#you can get tasks based on the topic. In a task-based approach

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⋆⭒˚🎸｡⋆❤ The 6th House in each sign and our daily life❤｡⋆🎸⭒˚⋆

❗️All the observations in this post are based on personal experience and research, it's completely fine if it doesn't resonate with everyone❗️

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࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆The 6th House talks about how we deal with everyday work, our routine, health and service to others. It is the space where we see how we relate to what keeps us busy, in the most practical way possible ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Aries in the 6th House: Your routine is anything but boring. You like challenges for sure. You are motivated by a good challenge at work and you never have trouble launching yourself into new experiences. But, be careful not to overload your schedule, because your energy is so strong that sometimes you get exhausted quickly. The important thing is to find balance so that your passion does not turn into exhaustion.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Taurus in the 6th House: Stability is your mantra. You need a routine that provides you with security and comfort, both at work and in your health. Your practical approach makes you excellent at repetitive tasks, and you take self-care seriously, especially when it comes to good food and rest. The challenge here is to avoid the tendency to fall into routine without excitement.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Gemini in the 6th House: You always have something to do. You love to keep yourself busy with various tasks, and above all, you need variety. You are not attracted to monotonous routines. You like to interact and learn in your work, so being in an environment that allows you to talk and share ideas is ideal. Health-wise, you are likely to forget to take care of your body because you are so mentally active.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Cancer in the 6th House: Your work and health are deeply connected to your emotions. You feel most motivated when your work environment has a personal and familiar touch. Routine is important, but you need to feel emotionally supported. Health-wise, you can be very protective of others, but make sure you take care of your emotional well-being as well.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Leo in the 6th House: You are the kind of person who puts heart into everything you do, even the most mundane. You love that your work gets recognition, and your creativity can shine through even in everyday tasks. Your health is also an expression of your identity: when you take care of yourself, you do it with pride. Avoid burnout from wanting to impress too much, Leo, rest is part of your magic.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Virgo in the 6th House: The 6th House in your home! You are in your element when it comes to organization, details, and efficiency. Work for you is not just a task; it is an opportunity to hone and serve. Your attention to detail can make you very effective in what you do, but you also have to be careful of the tendency to self-criticism. Beware of being too hard on yourself.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Libra in the 6th House: You need balance in all aspects of your life, including your daily routine. Harmony in work and work relationships is essential for you to feel good. If your work environment is stressful or disorganized, your emotional health may suffer. As for physical care, it's sometimes hard to maintain a balance if you're too distracted by others. Find time for yourself.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Scorpio in the 6th House: When you get involved in your work, you do it thoroughly. You don't settle for the superficial; you need depth, even in the smallest things. Your health is a topic that interests you deeply, and even if you don't show it, you obsess over finding the best way to take care of yourself. Avoid extreme cycles of stress that can affect your well-being.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Sagittarius in the 6th House: Daily routine is hard for you. Your soul seeks adventure! You need a job that allows you to explore, learn, and grow. You're motivated by freedom more than repetitive tasks, so if your day-to-day is monotonous, you can switch off quickly. In terms of health, you need variety in your exercise and a way to release your energies.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Capricorn in the 6th House: For you, routine is an art. You know how to work hard and how to structure your day to be productive. You are very disciplined when it comes to your health and well-being. The problem is that sometimes you forget to rest because you are so focused on your goals. Don't feel guilty about taking time to recharge.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Aquarius in the 6th House: Your approach to work is quite innovative and unique. You don't like traditional routines, so you look for original ways to carry out your daily tasks. You are interested in health in an intellectual way and are often attracted to unconventional methods. Maintain your independence, but don't forget to take care of your body while exploring new ideas.

ִ ࣪✮🕷🖇️✮⋆˙ Pisces in the 6th House: Your work has a touch of sensitivity and creativity. You may like to help others in an intuitive way, but you must make sure you don't get lost in the emotional chaos of everyday life. Your health sometimes depends on your spiritual and emotional connection, so finding moments for mental rest is crucial. Creativity can be your best medicine.

[chuulyssa]

light yagami as a yandere (headcanons)

↷ A/N ─ my first time writing headcanons! i might write a story based on this because yandere light is so daddy ugh like he defines yandere

★ COUNT ─ 1k words, 50+ hcs

!! TAGS ─ gn!reader, yandere!light, stalking, manipulation (it's light so of course that's there), blackmail, death threats

★ TOPIC ─ light yagami as your yandere senior at to-oh university

✩ ok so light yagami is literally the worst character you could have as a yandere

✩ omg so i 100% can imagine light getting interested in a junior in his uni

✩ at first, he just doesn't care about you because he mostly keeps his feelings to himself

✩ but slowly he either felt threatened by your intelligence or felt that you were "too pure" for the cruel world

✩ he's stalked you around a few times, sure, following you to events, parties or get-togethers you may be at

✩ he keeps a safe distance at all times in case you become suspicious of him popping up everywhere you're at

✩ he gets your friends to talk to him about you

✩ but he first makes sure they won't rat him out to you

✩ he slowly gathers info about you, from your daily routine to your favourite chocolate - he has to know it all

✩ he strategically places himself in clubs and events you're a part of, inserting himself into your world without you knowing

✩ he even starts sending anonymous letters and gifts

✩ but of course, this is light we're talking about, so there's no way he's stopping at that

✩ he eventually talks to you and befriends you

✩ he tries to get your thoughts about kira too in your convos

✩ he keeps an eye on you both when you're in and out of the uni, constantly trying to find ways to talk to you in the form of study dates or something else where the two of you are alone

✩ he tries to find a secret about you, something he can use to blackmail you into staying with him without giving away his identity

✩ if he finds something like that, something you don't wanna reveal to others, he'll blackmail you with that in those anonymous letters, alright

✩ but if he doesn't, he'll reveal to you in those letters that he's kira and force you to stay with him so he doesn't write you and/or your family's name(s) down

✩ when he sees you so worried about something, he'll approach you asking what's wrong, acting like he's not the one writing the letters because the bastard's such a big fat liar

✩ you eventually tell him that yea there's this dude who's obsessed with me, expecting him to help you

✩ but he's just gonna play his concerned friend role really well, being all like "oh yea? i'm so sorry about that"

✩ while internally overjoyed at the fact that he has so much power over you

✩ he comforts you whenever you're upset, manipulating you into thinking he's trustworthy

✩ light will constantly put you in situations where you'll be alone both physically and emotionally, and he'll be your knight in shining armour, and help and comfort you

✩ he even pretends to look for the anonymous letter sender who claims to be kira with light being a part of the task force and all

✩ speaking of which he will absolutely flaunt his status in the task force - not as a suspect of course lmao

✩ probably trying to get you into thinking he's oh-so-trustworthy

when in reality literally everyone in the task force is suspicious of him at one point or another

✩ talking to him is like talking to tom riddle's diary from harry potter - the more you reveal your secrets, the worse the manipulation is gonna become

✩ so now there are two light yagamis in your world - one, the caring sweet friend, and two, the unknown sender of the ominous letters you're receiving

✩ but when you tell him you're gonna inform the police about this anonymous guy, he reveals to you that he's kira and continues the blackmail

✩ any attempt at retaliation and one of your family members dies, of course

✩ in the rare case that you hate your family (relatable) he's gonna find someone you care about and kill them off instead. and believe me, he's light yagami - he will find someone

✩ he won't hesitate to kill off any other guy who even dares to look at you. he wants no competition

✩ even though he's not insecure, he feels satisfied at the way you don't have anyone in your life except for him. it feeds his ego

✩ and he won't stop until he's the only one you're depending on.

✩ he won't kidnap you - he's way too good for that

✩ no, he'll lock you out emotionally

✩ he'll make sure you have to beg him before even talking to someone who's not him

✩ he'll torture you every single day. he'll make every single minute of your life a living hell

✩ but he won't harm a hair on your head

✩ his threats are never physical

✩ unless you count the death threat from the death note

✩ he will berate you if anyone notices the changes in your behaviour, forcing you to act normal as if nothing's happening

✩ when in reality you're trying not to fall apart every time he takes you out on another "date"

✩ that is, if you dislike him.

✩ needless to say you're gonna have to get used to his presence either way because he's gonna be around a lot

✩ and if he can't keep a watch on you himself he'll send ryuk

✩ and obviously, it's light yagami, so he already has pre-installed cameras everywhere around you - your bedroom, your bathroom, heck even some of your clothes

✩ expect to be either shown off like a trophy or hidden away - there is no in-between.

✩ shown off because he's proud he's gotten his hands on you.

✩ hidden away in case someone kidnaps you to threaten him, in which case he's gonna have to kill you, sorry not sorry

✩ but who knows? if you like him it's a blessing, isn't it? a win-win situation for both of you.

© chuulyssa, 2024 - do not copy, plagiarize or repost my works on any platforms. do not translate.

[catenary-chad]

Why Greaseball is a Really Great train villain: a looong post (4.8k words) on all the historical train context behind replica Greaseball 

For all my issues with the other main engines, I think (replica) Greaseball is FANTASTIC. He just works on so many fundamental levels and gets so much better/worse with historical context.  If we make him an EMD E9 locomotive (a common headcanon) things get even more interesting, and there’s even a convenient irl engine to base him on! 

Note: if you’re into real US trains this info probably won’t be as new to you as my Nez Cassé post, since E and F units are so well preserved and documented in English.      A lot of the topics I go on are pretty widely discussed in US railfan circles and not terribly obscure.  Also this is just about replica, Elvis-style Greaseball vs Wembleyball… her being more modern and European changes a lot and I would take a very different approach.

Also CW for non-graphic discussion of abuse in the very last section. I have a separate warning before it comes up so you can leave before then.  

DIESEL TRACTION IN THE US

First of all, to clear up a common misconception: 99% of all diesel locomotives are diesel-electric.  The diesel engine is used to generate electricity to power electric motors to turn the wheels.  This is why dual-mode engines that can switch between drawing third rail/overhead wire electricity and making their own with a diesel engine are so common.  Besides the power source, they work similarly, so it’s not hard to incorporate.  This is NOT how hybrid cars work, though diesel-electric setups have been used on very heavy trucks for purposes like mining.  Diesel-mechanical is more in line with how automobiles work but is basically unheard of outside of very small switchers in the US (mostly in museums now) and 50s-era shunters and that one weird Fell diesel in the UK. The technical reasons of why isn’t really important here, but has to do with the difficult of making an appropriate gearbox for road locomotives and appealing qualities of electric motors for train use (high starting torque). 

Internal combustion-based locomotives are actually much more recent than pure electric ones.  Electric engines achieved practical use around the 1890s and were well-established in urban and mountainous areas by the 20s-30s…. which is when diesel boxcab switchers first started production in substantial numbers and lightweight diesel trainsets like the Zephyrs, M10000, and Flying Hamburger started to pop up.  The earliest diesels were either slow (switchers) or fast but very weak (lightweight trainsets and railbusses). There were major tech limits to maximum horsepower in diesel locomotives until the second half of the 20th century, which is why several of them were often needed to replace one steam or electric engine, and why you had some weird turbine designs in the 50s-70s as an alternative. 

Early diesel locomotives in the US actually had a lot in common with their early implementation in the UK.  They’re often perceived differently because Thomas the Tank Engine had so many characters based on unsuccessful early British diesel models, while most of the failed earlier US diesels are obscure compared to the successful and widespread ones (that often have the strongest museum presence). There were some notably good early switcher models (some still being used today) that were among the first to replace steam engines because it was one of the tasks that they had the biggest advantage over them in, and limited size wasn’t an issue.  Road diesel implementation was messy and due to the early state of the technology, some railroads like the Pennsylvania Railroad had a strategy more akin to early British Rail in that they planned to just slowly phase out steam as they electrified.  Higher wages and stronger unions were also a factor in both countries dieselizing, due to the vastly lower labor needed for diesel locomotives vs steam and generally safer, more pleasant working conditions on them.  There was also a need to shed a reputation for being outdated to draw in customers again with both.  There was also a desperate early demand for diesel power that led to a lot of questionable builders and designs being picked up early on and later dumped for being nonstandard.  

The main difference is that dieselization’s serious pursuit in the US started around the Great Depression and really picked up in the late 30s, almost two decades before the Modernization Plan of 1955.  So it was a far more mature and well-established technology by the 50s and Greaseball is very much based on this dominant position vs the messy early experiments of the Thomas diesels.  

Greaseball’s helmet heavily resembles the fronts of the E and F unit carbody locomotives made by EMD from the 30s-50s.  I’ll go into those specific models later, but the manufacturer alone is really interesting and has a lot of great symbolism that works with Greaseball. 

Earlier diesel manufacturers included steam builders like Alco and Baldwin, outside companies getting into the diesel locomotive market like Fairbanks-Morse, and EMD, which started as an independent company but quickly became part of General Motors.  One of the major advantages EMD would acquire is mass-production in assembly lines, the way cars were made, as opposed to building one engine at a time like steam shops did.  So Greaseball has some quiet ties to the auto industry (and boy did GM hurt trains in other avenues).  They also used common parts between models, making them relatively easy to repair and rebuild.  You had all kind of mods and changes done to their engines over the decades, which is a fun tie-in to the bodybuilder AND greaser aspect of Greaseball.  I’ll go into how I think he’d specifically be modified/rebuilt later though.  

Another major factor of EMD is… they often weren’t the best in a lot of ways and very much an example of “survival of the good enough”.  Until very recently they all used relatively dirty and inefficient two-stroke engines and other manufacturers often had stronger or technically superior competing models… but it was the ease of working on them and relative reliability vs their competitors that contributed to their success and helped make EMD the dominant manufacturer.  

Bonus fun fact: EMD (and later General Electric) had a lot of success in the export model market due to their early reliability, especially vs British diesel engines.  One of the funnier instances being several colonial African railways holding onto steam into the 70s because they were forced to buy crappy British diesel engines otherwise, and promptly dieselizing as soon as they could buy American ones.  EMD made huge inroads into the British freight market with the Class 59 and 66 (the latter also used in continental Europe).  These came too late to have had any affect on the development of the show early on, but it’s an interesting instance of American encroachment that could be thematically relevant.  The sheer ubiquity of EMD diesels worldwide makes Greaseball weirdly relevant in a lot of countries if you basis swap him a little.  I haven’t figured out quite how I’d approach Girlball but I’d definitely make her one of these export models since it fits.  

Anyways, back to the general history timeline because it’s important for the other reason EMD was so successful.  By the late 30s, diesel switchers were widespread and road models were starting to come out in limited numbers.  Widespread dieselization would have happened nearly a decade earlier if not for World War II.  When the US entered the war, copper, oil, and diesel engines became critical to the war effort.  Coal was not and steam engines don’t use much copper, so the existing steam manufacturers were forced into building them.  EMD’s FT series had proven itself prewar and the company was among the few to be able to develop their locomotive lines during the war.  This gave the company a huge advantage post-war and their E and F units dominated the road locomotive market afterwards (switchers remained more competitive since they had more development before and during the war). 

 If you’re European and know little about American trains, you may wonder when things started getting electrified after that.  They didn’t.  Outside of one stretch of the Northeast Corridor, a recent project by Caltrain, and some isolated freight lines… the US didn’t electrify anything after WWII, and if anything de-electrified much that had existed.  The oil crises of the 70s almost led to something, but the subsequent drop in prices in the 80s made that dry up too.  Leading to the modern day status of having only 1% electrified rail mileage.  The rest is all diesel domain.  They were never a stopgap here.  Due to railroads remaining private businesses post-WWII and facing almost unwinnable economic and political conditions vs roads and air travel, the cost of electrification was out of the question and the much smaller up front cost of diesel engines made them take permanent hold over most of the country post-steam.  To this day, railroads avoid paying up front for things vs just paying more in yearly maintenance for diesel locomotives, and the price of fuel has never gotten high enough to incentivize electrification.  There’s also a whole carrot vs stick situation with state governments raising emissions standards without providing assistance to electrify that leads to a crappy state of limbo that just gives automobiles even more of an unfair advantage, but that’s another tangent that’s not relevant enough to go into.  

This is all a long way to say that Greaseball as the conservative, oppressive establishment is spot-on to the status of diesel traction in the US.  It really can’t be overstated how dominant and inescapable it is.  It’s kind of hilarious hearing people from the UK or Europe talk about how gross and stinky and backwards they are and how much more disliked they are there.  This is why the Greaseball vs Electra feud is so appealing to me- the US is one of the few places where they would be considered remotely competitive and where that matchup is politically relevant.  There’s this compelling thread of Greaseball being a “pragmatic compromise” that’s held on so long it’s become status quo, but would be viewed as a regressive relic elsewhere in the world, akin to how the US’s economic politics are seen in much of the rest of the world.  Greaseball is the majority who very much has capitalism and inertia on his side, Electra is the more qualified but long-sidelined minority who wishes things were even a little more like Europe economically and politically.  They’re so rural vs urban, right vs left wing coded it hurts. Diesel power mainly thrives where frequencies are low and distances are long and rail is a private business that often can’t afford to electrify.  Urban trains are almost exclusively electric due to their inherent frequency and pollution requirements, and are almost synonymous with being state-owned. 

Him being particularly nasty to steam engines also checks out, he’s the era of diesel locomotive that often directly replaced them and I’ve seen claims EMD did deceptive things if not outright cheated on tests vs steam engines.  At the very least they had fairly aggressive marketing.  There’s a reason why I object to the idea that Electra would cheat against a steam engine (even in the early days electric ones trounced them so thoroughly it routinely exceeded railroads’ expectations), but think Greaseball doing it makes sense.  Him playing dirty against Electra also makes sense because they’d have similar top speeds (and that’s being very conservative with Electra’s abilities and keeping them a relatively old model) but Electra benefits far more from a clean setting and would be relatively vulnerable to attack. There’s been decades of cultural downplaying of the advantages of electric vs diesel trains due to the latter’s sheer dominance in the US too. Further tying into the political aspect, electric trains are one of those things whose status only goes up the more you actually learn about them… and it really knocks combustion engines down several pegs, paralleling how right wing politicians in the US tend to be actively anti-education because they quietly rely on voters being low-information and uneducated about how negative the effects of their policies often are.  

Greaseball as a macho jock is also reflective of the perceived strength of diesel vs electric engines.  Because the US is infamous for its large heavy freight trains that are almost entirely diesel-hauled (besides a single power plant out west), electric freight is an almost alien concept and people associate electric traction with high speed trains, subways, maybe lighter, faster European freight trains at most.  People often act like they’re weak because of this.  This is patently untrue, just look at IORE or the Virginian Railway.  Also see my earlier discussion of how weak diesel engines were early on.  Electric locomotives still have vastly higher horsepower per single unit and the only reason there aren’t ones as strong as diesel engines in the US is lack of demand.  It wouldn’t be that hard to build one for that niche.  But diesel has strong associations with being the “strong and manly” blue-collar option because of its use by every large freight railroad and almost every shortline for all the tough, gritty jobs, unlike those darn city slicker commuter trains. Let’s just conveniently forget that the Milwaukee Road existed and that mines are full of weird little battery-powered “lokies”.  People will even crow about the Big Boy all day and rarely acknowledge the multiple electric engine models of that era with comparable abilities.  

EMD E and F UNITS

Finally, we can discuss Greaseball’s more specific basis.  Greaseball’s helmet doesn’t have a single explicit one like Electra’s, but its styling is very typical of 30s-50s era carbody diesel locomotives, specifically the “bulldog nose” E and F-Units.  These models were and still remain some of the most popular toy and model diesel engines, and are some of the most recognizable American trains in general.  Which they totally deserve, they came in a lot of fun colors and were VERY widely used from the 30s to early 80s irl and were still used in limited numbers for decades after that and are extremely common in museums today.  It’s probably harder to find a railroad museum in the US that doesn’t have one.  They are probably THE symbol of diesel trains in the US, especially circa the 50s.  Even highway signs for train stations resemble them.  

Carbody locomotives like these made the streamlined body a structural element of the engine to save weight and required indoor walkways for maintenance access vs being able to open external panels.  Alco and Baldwin also made far less successful carbody locomotives as competitors but they looked very different. Funny enough, a number of electric locomotives of the era also were built this way, but with cabs at both ends, some of them looking a LOT like Greaseball’s helmet.  

The E-units were EMD’s first line of road diesel locomotives, mainly designed for passenger service.  Since the 30s there were several different models of the line, the first few being built in smaller numbers, and the later ones being much more widely produced post-WWII.   They were relatively long and large for a diesel engine of the time, with atypical A1A -A1A (powered/unpowered/powered x2) wheel arrangements and two seperate prime movers (the actual diesel engine) to produce more horsepower due to the limited abilities of individual engines.  While successful compared to their competitors (which were… generally a mess) there’s a sense that they were designed for a time that would never come.  

They were very much optimized for being smooth at speed for passenger use and while not useless for freight service, weren’t ideal for it due to their limited strength and not having all powered wheels for traction.  Which was a terrible market to be in with the massive decline in passenger rail post-WWII.  The E-units still generally had long and successful lives, but were never as successful as their younger, smaller sibling, the F-unit.

F-units visually resemble shorter E-units, but with single prime movers and Bo-Bo wheel arrangements (four powered axles).  By modern standards they’re small and not terribly powerful, but for their time they were solid and VERY successful in freight service, and often took the place of E-units in passenger service since they worked for that too, and were more versatile overall.  There are a bunch of F-units running in museums because they look good and are easy to find parts for due to the sheer quantity produced (also some, but far fewer E-units). You could totally make Greaseball an F-unit and it would fit with how there’s been some infamously short Greaseball actors.  

There’s a lot of fun commonalities between both models that are relevant to Greaseball.  Both were explicitly designed to be used in multi-engine sets due to their limited individual strength, which perfectly fits Greaseball having his Gang follow him around.  Working in packs that large is a VERY midcentury diesel thing.  Both had the massive drawback of having no rear visibility and basically no ability to go backwards for switching.  That was one of the main traits that led to this style of engine falling out of favor, roadswitchers that actually had rear visibility were more versatile than having separate road and switch engines.  In a race going backwards, Rusty would clean his clock even if he was SUPER crappy and could only go walking pace, because Greaseball would be flying totally blind and crash.  It’s also a hassle to perform maintenance and get inside that body style and the noses were reportedly harder to manufacture.  

As a cursed side note, ATSF solved these problems with their old F-units by roadswitcherfying them into CF-7s.  Hey, they were old and past their prime but still useful and worked GREAT as ugly utilitarian roadswitchers and ran for decades afterwards.  There’s several of these things running in museums.  I’ve actually worked on one and I approve of roadswitcherfication because they really are way less of a pain to maintain this way.  

Speaking of rebuilds, the highest horsepower Greaseball would have as an E-unit would as-built is only 2,400 if he was an E9, but because early EMDs got modified so much and routinely re-engined, we can play around with this.  It fits the character and the Railways Series routinely did this kind of thing.  We’ll suppose Greaseball was re-engined or otherwise modified to get up to 2,700 horsepower… but then there’s the reported issue that the unpowered axles might make him too slippery to actually apply full force, so we’ll get a bit more out there and say he got more substantially rebuilt into a Co-Co (six powered axle) arrangement.  Now you have something that would be vaguely comparable with one of Amtrak’s dysfunctional SDP40F diesels of the late 70s-early 80s, if still a bit weaker but probably more physically stable.  It’s hard to avoid that Greaseball is kind of statistically wimpy no matter how you slice it.  They’d need to tweak the numbers in the song a little, but again, swapping out engines in early EMDs was super common and suits him so it’s not too much of a stretch to bump him to 3700 or something.  You still have issue that he’s not large by UP standards specifically (they are INFAMOUS for large single-unit engines) but he’d still be fairly large vs more typical passenger diesels of the time.  

Anyways, another VERY fun fact about E and F units is that they were regularly used on corporate trains after most of them were withdrawn from regular mainline service in the 70s-80s.  People often complain that Greaseball is barely relevant circa the 80s, which isn’t really true since a lot of E and F units were used on commuter lines for years afterward (if often in cab car form, which are terrifying in any talking train verse).  But there’s another huge loophole that gives a perfect excuse for his existence well into the modern day.  Union Pacific itself used a set of three E9s on their corporate specials until 2019!  They only got pulled due to wheel issues… got no lovers if you got no wheels I guess.  But now you have a perfect excuse for why Greaseball is a 50s-era engine with UP colors pulling passenger trains well after the railroad axed those services in the early 70s.  He’s a corporate pawn!  He’s one of the faces of their company, chauffeuring executives around. Which leads into another fascinating topic with him.

UNION PACIFIC, FREIGHT RAILROADS, AND PASSENGER RAIL

All of the modern big Class I railroads in the US suck in similar ways, but Union Pacific has a stronger identity and seems to have the largest cultural presence abroad, making it the most visible and appealing of them to the public.  It tends to be THE American railroad to many, which goes well with Greaseball’s basis being THE American diesel engine.  Yes, they do have some cool heritage fleet stuff and really cool heritage unit paint jobs, but you’ll never see me depict them in a terribly positive way (if at all) because they’re a PR campaign like the Budweiser Clydesdales for an infamously awful company.  Make no mistake, this is a company that’s been voted “worst place to work” on multiple occasions (and its cohorts aren’t much better).  That’s the ironic thing about Electra being made a crappy boss, Amtrak is notably much better to its workers (and steam engines are the most competitive where labor is cheapest and least organized).  The main thing is unreasonable on-call hours, lack of sick leave, vacation, and break days in general, and working conditions.  Look into the blocked 2022 railroad strike for more on this.  Greaseball could be SO nasty to the freight to reflect this if you made him a symbol of railroad leadership.  You’d have any railroaders in the audience booing him if they did this in the US, it’s a very relevant political issue.  Ironically, things weren’t nearly as bad labor-wise in the 80s, ALW just really bet on the right horse in terms of railroads to align a train villain with.  But there’s a more prominant and existing aspect of canon that also fits the crappy things UP and other class Is do.

Passenger rail has never been as profitable as freight in the US. To give a modern ballpark estimate, I’ve heard $30,000 revenue on a fully loaded longer passenger train vs $500,000 revenue on a train of oil tankers.  And that’s not even including the higher maintenance standards that passenger rail requires, which adds millions to its cost and makes it almost impossible for it to turn a profit.  There is a reason why almost all countries with widespread passenger rail today have nationalized rail systems and even US passenger service is all government-run outside Brightline and museums.  

This situation was particularly bad in the 50s-60s before Amtrak took over passenger service.  Passenger trains absolutely bled money overall, and many of them were required to keep running even at massive losses per government regulation because they were an essential service.  This contributed to the financial ruin of many railroads, and most of them dropped passenger service or sold it to the government as soon as it was offered.  UP in particular was more financially stable, but also happily got rid of their passenger trains when offered.

Since then, the giant merged Class I railroads have become almost exclusively freight-oriented and hostile towards Amtrak-run passenger services.  They’re almost all terrible, but UP is one of the more visible offenders, holding up commuter services in Chicago, and contributing to the massive delays in long-distance western trains.  “Coach sexism” in the form of widespread hostility towards passenger rail by the likes of UP is one of the few canon social metaphors that WORKS.  The other engines would not be that way considering the systems they’re aligned with, but Greaseball could be made so, so much worse.    

There is a weird element of “I hate my wife” boomer humor when people describe passenger trains.  There’s “keeping freight trains in line” schedule-wise due to their time sensitivity.  There’s being seen as needlessly spendy for PR reasons (often true in the older days) paralleling “my wife wastes money on stupid things”.  There’s being seen as more delicate and refined due to needing better track conditions and gentler handling because you know, humans have standards that grain hoppers and sand don’t.  There’s the way that passenger rail isn’t as profitable as freight and basically requires government subsidies… not unakin to caring jobs and “women’s work” in general vs blue collar industrial jobs (Caveat: passenger rail employees were almost all male until Amtrak).  In short, yeah the freight railroads’ treatment of passenger trains in the US does have parallels to sexism, if slightly different from how canon does it. Abruptly dumping them in the 70s also fits Greaseball ditching Dinah mid-show. 

Even if you go the comparatively mild route of mirroring modern railroads, you still have him treating the coaches as second class vs freight (despite them being legally prioritized).  This is a major issue and why Amtrak has so many delays on long distance trains.  To summarize a complicated issue: due to the relatively unique economics of railroads, they are incentivized to run fewer, longer, irregular freight trains that have become so large they don’t fit in sidings and can’t physically let prioritized passenger trains through.  They then get delayed for hours, especially if the freight train breaks down (bonus: freight trains have a staff of two, engineer and conductor.  The conductor may have to walk up to THREE MILES to check out a possible defect on a car, delaying even more).  The Class Is have a broadly hostile relationship with Amtrak in general for various reasons related to insurance and minimal investment in track maintenance, and it even affects non-Amtrak passenger services like steam excursions.  UP has its personal steam fleet for publicity reasons,  but all of the Class Is are various shades of hostile to running steam excursions with passengers now due to those same reasons.  Even UP barely sells public tickets for theirs.  

Bonus: the reason Mexico has basically no passenger rail now is due to the nationalized railroads being taken over by companies heavily aligned with US freight railroads and with many similar attitudes towards passenger service.  They ditched virtually all of it en masse when they took over. Turbo works perfectly as just Greaseball but in Mexico because the same thing happened there… only a few years before the Mexican Stex production happened.  Electra might be an even more pathetic and unthreatening character there though, because the single, long-delayed electrified mainline built by NdeM was ripped out after only a few years of service by the  private freight railroads.  

WARNING: Leave now if you do not want to read about how abusive Greaseball could be made based to US railroads’ treatment of passenger trains pre-70s.  It’s not graphic, but it is blunt and dark.  I put this at the end for a reason, there is nothing beyond this last section.  

Basically, canon even at its worst arguably undersells how awful Greaseball could be to Dinah and the coaches if you make them symbols of UP and other major railroads vs passenger service pre-Amtrak.  They could be even MORE toxic.  You have a situation now where he outright hates her and wants her gone for above reasons, but is forced to stay in the relationship due to outside requirements and is fundamentally built for that kind of setup as an E-unit.  Railroads forced to keep passenger services usually didn’t have mandated quality standards for them.  They just had to have something.  This led to pathetically short trains (one or two cars), understaffing, and poor maintenance because they just had to have SOME passenger train on that line.  Track conditions reached terrible standards in the 70s on railroads that were near bankruptcy and delaying maintenance.  I absolute do not blame canon for not going this dark in a kids show, but basically there is no limit to how miserable Greaseball could make her life, short of actually killing her. I can’t understate how much she symbolizes something he’d want to rid himself of at any cost but can’t and will take that out on.  It’s BLEAK.  I don’t think I’d even write them this dark myself.

Well… now you see why I do not redeem and revise Greaseball the way I do Electra.  While the latter is wrongly demonized in an impressive number of ways, Greaseball is awful for all the right ones, to extents deeper than the creators probably ever imagined.  He is so versatile and nearly timeless in his awfulness.  If Greaseball were portrayed as remotely good I’d be ripping him to greater shreds than I do Rusty, but he’s great as a hateable bad guy who’s entertaining and globally recognizable even by much of the general public.  Despite all this, I’m fine with him just being a cartoon bully because it’s more palatable and not wrong.  But you could also make him so much nastier than even the workshop if you wanted to go darker.  

[that-sudsy]

Simon "Ghost" Riley x Fem Reader

Warnings ⚠️: None, maybe grammatical and spelling errors 😅

Authors Note: hey Sudsy here! I wrote this fic based on the song "Hard to Love by Lee Brice" I'll link the song down below. Hope you guys like it and let me know if you guys have a request.

Hard To Love

Simon Riley, known to most as "Ghost," had always struggled with trust. His mantra, "the people you love can hurt you the most," shaped his interactions and made relationships complicated. He had grown accustomed to solitude, and working alone became his signature.

Once you get used to being alone, it becomes an addiction. Yet, there were moments when Simon would catch glimpses of others—friends and partners laughing over a barbecue, sharing stories, and enjoying each other's company. He would be lying if he said he didn’t yearn for that connection sometimes. Shaking his head, he would look away, he couldn't let anyone hurt him again because he trusted someone....even family could betray you and it hurts but it also makes you stronger, muttering to himself, "Let’s get back to work," before diving back into his tasks.

Then one day, everything changed when he met you. From the start, there was an undeniable tension between you two, thick enough to slice with a knife. You were a light in his shadowy world, your bubbly aura shining even in the most serious situations for a person in this kind of work field. It was obvious you loved your job,When the medics hesitated to approach him, intimidated by his fierce demeanor, you stepped forward without a second thought.

No matter how many times he threatened to push you away or sent you off, you always found your way back to him. He would make insensitive comments, testing your patience, but you would respond with a hopeful smile, reminding him that there was still light in the darkness. When he pretended to be busy, you would leave a cup of coffee on his desk, a small gesture that made him feel guilty yet endeared him to you even more.

You both shared a penchant for drinking, and there were nights when you found yourselves slumped on the couch, nursing terrible hangovers. Simon was a short fuse, a wrecking ball crashing into the walls he had built around his heart. But you could read him like an open book, the only one who could talk sense into him during his fits of rage without raising your voice or getting striked on the face.

You were his soft spot, the one person who saw through the tough exterior to the man beneath.

"I can be insensitive," he would admit, his voice low and rough. "I have a tendency to focus on what I need, and sometimes I drink too much. I don’t know why you stay with me." He said bring up the topic as you two talked under the moonlight as you both took the first watch during a mission.

You would smile softly, your eyes filled with understanding. "Because I see you, Simon. The real you. And I know you’re worth it."

He would shake his head, a mix of frustration and admiration swirling within him. "I’m hard to love, you know. I don’t make it easy."

"But I love you anyway," you would reply, your voice steady and sincere. "You don’t have to be perfect for me to care."

Simon often felt like a wrecking ball, crashing into your heart, leaving chaos in his wake. Yet, you were like a Sunday morning—full of grace and warmth, a reminder of everything he wished he could be.

"You’ve given me a million second chances," he would say, his voice barely above a whisper. "And I don’t want to take you for granted."

He knew he was hard to love, but your unwavering support made him believe he could be better. "I don’t deserve it, I'm not a good man and you can see that..." he would confess, "but I love that you love me good."

In those moments, Simon realized that maybe, just maybe, he could learn to let someone in. And as he looked at you, he felt a flicker of hope—a chance to be more than just a ghost in the shadows.

Borders by @saradika-graphics 🍅 Disclaimer: I want to express my heartfelt gratitude for your support! Please note that I do not own any of the characters or images featured in this work, nor do I claim any rights to them.

© 2025 that-sudsy. Your creativity means the world to me! I kindly ask that you refrain from reposting, plagiarizing, or translating my work in any form. Thank you for your understanding 

[justalia]

persistence

this is probably gonna be my last post before i retreat into a serious break because i have things outside this manifesting world i need to sort through (i’m extra happy don’t worry about me, nothing happened!) i always say i go on break but i never actually do or it lasts just a few days but i’m for real this time!

i wanted to leave before but i felt the urge to post this cause i feel there’s a lot of doubt and confusion around this topic.

many of you still view persisting as a chore, as something you HAVE TO do or else.. something you must do or else..

many of you still view persisting as a job, tiring annoying and something you don’t necessarily wanna do if it wasn’t because you are manifesting.

this stems from a complete lack of understanding of the law.

what is persistence?

now i want you to pay particular attention to the second definition:

“the continued or prolonged existence of something.”

to persist within the law of assumption is to continue being.

nothing more nothing less, it is to just continue being who you decided that you are.

i’m sooo sure that all of you that are just approaching the law and are reading this post are having these specific thoughts right now:

“but i can’t live in my imagination forever”

“oh but i can’t imagine all the time, i have a life”

“yeah i persist but it’s tiring, i don’t wanna do all that”

“i have to persist so it manifests but i don’t have the time or the will to imagine all the time”

“i fulfill myself and persist but it doesn’t work”

or even..

“i get it! i wanna imagine all the time i don’t wanna do my daily tasks cause i just wanna live in imagination”

news flash:

YOU DON’T PERSIST IN THE IMAGINAL ACT. YOU PERSIST IN THE IMPLICATION THE IMAGINAL ACT MAKES ABOUT YOU.

no shit you find it tiring and see it as a job if you think you have to constantly visualize/affirm to persist in being.

whatever your imaginal act may be: IT IMPLICATES SOMETHING ABOUT YOU. IT CHANGES SOMETHING ABOUT YOU.

now i’m gonna take visualization as an example because i am a visualizer and this was exactly the mistake i kept falling into during my early days applying the law.

i thought i had to visualize my desire as much as i could, i saw imagination = visualization (for me) so to persist i must visualize all the time.

“i enjoy it, what’s wrong about it?”

look at yourself, look at your intentions: why are you doing this?

why are you constantly affirming/visualizing?

okay you like it, but why?

my assumption is that you are using imagination as an escape from what you deem reality. you still see your 3D as reality instead of a mere reflection of your state in imagination and use imagination as an escape from what you decided is reality.

you see this world of shadows, you don’t like it you think: i can visualize this!

which isn’t inherently wrong in itself but LOOK at your intentions. LOOK AT WHAT YOU’RE IMPLYING WITH YOUR ACTIONS/DECISIONS.

if that’s what your doing this means you don’t understand the law. you don’t understand that imagination is reality and you don’t understand what persisting actually is.

you’re always persisting in being

“i can’t live in imagination all the time, i want my desire in front of me!!”

well boo, hate to break it to you but when you come to me and tell me these things i genuinely think your dumb and i’m not even gonna bother replying to your question to try and help you.

why? because first of all it’s clear you haven’t even taken the time out of your day to read my posts, if not the source at least read the posts of the person you wanna ask a question to.

second of all.

WHAT ARE YOU NOT UNDERSTANDING ABOUT THE SENTENCE “IMAGINATION IS REALITY”?

imagination IS reality because YOU ARE ALREADY LIVING INSIDE IMAGINATION.

how?

YOU MAKE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT WHO YOU ARE ALL THE DAMN TIME.

what’s wrong about these assumptions is that you create them based on this world of shadows that is inherently reflecting you instead of actually allowing yourself to be and have whoever the fuck you want in this world BECAUSE YOU ARE GOD.

YOU PERSIST IN BEING SOMEONE ALL THE DAMN TIME.

RIGHT NOW YOU’RE PERSISTING IN BEING UNLOVED, UNCHOSEN, UNWANTED, POOR, BROKE, UNSUCCESSFUL BASED ON WHAT???

YOUR ASSUMPTIONS!!!!!

you look at this world of shadows that is reflecting YOU and think “YEP that is the end! that is who i am i can’t do anything about it! that’s my identity forever!”

YOU ASSUME SOMETHING ABOUT YOURSELF ALL DAY EVERY DAY!!!!!

and you’re not constantly visualizing scenarios in which you’re unloved and unwanted, are you?

you’re not constantly visualizing scenarios in which you are poor and broke, are you?

you’re not constantly visualizing scenarios in which you are unsuccessful and insecure, are you?

RIGHT!!!!

you’re just assuming that you are..

YEAH.. shocker right?

do you or do you not understand that imagination IS reality?

did you or did you not wake up to who you actually are?

if God is within you, if YOU ARE A FIGMENT OF GOD, if you truly realized that we were put on this earth to realize our power and put it to the extreme tests to live this lovely human life to the fullest, if you ACTUALLY realized this… do you understand that you can BE AND HAVE whatever the fuck you want?

if you UNDERSTAND FULLY that this life is simply a reflection of your wonderful imagination.. do you understand that ALL THAT YOU HAVE TO CHANGE IS IMAGINATION?

THE SCRIPT HAS BEEN FLIPPED! YOU DON’T HAVE TO TAKE ANYTHING YOU DON’T WANT. YOU CAN HAVE AND BE WHOEVER YOU WANT AND IT’LL BE REFLECTED.

you can actually create a new identity for yourself inside of imagination and stick with it because that’s who you truly are!!!

remember this:

YOU DON’T PERSIST IN THE IMAGINAL ACT. YOU PERSIST IN THE IMPLICATION OF THE IMAGINAL ACT.

let’s say you want your person back, how would i properly go about it?

if i wanted to use a method: i would imagine a scene that implies we are together, enjoy it fully, leaving the world outside of myself and feeling what i TRULY want to feel. i would internalize that there are infinite realities and i am just choosing the reality i would like to experience right now, i leave the outer world alone because right now it is showing me something i don’t want. i recognize it is another reality i previously created and whatever i see is LOCKED to that state, i’m not CHANGING THAT STATE, i’m choosing another one to experience that already exists or else i wouldn’t even want it. when i open my eyes i know that i am what my imaginal scene implied. i know i am that which i want to be despite the opposition of the senses because I KNOW imagination IS THE ONLY reality. this is when persistence comes in: what am i persisting in? I’M PERSISTING IN THE KNOWING THAT I AM WHAT MY IMAGINAL ACT IMPLIED. i actually am in the relationship of my dreams and i persist because that’s the only truth.

if i didn’t want to use a method: i decide/choose i already am who i want to be because i can see it with my mind’s eye, i imagine i already am who i want to be without needing to close my eyes and see it in a scene. i know i am who i want to be in imagination, it’s undeniable cause the moment i assume something about myself i instantly see it in imagination. now who did i decide to be? i decided to be in the relationship of my dreams with my person. what do i persist in? i persist in knowing that’s who i actually am now.

DONE! FINITO.

notice how i didn’t talk about the 3D expression. not even once.

i know that imagination is the only reality and i know that this life is SIMPLY imagination reflected, so when i put on some clothes do i go and check the mirror to see if i’m actually dressed or naked? I KNOW I’M CLOTHED, i don’t need the mirror to check if i’m naked or not.

ask me again “how do i believe imagination is the only reality?” and i’m gonna slap you across the face.

YOU JUST BELIEVE IT. YOU JUST ACCEPT IT.

TEST HOW THIS WORKS.

not IF IT WORKS. TEST HOW.

imagine something and assume that your imaginal act is FACT and not the act going on on the outside.

and when the old man tries to come back what do you do?

BE INDIFFERENT.

THAT’S NOT WHO YOU ARE ANYMORE. ACCEPT A NEW IDENTITY IN ITS PLACE.

you already experienced all that you could experience in that state, so accept a new identity NOW.

the 3D is not your enemy. it cannot do anything on its own.

it follows your state and it adapts to you without you needing to adapt to it.

[sugarushwriting]

“don’t blame me, love made me crazy.”

“looks like an angel while sleeping.”

just a little jay drabble/oneshot. different than my usual writing.

not proof read.

trigger warnings:

obsession: the state of being obsessed with someone or something.

stalking: stalkers use a variety of tactics, including (but not limited to): unwanted contact including phone calls, texts, and contact via social media, unwanted gifts, showing up/approaching an individual or their family/friends, monitoring, surveillance, property damage, and threats.

voyeurism: voyeuristic behavior is when someone derives sexual gratification from secretly watching others undress or engage in sexual activities. voyeurs are also known as "peeping toms"

₍ᐢ. .ᐢ₎ ₊˚⊹♡

every where you were, jay was there too.

a coffee shop, main library on campus. any cafeteria or food center on campus. anywhere and almost everywhere.

it didn’t matter how many different options were available, you both always ended up at the same place at the same time.

yet you both only had 3 classes together on campus.

philosophy intro to logic, abnormal psychology and interpersonal communications.

“will you be okay?” you friend asked with extreme concern.

“yes, i will be okay, ryunjin.” you reassured.

she was worried because for your abnormal psychology class you were partnered with jay for project.

“maybe yall should study him, because he’s definitely abnormal.” ryunjin whispered.

you playfully swatted her arm. “jay told me to meet him on the fourth floor.”

“why the top floor? so no one can hear you scream?”

“it’s the quiet floor and that’s where he reserved a study room for us.” you said. “please stop being like that!” you huffed.

ryunjin rolled her eyes but went to the second floor where her other friends were as you rode up the elevator to the fourth floor.

you were the one to actually suggest the fourth floor and jay reserved a room for you both based on that suggestion.

getting off the elevator, you found the study room off to the corner with ease, seeing jay set out needed materials on the table.

when he saw you enter he smiled. “oh hey!”

you smiled and waved. “hey jay. ready to get this project knocked out?”

he laughed, “absolutely, but it should be fun. abnormal psychology is one of my favorite subjects.”

“mine too.” you smiled.

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

almost an hour later, you both decided on the topic of how personality disorders impact intrapersonal relationships.

you had actually suggested the topic on obsessive sexual fascinations like fetishism, voyeruism, and exhibitionsim, however, jay wasn’t too sure that would even get approved by the professor.

“why not?” you had asked. “is it not a part of abnormal psychology and human behavior?”

“it is but—,”

“you’re not comfortable, it’s okay.” you teased.

ryunjin would probably say it’s because it would mean studying his pattern of behaviors and people don’t like when they get caught.

during the next hour you both jotted down some ideas and found a few psychology papers and articles you all could use.

“we would also need to make sure we find examples.” jay said. “like in movies, shows, plays, things like that.”

“sounds like an easy task! we could use the movies like scream, when a stranger calls, or even—,”

jay chuckled. “and how do these movies relate to our topic?”

“are you kidding,” you laughed with a chuckle, “those people were cray cray. they had to have some kind of personality disorder. sure i can find out with some research.”

“when’s the next time you’re available to work on the project?” jay asked as you both started packing your belongings.

“i am pretty open. i don’t do much but hang around friends or stick to myself.” you shrugged. “how about tomorrow?”

“that’s fine. but i think we’ll have to find a new spot, if i remember correctly the library study rooms are booked up.”

“that’s okay, since we need somewhere private, maybe mine or your apartments?” you suggested, putting your bag over your shoulder.

jay nodded. “either is fine.” he smiled.

“we can do my place! i have plenty of snacks.”

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

“are you insane?” ryunjin scolded you. “that guy is is messed up in the head, you know he’s stalking you, yet you invite him to your place? what are you, crazy yourself?”

it was the next day, and you were telling ryunjin your plans with jay to work on the project at your place while you both stopped by a coffee shop earlier in the morning.

“he asked for my address.” you stated.

“of course he did! he can’t get caught.” ryunjin narrowed her eyes at you. you rolled yours, and walked out the coffee shop, her right behind you.

“you know i am just looking out for you, right?” ryunjin sighed. “i mean, you’ve told me how you been finding flowers at your doorstep, and jay would randomly pop up where you are, almost everywhere, you were.”

“i could be overreacting.”

ryunjin scoffed. “oh now you say you’re overreacting? babe, a stalker is a stalker.”

“i actually never said he was a stalker.” you defending, back tracking.

“you legit told me, ‘ryunjin, jay from my class is stalking me!’”

“i don’t recall.” you shrugged it off.

you did recall.

you remember telling ryunjin how flowers were showing up at your door step, the same flowers from a flower shop jay worked at over the summer.

you remember telling ryunjin how anytime you were at the mall, you saw jay there and he would be staring at you wide-eyed, then quickly walk away.

same at any coffee shop, cafeterias on campus and so forth.

you remember telling ryunjin how you always felt someone was watching you as you undressed.

later that evening you prepared a variety of snacks for jay, and spread out all materials that would be needed for the project.

he had texted you and stated he would be at your place by 7:00 pm.

it was 7:05 pm and you got worried, negative thoughts clouding your mind. was he hurt? did he forget? did he stand you up?

at 7:10 pm a knock came to your door, and you giddily got up from your spot on the floor in front of the coffee table and took big strides to open the door.

you opened seeing jay with a smile. “sorry i’m a bit late. uh, something popped up.”

“oh no, is everything okay?” you asked with concern.

jay seemed frazzled and out of sorts than how he usually presents himself or how you see him.

jay shook his head, “i’m good. just probably all in my head.”

“great, let’s get to work!”

you invited jay in your apartment, showing him were you set up the coffee table for working on the project.

“wow you really do have a lot of snacks!” he chuckled. he picked up a few, “and many are my favorite?” this came out more as a question and surprise, his eyebrows raising cutely.

“really? they’re my favorite too!” you giggled. “should we get started? i have a few personality disorders we can explore.”

“sure! what are some you have in mind?”

“well i was researching,” you began, and took a seat on the floor and jay did the same. “some personality disorders that can affect relationships and communication include antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorders, histrionic personality disorders and narcissistic personality disorders.” you listed with a smile. “but those are just cluster b that i think have the highest affects.”

“you seem to know a lot about personality disorders?” jay chuckled.

“i should, it’s an interest of mine. like i mentioned, abnormal psychology is one of my favorite subjects. i would love to work with populations most wouldn’t.”

“like who?” jay asked as you piped his interest.

“serial killers, stalkers, criminals, people like them.”

jay nearly choked on his own spit. “why is that?”

you smirked and your hand landed on his shoulder. he looked at your hand nervously, “i just think most are misunderstood.” you smiled widely. “i also just believe the way they think is so interesting and unbelievable.”

jay watched you talk about your passion with not only interest but something more. maybe he was looking at you strangely? looking at you with concern?

“well, this project should be breeze then.” he laughed nervously. he was more than ready to leave.

as you all continued to work on the project at a good pace, you and jay couldn’t help but still glances at one another.

two and half hours later, jay stood with a stretch, “it’s getting late, i should go.” he stated. “thank you for the snacks.”

he started packing up his things, as you began cleaning up a little. once his backpack strap was over his shoulder, he looked into your kitchen seeing a vase of flowers, a tag that clearly showed it was from the flower shop he worked at over the summer.

jay got nervous and fearful. he quickly adverted his gaze before you caught him looking. but unknown to him, you saw him out of the corner of your eye looking at the flowers, but you decided to keep quiet about it.

“so, i’ll see you tomorrow?” you asked hopeful.

jay’s voice shook with nerves, “um, i’ll text you. i forgot i have something planned with my friends tomorrow.” he smiled politely, but quickly bid goodbye and left your apartment.

︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶

jay laid in bed after showering wide awake for a while. his nerves had gotten the better of him.

you had showered and put on some comfy clothes to enjoy your favorite show after jay left.

jay soon fell asleep, and one thing about jay was he was a heavy sleeper. almost nothing could wake him up so easily. his friends would tease him about it, but it was just who he was.

you weren’t a heavy sleeper on the other hand. which is why to every small noise you would awake, or had almost a third sense of being over cautionary fearful someone was always watching.

the flowers in the trash looked at you almost mockingly, and you closed your fist so tight, your nails were sure to dig into your knuckles.

such an angel while sleeping. so peaceful.

yes jay was. you smiled lovingly looking down at him as you watched him from his doorway as he slept soundly. you stepped quietly closer to him to get as close as possible, when you took out your polaroid camera.

after watching your favorite show which starred jay, him getting undressed and redressed, you were hot and bothered and couldn’t wait until you could finally make your move.

but it would take time. he wouldn’t understand you, or your habits, or how your brain worked.

you could see he was judging you earlier about the way you spoke about your passion.

but he would come around. he had to.

you knew he got stumbled by the flowers in your apartment. if he questioned, you would’ve just waved it off as a coincidence you got it for yourself, or maybe tell him you had a secret admirer to see if he would get jealous.

would he? you had a feeling he would be the jealous and possessive type of what belongs to him.

you sure were. possessive, jealous, of any girl that he talked to. he didn’t know better, but those women should! you thought, they couldn’t compare to you anyway.

when it came to your tactics, you had to be careful. you didn’t want to scare him off too soon. so this project was a great way to wiggle yourself into his bubble.

you fantasized so much about your future with jay. it blurred the line between fact and fictitious, and you were so deep into the obsession, you didn’t understand or even see the line anymore.

you didn’t want to blackmail him—not yet. the flowers were enough for now.

your love for jay made you crazy.

no one could blame you. that’s just how love was, right?

“don’t blame me.” you whispered to jay as you ran your fingers lightly through his hair with a smile.

₍ᐢ. .ᐢ₎ ₊˚⊹♡

[lunarw0rks]

Hi! Is it possible to get an imagine where Ghost accidently walks in on reader changing (they're together and reader doesn't mind) but Ghost kinda freaks out and insists he can wait outside until they're done. I feel like with his past he'd constantly worry about invading people's privacy/violating them in anyway, so maybe just some fluffy reassuring him that he's ok and he makes reader feel safe? Sorry if that's a lot 🫶

༄ Poise | Simon Riley

Warning(s): !!brief references to ghost's trauma/SA!!, established relationship, mentions of sex/nudity, hurt/comfort, angst to fluff, gn!reader

₊˚ෆˎˊ˗ Word Count: 1.2k ꒦꒷ MAIN MASTERLIST ꒷꒦ GHOST MASTERLIST // have a request? ˗ˏˋ ASK BOX ˎˊ- ♡‧₊˚✧˖ 「 AO3 VER. 」 A/N: Tried my best to handle this topic respectfully. Definitely an underused, under-discussed part of Ghost's character.

Simon Riley was a complicated man, to say the least.

But he never intended to let his complications rub off on you — no matter how much suffering he voicelessly endured to ensure that.

Whether it was weeks into the relationship or months, his walls were still standing tall. Certain things: he just couldn't do with you. Reviewing old photographs of himself, going to a park where children run joyously with their parents, nor could he do anything to invade your privacy.

To you, your involvement with him was at a pivotal point. Where there wasn't a need to be bashful around the other and withhold the petty grievances.

Though, Simon's skeletons were anything but quaint.

There was weight to them; weight you only bore a measly tinge of. He never told you details, only bits and pieces of what he had been through. Those serious talks were scarce and short-lived — forgettable, even, if it weren't for the woeful nature of his past memories.

『 ♡ 』 • 『 ♡ 』 • 『 ♡ 』 • 『 ♡ 』

Per usual, he had gotten up long before you. It was a typical sight; laying in the empty bed unsure if Simon was even home, because of his default stealth. Even though you knew he wasn't beside you, your fingers outstretched to his side, palming the sheets that had gone cold in his absence.

With a drowsy sigh, you peeled back the plush comforter, revealing the remnants of the lustful night before. Or, the lack of remnants, considering you were still rid of your clothes.

Through the curtains, the risen sun engulfed the shared bedroom, illuminating its lackluster decor — at least on his portion of it. Little decor, no pictures or clutter out, clothes folded and hung neatly as he would with his uniforms on base.

After a few minutes of gathering your strength, you climbed out of bed and approached the dresser, giving your fatigued eyes a rub. You dug through the clothing piles until you found an outfit suitable for a slothful day in with him.

You set the pickings on the edge of the bed. Following, you were slipping into a fresh pair of undergarments, listening intuitively for any sound of your lover, which wasn't an easy task.

Simon ambled up the staircase, on his way to the ensuite washroom to retrieve the watch he took off to shower. In his mind, you were still fast asleep, especially after last night. His fingers clamped around the knob, opening it with slowness.

In a matter of seconds, he was poisoned with a sensation of unbearable discomfort, as well as disgust towards himself. Seeing you, nude and vulnerable rather than slumbering in the bed.

"Shit, I'm sorry, love." Unlike before, he handled the door with haste — closing it like he had just walked in on a stranger.

Your mouth remained slightly agape with bafflement, paired with a feeling of unease for him. You were only changing, and it wasn't the first time he had seen you undressed. This wasn't a little hiccup in the day, nor an off-beat moment that you could laugh at later on.

Something gravely upset him, and it wasn't your bare skin.

Quicker than before, you changed into the remainder of your outfit. As well as fixing up the rest of your appearance; an excuse to figure out how to approach the subject.

You exited the bedroom, giving the door a gentle close. No sign of Simon down the hall, not in the living room, either. You checked the office next, finding nothing but another uninhabited space. Lastly, you crept through the kitchen with wary arms folded across your chest.

Then, you caught a glimpse of Simon's unstirring silhouette through the window. Slouched while sitting on the steps of the deck; a thousand-mile stare into the garden.

He didn't flinch when the patio door shut behind him, not even when you sat beside him on the steps.

"This isn't about me being naked, is it?" You spoke into the crisp mid-morning air, feeling the unforgiving bite of it overwhelm your exposed skin and lips.

Simon scoffed at your poor attempt to lighten the bleak mood, giving you a brief glance. If only things— if only he were that uncomplicated. "No, it's not you. Nothing like that."

You nod your head, trusting that his blunt nature wouldn't allow him to stifle a thing as serious as that. If he truly wasn't attracted to you or your frame, you wouldn't be resting your head on his shoulder.

For a few minutes; the conversation stopped. Only the occasional passing car in the distance or an animal or insect chirping. The leaves blew gently, until the breeze eventually found the both of you, sending a bitter, unforgiving autumn wind.

The silence was fine; it was common with him. But it wasn't fine when you knew he was swallowed by sorrowful thoughts.

"Can I..." You began, still keeping your head pressed firmly against his solid shoulder. "Can I ask what's wrong? Why you wouldn't stay in the room?" Asking what happened was too far, and you were already walking a narrow line. He wouldn't hold it against you if you got too invasive, but that wasn't a chance you wanted to even consider.

Simon's flashbacks hadn't ceased for a minute. Not since he shut the bedroom door behind him and sat out here.

The worst part? None of it was your fault. It had nothing to do with your bare skin, not even him catching a glimpse of it. His inner voice had him convinced he overstepped; that he made you feel used and violated by proxy.

He sighed heavily, saying a thousand words with a mere exhale. "Things you don't need to hear, sweetheart. Trust me on that." That was one way of putting it lightly, considering the gravity of what he had endured years ago.

"Listen, Simon," your fingers roamed along his shoulders, caressing down his back, careful to avoid the scars he didn't want you to touch. "I feel the pain you walk around with, I do. Every moment we're together, it doesn't rest."

He nodded his head slowly, closing his eyes for a moment to absorb the bleed of your words. You weren't sugarcoating the rawness of how his past affected you, nor were you judging him for it.

"But you didn't hurt me, alright? You did nothing wrong." Your voice couldn't have reached deeper. The tightening of his chest had uncoiled a bit, soothing his silent episode of derealization.

Simon's shaky fingers found your cheek, caressing against your chilled flesh with a tender firmness, "don't think I deserve you and that bleeding heart."

Your brows knitted with benevolence, returning the same gloomy gaze his amber eyes were emitting. Following his words, you shook your head, gripping his wrists gently.

"You do deserve it," you retorted gently, "nobody makes me feel safe like you do." You had never said something more truthful. He really did make you feel safe, in every sense. Intimately, romantically, even just as another human being you decided to spend your time with.

"C'mere." Simon murmured, shortly before nudging your head in the direction of his lap, allowing you to lay against him completely.

Whether he believed you or not, that didn't matter. All that mattered was that he hit the jackpot with you. Someone who didn't tip the scale, who didn't need to be privy to his every sorrow.

You were there purely to be there for him, expectant of no rewards or praises — though Simon would definitely give them soon enough.

In his own, deeply complicated, way.

[anim-ttrpgs]

I was interviewed on Storyteller Conclave!

You’ve probably seen several posts on here about how I’m going to be on Storyteller Conclave talking about Eureka. If you haven’t, you’re going to, because there’s still some in the queue and I’m not going to remove them.

But, that happened, and it was a great time! You can listen to the episode here, here, here, or here!

I wasn’t on my A-game the whole time unfortunately, I had some mic trouble for about the first 20 minutes, along with some other distractions on my end that kept me from focusing early on, but luckily I had team member @ashweather to support me and help me out.

If you can bear with the rocky start, there’s a lot of good insight into the design of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy in this podcast, and a lot of it goes into stuff that we haven’t really covered on this blog, especially the themes.

We talk about the realistic and simulationist nature of Eureka and how this serves its gameplay and themes, we talk about how it takes inspiration from John Woo films such as Hard Boiled, its pretty unique approach to the concept of HP, how it approaches and flips the concept of "winning", and its deeply character-driven nature.

Of course we also talk about Eureka's unique and awesome rules for investigative gameplay, and how it improves upon games that did investigative gameplay before it. How it trusts the players' intellect, but also won't leave them totally twisting in the wind after a bad roll or two!

My favorite thing we talked about, near the end of the show, was Eureka’s approach to monsters, disability, and its sympathy towards “bad people.” I’m actually going to be writing a whole essay on this topic hopefully before the Kickstarter ends on May 10th, but you can get a really good gist of it just from listening to this episode of the podcast.

Oh and on that subject, the hosts, two veteran Vampire: The Masquerade players, said in the show that in many ways, Eureka does vampires better than VTM. Like, wow, that’s high praise..

Here’s a reminder also that Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is kickstarting from right now until May 10th, 2024. Back it and get yourself a copy plus custom artwork or the chance to get your blood sucked by vampires as an entry on the random victim tables for playable monster PCs! With every stretch goal we meet, the game gets better and better. Tons of beautiful new artwork, new options for gameplay, and even two entirely new playable Monsters could be added to the book, so visit the Kickstarter and secure your copy today!

If you want to try before you buy, you can download a free demo of the prerelease version from our website or our itch.io page!

If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!

You can also support us on Ko-fi, or by checking out our merchandise!

Join our TTRPG Book Club At the time of writng this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is the current game being played in the book club, and anyone who wants to participate in discussion, but can’t afford to make a contribution, will be given the most updated prerelease version for free! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[rin-and-jade]

Love-Me, Love-Me-Nots Daisy : A Guide on Navigating In-Sys Relationships

Romantic relationship, situationship, friendship, kinship, partnership.. There's way too much to list in just one sentence!

Here's a random fact for this topic; People say first impression is reliable to know of the other person, and surprisingly they're only 51% accurate when it's about judging wether a person is extroverted. But will you be able to judge better when it comes to your own alters as you technically live in the same headspace?

All that aside, this post will address inner relationships as a whole. Use this chance to see this topic outside of the romantic stereotype that we always see! (X-mas Activity included)

FAST PASS: Not available--this is an important occasion, read the full post!

What's a "relationship" with no romance, then?

according to this quote,

"a continuing and often committed association between two or more people, as in a family, friendship, marriage, partnership, or other interpersonal link in which the participants have some degree of influence on each other’s thoughts, feelings, and actions." - Merriam Webster

Basically, it means there's atleast two people committing with the connection they have formed with each other to qualify as a relationship, no matter the form.

When it comes to systems, it is up to themselves to see alters as separate people, or as different versions of itself,, the idea still can be applied here: as rebuilding the connection you lost/dissociated with your yet-to-be-integrated personalities/facets.

Being a system is a relationship already?!

Well--yeah!

But let me explain a bit here.

As a complex living being, our brain is made to adapt through tasks that requires multifaceted thinking. This would mean you would incorporate both logical and emotional thoughts, curious and cautious perspectives, and any behavioral or social habits or patterns you have learnt which all condenses into one singular conclusion or action that seems to be the best for a current situation--which is also dependent on how your thought processes work.

That is the basic depiction of integrated thinking to agree on a solution, but for systems--this is fragmented, leaving short-sighted solutions based on each facets, which bypasses the "filter" to integrate multiple ideas as one. Now, creating many different solutions or outcomes you could take, which is equal to the amount of alters actively participating on the discussion.

I... guess you're still confused, which is why i prepared this visual representation:

This should explain everything i had described beforehand. Now im not sure if the quality is the best..

So yes, as a complex being, you had already own different views which take skills to talk it out into one unified resolution.

Especially, if your different views you have can influence what actions, feelings, or reaction you get. That's your own emotional and mental dynamic when it comes to navigating your own map of thoughts. A literal relationship with the self..!

Eg. "I love this food! But i can't eat too much or else i'll feel sick" When you have a passion of food driven by emotional resonance, you still have a logical side that completes the thought to exact a reasoning without over-eating.

A.. Self Relationship..?

It's not a cringe thing at all. Trust. No cap.

There's literally a concept named self-care, which focuses on maintaining your health, emotional wellness, and enrichment in your life. Another term accepted widely by society is a self-date where you treat yourself similarly like a partner, focuses on practicing self love--this one would talk about how do you approach your different views (or alters, for systems), as a form of self regulation and processing.

To put this within context, you're a system, and, that means there are multiple parts of yourselves (or people) that are separated through dissociative barriers. This means you are disconnected with the majority of your multifaceted nature,, which also means you do not have a good relationship with yourself.

Simply put, this is where you learn to meet your needs again. As described from the hierarchy of needs by Maslow.

--

From a more general view, a negative relationship with yourself looks like:

A sense of distrust with your gut feelings

Unable to accept certain feelings or traits of your own

Self-blame/hate

Ignoring/neglecting your emotional and mental health

Unsure of your likes, dislikes, or favorite things

Not allowing yourself to be authentic (masking)

Operates in shame and focusing on failures

Not feeling you have worth or deserving of good things

Internal suppressing (notable for alter dynamics in systems)

System things that branch out from a negative relationship with yourself additionally appears as:

Fighting for front with different parts

Oftentimes arguing, playing down other's opinion

Feeling uncomfortable around headmates

Crippling sense of loneliness/disconnection amidst your alters

Things like shame, guilt, negative opinions of others, or poor treatment often shapes an unhealthy relationship with yourself.

The reason behind this is when your external environment is an enemy (eg. instead of supporting, you're being blamed) to you and your integrity, you may consciously or unconsciously pick up behaviors where you must abandon yourself to appease others and survive better, which means you have been taught to be an enemy of your own in order to live. Absolutely not nice.

Oh god. Can i ever break from this habit?

Ofcourse you can, but oftentimes your system are not in terms with some or most alters at the first place. It is normal to have a difficult or a conflicted dynamic within your other selves, and, you totally can shift this negative relationship with your own parts into a healthier and cooperative one!

It's better to take it nice and slow--i'll briefly show the steps on how to start demolishing this tensioned dynamic:

Inspire yourself with the idea of how working together would help in tackling difficult days.

Be aware of your negative thoughts or reactions when interacting with your parts, make sure that you don't act out on it. Also take this as a sign to un-learn some sabotaging or passive aggressive behaviors!

Help bringing awareness to the collective of their reactive behaviors, and reflect what can be done to increase better communication without conflict involved.

Parts often listen to their own egos--not caring about other alters and doing impulsive things while fronting. Bring clarity to how their actions impact the collective, and even themselves at the future. This would help foster more teamwork.

After some degree of awareness and cooperation has been established, do small acts of kindness for each other to strengthen the bond. This is also a good time to give roles and jobs, ensuring trust and that your back is covered.

The rest of this phase is up to you and how your natural dynamic and system works, good luck!

Waddya think of in-sys romance then..

We've briefed ourselves on what relationship constitutes as, and what does it mean generally to systems. Which means, In-sys partners and their romantic relationship is a valid (plural form) of fostering self love, akin to self-dates.

A good cooperation with your alters means a good relationship and terms with any alters you have--wether they have a purpose or not in your system. When it comes to internal romance situations, it focuses as a specific integration that your alters are going through. This will create a fusion between two or more headmates due to the dissociative barriers between them broke down.

It takes a long way to start loving yourself after years of internal disputes and conflict which perpetuates the high dissociation with each other, don't feel ashamed of it!

Are romantic relationships mandatory?

No they are not, but they are one of the most intimate, personal forms of self bonding. You still can heal and bond through cooperation and camaraderie, and everyone's styles are different, so let's not judge 'em.

Of course, romantic relationships within your system offers some pros that a normal comrade-dynamic cannot replicate:

Deeper understanding of your alters emotionally

Getting your love-needs met when you never received any proper care

Often faster to start integrating than a typical relationship

Another way to work around negative sense of worth and habits

Definitely, with some cons too:

Some alters are not compatible together, which creates friction

Unresolved habits or beliefs that blocks them from truly embracing love and care

Often frowned upon to have in-sys partners by communities, that prevents them from fully immersing in it

It brings up uncomfortable or painful truths or unresolved trauma, then to be faced and healed from

Not an extensive list, but you now got the idea. Use this list to prepare or broaden your knowledge on what romantic relationships look like!

Lastly. Did you also know that you can have parental dynamics in your system? it is similar to the romantic one, yet now driven with a different kind of love, just like a caretaker with their child parts. They are also important to heal, and feel safer after having trauma from younger times.

Takeaway & Together Activities

At the end of the day, no matter how many daisies you've plucked, a flower can't tell what's the answer to your internal relationships--romantically or not, for your system.

How do you see system dynamics differently now? There are many lessons packed in one posts that you could bring home. I definitely think that internal relationships are rarely discussed, so i gave it my all to create this entire topic, consisting of different system dynamics!

Lastly, internal relationships don’t need to be limited to serious work--they can also be fostered through shared joy and celebration! With Christmas approaching, here’s the five-day activity plan to build your bond together as i promised previously:

DAY 1

Reflect on how far you've all come. The year is coming to an end, what are the proudest moments or milestones of your system journey this year?

DAY 2

The day after reflection, what gratitude do you have for your alters? It's best to let them know you truly appreciate their work and efforts to keep things afloat before new years--let them know you feel supported by them, and willing to support them back!

DAY 3

Discuss how you would spend the whole day with others/your partner. Do you like outings? Watching movies? Or do you have multiple recommendations to do? Even if you are limited to night time only, go for it! You deserve a day to do the things you want.

DAY 4

There's one day left before the famous holiday, Take a moment to ponder on what you could get for others--if there's no money, consider a homemade gift like a memorial art, or letters,, make sure to keep them a secret before the day.

DAY 5

Don't forget to give each other's presents if you have prepared from the day before. Any consumables are also allowed to be bought on this day. Merry Christmas everyone!

On a personal note. This post took two weeks- augh-

- c

[jjkamochoso]

Helloo! I read your written about isao shinomiya and it was amazing!

Can you write another one about him like if he get jealous :) ?

Yes I can, and here it is below!! Thanks for your patience and for your support!! I’m so happy you like my work and I’m always glad to help bring your ideas to life so I appreciate you choosing me for the task!! Much love and I hope you enjoy🥰❤️🫶

Director Jealous- I Mean, General

Fluff

Isao Shinomiya x gn!reader

Warnings: none

A/n: I made up the Platoon Leader character, just fyi :)

You sighed, setting your lunch tray down with a bit more force than intended, the loud clunk of plastic hitting tabletop reverberating through the dining hall. It was another fine day at the Ariake Maritime Base but you were so exhausted that you decided to take your second meal break early. Being Chief of Staff was certainly no joke—you always had meetings to attend, battle plans to write out, training to keep your body in top shape. You loved your job, though, because it made you feel like you were truly making a difference in the Defense Force. It certainly didn’t hurt that rising up the ranks allowed you to spend more time with Director General Shinomiya, who you considered a coworker, and was the man you’d been hopelessly in love with for an embarrassingly long time. You didn’t mind pining from afar since the prospect of approaching him with a topic of anything but anti Kaiju tactics was much too scary. You also weren’t worried that someone else would confess romantic intentions to him before you ever could because his gruff demeanor and no nonsense attitude certainly weren’t causing people to fight for his affections.

Not that people were lining down the block to steal your heart, either.

You sighed again, this time taking some food to your mouth in an attempt to enjoy your meal. The saying is correct that it’s lonely at the top: you’d worked so hard in your career that you had no time for a significant other and you rarely saw your family due to other obligations. Even friends were slim pickings here at headquarters since most people in First Division wouldn’t chance talking to a superior like yourself in such a casual way and the rest of your peers were either gone on business trips or holed away in their own offices nonstop.

“L/n, right? Chief of Staff?”

You turned your head to face the person standing next to you. You recognized the smiling man as a First Division Platoon Leader. You nodded, allowing him to continue.

“Wow, I never see you high rankers out here! Can I sit?”

He motioned to the seat next to you and again, you nodded. He was right that the higher ups weren’t in the dining hall too often. You usually chose to eat in your office, trying to get as much work done as possible at all times. Today was a rarity for you in that you really needed a break. You also really needed a friend, so you let him talk your ear off as you munched away.

“I’m Kiyoshi Kato, Platoon Leader. Of course, you probably already knew that. Anyway, I’ve been working on this idea for a smoother evacuation plan…”

Kiyoshi then delved deep into his well thought out plan. You wanted to be frustrated that you couldn’t escape work in the one place that no one ever gets work done, but you had to admit, his idea was genuinely smart. You saw where improvements could be made, but overall, it was pretty solid.

“I’m impressed, Kato,” you said, giving him a hearty pat on the back, “you made some really good points in that idea of yours. Why don’t you type up a proposal and run it by my office later?”

You had never seen someone’s eyes light up quicker than his did in that moment.

No one had ever seen a man’s eyes darken as quickly as Isao Shinomiya’s did when he saw you speaking with and smiling at a subordinate. As he stood in the doorway of the dining hall, an unfamiliar squeeze of his heart was harshly felt. He had come by your office earlier, hoping to catch a glance of you and exchange pleasantries, but when you weren’t there, he frowned deeply. Where could you be? You were always in your office. In fact, he walked by there so often he inadvertently learned your schedule. It was only 11:30am; you usually didn’t leave for lunch until 11:47am. Lo and behold, he found you at the dining hall, much too early and off schedule for Isao’s liking. He wanted to walk forward and break up whatever moment you two were sharing, but he found himself unable to move, his gaze frozen on the scene in front of him. You had been smiling that wonderful smile of yours, but something was horribly wrong—your hand was resting on the back of another man. Isao’s own hand was clenched in a fist by the time you moved away from the mystery man, and his boots hit the ground with a heavy thud of each step as he finally reached your table.

“L/n. When you’re finished with your meal, I need to speak with you.”

The words left his mouth before he could convince himself it was a bad idea to approach you. What he was going to speak to you about was yet to be determined, but he knew he couldn’t stand seeing you with this other man for another minute.

“D-director General, sir! I was just leaving, sir!” the man saluted nervously, turning to you and saluting you as well before clearing his tray in a hurry. Isao wanted you to have friends, but you deserved to be around someone who actually understood you, someone who was of a higher caliber and rank.

Someone like him.

“I think you scared off poor Platoon Leader Kato,” you joked, letting out a laugh that rivaled the lightness of a feather.

“Hm. If he’s that scared of me, he shouldn’t have that job,” Isao said, his harsh tone holding more disdain than usual, but you didn’t seem to notice.

“I’ll be on my way. Enjoy your meal,” he told you, quickly turning on his heel and all but running out of the dining hall. He needed answers, quick.

“Narumi! What do you know of a platoon leader named Kato?”

The Director General found himself in the middle of the disheveled room of the man who knew almost everything about everybody in the First Division—Gen Narumi. That is, if this Kato guy was powerful, anyway—if he was a weakling, Narumi wouldn’t have the slightest clue as to who he was. Isao didn’t know whether he preferred the guy to be strong or a bumbling fool.

“Huh? Why are you being so loud so early?” Gen questioned, emerging from a pile of blankets with his handheld gaming system.

“I don’t have time for your games, Narumi, this is important.”

“Fine, fine,” he groaned. “Kato, huh? Name rings a bell. He’s smart but his strength could use some work. Why, what’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Isao snapped, way too fast to avoid suspicion by the dark and light haired man.

“Oh, really?” Gen asked, a sly smile working its way on his lips, “‘cuz I think you’re lying.”

“I’m leaving,” Isao said, walking away, but Gen spoke up once more.

“This is about y/n, isn’t it?”

Isao stopped dead in his tracks. “Don’t use our Chief of Staff’s first name. I won’t tolerate that kind of blatant disrespect.”

Gen raised his hands in surrender. “Alright, sorry. This is about L/n, isn’t it?”

Isao’s silence was all Gen needed to know his assumption was correct.

“He didn’t try asking them out, did he?” Gen wondered, his eyes wide.

“He better not have,” answered Isao, his blood pressure steadily rising. “Did he mention doing such a thing?”

“No, it was just the first thought that came to mind.” Gen was furiously slamming the buttons on his gaming console. “Now that I can see you’re clearly jealous for whatever reason, would you care to tell me why?”

Shinomiya wanted to be surprised that Gen guessed correctly, but he figured that he was being much too obvious about his interest in you that even the man who never took his eyes off the screen in front of him could see right through the lovesick director.

“I’m not talking about this with you, Narumi,” Isao grumbled. “I actually have to get back to work. Unlike someone.”

“Whatever you say, Director Jealous,” teased Gen, wearing a knowing grin. Isao so desperately wanted to chew him out for being so, well, Gen, but he had to get back to his office before you got there. Without a second glance, Isao exited the room with a slight slam of the door. Walking down the halls, he pondered Gen’s words. Was he actually… jealous? The Director General, jealous of a platoon leader who dared to speak with someone Isao was fond of, but never declared himself to be? He scoffed internally.

I’m like a child with a schoolyard crush.

He checked his watch and cursed. You’d be arriving at his office any moment and he was still pretty far from his destination. He doubled down on his speed, eventually throwing himself in his desk chair, acting as nonchalant as possible with 30 seconds to spare.

“Director General? You wanted to speak with me?” you asked, knocking on the door.

“You may enter.”

Isao tried to calm his beating heart. It was from all the fast walking, of course, not from the prospect of seeing your lovely face sat across from him.

No, not that at all.

“How may I help?” you chirped happily, taking up a spot in the chair in front of the Director’s desk.

“What did Kato want from you at lunch?” he inquired, not wasting another moment to get to the bottom of this. The real question was, how would Isao react if Gen’s first thought was right—if Kato tried asking you on a date? He felt murderous intent slowly creep up inside him and he tried to shove it down while he waited for your answer.

“Oh, that! He had a fantastic idea regarding evacuation routes,” you answered. “I told him to prepare a proposal and we’d look it over when he was finished. Nice man. Very intelligent.”

“I’m sure he is,” Isao said, clasping his hands and resting them near the bridge of his nose. “He didn’t… ask anything personal, correct?”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

You looked very confused. That was a good thing, meaning Kato hadn’t approached you with romantic intentions, but Isao didn’t know how he’d explain such an odd question. Was now the right time to tell you the truth?

“L/n, listen. I…” He stopped. You were looking at him with such kind eyes that he didn’t how to form a sentence. It had been many years since he fell for somebody, and now that a person has finally stolen his heart once more, he couldn’t remember how to act accordingly.

“I didn’t like how he encroached on your free time with talk of business,” he said, a half truth coming from his mouth.

“I promise he didn’t bother me, Director. I took lunch early anyway. He probably tried to find me in my office first.”

“No he didn’t,” Isao mumbled, but you caught what he said.

“How do you know?”

Uh oh.

“I know because… I was looking for you at that same time,” he admitted, trying desperately to suppress the blush that threatened to overtake his cheeks. He was a grown man, for heaven’s sakes, he shouldn’t become a bumbling mess when talking to a person he found attractive.

“Oh? You must really enjoy talking to me, then, if you were searching me out prior to my impromptu meeting with Kato,” you gently joked.

“I do enjoy spending my time with you, yes.”

You didn’t falter. “Well, I’m pretty fond of you as well, Shinomiya.”

“I didn’t like how friendly Kato was with you,” he finally blurted out, the silly confession making him wish he was anywhere but within those four walls of his office.

“Am I wrong to assume that you’d wish that was you taking my up time at lunch instead of him?”

Isao’s eyes widened slightly in shock. “How did you…?”

“I had a hunch, that’s all,” you said, wearing a coy smile. “Shall we discuss your jealous tendencies over a coffee sometime? Maybe, say, 11:30 tomorrow morning?”

Isao was never the type to be taken aback so easily, but it felt like his world was being flipped completely upside down right now. It was like being on a rollercoaster, but he didn’t think he ever wanted to get off the ride—not if you were there next to him.

“I’d like that, L/n,” he answered, his softened eyes betraying his normal stone-like expression.

“Good, I’m looking forward to it. If you’ll excuse me, I have to text Narumi a thank you.”

Isao resisted the urge to growl out profanities. He was gonna kill that meddling kid!

[mildcharacterenjoyer]

Lives Abridged

This fic made me bawl my eyes out. I was crying the entire time I was writing it. So have fun. That being said, no one acknowledges how Gemerl and the Chaotix could interact and it BOTHERS MEEEE!! So this is me attempting rectify that. First time writing for Espio! Let me know how I did!

Words ~ 2,259 ~

Ships: Vanilla x Vector

Warnings: Emotional Roller Coaster

The wedding is three days away. Time flies when the other two members of your household are freaking out for different reasons. Vector’s current gripes are with his own anxiety and whether or not he is truly ready to marry the love of his life, Vanilla the Rabbit. Espio has seen him arguing with himself in the mirror more than usual, mainly working through different outlandish scenarios that would most likely never happen. His younger brother, Charmy, is just excited to gain a sister and a mother. Two requests he had been asking for since he became a part of the Chaotix Family. To him, Cream and Vanilla come with an added bonus: a robotic brother.

Gemerl. The robot guardian of The Rabbit Family. Once an aggressive warlord created by Eggman, now a reprogrammed robot with the same docility and mannerisms as his family. Although Espio is not letting his nerves get the better of him like his father figure, the fact that he has spent no time with this soon to be new member of his family bothers him to a concerning degree. With only a short amount of days before the families combine, Espio consults Cream as to what he should do.

“Its okay to talk to him! It's true he only tends to look after me and mother, but I promise he is really nice! Just be honest with him and I’m sure he will be honest with you too!” 

This leads the chameleon to seek out the reborn gizoid, tracking him to a small bridge overlooking a brook just outside of town. Rarely is the robot ever away from the two he protects, thus Espio concludes he too is feeling the unsettling weight this unity might mean for his family.

The chameleon approaches Gemerl’s position leaning over the railing along the bridge, staring into the water below. Fiddling with his fingers, the reptile halts just a few feet away from his form. He takes a deep breath and musters up the courage to speak. “Hello Gemerl.”

The robot turns his head slightly so his third eye can acknowledge his presence. “Espio.” He gives a gentle nod and swivels his head back to the water.

The chameleon joins the robot, frowning as he stares at their wavey reflections. “I…” He begins, attempting to collect his thoughts. “I want to make amends. I have hardly spoken to you since I’ve known you but,” He pauses briefly during his confession. “I don't know what to say. I’m not sure if we have anything in common.”

Gemerl is silent for a second, allowing the gentle roll of the water to fill the silence before he speaks. “You are not entirely at fault. I have always found myself uninterested in topics or activities that do not include Cream or Vanilla.

Espio shakes his head in disbelief. “I didn't expect this day to come so quickly. I thought I might have a few more days, then all of a sudden, Vector has his suit and the rings are ready. I’m normally better with acknowledging the passage of time, but my grasp has been slipping lately.”

“Vanilla experienced a similar phenomenon. It is my understanding that when organics accomplish multiple tasks over a period of time, the days tend to…’blend’ together for lack of a better term.”

“I take it, that doesn't happen to you?”

“Negative.” Gemerl taps the railing turning his gaze back to the chameleon. “My internal systems are aware of the length of time down to the microsecond. I find it difficult to grasp how organics can lose themselves to time. Many such thought processes are puzzling to me.”

“Even those of Cream and Vanilla?”

There is a silence before he speaks. “I’ve had ample time to study and learn their behaviours. I am designed to evolve and choose my actions based on my environment and surroundings. Even so, there are certain things that I still am unable to understand. They do their best to meet me where I am and I am more than appreciative of it, but I am a robot. I have come to terms with my inability to fully grasp how they think.”

“You aren’t alone in that.” Espio says in response. “I may not be a robot, but I find myself wondering what hoops people jump through to come to the outlandish conclusions they make.”

“Hoops?” Gemerl cocks his head to one side in confusion.

“Oh. An idiom. Apologies. Another term for mental gymnastics. There's so much that is decided in someone’s head before they make any decision that would affect the physical world.”

“I see. What ���mental gymnastics’ prompted you to come talk to me, then?” Gemerl gestures towards Espio with an open palm, slowly lowering it after he asks his question.

“You’re going to be part of my family soon.” Espio says matter of factly, seeming to catch the gizoid off guard. “I love Vector and Charmy with all of my heart, and as such I plan to love Cream and Vanilla the same. I think you should be a part of that.”

“A part?” Gemerl blinks, letting go from the rail for a second, taken aback at the chameleon’s confession.

Espio deepens his frown. “I know your loyalty is to Cream and Vanilla, but when we Chaotix gain new members, all of their family becomes ours by extension. It is because of my interpretation of the word family that I’m talking to you now, but I’m not sure how you feel about us three or the marriage between Vector and Vanilla. You’ve…always been difficult to read.” Espio watches Gemerl’s head bow and a hand rub the bridge railing as he thinks.

“I do not normally allow myself to have feelings about situations like this. Vanilla and Cream’s happiness and comfort are my goals. She is happy with Vector, as such I am content.” Gemerl meets Espio’s gaze again. “You want to include me as part of your family, the Chaotix?”

“I…” Espio starts and clutches his fist tightly. “I want to…despite my apprehension of Eggman built robots. You are Vanilla and Cream’s family. They trust you without a shadow of a doubt. I want to do what I can to make sure you know and feel like you are my family as well. Because if there is anything being with the Chaotix has taught me is that it does not matter what you look like or where you come from, because love can transcend all differences.” Espio was not sure when his eyes began to water, he quickly turns away and scowls into the brook below.

“Is this difficult for you?” He hears the gizoid ask from his side.

“I wish it wasn't.” Espio replies quietly, wiping his eyes. “Dr. Eggman has…ruined many lives using his robots, ours included. But Vector and I are more aware than we were. I know it also affects those he created.” Espio takes a deep breath and recomposes himself. “You deserve a place in the Chaotix family just as much as any of us.”

Gemerl looks back to the water. “I see. What do Charmy and Vector think about me, then?” He asks slowly. 

“Charmy is just excited to have a good robot in his family. I’m sure you’ve seen the way he fawns over Omega. He thinks you are cool too, nothing more to it. He’s innocent like that, despite being very intelligent for his age.”

“I’ve seen some similarities between him and Cream, albeit different energy levels.”

Espio covers his mouth as he laughs. “Got that right. Kid can't stop moving for a second! As for Vector, he doesn't know what to think. He trusts Vanilla completely and wants to take her word that you are harmless, but Eggman robots destroyed his life in the past. He just doesn’t want it to happen again.”

“And you?” Gemerl asks, fully facing Espio now, taking a step forward in his direction.

Espio does not let himself flinch at the sudden movement. He stays right where he is meeting, Gemerl’s gaze with his own. “I came to you. All I ever see you do is exist within Cream or Vanilla’s presence. I wasn't sure if you were a separate entity making conscious decisions on their behalf or if your directive was what kept you with them.”

Gemerl lowers his head. “The reality is…I don't know. I go to Tails often to make sure everything is in order, but no matter how much he explains how he reprogrammed me, my earlier actions will always haunt me. I did not choose to reject Eggman as other robots have. Although I have evolved from Tail’s original code and I choose to love Cream and Vanilla now, I remember my own ‘mental gymnastics’ during my time as Eggman’s enforcer. It…” Gemerl grasps the rail, bending it with little force in his grasp. “It enrages me that the determination for my directive now, is the same determination I had for my directive then.”

Espio gestures to him lightly. “You worry your emotions aren't truly your own.”

“Yes. Not only am I a reprogrammed robot, but I am also the successor of another who everyone seems to have fond memories of.”

The chameleon utters one word under his breath. “Emerl.”

“I do not know what part of my being is holistically myself. It is why I lean on Cream and Vanilla so heavily. Their orders and appreciation gives me security in my directive. When I am away from them, I begin to doubt…everything.”

Espio cautiously steps closer to Gemerl, putting a hand near where the gizoid's hands broke the rail. “A robot under Eggman’s influence would never question themselves the same way that you do. Insecurities are normal, but it's what we do to combat them and regain our self-confidence that matters. I trained to become a ninja to better establish my sense of self so I could also combat my own securities. There was a time I was not sure I could protect my family in a dire situation, but now that I am I know and believe there is no reason to question myself anymore.”

Gemerl cocks his head to the side in amusement. “Are you suggesting I become a ninja?”

Espio chuckles into his hand. “Only if you want to. I wouldn't mind teaching you some things, but what I was trying to get at was that only you can provide yourself with self-confidence. I understand if you want to keep leaning on Cream and Vanilla, but if you want to believe that you are yourself no matter who reprograms you or where you come from then you need to train your mind to believe in yourself. Cream and Vanilla believe in you. Shouldn't you believe in yourself for them?”

“While I acknowledge your attempt to comfort and am very appreciative of it, it is painfully obvious that you do not know how robots work.”

Espio turns away in embarrassment, lowering his chin to the top of the bridge rail. “You’re right. I don’t. I’m sorry.”

“It is alright.” Gemerl nods politely in response. “You talked to me as if I was a person; a far cry from our previous conversations.”

“Yeah. I’m…sorry it took this long.” 

“I accept your apology.” Gemerl set's a hand on the chameleon’s shoulder. “I am glad you sought me out. To be truthful, I would not have done the same.”

“I don't blame you.” Espio pats the hand on his shoulder then stretches his limbs a bit. “Now that you know why I wanted you to be a part of the Chaotix family, I guess I was curious if you would ever consider extending your directive to the rest of us? To Charmy, to me, and to Vector. Since, you’re gonna gain a couple of brothers.”

“Brothers?” There is a note of surprise in the Gizoid’s monotone voice.

“Brothers.” Espio echoes matter of factly. 

Gemerl strokes the bottom of his face where a chin might be. “May I talk this over with Cream and Vanilla before I answer?”

“Of course.” Espio nods and smiles. “There’s no time limit. You can even tell me after the wedding. Family is there for each other and I…want to be there for you too, but it might be difficult for me if your directive is one-sided. If it helps you understand why I want this, then I give my word that if Cream or Vanilla were to ever be in danger, I would lay down my life for them.”

The Gizoid's eyes flash as if two ideas in his head were finally connected. “I understand what you mean now. I can confidently promise to include Charmy Bee in my directive and will do the same if harm comes to him.”

“That’s good enough for me.” Espio holds out his hand and the robot grasps it tightly. They shake for a second. “I don't know what I or Vector would do if something ever happened to him.”

The gizoid releases his hold first. “I finally see that you are a protector as well. It seems we have a lot more in common than we initially thought.”

“Yeah.” Espio wipes the little tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. “I learned a lot. Thank you, Gemerl.”

“No trouble at all.” Gemerl motions to one of the sides of the bridge and they begin walking down the path together. “I think I would enjoy learning how to throw a shuriken one day.”

“Awesome. Just ask. I’ll happily show you."

WAAAAA THEY....THEY....BROTHERS THEY *FLIPS TABLE* I NEED THE CHAOTIX TO ACKNOWLEDGE GEMERL. AAAAAAAAGGHHH. RAWR!

[edenfenixblogs]

outside of the general principles of credibility and fact-checking (or including those if you want) and looking for commitment to peace and shared prosperity like you mentioned in your pinned, do you have any other advice on gauging the reliability of sources regarding israel/palestine? or any particular sources you recommend as reliable or warn against as unreliable? there's so much misinfo and disinfo out there that i often end up getting overwhelmed and sharing nothing specific - and i know that's not exactly helpful, i'm just not sure where to start.

This is SUCH a good and important question!!! Thank you so much for asking it. I’ve been waiting until after work today to answer, so I can give it the attention it deserves.

This is an incredibly complex topic. It is completely ok to tackle only one item of this at a time. It is ok to spend more time listening than speaking. It is ok to only do basic fact checking until these things become second nature. It seems like a lot. But it actually becomes quite simple when you realize that, as a member of a non-affected group, your only job is to steer the conversation toward truth and peace.

That means most of what you are doing is rejecting sources and individuals engaging in bad faith discourse by simply not engaging with them. Your next most common task will be to publicly fact check bad faith discourse or incorrect information that has spread too far.

It is tempting to become outraged when you become familiar with bad faith discourse and data and see it spread widely. However, remember that this is incredibly complex and even the most experienced people get things wrong on this subject all the time. If you notice an error in what appears to be someone trying to bring attention to a cause they care deeply about, approach with kindness first. Always.

Try a reblog or a personal message with a link to the problematic post and say something like,

Hey. I care a lot about [issue] too. And I am trying really hard to make sure everything being spread right now is verifiable and accurate so nobody gets upset about things that aren’t true. Did you know that [thing you said+link to the post where you said it] was actually proven false by [reliable source+link to that source]? I’m really glad that didn’t happen. Of course, terrible things are still happening [to Palestinians/Israelis/Jews/Muslims/Arabs] on/in [college campuses/diaspora/Palestine/Israel/etc] there all the time. But at least nobody has to suffer through [incorrect info]. By the way, I’ve found a lovely organization run by actual Palestinians/Israelis/Arabs/Muslims/Jews working together to find peace for all. Check it out, I think it has promise! [link to reliable cause/organization]

Here is a wonderful site for MENA-based organizations geared toward fostering a shared peaceful future in a variety of ways.

Give the poster a chance to self correct. You will be wrong in the future. Model the way you would like to be informed of an error.

I briefly touched on the basics of identifying any source as reliable here. I won’t reiterate because this may be a long post and I wanna save space. But it contains the basics of what I learned in college.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is that no source is objective. No source is without bias. And there is no way to make any source objective or without bias.

News is written by people. And all people have viewpoints. Giving all voices in a conflict equal importance is not inherently unbiased, because that risks giving support to more harmful ideas and equating harmful ideas, ideologies, and organizations with reasonable ones. Likewise, asserting that one viewpoint is correct and being unwavering in this belief no matter what is obviously no way to cultivate a balanced and well informed viewpoint.

Your job is to use critical thinking skills to examine the level of bias in a piece of media as well as how responsibly the source handles that bias. Your job is also to do your best to be aware of bias as well as what bias is relevant to the subject matter being reported. A source that is left leaning, but never shares fake information and is always verifiable is preferable to a source that is moderate but consistently shares half truths or faulty information.

Sometimes, information from a less than ideal source can be shared, but if you are sharing that source, you must explicitly state that source’s flaws and why you chose to share that information anyway. And if you are unable to find a better source, you should state that you are sharing information that may be incomplete or inaccurate and you are happy to update the post you are sharing if and when more information or confirmation from a more reliable source emerges. There are very limited situations where this is appropriate. Usually I would suggest not sharing information from such sources at all unless it can be backed up by better information.

One example of such a case is information about antisemitic hate crimes from the ADL. The ADL has a very problematic history and one should be aware of it when they share statistical data from the organization. However, that doesn’t make their information inherently unusable. It makes their information inherently suspect, though. In order for anything shared from the ADL to be worth sharing, you should be able to evaluate the data collection method and the sources of the data. And if there is any information in the data you are sharing that is not appropriate, you should explicitly draw attention to it, not try to hide it.

Case Study: Global Antisemitic Incidents in the Wake of Hamas’ War on Israel

This list contains very useful data on incidents of antisemitic violence against Jews in diaspora since 10/7/2023. I trust this data because: it links to each individual news source it references, often with pictures of the attacker/attack/incident and time stamps. It’s data is open to questioning and its sources are available to check individually. This is in line with the ADL’s mission statement of tracking antisemitism. Documenting antisemitism is not an inherently biased practice nor do I have any reason to believe that they lie about the antisemitic incidents they document. As that is not one of the things that critics accuse the ADL of, I do not see a reason to question its record on antisemitic incident reporting. I have never heard a critic make a substantiated claim against their formally collected data as falsified. I am willing to be proven wrong on this, but I will interrogate a source claiming this as thoroughly as I interrogate the ADL as a source itself. I am skeptical of this source because: the title of the article uses extremely biased language that makes the war seem one sided. The advantage of this source is: it is one of the few sources existing that collects data on antisemitic violence and hate incidents of Jews in diaspora. A sign of good faith from the organization: they dedicate a page to addressing criticisms of their organization, which means they feel confident that criticisms of them will stand up to scrutiny. It is not sufficient to use this page to absolve them of any of the listed criticisms, but it should help you find articles that critique the ADL as well as relevant information that supports their defense. Thus, you must come to your own conclusion on whether or not that information is trustworthy on the matter you are commenting on. A sign of possible bad faith from the organization: their page devoted to confronting myths and inaccuracies about their organization’s history does not address accusations about supporting South African Apartheid or failing to call the Armenian Genocide a genocide. An acknowledgment of my own limitations: I am not an expert in South African Apartheid in any way nor am I an expert on the Armenia genocide. Any other relevant information: Any reputable news sources verify information before reporting. If a news source that is verifiably responsible in its reporting cites information from the ADL, I will assume they have made adequate inquiries to verify that information as accurate enough to report. For example, if AP reported information and cited the ADL statistics, I would assume that the ADL made sure the data fit its high standard for reportage.

Conclusion: I find the ADL to be a trustworthy enough source of data about antisemitic attacks and incidents on Jews in diaspora, but only in cases where their sources and/or methodology are made public and/or another more regulated or otherwise more reliable source of statistical information partners with them. Because I lack expertise on South African Apartheid on the Armenian Genocide, I will not share information from the ADL about Palestinian apartheid, segregation, oppression, or genocide (until or unless I become more well-versed in these topics or am able to devote substantial energy into fact checking each claim in what I share. If I ever choose to do this, I will share every source I used to verify the information so that others may check my work and inform me if I’m wrong. At this time, I do not foresee a situation where I would refer to the ADL for matters about Palestinian concerns). The ADL in general and the linked source in particular seems to be an overall worthwhile source to cite on matters of antisemitism. The ADL does not meet my standards of a reliable source on Palestinian suffering. Check each link/source on an ADL source you want to share and form an informed conclusion on its reliability before sharing.

Also, be aware that primary sources with biased information are extremely valuable but never objective on their own. A tweet from the IDF or a statement from a released Palestinian prisoner may both be true! But sharing them as if they are definitely true without fact checking the information through the most trustworthy sources available is irresponsible. Do not share any social media information as fact. You are free to share social media information and publicly explore its implications in a responsible manner, but it is not responsible to discuss them as facts.

Case study: When something in Gaza or Israel is bombed, be sure that you know who the key players and commentators are.

When the IDF releases a statement blaming Hamas for bombing their own citizens, know that the IDF has a vested interest in not being perceived as an aggressor. When the Ministry of Health in Gaza accuses the Israeli military of being responsible for the attack, be aware that the Ministry of Health in Gaza is run by Hamas and is not a third party neutral source. Do not post anything about an event like this until the information is fully vetted by a neutral third party source (or as neutral as you are likely to find on such a hot button issue).

The best way you can help during an emerging story is to urge others to wait for full details, call out people irresponsibly casting blame before the facts are in (especially politicians), and repeatedly verify every source of information as they are named so that you know if they are trustworthy. Do not trust politicians who espouse inflammatory and prematurely accusatory information and do not make a public retraction and apology when they are found to be wrong.

That said, it is always appropriate to express sorrow for loss of life. You do not need to accuse a killer in order to do this.

There are also sites geared toward helping you identify the source itself fairly. Note: sites like these will help you evaluate the publication or news entity (eg New York Times, Al Jazeera, Haaretz, etc.). They won’t help you evaluate an individual journalist or article.

Some sites to help you verify credibility:

Media Bias Fact Check: Allows you to verify sources based on the news source’s political bias in terms of a left-right spectrum as well as by their reliability on matters of science, their use of questionable sources, and use of satire. Also, you can check how reliably factual the source’s reporting is. You can also sort by country, media type, general credibility, and how well trafficked the source is. They also publicly offer insight into their methodology of coming to these conclusions.

The Associated Press (AP) fact checks individual claims. Other news organizations fact checking claims include Reuters, The Washington Post and AFP. While AP is a gold standard and generally reliable, be aware that news organizations are also subject to bias. The advantage is that news organizations have investigative reporters on staff to investigate claims. The disadvantage is the bias inherent to the publication itself.

Other third party cites checking facts in news reports and in politics include:

FactCheck.org

Politifact

Snopes

Lakehead University offers an entire site devoted to developing media literacy as well as many ways to search fact checking sites. So does Kansas State University, and UMass Amherst. Many universities offer sites like this. I urge you to look into them.

Once you find a news or data source you trust, do a quick google search on the journalist’s name and a relevant phrase to the aspect of the conflict being reported on. For example The Newspaper Tribune Times Chronicle may be trustworthy. Veteran reporter, Ima Journalist may have written an article about Israel Bombing Gaza. So, before sharing it, just Google: “Ima journalist” + Israel Palestine Jews antisemitism Islamophobia. Make sure you don’t see something like “Ima Journalist photographed screaming ‘Hitler was actually a super good guy!’ anywhere in her history. When satisfied, feel free to share the story.

Other points to keep in mind:

Be aware of crappy tactics on both sides of the i/p conflict.

The IDF is often accused of excessive violence and planting evidence on Palestinians. This often leads to Palestinians being unfairly accused of terrorist intent and criminal violence.

Hamas uses civilians as human shields — both by using individual humans as shields and also launching bombs from civilian buildings (like hospitals, preschools, and libraries), building militaristic infrastructure in or beneath those same civilian buildings, and instigating conflict with IDF soldiers positioned near residential and civilian locations. This allows Hamas to escape criticism by framing the IDF as mindlessly bloodthirsty and eager to kill Palestinian civilians.

And finally, make sure accusations and talking points never conform to antisemitic conspiracy theories.

The universal aspects of antisemitic conspiracy theories (detailed more fully in the source linked above and also in another post I made) are:

Accusing Jews of replacing another group or population

Accusing Jews of pretending to be something they are not

Accusing Jews of dominating or attempting to dominate a prominent or essential aspect of a society or the world at large.

Accusing Jewish people of genocide and bloodlust in pursuit of personal gain

Accusing Jews of undue privilege or if appropriating something belonging to others.

Dehumanizing Jews by grouping them under a collective name or identity.

I hope this helps! Feel free to share it!

[yuzurujenn]

[2025.04.03] KISS & CRY -THE STAGE4 - Costume Designer Taketoshi Hara

In the Haier/AQUA commercial, Yuzuru Hanyu’s blue and white costumes became a big topic. We interviewed the designer, Taketoshi Hara, who worked on them, and asked about the design concepts and behind-the-scenes episodes.

Attention to detail in the two costumes, "Blue Hanyu" and "White Hanyu"

— How did you come to be involved in this project?

“I was approached around last autumn, but initially it wasn’t a costume-making request. It was for styling coordination. However, Haier/AQUA already had a clear image at that point, and as the discussions progressed, it became ‘let’s make something new rather than using existing pieces.’ At first, I was relaxed and excited thinking, ‘I get to see Hanyu skate up close again!’ But suddenly, I was tasked with creating two costumes in a short time, which was quite tough (laughs). The actual production period was about three weeks. While they were checking one design, I was simultaneously brainstorming the second. It was probably the tightest schedule I’ve ever worked on. Still, on the pure white ice, the costume is the only stage device, and since it’s for a commercial that has to leave a lasting impression, I tackled the project with a sense of purpose.”

— How did the production process go?

“I always get design ideas from music, so I asked the creative team, ‘Please tell me as soon as possible what kind of music will be used.’ Sometimes the commercial’s music is finalized only in post-production, near the end, but for me, music is crucial. So they kindly sent me the updated audio tracks each time the arrangement was revised, and I repeatedly listened and refined the design accordingly.”

— Can you explain the concept behind each costume?

“The blue costume is based on Haier’s corporate colour, a deep royal blue. The idea started from fusing something classical and noble with something technical. I drew inspiration from gemstones like lapis lazuli and European luxury cars like Lamborghinis and Ferraris. The commercial’s music blended string sounds with a modern EDM feel, similar to a movie or game soundtrack. So, instead of only going for a sharp, classical look, I incorporated elements inspired by unisex clothing from artisan brands (indie brands). I also wanted to bring out a strong sense of figure skating, so I included rhinestones. I personally decided on the placement of the shoulder stones and attached them by hand. Interestingly, the central motif on the blue costume’s shoulder is the same as the front motif on the white costume. Although the two outfits look very different, I made sure there were subtle links between them.”

— And the white costume?

“Since the blue costume is asymmetrical, I deliberately designed the white one to be symmetrical as a contrast. For example, the blue has pleats on the right side, while the white gathers tucks centrally around the button line to create dimension and nuance. Also, strictly speaking, the colour isn’t pure white. It’s a very pale, icy blue. Pure white can look bland, and because the rink itself is white, it lacks contrast and tends to blend in. By adding a hint of blue, I aimed for a transparent, dignified atmosphere. If you look closely at still shots on the rink, you can just make out the bluish tint. The silhouette combines soft bridal and Chinese garment elements, plus an image of clergy or sacred robes. The details of the decoration are based on custom-made jewellery, minerals, and European cathedrals."

— What were the biggest challenges?

“The storyboards we received in advance showed a scene where Hanyu would jump, and I thought, ‘If it’s Hanyu, he’ll definitely go for a triple axel or a quad.’ Since we could only do fittings on the day of shooting, I was anxious about whether I could make something that could keep up with his movements, but I was familiar with his size, so somehow I managed. To ensure the garment didn’t restrict his movement, I made it fully stretchable, but at the same time, I fine-tuned the shoulder pads and the inner structure to preserve a tight, jacket-like silhouette.”

The Joy of a Designer Felt During Filming

— How was Haier/AQUA’s reaction?

“They were thrilled, saying things like, ‘It’s exactly what we imagined, no, even better!’ I think Haier/AQUA’s products stand out for their design emphasis, and it was the same with the costume direction, making this a very rewarding job. I'm proud that I was able to do a good job.”

— Any behind-the-scenes stories from the shoot?

“Usually, there’s a set place on the rink where Hanyu does his quad jumps, but because this was shot on a green screen for compositing, he had to jump right in the center. It looked tricky to time, so Hanyu said, ‘Let me adjust!’ and tried again and again. Also, since we used real rhinestones, the costumes were a bit heavy. It's a spot where he doesn't usually jump, and it's his first time wearing the costume, but I was impressed by his professionalism in completing the quadruple jump within the allocated time. Also, the white costume’s sleeves are made of an unusual draping tulle material, attached in a way we’d never used before, and Hanyu commented, ‘This is unusual,’ showing interest. He tested the air resistance when jumping and said, ‘Maybe I should hold this part when I jump.’ As always, I’m amazed at how skillfully he ‘tames’ his costumes.”

— It feels like it’s been a while since we’ve seen Hanyu skating on the rink in a commercial.

“That’s true. Hanyu is an all-rounder who can do anything, but for me, seeing him perform on ice is what moves my heart the most. Having him appear in a commercial and reaching people who might not be interested in figure skating, and knowing that my costume is involved in that, makes me very happy. This time, with special permission, the staff, including me, were allowed onto the rink to adjust the costumes during filming. I have been involved in figure skating for about 10 years, but I have only been allowed inside the rink a few times. I was very nervous because I know how sacred that place is. Seeing Hanyu skate from the closest possible distance, I was so moved I almost teared up. Standing in the middle of the rink, it feels wider and colder than it looks from outside. I felt an indescribable emotion, thinking, ‘The skater stands here all alone…’”

— Thank you. Last question. What does "making costumes for Hanyu Yuzuru" mean to you as a designer?

"There are two costumes this time, one blue and one white, but when Hanyu puts them on, he truly becomes 'Yuzuru Hanyu in that costume.' It's like he turns into a completely different person. He ‘communicates’ with the costumes I’ve created and brings an entire world to life. That was the case this time as well. Honestly, he’s probably the only person who gives me that kind of feeling. Of course, there's a lot of pressure and many challenges involved, but seeing a piece of work I poured my soul into be elevated beyond what I even imagined is deeply moving. Every project I’ve done with Hanyu becomes a cherished memory. If I can continue creating costumes for him in the future, it would be a true honor."

Source: 20250403 KISS & CRY -THE STAGE4-

[kissycat]

One thought i have about the "students using AI in education" thing is that I think there's two somewhat conflicting impulses here, where our brains are generally quite curious and like to gather knowledge in general ("curiosity"), but also love to find the most resource-saving solution to any task (which some might call "laziness" and others may call "efficiency"). My feeling is that the curiosity-impulse gets activated by unstructured aimless information-gathering, like when you're listening to a lecture on something that you won't be tested on. The "efficiency" mode gets activated when you have a task, and especially if you have time pressure. This is generally a good and useful thing from the perspective of mental resource allocation, but not when the deeper purpose of a task would be "learn more about this topic than what you would strictly need to fulfill the task". To the efficiency-mode, it's always beneficial to take shortcuts, which can include cheating.

I don't think the activation of the efficiency-mode can be prevented in an education system that is task-based and usually puts students under time pressure. I think the education system has to somehow grapple with the fact that our brains in general will always tend towards taking the easiest route and this isnt something you can educate out of people... I don't know how this can be dealt with and what approaches probably already exist somewhere, I don't know anything about pedagogy...

[problematic-fodlan]

Yea I’m going more into character development

I know I’m missing the point of a problematic take, but I’m sure there will be plenty of those to go around as long as this blog doesn’t also get deactivated from the takes literally being too problematic. I love the way Fodlan does characterization. There are so many ways to subtly add nuance to someone in this game. Giving characters strengths weaknesses and budding talents has such a subtle impact but it’s so. Good. Ashe who was illiterate until the age of nine and hates math has a weakness in reason, Bernie has a budding talent in riding because it gives her more distance from the enemy, Hubert has a weakness in flying because he’s afraid of heights. You get so much information from this stuff alone about the way a character approaches battle. Then on top of that most of these guys have recruitment stats you need to meet. Growth rates and personal skills aren’t new but they’re also there. I remember in my first playthrough I saw Ashe’s lock pick skill and was just instantly intrigued. Characters can only learn a certain set of spells and combat arts (and if you look there are definitely patterns when it comes to who can learn what category of spells). Plus there are crests, which don’t seem like a character thing on their own, but they’re all based on major arcana which reflect a lot of that character’s personality and/or values.

That’s before you even get to the monastery stuff. I know people find the monastery redundant and I don’t exactly disagree, but you get so much extra information about these characters. What types of food they like, what they like to do on their spare time. You see where they like to spend their time (most people you find at the stables normally have a riding or flying strength), the people they like to hang around, get to see their reactions to current story events or just hear their general thoughts. You see the way they decorate their rooms (Ferdinand’s room being uncharacteristically cluttered or Mercedes having an extra chair for guests). Some of them have quests that unlock certain mechanics (Mercedes unlocks the help box in the church, Caspar unlocks tournaments, etc). You have lost items that not only show their interests but also certain things they might find sentimental (Felix’s black iron spur he kept from Glenn, Marianne’s repentant letter). You have tea parties and expeditions where characters have dozens of lines of dialogue about their aspirations and interests. They have preferred topics of conversation, different reactions to you staring into their soul. Some would rather look at a bug than a flower. Everyone has a favorite tea. People have gifts that they both like and dislike, which have varying levels of intrigue (Dorothea and Sylvain, who are notably “flirty” characters for example hate floral arrangements. Seteth dislikes the book of crest designs and interestingly neither him or Flayn love the goddess statuette). People love different types of flowers. People have different problems they put in the advice box. People have special dialogue sharing meals or performing tasks with certain characters.

In tutoring, characters have different responses to praise. They have different preferences in confronting failure with some preferring criticism while others prefer comfort. They have certain classes they might ask to switch into. They have specific questions they ask you and receive different levels of motivation for different answers. In part two they have seminars with their own teaching styles and topics. In battle, they have special dialogue with different characters (“Don’t worry, Marianne. These things happen in war” still ruins me).

This doesn’t even go into the game’s actual storyline either. This doesn’t include paralogues or Ashe having to murder his dad and all that. Every character has such a fascinating personal story to them that makes them feel valuable and memorable in their own way. You could take any character in this game and write a pretty hefty essay about their experiences, background, personality, and perspective. Even characters like Raphael that can feel very one note have so much going on. I’m not here to shit on engage but most of them did not reach anywhere near the level of intrigue as even the least developed three houses characters.

Anyways I could easily make this ten times longer by delving into character dynamics and paralogues and all that, but I think you get the point. Long story short, people can say whatever they want about three houses’s writing and all the problems that might entail, but damn is it thorough in character development. I definitely didn’t even cover everything in this

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