Okay, okay.”

“In the car, Mrs. Napier,” he demands, jerking his head toward the passenger door.

You nod quickly, wearing faux fear on your face as you get in the front seat. Deacon sits in the driver’s seat beside you as the armed man slides in behind him.

“Nice car,” he applauds. “Now drive to your house. Either one of you moves for a phone… if you even adjust the air vent, I will shoot you both.”

You don’t think he will, not somewhere as noticeable and closed-in as the car, but you nod and pretend to swallow a sob as Deacon pulls the Bugatti out of the short driveway.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” the man begins as Hondo speaks into your earpiece to alert you that he’s behind you in an unmarked car. “We’re going to go into your house, you’re going to turn off the alarm and get out of my way, and I’m going to take whatever I want. Understood?”

“You don’t have to do this,” Deacon replies.

The man presses the gun against your temple and yells, “Understood?!”

“Yes,” Deacon answers quickly, tightening his grip on the steering wheel, his knuckles white as his hands remain firmly at 10 and 2. “Understood.”

“I trust you, Dan,” you whisper as his left hand shifts slightly. “And everything you’d want people to do.”

“Shut up!” the man demands, lowering his gun slightly as he looks between you and Deacon.

“I trust you, Daniel,” you repeat softly, hoping your wire picks it up.

“I hope you don’t regret that,” Hondo answers in your ear. “Turn one light too early if you mean it, Deac.”

Deacon’s jaw clenches as he approaches the last light before your turn.

“This way is faster,” he tells the thief as he hits the blinker but doesn’t move.

Hondo’s engine revs as he increases his speed, steering his car to the right to perform a PIT manoeuvre.  When his front bumper collides with the side of the Bugatti, Deacon releases the wheel and turns toward you. He grabs the man’s forearm and hits it against the passenger seat as you retrieve your service weapon from your ankle holster. The car slides to a stop against the curb, and the man drops his gun, then begins crying as you level your aim at him.

“You’re under arrest,” you tell him, panting as you try to catch your breath and lower your heart rate.

“Who are you?” the man whimpers as Deacon holds his arm between the front seats.

“Detective Kay, LAPD,” you answer. “This is Sergeant Kay. And the man about to pull you out onto the pavement is Sergeant Hondo. LAPD SWAT.”

“Wait,” he interrupts, sniffling. “You’re actually married?”

Hondo rips the door open before you can answer and grabs the back of the man’s shirt collar to haul him out of the car. He looks through the open back door to check on you and Deacon, then clicks his tongue.

“Luca and Street are not going to be happy.”

You tip your head back against the headrest and groan.

“Congratulations, Detective Kay,” Deacon says.

He smiles as you turn in the seat to face him.

“I love you,” you tell him softly. “Even more without the expensive jewelry.”

“But I look good in the sunglasses, right?”

You laugh and nod but point out, “We didn’t need them for a concert at night, though.”

Deacon laughs with you, and as the approaching police lights reflect around you, you know your life is richer with Deacon than with any material belongings you could ever borrow or earn.

[gremoria411]

Zeon Remnants: Why so many?

*Spoilers for most of the Universal Century Below*

So a common criticism of Universal Century I see is that it’s essentially all Zeon Remnants, all the time. That it every antagonist to the Earth Federation is either a Zeon remnant or related to such and it makes the universal century feel smaller.

That is 100% a valid criticism.

However, it’s not something I particularly notice as a problem, so I figured I’d make a post delving into my reasons why. I’ll be talking about each of the “main” Zeon groups (The Principality of Zeon, The Delaz Fleet, Axis Zeon, Char’s Neo Zeon and The Sleeves) and I’ll talk about why Zeon are so frequently the antagonist. Alright, enough preamble, let’s get on with it.

Why don’t I have a problem with Zeon always showing up, all the time?

Because I usually consider each Zeon group its own thing. Like, yeah the aesthetics and some mobile suits tend to match up but they typically have…. If not different goals, then different cultures. It’s not just the same thing all the time.

I’ll be dividing them by roughly four factors:

Motivations - *Why* are they fighting, how unified are they?

Size - big force or little force, since it affects how they fight.

Newtypes - Oh hey, it’s just possibly one of their more important contributions to the setting in general. Kinda important. Focusing more on how they’re used and how they’re seen.

Mechanics - Mobile suits and overall tech level for the time.

The Principality of Zeon

First up, the good ol’ Principality of Zeon. The P of Z, if you will. Founded by Degwin Sodo Zabi in the aftermath of Zeon Zum Deikun’s death in U.C. 0068. Rapid Militarisation of Side 3 (Munzo), the colonies composing Zeon followed, with what would become the One Year War being declared in UC 0079. It’s sometimes known as “The Duchy of Zion” in older translations.

It’s a little unclear *why* war was declared, but the official line and the view of the average citizen would be that it was a war of Independence from the Earth Federation. Zeon Zum Deikun (who Zeon was named after) was the father of Contolism, a philosophy that combines two major elements:

Elseim - The Earth is Sacred, and must be protected (The Earth is Humanity’s Cradle, but man cannot live in the cradle forever-type stuff, with a big focus on environmentalism).

Sideism - All Space Colonies should be independent from the Earth Federation (This is where all the “Those whose souls are still bound by gravity”-type stuff comes from).

And nestled riiight in the middle of those two is the Newtype Theory, which postulates that ascending into space is the next stage of mankind’s evolution, giving rise to a “new type” of individual, with the ability to communicate over great distances and divides.

Due to Class divides and economic disparity between the Earth Federation “elite” and the Space Colonists (particularly those in Side 3), Contolism was massively popular, with Zeon Zum Deikun being raised to leader of Side 3. However, he died suddenly and (apparently) appointed Degwin Zabi as his successor. Degwin would instigate a purge of Zeon’s most loyal followers, and place his children in high ranking political positions, ruling the Principality of Zeon as absolute dictator. It’s unclear if Degwin declared war as the logical conclusion of the Contolism Philosophy to wrest Earth from the Federation, if he viewed it as a way to secure greater power or if he genuinely wanted to rule the entire earth sphere.

What I’m getting at here is that your average Zeon soldier believes he is fighting for the Independence of the Space Colonies and the safeguarding of Earth against the Federation Elites who seek to exploit it. The higher command however, is incredibly fractious, since each one is operating under a different member of the Zabi Family, and so there tends to be a lot of friction. Even if Zeon had won the OYW, it’s likely it would’ve had to deal with a Civil War at some point or another (dependant on which members of the Zabi family survived).

Zeon is also notable in that it’s the single largest organisation here, and since mobile suit combat was relatively new, it fought with a lot more variety than any of its successors, such as tanks and mobile armours. It also had the advantage of, with the notable exception of the RX-78 and its derivatives, being far better off than the Earth Federation technologically, possessing advanced mobile suits and actual Newtype research (important note; With one singular exception, it is never suggested that Zeon’s Newtype laboratories are anything less than above-board. Are they under immense pressure to succeed? Absolutely. But crucially, they aren’t inhuman). It had a large variety of mobile suits - usually a few good “workhorse” units (Zaku’s and Dom’s) with a bunch of oddities on the side (like Gyan’s and Zakarello’s).

Lastly, the One Year War itself. This is a point I’ll be coming back to frequently throughout this, but; The Federation possessed a major population and material advantage over the Principality of Zeon for the entire war, and was able to deploy a staggering amount of enlisted soldiers into the war. Zeon possessed the advantage of mobile suits early on, but they were also forced to mobilise a great many soldiers. Both Sides of the One Year War lost half of their respective populations in the early stages of the war (The One Week Battle) and Side 4 Moore was utterly devastated. What I’m getting at is that there would be an awful lot of individuals with millitary training and/or technological know-how running around after the war, as occurred in the real-world World War II and Cold War (strictly speaking I’m looking at them being an easy source of millitary experience in genre fiction, but you get the idea). So you have a lot of Ex-Soldiers and remaining military equipment hanging around, and a lot of people with “legitimate grievances” to hate the other side (Warcrimes on both sides, The Earth Federation essentially doesn’t change, Zeon Remnants remain an active problem with several becoming pirates and there’s a lot of Federation “mop-up” teams going around, the precursors to the Titans).

So, The Principality of Zeon in a nutshell; Principled reasoning (i.e. Contolism), massive force, Newtypes rare and incredibly valued (since they’re essentially a living reminder of why they’re fighting and a massive force multiplier), mobile suits essentially brand new and largely experimental.

The Delaz Fleet (and Zeon Remnants in general)

The Delaz Fleet was formally created in U.C. 0081, being primarily composed of former Gihren Zabi Loyalists from the Principality of Zeon, led by Aigulle Delaz (above, left). They were most famous for Operation Stardust in U.C. 0083. I’m also going to be discussing Zeon Remnant groups in general here, since the Delaz Fleet is essentially just a very large and successful Zeon remnant group. Delaz’ goal is relatively simple - vengeance. Delaz wishes to deal a hefty blow to the federation, largely to avenge the Principality’s loss at a Baoa Qu, with much of his forces feeling similarly (note: it’s possible that, had their been less withdrawals of Gihren Faction Loyalists like Delaz, A Baoa Qu may have gone differently). The forces under his command is relatively small, to the point where he is forced to seek aid from both the Axis Advance Fleet (though this is largely in materials and recovery) and the Cima Fleet, which costs him dearly.

Delaz specifically embellishes the “cause” of Zeon, focusing less on the Principality’s totally necessary warcrimes and more on Zeon’s fight for Independence against the Earth Federation. This is relevant because Delaz reaches a wide audience, espousing his own Zeonic ideals, largely divorced from the original Contolism basis. He also blames the weakened political leadership of the time (read: that nasty Kycilia murdering his precious Gihren Zabi). Delaz is specifically the most successful of the Zeon remnants in his era, directly to the space colonies detriment, since his actions directly lead to the founding of the Titans, who brutally crack down on the Colonies.

Equipment-wise, Zeon remnant groups are a varied bunch, but typically fight using older or ad-hoc equipment - The Delaz Fleet primarily utilises upgraded machines from the One Year War - Zaku FII’s, Rick Dom’s and, most notably, Dra-C’s - mobile suits cobbled together from spare Zaku and Gattle fighter-bomber parts. Any other materials they use are either stolen from the Earth Federation or are acquired through other means.

Newtypes are kinda weird here, since there just aren’t any in 0083, and the general theme with Newtypes in other remnant groups around this time is typically that they’re either propaganda or just not very good. It’s possible that the Newtype philosophy was largely dormant for a while immediately following Zeon’s defeat - either viewed as propaganda or directly suppressed by the Earth Federation themselves (like Amuro). The Newtype philosophy likely experienced as resurgence with the emergence of the Titans, since it would have been a rallying cry for spacenoid independence once more. As such, Newtypes just aren’t a big thing in Zeon remnant groups around this era, at least as near as I can tell (Delaz is the only animated force we see, and I try not to rely too much on manga, at least for Universal Century).

So, Delaz Fleet (and immediate postwar Zeon remnants) in a nutshell; Varied Motivations (though typically vengeance or survival), Small Guerilla Force, Newtypes near non-existent, mobile suits either OYW cast-offs or stolen.

Axis Zeon

Which I admit I’m using because it’s more easily distinguished than Neo Zeon, Neo Zeon and Neo Zeon. Anyway, Axis Zeon is made up of the various Zeon remnants that fled to the Asteroid Axis after the One Year War, this includes several pilots, scientists and engineers, which ensures that Axis enjoys a massive technological edge for most of its existence. Axis, in contrast to Zeons prior, is primarily concerned with “The Restoration of the Zabi Family” since one of the people that ended up there is Mineva Zabi, daughter of Dozle and the Zabi family’s only living heir. Except Glemy maybe.

Since Mineva was of the Zabi family lineage, of course she’d want to resume their conquest of the Earth Sphere, and so Axis was reconstructed into a fortress for her to rule when she came of age, with a regent being appointed to rule in her stead, which eventually fell to Haman Karn. Haman was essentially able to use Mineva as a figurehead in order to mount an invasion of Earth, and struck at the end of the Gryps War, when both the Titans and AEUG were reeling from that conflict. It’s also notable that a lot of the Axis members we see are very young, so were raised on “The Glories of Zeon” without actually seeing the realities of the One Year War with their own eyes.

Neo Zeon also was able to develop and field newtype weaponry, with newtypes being a potent threat against the AEUG. However, they still weren’t common, and so Cyber Newtypes were fielded. In contrast to “true newtypes” who have naturally awakened to their powers, cyber-newtypes are those with Newtype potential who have been forcibly conditioned with drugs and implants in order to function for combat. Though deadly threats, they are very unstable. You may notice that this seems anathema to the Contolism Philosophy espoused by Zeon Zum Deikun, and is incredibly dehumanising to boot, signifying that Axis is barely even paying lip service to its ideals of spacenoid independence. Axis Zeon is also notable for utilising clones to supplement its Newtype forces, which…. I don’t think is strictly counter to Contolism? But it feels like it’s against it in spirit, if not in letter.

It’s especially notable that a great many members of Axis Zeon espouse things like “For the Glory of Neo Zeon” and “For the Restoration of the Zabi Family” without really understanding what they mean. It’s also notable that, barring links with surviving Zeon Remnant groups, Axis isn’t noted as being very popular with the colonial population, likely because they don’t really understand what the “Ideals of Zeon” mean, and the civilians recognise them as merely parroting Zabi rhetoric.

Axis Zeon would eventually be undone by a Civil War within the organisation led by Glemy Toto, coupled with the AEUG’s offensives. Unlike the political manoeuvring of the One Year War, the Glemy Faction coup occurs very suddenly and results in massive casualties in the organisation due to his command of the Newtype corps.

Technologically, Axis is absolutely cutting-edge. They really don’t cheap out on mobile suit development and are able to design and field a variety of units comparable to the Principality in its heyday. Axis forces are essentially the best-armed Zeon will ever be, helped massively by the sheer amount of Newtype weaponry they can deploy (they have three mainline mobile suits in the Neo Zeon War, all three seeing good amounts of production at various stages and they’re typically first pick for Zeon Remnant Groups in the U.C. 0090’s). They also have the facilities for Newtype cloning, as mentioned above.

Axis Zeon in a nutshell; Hollow Motivations (Restoration of the Zabi Family and Conquest of the Earth Sphere), large force, newtypes and cyber-newtypes prevalent, mobile suits many, varied and cutting-edge.

(I haven’t quite finished all of ZZ, so forgive me if this one’s a bit rough)

Char’s Neo Zeon/Newborn Neo Zeon

Sometimes also known as Char’s Rebellion. It was basically founded in order to accelerate space migration….. by plunging the Earth into nuclear winter and making it near-uninhabitable. Founded by our good buddy Char Aznable in U.C. 0093, there’s less to go on for this particular iteration of Zeon, basically just a movie and supplemental information. It is composed of various Zeon remnants and political factions under Char Aznable with the express purpose of instigating the Axis Drop in order to make the earth uninhabitable and stop humanity from damaging it. Which is a terrible plan, barely paying lip service to the Contolist ideals Zeon was founded upon.

That’s because it’s a lie.

Char is in fact mounting a suicide run on the entire Earth. Creating a threat so massive that Amuro will be forced to kill him to stop it. Which is rather informative. Char is essentially using his influence to hold the entire operation together, and it’s notable that a good chunk of his own forces actively move to counter his goal when the option presents itself. Consequently, there isn’t much in the way of ideals on display here - Char is famous both for being the son of Zeon Zum Deikun and for his Dakar Address when he was a member of the AEUG. It kinda seems like a lot of his support is coming from people who know him from that, as opposed to what he’s actually doing. Newborn Neo Zeon is basically headlined and held together by Char, and has the vibe of a desperate last gasp for Zeon. It’s also notable that the only time we see Char actually lead Zeon is when he’s using its name for his own ends.

Newborn Neo Zeon also has a great more political pull than many of the other groups - Char Succeeds in a lot of his goals because he’s essentially able to play the Earth Federation like a fiddle, while remnant groups happily provide him aid. Technologically he has the backing of both Anaheim and Newtype Labs. Char’s mobile suits are, while not cutting-edge as such, very well rounded. The Geara Doga and Jagd Doga both share components and a general body structure, and the only reason the Sazabi is unique is because they couldn’t make the frame suit Char’s abilities (there’s a bunch of prototype units that pave the way to the Sazabi). Newborn Neo Zeon also retains a number of Axis Zeon Remnants, which bring their mobile suits and technical skill as well. Newtypes, while not exactly common, are considerably more stable than their Axis predecessors, and are given Jagd Doga’s, which are probably the closest a Newtype machine has ever come to reliability and ease of use. There’s also the Alpha Azieru…. which is also there (I don’t really have a lot to say on it honestly, it’s just kind of another “big newtype weapon”). Unfortunately, I really don’t have much to go on here regarding how the force views its newtypes - they’re essentially just treated as a special branch of the forces, no contolist ethics here, which is genuinely pretty sad. Because it illustrates just how far Char’s fallen from the ideals he espoused at the end of Zeta, especially considering he’s the son of Zeon Zum Deikun.

Char’s Neo Zeon in a nutshell: Motivations lean Char-centric, middling force with a lot of soft power, Newtypes present and mostly stable, small mobile suit variety but what’s there is very good.

(The Geara Doga’s one of my favourite grunt suits, so I’m probably quite biased here)

The Sleeves

Last of the “main” Neo Zeon Organisations. The Sleeves is a melting pot of every Zeon remnant group going. Founded around U.C. 0096, they were led by the man called Full Frontal, known as the “ghost of char”. Due to their disparate status, they aren’t recognised as a legitimate organisation by the Federstion, instead being branded a terrorist group - which they essentially are, being an aggregation of a bunch of other informal Zeon remnant groups. This mixed nature leads to a similar diversity in views and equipment - you have die-hard contolists, Glemy faction remnants, newborn Neo Zeon cast-offs and everything in-between.

They are essentially a return to form for Zeon Remnant groups, but are able effectively leverage their limited assets to fight quite effectively, though again, they’re heavily reliant on soft power, such as their relationship with Anaheim and political connections. They don’t have the forces to steamroll through the Earth Federation, so they’re forced to adopt an almost cell-based approach (at least that’s my read on Full Frontal and Suberoa Zinnerman’s relationship). It’s an odd mix of the realities of a Guerilla war against the federation and hearkening back to Neo-Zeon groups past (who were themselves hearkening back to the days of the old Principality). I should also note that The Sleeves maintain links with several other Zeon Remnant groups, such as some of the forces that attack Torrington in Unicorn. This is interesting not just because it shows a greater deal of collaboration between these groups than seen prior (Delaz and Cima were not exactly trusting of each other), it also shows a different mechanical composition to pre-U.C. 0090 remnant groups.

They’re kind of all over the place. Which I love because it’s 1:1 with their philosophical composition - they’re remnants from a bunch of different forces and groups, so of course it makes sense that their mobile suits would reflect that. The Sleeves do possess the…. Not-quite-cutting-edge-but-at-least-new Geara Zulus and the absolutely fabulous Sinanju (s), Kyshatriya and Rebawoo, but that’s kind of all they’re at. Everything else is from at least Char’s Rebellion or earlier - there’s one-of-a-kind custom units, old axis castoffs, even some stuff from the One Year War and immediate postwar period (like that poor regelgu). A varied armament for a varied force.

However, it is notable that The Sleeves don’t really have much of an identity of their own, largely due to their patchwork composition. They’re the scattered remnants of previous causes, and this is both called out and used against them in-universe. It feels like an examination of Char’s actions during CCA - Full Frontal certainly has Char’s charisma, but he doesn’t have his drive as evidenced by his eventual goal, which isn’t necessarily a *bad* aim, it’s just not Char.

Following on from this they share Newborn Neo Zeon’s just general…. disinterest in newtypes. They’re like any other pilot, they can just use different equipment. All the Sleeves Newtypes we see are very well-equipped though, so how they precisely look at them is unclear. This could be viewed as another extension of Char’s attitudes in CCA.

The Sleeves in a nutshell: Motivations are kind of all over the place, middling-to-low-sized force, newtypes uncommon but mostly-stable (one exception) and very effective, massive mobile suit variety but quality’s also all over the place.

Conclusion

So yeah, I find each revival of Zeon different enough that I can consider them separately to each other - yeah, there’s crossover, but their attitudes change each time - the only thing that stays the same is the aesthetic and who they’re fighting against.

But why are Zeon so often the antagonist?

Out-of-universe, because they sell. But you already knew that so let’s talk about possible In-universe reasons:

Old Equipment - The Principality was *huge*. Masses of equipment, enlisted men and yes, mobile suits. We see several individuals that are able to survive on the Scrap alone - Kelly Layzner, Judau Ashta, even the AEUG utilize a Gelgoog at one point. There’s a lot of material out there, and its a hot commodity post war and the Earth Federation will be in a hurry to rebuild - they don’t have the resources to track down every case of assault rifles or damaged-but-not-irreparable mobile suit. The South Seas alliance in Gundam Thunderbolt is one such organisation, but there will be a lot of Zeon Remnants who are still functional.

Loss of Leadership, not force - Aguille Delaz personally blames the “weak political leadership” (IE Kycillia) for the loss in the One Year War, but we can extrapolate that further. The Battle for A Baoa Qu saw pretty much all the remaining Zabi High Command due within hours of each other - Gihren kills Degwin, Kycillia kills Gihren, Char kills Kycillia. These are three massive losses to the war effort in very short spaces of time. Gihren’s betrayal of Degwin would’ve been very costly for him even if Kycillia hadn’t taken revenge there and then. He deprived himself of both the Solar Ray and the Fleet that Degwin was part of. The fact he took out Revil as well merely would’ve made it an even loss - if it wasn’t for the Solar Ray being rendered unusable into the bargain. Kycilia’s revenge killing of Gihren deprives A Baoa Qu of forces as the commanders loyal to Gihren flee the scene - Delaz among them - weakening the defence overall. Finally, Kycilia is killed as she is attempting to flee to Granada, where she planned to continue the war. This leaves a great many well-armed forces at large, since their strength wasn’t spent at A Baoa Qu - forces that Axis Zeon will draw on. All it really takes to galvanise these remnants is a charismatic individual, something which isn’t exactly in sort supply in the Universal Century.

Corollary to the above - Unclear loss - A Baoa Qu was absolute chaos, so the precise mechanics of “why Zeon lost” might be difficult for the average soldier to grasp - particularly one lacking in reliable non-federation communication sources. It would be easy to look at the mess of A Baoa Qu, then look at the equipment beside you and think “Yeah, we could’ve won. Yeah, we might still win”.

Unchanged Status Quo - Zeon launched the One Year War, at least officially, in the name of Independence. The Earth Federation was governing the colonies poorly, and class inequality was high. This does not change, if anything, it gets worse, as groups like the Titans see the OYW and Operation Stardust as Carte Blanche to utterly suppress the space colonies, and carry out War Crimes at least equal to Zeon’s. A failed war might at least spark some change to prevent another one, but if anything conditions for spacenoids only get worse, so resistance groups would see an upturn in numbers.

Corollary to the Above - Spacenoid Independence doesn’t stop with the war - The Independence of the Space Colonies is still a hot-button issue which the Federation has reason to suppress. So any ex-Zeon soldiers that folded back into civilian life may get involved with Colonial Independence movements. Or, any colonial independence movement that finds the Federation isn’t listening to them might seek a way to *make* them listen - and might find Zeon Remnant Groups sympathetic to their cause.

Little oversight - Before the formation of the Titans, the Earth Federation government believed Zeon to be removed as a threat - small pirate groups, but nothing major. Operation Stardust changed all this, yes, but before that Zeon remnant groups could operate largely unopposed, especially in areas with lower federation presence.

Total Societal Upheavel - Half of the population of the Universal Century died in the One Week Battle. Side 4 Moore was completely destroyed. There’s going to be some serious societal reconstruction after that no matter how you look at it. (Sidebar - Polygamy is mentioned as being a lot more common in Gundam Thunderbolt after the OYW, due to the massive gender disparity - you could also read this as Universal Century also being supportive of Lesbians). It’s not necessarily a driving force behind Zeon Remnant groups, but it’s worth remembering.

Military Experience - The big one, in my opinion. You have a lot of individuals with military experience after the war, including Guerilla warfare. This includes all the forces that had to adapt to new environments, like fighting in space, in colonies or on earth. There’s also a massive postwar economic depression. That’s not going to breed contentment towards a weak government, especially one that wasn’t doing a good job before the war.

In a nutshell, Zeon has the experience, materials and drive necessary to continue being a problem after the One Year War, and the Earth Federation Government doesn’t have the institutional will to stop them until Operation Stardust, which leads to the creation of the Titans, which really don’t help the situation.

Feel free to mention anything I’ve missed!

[blackbackedjackal]

Saw this on Reddit, could this be a coydog? https://www.reddit.com/r/animalid/comments/105o3g4/local_residents_page_in_mi_cant_decide_if_this_is/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

I don’t know much about them as I don’t have coyotes in my country but I love learning form your account and seeing the massage variation in them, thank you for posting

So here's the picture of the coyote in question:

And images of the subspecies in that area, Canis latrans thamnos:

The Great Lakes/Northeastern coyotes are one of my favorite subspecies. They have a very unique skull shape and build since they're in this transitional space between the western subspecies and the Eastern Coyote (Canis latrans "var.").

Red coyotes are a very common morph among Eastern coyote subspecies. You see them in almost every Eastern state, and especially within the Northeastern subspecies. Though the theory is that this coloration was introduced into coyote population from dogs, many Northeasterns seem to be this color because it's just beneficial to the environment they live in. I'd need to find the image but there's a trial cam photo of a Northeastern coyote in the woods up there and it blends almost perfectly into the landscape. Coyotes are known for being incredibly adaptable and, as we've seen in Eastern Coyotes, if it's an adaptation they benefit from in a particular area, it spreads realtivly quickly through the populations. I've also wondered if because they look very dog-like from a distance is why you see a lot of them in urban environments (little bit of urban camouflage because the average person would see that color and think they're dogs, so they're left alone and can spread those genes). Here's a group of red Northeastern ones living in downtown Chicago:

There's nothing about the image of that coyote to make me think it's a high content coydog. Read through a lot of the comments on reddit and all these "dog traits" people are looking at are just traits common within that subspecies. I haven't seen a ton of studies done on the Northeastern subspecies but the Eastern Coyotes which are more know for hybridization are still predominantly coyote with admixtures of dog, gray wolf, and eastern wolf within thier lineage. Basically, unless the animal is captured and tested, it's a safer bet to consider it a coyote until proven otherwise.

There was a black coyote that caused a big scene several years ago who was seen actively playing with and befriending dogs. The public was convinced he was a coydog because of his coloration and behavior. He was eventually captured and taken to a conservation center and samples from him were sent to UC Davis. No recent dog lineage was found. He was just a black coyote. His name's Carmine and he's adorable btw

There's also this little lad who was tested and is confirmed to be an F1 coydog. From a distance he would look like a typical coyote, but he's half border collie.

Morphology alone is not the best indicatator for whether or not coyotes have high content of dog or wolf in them, especially if you aren't aware of the differences between the subspecies. Genetic testing is the only way to 100% confirm whether they do or not. Just from that one pic and knowing what area the coyote is from, I definitely think it's a just Northeastern coyote.

[silly-goofy-mood]

Hi everyone, ready for a theory that made me shit bricks when i thought of it?

I posted this on the uc discord already but i figured i should tell the hellsite

SPOILERS FOR EP 1 OF ABA AND ALSO ARC 5

So i think i figured out what the "edge of the world" is.

This arc takes place in the whispering woodlands, which are next to the city of solaris. You know what else happened in solaris? That's right, a city-wide time loop! And if you recall, the number of loops they did didn't sync up to the time in the outside world, so until someone fixes that, Solaris is stuck like six hours behind the rest of the world.

Whoever was talking about stepping into the edge of the world (i think that was Myrm the anteater) said they stepped forward and it was night, then backwards and it was day again. That's what would happen if you stepped into solaris from the outside, because they're basically in a different timezone!

(yes i just copied and pasted my discord message lol)

[whatdoeseverybodywant]

WIP WEDNESDAY (LATE AGAIN SORRY 😣)

thank you for the tag @empressdede & @theninthwonder

Trin x OC x Jimmy

I has this idea in my head for a while and I think it's time I finally share it with y'all lol 😂

“You know she wanna fuck your wife right?” Jon and Joshua Fatu looked down the hall to where Trinity - Jon’s wife and Morgan, Smackdown’s newest ring announcer were filming a TikTok. 

“What? Nah, Morg, don’t get down like that” 

“Uh- yes the hell she does. I heard she turned one of them NXT chicks ass out bad. Had the girl stalking her and everything. ” Jon arched an eyebrow at his brother before turning his attention back to Trinity and Morgan, eyes narrowing at how close Morgan’s hands were resting near Trin’s ass.

“I thought she was fucking around with Theory?”  Josh just shrugged as they both watched Morgan and Trin with Jon noticing how handsy Morgan actually was with his wife. In the three minutes that they filmed the TikTok, Morgan’s hands never left Trinity’s body. 

“What y’all lookin’ at?” Joe asked as he walked over to the twins. Josh pointed towards the two women and Joe shot Jon a look. “You just gon let Morgan touch up on ya’ wife like that?”  Josh reached over and slapped Joe on the shoulder. 

“Shit, that’s what I said Uce. Morg def wanna fuck Trin.” Jon sucked his teeth and hopped down from the equipment box. 

“Morgan doesn’t wanna fuck Trin.” 

“Mogan definitely wants to fuck Trin.” Sefa said as he came up behind Jon. “I mean it's obvious as hell.”  He added after Jon sucked his teeth. 

“I’d pay to watch.” Joe said before ducking as Jon chucked his water bottle at his head. 

tagging: @kill-the-artiste @kyleoreillylover @southerngirl41 @harmshake and anybody else!

[thesassywitchofthenortheast]

Theory Clown Time:

So we got this shot in the promo right? Lucy looking sad in Tim’s Office

(Shoutout to @renegadesstuff for capturing these stills)

So here’s my theory for the Chenford Drama this season….

They “handle” the big bad from the season finale in the first two episodes.

Chenford dances together at the wedding and they finally say ILY to each other. Maybe discuss their future/wedding

Then Lucy gets what could turn out to be a long term assignment

Which leads to the scene posted above, she tells Tim and they have a fight about UC (which I think has been building for a while because I don’t think either is being completely honest about it)

It goes unresolved and Lucy leaves to go undercover

Then Lucy gets her

Tim rushes to the hospital, sees her hurt

They reconcile, maybe this is when the put Lucy’s UC to bed. Whatever happens makes her not want to pursue it anymore?

Tim, understandably upset, goes rogue and tries to find the people who hurt Lucy

Gets his ass in trouble (the Tim in lock-up spoiler from Eric — which could just be him trolling us but for now let’s say it’s legit)

He gets suspended. (Scruffy Tim 👀)

But the people are still out there

So he teams up with Angela to find them and she ensures he doesn’t do something stupid again because we know how protective and unhinged he can be when the woman he loves is in danger.

They somehow handle everything and the plot is over

Chenford is happy again.

Put your clown make up on with me people. 😂 what else you got?

[yaboi8i]

You know what I'm gonna say it.

Fa Yuiry was important not just to the growth and development of Kamille's character, but extremely important to the story and themes of Zeta as a whole.

Fa was someone who is shown to care a great deal for kamille, but her motivations and charecter do not begin and end with that. Fa shows us the war through a more grounded lens than the powerful newtypes of Kamille and Char. She shows how even though she endured plenty of tragedy over the course of the story, she still finds it in herself to fight for AEUG and fight for the future. She is an incredibly strong person. However she also shows how even though she is undeniably in the right for fighting for what she believes in, the horrors of war still end up taking a very heavy toll and take nearly everything from her, much like Kamille. This culminated in her breakdown with him and Rosamia on Axis where she questions if she even believes in the newtype theory and questions if anything they're doing will put an end to the horrible cycle that the UC is trapped in. Ultimately However, her relationship with Kamille and (above all else) her own personal strength goes her through it all, getting both her and Kamille the happy ending they deserved. All of this is central to the themes of Zeta and Gundam as a whole of the horrors of war and having faith in the future. She was a very important part of the story and the Argama crew.

She was also NOT a bad pilot and I will die on this hill.

[anderscim]

✦ another (even wilder) theory with bagel

similar to my teruko theory, this one also has a lot of room for rebuttal. to be honest, a lot of the evidence i have for this is quite flimsy (_ _;)

this theory is mainly about mai akasaki’s connection to the cast, and how it relates to the killing game in general.

take this with a grain of salt as always

//spoilers for up to chapter 2 part 1 of drdt

//additional spoilers for bonus content, such as the bonus episodes and the new “literature girl insane” MV

there shouldn’t be any tally5 spoilers if i’m not wrong ( ・∇・)

here’s one question i have for you all: how many members in the cast, right now, actually know mai akasaki?

it’s definitely implied in the bonus episodes and the quotes on her character page that she’s connected with everyone in the current cast, but there was a paradox i noticed—if it even is one, that is (-.-;)—that led me to think that this question…may actually be a lot more complicated than it seems.

let’s bring up the bonus episodes first. min’s bonus episode is definitely during their time at hope’s peak. they’re literally at the school, studying about it, discussing min’s “role” as an ultimate compared to the other students, etc. basically, many details point to min and “unnamed classmate” (who is presumably mai, based on the flowers in the dialogue box of the bonus episodes matching up with those on mai’s tattoo) being students of hope’s peak academy in the united states. though there’s no physical evidence or exact basis for this, i would personally like to think that xander’s bonus episode is placed during spring break at the academy. he is talking to his “classmate,” after all—and in that case, it would also chronologically line up with min’s (whose bonus episode takes place a week before spring break).

presumably, the other bonus episodes will follow a similar pattern, and we will see mai/UC talking to other members of the DRDT cast to get to know them more. i will assume this means that the whole cast, not just min and xander, have been to hope’s peak before—and attended class as students there. after all, it would be the only way the bonus episodes would make sense.

however, the dialogue from the first few episodes of the series suggests something else.

as implied from the dialogue, all of the students believe they are only entering the entrance ceremony of hope’s peak as freshmen, and had no previous affiliation with the school. including xander.

obviously, this means that at the very least, their memories have been tampered with to remove anything regarding their experience at hope’s peak academy.

— sorry, very quick side tangent (*'▽'*) going by this theory, if the drdt cast genuinely went to hope’s peak, it’s very likely that they had to do a bunch of paperwork and submit a lot of information for their enrollment—which probably includes medical information and any accommodations that were necessary for their well-being. additionally, if we assume that the cast attended hope’s peak for a year or a few years, it’s likely that whoever the mastermind is, they had the time to know the rest of their classmates well enough to be able to identify their preferences either way, this would actually be a pretty strong explanation as to why many components of their environment seem to be extremely fine-tuned to their preferences and necessities, despite no recollection of sharing that information with anyone involved in the killing game. though i bet this was already obvious, i felt like it was something i probably should bring up.

—

in that case, however—how would it affect their memories with mai?

as i can’t exactly speculate for the other students, i’m going to trace back to what i know. at the very least, it seems to be implied that min only met mai after being admitted into hope’s peak academy. min essentially drove her entire life around schoolwork, and studying for the “ultimate contest for eminent students,” the test that allowed min to receive her title—it’s likely that before then, she never surrounded herself with friends nor had any time for herself to explore her own hobbies. which probably means that she wasn’t acquainted with mai before enrolling into hope’s peak.

her backstory is really sad, by the way. i really wish she lived longer ( ´△｀)

as for when it comes to the other characters, i would like to remind you that hope’s peak scouts across the country for their students—so it’s more logical to assume that many of them resided in hometowns that were very far away from each other. so unless mai’s talent was the ultimate traveler or something, i think it would be very improbable for her to know everyone in the cast before their admittance into hope’s peak.

taking this into account, and assuming that the cast’s memories of hope’s peak were completely erased, there’s a possibility that the cast doesn’t remember mai akasaki, despite her connections with them. the only exception would be teruko, who clearly remembers mai—and seems to have been helped by her when enrolling into the academy in the first place, pointed out by this theory here by @laly-481.

…or at least, that’s what i thought at first—until someone decided to kick in the door while holding a new music video.

i guess in that case, the biggest question i should answer is this—why does david remember mai?

getting into very, very wild theory territory here. take what i’m about to say with a grain of salt assuming that the music video is really a reflection of david’s worldview and thought process, please ignore the fact that i’m acting like the antithesis of occam’s razor right now, then there’s no reason for mai akasaki to be featured in the video—much less have a photo of her placed in a wooden frame—if he didn’t remember her.

yet, there she is, on the right:

she even has a little description about how she was “someone dearly loved,” which fits perfectly with her character and the secret quotes on her profile page.

this is indicative of the fact that david remembers mai—and knows her well enough to even make an accurate statement about her. but, how?

obviously there’s the simpler explanation of “david knew mai before they went to hope’s peak,” which is of course a totally valid explanation—however, some details about the new music video made me consider a possible, different theory.

a grain of salt? more like, a mountain of salt from here on out

when i was watching the “literature girl insane” music video earlier, i noticed something interesting about this frame: 

here, xander doesn’t have his eyepatch. though i’m not throwing away the possibility that this was just a technical error on the artist’s side—personally, this could be a indication that david knew xander before the killing game. 

seeing as all of the cast are connected by the unnamed “classmate,” after all, it’s a likely possibility that the current participants of the killing game were originally in the same class at hope’s peak academy. which means, they all probably knew each other before this whole killing game went down. 

in an earlier theory, i talked about how xander may have been the person in the opening prologue cutscene, and how he probably had his eye injured at that time. given that the person speaking during that scene is aware of the killing game (and is expressing their desire to end it), this event likely happened right before the killing game started—otherwise, it would be pretty imprudent for the mastermind to announce it and then wait for an entire month to set up everything, then make everyone fall unconscious, then remove their memories, etc. 

what i’m trying to get here is that the cast, had they still retained their memories from hope’s peak, would definitely remember xander with both eyes. however, we know this to not be the case—from his introduction, we all see that xander had already lost his right eye from the beginning of the killing game. therefore, for david to remember xander from before he got his eye injury, he must’ve had at least some partial memory of hope’s peak—otherwise, it would be highly unlikely. this would give a possible explanation as to why the frame of xander without his eyepatch appears in the “literature girl insane” music video. and maybe give a possible explanation as to why david cared about xander despite only knowing him for ~three days. and defended him passionately during the first trial even after a lot of evidence pointed to him attacking teruko.

this also would explain why david remembers mai—assuming they were in the same class, since mai likely had incredibly close connections with the cast (including david), it’s more than likely that david cared about mai and possibly (vaguely) remembered her even after having his memories tampered with.

well, the “no-eyepatch” deduction completely hinges on the assumption that xander didn’t like, take off his eyepatch in front of david like he did with teruko, so i may be completely wrong about this. however, it is interesting that such a small detail was included in the mv.

so is this one:

i don’t know how it is for you guys, but that fork seems suspiciously similar to the fork in the prologue (which i theorized to be the item that caused the injury to xander’s right eye). additionally, the fork literally stabbing the “face” of the clock is… quite symbolic. it may be just me. i’m not sure. (-_-;) though, it could suggest that david remembers that scene—and perhaps knows about the “possible escape” of killing teruko? i highly doubt he was the one who wrote the note (rather i think that was xander himself), but it may account for that 2nd vote for teruko in the first trial.

my personal (unhinged) theory (with really no way to back it up) is that david may have retained partial memories of his experience at hope’s peak—but probably only a little, definitely not all of them. this may explain why he remembers mai and seems to recall xander before his eye injury (despite xander seemingly not remembering that they’ve met before)—but hasn’t called out the true mastermind nor seems to remember an escape yet. also, though his current behavior in the 2nd trial may imply that he’s trying to end the killing game early via wrong vote, i personally think he’s just breaking down and acting suicidal without that objective in mind, based on his actions.

little side note at the end: it would be absolutely amazing (and ironic) if the two people with the most distant character relationships with the rest of the cast (as of now) happened to remember the single person that had the closest relationships to all of them.

minor clarification/add-on: i just realized that i never said this, really sorry about that. m(_ _)m but basically, i don’t think david has any sort of clear memories regarding xander and mai at hope’s peak—rather, when i say “partial memories” i meant more along the lines of “vague nostalgia you can’t quite place.” he might somewhat recognize their faces at most, but likely not any clear sequences of events. and honestly, what i wanted to talk about more in regards to this theory is more about the fact that only teruko (and maybe david) remember mai in the first place—the rest of the cast probably can’t, with the way their memories were wiped.

uh, this was quite the ride. i truly felt like the antithesis of occam’s razor as i was writing this

however—this theory likely has a lot of points that can be argued against, as well as many other possibilities i didn’t consider. please, don’t be afraid to drop them in your reblogs or comments, i would love to read them!

and as always, take this with a (larger than usual) grain of salt

[covid-safer-hotties]

Discovery of How Blood Clots Harm Brain and Body in COVID-19 Points to New Therapy - Published Aug 28, 2024

In a study that reshapes what we know about COVID-19 and its most perplexing symptoms, scientists have discovered that the blood coagulation protein fibrin causes the unusual clotting and inflammation that have become hallmarks of the disease, while also suppressing the body’s ability to clear the virus. Importantly, the team also identified a new antibody therapy to combat all of these deleterious effects.

Published in Nature, the study by Gladstone Institutes and collaborators overturns the prevailing theory that blood clotting is merely a consequence of inflammation in COVID-19. Through experiments in the lab and with mice, the researchers show that blood clotting is instead a primary effect, driving other problems—including toxic inflammation, impaired viral clearance, and neurological symptoms prevalent in those with COVID-19 and long COVID.

The trigger is fibrin, a protein in the blood that normally enables healthy blood coagulation, but has previously been shown to have toxic inflammatory effects. In the new study, scientists found that fibrin becomes even more toxic in COVID-19 as it binds to both the virus and immune cells, creating unusual clots that lead to inflammation, fibrosis, and loss of neurons.

“Knowing that fibrin is the instigator of inflammation and neurological symptoms, we can build a new path forward for treating the disease at the root,” says Katerina Akassoglou, PhD, a senior investigator at Gladstone and the director of the Center for Neurovascular Brain Immunology at Gladstone and UC San Francisco. “In our experiments in mice, neutralizing blood toxicity with fibrin antibody therapy can protect the brain and body after COVID infection.”

From the earliest months of the pandemic, irregular blood clotting and stroke emerged as puzzling effects of COVID-19, even among patients who were otherwise asymptomatic. Later, as long COVID became a major public health issue, the stakes grew even higher to understand the cause of this disease’s other symptoms, including its neurological effects. More than 400 million people worldwide have had long COVID since the start of the pandemic, with an estimated economic cost of about $1 trillion each year.

Flipping the Conversation Many scientists and medical professionals have hypothesized that inflammation from the immune system’s rapid reaction to the COVID-causing virus is what leads to blood clotting and stroke. But even at the dawn of the pandemic in 2020, that explanation didn’t sound right to Akassoglou and her scientific collaborators.

“We know of many other viruses that unleash a similar cytokine storm in response to infection, but without causing blood clotting activity like we see with COVID,” says Warner Greene, MD, PhD, senior investigator and director emeritus at Gladstone, who co-led the study with Akassoglou.

“We began to wonder if blood clots played a principal role in COVID—if this virus evolved in a way to hijack clotting for its own benefit,” Akassoglou adds.

Indeed, through multiple experiments in mice, the researchers found that the virus spike protein directly binds to fibrin, causing structurally abnormal blood clots with enhanced inflammatory activity. The team leveraged genetic tools to create a specific mutation that blocks only the inflammatory properties of fibrin without affecting the protein’s beneficial blood-clotting abilities.

When mice were genetically altered to carry the mutant fibrin or had no fibrin in their bloodstream, the scientists found that inflammation, oxidative stress, fibrosis, and clotting in the lungs didn’t occur or were much reduced after COVID-19 infection.

In addition to discovering that fibrin sets off inflammation, the team made another important discovery: fibrin also suppresses the body’s “natural killer,” or NK, cells, which normally work to clear the virus from the body. Remarkably, when the scientists depleted fibrin in the mice, NK cells were able to clear the virus.

These findings support that fibrin is necessary for the virus to harm the body.

Mechanism Not Triggered by Vaccines The fibrin mechanism described in the paper is not related to the extremely rare thrombotic complication with low platelets that has been linked to adenoviral DNA COVID-19 vaccines, which are no longer available in the U.S.

By contrast, in a study of 99 million COVID-vaccinated individuals led by The Global COVID Vaccine Safety Project, vaccines that leverage mRNA technology to produce spike proteins in the body exhibited no excessive clotting or blood-based disorders that met the threshold for safety concerns. Instead, mRNA vaccines protect from clotting complications otherwise induced by infection.

Protecting the Brain Akassoglou’s lab has long investigated how fibrin that leaks into the brain triggers neurologic diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease and multiple sclerosis, essentially by hijacking the brain’s immune system and setting off a cascade of harmful, often irreversible, effects.

The team now showed that in COVID-infected mice, fibrin is responsible for the harmful activation of microglia, the brain’s immune cells involved in neurodegeneration. After infection, the scientists found fibrin together with toxic microglia and when they inhibited fibrin, the activation of these toxic cells in the brains of mice was significantly reduced.

“Fibrin that leaks into the brain may be the culprit for COVID-19 and long COVID patients with neurologic symptoms, including brain fog and difficulty concentrating,” Akassoglou says. “Inhibiting fibrin protects neurons from harmful inflammation after COVID-19 infection.”

The team tested its approach on different strains of the virus that causes COVID-19, including those that can infect the brain and those that do not. Neutralizing fibrin was beneficial in both types of infection, pointing to the harmful role of fibrin in brain and body in COVID-19 and highlighting the broad implications of this study.

A New Potential Therapy This study demonstrates that fibrin is damaging in at least two ways: by activating a chronic form of inflammation and by suppressing a beneficial NK cell response capable of clearing virally infected cells.

“We realized if we could neutralize both of these negative effects, we could potentially resolve the severe symptoms we’re seeing in patients with COVID-19 and possibly long COVID,” Greene says.

Akassoglou’s lab previously developed a drug, a therapeutic monoclonal antibody, that acts only on fibrin’s inflammatory properties without adverse effects on blood coagulation and protects mice from multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

In the new study, the team showed that the antibody blocked the interaction of fibrin with immune cells and the virus. By administering the immunotherapy to infected mice, the team was able to prevent and treat severe inflammation, reduce fibrosis and viral proteins in the lungs, and improve survival rates. In the brain, the fibrin antibody therapy reduced harmful inflammation and increased survival of neurons in mice after infection.

A humanized version of Akassoglou’s first-in-class fibrin-targeting immunotherapy is already in Phase 1 safety and tolerability clinical trials in healthy people by Therini Bio. The drug cannot be used on patients until it completes this Phase 1 safety evaluation, and then would need to be tested in more advanced trials for COVID-19 and long COVID.

Looking ahead to such trials, Akassoglou says patients could be selected based on levels of fibrin products in their blood—a measure believed to be a predictive biomarker of cognitive impairment in long COVID.

“The fibrin immunotherapy can be tested as part of a multipronged approach, along with prevention and vaccination, to reduce adverse health outcomes from long COVID,” Greene adds.

The Power of Team Science The study’s findings intersect the scientific areas of immunology, hematology, virology, neuroscience, and drug discovery—and required many labs across institutions to work together to execute experiments required to solve the blood-clotting mystery. Akassoglou founded the Center for Neurovascular Brain Immunology at Gladstone and UCSF in 2021 specifically for the purpose of conducting multidisciplinary, collaborative studies that address complex problems.

“I don’t think any single lab could have accomplished this on their own,” says Melanie Ott, MD, PhD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology and co-author of the study, noting important contributions from teams at Stanford, UC San Francisco, UC San Diego, and UCLA. “This tour-de-force study highlights the importance of collaboration in tackling these big questions.”

Not only did this study address a big question, but it did so in a way that paves a clear clinical path for helping patients who have few options today, says Lennart Mucke, MD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease.

“Neurological symptoms of COVID-19 and long COVID can touch every part of a person’s life, affecting cognitive function, memory, and even emotional health,” Mucke says. “This study presents a novel strategy for treating these devastating effects and addressing the long-term disease burden of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”

Link to study: www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07873-4

[xanadontit]

The ongoing saga of my brother's college application process and my resentment over how I'm included/dismissed as a member of this family continues. A two-for-one bitch fest! Keep reading if you're into that kind of thing.

My brother applied to about a million universities and got into roughly 75% of a million of them, which is great. He has some wonderful options and hopefully won't go into bonkers debt for it. He also sounds genuinely excited by the idea of getting to pursue things that interest him (computer science, robotics, engineering). Great. Love this for him.

As previously noted, my parents have been very "hey whatever, man" about this process which is lovely in theory (he doesn't need more pressure) but also creates a last minute crisis/crisis-lite when it's 11:45pm and applications are due at midnight and he's having a panic attack about if he should apply to CalPoly or something. They also decided it was pointless to tour any schools until he was accepted because they didn't want him to fall in love with a place and not get in. Which...OK. But, did he also maybe apply to places sight unseen that he wouldn't have had he even traveled to the city where the school is located (looking at you, Northridge)? Yes he sure did. I voiced my concerns about this and dropped it once it was clear that my opinion was noted and dismissed.

Now that he has just under a month to make a decision it's this mad rush to go on "real" tours (not just drive by the campus, which my stepmom thinks is basically the same thing) and make a decision and figure out what to do since he was waitlisted at his first choice but feels good about his second choice and and and. A lot of questions but instead of picking up the phone and calling the admissions office to see what's up they are doing nothing and are all out of ideas.

Maybe you can see where this is going.

Now that they're overwhelmed guess who they want to step in and help? GUESS. Why yes, it's your friendly neighborhood eldest daughter/only remotely organized person in this family. Except my job doesn't have a ton of flexibility so I can't just fly down to Long Beach or drive up to Chico on a random Tuesday, and I don't think it's my job to call UC Davis and see what's the deal with the waitlist. It just isn't! Hell, he's 18 and it's where he wants to go. Get dialing, Kid!

And of course there's the "we thought you'd want to help" guilt bullshit that compounds my frustration, but when I offer a solution or point out that Chico has their prospective student event this weekend and I could take him then it won't work because of baseball or other plans. Oh and he's spending part of his spring break on a road trip with friends so there's 5 days he won't be doing anything. I cannot bend space and time so maybe we work within the calendar days we have and make a plan and then execute it. He was accepted into four schools before Christmas and had months to schedule tours and didn't. Yes I want to help where I can but could they try not to make it such an assache?

I know in the end it will be fine or even great but in the meantime it's a hassle which it doesn't need to be which is the worst kind, to me at least.

[theawkwardanglophile]

I got asked this question and loved it so much, I wanted to open it up to the group.

If you could choose 5 Chenford scenes to rewrite, which would you choose, and how would you rewrite them?

Thank you for the question, Becca! ❤️

First and foremost, I would save us all a lot of heartache and not have them break up in 6x06! I would've kept the angst, at least some of it, but show that Tim feels broken and doesn't know how to go forward, but Lucy would be there with him through it. I don't want to add much more to this here, because I'm still hoping to finish cranking out a 6x06 fix-it fic. 😉

Most of 5x16. Yes, the necklace, "fuel for later", and that one 10-second scene of them in bed together is all great, but there was so much lacking for Chenford in this ep, because they were trying to cram in a story for every couple, and there just wasn't room, and left a lot to be desired. I would want them to dive in more with the 5-player-trade discussion, instead of dismissing it so quickly. And then Noah giving them a golden opportunity to have a real discussion about UC, but nope. Plus so many unanswered questions! Did Noah come back and stay with them? Who told Tim about the trade? Was Tim feeling any jealousy toward Noah? And Lucy saying Tim hadn't called her Hot Pants is...a weird line. I'm sorry.

The scene at Nolan's in 5x13. It's adorable, yes, but it could've been so much more. It could have had Tim and Lucy come clean to everyone about secretly dating, and we could've gotten everyone's reactions. Maybe they don't get all the post-its down in time, so Tim questions her, and she comes clean on what they're doing (thus eliminating the 5x16 fight altogether), and the two of them start having this whole discussion in the living room forgetting everyone is listening, and ohhhh, I might need to write a fic.

The ending of 4x07 had us all scratching our heads as to why Tim suddenly called off the bet, with no real explanation, after two episodes of competition. It felt very incomplete. A theory I've had for a long time is Nolan being kidnapped brought back a lot of DOD thoughts for Tim, and he felt like he needed to get serious again. And for him to actually admit that to Lucy could've led to a really sweet, amazing moment for them.

This is going to be controversial, but the very end of 5x01. I would not change a lot of their talk in the hallway, but I would have found a different way to show there was romantic tension there without them being willing to cheat on their significant others. They have both been cheated on, plus Tim's dad cheated. I just don't like the implication, flimsy UC excuse aside, that they would have gone through with cheating had Chris not been bleeding out. And I hate that, because Tim walking into the apartment was such a clear, definitive action that showed his attraction to her. So I would hate to take that away, but maybe they could have had an almost kiss in the hall or something instead? I don't know.