#and obviously this is only a small percentage of world events

[dear-departed]

Strong MC (lesson 16)

I'm calling this part one of the 3 AM chronicles, it was meant to be mostly funny, but some of them got kinda angsty and obviously, there's violence.

I just got to thinking, what if in a different timeline, MC is just jacked and ends up beating the ever-loving shit out of Belphegor?

I hope you enjoy!

Also, P.S. don't be scared to use the ask box, pretty please use the ask box, I wanna know what my audience enjoys because while I love writing and I write what I want, I also want to make some of you happy as well. :)

Warnings: Violence, angst, a brief sexual joke in Asmo's section, lesson 16 spoilers

Word count: 1.9k

Lucifer ♥ 

He’s always been impressed by your strength since you first came to the Devildom, if not, a little confused. 

He’s seen plenty of strong humans, he knows body builders exist in the human world, but he thought it was a small percentage of them  

Never did he think that a strong human would be summoned to the devildom, specifically, a non-magical strong human. 

He heard a scream of absolute horror that sounded a lot like the youngest demon brother. 

At first, he’s confused, but also very concerned. Hadn’t he put a sound-blocking spell on the attic door? 

He’s quick to hurry his way up to the attic, only to see you... with the 7th ruler of hell, let me repeat that for those in the back; human who has one of the rulers of hell pinned beneath them, your foot pressing on the back of his skull, his arms bent around his backside, held in place by your knee, both of your arms struggling to keep his tail in place. 

He’s speechless. It’s not often the Avatar of Pride is devoid of any words, but this is one of those moments. 

Um. Thank goodness you’re not hurt? Yes, that’s the correct reaction. Oh thank my old man that you aren’t hurt 

I mean, he knew that was Belphie’s plan all along, to hurt the exchange student so Diavolo’s reputation is ruined, so at least that wouldn’t happen. 

Mammon ♥ 

Unlike Lucifer, your strength doesn’t make him worry any less. 

He won’t say it though, he’ll just kind of follow you around and say it’s his duty to protect you, only as your first man, of course. 

But he figured that you were safe in the house, so he didn’t worry nearly as much when you were home. 

He was just chilling in his room one day, scrolling through Devilgram when he heard Belphie’s scream. 

Well, at least it isn’t him that’s getting strung up by Lucifer. It was nice knowing you, Belphie 

… 

Huh. Isn’t Belphie supposed to be in the human world? 

He starts following the source of the screaming only to see you on top of Belphie, your eyes wide in shock, chest heaving as they stare at the back of the youngest’s head. 

Lucifer’s already ordering everybody back, so Mammon stays on the side lines and starts snapping photos, oh, these are going to going to sell so good!~ 

He can’t help but let out a little giggle, did Belphegor, the 7th ruler of hell, really get a royal ass-beating from the human exchange student? Absolute gold. 

He is, of course, worried. He kind of wants to jump in and punch Belphie himself, I mean, why the hell would you look so scared if he wasn’t being a little brat?  

With all due respect, though, with the state that Lucifer’s in, he figures it’s not a good idea to get in the middle of anything.  

Leviathan ♥ 

At first, he was kind of scared of you 

I mean, seeing you casually lifting weights with Beel kind of made him wimp out of making friends with you, but he was actually pretty shocked to find out you enjoyed the same things that he did.  

He has a bad habit of hiding behind you in social events. Not because he expects you to protect him or anything, because obviously even a strong human can’t beat a demon, let alone protect a ruler of hell.  

He was actually working on a cosplay at the time of the great ass-whooping, revamping his older Ruri-chan costume, to be exact. 

Huh, wasn’t that Belphie screaming? Weird.  

That was Belphie screaming. 

Belphie is not supposed to come back to the Devildom until the exchange program is over. Huh. Maybe he misheard it. So, he stays in his room, because why would be show anyone but convention folks his cosplay? 

Until he gets a text from Mammon. A pic of Mammon’s gorgeous, shocked face, with the caption “BRO GET YOUR ASS UP HERE” 

He trots his happy ass up to the attic, which he finds weird, how did Belphie end up here before anyone noticed him coming into the house of- 

LMAO THIS IS COMEDIC GOLD 

Wait a minute, if... if you beat the shit out of Belphie, what could happen to him if you got mad? 

He’s kind of caught in his head while this whole ordeal is going down, he wants to laugh, really, but he also wants to cower and hide. Did he really underestimate you? I mean, he knew you were strong but Belphie literally has the power of a demon behind him. He has a literal extra appendage, and yet you took him down. 

Freaky. 

Everyone was too engrossed in Belphie being humiliated to even make a big deal about his cosplay, which he couldn’t be more grateful for.  

Satan ♥ 

He’s always been grateful for your willingness to answer his questions.  

He would ask Solomon about human stuff, but a couple-thousand-year-old sorcerer isn’t really the prime example of a regular human. 

He really doesn’t have a lot of opinions about your strength, he was a little shocked, yes, and kind of felt the same as Lucifer with the whole “I thought only a small percent of humans were strong what the hell went wrong/right?” 

He’s getting his daily reading in one day, sitting down with a book and just taking a moment to himself, blocking himself away from the weight of the world outside of his room. 

He hears loud, thundering footsteps outside, like a tank is running through the house. Beel. 

He better not raid the fucking fridge again I swear to dad if he does Satan is going to lose his marbles. 

He immediately sets down his book and darts out after Beel, not saying anything quite yet, just wanting to make sure he isn’t wrongly accusing his younger brother, for some odd reason. 

Fully expecting the Avatar of Gluttony to dart to the kitchen, he’s kind of shocked when Beel takes a turn toward the staircase up to the attic. 

I mean, yes, he heard a scream that sounded an awful lot like Belphegor from the attic, but he kind of figured Mammon maybe just had a voice crack when he was being strung up again.  

And that’s when he sees it. 

Like Lucifer, he’s just kind of... shocked. Speechless. He knew you were strong but literally pinning down the 7th ruler of hell? That’s a big feat for a lower demon, let alone a human. 

Asmodeus ♥ 

He praises himself for his slender figure but he never said he didn’t enjoy muscle on his lovers, either. 

From the day you arrived in the Devildom, he’s begging you to carry him, or give him a deep-tissue back massage, or really, anything, he makes any excuse to be around you. 

He loves how strong you are, he can take a little manhandling, you know that, right MC? Just don’t be rough on his face <3 

He was sitting in his room on that fateful day, getting out his nail polish and waiting for you. You did mention that you had one more thing to take care of before you could join him, but should it really be taking this long? 

He’s used to hearing screams in the House of Lamentation, from Mammon being strung from the ceiling, and of course, screams from his own bedroom, but this was unlike any of those.  

It was Belphie, screaming, no, shrieking at the top of his lungs. 

Did he come back early? Oh, I bet he didn’t remember to keep those gorgeous nails of his painted. 

He hears the thumping of two pairs of feet racing through the hallway, and immediately he’s intrigued.  

So now he’s trailing behind Satan and Beel up to the attic, where he finds Belphegor, the 7th ruler of hell, pinned beneath... you? 

But... MC... why isn’t he the one being pinned? Has he not been good to you? 

In all seriousness, he’s shocked, horrified, even. You look so... frightened. Deep in his chest, he feels as though your heart beat is part of him, your thundering pulse. 

He doesn’t like seeing your pretty little face contorted in fear. 

Beelzebub ♥ 

He’s absolutely stoked that he gets to have a workout buddy in the Devildom! I mean, you can’t lift the same amount of weight as he can, because he’s a demon, and huge, and... yeah 

But still, you’re great to have around. He feels a little less hungry when he’s around you, it’s like you ease the pain, the pain of feeling like he’s starving all the time, and the pain of not having Belphie around. 

There’s not much Beelzebub wouldn’t do for you. 

That being said, there’s also not a lot he wouldn’t do for Belphegor, either. 

He’s been awaiting his twin’s return for who knows how long, so when he hears that scream from the attic, he’s confused. He starts to wonder if his mind is playing tricks on him, maybe he’s starting to hear things from being too hungry.  

No. No, there’s no way he could just ‘imagine’ hearing Belphie shriek. He can also feel a little pang in his chest, his heart rate picking up as if he himself were panicked. 

He wastes no time thundering down the hall and up the attic staircase, completely unaware that both Satan and Asmo are hot on his heels. 

He pushes past Mammon with one broad shoulder, staring down at you with Belphie pinned beneath him. 

Something in his head is so confused. Who should he be upset with? Should he be upset at anyone? Why do you look scared? Why is Belphie in his demon form? 

His mind feels like its going through a rinse and spin cycle. 

“...Lucifer. What’s going on?” 

The words roll from his tongue, his tone less of a question and more of a demand, the need to get some answers. 

Belphegor ♥ 

I mean yeah, you looked sort of strong, but he’s literally one of the rulers of hell. Really, his plan should have worked out fine. 

You just opened the attic door and of course, he offers you a hug. How can you protest? After all, he’s just been so nice to you. 

“In any event, MC, all I can do is thank you. Now I can finally achieve what I set out to do!” He says as he sprawls out his arms toward you, a hazy smile on his face. 

Blinded by the joy of finally accomplishing your goal of freeing Belphegor, you accept his hug, melting into his arms.  

“Ah... this really brings back memories. This feeling... I wonder how long it’s been since I’ve touched a human?” 

His comforting embrace starts to sing a different tune, his body suddenly tensing up.  

“So, MC... how can I express how I’m feeling right now? What can I do?” He scowls, his horns sprouting, his tail slowly unfurling and beginning to snake around your leg, his attire changing before your very eyes.  

You feel his cool, slender fingers lace themselves around your neck, his nails digging little crescents into the soft flesh of your throat.  

As your head starts to spin, he cranes his head back a little, letting out a giggle that turns into an open-mouthed cackle, his menacing canines gleaming beneath the dim glow of the attic lights. 

“Heheh... FUCK-” As quickly as his demeanor changed, so did the tables. The tables didn’t just turn, they did a fucking backflip. 

Before he can even get over the rush of adrenaline that clouds his thoughts, you’ve already escaped, scrambling to try and pin him. 

He’s shrieking like a banshee as the two of you tussle, his inner dialog just repeating “what the fuck went wrong” over and over again. 

This couldn’t have gone any worse.

#obey me lesson 16 spoilers #obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me lucifer #obey me mammon #obey me leviathan #obey me satan #obey me asmodeus #obey me beelzebub #obey me belphegor #obey me headcanons #Obey me Luci #obey me Levi #obey me Asmo #Obey me Beel #Obey me belphie

[citrus-cactus]

Digimon Ghost Game #45 as a Celebration/Homage to Appmon

As promised, here is a post in which I attempt to detail all of the elements that I noticed in Ghost Game episode 45 that seemed like a reference or allusion to Appmon. Which, let me be clear right now, I do not view as a bad thing. I think it's awesome; a deliberate choice to celebrate Appmon's 6th anniversary and assert (once again!) that Appmon is 100% a main-line Digimon series.

It seems to me that DGG’s showrunners placed several Appmon Easter eggs in this episode, and while I acknowledge that I may be reading a bit too much into it, I wanted to be comprehensive, so you get everything I noticed, no matter how small and possibly coincidental.

This post is going to contain minor spoilers for Appmon episodes 51 & 52, so proceed at your own risk.

First, the obvious. Publimon is apparently a brand-new digimon who is very obviously derived from Reviewmon and Kosomon (both featured most prominently in Appmon episode 11). 

Publimon’s MO (writing news headlines about accidents that take place in the future, and then engineering circumstances around the subjects of those headlines to ensure they become true) and motivation (doing it all for attention/likes/clicks/engagement) was basically that of an Appmon Monster-of-the-Day: a manifestation of real-world technology which, when infected, runs amuck and tampers with humanity’s relationship with that technology (often while drawing parallels to additional real-world issues, including over-reliance on certain apps/computer systems, deepfakes, flame wars, etc.). “Fake news” was a pretty nascent term when Appmon debuted in 2016 and (I don’t think) explicitly inspired any episodes, so it’s interesting that Ghost Game touches on this concept (Hiro to Publimon: “You’re just fabricating events!”). In that way, Ghost Game gets to update the list of human/technology topics that Appmon was so diligent in referencing six years previously.

Some additional (potential) Easter eggs regarding Publimon: although I don’t know anything concrete about how his design and attacks were codified (if it was by Toei/DGG staff or Bandai… presumably the latter), it is also interesting to me that Publimon uses multiple keyboards in a way that is very reminiscent of Rei’s “Double Hack” and “Triple Hack” assists to Hackmon, and the attack in which Publimon enlarges those keyboards and attempts to smash a target between them is reminiscent of Sakusimon’s trap, also from episode 11. 

Is Publimon that much of a walking, talking reference to Appmon 11?

(how meta can you get?)

As @shihalyfie pointed out, this episode aired as close as possible to Appmon’s 1st episode anniversary air date (Oct. 1), and, much how Appmon episode 13 "weaponized" the date of August 1, DGG 45 weaponizes October 1, and has some of its action take place then as well. 

(It is also probably worth mentioning that Appmon #45 did a similar homage to the wider Digimon franchise by having Haru not only admit to playing a Digimon video game, but teaming up with the Agumon from that game! The episode numbering definitely seems like a coincidence given the GG hiatus caused by the Toei hack, but it’s a really fun little bonus that it happened to work out this way!)

Moreover, DGG45 is structured a bit more like an Appmon episode (or really, a large percentage of several other Toei properties/MotD Digimon episodes that are not based primarily around horror). There is a fair bit of time spent with the main characters and the Victims of the Day outside of DGG’s usually-very-tense horror setting, and the horror itself is brief and relatively light, to the point that Ghost Game’s trademark visual cue (edge-of-the-frame color-separation, which usually shows us when DGG’s MotD is exerting a particularly strong influence on their victim) is, as far as I can recall, completely absent... a strong indicator that Ghost Game is intentionally taking a break from its usual format. Not to mention how very important smartphones are...

Once the D-Topics are introduced, the inclusion of a three-idol group is immediately interesting to me as well. Narratively speaking, you only need one celebrity (and, once they chose to focus on idols, would have seemed like a nod to Eri Karan of Appmon regardless). If they had still wanted to write the “cooking competition” aspect that put skydiving as a "punishment" for losing on the table, they could have gotten by with two idols (this would have also worked without needing to bring Ryudamon into the Gammamon/Kiyoshiro dynamic, as well as matching the number of special guest stars they had for this episode—see below). But they went with three, which (aside from giving us more time with Ryudamon!) still seems like a deliberate nod to Appmon. After all, when Eri was shown in her day-to-day idol life with any members of the (comically oversized) AppliYama 470, it was usually Alice and Elena– the three of them are even shown in the epilogue in (new) matching uniforms doing some sort of promotion, so them being a trio is very prominent and is the last image you see of Eri’s life as an idol!

There’s also the fact that the big climax of this episode occurs during a skydiving incident. When Gammamon dove out of the plane and pulled Hiro along with him, I couldn’t help being reminded of Haru’s “it all comes down to this” unassisted jump and accidental freefall that served as the cliffhanger in the penultimate episode. Luckily for both Haru and Hiro, their partners came through!!

Finally, the addition of some Adventure Easter eggs (using FujiTV as a location, and two of D-Topi’s three idols being voiced by none other than AiM [original Mimi] and Mimi’s voice actress from Adventure: —thanks for that tip @digitalgate02!) brings it full circle. With DGG45, you’re actively watching 24 minutes of a Digimon series paying homage to two other ones. Adventure, Appmon, Ghost Game… it’s all one big beautiful franchise, baby!

Thanks for reading!

#digimon ghost game #appmon #appli monsters #the cactus speaks #the cactus watches ghost game #meta

[realestatecompanyindubai]

Short Term Rental in Dubai

Property prices in Dubai have witnessed a decline during the past four years, making luxury Dubai property significantly cheaper than in peer cities. In figures: An investor buying a luxury property in Berlin will have to shell out 79,23% more per square metre than for a comparable real estate asset in Dubai (Knight Frank PIRI 100 Index 2017).

At the same time, AirBnB hosts in Dubai can charge the 3rd. highest prices in the world, showing a continued upward trend, increasing 7,1% y-o-y in 2017 („Bloomberg World Lodging Cost Index“).A logical course of action to take advantage of this situation is to invest into suitable apartments in high-demand areas, thereafter renting them out on a short term basis, leveraging sophisticated marketing strategies using global portals like AirBnB, booking.com and others.The described situation realistically puts two digit ROIs into reach, not considering the likely stimulation of tourism through the Expo 2020 event or a capital appreciation during the forthcoming property cycle.Specific Benefits – Wide Audience

With the official adoption of AirBnB in Dubai dating only two years back, there are 6.200 AirBnB homes in Dubai at present, representing a very small percentage in comparison to the stock of hotel units. Obviously catering to tourists and business travelers,Considering the fact that Dubai`s hotel industry had been overly focused on the luxury segment in the past, affordable hotel options are scarce, notably in the most sought after tourist and business districts like Downtown, The Palm and DIFC, as well as Dubai Marina and JBR.It is therefore not surprising that AirBnB rates have been at a premium over hotel average daily rate (ADR) levels in these areas, indicating the consumer`s preference for more spacious accomodation in Dubai`s hotspots.Shift to the MiddleFeaturing the world`s highest per capita tourist spending (106% more than London in 2016: MasterCard Global Destinations Index) and being no. 3 of the world`s most visited cities already, Dubai is now implementing a plethorea of measures to further strengthen its appeal to travelers. Eying especially the vast and most dynamic source markets in Europa and Asia, the Emirate is now diversifying its tourist offerings down into the middle class and family segments with the ultimate goal to sustain its hospitality industry`s growth momentum.These include:

Creating new family-centric attractions like theme- and water parks

Visa-on-arrival for Chinese and Russians

Strengthening its profile as a destination for medical tourism

Substantial marketing efforts in the growth markets China, India and Russia

Offering 48 hour visa for stop-over travelers.

With 70 million passengers transiting only through Dubai`s DXB airport in 2017 (not counting DWC), the potential of the 48 hour visa option to the local hospitality industry becomes impressively obvious.Revenue CalculationBelow-mentioned calculation shows achievable revenues for a specific 1-bed apartment in the Business Bay district. It includes all costs for acquisition and daily operation of the unit, including service charges, maintenance, marketing etc. Further, neither capital appreciation nor increasing room or occupancy rates („expo effect“) have been assumed.Equity Investment

YearInvestmentRevenues grossCostsRevenues netDebt ServiceDistribution (AED)Distribution in %

1

937.250 AED

187.755 AED

78.989 AED

108.766 AED

0 AED

108.766 AED

11,60%

2

187.755 AED

78.989 AED

108.766 AED

0 AED

108.766 AED

11,60%

3

187.755 AED

78.989 AED

108.766 AED

0 AED

108.766 AED

11,60%

4

187.755 AED

78.989 AED

108.766 AED

0 AED

108.766 AED

11,60%

5

187.755 AED

78.989 AED

958.766 AED

0 AED

958.766 AED

102,30%

Total:

148,71%

Mortgage Investment

YearInvestmentRevenues grossCostsRevenues netDebt ServiceDistribution (AED)Distribution in %

1

313.363 AED

187.755 AED

78.989 AED

108.766 AED

55.414 AED

53.352 AED

17,03%

2

187.755 AED

78.989 AED

108.766 AED

55.414 AED

53.352 AED

17,03%

3

187.755 AED

78.989 AED

108.766 AED

57.708 AED

51.058 AED

16,29%

4

187.755 AED

78.989 AED

108.766 AED

57.708 AED

51.058 AED

16,29%

5

187.755 AED

78.989 AED

108.766 AED

57.708 AED

429.827 AED

137,17%

Total:

203,80%

It is noteworthy that mortgage financing generally is widely available for overseas investors. However, with the UAE Dirham pegged to the US-Dollar, higher interest rates (i.e. compared to eurozone levels) and shorter fixed interest rate periods are the norm and should thus be taken into account.

Roundup

The combination of Dubai`s booming tourism industry with the presently moderate property asset pricing could be a winning one, especially if Dubai`s efforts to strengthen its position as a tourist destination bear fruit.

Crucial for successful implementation of this strategy are the choice of a highly attractive property in a suitable location as well as the competent operators. Finally, the availability of competent marketers, effectively leveraging the power and reach of AirBnB & Co, is imperative.

#Short Term Rental in Dubai #luxury short term rentals dubai #cheap short term rentals dubai #Vacation Rentals In Dubai

[motherednature]

THE EMERALD WITCH - MISC. GAME MECHANICS.

a haphazard list of various features seraphina ( the emerald witch ) would come with were she actually a part of the dragon age franchise!

- to even unlock her as a follower, you would’ve had to beat da:i once already. once you have done so, your new file will also have to be played in a specific world setting. this is annoying, however, the payoff is worth it, considering she is op as hell. also, milf hours.

- there is no set guide to increasing/decreasing approval levels -- at least, it’s extremely difficult to pin one down. depending on a mixture of race, dialogue options, and random events, her approval goes up and down.

- random events dictate much of her actions, even if the inquisitor directs her with certain command. for example, there is a certain percentage that when the inquisitor tells the party to hold, the emerald witch will simply keep following. sample dialogue: “i told you to hold!” “...and?” depending on approval levels, she will either end up not helping the inquisitor at all, helping the inquisitor a little, or absolutely annihilating all hostile enemies in the area.

- she is also able to be sent on missions, along with cullen, leliana, and josephine -- players will choose one of the normal 3, then decide if they want to send along the emerald witch for certain bonuses. however, random events are still at play. for example, if you want to put the emerald witch’s shapeshifting to use, you might send her with leliana. however, when the mission is finished, you’ll find that she went with cullen instead to use magical brute strength to get what you wanted. surprise!

- low approval level: random events are much more frequent and she is much. more volatile. higher chance of turning hostile and either simply killing the player character or leaving the inquisition. mask and cloak never come off. one random event ( very very small chance ) if approval levels get ABYSMAL is that she fucking obliterates everyone in the inquisition, your game ends, and your game file is fucking corrupted and lost for good.

- high approval level: random events lessen and player character has more control over her character. mask and cloak come off to reveal her features. more cut scenes, obviously, revealing her backstory and moving along a storyline where she becomes the inquisition’s resident milf mom. the inquisitor is now her child and no one can do anything about it!

- is she able to be romanced? who knows! only one way to find out. hint: you gotta be parent aged.

- you’ll often find her in shape-shifted forms around skyhold -- the animal is different depending on the area, but a lot of the time it is just the skinniest, most scar-riddled black cat you’ve ever seen in your life. at first, the player won’t know this is the emerald witch, but with high approval ratings, this will be revealed! yes she is eavesdropping, yes she is willing to use this information against people.

#( V: AND IN HER WAKE TREES DOTH SHIVER. ) #|| ⚘ FOR NOW IT IS MY TURN TO HOLD THE PEN. ( headcanon ) #`` she's nasty but ......... i love her.

[potato-awesome]

it's done! i know this is kinda late but 🤷

(p.s. you might need to increase brightness if you're watching from mobile)

#baby's first video edit #it's me I'm baby #i know 2020 was very hard #and I don't mean to make light of the events that happened to the world #and obviously this is only a small percentage of world events #but this is just an idea that i had #thank you shoshana for giving me the push the very start lol #and eliot courtney and tee for passing around ideas with me #this is my first proper fan edit #even tho it's very silly #hopefully not my last tho i had so much fun doing it #i make stuff #look i finally have a tag for edits lmao #ok I'm off again #i might reblog this again but that's about it #the magicians #video

[twdmusicboxmystery]

When a Grady Actor Confirmed TD and Other Reasons the Spoilers Don’t Spoil TD

Okay Everyone, I’m gonna cover a few of things today that I hope will help everyone to continue feeling at least somewhat better about the spoilers. 

***More spoilers below (same ones as yesterday, actually) but don’t read if you don’t want to know. You’ve been warned.***

1) Could the spoilers be fake?

I got plenty of messages and comments yesterday, too. Some of them claiming these spoilers aren’t even true and the person who spoiled them is a troll and unreliable. 

Now, before everyone starts messaging me and commenting about how you “know” these are true and the screeners are out, please note that I’m not making a claim either way. The account that spoiled this isn’t one who normally gets and reviews screeners, which means they could be false. That doesn’t mean that account didn’t get these from a reputable source, which means they could be true.

As I said yesterday, overall, I think they’re probably true. I think they were probably intentionally leaked to hype up the fandom and gauge our reactions. And I would rather you all make your peace with them being real rather than holding out hope that they’re totally false. But I think it’s worth reiterating that they haven’t been 100% confirmed, yet.

2) There’s a whole other person involved in this Leah arc that we don’t know about yet.

You know how yesterday I went on and on about how we don’t have anything near all the details of this arc? Well, someone pointed this out to me. Don’t feel bad if you totally missed it, because I did, too, and I haven’t seen anyone talking about it.

Look at the picture of Leah below carefully. Look at what’s behind her. If you look closely, there’s someone kneeling on the ground. They’ve got one knee resting on the floor, and the other one pointed toward the ceiling with their foot flat. You can see one shoulder to the left of Leah’s hip.

Spoilers make no mention of this person. We have no idea who they are or how they fit into the story.

This looks to me like it’s when she and Daryl first meet (hence, she doesn’t trust him and is holding him at gunpoint) and she seems to be protecting this person from him. Whoever it is, it probably has to do with why she’s out there to begin with, and will probably factor in how/why she disappears.

And I have no doubt that this shot is purposeful, guys. If they wanted us to know about this person directly, they would have given us a more obvious shot of them. And yet, they have put hints of the person in the shots they DID release. Isn’t that just like them?

But my point is, this is proof that there is a lot about this episode the spoilers are leaving out. So please keep that in mind.

3) When a Grady actor directly addressed TD.

So, for the past few days, as you can imagine I’ve been talking with and consoling people about these spoilers. I just keep going back to the stuff we KNOW. Like that there are missing scenes Emily was in from S5. Those have nothing to do with Leah and suggest Beth’s return. And if she’s returning, I promise you, Bethyl will be a thing.

The other thing I mentioned to people is when Jarod Thompson (guy that played one of the Grady cops) addressed TD directly. 

I quickly realized I needed to repost this because no one seemed to have any idea what I was talking about. Then it took me an hour to find it because I didn’t give it its own post when I first posted it. It was buried at the bottom of this Rick’s Fate post from S9 and not properly indexed. But I did finally locate it.

So, here’s the rundown. Right after the episode where Jadis took Rick away in the helicopter, Jarod Thompson tweeted this:

I’m pretty sure you can’t find this tweet anymore. It was taken down. But let me make a couple of points here. 

First, the obvious. TD has nothing to do with Leah. She wasn’t even on anyone’s radar back then. So what he’s telling us here has nothing to do with Leah. He’s basically telling us that Beth will return. 

Translation: Leah doesn’t matter. Beth is coming back. 

This is just one (of many) things that keeps me strong in TD. Because the actor actually confirmed this for us. And then it was quickly taken down, which is always suspicious to me. Why? Well, I’m sure some people will be quick to counter with the argument that maybe he was just trolling or making fun of us. But I don’t see that as a terribly logical argument. 

He’s never done it before or since. 

We have other evidence (HERE) of him working with Emily post-season 5, and possibly in the hospital setting. 

The timing is suspicious. This happened after Rick left. And I personally think that what he referred to here was the CRM. 9x05 was the first time they really came front and center, an active part of the story. So I think he was hinting that Beth is inside that organization as well and that now that the audience knows who they are, the stage is set and things are in motion for her return.

For the record, it was not long after this that we started getting the massing amount of Beth/Emily promotion on social media. 

Most importantly, his tweet was removed, probably by him at someone else’s request. Think about this really logically, guys. They don’t remove tweets about Caryl happening. They don’t remove teases about Daryl and Connie. They only remove suspicious posts that might tell us something about Beth’s return. There’s a reason for that. 

Furthermore, consider this. He’s kind of a small-time actor on the show. Of course I don’t mean that in a negative way. He’s fabulous. But I mean he’s not a main character on the show like Andy or Norman or Lauren. And HE knows all about TD, what we want, obviously what is going to happen, and which events in the show constitute room for us “to breathe.” 

So what does that tell you about other actors on the show, the writers, and any higher-ups connected to the show?

Yeah. Exactly.

Which leads me to my next order of business:

4) Kirkman’s Post/Poll

I think most people saw this last night, but if you didn’t , here it is. 

You can still vote HERE. I took the screenshot last night. I just checked again and the percentage has gone down a couple of points (still at 47%) with more than 9500 votes at this time. So the ‘bring Beth back’ option is still the runaway winner.

Here’s the thing. The timing on this is super-suspicious to me. When was the last time Kirkman tweeted something about Beth? I have no idea, and don’t care to go digging through his Twitter account to find out, but I promise you he hasn’t done it in a long time. He’s said things about her and Bethyl during interviews and such, of course, but he doesn’t just randomly tweet about her. Like...ever.

So you’re telling me that on day 2 after these spoilers leak, when the fandoms are loosing their collective minds, Kirkman just so happens to post this? No way. I don’t buy it.

Look, I know most of us don’t like Kirkman. And I’m not defending him. I don’t like him either. But after watching his interaction with tptb all these years, I have come to believe that they do use him. 

Gimple (and now Kang, I’m sure) are very careful about what they say. Guys, I’ve watched and analyzed this VERY closely over the years, which is why I always say that they never directly lie to us. Misdirection? Yes. Hyperbole? Of course. But they never look into the camera and tell us something blatantly untrue. 

I believe that’s because they don’t want the fans to be able to point at anything they say and accuse them of falsehood. That’s why they can’t ever say much, because it’s either give spoilers (which they won’t) or lie (which they also won’t). That’s why their answers are always so vague and general and very, very irritating. 

But Kirkman isn’t one of the showrunners. He’s connected to it, of course, and I think he knows a lot about what’s coming down the pipeline, but if he says something that’s untrue, tptb can simply shrug and say, “he’ doesn’t make executive story decisions.” Because of that, I believe they use him to sew discord and misdirection. 

And again, I’m not saying this isn’t troll-ish. I’m not saying I like this tactic or that it’s a good thing. I’m simply saying this is what they do. 

So when Kirkman says anything TD-related, I pay attention. Not because I think we should take it at face value, but because the timing, context, how he frames it, and what’s going on in the fandom at the time can tell us a lot about it and give us some clues. 

So, in this case, I think tptb are watching the fandom’s reactions to the spoilers and trying to do a little damage control. But here’s what really gets me: he only mentioned Beth, and specifically in the context of bringing her back. I mean, ALL the shipping fandoms are freaking out right now. All of them are hating these spoilers and losing their shit right now. But he ONLY mentions Beth.

I truly believe that this is tptb, through Kirkman, addressing TD specifically, and just kind of throwing us a bone. They’re not addressing the others because there isn’t any hope for those other ships. 

I know there will be people who disagree with him and think he’s just making fun of us. I understand why people think that. But guys, if that were the case, we’d see at least SOME comments about other characters or ships. There aren’t any. And hey, look through the comments on his tweet. There’s a ton of Beth support (which is why she won the poll) and a few haters, but there are also lots of people who are kind of mystified, saying things like, “How about bring back Glenn? Or Rick? Or Carl?”

See what I mean? 

5) The time Gimple Confirmed Something that was NOT Going to Happen on the Show

Okay, gonna end by reminding you of just one more thing. Just a couple of months ago, before the finale of The World Beyond, S1, one of the actors teased on TTD that we might see Rick in the finale. 

Now, that was totally false. The finale came and went with no Rick (obviously). The actor was just trolling and trying to get people riled up, which he succeeded at. A few days later, Gimple was giving an interview to a clickbait site and they asked him about it. Gimple started to give his run-of-the-mill, vague answer but stopped mid-sentence and said this:

ComicBook.com asked Gimple if World Beyond was working up to a Rick Grimes reveal. 

“You know what? I’m very happy to say… I’m not happy to say the answer,” he said, clearly aware he was about to disappoint people. “I’m happy to be definitive with people. It is not.”

That’s one, I don’t know if people are being cagey about that. But I feel that one’s important not to be cagey about…I think people could watch this show and learn a lot about the mythology that Rick Grimes is caught up in. And they might even see places where Rick Grimes has been. But yeah, he’s not swinging around the corner. And I don’t even know if I’m making people upset saying that, but I just don’t like people watching it, sort of expecting Rick.”

Full article HERE.

Guys, they’ve never done that with Beth and TD. EVER!!!

I’m just saying.

And I can already hear counter arguments about how they’ve never shut down other ships like C@ryl or Donnie either. You’re right, but those characters are still front and center on the show. If Beth is dead and not coming back, why wouldn’t they put her to rest for us the way he did with this Rick rumor? (And I’m also going to argue that they’ve given us very clear indications in the show about a few of these ships, and the shippers just don’t want to accept them. But that’s not entirely relevant here.)

Thoughts?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

[tosikoarts]

SFW Alphabet | Vasily

You can check tosikowrites tag for more as well as you can send character suggestion for SFW alphabet. Warning: there’s a lot under the cut.

A = Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

Caught in Japan mute and technically deaf, since people speaking Russian are a quite rare finding in Hokkaido, Vasily is limited in his expression of affection. Obviously, first thing that comes to mind is communication though his amazing drawings but they are static and, therefore, lacking small details that are so important in dialogue. So he pays much more attention to non-verbal part of communication (probably unknowingly) to win a person.

He tries to sit by their side, not opposing but not siding, just right to attract attention. When “talking” to them, Vasily’s eyes become hundred times more expressive: he raises eyebrows in shock, frowns to show misunderstanding or anger, bulges eyes in surprise, squints eyes in disbelief. He has no idea what they are saying unless they draw responses as well. In all other cases Vasily trusts his guts, their general looks, and tone of the voice.

Speaking of drawings. We all can agree Vasily secretly draws them and hides pictures everywhere. He always keeps one, the best one in his opinion, close to the heart. Sugimoto found one of portraits and Vasily waved his arms so hard that he almost took off, but Saichi just smiled and promised to take his secret to the grave. Vasily will definitely show his creations to them when the time comes.

Physical affection. It is so hard. He needs a lot of clues to avoid awkward situations. No hugs, no big skin-to-skin contact unless he is at least 50% sure in their consent. Such low percentage because how much can you tell in situation like his? Vasily loves to be close to them and gets overly excited when they initiate holding hands even if it’s only for a few seconds.

B = Best friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

He is such an unpredictable friend to be honest. You never know what to expect. Today he disappears into thin air just to fall on your head tomorrow with a weird-looking kettle. It’s a new shiny samovar! Now you can drink real tea!

Vasily will follow you anywhere. Just call him, and you will have the best travel companion in the whole world. During the trip, he collects various trinkets and wraps them into his sketches. He drags you to the most crowded places where all fun takes place. Let’s skip the fact that “fun” is not always safe.

Before Vasily met Ogata, he loved to sing in a company. His bass-baritone was a gem of any gatherings and worked on girls like a charm. Now Vasya can’t say a word but you can catch him humming unfamiliar melodies from time to time. If his friend joins in singing, Vasily will clap hands in admiration.

The best around to get drunk with. His self-control is commendable since Vasily knows exact amount of alcohol he can take. He is in charge of bringing everybody back to camp if they decide to take a walk and slapping their hands when they reach for another glass. Not a mother type. His control extends only to drinking.

C = Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Classical big spoon and won’t let them be one if they are smaller than him. Vasily likes to cuddle but short cuddling annoys the hell out of him so his ideal cuddle session has to last at least half of hour without any interruptions. He also likes when partner lies on his chest. This position gives Vasya chance to slowly rub their back, ruffle their hair or play with it.

D = Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

He… never thought about it? Despite widespread Slavic tradition of having large family and house in which sound of children’s stomping never dies down, Vasily never discussed settling down or getting married with anyone. It is not like he is not capable of living sedentary way of life, it just wasn’t relevant. Vasily needs someone to push him towards changing his lifestyle if they want to settle down in a future.

E = Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

Unlike the others, Vasily can’t explain himself and simply say “well, it won’t work out, let’s stay friends”. So he gives up trying. There are only two options:

In first Vasily slowly distances himself from them, growing abyss gets increasingly noticeable every next day. In the beginning, he ignores them loudly calling his name in the woods. Then he stops to turn around to their voice, he looks away just not to look them right in the eyes. The more assertive person is, the more they resist his cold treatment, the harsher Vasily becomes.

In second Vasily abruptly leaves country and goes back to Russian Empire. No notice. Nothing. The only reminder of his existence is a trail of shallow footprints in the snow and one or two drawing he did not manage to burn.

F = Fiance(e) (How do they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Once again, he haven’t thought about it at all. If his loved one brought up a marriage, Vasily would need to have a mental sit down. There is a ton of responsibilities hidden under the marriage concept, it makes ephemeral bond between two dryly official, but Vasily, will marry them if it will make them happier. He is ready to pop a question after two years, and only after another person shows their interest in it.

G = Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

Stoic and collected in a professional sense but sincere and rough-ly gentle in everyday life. Turgenev, a Russian novelist, wrote that a real Russian has a heart of a child, and Vasily surely falls into this category: behind the image of a cold-blooded sniper hides a personality prone to vivid sensual experiences. He holds loved one like the most precious thing in the world and cares for them deeply.

H = Hugs (Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?)

Loves hugs with all his heart. After long time apart Vasily will squeeze them in a bear hug, leaving their legs hanging freely in the air. During the day Vasily likes to randomly come up from behind and place hands on their waist or thighs, while resting his chin on their shoulder or head. If his partner is teeny-tiny he can’t resist the urge to place them between his legs, their back to his chest, and press them closer, hiding them in his big ass coat.

I = I love you (How fast do they say the L-word?)

After good interpreter magically appears on the horizon? In any case, if he tries to do it without someone who understands Russian, you’ll get funny pantomime accompanied by sighs in different keys. He will write “Я люблю тебя” under another portrait just to get upset that nobody understands him.

It depends not on the time spent together but on events that they lived through, so it may take from one month to few years. By the time Vasily feels like saying “I love you” they probably realize it by his amorous behavior.

J = Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous?)

Patient jealous type. But before we get to it, let’s say few people will take a risk and flirt with a partner of such a mysterious stranger. He carries a riffle, which means he shoots living creatures. Nobody wants to get shot, okay. One can hit on his partner and pray nobody points to it. When it happens, Vasily takes a silent stand behind his loved one and just stares at love rival until they go away. If it doesn’t help, Vasya may flip and take person to the ground with one hard blow. He keeps poker face the whole time.

His partner is flirting with someone? Gets touchy and lovey-dovey? After long  monitoring and accepting an unpleasant fact, Vasily bounces back and forth between the stages of denial and anger. Next days he shoos them away with a hand gesture and tortures himself, overthinking if it really was what he thought it was. Puppy eyes and gentle pats are usually enough to calm him down.

K = Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

In the beginning Vasily dodges kisses like Neo does bullets. Very unobtrusively all attempts to kiss him come to naught, he rises hand in stop sign or turns around, tightening bashlyk in hurry. Not that he doesn’t want to, he is just afraid. No, not that they will gasp in fright or find scars on his cheeks ugly. He is afraid of pain. Thought of someone touching his face sends unpleasant tingle down to the jaw. Given the physiological position of the tongue and teeth, you can imagine what that bullet… well, better not.

Later Vasily relaxes enough to let them kiss him in the forehead. In return he nuzzles in their hair or neck or anywhere they allow to. As long as they are satisfied with such a surrogate, he is chill and forgets about his deformation.

One day Vasily surrenders to their wishes and lets them unwrap bashlyk like a birthday present. He closes eyes in praying for gentle touch. After realizing the light touch on the lips does not cause pain Vasya develops much more positive attitude towards kissing. Now he kisses them himself, hooray. On the nose, one the cheeks, on the lips. No tongue tho. He prefers to do it in private, far from prying eyes.

L = Little ones (How are they around children?)

For some vague reason kids seem to really like him? They love his silence and smiling eyes (Tyra Banks is proud of you, sweetie) just as much as his willingness to play with them. Vasily sees no problem to run around enjoying games that have Russian equivalent: kakurenbo/hide and seek similar to “прятки” and janken/rock paper scissors is identical to “камень, ножницы, бумага”. Moreover Vasily’s physical states are impressive: he throws kids in the air and catches them like it’s nothing, spins them around until he gets dizzy, etc. Feels more comfortable to play with little kids and toddlers than teenagers.

M = Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Immediately after waking up, Vasily gets up and thoroughly stretches. Usually his partner is still asleep so he has some time to do some housework. In summer and spring, Vasya grabs a scythe and mows overgrown weeds near the house, in fall he cuts firewood for the next season, and in winter you can catch him by the window, looking at endless white fields where he doesn’t have anything to do! After morning routine is over, he greats now woken up partner with a temple kiss and together they decide what to cook for breakfast.

N = Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Likes to enjoy privacy of his home. After the list of useful (and not so useful) things has been done, Vasily wants to bury his face in the partner’s neck and relax. He is all about tea party with fresh baked buttered buns, inept massage, cuddling with fingers intertwined. If night out occurs, it is a casual walk around the city/village with a purpose of catching hot news and exchanging niceties.

O = Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything all at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

Vasily has his soul wide open and is ready to tell his partner about the past, family, friends, traditions, and many-many other things, but does he really have an opportunity? During the journey, Vasya tries to get around the inability to speak by drawing and pointing to somehow related items but it rarely makes any sense. In general, he does not dump everything at once so he can back to topic and start conversation from where they left it.

P = Patience (How easily angered are they?)

He has a good understanding that cool head is a main tool in problem solving. You can annoy Vasily as much as you like, he will just shrug his shoulders and shake his head because there’s no point in responding aggressively. In the event of a serious incident (category includes betrayal, treason, encroachment on something important to him) Vasily will hold strong emotions back anyway. It is not that he doesn’t want to tear wrongdoer to pieces, no. He will do it, directing all the destructive power of hatred into action itself.

Q = Quizzes (How much would they remember about you? Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

Great memory, especially visual memory that helps him to find way back to camp or hotel without asking for anyone’s help. Vasily’s watchfulness plays a big role in interaction with others, especially with loved one. Did their gaze linger on a certain stuff? Was it flower? Weapon? Some sort of food? What was their facial expression? He picks up whether they press received present to the chest or try to hide it as soon as possible. Vasily may surprise loved one with a gift that they were staring in the shop but didn’t buy even after few months pass.  

R = Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

The time is far past midnight. Heavy clouds cover the sky over the river valley, and the only source of light are anvil crawlers, sprawled between bare branches of oaks and beeches. Vasily is wide awake. Rolling thunder has nothing to do with it. He is too concentrated on a person quietly snuffling on his chest. They are so close. He is so happy. He feels… important? Special? Lucky? When they wanted snuggle up to someone in seek of protection, they went to Vasily. Not to Sugimoto whose yell fills people with a primal fear. Not to Shiraishi whose dumb jokes can distract from looming threat. To him. Vasily keeps wondering how his loud heartbeat didn’t wake them up. He can’t wait for a morning to plant a dozen kisses on their cute sleepy face.

S = Security (How protective are they? How would they protect you? How would they like to be protected?)

It completely depends on another person’s self-defense skills. If they can take care of themselves, Vasily won’t worry much. They are not a child to have someone watching their every step. If they are less skilled, then he will keep an eye on them. One dirty look is enough for Vasily to become alert and sneak closer to the partner. He will try to avoid a direct confrontation but if it is impossible Vasily will aim for a head.

T = Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

The very presence of Vasily in another country is an endless trying so he is used to give his best. Most of Vasya's time is spent on picking social clues and particular interaction qualities between Japanese people, comparison with those in his own culture, and application of synthesized results in his own relationship. For example, if there’s a chance Vasily would buy them the sweetest marshmallow from famous Abrikosov confectionery concern, but following Japanese tradition he would… well, he’ll stick to Russian presents until he spends enough time in Japan. Doesn’t care about anniversaries so do not expect extra effort.  

U = Ugly (What would be some bad habits of theirs?)

It can be difficult for a serious person to be with Vasily because of his childish behavior. Yes, it's fun to fool around with the person from outside that is in such a sad position that he has no other choice but to laugh. Only at some point will it seem stupid and unreasonable.

Still, in the Slavic countries, a man has always been considered the leader of the relationship and his opinion was put above all others. Sometimes Vasily tries to change his partner and impose his vision of the world on them. He doesn't look like an strictly uncompromising individual but Vasily may have a little bit of this in him.

V = Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

Comfort and warmth are the main criteria for Vasily when choosing clothes. In addition, face protection is important to him as well because a good soldier knows how to cover his weaknesses and leave opponents without any benefits. Vasily values his sideburns and takes a good care of them himself. In addition, he is aware his blue eyes are hypnotic secret weapon of Russian Empire and they are another thing he really likes in own appearance.

W = Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

Crossing the border illegally, he didn’t expect to make friends in the first place, leave alone jumping into romantic relationship. Ending up cuffed instead of having a little fun as a side mission in spontaneous sniper hunt surely leaves him attached. Attachment leads to hurt. If they decide to end the relationship Vasily’s feelings are crushed. You can catch the moment of realization: his shoulders drop and eyebrows rise in surprise as he takes step back. That’s okay. Vasily doesn’t hold grudges. His behavior remains positive despite being hurt.

If they were killed, Vasily will cross the whole damn country to find the culprit. He will search every corner, turn every stone to make them pay. Only then Vasily will allow himself to mourn properly, pray for them. After returning back home, he will light a candle in their memory during each church visit.

X = Xtra (A random headcanon for them.)

Vasily is far from “innocent” persona people try to picture him. His disability and unfamiliar environment gave him a great disguise but Vasily is sniper, he is deadly. Given his size and physique, Vasya, probably, can suffocate person with single hand, and squeaky sound of leather gloves friction sends goosebumps down his spine.

Corporal punishment was allowed up until 1904 both in army and navy of Russian Empire. I can see Vasily as someone who got into minor troubles but was disliked by his mentors so he got a bit of whipping, flogging, maybe, even running the gauntlet. His back is covered in merely visible thin white and pink lines.

Y = Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner?)

Controlling partner is a big no-no. There are people that tolerate their loved one directing everything, gently pushing towards favored decisions, but Vasily isn’t one of them. It irritates him to the point where Vasya crosses his hands on the chest and throws a mum fit.

Vasily is a smart man, Vasily knows that good things take time. That’s why he can’t imagine himself with an impatient person by his side. In addition, you’ll need patience to deal with his forced silence that prevents intelligible communication.

Pretence. Mostly because Vasily can’t get why would you fake something? It doesn’t make you successful person, it just make you a liar.

Z = Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

Doesn’t care where to sleep while it’s still dark. As soon as the first sunbeam hits his face, Vasily quickly jumps on his feet and gets to work. Same goes for any other light source like candle, lamp, torch. Prefers to doze with rifle by his side so that in the case of danger he could easily protect himself and others. Also Vasily sleeps exclusively on his back to minimize face contact with hard surfaces.

The thought of his homeland makes Vasily's heart ache, mostly because he misses sleeping on the Russian stove (remember “печка”?). There’s nothing even close to the heat it radiates. He just wants to curl on the stove and eat fresh kalaches.

Sleep quality is inversely proportional to the presence of dreams. It is easy to understand that Vasily had one: his face expresses complete detachment, and in his eyes you can see immeasurable sadness.

#golden kamuy #vasily #golden kamuy headcanon #golden kamuy imagine #tosikowrites

[citrineghost]

100 Humans on Netflix

So there’s this neat Netflix Original show called 100 Humans. I immediately got interested in it because they take this group of various humans from different backgrounds, age groups, and so on, and they use them to conduct experiments to get answers to interesting questions.

So, right away I had concerns about this show because

If you know anything about data and statistical research, you know 100 people is a very small sample size and does not breed accurate results

However, I’m very curious and wanted to see what they came up with anyway. I watched all 8 episodes and, honestly, I enjoyed watching it for the most part. However, I have a LOT of issues with the show and how it was conducted and I want to list them out here.

If you’re interested in watching 100 Humans or have already watched it, please consider the following before taking any of the show’s data as fact.

100 people is a very small sample size. This is because, the more people you have, the more weight each increment in your percentages has. With 100 people, each person represents 1 entire percent. That’s a lot. That means even a few people giving incorrect answers, having off-days, or giving ridiculous results (such as you can see in the spiders georg meme), can sway the entire result of an experiment into unreasonable territory. This is why most scientific studies attempt to get data from many hundreds or even thousands of people. The bigger the sample size, the more accurate it is to the entirety of the world.

I’ll put the rest under the cut because it gets long

The 3 hosts, who I’ll refer to as the scientists (regardless of if they actually are, because I’m not sure and don’t feel like googling it) repeatedly make false statements. For example, in one episode, they told their humans to “raise your hand if you believe you’re less bigoted than the average person here,” to which 94 people raised their hands. One of the scientists then made the statement, “If that were true, it would mean only 6% of Americans are bigoted.” This statement is entirely false. The only way to actually determine a true meaning to that would be to determine at what percentage of bigotry you are considered a real bigot. You also must consider that believing you’re more bigoted than other people in a small group, who you already have an impression of, is not necessarily indicative of how you feel you measure up to America as a whole. Anyway, I could go on and on. The only way to accurately summarize the results of that question would be to say that 44% of the humans had an inflated sense of righteousness or something of the sort.

The 3 scientists, both in person and in narration, for the sake of entertainment (if that’s what you call it) continually made “jokes” that poked fun at different groups, implied men are shit, etc. Maybe that’s fun for some people, but the kind of jokes they were making to amp up the hilarity of their host personas was genuinely just uncomfortable and made me feel even more like they couldn’t be trusted to go about unbiased research.

The scientists continually drew conclusions where the results should have been labeled inconclusive

The scientists made blanket statements about certain groups based on 1 element of research that would not stand up to further evaluation. For example, when explaining that ~93% (i think it was about that number) of Americans have access to clean, drinkable, tap water and yet some large number of single use bottled waters are sold every year, one scientist said it was because people believe bottled water is safer and cleaner than tap water. I am going to do my next survey on this to see if my own perception is flawed, but I simply don’t believe that all of the people who buy bottled water do so because they think its cleaner than “tap” (as if all tap is the same.) I know there have been studies about people drinking unlabeled bottled water and tap water and not being able to tell the difference, but this neglects to account for the fact that different houses pipes can affect the taste of the tap water running through them, people can use disposable bottles of water for certain activities or events too far away from tap for people to refill their reusable bottles easily, and so so so much more. Anyway, it just really bothers me to see “scientists” making these kinds of generalizations when they’re the ones whose results we’re supposed to trust.

The show was incredibly cisnormative. There was an entire episode based on comparing men and women that made me extremely uncomfortable with its division of people by men and women. There was the implication that all men have penises and all women have vaginas. There were implications that reproduction is a necessity in picking a partner. It was just a shitshow. There was one comment by one subject who asked, when being told to separate by men and women, “What if I’m transgender?” Obviously I can’t say for sure, but this person didn’t appear to be transgender and the sort of tone it was asked in makes me think it was literally something they asked him to say in order to get inclusivity points with the viewers and to “prove” that they’re not transphobic by having them divide up, because they said to go to the side you identify with. This whole thing is a) harmful to nb folks who would not have had a side to go to and b) completely negating the fact that the way we were socialized can have an effect on our social responses. That means that for a social experiment, a trans person could sway the results of one side due to their upbringing and the pressures society put on them before/if they don’t pass. This is all assuming they had any trans people there, which is potentially debatable.  I also take issue with this entire fucking episode because just, the amount of toxicity in proving one sex is better than the others is really gross and actually counterproductive to everything feminist and progressive. Not to mention, them implying that they’re trying to support trans people only to reinforce the notion that a trans man is inherently lesser for being a man when even prior to hatching, he would have also been force fed propaganda and societal pressure implying he’s less than for supposedly being a woman is really gross and makes me angry. The point of what I’m saying is that it’s actually not woke to hate men as a way of bringing women up because there are men who are minorities who are being hurt by the rise of aggression being directed at them for their gender. Anyway enough about that.

The tests drew false conclusions because they did not account for how minorities adapt to a world that’s not made for them. This is specifically directed at the episode where subjects were asked to match up 6 people into couples. There were 3 women and 3 men and the humans were asked to put them together into pairs. they could ask the people 1 question each but then had to match them up with only that information. The truth is, the people brought in were 3 real life couples already, which the humans didn’t know until after they matched them. The couples were m/f, m/m, and f/f. I think that’s great, but the problem is, literally none of the humans asked any of them their sexuality as their question and most people didn’t even consider they could match up same-sex people. One girl even thought that they had told her to make m/f pairings, even though they didn’t.  The scientists concluded from the experiment that the humans have a societal bias toward people, and assume they’re all straight, even if they, themselves, are not straight. I personally believe that was the wrong conclusion to draw. You could see some of the queer humans were shocked that they hadn’t considered some of the pairings might be gay. But, I don’t think it’s because they believe everyone they meet is straight, I believe this says more about what they expected from the scientists themselves. If someone is in a minority and they go to do something organized, like a set of experiments, they are going to be judging the quality and setup of the experiments by those designing them. I feel that the lack of consideration that the couples might be gay has a lot more to do with queer people having adapted to a world where queers are rarely involved or included in equal volume to the cishets. The queer humans taking part in the experiment and failing to guess gay couples shows that they have adapted to a world where they are excluded rather than a belief that every random person that they meet is straight. My point is further supported by an expert they had on the show who explained that, statistically, it was entirely likely that they were all straight and that even queers will account for being minorities by going with what’s most likely. The truth is, we are surrounded by a whole lot of straight people. It makes sense to assume only 6 people are all straight and that, if any aren’t, they may be bi.

The scientists frequently broke an already small sample size into even smaller groups. The group was very frequently broken in half, in thirds, or into sets of 10 people. These sample sizes tell us almost nothing actually conclusive. 

The experiments/tests frequently were affected by peoples abilities, unrelated to what was being tested. For example, one test that was broken down into 6 people and 6 control people competing at jenga was meant to show whether needing to pee helps or hurts your focus. first of all, sample sizes of 6 are a fucking joke. Second, this completely ignores these 6 people’s actual ability to play Jenga. If someone sucks at jenga with or without needing to pee, them losing Jenga when they need to pee says exactly fuck all about whether needing to pee affected their focus. They should have tested people’s Jenga skills beforehand, counted the amount of moves they made before the tower fell, and then did it again after hours of not peeing to compare their results. This test made no logical sense at all.

The scientists ignored the social effect of subjects knowing each other as well as duration of events during their last experiment. They were testing to see if people with last names near the end of the alphabet get a shittier deal because they go last in everything where things are done by name order. They tested this by doing a fake awards ceremony where they gave out some 30 awards to people, gauging the applause to see whether the people at the end got less hype and therefore felt worse about themselves than those in the beginning who got the fresh enthusiasm of the audience. the results showed that the applause remained fairly consistent throughout the awards. The issues with this test are numerous, but here are the three I take most issue with. 1) the people here all got to know each other very well over the week it took to make the show. People who know each other and have become friends are much more likely to cheer for each other with enthusiasm, regardless of how long it’s been. On the other hand, polite applause from a crowd at, say, a graduation, where you are applauding people you don’t know, WILL start off more raucous and grow very quiet except for individual families near the end. 2) the duration of the test was a half hour, which is not very long at all and doesn’t say much to test the limits of enthusiasm. Try testing the audience at a graduation with a couple hundred graduates that also involves the time it takes to walk all the way up to a stage a hundred feet away, accept a diploma, and then wait for the next person. These kinds of events take hours and nobody keeps up their enthusiasm that long unless they’re rooting for someone in particular. 3) this study tested only one of many many ways name order affects a person. Cheering and applause is only one factor. It does not take into account people having their resumes looked at in alphabetical order and therefore people at the beginning of the alphabet being picked before anyone ever looks at a W name’s resume. It doesn’t take into account a small child’s show and tell day being at the very end of the school year, after 6 other people have brought in the same thing they planned to. No one cares about their really cool trinket because they’ve seen a bunch like it already. This test doesn’t take into account how many end-of-the-alphabet people just get straight up told, “we ran out of time. maybe next time,” when next time doesn’t really exist. I feel genuinely bad for the girl who suggested this experiment because the scientists straight up said something akin to, “lmao her theory was bs ig /shrug” even though it was their own shitty research abilities that led to their results.

They did one experiment intending to see how many people have what it takes to be a “hero.” The request for this test was made by someone curious about the effect of adrenaline and if it really works how some people say. The scientists thought it an adequate method to determine an answer by testing their reflexes with a weird crying baby sound and then dropping a doll from above while they were distracted with answering questions. The scientists looked up before the doll dropped to indicate a direction of attention. While this does give some answers about peoples intuition, reflexes, and ability to use context clues, its entirely an unusual situation, makes no sense in reality, fails to take adrenaline into consideration literally at all, and has a lot more to do with chance. The person dropping the doll literally couldn’t even drop it in the same place from person to person. Some got it dropped into their lap and others almost out of arm’s reach. This, like a few of the other mentioned experiments, was during the last episode, which felt lazy and thrown together last minute, with very little scientific basis to any of the results. The last episode was weak and disappointing overall. 

One of the big issues I have with this show is actually their repeated use of the same group. They said at the end that they had done over 40 tests. Part of doing studies is getting varied samples of people in order to get more widespread results. Using the same 100 or less people (already a tiny sample) repeatedly is a terrible research method. You’re no longer studying humans at large. You’re studying these specific humans. You can’t take the same group with the same set of inadequacies, the same set of skills, and the same set of biases and then study them extensively and in many different ways like this. Your results are inherently skewed toward these specific people and their abilities. I expected them to at least get a new group each episode - every 5 or so studies - but no. They keep the same group all week, which makes the entire season. This is inexcusable in research imo.

The next issue is contestant familiarity. The humans all getting to know each other is great, socially, but it also destroys the legitimacy of many of the studies that involve working together or comparing yourselves and your beliefs

Many tests had issues with subject dependency. One study, meant to compare age groups and their ability to work together to complete the task of putting together a piece of ready to assemble furniture had each group with members they relied on entirely. A few people built the furniture while one person sat across the room, looking at instructions with their back to the others. They had to relay the instructions through a walkie talkie to another contestant and that other contestant had to relay it to the people they’re watching build the chair. You cannot study a group’s ability to build something with instructions by the ability of one single person to communicate. You’re testing that individual and the rest of them on two completely different capabilities. One person fails at being able to communicate and everyone else becomes unable to build the furniture. Even if everyone else in the group is more effective than all the other groups at building ready to assemble furniture, they might end up falling in last because of their shitty communicator who is literally not able to convey simple instructions. (yes, this actually happened in the test)

One test judged the subjects at their speed of getting ready, to see if men or women are faster at getting ready. While most elements of this test were just fine, the part I took issue with was that they did this test without regard to social convention. They told the subjects they were going on a field trip and to get ready by a certain time. Then, they gave them many things to get distracted by, like refreshments to pack with them, a menu to preorder lunch from, and so on.  The part that upsets me about this test is that they ignored social convention entirely, to the point that subjects were judged based on their conventional actions and expectations more than their actual speed at getting ready. The buses promptly shut their doors and left at the time they were supposed to but there was no final call to get on the buses. In general, when a group is to be taken somewhere by bus, there will be an announcement to load up and leave. You could clearly see many of the subjects were ready to go and were just standing around talking while they waited for fellow subjects to finish getting ready. I have no doubt that, if given a final call, most of them would have loaded up within a couple minutes. However, they were relying on the social convention of announcing departure and were therefore, left behind entirely (for a nonexistent field trip). These people who were left behind were counted as being late and not making the time cutoff. If one were to look at the social element of this situation, if everyone there believed there would be a warning before departure, the fact that 24 to 14 women to men were loaded onto the buses at departure doesn’t necessarily indicate the women were faster to get ready. It seems to me that it’s more likely to indicate anxiety at being late and a belief that they need not impede on anything lest they be reprimanded or have social consequences for taking too long - something women are frequently bullied for. There’s also the chance that many who boarded without final call are more introverted or antisocial. Plus, we can’t forget to include the people who have anxiety about seating. If someone is overweight, has joint pain, or has social anxiety, they will be more likely to board early to get a seat they feel comfortable in. If they had counted up all of the people socializing and waiting on the sidewalks nearby, they may have found that there were more men who were ready to board up at a moment’s notice. I’m not saying I think men are faster to get ready, I’m just saying that we can’t know based on who boarded without a final call. If people believe they will have a last minute chance to board, a large number of them will take the last few minutes to socialize with their new friends until they’re told they have to board. Therefore, this test cannot be considered conclusive without counting and including the people who were ready and not boarded as a third subset.

Honestly, I could go on and on about how sensationalist and unscientific this show is, but I just don’t have 6 more hours to contribute to digging up every single flaw with it. There’s A Lot.

My point is, if you feel like watching this show, which I don’t necessarily discourage inherently, I just beg you to go into it with a critical eye. Enjoy the fun of it and the social aspects, but please don’t rely on the information provided and please don’t spread it as fact, because it’s not.

It’s entertainment, not science.

#100 humans #netflix #tv #show #science #scientific research #research #studies #study #studyblr #statistics #stats #sociology #data #netflix original #analysis #review #netflix review #show review #tv review #ghostpost #logical fallacy #logic #correlation #causation

[numinous-shaman]

Secret Space Program Timeline Wars

Not even organic time travelers know what's going to manifest exactly, but I do know this is a timeline war and the forces of chaos and corptocracy are what will lead us into a horrible A.I., future of soullessness and military industrial servitude, if we don't shift the tide in consciousness back to human values soon.

There ARE definately forces ready to resist tyranny all over the country and there are also militarized groups invested in destroying the stamina of defensive forces too, war on our soil is NOT desirable. There used to be only a timeline with five free states in the future, having Constitutional protection, back in 2011, I was aware when that was secured. Then we got an 11 state timeline some years later and I'm pretty sure the last I felt we had a pretty solid 27 state structure for manifesting continued protection of Inalienable human rights, should succession become necessary.

I hope it's more now, it would be wonderful to have the whole country turn back from the Great Reset completely, before the Great Divide manifests. But, consciousness just isn't aware enough to expect that at this point, it's painfully obvious watching the majority of people demand to be experimentation survivors and freely give over their genetic code to hybridization with other species, and new technology, that the level of awareness of the masses has been greatly reduced, along with understanding of their own value, rights and responsibilities. Of course, we KNOW in the future that it was "the fears" that caused them to sell their liberty, not actual harm, just the idea of it and their lack of awareness regarding the methods to manipulate them made it all possible. Watching this play out in real time, is just gut wrenching.

MAYBE, if enough false flags happened to jolt then awake they would help fight their captors instead of beg them in, but the iron curtain of information has become increasingly difficult to penetrate. I don't think Trump is the Messiah, but I think if he's prohuman then he'll use this opportunity he has to rally some people who care about freedom behind him and hit them where it hurts, AT THE INFORMATION LEVEL. We need to get past the frequency fence of distorted information being used to hold humanity hostage and unable to discern the danger.

Of course, the controllers want it that way, they want us dumb and happy when they cut out lives short and all the blame for the genocide resting squarely on our own, failure to rightfully apply free will. I've had more than my fair share of exposure to eugenist, reptilian timelording types of beings and I will tell you what they never will, because I'm not like them although I perceive them. They believe in survival of the fittest, or most cunning, really.

They figure if they are smart enough to fool humans and conquer us, then our benevolence is a weakness and they deserve to rule with an iron rod and treat us like domesticated cattle and resources for their whims. They think of this world as part of a larger ocean and the bigger fish wins, unless the smaller fish gets smart enough to survive. The idea of a loving Creator force is foreign to them, nature is cruel, only children have foolish dreams of things which are obviously not true, that's what they would say to a child who believes good will win out, simply because it's moral.

Now, if the alien Corptocracy gets their way and are able to slice through the federal government and manifest authoritianism quickly, this is probably where the Orwellian vision of two sort of parallel societies might spring up in the same land, some flocking to federally managed economic development, while others reclaim land and resources for sustainability, environmental protection and multicultural preservation, in states leaving the union. Those were basically the legal umbrellas we used to get support from the corptocracy in some timelines in the future and not called fundamentalists, revolutionaries or radicals for simply wanting to remain natural humans and to keep our Bill of Rights.

They didn't care about our rights or our liberty or right to make our own health decisions, because they thought it was important, NO. We had to show that the degradation of our environment was no good for them and the degradation of our genetics was akin to killing a protected animal, because it was an endangered' species. Human interest was protected only under the banner of what today might be equated to Leftist Liberalism or Environmental Activism. So many humans are already under the influence of such heavy programming and so degraded genetically, they already serve the AntiChrist system, the Corptocracy who is attempting to rewrite our souls for capture and control, and just don't know it. Wanting to be human completely and to access nature and make individual choices, was called tragically fundamentalism and seen as radical or mad. Covertly, the secret societies weilding heavy handed influence within the Corptocracy knew the truth and knew the human ascension potential was intentionally being cut off from the masses and tightly controlled. They had their own plans of breeding into the genetics of ascendant humans while enslaving the rest.

The Multidimensional capacity of the human soul was lost by most after being genetically degraded with medicine, environmental toxins and food. Humans literally lost their ability to fully embody and connect with their soul and multidimensional nature, the process happened over a few generations and most didn't notice it occurring or miss it when it was lost, everyone was tuned into their pain and pleasure body only, five senses they couldn't see through with higher ones. In many probable futures a company called Aegis was ultimately responsible for raising awareness and support from the rich to help achieve their goal of protecting, studying and tracking the human potential for Multidimensional communication and influence on the environment. Many human domains for natural living were organized and protected legally and with force by Aegis Corp. and Aegis Shield Corp. Organic and inorganic time travel was experimented with by many factions, warring for control over the timelines and various aspects of our future. Time travel operations were in place before Sept. 11th and that event itself has already been altered by divine intelligence and human operatives, so we are experiencing already, an altered version of the past. The 911 timeline, 911 numerological sequences are an energetic reality that crosses the threshold of the unconscious mind for many of us.

It's so important to understand though, the leaders didn't care about our souls or the afterlife, the government is controlled by soulless corpore entities, not human ideals. They only helped us, in the end at all, because they wanted to replicate what it's REALLY like to be human and receive your Divine nature in artificial systems and experience a replicate reality using technology for virtual extended life spans in artificial worlds of clones or digitized and uploaded into what is akin to a virtual reality cloud. The small percentage of true humans lived parallel lives, but they fought to not be dependent on the Corptocracy, so that separation would remain and the rest of the world saw and treated then like an oddity, some kind of stage show freak for them to project their own fears and insecurity onto. They had no idea they were just dangling participles, evolutionarily speaking, slated for nothing but further degeneration, experimentation and enslavement. I can already feel this separation becoming palpable, the emergency vaccine powers are definately a trigger event

The real humans, eventually were able to live protected, to stay in touch with natural order and live like a natural human, but only in exchange for information and for power the secret societies used for themselves. We still managed to create hubs of Divine Creator energies, cruelty free animal zones and real human existence to assist with keeping balance in the world by helping the Corptocracy understand the importance of universal law and the real purpose of morality at the level of the template of reality manifestation. This helped the populations (we weren't all human) to survive and avert pole shift, we literally have to keep the balance.

The effect of that knowledge on the majority was not natural though, it was tyranical and the populations who destroyed the old America demanding liberation were the ones who ended up with the least liberty in the end. All of these impressions are collected from possible futures and parallel realities, I pray everyday the options improve and more real humans remember who they are and what is really important. They had to shut the inorganic (technologically) induced time travel missions down, the effects were bizarre and became a greater concern than originally imagined. There are rogue groups still experimenting covertly, it is well known in the future and these groups are hunted religiously by the scientific order.

Organic time travel is more mystical in nature, it's the ability of your higher self to project itself back in time to your physical self and effect change which shifts the future. This is just one example of the types of abilities the Multidimensional human is able to do, if their genetics and consciousness aren't interfered with and free will used to serve Love, like Christ taught. The elite know that REAL humanity doesn't need their faulty technology to externalize their powers for interconnectivity and don't need controllers at all. That's why they aim to suppress us, dumb us down and keep the secret about who and what we are far from our awareness.

They need us to control, to feed off, to feel powerful by dominating and to justify their own limited, dimensionalized existence. They are like an interdimensional invader, a parasitic intelligence we are playing host to and giving more power over our entire universal time matrix. The ONLY people who won't be TOTALLY owned and controlled by these corporate boards and warlords in the future, are going to be the ones who dedicate themselves to consciousness expansion and Spiritual Ascension, because they'll need those enhanced abilities and awareness to stay a step ahead of the parasite and their legion of zombie enforcers, demanding submission to intelligence beneath the true Human. They expect us to out smart them if we really deserve our free will, I'm not condoning the belief system, just making it conscious in hopes more people can see through the vaneer of humanity they aim to project.

#projectibis #projectbluebird #james casbolt #annunaki #multidimensional #timelines #indigo kids #ascension #starseed #montauk #project pegasus

[seijch]

BY DAY, you attend classes and sling drinks at the campus cafe. By night, you’re known as the Harbinger, an individual with the Gift of shadow and darkness. Your two jobs have never had any reason to collide…not until the appearance of a fellow Gifted by the name of Ace, anyway.

[ read luck of the draw here !! ]

this is an extra post for me to infodump on all the worldbuilding details i never got to fit into my already obnoxiously large fic 🕺🏻🕺🏻 its holding my brain hostage so maybe posting this will help!!!

please read luck of the draw before clicking the readmore !! there are spoilers abound (and you probably won’t understand much of what i’m saying if you haven’t read the fic LMAO)

ABOUT THE CONCEPT

the very core of luck of the draw isn’t actually unique to kenji or to haikyuu in general; in fact, it was originally a part of a superhero!skz series i was planning to write but never got around to. the foundation of this fic -- kenji’s power and the idea of them being opposing forces that slowly draw together -- was originally given to stray kids’ hyunjin. i never went past the Thinking Stage with it, so it was fairly easy to hand the concept over to futakuchi when i moved fandoms.

the dynamic of this fic in general was inspired pretty heavily by miraculous ladybug’s “love square,” but i ... obviously wasn’t going to write all four sides of it so i stuck to the civilian identities (the reader and kenji) and the alteregos (harbinger and ace). in the kpop version of this wip, the reader and hyunjin were coworkers, but in moving from one fandom to another and reworking it for futakuchi, i decided to make them friends instead. they’re not particularly close (they’re definitely comfortable but not close Emotionally) to start with, but there’s potential for something to start!

ABOUT THE WORLD

in this universe, the city is ruled by two major factions that control much of the economy: seijoh, who controls the entertainment/tourism industries and has its fingers in most of the smaller businesses around the city (such as johzenji and dateko) and nekoma, who is partnered with the equally large fukurodani to control shipment of all kinds as well as the food industry (among others). nekoma has allies within the local government, and seijoh all but controls the law enforcement.

karasuno, on the other hand, works entirely from the underground to overhaul the way things are run in the city; it’s a bit .... corrupt as of right now, and they seek to change that. 

at the top are typically individuals blessed with special powers known as gifts. these gifts can be as mundane as the ability to make flowers bloom wherever you walk or as powerful as being able to alter the flow of time. there exist a series of regulations (and a shit ton of paperwork) that come about whenever an individual happens to manifest a gift. 

however, the city’s gifted demographic is incorrectly represented; a chunk of the gifted population are instead drawn to the allure of making money by doing illicit deeds for companies like seijoh or nekoma. these individuals’ gifts are never properly documented due to the traceability it lends itself to, should a job go wrong.

the government is supposedly in talks to enact stricter laws on the gifted, despite them making up a comparatively small percentage of the population. the head of the department of gifted individuals, ushijima wakatoshi, is a particularly overwhelming force in support of better regulation of his fellow gifted.

ABOUT THE CHARACTERS

in the first draft of luck of the draw, the sequence of events and relationship dynamics were MUCH different. in the final draft, you see the alteregos being drawn to each other first before you see the civilians come together. 

in that first draft, it was originally centered on the civilians getting together despite kinda-sorta being attracted to each other’s alterego? as a result, the kiss scene between the alteregos was still there but it was DRASTICALLY different. the whole idea of it and imo moral ambiguitity (kenji and the reader never went official with their relationship in the first draft) didn’t sit right with me at all; it felt a little like i was using cheating as a plot device which ??? no.

to make the long story short, the execution of that (tbh poorly developed) idea was.......less than stellar.

so i took a look at the chronology and basically upended the entire midsection to make the concept something that was less awful morally? that’s what i hope happened, anyway LJSKDFLSD

in the first draft, the reader (as harbinger) was also much less competent than they are in the final draft as a result of having been affiliated with karasuno for a shorter time. in truth, the harbinger’s origin story didn’t surface until i was in the middle of writing the second draft!

when it comes to the other characters:

oikawa doesn’t have a gift, which is rather rare for someone with their thumb sitting so heavily on the city’s pulse point

iwaizumi’s gift is entirely up to interpretation! him and oikawa making formal appearances in the story was something that only came up towards the end of draft two, so i didn’t have the space (word count wise) to really give either much thought

kyotani came into his gift without any control over it, and is only given amnesty because he was found hiding by iwaizumi

i really really wanted to talk about kyotani in this fic but ultimately it wasnt revolving around him + i once again didn’t have space to even tease an encounter with him (so in the fic proper he’s mostly there as a cameo + to scare you as you read into a potential action scene)

aone and kenji actually come from the same company that happened to come under seijoh’s control, so they’re more comfortable with each other than anyone else!

hinata has the gift of manipulation as long as you’re making eye contact with him; unfortunately, if he wills it, it’s rather hard to break eye contact once you’ve made it -- aone made the mistake of glancing at him during the takeover at seijoh hq, leading to his hold on harbinger loosening

kageyama obviously has the gift of ice/hail/snow manipulation to a rather strong extent, considering he can create it where there is none and lower the temperature of the air around him (the reader cannot create their own darkness, only manipulate what is around them)

he also has some beef with oikawa (or is it the other way around?) that involves him formerly working under seijoh -- not one of their many smaller companies, but seijoh itself (much like iwaizumi and after kageyama leaves, kyotani)

in terms of who’s been with karasuno the longest of the introduced cast, it’s tsukishima/three-eyes > hinata = kageyama > reader (but not by much)

MISCELLANEOUS

following the takeover of seijoh, tsukishima finds himself at wit’s end much more often LMAO

there are a good amount of deleted scenes and scenes that were only added in at the very last second!

among the deleted scenes is a scene where the civilians are at the park -- in the first draft, it happened in the middle, but in the second it was towards the end. it got taken out because come the end of the second draft, i realized it no longer fit ...

in terms of completion status, it probably ?? took a little over a month from this to go from Thinking Stage to the 14.2k monstrosity you see now? there were a couple of weeks early on where i did nothing on my ipad and laptop except outline and write, respectively

i definitely got burned out halfway through (which is abt the time i posted the xc2 au .. i NEEDED to work on smth else)

the idea of the clock tower wasn’t present at all in the first draft!! i only really came up with it in the second draft because i’d rather have them meet somewhere consistent and identifiable rather than some nondescript building

the running joke (?) of them getting drinks together wasn’t present until the third and final draft -- originally the scene where ace asks “do you remember our last conversation?” had a different beginning

in fact, a lot of the scenes that are a bit more...emotionally charged (see: every scene after ace’s unmasking as well as the movie night scene where the civilians struggle to define what their relationship has become) had to be overhauled dramatically

ummm i love kenji thats it! none of this would be possible if i didnt have the strongest mf brainrot for him so ... ! theres that LMAO

(theres probably more im forgetting to say ........ if any of you want to pick my brain regarding the chronology or the characters or why i had them say something or do something send me an ask! this post tbh is almost entirely for me but i didnt put this much thought into a fic that long to NOT share it with everyone else)

#futakuchi x reader #haikyuu scenario #haikyuu scenarios #haikyuu x reader #futakuchi kenji #i shouldnt have typed this out #i feel like writing a spinoff #i cant tell if itd be another kenji fic or explore kyotani or even kageyama tbh #this universe is literally holding me at gunpoint omg luck of the draw took so much from me but i still want to write fic in the same settin

[wildnya]

Chapter 3: Protection is Unnecessary

Everyone was on edge. Those who normally wouldn’t be disturbed by the sound of a dropped pen were. Those who rarely made mistakes started making them more often. The work pace slowed down, but only by a small percentage. The reason behind this? For the first time since he’d become the boss, Dazai Osamu, a man known for trying to get out of work, ripping off people who didn’t know better, and a sly trickster all around, was actually working. He stayed at his desk, didn’t complain, never tried to sneak away, took everything seriously, and even occasionally did overtime. It set everyone off their groove. Many times it looked like Ango and Kunikida were about to cry seeing the boss diligently working without a peep. Depending on how today's event played out, however, would decide if this would stay the norm for another week.

Dazai bounced back and forth on his heels, barely keeping his nerves under control. “Stand still, you’re starting to make me anxious, and I’m only here to babysit you!” Chuuya elbowed him in the ribs. Dazai not answering unsettled everyone in the group more than his bounciness. The silver tongued boss not retorting back to his partner? No one would believe it unless they witnessed it themselves! “A-are you sure it’s her?” Dazai asked his mentee, taking out his phone to check his hair for the eighth time since they’d been waiting. Akutagawa coughed, “I’ve only heard of one person that styles their hair in such a fashion, and based on Chuuya-san’s description, I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t-” his sentence was cut off by a young girl with cat ears and tail jumping and latching onto his face with a hug, legs wrapped around his torso, arms around his head, and face in her chest. 

“Hello, Clover.” her tail curled at his muffled greeting. She pulled back to give the bridge of his nose a gentle bite as he lowered her to the ground. Noticing Gin and Higuchi, she hurried to give them a hug, both bending down so they could rub their nose with her’s. “Why are you always so precious, Clover-chan?” Higuchi rubbed her cheek against the smaller’s head “you’re too pure for this world!” the girl didn’t answer, continuing to smile while Higuchi fussed over her. Pulling away from the hug, she finally noticed Dazai and Chuuya, instantly hiding behind Akutagawa. 

The two mafiosos mentally clutched their hearts as she shyly peeked at them, already agreeing with Higuchi. “Boss, Chuuya-san, this is Clover, my girlfriend.” Akutagawa introduced them, setting a hand on her head, a rare smile on his face. Clover was small, barely reaching Chuuya’s shoulders, hair as white as a cloud, coming down to the middle of her back and styled in a way that it covered her left eye. Her visible right eye was a shining dark blue, similar to a sapphire. She wore an oversized pastel pink sweater decorated with blue and purple polka dots. Before Akutagawa could introduce his superiors in return, the loud noise of an air horn sounded behind him and Clover. The small girl let a sound mixed before a yelp and a cat yowl, jumping into her boyfriend's arms and the laughter was music to Dazai’s ears that came from behind the two. His beautiful belladonna had an air horn in her hand while the other was wrapped around her sides. “No regrets!” she squealed, dodging Rashomons’ nipping jaws. Once Clover had her grip pried off of Akutagawa, he glowered at the still snickering college student.

Dazai was quick to kneel down and take her hand in his, all nervousness evaporating. “Your laugh is the most beautiful music to ever bless my ears,” he turned up his charm to it's max. “I would play it on repeat for eternity if I could. Your hair is more beautiful than all the sunsets I’ve ever witnessed, and your eyes, your oh so beautiful eyes, they’re like the cloudy skies on early winter mornings, such a lovely shade of grey. I wouldn’t mind waking up to gloomy skies such as those every day for the rest of my life if it meant I could see your eyes, for they would chase away any sad times that would come my way with their excellence. I never thought such a beauty could exist in this harsh world. My dear, would you do me the honor of committing a double suicide with me?” his words were met by silence. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK-” was on repeat the moment Dazai realized what he’d just proposed. It was out of habit from all the other times he’d flirted to ask for a lovers suicide. He could feel the stares of his companions on his back, imagining the looks of horror they had.

It seemed like an eternity, though it actually being a few seconds, before his belladonna gave him a reaction he’d never received before. She reached out, cupping his right cheek in her hands, thumb gently creasing it. “Are you okay?” her voice and eyes had no traces of disgust or anger, they were filled purely with concern and a gentleness he’d never felt before. She slowly tilted her head as she continued, “you look a bit tired, in more ways than one. I can help you home if you’d like, I know how to make many comforting drinks and foods too. I don’t mind making them for you.” Dazai blinked, unsure how to answer. His brain whirled into action, trying to decide what the best plan of action was. “I was only jesting, my dear!” deciding to play it off as a joke, he let out a cheery laugh “I wouldn’t dream of robbing the world of a goddess such as yourself!” she stared at him for a few more seconds before smiling and letting out a laugh as cheerful as his “you’re into morbid jokes I see! Not my cup of tea but as long as you're not serious then I’ll let it pass!” Dazai heard sighs of relief behind him. 

“Aaaaaannnnnywaaaaay!” pulling her hands away, she clapped them together “we’ve got some dress shopping to do, right? My darling little sister gets to attend her first formal event, we mustn’t dilly dally! I doubt I’ll have time to join again if we don’t find anything for these lovebirds, so let us be off!” hooking her arm with Higuchi’s, she pulled her towards a crepe stand “but first, food! I didn’t eat breakfast cuz I overslept, and it’ll be awhile until lunch time! Plus you still owe me, Higuchi!” Higuchi groaned at her words “I was hoping you wouldn’t remember now of all times.” “Um, Boss?” Gin’s soft voice snapped Dazai out of his mind “are you okay?” Dazai straightened up, fixing his suit and adjusting his coat “y-yeah, just a bit surprised.” he gave a shaky laugh. Akutagawa signaled Clover and Gin to join the other two for a minute.

Once they were out of ear shot, he turned to his superiors “is that him?” Dazai turned to look his subordinate in the eyes “Akutagawa Ryunosuke, you did well.” his praise was met with an awkward cough “th-thank you, Boss, but I believe you’ve missed something crucial.” “oh? And what might that be?” Akutagawa coughed again, looking uncomfortable as he said “that was Robin, Clover’s older brother.” his words were met with silence. “...eh/ha?” were Dazai and Chuuya’s replies. “Robin is a man, he has a natural feminine look.” Dazai was silent. His subordinates waited uncomfortably for his reaction.

“... Does he ever wear dresses?” “... what?” “does he ever wear dresses?” Dazai repeated himself “I need to know so I know what I should look for him to wear!” Both men looked taken back, obviously not expecting this reaction. “Actually, I’ll just ask him myself,” Dazai started making his way to crepe stand “it’ll be an excellent way to start a conversation with him!” “B-boss, do you swing that way?” Chuuya asked following him, Akutagawa close behind. “I mean, I’ve had one night stands with both,” Dazai admitted, tapping his chin “but I never gave it much thought. That doesn’t matter anyway, I vowed that his last name would become Dazai, and I intend to keep that vow!” in a lower voice, he added “plus on the bright side, we don’t have to use protection~” Gin choked on her treat, being an assassin meant you had very good hearing, which is both a blessing and a curse.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #The Feral Broke and The Boss #bsd dazai #bsd akutagawa #bsd oc Clover #bsd higuchi #bsd gin #bsd chuuya #wink wink #mafia boss dazai #dirty minded dazai strikes again #bsd oc Robin

[mcdynamite]

[Spoilers] I think GoT 8.05 made perfect sense, and here’s why:

 Hello people of Tumblr! I’ve seen a lot of people bashing the most recent episode of Game of Thrones for a number of reasons and I want to step up to the plate and go to bat for the show. To clarify, I dislike D&D as much as pretty much everyone else who watches the show. I think the writing has been lazy, the dialogue has been lacking, and the lead in to some of the things that have happened this season could definitely be better. But everything that happened in 8.05 makes sense, and I actually liked the episode. This is why.

Cersei’s Demise is kinda perfect.

I know a lot of us, myself included, were looking forward to a brutal, sadistic death for a brutal, sadistic woman. But here’s the thing... in its own way, it was a totally brutal way for her to go out. Think about it, Cersei has spent pretty much her entire life talking her way out of things, manipulating people, and in general feeling more powerful than everyone else around her, including her family. She died finally realizing that she was completely helpless and all hope was lost. She died knowing that her arrogance and often unnecessary brutality was what had cost herself, her children, the man she loves, and even her own father their lives. 

She couldn’t sass the collapsing rock to death. She couldn’t stall and wait for The Mountain to come to her aid. She couldn’t do anything but break down and cry and tell Jaime she wanted their baby to live, trapped in the same underground passages where she vowed to destroy all three of Dany’s dragons. Cersei wasn’t publicly executed in front of thousands of onlookers. She died UNDERGROUND, unthought of and uncared for by anyone else in the world but Jaime. She died the same death as all of the innocent citizens who died that day in part because of her own arrogance. It wasn’t special. It was lonely, hidden, and desperate - a fitting end for a woman who’s lived her whole life believing in her own importance.

And speaking of Cersei, even Jaime’s apparent regression makes some sense.

Ah, Jaime Lannister, one of the most emotionally complicated men in all of Westeros. I’m not gonna lie, this disappointed me because I had hoped for better for Jaime, but not because it didn’t make sense. We were ALL rooting for Jaime to ditch Cersei, become the noblest man in the whole world and just be with Brienne, who clearly loves him. But if you take a minute to think about it, while Jaime’s character development has been significant, it never really veered away from loving Cersei. 

He’s always been doing what’s best for her, and yes, that includes when he left her to head North. Jaime did that because humanity was in danger, and as such, Cersei was in danger. Barely over a season ago in 7.03, Jaime tells Olenna Tyrell that his love for Cersei has grown beyond his control. He openly admits it and tells Olenna that he doesn’t believe people will care how Cersei took the throne once they’re living in the world she built. He clearly still loves Cersei here, and while he’s tempering some of her most heinous ideas, like flaying Olenna alive, he’s still carrying out her orders. “For Cersei,” as he always says.

Jaime’s love for Cersei went far beyond his control. It was almost more like an addition than true love. His love for Brienne was pure and kind, but even the purest love can’t sway the grasp of an addition. Cersei was all Jaime had ever known, so even if he loved Brienne, even if he knew Cersei was hateful, even if he knew she was doing unspeakable things to the people of Westeros, it STILL makes sense that he went back. It’s legitimately not at all different from some abusive relationship in real life. One partner may realize that the other is abusive and hateful, but they can’t bring themselves to walk away, and when they do, they may go back. That doesn’t make them bad people, and it certainly doesn’t “undo” all of Jaime’s character development over the course of the series. 

Jaime Lannister is an immensely complicated character, and this is GAME OF THRONES we’re talking about. It’s a very human show. So frankly, if he has genuinely left Cersei without a second glance, that would have been immensely disappointing. It’s just not how people work, not after admitting how deep in the relationship he was literally just 9 episodes prior and only leaving to protect mankind from being destroyed.

And finally, let’s talk about the psychotic break of Daenerys Targaryen.

First, just a quick reminder at how utterly human this show is. We’ve got all sorts of realistic depictions of human nature in Game of Thrones. We have very real depictions of PTSD (looking at you, Theon and Sansa), realistic depictions of the horrors of slavery, realistic depictions of racism and ableism, the list goes on for miles. It’s made abundantly clear throughout the series that the Targaryens have a strong family history of mental illness, so here we go people. Let’s talk about mental illness.

Obviously, there are no therapists in Westeros to diagnose Dany with any particular illness, but it’s reasonable to hypothesize that Dany is experiencing psychosis, also known as a “psychotic break”. Something important to not about psychosis: it’s sort of like a break from reality, so the way someone behaves during a psychotic break is not at all who they normally are as a person. And here’s another thing about psychosis: YOU DO NOT SHOW SIGNS OF IT YOUR ENTIRE LIFE, especially not major ones. Not every person who commits a heinous act of violence grew up murdering small animals and saying sadistic things to family members and friends as a child. I’ve seen a lot of anti-Mad Queen Dany arguments online, and I’d like to debunk a few of them with regards to how mental illness often actually works.

1. Dany was an abused child, why would she hurt children?

Yikes, you guys. This is a really weak argument. Many studies have shown that childhood trauma is associated with greater disposition towards psychosis later in life. Obviously not everyone who has gone through a childhood trauma will experience psychosis, but it can actually be a direct contributing factor to a psychotic break.

2. Dany has always showed compassion to innocent people like the slaves across the sea, so why doesn’t she now?

Again, psychosis is not a direct reflection of who someone is as a person because it represents a break from reality. You don’t have to be an intrinsically horrible person to do something bad when you’re not in control.

3. The warning signs were there, but they were too weak to justify what happened to King’s Landing.

When a person experiences psychosis, the EARLY warning signs (let’s just say for the purposes of this argument are things that happened prior to the start of season 8) are often subtle or even unnoticeable until you’re looking back retrospectively. These can include things like spending more time alone than usual (check), suspiciousness or uneasiness with others (check), and having no feelings at all (check, remember when she ended things with Daario and the show made a big deal out of how she didn’t really feeling anything about it?).

The slightly later warning signs (so, this season) include strong and inappropriate emotions (check, she wants to have sex with her nephew not too long after she accused him of trying to steal her throne), social withdrawal (check), odd beliefs (check, her belief that she was sent by god to change the world), and suspiciousness (check). The warning signs were there and frankly exactly what one would expect to see in someone in the prodome (or very early stages) of psychosis.

4. It just happened so suddenly, the build up wasn’t enough.

Actually, it SUPER was enough. Recently, Dany has lost two dragons, her most trusted advisor, her best friend (who she watched be beheaded) and has arrived in a country where nobody likes or trusts her. All of these are pretty freaking traumatic, and a traumatic event can trigger psychosis. Boom. Bang. It makes sense.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people are upset about this. We were all rooting for Dany, our hero who walked out of the flames all those years ago with three baby dragons clinging to her. What happened in 8.05 was devastating to watch, but it wasn’t unrealistic. It was actually very well done from a standpoint of how things actually work in the real world. You can be frustrated with how things turned out, you can be devastated by the destruction of King’s Landing and Dany’s break, and you can be pissed about the lazy writing of this season, but you shouldn’t be angry with the show runners for Dany’s descent into madness. It was actually remarkably well done.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. Valar morguhlis.

EDIT: Obviously not everyone who goes through a period of psychosis is violent. It is an INCREDIBLY small percentage who actually inflict harm on others during a psychotic break. With that being said, rare as it may be, it does happen, it is a real thing that happens in real life, and cases in which a violent outburst happens are pretty spot-on similar to the way it happened to Dany. As someone who has experienced psychosis myself, I of all people know that not everyone becomes violent. But the portrayal of Dany throughout the whole show does align with the prodome of an exceedingly rare, but real, type of psychosis. I’m sincerely sorry for not clarifying this in my original post 💙

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