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tiens-letters · 3 years

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with these hands, I vowed to love you

with these hands, I vowed to care for you

and with these hands, I ruined you

Childe (angst)

tw : slight gore and just pure pain

...

It was that time of the year again, going back to the snowy region was a bliss for you. Having to visit your fiancée's family was an unspoken tradition after he introduced you to them. They practically took you in as one of them immediately, especially that little angel brother of his.

Teucer.

The train ride was comfortable , the window giving you the familiar beauty of the snowy landscape of snezhenaya. It was snug inside the rather spacious compartment Childe rented out, even when you told him that you'd rather share a normal one due to your thrifty nature he'd shrug it off, claiming it that he has too much mora and nowhere to spend it on other than you.

Gifts from him would scare you as you knew these weren't anywhere cheap. Everything he gave was expensive, he loved showering you in gifts and it made you feel so overwhelmed.

"Ajax, you're spending too much." you were visibly sweating beside him as he picked out another one of the dresses on display at the local boutique of Liyue.

"I think this one would suit you better, don't you think so love?" of course he wasn't listening, placing the dress in front of you

"Ajax." you frowned at him

" I just want to spoil you." he whines

"I know but sometimes its just..." you stopped yourself before saying anything further in fear of offending him

"Was it too much again?" the tone in his voice softens as he puts back the dress, he knew how you didn't like that habit of his, formed from the first time he saw you down by the docks.

"One dress, Ajax. One is enough since you picked it out for me." you gave in not wanting to see him so dejected, he immediately brightens up as he pecks you on cheek before rushing off to a different aisle of clothing. Sighing, you sat down on the sofa present in the shop, watching the ginger decide thoroughly of what dress to buy.

But of course, your love for one another runs deeper than things bought off gold nor silver. No, it ran deeper than anything else, rivaling the oceanic depths.

"What are you thinking about hmm?" he hums below you, head resting against your lap.

"Im just happy to be visiting again, that's all." you smile, nimble hands brushing through his soft hair "Sleep well?"

"You bet I did." he grins taking your hand and placing a kiss to your beating pulse and then another and another, showering you in his deeply rooted affection. Soon his kisses reached where they are supposed to belong, those soft lips of yours and then inching their way to the sensitive spots on your neck, leaving marks only he can place on you.

Breathless and bothered, you pushed him back "The attendants are gonna see, you idiot." at least you still had some control in you

"They will only arrive when we call them , so its fine to have a little fun before we arrive." there was that sly grin of his as he continued in where you both left off, ears perking to hear more sounds exclusively for him and him only.

"You horny bastard!"

...

It was cozy by the hearth, you and his siblings huddled together in one single fleece blanket, steaming cups of hot cocoa in hand. Childish giggles and hushed stories erupted amongst you. Teucer having wrapped in your arms as he snuggled closer. Anthon and Tonia flanking your sides.

"Hey, who's fiancé do you think you guys are coveting?"

"Oh don't be like that, your siblings just miss them." his mother chided from the couch where she sat, an open book on her lap, she didn't seem to age and always looked so young that at first you were shocked to have been introduced to her.

"But mom, I haven't seen her all day." her son pouts as if he were still a child denied his candy

"Give me a break, you're always clinging onto her you know." his sister rolls those identical thalassic eyes at him "You wont die if you go a day without her."

"Listen here you little---"

"Ajax." you interjected, as much as you enjoy the siblingly banter of theirs, you cant have them going at each other with offensive words. His pleading gaze aimed at you as he practically begged for you both to go home.

"Please?"

"After I put Teucer to bed." you sighed, standing up with the youngest in your arms

"Seriously this guy." his sister groaned "I was having a good time."

"Tonia dear, we can continue our conversations tomorrow." you winked at her, it was a promise

"Fine."

Both of you bid farewell to his mother and made your way towards Teucer's room and tucking him in.

"Happy?" you turned to your fiancée, a narrowed look in your eyes as he grinned beside you

"Of course, sweetheart!" he pecked your lips as he pulled you closer

"Can you not do it in Teucer's room? Have some shame." his siblings' comments were endless, this time it was from his older brother.

"That's why were going home." Childe picked you up as you made a surprised yelp making the other party roll his eyes "Also, get ready to lose tomorrow brother. I'm getting that white deer for my lady."

"I'm looking forward to it."

The walk was short towards Childe's home as he preferred living alone. It was a grandiose manor and you were sure you will never get used to how big it was and filled with such furnitures of the finest quality.

"Well, how was your day darling?" you hummed, arms snaking around his neck

"Oh you wouldn't believe it."

...

It was there.

You felt it in the cold breeze that wafted into the room.

A shift in the flow of the wind, it was different yet familiar at the same time. Leaving the window open as the harsh temperatures of the night climbed and crawled inside. The curtains danced in the turbulent current of the gale, carrying songs only you could hear. Songs that made mountains tremble and build civilizations at the same time.

there was something foreboding, something terrifying and something heavy and dark that devoured anything in its path.

You heard him first before he came in through those doors, that tousled ginger hair of his caked with melting snowflakes in the warm glow of the lamps. His rugged appearance caused by the hunting competition between him and his older siblings induced his worn out state. That soft yet jaded smile of his was what welcomed you as he trudged inside the bedroom, lazily discarding his clothes on the basket for dirty laundry and entering the bathroom for a quick shower.

"why is the window open? " he asks you, sliding inside the warm covers

"I just wanted fresh air ." you smile as you shut the windows and pull the blinds enough for you to see the moon that hung above the sky. Joining him under the covers, you cradled him, his head resting on the crook of your neck. Your hands finding their way into those soft locks of his , entangling them as he hummed softly against you. Those arms of his that held weapons and skin littered with scars both old and new now held you close, so tenderly as if he'd never taken a life before.

"sing me a song, sweetheart. " his queries were simple yet genuine

"of course." you sang until you equated him to a sleeping newborn

It was warm, so warm that you could have mistaken it for a summer afternoon in Liyue, resting on the couch with silken pillows and window showcasing the view of the harbor below. The steaming cups of soothing tea Beidou would brew for you when nights became cold at times she would pay you a visit after trading that would take weeks, months and rarely years.

you slept.

Why is it cold? you wondered, Did Ajax open the windows?

You were blessed by the tsaritsa so such climates shouldn't matter to you.

You woke up.

A shadow was cast over you by the man youve sung to sleep. Virulent blue eyes looked at you with so much abhorrence, for a second you couldnt recognize them and thought it was a stranger to which you were ready to terminate.

"Ajax?" your voice was hoarse, as you slowly lost the feeling in your lips.

He was crazed, still trapped in that dreaming state of his, drifting between experiences. Today was a re-enactment of a memory he would never speak of, not even to you. There were parts of him he'd never tell you, such a soul as yours should never hear.

You choked and coughed as the metallic taste of mortal ichor filled your throat. How could you have not felt anything earlier? Was it because of your futile attempts to coax Ajax back into reality or was it because of the numerous thoughts your mind came up with to he answer as to why he is in such a virulent state. Excruciating pain filled your whole body as you writhed and struggled under his grip. It felt as if something was being ripped out of you.

"Ajax, darling come back to me." you cried, it took so much to even utter a word as you bled out, you know not where but you could feel it. The liquid vital for your survival was seeping out of you, flowing like a lazy river on an autumns day, only that it was warm, sticky and addicting.

"Ajax?" a hiss comes from that mouth, he cringes as you freed your numb hands to hold his face and he let you, seeing as to there was no point in stopping you as you dangerously danced on a tight rope of life and death. You couldn't tell in that delirious disposition of yours if his eyes were shifting between Ajax or the primal eyes of a beast hunting its prey.

It wasn't too late was it?

But why didn't your eyes meet his?

Who snuffed out all the lights?

"I've abandoned that name a long time ago."

The cold took over you completely, freezing you until you broke under his touch with words left dying in your ichor filled lips

and then fear was the last thing you felt.

fear that he might not return to his sweet, charming self.

fear that he will curse everything in his path.

fear that he might attempt to use different various methods to bring back what was lost

and fear of his ruination.

you care not for your death, even in your last minutes of life, you dare not blame him for what he's endured so far. only wishing he never had to experience such in the first place.

This is what the wind warned you about in its lullaby.

...

Childe woke up for the second time.

Oddly more worn out than the day before, but your songs always worked, how come? . He wondered if you left to make breakfast as the covers felt empty as he reached out for you. No, you were a late riser, always having to slumber in the middle of the warm covers of the bed you both share. It was he who mostly did the cooking in the morning. So your presence gone was a displacement in the moment of his waking.

His eyes had to adjust to the view of the room as he sat up, a yawn escaping his lips as he called for you. The pitter-patter sound of the water on the bathroom tiles were non-existent as he strained his ears to hear for any trace of you.

"What..." he was confused as to why the room was trashed, furniture broken in half and strewn about the room, the drapes shredded and laying on the floor and the mirror shattered to pieces, shards sharp enough to cut through skin yet he slept through such a thing?

his first concern was your safety as you had not been present in the room and it him.

the heavy stench of blood lingered in the air. His enjoyment for such things turned into something suffocating because blood was never shed in his own home nor in his very room. In the state of confusion, something dark caught his peripheral vision. A large blemish in the covers beside him, it was dyed a deep dark crimson and he knew well what it was. He began to shake in worry, telling himself not to panic until he finds you safe. All he could remember was you singing him to sleep, held captive in your soft arms, encased in your warmth, so how did it come to such a morning that looked like a result of a monster's tantrum. He calls out for you, his bare feet on the floor as splinters punctured them and he didnt care. he had to find you.

The hallways looked haunting, the portraits on the walls taunting him and he swore he was going lose it if he hadnt found you sooner, every room was achingly vacant and it felt like a dream. He calls for your name again in a frenzy as he rushes through the place, had the mansion been this big? he thinks as he runs down the stairs.

There in the fireplace, the dying embers of fire lit from the night before, wood giving away and turning into coal as the burning smell mingled with similar stench that engulfed the bedroom, the same dark liquid on the sheets was present as well, only that it was painted into the wall and bled down creating a cascading waterfall.

Because there you were, with arms spread out as if welcoming each and every sinner for solace and blessing them with forgiveness, the drying mortal ichor behind you creating a halo. Your lips upturned into something soft as if you'd do anything disgraceful to keep the effeminacy on a soul lost to ruin.

an angel crucified.

that oh so heavenly face of yours could rival anything beautiful, even statues would crumble under you, nations would go to war for you and bodies of those who want you would turn into a throne built for you and you only. You were immortally ethereal even in death.

Ajax, dear sweet Ajax felt his legs give away, energy having siphoned from him as he trembled so much that it could rival the mountains when they shook. Thalassic eyes, wide blown into grief, anguish and all other emotions crashed against him like strong waves that could drown anyone caught up in it. He knelt as pain spread through him like wildfire, burning, scorching and killing. Agonized cries filled the room and if someone were to pass by, they couldve mistaken it for a dying animal. He gasped and choked on his own breath as he dared to look at you, the tears freely flowing from his eyes, down to his pale cheek and finally falling off his trembling chin to be hungrily absorbed by the carpeted floor that was also tarnished by ichor.

He felt crazed as he wept and in that moment of insanity, he remembered. That most disgusting sin he's ever committed that he should never be pardoned for in the life he has right now and the next ones he will be in. Through the blur of tears, he saw his hands and he wished he didnt.

Sullied hands befitting a murderer.

He screams into the ground, doubling over as his hands find their way into his hair, gripping it and ripping out those jacinthe locks of his. He could never forgive himself now and he never will. He wails out loud until his own throat collapsed into a croaking mess.

and then he couldnt find himself no longer.

The sand of time seemed to trickle down slowly. His eldest siblings came looking for him, to continue the hunt. A once peaceful encounter turned into a nightmarish reality as they witnessed their brother rocking back and forth with you gingerly wrapped in his arms, mumbling your name. Lips pressed to your forehead as he prayed and begged for forgiveness over and over in hushed torn whispers as if it were enough to bring you back and cover that gaping hole in your abdomen.

"What did you do?"

...

"Brother, when are they coming back?"

Oh darling Teucer, innocence reflecting off his eyes as he tugged on his brother's sleeve. The toy you gifted him clutched tightly at his side.

"I dont know kid, their mission was sudden so its best to wait. Can you do that Teuc?" the truth about you was kept behind closed doors, only adults can speak of and if they did, it took time to keep the conversation smooth and off of any grief nor sadness when your name reached their tongue. The younger ones would never know until the time is right. When everything was taken care of and hearts moved on.

Your funeral was held in secrecy yet was it was grand. Something that would hold the significance of your memories with them. It was beautiful, your favorite flowers lined along your coffin, and you. Looking ever so ethereal even when death has kissed you, clad in that dress Childe bought for you.

"uh huh!" the youngest ginger nodded eagerly and skipped away as the eldest sighed into his hands, the pressure weighing heavily on his shoulders as he worried more and more about his younger sibling. Another memory, a mind broken and a his soul withering. was there any way to save him?

Days seemed to go by as any glimpse of the man was scarce. Until one day they ceased to see him altogether. It started at lunch, a week after the funeral when it took everyone to coax him into eating more as he lost weight and trickled down to a whole day. Cooped up in his room, clinging to a pillow with the fading scent of you. and then he was gone, like a snowflake melting upon ones forehead. They grew anxious and thought of the worse until they caught wind that he was back in Liyue from one of the agents only then were they allowed to breathe a little better.

"Childe, what finds you here?" the calm tone of the geo archon's voice broke him out of his trance

"Have you seen my fiance?" Zhongli blinks at the question of the harbinger, he knew what befell you and yet this man before him seemed clueless enough as to what he committed. How Childe did what he did, he seemed to sympathize with in a way that would make him understand his behavior.

" I have not." he couldnt bring himself to tell this man the truth. Perhaps he was sparing him, spearing that mind of his into spiraling down into nothingness and a heart that was held by a thin piece of thread. "Perhaps it is better to enjoy yourself while you wait for them."

To deviate oneself from the loss might be the best way Childe right now until his mind is ready to accept the torment of the heavy truth that would slew this man.

"I see. " he smiles and yet it feels so empty to Childe, the reason? He wouldnt know or atleast his mind wouldnt allow him to know

"Ill see you around then Xiansheng."

Everything that he portrayed lacked and all he could do as he's always did.

...........

i had to.

I hope yall would get Childe :)

#genshin impact #genshin impact angst #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact drabbles #childe #childe angst #childe one shot #childe imagine #childe drabble #ajax #tartaglia

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krabstick32 · 3 years

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Snow Melts Quicker in Water

Pairing: Giyuu x Reader

Synopsis: You and Giyuu fight, but things have a way of sorting themselves out.

Tags/warnings: very light angst, mostly fluff, super light make out session uwu

a/n: thank you for requesting @aliaisreal!! you’re super sweet, so thank you very much for your patience and understanding!! I hope the wait was worth it!! 🥺

Link to the ask: Request by @aliaisreal

The best (and kindest) way possible people could describe Tomioka Giyuu was that he was like water itself.

Like water, he adapted easily and quickly, His movements were fluid and continuous, unstoppable in its actions like a waterfall spilling over a cliff. His voice was baritone, smooth, but held power underneath the surface. He flowed through any obstacle in his life as best as he could, and that rang true even to your relationship.

While he thought that he mostly went with the flow, It’s been an entire week since your fight, and it’s been an entire week since he’s talked to you.

Admittedly, you two have fought before—minor little squabbles where he always took it upon himself to be the first to apologize. He didn’t like the idea of you upset, but now was different. This was probably the biggest fight he’s ever had with you, and as much as he loves you, he didn’t want to be the one to make the first move this time.

One moment, he came home to you, tired and ready to go straight to your shared room and drop dead for the next few hours, but in the next, the two of you were saying things that neither of you meant, arguing over something that should have been a simple thing.

That night, the fight was so big that he ended up taking refuge in the butterfly estate.

Well, given the injuries he got in his last mission, he was already going to go the next morning, but he was hoping to see you and rest first before anything else.

Breathing out a sigh, he sits up from the cold hospital bed he’s been sleeping on for the past week, and reflexively brings a hand to the bandages around his stomach. He never did like fighting with you. It always left a heavy weight on his chest, and it always occupies his mind, resulting in him fighting slightly sloppier than he’d like.

Maybe he should apologize? There was a pillar meeting later on in the day, so if he wanted to, he could. He usually did, within the day, but this was the longest the two of you were actively mad at each other. The two of you fought, but last night was the first time the two of you fought for that long.

But for once, he didn’t want to. For once, he wanted you to make the first move, and maybe, just this once he should.

Giyuu breathes out a heavy sigh. He’ll just think about that later.

When Giyuu arrived at the Ubuyashiki Garden, he was thrown off by the fact that you weren’t there. He was further surprised when the Oyakata-sama came in, and there was still no sign of you.

Between the both of you, you were the early bird, and would usually be one of the first who arrived, if you didn’t come dragging him by his haori.

Your absence was rubbing him off the wrong way. He’s missed you a lot so he was really hoping to see you today, even if the two of you got into a fight.

While his facade was as perfectly emotionless and stoic as ever, his mind was spiralling deeper into worry. Why weren’t you here? Were you that mad? Were you so pissed that you chose to forgo the meeting because of him?

(Unbeknownst to him, his fellow pillars were looking at him. His face didn’t change, but everyone could see his worry clear as day.)

Oyakata-sama dismisses the meeting after a while, and everyone bows, leaving right after they were assigned with new missions and patrols. Giyuu only had to patrol his region in the evening...maybe he should go look for you?

On his way back to his estate to search for you, he passes by the butterfly estate and sees Tanjirou and his friends helping the girls hang the sheets. Well, it was more like Tanjirou was helping, while Zenitsu and Inosuke quarreled.

Tanjirou immediately notices Giyuu, raising a hand in greeting. He quickly hangs the bedsheet in his hand to rush over to the raven haired man. “Tomioka-san! How are you?”

“Hello Tanjirou.” Giyuu responds as the young demon slayer stands in front of him, adding, “I’m fine.”

“I’m glad! You seem distressed though, is everything alright? Are you worried about (F/N)-san?”

Giyuu doesn’t even try to hide it, simply nodding and feeling a little shy from how Tanjirou could easily read him. “She wasn’t at the meeting earlier. She’s usually there first.”

He places a hand over his chin and nods. “Oh, of course she’s not.”

That was news to him. “What? Do you...know where she is?”

“No…” Tanjirou responds, but his face immediately crumples in on itself, his eyeballs rolling back into his head. Both of them knew he was lying, but Giyuu still feels a little bad that he’s using the boy’s honest and earnest personality to his advantage.

Regardless, He gives the younger boy a look that has Tanjirou looking away abashedly. “I don’t think I’m supposed to say anything…”

“Tanjirou…”

It doesn’t take much for him to cave, and he sighs before telling Giyuu what he knows. “She went out for a mission. I thought you knew, but—” He cuts himself off when his nose detects panic and worry, the smell nearly taking over his senses. “—Ah! But don’t worry, Giyuu-san! This is (F/N)-san, I’m sure she’ll be fine!”

Oh, Giyuu knew you were strong and capable, but with a job as dangerous and unpredictable as theirs, so many things could happen. Right now, he wanted nothing more than to curse his pride. He should have approached you right after, he shouldn’t have let this go on longer than it should have.

The best thing he could do right now was wait for you, and apologize as soon as he sees you.

He hopes he gets the chance.

“You’re right. She’ll be fine.”

Tanjirou wasn’t sure who Giyuu was trying to convince.

As the Snow Hashira, people expected you to be cold, stern, harsh, and while it’s not completely wrong, you were one of the kindest out of all the pillars. You had a heart of gold that shone through and had a smile that could warm even the coldest of hearts. It made it easier for people to approach you despite the initial impression, but everyone found it ironic that the Snow Pillar was one of the warmest, kindest, most genuine slayer from the bunch.

You were proud of your work as a demon slayer—saving lives, and killing the very thing that brought you and so many others so much pain—but the fact that you and your friends walked hand in hand with death was… well, it was a lot to take in.

Death is, and never will be something you think you’ll get used to. It was always painful—knowing that you could have done something to help, or knowing that their death was beyond your power. Whether you liked it or not, it was one of those things that just happened. No matter how much you wanted cheat death, there was no stopping it—

Which was one of the main reasons why you got so mad at Giyuu when he came home to you all bruised and bloody.

Instead of going to the butterfly estate, it was normal that he’d come home straight to you after a particularly challenging mission, in which cases you’d do basic first aid before rushing him to Shinobu. There wasn’t any problem really. There were moments where you would come home to him in a similar state, where he’d be the one giving you first aid, and you were happy he trusted you enough to show you his vulnerable side.

But you were just so painfully reminded of how you became a demon slayer, of how your family sacrificed themselves for your escape. You could see that Giyuu was barely thinking of himself, often throwing himself in harm’s way just to get a mission done.

Seeing someone you love give such little importance to himself made you both sad and angry. It rubbed you the wrong way, and you couldn’t help but burst and get mad at him. The fight escalated quickly, and both of you said things you didn’t mean.

Looking back, it was a little stupid. You reacted irrationally and immaturely when you could have talked it out with him like an adult. You acknowledged that it was mostly your fault, and that you should have been the one to apologize, but you just couldn’t admit your mistake, seeing as you still agreed with how reckless he was being.

So you avoided him, devoting nearly all of your time to your missions.

A few days after you started avoiding him, Oyakata-sama sent for you and assigned a mission that needed an entire day of travel. There was a group of Tsuchinoto’s that weren’t doing too well, and it required you to dispose of the demon and help them in any way you can. While you took the job with no qualms, you were a little apprehensive. You and Giyuu still hadn’t made up, and this mission required at least three days, and that’s taking into account if everything went smoothly, which things rarely did.

It didn’t sit right for you to leave without seeing him, so the morning you planned to leave, you dropped by the Butterfly Estate to see him. You haven’t talked to him for five full days now, and while he didn’t talk a lot, you really missed his company.

You find him sleeping in one of the rooms. A small part of you was hoping that he’d be awake so you could talk a bit, maybe even apologize before you left, but he didn’t even move at all when you opened the door. Considering how much of a light sleeper he was, it was a little surprising that he didn’t stir at all when you sat by the edge of his bed beside him, but he was still recovering from the injuries of his previous battle, so it can hardly be helped. In fact, it worked in your favor, because he didn’t wake up when you pressed a small kiss to his temple.

Softly, you put your forehead against his and press a hand against his cheek, whispering as lightly as you could. “I’ll be going now, but I’ll come back. I love you.”

He was clearly unconscious, but the way he leans closer to your touch made your heart melt and butterflies flood your stomach. Even when you were supposed to be fighting, he could still make you feel this way.

It figures. Snow always did melt quicker in water.

You smile and push the stray hairs away from his face. You let your hand caress his cheek as you memorize his features as best as you could, leaving the room once you've realized that you need to go soon. Turning, you take one last look at Giyuu before closing the door as softly as you could—and coming face to face with dark red eyes.

You let out a small yelp, too late to realize that it was only Tanjirou smiling up at you in confusion.

“Tanjirou-kun! You surprised me!”

“Sorry about that (F/N)-san. I was on my way to check on Nezuko.” He laughs a little bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck. He looks back up at you though when he realizes whose room you were coming out of. “What are you doing coming out of Giyuu-san’s room? Is there something wrong?”

Was there something wrong? Well technically there was, as you two were avoiding each other, but you brush off his concern, finding it a little awkward to explain. “Oh, no! Not at all, I just wanted to see him before leaving for a mission.”

“A mission?”

You nod. “Yes, I’m not sure of all the details yet, but it might take a while.”

“Oh, I see! Please take care (F/N)-san!”

“Thank you Tanjirou-kun, I will. Stay out of trouble alright?”

“Will do!” Tanjirou was quick to deliver a salute, making you giggle despite your heavy heart. Seeing one of the Kamado siblings always made you smile - they were too adorable for their own good.

As you were about to step out the hall, you suddenly remember something.“Ah, by the way Tanjirou-kun, Giyuu was asleep so I didn’t want to bother him, but can you not tell him that I dropped by?”

The young boy seems to be thrown off by your weird request, and tries to question you as politely as he could. You were still his superior after all, and a person he deeply respected. “Eh? Not tell Giyuu-san?”

“Yes.”

Tanjirou was apprehensive—he couldn’t lie for his life after all—but you must have your reasons, so instead, he resolved to just do his best. He was the eldest son! He could do this! “Oh, okay then, I’ll do my best (F/N)-san!”

“Wonderful! Thank you, Tanjirou-kun.”

When Tanjirou finally cracked and told Giyuu where you were, the Water Pillar waited as patiently as he could. He was known for his patience, and for his go with the flow attitude, but when it came to you, he wanted nothing more than to just rush by your side. When he discovered your mission, he was practically itching to run all the way over to you. You leaving for your mission before he nor you could apologize sat terribly in his gut. The only thing tying him down to his post was his sense of duty. He still had missions to attend to here, and unless someone could cover for him, or unless it was a terrible emergency, he couldn’t leave.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust you as a fellow pillar, but as your boyfriend, he was worried for you. Your fight left a horrible taste in his mouth, and he could never forgive himself if that was the last moment he had with you.

So instead, he sat patiently, going through routine and accomplishing his patrols and missions dutifully.

It wasn’t until a few days later when he learned of what happened to your party.

It was a lower moon, and while that would have been an easy job for you, you had five other slayers to protect and worry about. His crow reported that everyone was quickly brought to the Butterfly Estate, and that was the last thing he needed to hear before bolting from his estate and out to Shinobu’s.

“Where is she?”

Shinobu turns as Giyuu bursts through the doors, her smile as saccharine as ever. “Ah, hello to you too Tomioka-san!”

“Kochou, where is (F/N)?” Giyuu looked about ready to tear down the whole place to look for you, and Shinobu knew that. Regardless, Shinobu’s smile never wavers as she continues to tease him.

“Ara, are you worried about (F/N)-chan?” She continues, but for the first time, it eases him. Shinobu loved pushing his buttons, but she knew when to stop. If she was being like this, you should be alive, at the very least. She doesn’t motion or signal Giyuu to follow her, but he was quick to walk after the Insect Pillar, moving as quick and as fluid as flowing water.

Shinobu stops at a door, and slides it open to reveal you awake, sitting up on the bed. You seemed to be a little bruised and worse for wear with all the bandages and discolored patches of skin, but you were alive and you were breathing, and that’s all what matters to Giyuu right now.

From her periphery, Shinobu could see the relief on Giyuu, and as much as she liked pissing Giyuu off, she knows the feeling and backs off. There was always another time for teasing, she can do that later.

“I’ll leave you two be. Tomioka-san be careful of her injuries, alright?” As promised, the door slides back closed as Shinobu leaves you two be.

After a while, you pat the empty space by the edge of your bed, croaking out a short “Sit with me.”, before Giyuu moves to sit over carefully. When he was settled, his eyes roamed over your skin, quick to assess the number of injuries and thinking how critical and painful each one of them might be.

“Before you say anything,” You start, “I’m sorry.”

Giyuu’s thrown off and his eyes dart from the bloody bandage on your arm to your eyes. “What—”

“I was way out of line, and I overreacted. I was being petty in waiting for you to apologize first, but it should have been me. I’m sorry for overreacting…and for taking this long to apologize.”

“But it doesn’t mean that I'm sorry about everything else!” Because while you were aware you overreacted, it didn’t mean that your feelings came from nowhere. “I can see that I was wrong in the way I approached things but I meant every word when I said that you’re too careless! I hate seeing you in pain and you just reminded me too much of my family and I—”

He interrupts you by taking your hands. Lightly, he traces vague shapes onto the skin of your palm, the rough calluses on his fingertips a nice reminder that he was here, that he was alive, and that you were too.

“I couldn’t handle the thought of you leaving me. I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too.”

The two of you stay quiet, the weight being lifted off of both of your shoulders, until a thought occurs to you that causes you to pull away.

“But you’re not saying anything about your recklessness.” You point out, giving him a light glare, only stopping when a small smile curls around his lips.

He chuckles and the sound goes straight to your heart. “Okay, I promise to stop being too reckless.”

“You better keep that promise, or else I’ll hunt you down myself.” Smiling softly, you place a hand against his cheek and pull him closer. “I missed you.”

Giyuu hums against your touch and a week's worth of not seeing him drives you to press your lips against his mouth. He responds easily, shifting his weight onto himself and holding your body to lighten the strain on you. You hold onto the lapels of his haori as he deepens the kiss, and it was a good thing he was holding you because under normal circumstances, your knees would have buckled.

“(F/N)-chan! It’s time to change your bandages—” Hearing a foreign voice, causes the two of you to turn to the entrance— “Oh dear. I’m so sorry to interrupt!”—only to see Shinobu smiling at the two of you like a cat that ate the canary.

“Sh-Shinobu-chan! It’s um...”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s exactly what I think hm?” Her smile seems to grow wider, and you feel your face burst into flames. She knew exactly what was going on. “But Tomioka-san, I never would have guessed! How bold of you to do such lewd things to an injured patient! Anyway, I’ll leave you two alone, I’ll drop by again later to change your bandages, (F/N)-chan!”

The sound of the door slamming shut signals Shonbu’s leave and both you and Giyuu were left staring at the space where Shinobu once stood.

Just when things were getting good.

“She did that on purpose.” You announce, and Giyuu nods sympathetically.

“She probably did.”

You sigh but then immediately flinch and clutch your side as it burns from the injury. Giyuu was quick to notice and moves right by your bedside, assisting you in lying back down

“Be careful. You’re mad at me for pushing myself, when you’re just as bad.”

“Hush, you should have seen how you were practically bleeding all over the place.”

“Hashira Tomioka-sama, can we plea—“

“No.”

It’s been two weeks since you left the Butterfly Estate, and as the Snow Pillar, you were well back on the grind patrolling and killing demons once you’ve fully recovered. The young demon slayers you saved though wish they could say the same. While you had some pretty critical injuries yourself, theirs were much worse, with all seven sporting broken bones, and other heavy injuries, but thanks to Shinobu’s medicine, they were on the road to recovery and physical therapy.

When the Oyakata-sama heard of the incident, he was quick to instruct someone to train the weaker demon-slayers.

Giyuu was more than happy to beat these slayers into shape.

Which led them here, Giyuu with a wooden sword in hand and a pile of sore bodies by his feet.

One such body groaned at the dirt floor as he clutched at the side Giyuu hit a little too hard. “We’ve already ran down the mountain, tried to dodge all of the deadly traps, and sparred with you. Surely we could have a short break, sir?”

Giyuu wanted to laugh at the naivety of these young slayers. When Urokodaki trained him and Sabito, they had it much worse, even being thrown down cliffs and waterfalls. And while Giyuu could say that Urokodaki was like a father figure to him, his training regimen was worse than any hell he could have experienced. But now was hardly the time to reminisce, he still had business to do.

He wasn’t one to intentionally intimidate others much, but he’s overheard plenty of rumors about himself. He’s heard that he’s one of the most…intimidating of the pillars, to say the least, and now, he’s not going to shy away from what could be an advantage to his situation.

Slowly, Giyuu walked over to the slayer and crossed his arms, looking straight through his eyes as he quietly spoke. “Your last mission was well-matched for someone of your rank.” He notes. “You hardly needed a Pillar for back-up, and because of your carelessness, she had to protect all five of you which landed the Snow Pillar in the butterfly estate. Now tell me, do you need a break?”

Despite Giyuu speaking in a voice no louder than a river’s burble, he could see the young man cower from slight fear before speaking in a shaky tone, “N-No, Sir!”

“I thought so.” Giyuu lightly clucked his tongue to himself before unfolding his arms. “Reset the traps and run through the mountain again. I'll let all five of you go for the day after.”

“Yes, Sir!” All five of them scrambled from their spot on the ground and scurried back up the mountain, letting himself feel a small morsel of sick satisfaction when he could hear the loud clacks from the traps and the pained grunts upon collision.

“I would say that it’s really nice that you took them in, but now that i’ve seen your face, i’m starting to think that this is on purpose.”

Giyuu was barely surprised to see the Snow Pillar herself right beside him like she was there the entire time. As pillars, both of you were faster and moved more efficiently than the average slayer, so you sneaking up on him was a common occurrence. You never seemed to get used to the opposite though, always claiming that he moved like a ghost.

“Maybe.” He shrugs, a little helplessly, tapping the wooden sword against the ground in a distracted fashion.

You laugh a nice tinkling sound he’s loves hearing, and he’s glad that you’re fine, and that the stupid little fight was resolved. He’s missed you a lot.

The two of you stood there together in silence, wincing when the sound of pained yelps travelled over from the small mountain Giyuu chose for training. A random conversation you had with your boyfriend suddenly entered your thoughts though, and made you wonder out loud. “Are you using the method Urokodaki-san used when he trained you?”

Nodding in affirmation, Giyuu hums in thought. “It was effective for me. And seeing how poorly trained they are from your previous mission, I thought that...” His train of thought short-circuited and was quickly derailed when you lean up on your tiptoes to place a soft kiss on his cheek. Giyuu’s ears immediately flush a deep red.

“You’re too cute, sweetheart.” You say, wrapping your arms around his neck. Seeing the ineffable Water Pillar flustered because of you was always a sight to behold. “Though, you didn’t have do thisfor me either.”

He turns his head away in hopes that you wouldn't see his face, but you simply laugh, and Giyuu feels his heart melt again. “They need to train more if they want to continue as slayers.”

You hum, letting your fingers sift through black strands of hair. “I know, I know, but lighten up, okay? Don’t be too hard on them.”

Giyuu nods as a reply and you place another kiss before pulling away. He wants to pull you back, but the trainees were already stumbling down the treeline, looking worse than they did a few minutes ago. Everyone was sporting new bruises and a few a lot of scratches, but seemed overall fine as they dropped down to the ground, panting for much needed air.

“All of you seem to be working hard.” You say in a kind voice, smiling kindly when their heads whip around to face you.

“Hashira (L/N)-sama!” They greet, scrambling to get up and drop to a bow in front of you. “We’re so glad to see you okay! Thank you for saving us!”

You wave your hand in front of your face, saying, “Oh, it was no problem! I’m glad all of you are okay.”

“All thanks to you. We hope you recovered well.”

“I did, thank you. Now stand up properly. Bowing for too long can’t be good for you all.”

One of them was about to open their mouth to continue the conversation, but Giyuu was quick to interject. “Alright, back to training.”

“Eh?!” All the trainees exclaim. It was clear that they respected the Water Pillar, but it was almost comical in how obvious the feeling of betrayal was in their voices.

“But we just finished!” A young girl among them who looked about ready to melt from exhaustion, points out. Another nods along, stating what Giyuu said earlier, in a hopeless fight for their much deserved break. “Tomioka-sama said we could go after!”

Oh, Giyuu is well aware of what he said. Instead of saying anything though, he feigns innocence, pretending he forgot despite having full intention of letting them go for the day.

He looks at the young slayers emptily, and responds in a deadpan tone. “Did I?”

Giyuu hears you sputter in laughter before punching his shoulder in a pitiful attempt to defend the poor kids. In both of your defenses, their faces were too funny not to laugh.

“Giyuu!”

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hrwinter · 4 years

Photo

You’re not sure what you remember about home. If you try, it might be blue skies and warm summer rain that you played in for hours. It might be your mother washing the mud out of your clothes, frowning and asking if it was really necessary for you to roll that completely in the dirt. You told her you were just doing what the dog did.

You had a dog, right?

You’re not really sure.

Because the other memories you have are not blue and green and the dirt brown of your knobby childhood knees. They’re grey and orange and crispy charcoal black. The market you visited where your parents would sometimes have hushed meetings behind shaky hands, it’s rubble. The wind that used to blow the fragrance of fresh peaches and citrus, it’s ash. The home you had is gone.

You remember a voyage, long, dark, and ripe with a putrid accumulation of smells. You remember getting to see the water a few times, opal blue and ever shifting. It was beautiful. But the ship crashed or was attacked, you don’t know, and then it was back to the oranges of fire, the reds of blood, and the screams of your parents you’d never find.

You washed up on shore alone.

Although, not quite alone.

That’s when you first saw her. The crow. You’re sure of that. She’d been there, pecking at the sand near your arm, the same one still clutching the cheap large plastic debris. It had saved your life. You looked over the edge of it, coughing salt water into the surf, and you saw her.

It was weird. She’d surprised you. You’d never seen a bird so big and black, you thought, and she shuffled from foot to foot, nervous. Was she hungry? Was she scared?

You don’t get a chance to find out before a man with large hands is swatting her away. She cawed angrily, reluctant to go, but she did, maybe to a nearby tree. He shook your shoulders then and asked you who you were.

“Kara,” your voice came out in a croak, not yours.

“Kara,” he says again.

The crow cawed.

It’s years before you put the patchwork pieces of your life back together, that you find out what happened to you. That a warmongering company, LuthorCorp, helped exacerbate the tensions in your region then exploited and profited from them by selling both sides weapons. But that doesn’t become relevant for a long time. For now, you’re an immigrant, and an immigrant is not a very good thing in this new country.

It could be worse. There are other kids who are not as lucky as you. Somehow having never set foot here, you have dual citizenship. Your mother was American. So, despite the government calling your parents insurgents and traitors, they don’t try to deport you. Or keep you locked in a cage. Instead, they put you in foster care.

It’s hard. It’s toiling. It takes you a long while to learn the language. You’re shy to talk because of it.

And you’re pretty. At least, people keep telling you that you are. You’re not sure what you see when you look in the mirror. The kind, clever blue eyes of your mother. The hard line of your father’s brow when he’d reprimand you for sneaking too many cookies.

But your prettiness doesn’t feel like a good thing. The other children resent you for it. And it brings you a different kind of attention, a kind that has you cowering from your foster mom’s drunk boyfriend, a kind that has your crow swooping in and attempting to peck out his eyes. She almost manages it, but when he swings, taking hold of her, you jump into the fray, too. You would’ve killed him if your foster mother hadn’t intervened.

That’s right, your crow has followed you here, has followed you through it all. She’s in the tree outside of the window when your foster mother returns you to the group facility for being ‘cruel and violent.’

You didn’t do anything. At least, you didn’t do anything you wouldn’t do again, a hundred times over.

“We’re better off here, anyway,” you tell the crow sitting with you during lunch recess.

“Why do you talk to that thing?” a boy asks you nearby, trapping a soccer ball with his foot.

“She’s my friend.”

“Friends can’t be birds.”

Yes, they can, you think.

“She doesn’t understand you,” he feels the need to add, certain.

But she does. You know she does.

---

You’re adopted into a new home not long after that. It’s different than the others. They’re called ‘Danvers.’ Eliza and Jeremiah, your adoptive parents, they’re kind and intelligent. They encourage your natural abilities in science and math. You’re starting to get A’s for the first time in your life, and you’re less reluctant to speak in class.

You still feel like an impostor. It doesn’t seem like a reality that’s meant for you. You were meant for the bottom of the sea.

“You have a right to be here,” Eliza tells you, but that’s not how your new sister acts.

Your crow has somehow inferred the antagonism between you. One afternoon she swoops in to steal a large portion of Alex’s sandwich and drops it on your plate.

“Hey!” Alex shouts after her, but the crow merely glares at her with dark black eyes, wings ruffling on your side of the picnic table.

“You did that on purpose.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

Alex looks between two of you, wary, parsing.

“How did you train it to do that, anyway?”

“…patience?” you improvise.

“You’re lying.”

The crow caws loudly, and Alex narrows her eyes.

“Whatever, I’m going inside.”

The crow watches her leave, and you soothe her ruffled feathers with a hand. The sheen of them always makes them seem oily, but they’re not at all. Her feathers are soft, and she preens a little under the touch. You gives her a nickel to play with. Maybe you’ll actually try to train her.

So, you make her puzzles. She seems somewhat competent in checkers. You read to her. Her favorite stories are fairy tales. Her favorite foods are unsalted peanuts, boiled eggs, shell and all. She likes apples too (you painstakingly removes the seeds, they’re bad for birds.) You feed her from the window. She sleeps in the tree there and follows you to school and back every single day. She watches you organize quarters for a state collection, nipping slightly at the plastic casing.

“I already gave you Iowa,” you tell her.

She clicks her beak back at you. Sometimes, she’ll steal your keys. You think she just likes things that you like, but you’re not sure. Alex says you’re projecting. Alex says you make up things that aren’t there, but honestly, Alex is a little mean.

Once on a fishing trip, the crow used bread to catch a fish, laying it before you all on the thick wood pier planks.

“That bird is smart,” Eliza comments, watching her chase away a hawk that seems a little too interested in the fish.

You’re proud. She’s fearless.

“Their brains are bigger than ours proportionally,” you reply with enthusiasm. You look to Alex. “See.”

“Her brain is bigger than yours,” Alex mumbles over her empty fishing line, and the crow dives down to nip at her.

“Hey!” Alex swats without making contact. The crow flies away again. “That crow doesn’t like me, I swear. She knows me.”

“Of course she does.”

“It’s meaner to me.”

“She’s a she, not an it,” you correct her.

“It’s not normal.”

“It’s perfectly normal for a crow,” you bicker with Alex. “They don't forget a face. They hold a grudge.”

“You sound like the Discovery Channel.”

“Well, it’s true. Did you know that they also mourn the dead? That they don’t migrate, staying in one place for most of their life?”

“So, you’re saying we’ll never get rid of it? Great.”

“She,” you correct her again testily. “And they can live to be 15 years old. So, yeah, you’re stuck.”

Alex quiets, and you’re thrilled to have won the argument.

But deep down inside, you’re willing to admit it’s a little weird, she’s a little weird. Crows are supposed to be social, and you’ve never seen her with any other crow. She only talks to you. She only follows you.

It would be crazy to think she wasn’t quite a crow, but something else, something more. Wouldn’t it? But you kind of do. You don’t admit it to anyone, but you do.

---

Graduation from high school is close, only days away. You’ve arranged everything for college, although not without a hulking amount of help from Eliza. She organized all of your scholarship forms, your applications, your dozens of essays. She kept you on track with projects and midterms and extracurriculars (you’re the captain of the Geology club, who knew!) And it’s all materialized into your acceptance at National City University. It’s only a couple of hours from Midvale, and you can’t wait for August.

Sometimes it’s crazy to think you’re going to college. A blonde, blue eyed girl who washed up on the beach one day like a sand dollar? You would’ve never put your money on her.

But here you are, walking a beach not that far from the one you arrived on, a big slate blue sky in front of you, wind whipping your hair. You think about the future; the new city, the potluck roommate, eighteen hours of classes in biomedical engineering.

“You’ll come with me to college, right?” you say to the crow perched on your shoulder, bobbing with every step you take.

The crow softly caws and nuzzles its head on your shoulder. It’s a rare form of her affection. Otherwise, her eyes are focused on the little crabs skittering in and out of the waves.

“I couldn’t have done it without you, you know,” you reach to bring the crow to your hand, her pointed claws clinging gracefully to two of your fingers. She looks back at you expectant and listening, canting her head to the side every now and again.

“We’ve never really talked about it,” you say as if it’s typical to apologize for conversations you haven’t had with your crow. “But you’ve always been there. You protected me.”

The crow flaps her wings a little. Is it pride? Joy?

“Thank you.”

You’re not sure what overtakes you then, but you do something you’ve never done before. Despite the fact that you’ve seen her roll around in ant piles, you lean forward and plant a little kiss on her feathered head.

Immediately, you know something has changed, that something is different. There’s a shimmer in the air in front of you, prismatic in color, and the crow flies away from you, landing, staggering in the sand. You chase after, but a crisp gust of wind blows sand into your eyes and you wobble, falling. When you scramble to your feet again, blinking and rubbing the grit out of your eyes, you don’t see your crow, but a girl with eyes as green as spring leaves, with hair as black as crow.

“You’re her,” you say as she sits up, looking confused, one armed draped across her middle.

“Yes,” the girl answers simply, shaping the word as if unfamiliar.

“You’re naked,” you announce.

“Yes.”

You strip your light jacket off, suddenly rushing to cover her. You rub her shoulders and she looks at you in that same, too intelligent way.

It is her.

You have no idea know what to say next. You just watched a bird transform into a human. It’s not real. You made it up. Maybe you passed out. You did eat a lot of cinnamon rolls right before this. You pinch yourself, but you don’t wake up. You’re still here on the windy beach, clutching a familiar creature in your arms.

In a panic, you fall back on the very first English you learned.

“I’m Kara,” you say. She sort of smiles as if that’s obvious. “What’s your name?”

She looks away, thinks hard. She has a strong jaw. Her skin is too white, like it’s never seen sun. Maybe not under the feathers? God, you think you’re going crazy.

“Lena.”

“Do you have parents, Lena?”

It’s a ridiculous question. She’s been with you for eleven years. But it’s a ridiculous situation.

“I—don’t remember. But I guess I do,” she says thoughtfully. Her voice has a raspy quality to it, not unlike her caw. “They probably think I’m dead.”

“What happened to you?”

She shakes her head again.

“I don’t remember,” then, “a curse, maybe. On my father. A woman came to our house that night. ‘A payment taken of your most prized possession’, she said. Something about an enemy loved.”

“A curse,” you repeat back. It makes sense. Even if nothing about this makes sense.

You shake your head, focusing on what’s important.

“Don’t worry,” you take her hand. Her palm is butter smooth. “Let’s go home.”

#supercorp #fanfic #supergirl au #crow au #i don't know #i literally don't #this was in my drafts for six months and i finally was like fuck it i'm finishing #i havent written 2nd POV in like one hundred years

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jeannereames · 3 years

Note

This is probably a very stupid question, but how did the Ancient Greeks measure time (in terms of years and months) ? What was their calendar like? What year would Alexander have viewed himself to be living in?

I love these sorts of daily-life details, so I may have got a little carried away…. Before I get into the weeds, however, I want to make everyone aware of a reference resource:

E. J. Bickerman, Chronology of the Ancient World. Thames & Hudson, 1968.

Yeah, it’s old now, but Bickerman spent most of his career on dating puzzles, and I don’t think there’s anything recent to match it. When I first was told about it years ago in my historiography class, I practically bounced off the walls. (My fellow grad students thought I’d lost my mind.)

I’m not sure of the best way to address this query—topically or geographically—but I’ll go with topically. I’ll also say upfront that I’m unfamiliar with Egypt, so they’re not much mentioned. Also, if you want more details on any particular system (Roman, Athenian, Babylonian, Jewish), there are plenty of online resources.

Long-count Calendar

How to number years across a span? Regnal years was most common in antiquity: year 1, year 2, year 3 of ___ king. Also, king lists detailed how long ___ ruled. The Ancient Near East (ANE) excelled at chronologies; we have some that go back to Sumer. That’s pre-Bronze Age. The span of some reigns can be deeply problematic (e.g., mythical), but we have the lists. Fun note, Neo-Assyrians named years by its major military campaign. Tells us a lot about them, no?

What about places without kings? Greece, Rome, Carthage?

The Greeks had several systems, internal and panhellenic. Internal systems often dated by the name of a prominent city magistrate. In Athens, that was the eponymous archon, in Sparta, the eponymous ephor, etc. The panhellenic system used Olympic years. In Dancing with the Lion, if you look at date plates before sections, that’s what I used. It’s a 4-year system, so, “In the year of the 97th Olympiad,” “In the first year of the 97th Olympiad,” “In the second year…,” and “In the third year…,” then we’re to “In the year of the 98th Olympiad…” In modern annotation it’s Ol. 97.1, Ol. 97.2, Ol. 97.3, Ol. 97.4. From (our year) 776 BCE down into the Roman Imperial era, the Olympics made useful anchor dating for the eastern Mediterranean (Magna Graecia).

Rome had its own system: two in fact. It counted years by both consuls, but also AUC = ab urba condita … “from the founding of the city.” Carthage used a similar system involving their two senior Judges for their senate.

When it came to “world histories,” authors such as Diodoros Siculus used several systems: Olympiad, Athenian archon, and Roman consuls. It gets a bit unwieldy, but is about as universal as we have for the Med until Christianity took over everything.

Yearly Calendars

Much of the ancient world used lunar (354 days), not solar (356 days) calendars. Yes, they knew a lunar year didn’t line up with the solar, and they used “intercalation” to fix it, avoiding summer festivals being celebrated in winter. Either a 13th month was needed every 3 years, or they added a few days to months here and there, making a “lunisolar” calendar. We have an intercalated day in our own calendar: Feb. 29th in Leap Year. To fix a calendar, however, an “anchor” is needed. This anchor is usually a solstice or equinox, which may (or may not) correspond to their New Year.

Our modern (Western) world places New Year’s in the dead of winter. But many pre-modern calendars put it in spring. Makes sense: life renews, it’s a new year. The Babylonian New Year was decided by the spring equinox—first new moon after—which pattern affected most of the ANE.

The Hebrew New Year (Rosh Hashana) is in autumn, but their first month (Nisan) is in spring. (They also have a New Year for Trees! Tú bish'vat. How cool is that?) Wanna know when your Jewish friends are having a holiday? Use Hebcal, the gold standard.

MANY ancient cultures have more than one calendar running at a time. So do we. Working in the uni, I have the “normal” year, but also the “academic” year to keep up with.

Despite the dominance of certain early systems like Babylon, counting the new year was specific to a region and people, and their religious traditions. No single Greek new year tradition existed. Both Delos and Athens used the first new moon after the summer equinox: early July. The Macedonian calendar seems to as well, so Alexander was born in the first month of the year. Other city states were different. I’ve forgotten most but do remember Sparta’s is in autumn because their new year almost falls on my birthday.

Remember, although we today talk about “ancient Greece” as if it were a country—it wasn’t. There was a landmass called Hellas, but each city-state was independent, and had its own laws, gov’t, coinage, and religious cult. Too often “Greek” winds up being conflated with “Athenian,” because we happen to have the most evidence from ancient Athens. But both Athens and Sparta were weirdos. Corinth, Thebes, Argos, Mytilene, Cos, Eretria, Miletus…all were a lot more typically Greek in their gov’t systems, etc. There were also 3 (or 4) different branches of Greek: Ionic-Attic, Doric, and Aeolic. When we talk about reading the “ancient Greek” language today, most people mean Attic Greek, or even Koine Greek (Hellenistic era common Greek).

That means every city-state had its own calendar, connected to its own festivals.

In fact, most city-states had several: sacred, civic, etc. Athens had a 12-month lunar calendar for festivals, but a 10-month civic calendar corresponding to the 10 tribes for Assembly business. Originally, they had only 4 tribes, not 10, so political changes meant calendar changes.

In each city-state, month names were derived from the major festival for that month. We have the complete month names for only a few: Athens is one and (fortunately for me) Macedon is another (specifically Ptolemaic, but it’s likely the same as the Argead). Below “Ancient Greek Month” REALLY means “Athenian month,” which annoys the hell out of those of us who don’t consider Athens the be-all and end-all of Greek history!

Because their months were lunar, they bisect our months, e.g., July/Aug = Athenian Hekatombian or Macedonian Loos [Alexander’s birthmonth], Jan/Feb = Athenian Gamelion or Macedonian Peritios [probably the month that gave Alexander’s favorite hound his name: Peritos]. Likewise, as the Athenian new year began in midsummer, dating ancient events also bisects. You’ll see 342/1 to designate the year from July of 342 BCE to June of 341.

As mentioned, most places used lunar months as the most basic time-keeping, but the moon isn’t the only way to make a “month.” Rome originally had 10 months of 30/31 days, adding 2 later, which is why our 12 months have Romanesque names.

Just remember: NO UNIVERSAL SYSTEM for months.

What About Weeks?

A seven-day week is borrowed from the Jews via Christianity. Both Jews and Egyptians had a dedicated day of rest. (For Egypt, the 10th day.) In most places, however, days off were festival related. Every month had festivals, which might last from half a day to several days in a row. You worked…took off for a festival…then you worked. No regular day of rest. (For the modern weekend? Thank unions and the Labor Movement!)

How did others subdivide a month? Athenian months were c. 30 days, divided into 10s: 1-10, 11-20, 10-1. Yup, the last is backwards. But dating also counted waxing and waning moons. So the new moon began a month, the 7th of the month would be the 7th waxing moon, the 24th the 6th waning moon. This is the Athenian system. Other city-states are less clear, but probably similar.

Romans had kalens (1st), nones (7th), and ides (15th). Nundinae (market days) means 9th, but were really the 8th day. The 7-day week is late Imperial and, again, owes to Christian take-over of Jewish weeks.

Most systems had “auspicious” and “inauspicious” days for religious activities, civic activities, and business activities. Don’t start anything on an inauspicious day! (These were manipulated, especially in Rome, but that’s a whole different discussion.) The closest modern equivalent I can think of is Mercury Retrograde. 😊 Although in modern Greece, signing a contract on a Tuesday morning is bad juju, or May 29th. Constantinople fell on a Tuesday morning May 29th, 1453. We might, in America, consider 9/11. Who wants to open a business on 9/11?

The Horai (The Hours)

When did the day begin? Again, the ANE and Med are different. In the ANE, day typically began at sunset. So yes, that’s why the Jewish shabbat starts at sunset on Friday and lasts till sunset on Saturday. (If you didn’t know, the Jewish “day of rest” isn’t Sunday, but Saturday.)

For Greece and Rome, et al., day began at dawn. Each day was then evenly divided between day and night, so there was no standard length of an hour. It depended on the time of year. Each half had twelve hours, subdivided into 4 groups of triads. Originally in Greece it seems there were only 9, not twelve, but they increased to match the lunar months. The division of 4 groups of triads also yielded the 4 seasons of 3 months each. Hora was initially a season, not an hour.

In any case, dawn was always the first hour, noon the 6th, sunset the 12th. Same deal for night (twilight, midnight, pre-dawn).

This is great for military and civic purposes, but most people tended to refer to daytime divisions more generally: dawn, midday, etc. And there was nothing like minutes or seconds. That’s totally modern. Closest, they might come would be to count “breaths.”

The gnomon (sundial) was the chief way to measure hours, as it matched longer or shorter days. But it’s kinda hard to use a sundial at night, or on a cloudy day, or inside. Night hours were approximate.

The water clock (klepsudra) was first popularized in Greece in courts and the Assembly (to time speeches), but spread to other use, for inside or on shady days. Yet water clocks are unwieldy to carry around.

The Romans did have portable sundials (below), but again…needs the SUN. Btw, I should add that sundials aren’t only a Greco-Roman thing. The Chinese had them too. By contrast, the sand-clock or hourglass is a medieval invention. Won’t find them in the ancient world.

#time-keeping #calendars #time in the ancient world #months in the ancient world #ancient Greece #ancient Rome #ancient near east #Jewish calendars #sundials #the Horae #The Hours #Classics #ancient history #ancient Mediterranean history #asks

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uncloseted · 3 years

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there's a part of me that still thinksa bortion is murder. i act like i support it to fit in but deep down i dont. please just listen. i think forcing someone to go through a pregnagncy they don't want is inhuman but it also feels inhuman to kill a baby and i dont like thsi idea that if youre 4 weeks pregnant and you want it its a baby but if youre 4 week pregnant and dont want it then its just a clump of cells thats just not how scence works. so theres this woman who was forced to get an .

Anonymous asked:

abortion and she was 6 months pregnant and apparently th baby waws born alive but it died shortly after from ashpyxia and i just dont know what to think. i know forcing smeone to get an abortion is just as bad as forcing them to give birth and that theres no such thing as a six month abortion and at least wher e i live abortions are only available until week 14 but like wwhat if someone is 15 or 16 weeks or 7 months, do they not have a choice anymore? please dont think im a bigot im not im so

Anonymous asked:

sorry i just dont want to be brainwashed by ANYONE, pro life or pro choice and im just so easily influenceable i just want to support whats right you know

No worries at all! I don't think you're a bigot and I'm glad that you want to engage with this issue critically. I'm happy to give you the facts as they stand and offer you my perspective on the issue. Apologies in advance that this is a bit long, but please try to stick with me until the end! All of this is important in understanding the different sides of this discussion.

There are a few main categories I want to talk about in this answer: legal, science, politics, and culture. For now, I'm going to avoid delving into any religious or metaphysical questions about what is and isn't considered "a person", since while those conversations are interesting, I don't think they're particularly useful in the context of discussions about abortion. As Harry Blackmun wrote in the court opinion for Roe v. Wade, "we need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at any consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man's knowledge, is not in a position to speculate."

Legality

Starting with legal issues, there are a few points I think it's important to make in order to get a sense of how we relate to abortion. Abortions are legal in 98% of countries. 34% of countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand most European countries, and China, allow abortions on the basis of a the pregnant person's request, without needing to prove that there is risk to life, risk to health, risk to the fetus, economic or social reasons that abortion is a necessity, or extenuating circumstances (such as the pregnancy being a product of rape or incest). The vast majority (93%) of countries with highly restrictive abortion laws, such as outlawing abortion except in cases where the pregnant person is endangered, are in developing regions. There are five countries that completely outlaw abortion. These are: Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Malta, Nicaragua, and the Vatican City, all countries where the Catholic church has significant influence.

Of the countries that do allow abortion, there is always a limit on how far into a pregnancy a person can be when they choose to terminate. Beyond that limit, the person doesn't have a choice anymore, and must carry the pregnancy to term (except in extenuating circumstances). The most common limit is 12 weeks (3 months), although some countries allow abortion up to the point of "viability", where the fetus can live outside the mother's womb with artificial aid. Typically, the point of viability is around 24 weeks (6 months). In the US, 87% of abortions are performed before 12 weeks, and 92.2% were performed at 13 weeks or fewer. For reference, pregnancies are typically around 40 weeks long.

Forced abortion is illegal in almost every country, including the US and the UK, and it is considered an act of violence against women. It is just as bad as forcing someone to give birth, which is why all countries do their best to prevent it from happening. While forced abortions can and do happen, particularly to victims of sex trafficking, I think the solution to this issue is to put policies into place that protect vulnerable women, instead of trying to ban abortion entirely.

Science

So, most countries allow abortions up to 12 weeks. What does that actually look like in terms of the fetus? Here's a timeline of fetal stages of growth:

Weeks 1-4: at this stage, the "baby" is actually an embryo. It starts out as just a fertilized egg. The amniotic sac forms around it, and the placenta develops. The eyes, mouth, lower jaw, and throat are in very early development. Blood cells are taking shape. By the end of week 4, the embryo is smaller than a grain of rice. It is very literally "just a clump of cells" at this point.

Weeks 5-9: the "baby" is still an embryo. Its facial features begin to develop, folds of skin that will eventually become ears grow, tiny buds that will eventually grow into arms and legs form, the neural tube, digestive tract, and sensory organs all begin to develop. Bone starts to replace cartilage. At about 6 weeks, a heart beat can be detected. After week 8, the baby is considered a fetus instead of an embryo, at which point the fetus is about one inch long.

Weeks 9-12: the fetus' arms, hands, fingers, feet, and toes are fully formed. It may be able to open and close its fists and mouth. Ears are formed, and its reproductive organs begin to develop. By the end of week 12, the fetus has all of their organs and limbs, and their circulatory and urinary systems are working, but everything needs to continue to develop in order to become functional. At the end of week 12, the fetus is about 4 inches long.

It is important to know that the miscarriage rate is highest in the first trimester (before week 12). Among women who know they're pregnant (typically further along than 6 or 7 weeks), 10-20% will miscarry. 30%-50% of all fertilized eggs miscarry.

Other important developmental markers include:

During month 4 (weeks 16-20), you can see the sex of the fetus.

During month 5 (weeks 20-24), the fetus starts moving around.

Between week 22 and week 24, brain waves appear in the cerebral cortex.

At week 24, the fetus may be able to survive if it is born prematurely, provided it has intensive care.

Somewhere between week 26 and week 30, the fetus may be able to feel pain, although we don't know that for sure.

A fetus is not capable of thinking, communicating, reasoning, self-motivation, feeling emotions, or consciousness. They don't have a concept of the self, and they don't know that they exist. They are essentially sedated for the entirety of the pregnancy. Since we use "brain death" as the primary criteria for death, it makes sense to me that we might consider "brain life" (the point where a fetus exhibits brain activity) as the point at which a fetus becomes a person.

While some people will refer to an embryo as a "baby" from the time they discover they're pregnant, scientifically, it is a clump of cells, whether that clump is allowed to continue to grow or not. It's not something we would recognize as a baby, or be able to interact with as if it were a baby. An embryo is a precursor to a baby, kind of like how a seed is a precursor to a plant.

Some other arguments

I want to quickly touch on some other arguments for abortion rights that people make. I'm not going to delve deeply into them, but it didn't feel right to leave them out entirely. These are arguments that don't depend on whether or not a fetus can be considered a person.

Bodily Rights

There are many situations in which we prioritize individual bodily rights over the right of someone else to live. For example, we don't force people to donate organs to people who are dying, even though a donated organ would save their life. Advocates for abortion rights argue that those same bodily rights should be extended to a pregnant person.

Deprivation

This argument usually looks something like, "but what if that fetus was going to cure cancer when it grew up!" Basically, it's saying that abortion is morally wrong because it deprives the fetus (and the world) of a valuable future. To me, this completely ignores the deprivation that already exists by forcing a person to carry and birth a baby they don't want, and potentially the deprivation that comes with raising that child. People who make this argument never seem to ask, "what if the pregnant person was going to cure cancer?"

Slippery Slope

Some people argue that normalizing and legalizing abortion may lead to people also accepting euthanasia. I am unconvinced by this for two reasons. 1. Slippery slope is a logical fallacy and 2. I absolutely do think we should legalize euthanasia for certain situations.

Religion

I don't want to dig too far into this one, but what I will say is that the US is a country that (at least nominally) has a separation of church and state, and the religious beliefs that other people hold should not infringe on a person's rights to make choices about their own life.

History and Politics

The practice of abortion itself is incredibly old. The Sanskrit epic Ramayana, which dates to the 7th century BCE, describes abortion being practiced by surgeons and barbers. In the Assyrian Code of Assura, circa 1075 BCE, a woman is allowed to procure an abortion except when it's against her husband's wishes. The first recorded evidence of induced abortion is from the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus in 1550 BCE. Japanese documents show records of induced abortion from as early as the 12th century, and it became more prevalent during the Edo period. It is considered to be unlikely that abortion was punished in Ancient Greece or ancient Rome. All major Jewish religious movements allow abortion in order to save the life or health of a pregnant woman, and often support abortion for other reasons as well. Christianity has a more complicated relationship to abortion, for reasons that I'll go into in a bit, but for now let's just note that there very much were ancient Christians who believed abortion was morally permissible at least some of the time. Before the 19th century CE, first-trimester abortion was widely practiced and was legal under common law throughout the English speaking world, including the US and UK.

The reason I bring all of this up is because the political debate over abortion isn't really that old, and the debate tends not to actually be about the morality of abortion as an act so much as it is a proxy for other issues. The first backlash against abortion in the English Speaking world was in the 19th century, and was a direct reaction to the women's rights movement, which was starting during that time. In the US, anti-abortion laws began to appear as early as the 1820s, but picked up in earnest by the late 1860s. These laws were introduced for many reasons, including the fact that abortions were being provided by untrained people who were not members of medical societies and concerns about the safety of abortifacients. By 1900, abortion was a felony in every US state, but they continued to become increasingly available. By the 1930s, licensed physicians performed an estimated 800,000 abortions a year.

Jumping forward a little bit, let's talk about the history of abortion in the US just before Roe v. Wade. It's estimated that in the 50s and 60s, between 200,000 to 1.2 million abortions were being performed per year, even though they were illegal. Throughout that same time, the second wave feminist movement was growing, and was increasingly advocating for birth control and liberalized abortion laws. As a reaction to second wave feminism, a number of anti-abortion organizations, primarily led by Catholic institutions, cropped up to mobilize against the legalization of abortion. It should be noted that, at the time, abortion was not an issue for evangelical Christian groups. In the 1960s, 17 states legalized abortion for a variety of different circumstances. Then in 1973, Roe v. Wade happens, ruling that a pregnant woman has the right to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. The ruling was 7-2 in favor of legalizing abortion. Even after Roe v. Wade, Christian Evangelicals were neutral to positive on the ruling. It's only after 1980 that Evangelical Christians started to organize around abortion as a political issue and joined the Catholics to form what we now think of as the Christian Right. There's a lot to say about that and why that switch happened, but for the sake of brevity, just know that the evangelical backlash against legalized abortion in the US started not as a moral crusade, but as a way of convincing people to vote for Ronald Regan instead of Jimmy Carter (who wanted to de-segregate schools). No political debate happens in a vacuum, and it's important to understand what other factors might have been at play when looking at where these debates come from and how the sides formed.

Culture

Lastly, let's talk a little bit about the cultural impacts of banning or legalizing abortion. The right to have or not have a child is necessary in order for women to achieve equality with men. Countries with high gender equality, such as Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, and Sweden, also have easily accessible abortion options. Criminalization of abortion disproportionately impacts poor women and women of color, and does nothing to address the systemic issues that may cause them to require abortions in the first place.

Researchers from the WHO and University of Massachusetts found that banning abortion is an inefficient way to reduce abortion rates; in countries where abortions were restricted, the number of unintended pregnancies actually increased, and the proportion of unintended pregnancies ending in abortion also increased. When abortion is banned, women aren't not having abortions; they're having illegal abortions that are done unsafely.

There is also some evidence to suggest that legalized abortion actually decreases crime rates. 20 years after the legalization of abortion in the US, there was an unprecedented nationwide decline of the crime rate (including murders, incidentally). The drop in crime is thought by some to be a result of the fact that individuals who had a higher statistical probability of committing crimes (people who grew up as unwanted children in poverty) were not being born.

Which brings me to my next point- the majority of people who are "pro-life" (at least in the US) aren't really pro-life. They're pro-birth. If they were truly pro-life, they would be interested in making sure that all of those babies had their needs met after they're born. They would be interested in making sure those babies can lead long, healthy, safe, and productive lives. They would be for universal healthcare, expanded social safety nets, parental leave from jobs, universal basic income, raising the minimum wage, mandated vacation time, increasing funding for public schools, decriminalizing drugs, abolishing prisons or at least reforming the police. They would be against the death penalty (ironically, some of them are actually for the death penalty for women who have had abortions), and for increased access to birth control, comprehensive sex-ed in schools, increased gun legislation, against war and nuclear weapons, for enforced mask wearing to prevent people from needlessly dying from a global pandemic... but those issues don't factor into their "pro-life" stance. They're for "the baby gets born and then has to pull itself up by its bootstraps like the rest of us."

Closing Thoughts

Look. I'm not super jazzed about abortions. I understand how they can feel like an ethical issue. I think we should do what we can to reduce the number of abortions that are performed- teaching comprehensive sex-ed in schools, making birth control and emergency contraceptive options widely accessible, letting men know that reversible vasectomies are an option. I think we should make abortion easier to access, so those who do need it can make the decision early in the pregnancy. But I also think that it's a very personal decision, one that's irreversibly life altering, and the person who's going to experience the life altering event should be the one who decides what happens. 65 year old conservative, Christian white men who will never be pregnant (and frequently don't really know how the female body works) shouldn't get to make that decision for them. As someone for whom pregnancy would be life threatening, I want to know that I have options should that situation present itself someday.

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minerstatus · 3 years

Text

Teyvat’s School for the Gifted

Summary: He's cruel, mean, and sadistic. Lumine cannot fathom why he has the followers he does, but she won't fall into his hands like the rest of them. It was unknown to her at that time how such a stance would cause the biggest uproar the schools ever seen.

This is the silly drama filled high school/college parody AU nobody asked for filled with Lumine not giving a shit and Childe trying to buy his way out of problems.

Ship: Lumine/Childe

Tags: Highschool AU, Enemies to lovers, Slow burn, Jealousy, lots of side ships.

Status: 5/? on Ao3

Chapter 1

The school located on an island inside the neutral zones between nations is a blessing for anyone without a swimming pool filled with mora. Without money you have to be gifted a vision to attend. That is why Lumine thought she would never be accepted to such a place. Instead cursed to live her life on a small farm on the outskirts of Mondstadt, killing small monsters for money to aid her ailing mother.

She had become quite the prodigy around the area. Her sword work was nothing to be trifled with. Some would even gush about what it would be like if she did have a vision. Then it happened, a strange string of life changing events.

She enjoyed spending her free time sitting under the statue of the seven in windrise. It gave her a reprieve from her day-to-day life of school, killing, then sleep. She polished her blade most days she sat there, enjoying the sounds of the wilderness around her.

As she sheathed her blade, wistfully thinking about what it would be like to magically summon and desummon it as a vision user, a light began to shine behind her. There was a flash, she thought maybe a vision might appear in front of her. But this was no test or life changing event. It didn’t make sense.

Wind surrounded her body, lifting her skit in the breeze. She turned, it followed with her. She lifted her hand as a power surged through her. A burst of wind jetted from her palm and sliced across the water. It trimmed the tops off the over grown grasses lining the ponds edge. The wind died down and left her for elsewhere as the light slowly faded out of existence.

Befuddled, she stared at the palms of her hands. She felt a power emanating from her core. With a trembling arm she raised her palm again, calling forth on the energy. It darted from her as before. Shocked, she tried it again and again, smiling gleefully with each blast of wind. She twirled around, searching for her vision, but came up empty.

That is how the first visionless anemo user was born. At first people didn’t believe her. Delusions were not unknown to the common folk of Teyvat. They were a staple favorite of the mafia families across the regions. But she quickly smashed those theories to pieces. Not only was she a poor farm girl fighting to survive, but where on earth would she have the money to afford such a thing. She allowed an inspection of her things and a pat down to prove it.

After the authorities decided that she did not have a vision she was free to do as she wished. That was until the head master of Teyvat’s school for the gifted showed up on her doorstep. The scholarship she was offered would give more money to her mother per month than she could in six months of hunting. She took it without question.

That’s how she ended up here, gawking at the building in front of her. The school defied the rumors. Statues carved from marble, fountains that defied gravity, even the wood it was built from looked impossibly expensive. Heck, the wildlife looked like they ate from golden platters.

The only thing that held her from running right back to the boat was a woman pinning her down with a chemically assisted cheerful gaze. A shiver ran up her spine as she waved her over. She obliged only because her eyes looked a hair away from snapping into crazy land.

“Welcome to Teyvat’s finest Lumine!” She cheered and began to clap.

“Thanks,” She mumbled, intimidated by her nature. She looked like a robot. Sleek black hair, not a strand out of place. Perfectly pressed blazer and pencil skirt in matching shades. Her glasses glistening in the sunlight, even if they were just plain black frames. She hoped not everyone in this school looked or felt this way.

“Follow me and I'll take you to your dorm. Then it’s a trip around campus!” She quipped then turned on her heel. Even her footsteps were a perfect tempo.

They walked through the faculty building, which thankfully looked normal inside. The site quelled her turning stomach. It was into the garden next that, as expected, looked immaculate. They even had a massive sand garden. Back in Mondstadt something like that would be destroyed in seconds.

Eventually they came upon another wooden building with a large ‘girls’ over it. The woman stopped and spun so fast on her heel Lumine almost let out small scream.

“This is the girl's dorm; your roommates are waiting for you inside with your things. I'll be back in thirty minutes for the rest of the tour,” she said, smile never once faltering as she left Lumine to her own devices.

Her roommates were nice, they greeted her in the common room just as her guide stated. Amber was a bit too enthusiastic for just about anything. Barbara was a very cheerful girl but was more reserved. It was a breath of fresh air to see two friendly faces. They led her to their dorm to get settled.

“So, what do you think?” Amber asked as Lumine began to unpack her luggage. Placing her uniforms carefully into her small closet along with her own casual clothing. Her own things almost felt dirty comparted to the schools uniform she was provided. And the room was much bigger than what she expected from a dormitory.

“It's overwhelming,” She admitted.

“You'll get used to it,” Amber laughed.

“Are you?” Lumine began to ask.

“Scholarship,” Amber answered, holding up her vision, “They keep the poor kids together so we don’t infect the rich kids.” She laughed.

“Hey!” Barbara yelled at her. Lips pointing into a pout.

“Except for Barbara, she requested to room with me. She's the exception.” Amber smiled at her friend.

“So, it's exactly how I thought it would be,” Lumine grumbled. This school was probably dripping with rich kids causing trouble for the normal folk, like she expected.

“Some of the students are alright, indifferent you might say. But there are,” Amber held up her hands as air quotes, “those types.”

“Will you guys be in my classes?” She asked.

“Nope, third years!”

Lumine felt her insides twist. Great, now she would be alone on her first day. At least her dorm would be nice. Amber was warm and friendly and Barbara seemed sweet even if she wasn’t talking as much. The pair would only be a year below her so they were still close in age. Hopefully she wouldn’t be moved to another dorm with the ‘adults’ if she attends the next four years after this one.

“You don’t want to be in our year anyways,” Barbara laughed.

“Whys that?” Lumine felt a small smile form for the first time since she set foot on the island. Barbara wiggled her eyebrows and gleamed over at Amber. She turned red in response and threw a pillow at her.

“Stop! Its not my fault!” She shouted.

“It’s gross the way he drools over his desk for you,” Barbara added.

“Mind filling me in?” Lumine asked.

“No!” Amber shouted.

“She has this wolf boy that follows her around and causes trouble. Its adorable,” Barbara said anyways.

“I didn’t ask for it he just did it!” Amber defended herself.

“It's like a comedy slash horror show every day,” Barbara giggled.

“Stop teasing me,” Amber whined.

“Wolf boy?” Lumine asked. Mondstadt had a steady population of people descendant of shape shifters or animals, but she had never seen a wolf before. Most of them were cats. Granted, she did keep to herself and didn’t really mix with the town folk, even at school.

“Half werewolf, half human, grew up in the wild before coming here earlier in the year,” Amber explained.

“He can smell everything, it's awful,” Barbara moaned, “one time I tried to bring some leftovers from lunch and he almost ripped apart my bag looking for it.”

“Sounds like a nice boyfriend,” Lumine said, hiding her smile as she sorted items into her desk drawers. Amber gasped from behind her. She swallowed a laugh.

“H-he's not my boyfriend!” She yelled. Lumine busted and began to giggled along with Barbara. She was interested in seeing the exchanges between the two now.

“Very funny guys, I'll make sure to make fun of your pain in suffering next time I get the chance.” Amber crossed her arms.

“Alright I'll stop,” Barbara waved her hand at her. A sharp knock on the door quickly soured the cheerful mood. The door swung open and Lumine’s guide walked in.

“Fantastic, I'm so glad you are getting along with your new housemates. We must complete the tour now.” The woman said, still as cheerful as ever. Lumine noticed Barbara and Ambers shoulders fell on her entrance. “I'll be waiting out front,” she chirped and left.

“God, Mrs.Lee always gives me the creeps,” Amber said.

“Glad it's not just me,” Lumine laughed as she stood.

“Good luck! See you at dinner,” Amber waved as Lumine exited the room. She heard faint whispers of gossip as she left but knew it was nothing bad, those girls didn’t have a mean bone in them.

They walked around campus and Lumine slowly became accustomed to the wildly expensive taste. She was shown the inside of the year one through four buildings, for the fourteen-to-eighteen-year old's. Then the outside of the adult facilities. Mrs. Lee assured the only real difference between the two was the uniform requirement and some extra freedoms.

After taking the tour she felt less overwhelmed, but it was the final stop that really cemented the reality most of the students lived in. It was the cafeteria of the school, but should have been classified as a food court. There was the line for the scholarship students where they could use one of three free meal tickets per day, or a snack coupon, all loaded onto her school ID. Wich was normal, same thing that she had in Mondstadt, minus the dinner.

What was different was the restaurants lining the walls. Everything you could imagine from each region on tap. And the prices were nothing to scoff at. A Fishermans toast was going for ten thousand mora, she could make that for less than three hundred back home. Lines scaled out to the isles as students waited, eager to be robbed for food.

“Lumine!” A familiar voice shouted. She sighed in relief. A distraction to this insanity was required right about now. She carried her tray adorned with less appetizing food from the school over to the table Amber sat at.

“This place is crazy,” Lumine sighed in exhaustion.

“My first day I ran away,” Amber laughed. She placed a spoon full of mac and cheese into her mouth.

“Those prices are more than I make in three weeks back home,” She said as she began to eat. Pleasantly surprised that even the free food was delectable. The pasta was perfectly cooked, cheese sauce an ideal creamy texture. She moved on to nibble at her cookie, baked expertly with a crispy outside and a gooey center. “God,” she murmured, savoring the taste.

“I told you, you get used to it,” Amber smiled sweetly. A book bag slamming down on the table instantly cleared her face. She looked up to see what she assumed was the wolf boy from earlier discussions. Lumine wondered why Amber felt it was bad to have his attention. He was attractive, silver hair and red eyes, giving him an exotic look. His arms were coated in scars and a massive one gashed his face, not a bad look if your into that type. Some of the girls back home would swoon over the attention.

“Why,” She groaned as he pulled out a seat, pushing it right up against hers as he sat a plate of meat and potatoes down. It must have been one of the free creature meals from the school line. He sat, making sure he was as close as physically possible to her.

Okay, maybe that’s why. Lumine began to understand.

He tilted his head like a new puppy, “Why?” He asked, voice thick with an unknown accent.

“We talked about this,” She shoved his chair away. “This is Razor,” She sighed as he sunk into his chair to pout. Lumine nodded and greeted him with a smile.

“I bought brownies!” Barbara sang as she skipped over to the table, “For our new friend,” She handed out the sweets, “And beef jerky for you,” She said as she handed Razor a slim piece of dried meat. He perked up and took it, chewing on it greedily. After the experience with the cookie Lumine thought the food couldn’t get better. But the brownie was smooth decadent layers of velvet chocolate that melted in her mouth. She had to suppress a groan.

There was a pickup of chatter in the room that pulled her from her chocolate induced fantasy. She looked towards the entrance of the café where a group of boys walked in. They were followed by a gaggle of other students, mostly female, all adorned with an expensive accessory or more.

Lumine was an honest person and she did not deny to herself that these boys looked like royalty. They walked with an air of confidence even through the crowd, knowing that the sea of students would part for them. She counted each of their visions, anemo, geo, cryo and hydro. There was a distinct leader to the group out of the four. A redhead who wore his vision on his belt, showing it off by messily tucking in half of his unkept shirt. Like he wanted people to see it, unlike the rest of them that wore them on chains by their side, as did everyone else in the school.

“Don't stare,” Amber hissed. Lumine snapped her eyes to her friends.

“Who are they?” She asked. Amber eyed her wearily before divulging the information.

“Sons of the school's elite,” She glanced back at the group to ensure they were distracted with food or girls before continuing, “The shorter one with green hair is Xiao, the son of the wangshu inn owner. The geo looking guy is Zhongli from the Wangsheng funeral parlor. Blue hair is Kaeya, one of the sons from the dawn winery.” Amber stopped speaking as she got to the last subject. Lumine quirked a brow as both Barbara and Amber swiveled their heads to check on the group again.

“It's not really them you should be weary of though; besides Xiao they are nice. Xiao has always had a stick up his butt,” Barbara added to the conversation.

“Then what is it, why are we acting like we are defusing a bomb?” Lumine asked.

“It's Childe, the redhead,” Amber whispered.

“Childe? That’s a dumb name,” Lumine thought out loud. The girls hissed at her to keep her voice down.

“He smells mean,” Razor added. Amber pulled on his ear.

“I told you not to talk about him,” She growled at him. He grasped her hand in his, forcing her to release.

“But you are!” he argued.

“Thats because we are warning her!” Amber explained. Razors eyes darted from Ambers to Lumines and he resigned himself back to his half-eaten steak.

Amber rolled her eyes and turned back to Lumine, “It’s not his real name, no one even knows his real name.”

“Childe is an awful nickname,” She whispered back to her friend.

“He’s mean, and evil, once he has you in his sights there's no stopping it.” Amber warned her.

“What about his friends? Don’t they say something?” She asked.

“They are rich, us poor folk don’t matter to them even if they act cordial towards us,” Amber told her as she leaned back, “Besides you don’t have a vision, he will probably just ignore you.”

Lumine widened her eyes, “well...” She felt a tint come to her cheeks, “Actually...”

Amber slammed her fists on the table, “NO WAY! YOUR THAT GIRL!” she screamed. Drawing the attention of half the students.

“Show us!” Barbara insisted.

“Ah, I don’t think now is the best time.” Lumine tried to quell her friend's voices but both girls were oblivious to the attention they were attracting. She glanced over at the red head she was warned about to make sure he was still entranced at whatever activity he had chosen.

“Awh comon I wanna see!” Amber whined.

“First anemo user in history without a vision! Don’t hold out on us!” Barbara added.

“Fine! Just stop yelling at me,” Lumine finally conceded. She put her palm face up on the table and gathered a small amount of wind to it. It tinted green with her power as it swirled into a miniature tornado in her palm.

“This is so cool!” Amber gasped.

“It's the same as anyone else,” Lumine said, closing her hand to cease the wind. She was more than a bit tired of people going ballistic over her powers.

“Let's get back to the dorms,” Amber suggested, “We have much to talk about,” She smiled gleefully. Razor whimpered next to her, “fine you can come too,” She sighed. Razor looked up with a beaming smile.

“Boys are allowed in the girls dorms?” Lumine asked as they gathered their trays and bags.

“Only until eight with a strict open-door policy,” Barbara told her.

She hummed in response as the group made their way over to the trash bins. Eyes were on her now, some searching for a vision trinket she didn’t possess. She was the last one out the door when a chill tingled down her spin. She grabbed the back of her neck and turned, expecting a cryo user to be standing there with a smirk on their face.

Instead, she was greeted with sea blue eyes cutting through the crowd. He smirked when they made eye contact. The chill went down her entire body. She glared as the door to the building swung shut, cutting them off.

Shit.

#chilumi #childe #lumine #genshin impact #genshin impact fanfiction

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thejustmaiden · 4 years

Text

The Sesshomaru F*cks Debacle

Hey, fellow Inuyasha fans! How we feeling?? I imagine a lot of us are doing quite fabulously after the recent news we got about the sequel coming out this Fall, "Hanyou No Yashahime." So if it wasn't obvious already, I want to take the time to discuss the topic of- you guessed it- Sesshomaru. Go figure!

***THIS IS A REPOST OF MY ORIGINAL BLOG THAT DISAPPEARED FROM THE TAGS. PICS/GIFS HAVE BEEN REMOVED TO HOPEFULLY REPAIR THAT.***

Let's be real, as much as probably (and literally lol) all of us have viewed him as "daddy material" at some point or another during our teens, Sesshomaru being physically intimate with another being, much less a human, is difficult to conjure up in our minds. And there's nothing wrong with that, per se, as sex and romance doesn't come so easily to some as it does to others. Then again, that's not to say a romantic relationship is completely impossible or unattainable for him either.

I, for one, am not a huge fan of the idea of Sesshomaru siring children of his own. Granted, adopting/protecting children and other small companions is kinda his thing (I saw one user even describe him as a 'walking daycare' 🤣), and maybe it'll just take some getting used to, but all in all it's not entirely unfathomable to picture him having biological children. Though I'd be lying if I said I still didn't prefer he just took these two twin half-demon girls in and under his wing instead, like he did Rin. However, seeing as that's unlikely the case since the two girls resemble him in some fashion, the chances of that coming true are slim, which must mean that Sesshomaru did in fact bone some lucky lady. That's not to say I don't acknowledge that there's still a chance these kids aren't truly his but we'll see!

Which leads me to the real reason behind this blog! I'd like to address in-depth why I and so many other Inuyasha fans consider shipping S*ssrin as wrong and why it makes a lot of us extremely uncomfortable.

BUT FIRST BEFORE I FORGET, I want to give a little unofficial disclaimer by stating that this blog isn't intended to upset certain fans regarding my stance on the controversial ship. Thus I will not tag it under that ship name, and I suggest others who agree with me to do the same in any of their future posts.

Because let's not forget that the most important thing is that we're all fans here. We fell in love with this story and hold its beloved characters close to our hearts for a reason. And that still counts even if you're returning to this fandom a decade later. So please, let's try and remember that and be civil towards one another. Putting people down by attacking and insulting others in real life really doesn't make us any better than them. I REPEAT, please do not engage in this post unless you plan to be kind and respectful of others who may have a differing opinion than you. There's never a need to be ugly towards another human being. That goes for all shippers and fans of Sesshomaru in general. Thank you in advance for your understanding and compliance. 😊

Again, none of these comments are aimed at being inflammatory towards those fans who have a different approach to this pairing. If any of you are reading this now, please keep that in mind before deciding to participate in any discourse with me and other antis.

Okay, let me go ahead and list a few of the main arguments fans of this particular ship use to support them together. Then I'll give my reasons why those aren't enough to justify their relationship turning romantic:

1. Rin will be an adult before they get romantically involved

2. Sesshomaru didn't raise her and therefore isn't her father; he was never like a father to her in the first place

3. Sesshomaru hasn't been grooming her, not then and not now. Besides, it was Rin's choice first.

4. Age difference shouldn't matter when you look at other relationships in the series (InuKag, Koga x Ayame, etc.)

5. It was always going to be canon because the drama CDs exist

These are the main points I'm seeing around. Now let's dissect them, shall we? These are my direct responses- I'll try to keep them short and concise. Fyi: Jk! I'm lying, that never happens. 😆

1. Rin may be an adult, but from our standpoint that doesn't make much of a difference. It doesn't matter because it's all about how her relationship with Sesshomaru started off and how it continued onwards. From that moment, it was basically established from the get-go that their relationship resembles that of one a young girl shares with an older man who winds up becoming her guardian. She initiated it by trying to bring him food while he was injured, and he reciprocated by deciding to bring her back to life that fateful day.

Of course we're all happy that he did, because he's a better demon for it and a similar thing could be said about her! Therefore you must understand that fans against this pairing find it very hard to grasp the notion of a budding romance here when we look at their history. For us, it's synonymous to imagining a father eventually falling in love with his daughter or someone else who reminds him of a daughter, and vice versa. But let's just say he's not a father to her like many of you claim and more like, say a modern-day babysitter. Isn't it still bizarre to you that a young girl could fall in love with the man who looked after her and cared for her at that age, maybe even played games with? One day or on multiple occasions he even sees her naked because she had an accident and got hurt so she needed help changing or something. I admit it's more realistic that it was Jaken if anyone who'd be in charge of this, but why does it really matter who was tasked with what? Sesshomaru may have not been around all the time but that doesn't mean he's any less involved or invested in Rin's general care and well-being. So it's that thought alone that keeps many of us from even contemplating a romance forming between them. Whether he hardly interacted with her over the years or not is irrelevant, because it's clear to me that they have both formed a strong enough bond that constitutes calling them family. I highly doubt he ever even planned to keep Rin in his company as long as he did. But it happened, and whether you want to admit it or not, meeting her changed his life. Meaning Rin was never just some girl he traveled with or hardly knew. Despite his feigned indifference and stoic ways at times, I'm pretty sure we can all agree that Rin grew on him and was the first person to really influence him in a way that helped soften and open up that heart of his in a way nobody ever had before. One's significance to any given person isn't solely measured by the quantity of time spent alongside that person but by the quality of how that time was spent with said person. It's safe to say that in the case of Sesshomaru and Rin, they definitely fall under that category.

2. Fair if you don't view Sesshomaru as Rin's father, but you must acknowledge that he did fill some father figure-like role to her at the very least. Or let's just call him her vassal if you think that's a more accurate description. Also, can I just quickly stress again that it doesn't matter how long she spent by his side or whether she spent more time in the village or not, because he still ended up playing a major part in her childhood as an adult male role model. Regardless of the title you give him, it still stands that although he may not be her official adoptive father, he is LIKE A FATHER. There really is no point in denying that, because their dynamic exudes one of a father-daughter. I guarantee you that any outsider looking in would agree that if not her father then at the very least he embodies a male relative of some kind. Honestly, the details of their relationship dynamic specific to this show (regional/period differences, human vs. demon culture, etc.), don't really matter here. Why? Because one can assume that the general consensus here is that a large percentage of fans perceive their connection as a familial one. Yes, most would unanimously agree that Rin and Sesshomaru, along with Jaken and Ah-Un, are a FAMILY.

If she had first met him as an adult, then we'd possibly have a very different story here. The point of the matter is that he didn't, so that should be where this discussion ends. Unfortunately, for many, it's not. The bottom line is that a child he knew and cared for should never be someone he begins to view in a romantic light. I don't care how many years have passed (or that to demons years are like days or some less inconsequential length of time), and how much she's matured or how specific marriage customs were back then (if they're no longer appropriate now then why are we still condoning these backward practices?). Rin should NEVER have the desire to be sexually attracted to this father figure she's always looked to and trusted to protect her. Maybe it's vastly different from a demon's perspective (even though still unjustifiable in my opinion), but as a human, Rin's feelings towards Sesshomaru wouldn't and shouldn't suddenly change towards him and in such a drastic manner mind you. Yeah, maybe she used to have an innocent crush on him, but I'd like to think our smart and compassionate little Rin would learn that was simply because she was a child who didn't know any better. Besides, growing up with Kaede and around other humans I'd like to think she fell in love with another human sometime over the course of all those years. It only makes sense, right? Don't you think that's part of why Sesshomaru left her there in the first place? He wished for her to experience what it was like to live a normal human life, falling in love and marriage both being a key part of that. If I were Sesshomaru, I'd be deeply troubled if I started to develop feelings for a little girl I once protected and kept in my company for quite an extended period of time, which was at least a year from what I understand. (Pls correct me if I'm wrong because I gather it may have been longer.)

3. Apparently in the manga and the Final Act, we see Sesshomaru still visits the village to check on Rin from time to time. He even brings her gifts, such as beautiful and luxurious kimonos. I recently learned from another Tumblr post that kimonos are what older men gift in order to sort of earn their favor with these young ladies, AKA they're wooing them. If that is indeed true, then that would mean he's basically grooming her and has been for however long she's lived there in the village but potentially even longer. To put it nicely, he's courting her. If this was another young lady (maybe not an adult perhaps but still of marrying age) who he DIDN'T assist in raising, then I could possibly get on board with this.

The thing is, it's far from that with them two if you consider everything they've gone through and endured together! Because he not only met her as a young girl but he got to know her first as a young girl, and she became one of his traveling companions all while she was only a young girl!!! Their bond will always be defined by that time when she was just a young girl, and nothing can or should change that he will always see her in that same light. Kinda like how our parents or other family members from older generations tell us that they'll always see us as their babies. So the fact that her time spent with Sesshomaru is constantly compared to her time spent in the village shouldn't apply here. Don't we all know this already? That we can can come across someone in our lifetime and maybe the time with them is short-lived, but that doesn't make it any less significant or those people any less special. Sesshomaru made an impact on her as much as she did on him, that much we know is true. Sure, it was years ago, but that's not something you ever forget. Sometimes when you look at loved ones you haven't seen in a while, there are just certain memories you have of them from over the years that will come rushing back to you without fail and that you will always cherish no matter what. I'd like to believe that when Rin looks at Sesshomaru and he looks at her, that they can both look back fondly on their times traveling together. This explains why I'm really struggling here to picture how anyone could sleep with someone they used to treat as their guardian/father/ward/daughter/what have you. So someday and somehow, this person just stops viewing them that way, is that it? I mean, how does this work exactly? It's not like you can just flip off a switch and forget everything from your past with this person, ya know? Unless you have your memory wiped, what I'm understanding is that S*ssrin shippers approve of the idea of these two characters KNOWING that they are or used to be like practically FAMILY to each other, yet agree that these two characters in question still have the capacity not to mention desire to pursue HAVING SEX with each other anyway. Do I got that all right? Did I miss anything?

Originally I provided two examples of fan art I found to help put what I'm trying to say here into better perspective, but since they've been removed, just type in "Sesshomaru and Rin" on Google and you'll find plenty of examples of what I'm talking about here- and no, it's not S*ssrin images. I realize Sesshomaru has never been the touchy-feely sorta guy like it's depicted in some of the fan art, but that doesn't necessarily diminish the affection he feels and attachment he has towards Rin. He just has a different way of expressing his love is all, even if he doesn't outwardly show it. The real question here is, can you really look at sweet pictures of an adult comforting a child who's been under his care for a significant amount of time and then suddenly be like, "oh man, I can't wait till they bang!" I'm sorry, to each their own, but you gotta admit why we must find that creepy.

4. Regarding Inuyasha and Kagome's relationship, we need to remember that he didn't age after all those years stuck to that tree. And besides, demons age differently so this is a pretty unfair comparison. This isn't the best example, but think about how a cat's lifespan works. 10 years in (indoor) cat years is like 56 in human years. So technically in demon years, Inuyasha is physically and emotionally compatible with a human around Kagome's age. Hell, even though he's over a hundred years older, Kagome is still a whole lot more mature than he probably ever will be! 😂 (Psst! We still love you, Inuyasha! 💋)

Now as for Koga and Ayame, this also isn't comparable to Sesshomaru and Rin. Koga met Ayame one night, only not to see her ever again until she was older and of age. After rescuing her on that night when she was only a girl, he gives her a piggyback ride and you can tell he just wants to cheer her up when he mentions her being his wife someday. (And boy, did that work wonders on Ayame!) Then they gaze at this stunning lunar rainbow together, which I think is quite rare judging by looks of it. This is not an attempt to defend this proposal- if we can even really call it that- but all I'm saying is that I don't think even Koga knows what overcame him in that moment. Fast forward to present-day when they cross paths again, and Ayame still remembers his so-called promise, but guess who doesn't right away? Yep, our man Koga! It takes a quite a while for it to come back to him, too. This further proves my point that something beyond Koga and his power possessed him to say all those things to a little Ayame for some reason. Maybe you can call it destiny, or maybe it was some special kind of magic caused by the lunar rainbow, Idk! All I know is that they do end up together in the Final Act and that it wasn't until they met as two consenting wolf-demons that they really grew to know each other and coincidentally- or maybe not so coincidentally- fall in love.

5. From what I understand, it appears these drama CDs are some kind of satire which doesn't equate to canon. Perhaps Rumiko did not debunk them but she also didn't confirm they're true either. I'm hearing conflicting reports, however, and her involvement in them is questionable. Like her name is supposedly on the cover or something? But then I've also heard that she has spoken out against this ship. From the sounds of it, there is enough evidence- or lack thereof rather- to conclude that fans cannot use this as proof enough for their ship already being or soon-to-be canon.

Finally, I'd like to end on this note where I'll be addressing ethics in entertainment. When it comes to our choice of entertainment, there's always a level of escapism implied, sometimes so much that we project ourselves onto certain characters. Delving into a fantasy world like that of Inuyasha can really help some people better cope with real life problems, but it's all about striking the right balance, as each individual has different wants and needs. The thing is there's only so much escapism one can allow in a fictional world before basic morals from our own world begin to take precedence. I can always enjoy some good fantasy, but it's not long until I start to reflect on how I personally relate what entertainment I'm currently absorbed in to real life. It's inevitable really. For example, if certain relationships portrayed on screen conflict with strong opinions I've adopted on a sensitive topic, especially those that take children into account, then I feel it's my responsibility to speak out against any media that even remotely promotes it. Yes, even if it's just fiction. Because art imitates life, right? (And yes, sometimes the other way around.) So in other words, our stories should mirror our way of life to some degree. History has seen its fair share of ugly events and traditions we are surely ashamed of but that we've hopefully learned our lessons from. Most societies nowadays seriously frown upon or condemn stuff like pedophilia, child grooming, or anything of the sort. Of course it doesn't help that we see still see these kinds of issues glossed over so much that we've become desensitized to them in many respects.

The thing is we cannot allow this way too common older-man-dotes-on-young-girl trope (or anything resembling it) to continue to be glorified or romanticized. It matters not that feudal Japan was a drastically different time to be alive and that this was the norm back then, or even that this remains a popular ship in Japan. All it comes down to is if whether we would currently tolerate such acts and behaviors were we to witness them in real life. If your answer is 'no', then it should be 'no' in every respect. If you deem it acceptable just because it's fiction, then I'm sorry to say, but you're going to have to answer to a lot of people. No surprise there, that goes for all fandoms. I guarantee you it's not just the people who personally identify as victims who have serious qualms with this ship either, because you don't necessarily need to have bad experiences of your own in order sympathize and see where a lot of these people are coming from. And no, just because I'm unhappy with the possibility of S*ssrin going canon does not mean I'm whining or that I'm attempting to spread negativity about this series before it's even out. Remember, fans have the right to be critical of whatever content it is they're watching/reading, and if they demand something in the storytelling be represented better, then of course they can challenge that. After all, none of us should feel like "canceling" the content we love is our only hope to fixing a story. That's not how it ever should be. Fans are fed up, and can you really blame them? Nah, we can strive to do better in this area, plus it's not like there isn't always room for improvement. So let's please be more vigilant about how the content we consume translates to reality, in addition to being mindful of how it can directly correlate to real life problems for ourselves as well as others around us.

That's a wrap, y'all!! I hope you enjoyed what I had to offer on this topic, and here's hoping I actually contributed something new to this conversation! I'm aware that that's unlikely the case for us fans who've been living in this tag the past couple days (like me lol), but I'd like to believe I put my own spin on it and it was still worth your while. 😉

P.S. Overall, I remain optimistic about the new show! So are there any friendly Inuyasha group chats on Tumblr I can join? If so, please do invite me! I need to obsess about this sequel even more than I already am, EEEK!!!

#inuyasha #hanyo no yashahime #sesshomaru #anti sessrin

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weirdestbooks · 3 years

Text

Secret States Chapter 12

The Midwest Started Another Cult

Northern Ireland POV

"STOP STARTING FUCKING CULTS!" DC yelled at the states we approached. The state in front of group smiled.

"It's not a cult." He said as the states behind him chanted 'Mid-West Best' while circling a tractor. What the fuck did I walk into, because if it's not a cult it's definitely some sort of human sacrifice. I am very scared about what answer I'm going to get. I should've know America's children weren't going to be normal.

"Ohio I can tell when you start cults because you've started five." DC said to the state, Ohio. They've started five cult? What the hell is going on with America's kids? Is he even aware of this? I mean, probably, since these states aren't insistent on keeping it a secret. Another state, this one having a seal on a light flag flag rolled her eyes. She had a purple shirt with a Viking head in it, and jeans.

"We haven't started five cults. We've started two." She said. I don't see how that answer is better.

"Minnesota you shouldn't be starting cults in general!" DC yelled back. Exactly! Why have these states started cults?

"Oh so Illinois can make gangs but we can't make cults?" Another state asked. His flag was dark blue, once again containing a seal. He had overalls and a plaid shirt on.

"NO CULTS NEBRASKA!" DC yelled at the state before turning around to yell at another state, this one had a white flag with a seal and the words Illinois under it. He had on a suit and was trying to leave.

"Hey D. I'm sure we can settle this a civilized wa-" He began before DC but him off.

"NO BRIBING ME!" She shouted before turning to the other states, "STOP CHANTING! THIS IS THE USA NOT A CULT."

"D, the US is definitely a cult. Accept it." Said the state with a dark blue flag, holding a coat of arms. He had an earring in, alongside a jacket, winter hat, and jeans. Well that comment was a bit concerning.

"Hate to agree with Bitchigan, but he's right." Ohio said, scowling at the state who flipped him the middle finger. Oh no, that's the state everyone talks about Ohio fighting, right? This isn't going to end well.

"And Dad said to keep Ohio and Michigan from fighting." Another state chirped. She had a dark blue flag with a coat of arms, that had a sunflower above them and the words 'Kansas' underneath it. Her outfit looked like Dorthy's from 'A Wizard of Oz'. (America made us watch the movie, better than I thought it would be).

"So you started a cult?" DC asked. Nebraska smiled.

"It works pretty well." He said. Or maybe that comment was more concerning. I had no idea what was going on to be honest. DC and these states acted like this was normal, but what they were doing was the complete opposite of normal. Nothing that had happened since we arrived here, since we found out about America's kids was normal.

America wasn't as okay as he wanted us to believe, America was a union, England was keeping a secret about a dark part of America's past, and now the first states to become a part of America wanted to talk to my brothers while I had to watch DC deal with a cult, a fucking cult, that some of the states started.

America was always a strange person, and his country seemed strange sometimes, but...but all this was just so, so much stranger than I ever expected.

"Are cults normal here?" New Zealand asked. Michigan laughed.

"We're the United States. Nothing that's normal for you exists here." He said, smiling slightly. It was weird, hearing the states refer to themselves as the United States. I had always associated that name with America.

But they are the states mentioned in his name, so it makes sense. I was confused. This was such a large shift that I didn't see coming, that no one saw coming. The world superpower was a union. It's not like a this was a first, the USSR was a union. But America hid the fact that he was a union from most of the world.

And he hid his personality. Seeing him interact with the states was so different than the loud, cocky, slightly egotistical America I knew. But my brothers said America acted the way he did a long time ago, before I was born, before his Revolution. Sure, they said, there were differences. He was more mature, more broken, but it was the America they knew.

This was an America I had never seen. This is what made his new, his actual personality terrifying to all of the younger countries. We had never seen this America before. And this America was so different than ours. I shook myself out of my thoughts as the conversation continued.

"That makes sense." Australia said. Ohio rolled his eyes.

"Of course you would understand. You're like the Florida of the world. Except Florida's a state and you're a commonwealth-continent-corporation thing." Illinois said. Did he say corporation? Australia wasn't a corporation. What is he talking about?

I turned to Australia to see that his face had paled, and he looked surprised. New Zealand's eyes widened and he grinned.

"Oh my god." He said, amusement in his voice. Australia's face turned red, and he hid face in his hand.

"You're a corporation?" I said, amazed and confused. When the fuck did that happen? How does a country become a corporation?

"It's a long story." He said, refusing to look up at us. New Zealand began laughing his head off. Australia was not going to live this down. I looked back at DC and saw her trying to get some of the states to leave.

"Come on D! Do we have to leave?" Illinois asked as DC pushed him, Ohio, and four other states away. One of the states was female, and her flag was a vertical tricolor consisting of blue, white, and red, similar to France's, except the center white stripe was bigger than the other two. The white stripe had an eagle holding a ribbon.

The other girl's flag was dark blue, with a gold torch that had rays coming out of it and nineteen stars. She had on jeans and a white t-shirt, both of which were stained with a black substance, grease, I believe.

The first boy's flag was blue, with a coat of arms and the words 'Wisconsin' on the top and the '1848' on the bottom. The other boy had a flag that consisted of three horizontal of red, white, and blue stripes, with a coat of arms in the center. He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

"Yes. You guys can leave. We don't need all of you here. You guys are the biggest region and I'd rather not overwhelm them. Also, they don't need to deal with a fight breaking out as so as they meet you. Go do something useful." DC explained. The girl who had the similar to France's flag rolled her eyes, but walked off towards the fields.

The other girl and Illinois both walked over the the garage. Ohio and the other two walked off, and I wasn't sure where they were headed. DC sighed and turned back towards us.

"Good now Ohio's gone. Can you guys stop starting cults?" Said a state with a sky blue flag holding, like most of the state flags, a seal with the words 'South Dakota' on the top and 'the Mount Rushmore State' at the bottom.

"I though you liked the cults?" Nebraska said. The state shook her head.

"The cult thing is strictly a you, Iowa, and Kansas thing. Everyone else just goes along because they don't care. Aside from Illinois, who, like always, definitely has an ulterior motive." She said, with Michigan, Minnesota, and the last state, whose flag had a bald eagle above the name 'North Dakota' with a shield that was blue and had thirteen red and white stripes on top of it's chest and a ribbon in its mouth that read 'E Pluribus Unum', all nodded in agreement.

"South's right." Minnesota said, pushing some of her hair out of her face. "Oh and I'm Minnesota by the way, the Land of 10000 Lakes."

"Right, introductions. I'm the State of Michigan, the Great Lakes State. I'm obviously much better than Ohio and if you say you like him, you're banned from my state forever." Michigan said. That seemed extreme, but I didn't know the extent of the rivalry between Ohio and Michigan past what I had been told, so that could be normal for him.

"He's also called the Mitten State" Nebraska added in. Michigan blushed. I wonder if he was embarrassed by that nickname, just like Connecticut seemed to be embarrassed by his nickname of the Nutmeg State.

"Don't call me that. Just because the Lower Peninsula looks like a mitten doesn't mean I should get that nickname! It's embarrassing." Michigan said. Michigan looks like a mitten? I made a mental reminder to look at a map of America's states to see what the rest of the states look. How did Michigan end up looking like a mitten?

"Michi used to like the nickname till Ohio started using it to make fun of him. It's a shame." Kansas added in.

"Okay moving on from Mitten over here-" South said, not even pausing as Michigan cut her off with a cry of 'Don't call me mitten!' "I'm South Dakota, the Mount Rushmore State. You can call me South, but if South Carolina's around just call me Southie. That's what everyone does."

Man there were a lot of people whose names were south something, from South Korea or South Sudan to South Africa. Keeping track of which south you were talking to was bad enough, but now we had South Dakota and South Carolina to deal with. At least the states aren't going to o meetings, because keeping track of five souths would be a nightmare.

"Why didn't we think of coming up with south related nicknames for the countries whose names state with south?" New Zealand asked. I shrugged and the state that had North Dakota written on his flag stepped forwards.

"I'm North Dakota, the Roughrider State. Call me North, unless we're around North Carolina, because then, like South, I get called Northie." North Dakota said. Oh come on can't people be creative. There was already North Korea and North Macedonia, and I was called North as well. Five people called South and five people called North.

Well most people just called North Macedonia Macedonia since no one else shared that name like the rest (or most) of the people stuck with a cardinal direction in their name.

"I'm Northern Ireland, but I get called North." I said. North Dakota's eyes widened.

"Dritt!" he exclaimed before giving a resigned sigh. "Well I'll be Northie for now then."

"I'm Nebraska, the Cornhusker State. Home of the Josh fight." Nebraska said. Josh fight? What was that?

"Josh fight?" Australia asked, finally pulling himself away from his embarrassment. Nebraska nodded.

"Yep. A bunch of people with the name Josh decided they were going to fight over the name Josh to see who gets to keep it. Little Josh won." Nebraska explained, serving only to confuse me more. What did people do in America?

"The Josh fight was started by an Arizonan, so you can't claim all the rights to the Josh fight Braksa. Anyways, I'm Kansas, the Sunflower State." Kansas said.

"Well its nice to meet you." New Zealand said, "Now can you explain to us how Aussie's a corporation?"

"Please don't!" Australia said, his facing turning red from, what I assumed was, embarrassment. I smiled. Embarrassing your family was fun, and I was very curious to know how Australia became a corporation. I opened my mouth to say something, but another state, New Hampshire, ran up to DC and cut off our conversation.

"West and Ginny got into a fight about how West became a state! Most of the South and New England got involved. Del, Tucky, Souri, and Mary trying to stop it and Mont and Flor got France and Canada to leave, but since Dad's asleep they just decided everyone should leave." New Hampshire said.

"Perkele!" Minnesota said before turning to me, "Sorry, but Ginny and West fighting brings up what happened in the 1860s, and trust me that's a complicated and touchy subject for us all. We can meet with you later, and get to know you better later, but trust me, this isn't the best time for you to be here."

There was the 1860s again. What happened then? What was so horrible that it traumatized a nations for over a hundred years?

———————Time skip brought to you by the crazy Minnesotan Awart———————

After we got back home, thinks had calmed down, and we once again spent time thinking over what we had learned. Britain and France were in the kitchen, having a hushed conversation. Scotland had his head in his hands while Wales loomed it be in deep thought. Ireland also looked in deep thought, shooting occasional looks toward England, who just looked guilty.

"Why do things have to be so complicated?" Ireland eventually muttered, breaking the silence in the room. I sighed. I didn't know. Sometimes I wished I had the experience my brothers did. Then things wouldn't always seem so confusing.

"I don't know. Maybe England does." Scotland responded, still, like the rest of us, not over England's secret keeping.

"I'm sorry. But, the situation that happened in the 1860s I cannot talk about. You're going to have to get America to tell you himself." England said. I sighed again.

How on Earth are we going to do that?

#secret states by weird #weird’s wattpad stories #countryhumans #statehumans #writing

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mrjat396 · 3 years

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THE MANY HEALTH BENEFITS OF METH

In low, pharmaceutical-grade doses, methamphetamine may actually repair and protect the brain in certain circumstances. But stigma against the drug could be harming patients and holding back research.

TROY FARAHMAY 15, 2019

D-methamphetamine is what generally appears on the street—although it's often cut with other chemicals—whereas l-meth provides a less addictive, shorter-lived high that is less desirable among drug users.

(Photo: Fiona Goodall/Getty Images)

Ask your doctor about methamphetamine. It's not a phrase you'll ever hear on TV or the radio, but here's a secret: Meth is an incredible medicine. Even the Drug Enforcement Administration admits it, and doctors are known to prescribe it for narcolepsy, obesity, and ADHD. Historically, meth has been used to reverse barbiturate overdoses and even raise blood pressure during surgery. Some preliminary research suggests that meth can be neuroprotective against stroke and traumatic brain injury, even stimulating the growth of brain cells.

Yet we're constantly warned never to try meth—"not even once," goes the refrain—or it will instantly cause addiction and ruin your life. Before fentanyl was the demon drug du jour, meth was seen as the worst, most destructive, most evil chemical you could find on the streets. Even of late, if you ask the New York Times or NBC, you'll learn that meth, "the forgotten killer," is back with a "vengeance." Other outlets, from Rolling Stone to CNN to The Daily Beast, have raised the alarm about meth use in the context of the opioid overdose crisis.

Stimulant-related deaths are indeed on the rise in North America—in some regions, meth is even more prevalent than heroin. Surveying drug overdoses in America from 1979 through 2016, researchers wrote in Science in September of 2018 that "Methamphetamine deaths have increased most dramatically in the western and southwestern United States."

Meth poisonings accounted for an estimated 14,845 hospitalizations in 2015, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and another 15,808 emergency room visits. In 2016, around 7,500 people died from overdosing on stimulants, including meth. If you ask most people, including policymakers, you'll hear that meth is a scourge that can do no good.

But if you've ever used something like Vicks VapoInhaler, you've experienced the healing benefits of meth firsthand. That's because the over-the-counter nasal decongestant contains levomethamphetamine, the levorotary form—or "mirror image"—of the same stuff from Breaking Bad. Procter & Gamble tries to obscure this fact by spelling the active ingredient "levmetamfetamine." Selegiline, a drug for treating Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, also metabolizes into levomethamphetamine.

There is a significant difference between these two opposing molecules. D-methamphetamine is what generally appears on the street—although it's often cut with other chemicals—whereas l-meth provides a less addictive, shorter-lived high that is less desirable among drug users. But people can and do use it recreationally. Abuse is rare, however, in part because the high is shitty, but also because d-meth is so widely available. It's easier to buy a more powerful form of the drug on the street than it is to try to extract it from over-the-counter medications.

Other Americans are prescribed actual, pure meth by their doctors. It happens less frequently these days, but in ADHD, obesity, or narcolepsy cases where nothing else has worked, a drug called Desoxyn (methamphetamine hydrochloride) can sometimes help. It can even be prescribed to children as young as seven.

It's important to make these distinctions. Meth didn't make a "comeback"; it never left. It can't return with a "vengeance" and it can't be "evil" because we're talking about a chemical compound here. It has no personality, no feelings, no intentions.

Thus it does a disservice to science and to medicine, as well as to the people who use these drugs responsibly, to treat a molecule with dualistic properties purely as a poison. And as recent research has shown, we're still uncovering some of the potential therapeutic benefits of methamphetamine. Confronting the stigma associated with meth and highlighting its benefits can better inform drug policy and addiction treatment.

(Photo: HO/Royal Thai Navy/AFP/Getty Images)

'IT'S JUST A STIMULANT, LIKE ANY OTHER STIMULANT'

For Jordan*, the meth he's prescribed works better against his ADHD with fewer side effects than the Adderall he'd been on for 20 years. About five years ago, Jordan asked his doctor if he could try methamphetamine. The doc said sure.

"The first time I brought it to the pharmacy, the pharmacist actually said to me, 'Oh, your doctor wrote this prescription wrong, this is the stuff that they make in meth labs,'" Jordan tells me by phone. "I told him to type 'Desoxyn' into the computer, and he did. He kind of backtracked, [but] he obviously had no idea."

Jordan, a middle-aged man from North Carolina who works in clinical research, now switches every three months between Adderall and Desoxyn to prevent building a tolerance to either stimulant.

Methamphetamine and amphetamine (one of the active ingredients in Adderall) are almost identical chemicals. The main difference between the two is the addition of a second methyl group to methamphetamine's chemical structure. This addition makes meth more lipid-soluble, allowing for easier access across the blood-brain barrier. Meth is therefore not only more potent, but also longer-lasting.

"The medications have definitely been important for me, to be productive, to be successful, not just at work but also in my personal life," Jordan says. "I've been on the medications for years, but I can take Adderall or methamphetamine and take a nap afterwards. I don't have any noticeable side effects."

Jordan also doesn't feel "high" from the doses he takes—approximately 10 to 15 milligrams of meth per day. Doses at this level are well tolerated by most people. It's very difficult to estimate the typical dosages of illicit meth taken on the street, but they are generally many times higher and taken every couple of hours. Further, the route of administration—typically, users smoke or inject illicit meth—allows for more of the drug to enter the bloodstream than taking a prescription pill.

At high doses, meth gives a rush of euphoria, boosting attention span, zapping fatigue, and decreasing appetite. Intense sexual arousal, talkativeness, and rapid thought patterns are also common. Body temperature and heart rate shoot up, which can cause irregular heartbeat, increasing the risk of seizures. If taken repeatedly over long periods, street meth can be highly neurotoxic, inducing paranoia and psychosis.

But illicit meth is also often used to self-medicate, according to Mark Willenbring, an addiction psychiatrist from St. Paul, Minnesota, with over 30 years of practice treating substance-use disorders. In Willenbring's experience, most of his patients who use illegal meth are treating undiagnosed ADHD.

"There's a high degree of comorbidity between substance-use disorders and ADD," Willenbring says. "They used meth for years in a controlled way, they never over-used it, they just used enough to get an effect, and then they stopped. One misconception is that it's always very addictive."

With most people who are addicted to meth, Willenbring says, you can't tell it just by looking at them. Carl Hart, a neuroscientist in Columbia University's Department of Psychology, agrees that the image of a snarling meth addict with bad teeth is a false stereotype. The dental damage so prevalent in anti-drug propaganda, he says, is more likely due to poor nutrition and lack of sleep—not to the drug. "There is no empirical evidence to support the claim that methamphetamine causes physical deformities," Hart wrote in a 2014 co-authored report.

"It's just a stimulant, like any other stimulant," Willenbring says. "It's a marketing issue."

Part of the reason Jordan asked to try Desoxyn in the first place was to see if he'd develop any of the "stereotypical meth addict problems," as he puts it. He hasn't.

"Those of us that know the reality have a responsibility to say, 'Hey, not that shooting up meth isn't bad, but the chemical itself isn't bad,'" Jordan says. "It's just misuse of the chemical that's bad."

For Joan*, a 66-year-old grandmother living off the grid in northern Georgia, Desoxyn makes her feel normal. "Not high, not hyped up, just normal," she tells me. She's been taking prescription meth since 2006, but first tried many other ADHD meds, such as Ritalin and Concerta, with poor results. But Desoxyn has not only helped her socialize, manage bills, and finish her master's degree in social work; it's also helped with Joan's depression and self-esteem.

"The only downside is the cost," she says. "It's one of the oldest drugs on the market, but even generic, it is outrageously expensive."

Still, meth isn't for everyone, of course. Kevin*, a 31-year-old artist from the Midwest, was first prescribed Desoxyn at age 15 to treat extreme fatigue and trouble focusing. But misdiagnosed mental-health issues—his doctors thought he had bipolar disorder, when in fact he had post-traumatic stress from childhood abuse—led to worsening symptoms.

"Being able to just take a bunch of pills that made the exhaustion go away for a while felt like a blessing, but it was just a Band-Aid on the problem," Kevin says. "I became completely dependent upon Desoxyn to function, and any lapse in taking my dose would result in a terrible energy crash."

"In retrospect, my neurologist at the time would have done well to consider the effects of intense stimulants on someone already prone to mania, insomnia, and hallucinations," he says. "I think Desoxyn has its merits as part of a treatment plan for attentive disorders, but that's the thing—it needs to be part of a larger understanding of how and why it might have a negative impact upon the patient's overall health, and should remain closely monitored throughout."

"Stigma is the lens [through] which we see all drug issues. It keeps us from making the best decisions. It is fear-based, not rational, not creative. Because of stigma, we have not fully addressed the opioid crisis."

(Photo: Guillermo Arias/AFP/Getty Images)

HOW METH CAN TREAT BRAIN INJURY—AND MUCH MORE

Street doses of meth can be extremely damaging to your health. The purity of such drugs is often unknown, and repeated, high doses of meth have been proven to be neurotoxic. But in low, pharmaceutical-grade doses, meth may actually repair and protect the brain in certain circumstances.

This was first discovered in 2008, when researchers at Queen's Medical Center Neuroscience Institute in Honolulu, Hawaii, analyzed five years of data on traumatic head injuries. They unexpectedly found that patients who tested positive for methamphetamine were significantly less likely to die from the injuries. The authors suggested that meth could have neuroprotective benefits.

To learn more, in 2011, a different team from the University of Montana applied meth to slices of rat brain that had been damaged to resemble the brains of stroke victims. Then they induced strokes in living rats, using a method called embolic MCAO, and injected them with methamphetamine. At low doses, the meth gave better behavioral outcomes and even reduced brain-cell death. At high doses, the meth made outcomes worse.

Because meth stimulates the flow of important neurotransmitters—dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine—the Montana researchers theorized that methamphetamine may provide neuroprotection through multiple pathways. David Poulsen, one of the researchers involved, says this was a "serendipitous discovery."

"So we decided, well, if it worked in stroke, it's probably going to work really well in traumatic brain injury," says Poulsen, now a neurosurgeon at the University of Buffalo who specializes in treatments for protecting the brain after severe damage.

Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, occurs after a violent smash to the skull. Its consequences include concussions on the mild end and coma or death on the severe end. TBI kills around 50,000 Americans annually, according to the CDC, while about 2.8 million of us visit the emergency room for TBI-related injuries every year. There is currently no Food and Drug Administration-approved treatment for TBI.

So, Paulson and his team reasoned, if meth can already be prescribed for children, why not to adults with TBI?

To test the proposition, Poulsen and colleagues gave TBI to rats. Giving an animal brain trauma isn't easy, but for more than two decades, there's been a trick called the rat lateral fluid percussion injury model: Simply cut a hole in the skull of a rat and apply water pressure to the brain.

About half the rodents—19 male Wistar rats—were given this treatment, and eight of these were then given meth. The rats given meth performed better at a task called the Morris water maze, a widely used experiment that involves plopping a rat into a pool of water with a hidden platform. By tracking how long it takes the rodent to find the platform, scientists can measure many different aspects of cognitive function.

"By the third day of training, there were no statistically significant differences between the uninjured control rats and the injured rats that had been treated with methamphetamine," Poulsen and his colleagues wrote.

But the team also found that low doses of meth were protecting immature neurons, while also promoting the birth of new brain cells that are important for learning and memory. The same was also true for rats that were given meth, but not injured.

"We see not just little, but very significant improvements in cognition and behavior," Poulsen says. "Their memories improved, functional behavior is improved.... It's not a trivial difference."

"In light of the fact that low-dose methamphetamine is FDA-approved for use in juveniles and adults, we see no valid reason why it cannot be utilized in human clinical trials for stroke and TBI," Poulsen and colleagues concluded in 2016.

But those clinical trials, considered the gold standard for testing medication, have yet to materialize, even while a 2018 retrospective study found similar results to the Hawaiian neuroscience report: Out of 304 patients with TBI, those who also tested positive for meth had better recovery results than those who did not. "The potential neuroprotective role of meth and other similar substances cannot be ignored," the authors wrote in Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery last July.

There are limited conclusions that we can draw about these rodent and retrospective studies, and it's probably unlikely that nurses will soon start giving meth to people who have cracked their skulls. Still, a wide variety of stimulant therapies for TBI is being explored, with positive results. These include trials with modafinil, a narcolepsy drug; amantadine, a Parkinson's drug; and dextroamphetamine, one of the components of Adderall. But there's still no indication of a single clinical trial for methamphetamine for TBI registered with the National Institutes of Health.

Methylphenidate, also known as Ritalin, seems to be the stimulant most popular in these trials. For example, in 2004, researchers at Drucker Brain Injury Center at MossRehab Hospital in Pennsylvania gave methylphenidate, better known as Ritalin, to 34 patients with moderate to severe TBI. They reported significant improvements in information processing and attention.

Twelve years later, in Gothenburg, Sweden, another 30 patients suffering from prolonged fatigue following TBI were given methylphenidate and observed for six months. They also showed improved cognitive function and reduced fatigue. But a 2016 meta-analysis of 10 controlled trials found the main benefit of giving methylphenidate for TBI was increased attention, "whereas no notable benefit was observed in the facilitation of memory or processing speed," the authors wrote. They encouraged more research into appropriate dosages and length of prescription.

Birgitta Johansson, a neuroscientist at the University of Gothenburg and lead author of the Swedish study, suggests caution whenever treating someone with a brain injury. "With methylphenidate, it is important to be aware about possible side effects, [such] as increased blood pressure and heart rate and also risk of anxiety," she says. "It is always very important to prescribe medication with care and follow the patient carefully."

But the reason meth isn't studied more rigorously—for TBI, for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, for stroke—could also come down to money. Methamphetamine is off-patent, meaning there may be less financial incentive for pharmaceutical companies to explore the drug's potential uses. Consider Vyvanse, a drug first marketed in 2007, with a new formulation introduced in 2017, that racked up $2.1 billion in sales in 2017. Desoxyn, which is sold by three companies, only earned about $9.3 million in 2009.

While Methamphetamine may not be widely recognized as medicine, it clearly has potential to heal as well as harm. Recognizing the duality of meth is arguably all the more essential in the face of a rising stimulant overdose crisis.

"Stigma regarding any substance use or substance use disorder is counterproductive," says Dan Ciccarone, professor of family medicine at the University of California–San Francisco. He says the overdose crisis is shifting from opioids to stimulants and that we are not prepared for the next wave. "Stigma is the lens [through] which we see all drug issues. It keeps us from making the best decisions. It is fear-based, not rational, not creative. Because of stigma, we have not fully addressed the opioid crisis."

That stigma remains a major hurdle, and until doctors and public-health officials counteract this kind of messaging, it seems unlikely that a multinational pharmaceutical company would risk marketing a substance only believed to be toxic and deadly.

"Everything will kill you, if you take enough of it," Poulsen says. "Some things don't require a lot to do that. Meth is one of those things. But just like any drug, the difference between a poison and a cure is the dose."

*These names have been changed.

TAGSALZHEIMER'SADDERALLTRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURIESFEATURES & INVESTIGATIONSMETHAMPHETAMINEMETHTOPIC: HEALTH CARE

BY TROY FARAH

Troy Farah is an independent journalist and photographer in California. His reporting on science, health, and narcotics has appeared in Wired, Ars Technica, Smithsonian, Discover, Vice, and elsewhere. He co-hosts the drug policy podcast Narcotica.

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wisdomrays · 3 years

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TAFAKKUR: Part 261

APOCALYPSE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ENGINEERING

The apocalypse is the end of both humanity and the world. Owing to the significance of this event, the Qur’an gives a detailed description of the apocalypse. In various surahs humanity is severely warned against this terrible ending. On this day, when the manifestation of Divine will and power will be more evident than ever, no one will remain alive. Immediately after the apocalypse, all the people who ever lived will be resurrected and called to account. As we can understand from the relevant verses, the events that bring the end of the world and the end of humanity will probably occur within the sphere of physical laws at first, and after the resurrection of the dead, there will be another phase where these laws will not apply anymore.

In the first stage, where the physical laws apply, the verses and hadith related to eschatology can be interpreted through the principles of dynamics. There have already been different views and comments concerning the issue. Interpretations under the light of contemporary scientific knowledge can bring new perspectives. We need to keep in mind that all our interpretations are works of the human mind and there can be error. Before we elaborate on the subject further we would like to acknowledge-like the earlier scholars did-that these are personal comments and state: “only God, the true possessor of absolute knowledge, knows best.”

Surat al-Qariah (The Sudden, Mighty Strike) in the Qur’an is about the dreadful occurrences on the Judgment Day:

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.

The sudden, mighty strike!

What is the sudden, mighty strike?

What enables you to perceive what the sudden, mighty strike is?

The day (when it occurs) humans will be like moths scattered about;

And the mountains will be like carded wool...

The sudden, mighty strike mentioned here may denote the impact of a huge asteroid. People are likened not to other insects, but to moths, flying things. This seems to suggest that people will be scattered in the air. Now let’s try to imagine how a mighty strike would send people scattered about like moths.

According to the science of dynamics, every object which has a mass and which is attracted by the earth’s gravity has a weight. Thus, “weight” can be related to any object (people, houses, cars etc) on earth. It can be a description of objects scattered in the air. If we assume that the law of gravity still applies when the apocalypse starts, can an upsurge be possible?

An asteroid with a mass of “m” approaches the earth-supposedly along a line tangential to the earth’s orbit around the sun-with a speed of “v” and hits the earth. According to the principle of the conservation of angular momentum, the rotating speed and direction of the earth’s rotation is expected to change. An impact might reverse the earth’s counter-clockwise rotation to clockwise. For a strong impact to reverse the direction of the earth’s rotation and affect a dramatic increase in the earth’s angular speed, the multiplied value of m, v, and d (mass, velocity, and distance from the spinning axis) must be great enough. The earth normally spins around its axis at a relatively low angular speed and this does not have a recognizable influence. After a violent impact, the boosted angular speed might apply great centrifugal forces on objects.

An impact great enough to send people flying in the air is calculated here as being 17.06 times faster than the usual speed of the earth. Such a violent speed will send the people in the equatorial region flying into the air.

Let’s try to estimate what might happen in other regions. As you approach the Polar Regions, you also approach the spinning axis and the centrifugal force decreases, so it cannot completely annul the weights of objects. The man will weigh 50% less and a force equal to half his normal weight will be applied on him parallel to the ground. This might cause him to fall flat on his face. People who are further to the north probably won’t fly or fall, but they will also be affected.

The following verses warn us about the last hour:

In the Name of God, the All-Merciful, the All-Compassionate.

O humankind! Keep from disobedience to your Lord in reverence for Him and piety and get under His protection. (Never forget that) the violent convulsion of the Last Hour is an awesome thing.

On the Day when you all see it, every suckling mother will utterly forsake her infant in dread, and every pregnant female will cast off her burden. You will see all people as if gone out of their senses, while, in fact, they are in their senses. This is because God’s punishment is extremely severe. (Hajj 22:1-2)

The statement as if gone out of their senses is also translated as “drunken” in some commentaries. As a result of a violent impact and the earth’s boosted angular speed, people might walk as if they were drunk, or as if they have taken leave of their senses. The high angular speed might influence the inner-ear fluid, and cause people to lose their sense of balance. The following verses may be describing the effects of this violent rotation:

And when the earth is flattened out, and casts forth whatever is in it and becomes empty, obeying its Lord, as is expected indeed, and it always does so… (Inshiqaq 84:3-4)

An authenticated saying of God’s Messenger supports the possibility of a “reverse”: “The end of the world will not come unless the sun rises from where it sets. When it rises from the west, everybody sees and they all accept faith. However, this faith is of no benefit for anyone who did not previously believe or who has no good deeds caused by his faith.”

As already mentioned above, the impact reverses the direction of rotation, the earth rotates clockwise and the sun rises from the west. The fact that faith after this impact will not benefit anyone implies that life on earth will not last long. The impact will probably render the earth uninhabitable. The great scholar Said Nursi made the following comment on the hadith about the sun rising from the west:

…The sun rising in the west will be a self-evident sign of the end of the world, and because it is self-evident it will be a heavenly event which closes the door of repentance, which is tied to the will and reason. Its meaning is therefore clear, and is in no need of interpretation. One may just say the following:

“God knows best, its apparent cause will be this: with the disappearance of the Qur’an, which is like the intelligence of the world, the earth will go mad. With Divine permission, when another planet collides with it, its rotation will be reversed. Through Divine will, its journeying from west to east will be reversed to that from east to west, and the sun will start to rise in the west.”

Although this is not directly mentioned in the Qur’an, the dialogue between the Prophet Abraham and Nimrod is noteworthy:

Do you not consider the one who remonstrated with Abraham about his Lord (in defiance of Him) because of the kingdom God had granted him? When Abraham said, “My Lord is He Who gives life and causes to die,” he retorted: “I give life and make to die.” Said Abraham: “Surely God causes the sun to rise in the east, now you cause it to rise in the west.” Thus was the unbeliever utterly confounded. God does not guide (such) wrongdoing people. (Baqara 2:258)

The Prophet Abraham states that only God has the power to cause the sun to rise in the west, and He will realize this at the end of the world.

There is another authenticated hadith that describes the end of the world: “The end of the world will not come unless time shortens. This shortening is such that, a year will be like a month, a month like a week, and a week will be like a day, a day like an hour, and an hour will be (passing fast) like the striking of a match.”

Commentators of the earlier periods interpreted “the shortening of time,” and they suggested that people would not be able to make efficient use of time and it would pass quickly. However, a literal understanding of the hadith makes perfect sense under the light of physics. A day being like an hour probably means the earth will spin 24 times faster. It has been mentioned above that a rotation more than 17 times faster than usual or more can cast people upwards. As for a year being like a month, this can be an allusion to the earth’s completing its orbit around the sun faster.

All these are attempts to interpret the eschatological verses and hadith within the principles of physics. God Almighty, “Master of the Day of Judgment,” knows best.

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abjectaspiringfailure · 4 years

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Hello, in your response to one of my previous asks you mentioned that rc cells functioned like the Blacklight Virus did in Prototype. If I may ask, how so? Also, on a more random note, what would you think if there were a one-eyed ghoul featured in the series who was like Alex Mercer?

Hello, in your response to one of my previous asks you mentioned that rc cells functioned like the Blacklight Virus did in Prototype. If I may ask, how so?

Sorry this took so long to get to.

So as a preface for this post, I don’t personally believe Ishida was invoking these things in a way where he thought “this is primarily meant to be seen through the lens of the original 2009 [PROTOTYPE]”, but it is an interesting coincidence. Both Tokyo Ghoul and Prototype have a unique design style, and the result is a story that if you rush through will leave you going “well I guess things are complete but uh.... what?” Which is why Tokyo Ghoul had such a vast meta community that formed, and why Prototype has an active theory crafting community given its size and relative obscurity. Both have a web of intrigue that needed to be solved to get a good grasp on the story and arguably many things of importance are said and done offscreen.

I got absorbed in going on about both Prototype and Tokyo Ghoul, so I’m going back to put this here. I enjoyed how both of these series were basically puzzles to be solved, and I think both are misunderstood (though Tokyo Ghoul moreso than Prototype). I ended up writing a lot about the similarities that pertained to the question in the sense that there were ways the virus and RC cells had some similarities, but I ended up trimming it down significantly. So uh.

DX1118 functions by rewriting the host’s DNA to replicate. In most cases, there is death via organ failure. What “failure” and “lethality” means in the case of DX1118 is varied just like it is in Tokyo Ghoul with “success” and “floppies”; although the virus kills people, it brings them back as monsters. I’m tempted to believe this is referring to the attempts to weaponize the virus in the sense of creating super soldiers; a prelude to the DX1120 variant. The one mentioned to be Redlight explicitly has a 99.999 lethality rate.

In the case of DX1118 and its offshoots, “releasing what’s already there” means activating the non-coding areas of the genome. Essentially, the powers bestowed upon those who survive the virus in Prototype are not the result of the virus by itself, but rather the virus using things inside the human genome for mutations. The human genome actually has a rather hefty chunk of it made out of viruses that infected our ancestors and stayed in their system, roughly about 4 - 8%.

I see Tokyo Ghoul humans as naturally progressing towards becoming ghouls due to RC cells and the way they adapted to the humans and influenced their genetic development. RC cells are not normal for humans, but the humans of the Tokyo Ghoul universe do not understand that because it seems to be the only thing they have ever known. An RC count of 200 - 500 is considered healthy and average. I believe RC cells are much like the viruses that inhabit the human genome; they’re something that’s been there all along in the Tokyo Ghoul universe.

I believe ghouls aren’t the result of just an entirely new species developing entirely separately but coincidentally being mirror replicas of humans down to anatomy, blood types, thought patterns, bone structures, and their ability to swap organs, but rather something that is the result of the RC cells in the system mutating them into new entities over time. RC cells, like the Blacklight virus, are very mutagenic. Unlike the Blacklight virus, I see most of these changes as being more gradual in the line of human -> ghoul.

It would go human - > human with “special investigator genes” (with RC cells that normal human levels but ghoul quality) -> human with “special investigator genes” and latent ROS genes having children with someone in the same position -> ghoul who cannot use a kagune (such as G&G) -> ghoul who can use a kagune -> ghoul with kakuja mutation genes - > ghoul with kakuja genes having children with kakuja genes - > kakuja

It’s more complex than that because of the way Ishida spread the information about with regards to ghoul and human biology. There’s also a lot of stuff that goes into that, with regards to ROS in both humans and ghouls, and stuff that I feel needs to be expanded upon. Eg stuff about the Oggai’s Frame A/Frame B divide, Nutcracker’s RC levels being listed as explicitly two separate types, kagunes and kakujas showing a consistent pattern of having traits of two RC types, Urie’s One Eye (Frame A)/Two Eye (Frame B), the Washuu breeding program, and how this all factors together (in the way I see it).

To get back to Blacklight and the similarities, I said this in the post you’re referring to, but I don’t think the Dragon toxin caused “ROS like symptoms”, I think the Dragon just caused ROS by increasing the RC cell levels of anyone it touched while introducing Washuu “born kakuja” genetics that can apparently form extra kakuhou pretty easily. Because there was so many cases, there was too many people to treat at once, and therefore they turned into ghouls. Usually, because the disease is so rare and much slower, it’s more controllable.

Shirazu’s sister, for example, didn’t have her ROS caused by RC cells from something so severe and there weren’t hundreds of thousands of other people who were infected, so Haru’s ROS was both slower and the resources to control it were more readily available.

When it comes to DX1118 and its variants, and RC Cells, I’m of the opinion that they work in different methods, but the effects are similar. Blacklight’s origin and true purpose is greatly muddled due to the way Prototype is written. Like Tokyo Ghoul, multiple pieces of information are ambiguous or outright lies.

There were many differing stories about what the true purpose of the Blacklight virus was - ranging from some type of super human serum meant to increase human strength and intellect, to a weapon designed to kill off specific ethnic groups, to some evolutionary compound meant to force the planet to change into a new being, to some form of inevitability that would have to be engaged regardless. This makes a lot of the information involved murky; this is actually acknowledged in universe as being completely intentional. The actual origins of DX1118 isn’t stated, as far as we can tell from the information given, it just sort of popped up out of nowhere.

The origin of RC cells is also shrouded in mystery. Ghouls are a worldwide phenomenon, so, logically, RC cells should be universal. Otherwise, ghouls would not be able to feed. It is also stated that a normal, healthy human being has between 200 - 500 RC cells, which implies that not having any RC cells is considered either unhealthy or abnormal. I’d speculate that RC cells themselves would therefore have to be either hundreds of thousands of years old and tied to the evolution of humans in the Tokyo Ghoul universe, or, spread like a contagion. The Washuu themselves became “born Kakujas” due to centuries of cannibalization before they even made it to Japan, and by the the time the Washuu became known as legendary human ghoul hunters, they were already almost indistinguishable from the local population and were identified as Japanese nobility.

So, their origins are rather different, but they have the same air of mystery about them, and they touch on similar topics. The methods they get used is different, but the conspiracy has significant overlap.

The way Blacklight works when it infects a host is via changing the host cell by activating the non-coding regions of the genome. A substantial chunk of the human genome is actually believed to be now dormant viruses that infected our ancestors, who survived them, and lived on to procreate. In Prototype, this translates to the virus mutating the human body to achieve superhuman abilities, in theory? In actuality, the failure rates of the virus are rather substantial. But if you reword it, 99.9% lethality rate translates to a .1% success rate.

TG;re 44

These failure rates are comparable to the original Kanou kakuhou transplantation procedure, if less survivable. (This isn’t including the 99.999% lethality variant or the one that was made to be 10x more lethal and mutagenic than that). The failure rates for the Kanou procedure are substantial, but even the failures are reminiscent of the Blacklight “Runners” that are seen moving around the city - though that feels like it’s the result of the “zombies” theme.

TG;re 1

While I don’t recall if it’s ever stated how the DX1120 virus differs from the DX1118 variants, the D-Codes work using similar logic to the Qs and Oggai. Both use the “power of their enemy” to fight back against them, rather than using technology such as firearms. The description of the D-Codes is essentially the same as the Qs. They use the virus to increase their metabolism, strength, durability, and even regenerative functions.

The effort put into this biology system seemed immense, and the way the information is sprinkled in seems very organic.

There was other stuff about similarities between Arima and Cross, Blackwatch and V, Elizabeth Green and Roma/Eto/Rize, but I feel like that’s a bit off topic from the question, and I think this would have been answered immediately had I not tried to explore all of those avenues. I tried to keep this more on topic to the question, but I feel the flow regardless suffered. This is kinda the issue I have with ghoul biology stuff that threw a wrench into the post. It makes sense when you look at the big picture, but taking it all separately and dispersing it to a single point makes it seem nonsensical.

I kind of hope that explains it better. I’m going to try to revisit the ghoul biology post and just sorta accept that it’s not going to flow as easily as a character analysis post because it’s more technical in nature and the information is scattered between hundreds of chapters.

edit:

oh wait, forgot something.

Also, on a more random note, what would you think if there were a one-eyed ghoul featured in the series who was like Alex Mercer?

I think about this concept a lot. The idea of an Alex Mercer like character unwrapping things in Tokyo Ghoul sounds like an interesting concept. When you mean like Alex Mercer, you mean an AOEG that is trying to unravel the mysteries involved, and any time they eat someone’s RC cells, they get the knowledge inside of them type of deal? Alex Mercer as he is in the original Prototype would likely work with Aogiri Tree. Alex Mercer as he is in Prototype 2 would probably become a member of the Clowns as an actual member, or one of the philosophical Clowns that end up screwing over Kaneki and helping out the Clowns, like Yamori or Chie Hori.

Prototype Alex Mercer would probably start off opposed to both the CCG and Aogiri Tree, assuming you’re starting him off in Tokyo without his memories. He seems like he’d end up getting played, set up, and gaslighted by the Clowns like Kaneki, Eto, and Mutsuki were. I imagine Mercer would quickly turn sides though once they realizes V exists and they’d probably set their sights on killing off the Clowns. tbh Mercer would probably succeed. Alex Mercer’s mindset means initially they’re going to be dancing in the palm of their hands, but the powerset means it’s only a matter of time before everything gets revealed. Dealing almost solely in deception, gaslighting, and emotional manipulation is kind of an awful idea against a guy who can piece things together and blow your entire conspiracy to pieces. This would be like a “Karen Parker” situation, only the Clowns aren’t really used to hiding so much as sitting out in the open and none of them would be strong enough to beat someone with Alex Mercer’s powerset even in ghoul form tbh.

He’d probably join Aogiri Tree and Goat in the long run, even if briefly. The story would go off the rails long before Goat would form, though.

Alex Mercer at the end of Prototype is a different beast entirely but also kinda hard to figure out; the original writer wasn’t involved with a lot of the stuff after, and the Prototype 2 Alex Mercer feels like the original got consumed by like the Supreme Hunter and it just decided to wear his skin. Prototype 2 was originally Spiderman 4 before it was reskinned to be Protoype 2 so like everything was already set up and in place and it’s obvious that Father G was Uncle Ben, Mercer was Dr. Octavius, Heller was Peter, “viral sonar” is spidersense, etc. The writer that took over apparently hated Alex Mercer, from what I was told by people who talked to the guy. Isn’t really a good thing to go into writing with. Salt towards Alex Mercer being demonized is kinda universal. Heller had some good moments, but I felt his character was wasted. Wish the game just stayed as Spiderman 4, and Prototype 2 was on the Xbox One/PS4 rather than what Activision forced Radical to do.

I guess you could say that Prototype 2 is to the original Prototype what the anime is to Tokyo Ghoul.

But, we can infer things. It’s likely Mercer would be distrustful of everyone due to the experience with the Supreme Hunter, but very unsure of themselves. Automatic opposition to the scary conspiracy group is guaranteed. There’s an automatic opposition to killing indiscriminately from a character perspective even if the game doesn’t punish you for it; by the end, Alex is even fed up with killing soldiers who aren’t commanders. I’m not sure if he’d join up with Aogiri. Aogiri avoided civilian population centers and kept their targets military in nature, yes. On the other hand, they also just told ghouls like Torso “yo, knock it off, the CCG will getcha” and they let the Clowns or ghouls like Big Madam roam free and even worked with them, even if in the later case it was related to trying to see if Takizawa would awaken Haise’s memories.

Goat is a possibility. Kaneki’s strategy of disarming the CCG would probably be something Alex Mercer would go for. I imagine he’d also just go right for Furuta’s throat. The only reason this wasn’t done in the original Prototype was because Blackwatch’s commander was on the Reagan and was shooting anyone who got close out of the sky. Canonically the WOI does confirm an attempt to just fly therw with a helicopter only to get intercepted, and Alex also mentions that when they have their conversation with the Supreme Hunter.

Most likely though, Alex Mercer would end up working with Hide’s group and helping Kurona if he finds out about Kurona’s story. Especially Kurona. She’s simultaneously after a mad scientist who turned her into a monster, and she’s also Dana’s age. I see him helping her in her quest to get back at Kanou. With Hide, Alex sorta uses any help he can get, and Hide seems like he’d find Mercer because he’s just that good.

I think they would work with Eto if Eto opened up to them but.. Eto doesn’t really open up to people unless they violently maim her, like Kaneki or Arima. She might end up becoming interested in Alex if Alex starts trying to kill her, like Kaneki, but man. That’s not healthy.

Prototype 2 Alex Mercer, like I said, would likely be on board with the Clowns, but probably only from a philosophical sense. He agrees with their surface level stuff - the world is awful, people need to be killed, nothing matters, releasing giant monsters that kill millions is hilarious, innocent people deserve to be tortured, children are fair game, cause terror for lols, work with the conspiracy that controls the world while also killing its members because that’s fun and convenient, etc. Whether or not he ends up joining them outright or being like Yamori or Horie is up in the air, but I imagine he’d not be allowed. Furuta’s very good at analysis so I assume he’d see Alex as a threat from the get go and would keep him at a distance at all times.

Most likely it would end up in some weird battle with Mercer and Furuta being the main combatants just screwing with each other using secret agents, and Kaneki’s just. Kaneki. And gets stuck in the middle of it, just barely surviving. P2′s Mercer’s “here’s free viral powers kids” probably translates to kakuho implantation that’s even more casual than Eto’s, and his ability to just fire off viral clouds everywhere would most likely translate to him having the ability to just blast Dragon toxin. Alex in P2 gyrates pretty violently between “invincible and impossibly incompetent” to “literally so incompetent he gives the person trying to kill him the power to kill him and slowly feeds him powerups while letting them ruin his plans before stepping in and immediately giving up once a single attempt to murder them doesn’t work and then decides to go back to feeding them powerups until they can kill him” so.

I’m not sure if he’d like, do what Furuta did to Kaneki and give him the power to kill him, only entirely on purpose instead of accidentally, or if he’d just. Instantly vaporize all of his opponents.

He probably gives Eto, Kaneki, and Mutsuki power ups and then goes around trying to piss them off while claiming he’d trying to destroy V and Furuta. And he would actually, really, be trying to stop V and Furuta, but also he wouldn’t be, and he’s be working with them, but he wouldn’t.

He’d go to America, kill Heller’s family, and then turn Heller into a OEG that kills him.

You didn’t mention Heller, but there’s no way he’d be okay with V or the Clowns or probably even Anteiku (because Anteiku okayed set up civilian hunting grounds). He’d also oppose Aogiri Tree for the same reasons I think post Prototype 1 Alex would, but he might work with them like he did Rooks if he saw them as useful. The moment Furuta marches out the Oggai, if it came to that, he’d probably just go right for Furuta. The only reason Heller doesn’t do this with Mercer is because Mercer is hiding, but otherwise he’s pretty keen on just going to his current target and punching them in the face out in broad daylight surrounded by witnesses. And turning a bunch of children into the Oggai and having them go around slaughtering people would definitely set Heller off.

The story would also go off the rails.

I mean if you mean a One Eyed Ghoul with amnesia running around NYC slowly unraveling the secret surrounding V’s American Branch in the form of Blackwatch and imaging a scenario? I think that would be pretty cool, personally.

TG 141

There’s a lot of potential for a Tokyo Ghoul game in the style of Prototype. A lot of the powers that work in Prototype feel like they’d feel right at home in Tokyo Ghoul and vice verse. Eg the wallrunning could be explain with kagune wallrunning that Eto and Kaneki show. You could have a spiritual successor to Cross and some overarching super ghoul investigator counterpart to Arima, but his thing would be entirely different?

TG 112, 138

Less Arima’s “this literally doesn’t make sense, how did Arima hit that attack, he’s literally not holding anything and how did he just shoot lightning out of his quinque that can’t shoot lightning when he’s got that quinque in a box I originally thought this was an art mistake but he literally just keeps doing impossible things and they’re even lampshading in the manga so wait did he pull out Narukami and put it back into the box just to troll???”

(I think ishida does stuff like this where he messes with things like this for artistic reasons in this case it entirely works and helps hit home how invincible Arima is, and I originally thought it was art mistakes but it’s not)

And more “Shinohara, but on steroids”. Cross in Prototype was a very maneuverable surprisingly well armed opponent who could take a beating relative to most other enemies you faced outside of, for example, the Supreme Hunter. Similar type of opponent but also different. Like have the guy use multiple +SS and SSS rate quinques as standard, and he’s also got an SSS rate kakuja quinque and he can take a beating because of it, too. Not that he’s unskilled; he’s very skilled, just less so than Arima. Maybe have him also be the final boss like Arima was the final boss in the original Tokyo Ghoul, but just make him an absolute monster that completely and utterly destroys people. Maybe even have it be a no win scenario to fight the guy? Have it come up that “oh well this guy right here is attacking your friends but if you fight him, you’re going to die no matter what, don’t risk it” and you have a choice and if you choose to fight him, the game switches genres to horror and you just die. Not an easy fight to die in either.

They should definitely make a game about that. Just, spiritual successor to the original Prototype and have Detwiller and Ishida just run wild with the insane conspiracy theory story and their under the radar references to their knowledge of the military, economics, Kafka, numbers, trolling, and Lovecraft.

Just make the story impossible to understand, you know? You have to find 248 different cutscenes to get part of the story explicitly, and to unlock some of the cutscenes you have to hack into the game code to pull out poems made out of ASCII images of Ishida’s art. But to get the art, you have to pull a bunch of stuff off of twitter, relatively obscure secondary material, and some of it has to be found long after the launch of the game. Like, just maybe throw a random string of numbers into an art book released a year after the game was launched and have the numbers related to the code just hidden and you just... can’t find them? But only maybe, you’re not sure.

Throw Walt Williams from Spec Ops: The Line in there too. Have him contribute. All decisions are simultaneously wrong and correct at the same time. Nothing makes sense - but it totally does. You know what you’re doing is wrong. Or do you? None of these horrors would have happened if you’d just stopped, but you can’t stop. Not now, not when you’re so close. This person you’re pursuing, they’re definitely the bad guy. You’re in the clear. You’re not being tricked, you’re not mistaken, you made these decisions rationally. Your friends are in danger, you’re not bringing danger to them.

You feel so powerful and then boom, it happens. snap back to reality. And you should have seen it coming, but you didn’t. It’s not that it wasn’t there, it’s just that you weren’t looking - you decided “I’m not going to look”. You ignored what was right in front of you for some silly fantasy and it all hurts so much and oh god, everything is burning, help help help. Why didn’t anyone listen, I feel so alone.

and then have another spinoff spiritual successor flip from tokyo to new york in a surprise twist and it turns out that you were just starring in the villains’ self insert selfcest genderbender trollfic the e n t i r e t i m e or something it’s ambiguous I guess you gotta figure it out and no one will believe you and everything is just trolling

#tokyo ghoul #prototype #tg meta #tokyo ghoul biology #quinx #blacklight virus #Red child cells.#tokyo ghoul meta #superryunosukeyuki #alex mercer #Captain Cross #Arima Kishou

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tentativi-vani · 3 years

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Jade, Burma's Green Glory

Burma, on the grounds that Jewellery Buyers Perth 1989 also known as Myanmar, is famous for diverse things and jade is truely certainly one of them. To be sure, this text is ready Burmese jade however when writing (and speakme for that depend) about jade, in preferred, and Burmese jade, especially, it is imperative to consist of China for not only is China the sector's biggest marketplace for jade but it also performed and still plays a very crucial role with recognize to the topic Burmese jade, and that during a couple of manner.

Chinese have been the primary to mine jade in China beginning from about 6.000 BC., and that at a completely big scale as a way to meet the robust home call for, that's explainable through the reality that China has a jade ware tradition and Chinese are captivated by way of this stone. They have been additionally the cause for the start of the primary huge scale mining and trading in Burma that took place in response to increasing demand for jade - greater precisely phrased jadeite - all through the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644). Back then Jade became traded to China through Yunnan via caravan exchange. Not simplest are the Chinese now as ever the through far largest consumers of Burmese jade (up to seventy five percent of the entire manufacturing) however they do additionally run most of the fundamental jade mining, processing and trading operations in Burma's jade industry after triumphing concessions from the Burmese government. This makes clean past doubt why I am announcing that China played and nonetheless performs a very crucial position linked to the topic jade in Burma.

Jade alternate in Burma, which dates lower back to the Pyu, has till the 14th century taken area on a as an alternative small scale. The purpose for this changed into that neither the Pyu nor any of the humans (Kachin, Shan, and so forth.) inhibiting the regions in question attributed contrary to the Chinese any economic and/or cultural fee to jade. And it is first and important the latter that makes jade so particularly widespread. In other phrases, it's far superstitiousness that makes jade so valuable and no longer jade itself for jade is hardly appropriate for being worn totally for topics of beautification.

In Chinese tradition jade takes a completely distinguished region for the Chinese connect supernatural powers to jade. Examples of this are that the wearer of jade is as they agree with blanketed against disaster, that sporting jade features as a form of 'early caution gadget' due to the fact the jade will on the eve of a horrific event ruin and that desirable fortune lays ahead is heralded by using the jade's appearing greater excellent and translucent as regular. That an awful lot to the in China popular ideals associated with jade. Oh no, wait, here is some other instance that I do personally like very plenty. It turned into believed that the use of opium pipes with mouthpieces manufactured from jade might bestow longevity on opium smokers.

Up to the thirteenth century jade changed into to Chinese jade carver synonymous with nephrite. However, after the invention that inexperienced jade of a brilliant inexperienced and brilliance by no means visible earlier than (jadeite) befell in north Burma had been made, this chanced. Before lengthy the Chinese royalties and elite fell deeply in love with this new type of jade. The look for the supply of this lovely jade become on. It took the Chinese a totally long term and a large variety of Chinese who paid with their lives for the dream of a lifestyles in riches to discover wherein exactly this jade came from.

In the subsequent I provide you with an excerpt from William Griffith's 'Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bootan, Affghanistan, and the Neighbouring Countries' describing the a.M.

"The jade stone or nephrite has been acknowledged in China from a duration of excessive antiquity. It was discovered initially in Khoten and different parts of Central Asia, and being of a wonderful white shade and very high-priced, it became held in excessive esteem as symbolical of purity in private and reputable existence. The green sort of the stone seems to had been extremely uncommon, but no longer absolutely unknown, for attempts are recorded to produce its shade artificially by way of burying white jade in juxtaposition with copper. The discovery that inexperienced jade of exceptional fine occurred in Northern Burma turned into made by chance through a small Yunnanese trader in the thirteenth century. The story runs that on getting back from a adventure throughout the frontier he picked up a chunk of stone to balance the burden on his mule. The stone proved to be jade of splendid fee and a huge party went returned to procure extra of it. In this errand they were unsuccessful, nobody being able to inform them in which the stone came about. Another try, equally fruitless, was made by the Yunnan Government inside the fourteenth century to discover the stone; all of the contributors of the day trip, it's far stated, perished with the aid of malaria, or at the palms of opposed hill-tribes. From this time onwards, for several centuries, no similarly exploration in the jade country seems to had been undertaken by way of the Chinese. Small portions of the stone on occasion determined their manner throughout the frontier, but the exact supply of the deliver continued unknown.

The yr 1784 marks the very last termination of an extended collection of hostilities between Burma and China, and from this time dates the hole of a normal exchange between the two countries. Adventurous bands of Chinese before lengthy found that the jade-producing districts lay on the right bank of the Uru River, and a small however ordinary deliver of the stone became now conveyed every year to Yunnan.

Impracticable roads, a malarious climate, and an unsettled united states of america avoided the enlargement of the trade. Some twenty or thirty Chinese at the most went up into the jade country every season and a very small percentage of those ever again. In the Chinese temple at Amarapura is a protracted listing containing the names of upwards of 6,000 Chinese traders deceased in Burma considering that the start of the existing century to which funeral rites are yearly paid. The large majority of those men are regarded to have misplaced their lives in the search for jade. The roll consists of most effective the names of well-known and considerable traders. Could the quantity of smaller traders and adventurers who perished within the same organisation be ascertained, the list would be swelled to commonly its present size. Dr. William Griffith turned into the primary European to honestly visit the mines in 1837."

Here is a brief description of the distinctive varieties of jade. What is commonly known as jade does without a doubt talk to distinct minerals/gem stones, namely nephrite and jadeite. The different mineralogical and chemical compositions translate into variations in colour, hardness, translucence and texture. Nephrite, which is a good deal more common than jadeite is made of gentle calcium and magnesium silicate. Jadeite, the harder jade variety is composed of aluminium and sodium silicate

The softer range, nephrite, has a hardness of 6 - 6.5 at the Mohs scale (from 1 to 10) and its surface is yielding particularly clean to cutter gear used to carve and incise jade. Therefore the nephrite is used to provide pieces with very state-of-the-art floor ornament, that's rather valued particularly in China in which jade isn't just something to make money with and best to observe but because of the mythical powers attributed to jade an critical a part of not most effective people's lives however also afterlives. Extremely artfully carved Funerary gadgets of jade unearthed from royal tombs supply an outstanding demonstration of this. Against the history that nephrite is used to produce lovely jade carvings it is easy to justifiably say that it's miles the artistry of the carving this is figuring out the price and no longer the jade.

Lower qualities of nephrite (application jade) are used to make dinnerware, trays, tea sets, collectible figurines and indoors decorative add-ons.

As for the colour, well yes, what approximately the color? The first thing that pops up before our thoughts's eye when we hear the word 'jade' is a inexperienced piece of stone. Green? Why green? Because jade is always inexperienced, or is it? Jade takes place in six natural colorings: inexperienced, lavender, pink, yellow, white (the creamy white is in China called 'mutton fat') and black (which is truly a totally darkish green). But regarding hues is likewise to differentiate among nephrite and jadeite.

The colour range for nephrite isn't almost as broad as for jadeite and is usually characterised by a positive dullness of shade and waxiness of texture.

The more difficult range, jadeite, has a hardness of 6,five - 8 (in uncommon case even up to 9 what makes it as difficult as rubies) at the Mohs scale and its floor is invulnerable to cutter device made of steel and extraordinarily tough to carve. That the carving of one in all the bigger jade gadgets for e.G. Chinese royalties took more than the lifetime of 1 artist (sometimes 2 and greater) may additionally give you an idea of that. Therefore jadeite is chiefly used to provide expensive jewelry. And it is this high-grade fine of jade Burma is famous for.

Like nephrite jadeite seems in six basic colorings but with many variations. Also, jadeite comes in an awful lot greater vibrant green colors, finer texture and a higher degree of translucency than nephrite jade. The natural hues are green, lavender, crimson, yellow, white and black.

Green, the maximum vital and traditional color, varies from an severe emerald green thru apple-green to grey-inexperienced and ultimately black-green. So why will we - especially 'westerners' - assume Jade is continually inexperienced? This is due to the fact green jade is the maximum traditional, rare and high-priced color and used to make jewellery. And this is wherein we 'Westerners' are aware of it from, from jade jewelry, which, sooner or later, is inexperienced. This makes us (nicely, a lot of us) leaping to the wrong conclusion that jade is constantly inexperienced.

In China, green jade symbolizes precise fortune. The greatest high-quality of green jade is historically known as 'Imperial jade' as it changed into the sort of jade favored by Chinese empresses and emperors. However, for the sake of correctness one should now not use this time period because the perfect time period is 'emerald jade'. Why? Because the supply of the inexperienced color is the colouring agent chromium, that's the identical agent that makes emeralds inexperienced.

In Burma jade is mined in Kachin State within the northernmost a part of the usa. The centre of jade mining is Hpakant additionally spelled Phakant. It is located smack within the centre of one in all our planet's most malaria infested and inhospitable places located astride the Uyu River 220 miles/350 kilometres north of Mandalay.

Phakant is obtainable simplest from September/October to May/June. During the monsoon months in-between it is clearly reduce off the rest of the usa. Other towns with huge jade depots in the place areTawmao, Hweka and Mamon. In the neighbouring location Hkampti (also spelled Khamti ) in Sagaing Division it's miles Nasibon and Natmaw. According to statistics 'Jade Land' in Burma's Kachin state is the supply of greater than 70 percentage of global top-grade jadeite supply.

In present-time Burma the overall range of energetic mining companies is said to be about 100. With the exception of the introduction of power, motorised gear and motors, backhoes and dynamite into the mining procedure in reality nothing has changed in extra than a hundred years of jade mining in Burma. The methods employed are now as ever very primitive, the cconditions in the mines are abysmal and bills for workers and protection requirements are very low. About 70 percent of Burmese jade mine people are drug addicts (opium and heroin) and HIV inflamed. Maybe you call that for your thoughts and say a prayer for the ones who've lost their lives mining it prior to shopping for an high priced piece of jade be it uncooked or processed. By the manner, this additionally is going for rubies, diamonds, and so on.

Extraction of jade within the Hpakant vicinity is in particular carried out by manner of what is called 'boulder mining'. This is the procedure of extracting rocks that are believed to contain jade from the floor after disposing of the layer of alluvial fabric referred to as 'overburden' this is covering them. In order to locate jade-containing boulders miner need to cross deeper and deeper for the surface-near layers are already sifted normally. The jade boulders right here a rounded, have a thick skin (mountain jade appears as abnormal chunks with a thin pores and skin) and the jade is referred to as 'river jade'.

After those rocks that do most likely incorporate jade are separated from the everyday rocks the latter are as waste disposed within the river and on river banks. With, by means of the with the aid of, often disastrous effects for the herbal environment and the people living in these regions.

The very elaborate component, which requires lots of enjoy and an similarly large quantity of success, is to identify the jade. Finding boulders containing jade is so difficult because jade is typically surrounded by a extra or less thick layer of rock what makes the jade boulder look like some other normal rock. Sure, it might be clean to just drill or reduce into the rock to see what's hidden internal but using this approach could depending on the dimensions of the rock (maximum weigh 1 kg or much less and are enormously small) within the worst case lessen a very treasured stone to nearly rubble if you hit the incorrect i.E. Maximum valuable component. That is why subtler techniques are required. Miners and merchants alike are consequently looking, amongst others, for clues such as so-referred to as 'display points', places at which colour is visible via a thinner layer of pores and skin. Another technique is proving the burden due to the fact jade-containing rocks are heavier than ordinary ones due to the higher density. Yet another technique is to search for spots with fibrous texture (with out glitter and/or sand). This texture is - regarding the 'delicious' a part of the stone - referred to as via the locals 'yumm'. Additionally, they may be seeking out floor colouration, take a look at how the stone surface feels when touched underneath water (in water jade feels barely 'gluey' or 'sticky') and listen to the sound produced through tapping with a metallic tool in opposition to the stone. In case the stone includes jade the tapping produces a 'warmer' sound. It is safe to mention that irrespective of understanding being a hit in 'isolating the wheat from the chaff' within the jade enterprise is to at the least 50 percentage just playing. What appears to be very promising can turn out to be an empty nut and vice versa. Many buyers (often buyers) have given themselves the bullet for dropping the entirety due to the fact they have subsidized the incorrect horse; it's a chance.

Having recognized the jade follows the category and the first-class criteria are coloration, translucency and texture. Burmese traders realise the following sorts.

1. Mya Yay or Yay Kyauk, translucent and a uniform grass-green in colour. This is the maximum valuable variety.

2. Shwelu, mild-green jadeite with bright-inexperienced spots and streaks.

3. Lat Yay, clouded jadeite, is utilized in making bracelets, buttons, hatpins, embellishes, drinking cups, and many others.

4. Hmaw Sit Sit, a darkish-green range, is as an alternative tender and brittle, and used in the manufacture of inexpensive jewelry.

Five. Konpi, the pink or brownish variety, is simplest discovered in mountain boulders, embedded in purple (ferrous) earth. This variety isn't observed at Tawmaw.

6. Kyauk-atha, white translucent jadeite, is used for bracelets, stems of pipes, plates, spoons, flower-pots, cups, saucers, and many others.

7. Pan-tha, first-rate white in coloration, and translucent, however opaque to a certain quantity. This opacity is taken into consideration to be a defect and significantly reduces the charge of the locate. Like marble, it is used basically for decorative functions, which include inlaying tables, chairs, containers, furniture, and many others.

Eight. Kyauk Amè, the black (darkish-inexperienced) variety. It is used for making buttons, bars for brooches, and so forth.

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skvaderarts · 4 years

Text

Chapter Ten: Amalgamation

You can check out the Masterlist Here for more links to places to read!

SORRY I’M LATE AGAIN. I KNOW, I SUCK!

Chapter Ten: Amalgamation

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Notes: I genuinely can’t believe we’ve made it to chapter ten. It’s been nearly six years since I’ve written a fic this long, and the number of people who consistently come back twice every week to read what I’ve been working on is genuinely astonishing. Somehow after several years of no ideas and a dwindling interest in creating new content, we’ve arrived at 40k words and 1k readers! I can’t believe that we’re here. I’d like to thank HunterJamie, RubixaSeraph, SkylarMorgan1899, and Mallovarwen for commenting again with very enjoyable and helpful feedback, and thank first-time commentator Random Reader nothing special for their wonderful comment. It really warmed my heart. Thank you to everyone for their patience with my late releases this week. I’ve just been terrible at getting things done lately. Now, on to the chapter!

By all accounts, this was going to be the worst storm to hit the region in their current lifetime. The spokesperson on the portable radio that sat in the living room spoke of pitch-black clouds that hummed with dangerously high amounts of energy, abnormally large and concerningly frequent lightning strikes that almost seemed to be aiming towards objects on the planet’s surface, and torrential rains carried by winds just over fifty miles per hour. The streets had turned into rivers and the rivers were bursting at the seams while intermittent power failures plagued every building for miles to come. Reports of fires and car accidents came pouring into the station in droves as meteorologists combed through every piece of data they had, trying to form some sort of hypnosis as to where this freak act of nature had suddenly come from. Their analysis of the weather that day had been completely different. The prognosis was mass hysteria and paranoia across the board. And that was before the possibility of demons had been brought into the picture.

If this had been just a few months before the Redgrave City Disaster, the general public would have been quick to dismiss the notion that something supernatural might be going on, but things had decidedly taken a turn for the worst since then. People jumped at shadows, fearing and feeling the presence of denizens of oblivion at every turn. There was a fanatical talk show host at the end over every dial turn, and twice as many made for TV religious figureheads peddling disaster and armageddon into the open ears and closed minds of their eager listeners. The atmosphere was ripe with dread and superstition, and that was to say nothing about the rumors going around about some shadowy cabal that seemed to be investigating things around town, making a consorted effort to get the locals of the town of Enamel to divulge anything they knew about something dubious that most of the citizens couldn’t make sense of. Reports were scarce and inconsistent as to what this shadowy group wanted, but records of them were coming in from every corner of the region. It was unclear if they should be considered a threat to the general public since they had yet to harm anyone, but authorities were advising people to exercise caution.

Nero stepped into the room and found Kyrie listening to the broadcast, her normally serene demeanor showing slight signs of worry. He leaned over the back of the couch and wrapped his arms around her, eliciting a startled sound and an embarrassed smile from the young brunette woman. She gripped his hands for a moment, hugging his arm gently with the side of her face as closing her eyes and let out a melancholy sigh. The young devil hunter couldn’t help but notice her change in demeanor.

“You shouldn’t listen to that, Kyrie. It’s just going to make you worry.” Nero said using the top of his head to nuzzle her hair. He didn’t like to see her like this, as infrequent as it may be.

The normally chipper woman pulled away timidly and stood up, glancing in the direction of the stairs. The children were in their bedroom playing at the moment and she was glad for it. Not so much because she didn’t want to keep up with them (although she did need a break if she was being honest) but because she didn’t need them hearing this. After all the things that they had been through in their short lives; surviving the Savior incident, being displaced and rehomed, and then nearly losing Nero such a short while ago, the last thing she wanted to do was frighten them again.

“Your right, I should probably turn that off,” She said as she turned her attention to the hallway, her eyes seemingly fixated on something behind her domestic partner,” There isn’t anything I can do about the weather, and the power keeps going in and out anyway. I should save the battery in case there’s an emergency. it’s just… all this talk about a cult... ”

Nero put his hands on her shoulders and pulled her close, understanding now why she seemed so disconcerted. They had all lost so much during the attack a few years back. She didn’t need to explain to him why she would be worried about something like that. After all, it seemed like most residents of Fortuna were questioning key facets of their lives these days. The formerly devout community didn't show up to prayer as often as they once did if they showed up at all. Their faith had been totally and undeniably undermined. There were open debates about the merits and legitimacy of the Order of the Sword and its actions everywhere they went and no small number of turned heads whenever Nero or any other member of the Holy Knights went. It seemed that the entire city was united in shame and grief.

“Hey… don’t worry about it. You know I’m not going to let anything happen to any of you…” Nero hugged her and released her, allowing her to regain her.

Kyrie fixed her clothing and hair, taking a deep breath before exhaling and shaking herself as if doing so would somehow snap her out of her current state. She sighed and nodded, turning her head in the direction of the staircase again. The children had suddenly gotten significantly louder. After a moment, she stepped towards the stairs, turning back towards him as she went.

“Thank you, Nero… I… I don’t want you to worry. I know,” She smiled tenderly as she headed up the stairs, pointing at something behind him,” I’ll go check on the children. I think someone wants to talk to you.

With that, she disappeared up the stairs. Nero’s brow furrowed in perplexment as he turned around to see that V was in the room with him. Wrapped in the grey blanket that Kyrie had left him and leaning against the doorway to the room for support, he now looked more alert and healthy than he just had an hour or so ago. He had presumably heard and seen their entire conversation, but had chosen not to interject. Nero looked at him quietly for a moment before turning and going to sit on the couch.

He flopped down on the soft cushion and exhaled audibly, not sure how he felt at the moment. Although he hadn’t come to any sort of conclusion regarding this mysterious group that had been plaguing the area, he was willing to entertain the idea that something weird was going on. The odds of this otherworldly inclement weather starting the very same day that they brought V back from the great beyond was far too covenant to be a coincidence. True, it had been a foggy day, but the storm had started to roll in mere minutes after his resurrection and had intensified about a half-hour after they made port. And the intensity of the storm was questionable as well. It just seemed… aggressive, as though it served some other purpose and they were just missing something.

As Nero sat thinking, V approached the window nearest to him. It looked out over the street and down the block, showing a wonderful view of the distant shoreline during more ideal weather. He slowly walked over to it, staying decidedly close to the wall despite the fact that there was plenty of room for him to walk. When he reached his destination, he leaned back against the wall and pulled the mostly sheer curtains aside to get a better view of the outside world. He gazed outside quietly, half-turned away from Nero. Despite the deafening boom of thunder and the blistering speeds the wind was traveling at as it rattled the building slightly, V still found the sight of rain dripping off the overhead exterior window seal and then running down the window soothing.

“... Something isn’t right,” V said, not so much asking as he was stating a fact,” This storm is… unnatural, to say the least.”

Nero nodded two or three times as V turned to face him slightly more than he had been before. The taller man was most certainly fairing better now that Nero got a better look at him. He looked less pale now and closer to his normal skin tone, which was admittedly still pretty pale, and his balance seemed to be more steady. The shivering and clamminess that had plagued him seemed to be gone, and he was coherent.

“Yea, I kinda guessed that,” Nero said with a sarcastic tinge to his voice,” It started right after we brought you back. How’d you guess that something was going on?”

V turned his attention away from the window and turned to look at his brother again. He stepped forward and slid between the armchair and the side table that sat across from the couch and came to a stop in front of the couch. After taking a moment to regain his balance, he sat down on the other end of the couch and turned his attention back to his younger brother. “I can’t say. It’s just something I know.”

It was a sentiment they both shared for the same reasons, but there wasn’t a coherent explanation as to why this was between the two of them. The younger of the two deduced that maybe this was somehow connected to the spell they had performed earlier that day, but he couldn’t be sure. He was willing to believe that Magnolia was far more knowledgeable about these sorts of things than he was. Hell, everyone in his family probably knew more about this than he did. All this talk of realms of reality, contracts, and familiars went right over his head, despite the fact that he was not opposed to learning about any of it.

In an attempt to break the now marginally uncomfortable silence that was forming between them, Nero stood up and walked over to the fireplace across from the couch. He lit the gas fire, relishing in the fact that their home had one and that it wasn’t wood burning considering the age of the place. The cozy warmth started to spread throughout the available space in the room as Nero sat back down on the couch and stretched his arms out, trying to make himself more comfortable and seem more amicable. V wrapped himself in the blanket and curled up into the corner of the couch, giving a casual glance toward the window before shifting his focus towards the warm fire. Anyone with eyes could see that he felt more comfortable now that it was on.

“You turned on the fireplace,” V said casually as he adjusted himself under the blanket in order to be closer to the inviting warmth produced by the flickering flame. Nero nodded, taking a moment to realize that the very obvious statement was more of a question than anything else.

“Yea, well you were under a blanket so I figured…” Nero trailed off, scratching the back of his neck in discomfort. He was just now realizing that he hadn’t quite reached the stage with V where he felt comfortable explaining things like this, and he didn’t know for the life of him why he suddenly felt so uncomfortable. There was just something about V that unnerved him and made him unable to communicate the most basic things. He had never worked well with quiet people, but this was something else entirely. Hopefully, he would get better at communicating with him as time passed.

V looked at him thoughtfully, that devilish smirk that Nero was all too familiar with making an appearance for the first time since V’s untimely death. Nero gave him an incredulous look, unsure of what to do or say about his reaction. He wasn’t entirely sure why he looked so pleased with himself and that somehow made him even more uncomfortable.

Several sets of footsteps could be heard from behind them as they both turned to see Kyrie descending the stairs with the children in tow. She was carrying the once that V recognized; the littlest child named Carlo who had introduced himself earlier that day. But the other two boys who looked like they were probably biologically related to one another were unfamiliar to him, and he to them. Upon seeing him, the tallest child stopped and yanked the middle child to a stop, pointing at him with an excited look on his face. As Kyrie sat Carlo down in one of the living room chairs, the other children filed into the living room, their giant excited eyes fixed on V.

Nero stood up to go help Kyrie in the kitchen. Just as he did, the tallest child tugged on his shirt and pointed at V. “Hey, who’s that,” He inquired with interest and excitement evident in his voice,” You both have that cool white hair! Are you family?”

For reasons that he couldn’t quite place, his entire brain snagged like a rusted clock gear with a rope stuck in it at that question. Yes. Obviously, that was the answer. But for some unknown reason, he just couldn’t make that come out of his mouth. Maybe he just hadn’t truly grasped that concept yet. It was an irrefutable fact by this point, but somehow he just still couldn’t believe it in a way.

After a moment, Nero reached down and fluffed the inquisitive child’s head, nodding to him. “Yea. Were related.”

Before the wide-eyed child could ask him to elaborate, V chimed in from his comfortable position on the couch under his blanket by the fire. “It would appear that I’m his older brother.”

The little child giggled as Nero stared at V in surprise. He wasn’t expecting him to pick up on his burgeoning mental breakdown and come to his rescue. The middle child groaned, shaking his head. “Julio is my older brother! So you're both bigger than me!”

Julio placed his hands up to the sides of his head and wiggled them, taunting his little brother playfully. “Yea! Kyle and Carlo are my little brothers! I’m almost seven!”

V nodded quietly, honestly mildly entertained by the children’s antics. There was something about watching them tease and poke fun at one another that he found genuinely humorous. While his brothers terrorized each other, Carlo climbed down out of his seat and up onto the couch, sitting down surprisingly close to V. Considering the fact that he was around three, it wasn’t too shocking that he hadn’t figured out the concept of personal space yet. But that didn’t stop V from scooting back slightly to give himself more room, pulling his legs into himself closer. The little child didn’t take the hint and instead opted to climb over his legs and plop himself square in V’s lap, wrapping his arms as far around him as they would go to give him a hug.

“I love you, Nero’s brother! You're nice.” He giggled as he continued to squeeze, not really managing to do anything impactful to V’s ability to breathe. Well, at least not with his arms.

The taller man with the white hair stared at him, his eyes considerably wider than they normally were. V pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, his breath catching in absolute shock. The tiny child’s head was buried in his shirt, so he couldn’t see the look of absolute disbelief on the object of his affections face. No, he hadn’t just heard that. There was no way. He must’ve misheard him. After all, Carlo had just met him! But he had. And he was the first person to say that to him in… well…

… Oh...

Kyrie was in the dining room placing down the plates, so she couldn’t see what had transpired, but Nero did. And for the first time ever, he could actually tell what V was thinking because it was written all over his face. He’d never seen him look so startled in the entire time he knew him, but that wasn’t the only thing. He seemed… Almost hurt by the comment, clearly indicating that it had some sort of profound effect on him. And despite the fact that he didn’t know even the slightest thing about V’s personal life (if he even had one) he had an idea why the child’s words might have affected him so deeply. He’s had a rough time growing up. Little things like that meant the world, especially when the person saying them truly meant them. And Carlo wasn’t lying. He wouldn’t lie about something like that.

V sat up and wrapped his left arm around him gently, giving him a careful squeeze before letting him go and hesitantly running his fingers through his hair. He rested his head atop of Carlo’s head for a moment, giving him one last gentle squeeze, eliciting a giggle from the little boy before releasing him. He gave him a thoughtful but melancholy look before accompanying it with one last head pat. He honestly didn’t know what to do with himself. Reciprocating affection wasn’t something he had much experience with.

“... Thank you, Carlo...” V swallowed, trying to repress the emotions he refused to let speak for him,” That is very… kind of you.”

Carlo may have not picked up on V’s tone, but Nero had. The little boy had struck a nerve of some sort, and Nero was genuinely concerned as to how dark of a turn V’s emotional state had taken. He seemed deeply troubled by the comment.

As Carlo hopped down from his lap and ran into the dining room after his brothers, V sat breathlessly on the couch, clearly trying to compose himself. He ran his hands down his face and formed a cup, covering his face up to his nose with them. He leaned forward on his knees, shuttering slightly, and exhaled a shaky breath. Nero watched him quietly, unsure of what to do or say. He took a step forward and put his hand on the back of the couch, acutely aware that touching him right now might not go over the way he intended. V stole a glance at him, silently acknowledging his gesture but now speaking or moving.

“... V…” Nero said quietly as if speaking loudly would do him some form of harm,” You okay?”

He didn’t answer, at least verbally. He looked at him quietly and lowered his hands, exhaling and blinking rapidly as if he had something caught in his eye. After a moment, he nodded once and glanced in the direction of the entryway. Kyrie stood there with a curious look on her face but didn’t ask, clueing into the cat that this might not be a good time. “... I just wanted to say that dinner is ready,” she said as she looked at V, smiling sympathetically despite having no idea what had reduced him to this state,” I made extra in case you were hungry. Feel free to join us.”

She stepped back into the kitchen when she finished speaking. Nero turned back to V and inched his hand just close enough to where his fingertips touched the back of his shoulder but he didn’t grab him. He seemed to have composed himself for the most part. Nero leaned over to get a better look at him and they made eye contact. V shrugged away, uncomfortable. He wasn’t fond of direct eye contact any more than he was of them staring at him.

Nero glanced in the direction of the dining room and then back to his brother, now more settled on what he wanted to say. “You know, I’m pretty sure we have an extra chair around her. You wanna come with me?”

V looked over at him, a thoughtful look on his face. A light smirk that didn’t reach his eyes spread across his face and he nodded. “Yes. I think I would like that.”

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I am so beyond done with myself over how late this chapter is. Like, I’m actually angry. But at least I got the chapters for next week done early so that I don’t have to worry about this happening again. So sorry guys. I suck, but I hope the chapter was good, at least! I’d love to hear your comments. I’ve updated the masterlist on Tumblr since it seems I’ll be having plenty more time to write due to the pandemic.

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allbeendonebefore · 5 years

Note

Hey hapo what's with the sea of blue in sask and Alberta during the election like did Sheer make that good of an impression on Sask voters??? NDP is option??

sea of blue you say? obviously we created our own blue sea since we’re not allowed access to tidewater JKJKJKJK

this is a really complicated question and I’m trying to think about how best to explain it. my feelings on the issue are very mixed because i feel like i have a foot or a hand in several camps like some convoluted twister game. it’s something that a lot of identity and emotion is tied up in for a lot of people and it’s rooted very firmly in inequalities that have existed for over a century and get expressed differently in different regions. It’s something that I grew up saturated in and I’ve done a lot of reading about (and of course there’s always more on my reading list) but I’ll try and highlight a few reasons that I’ve been musing about so as not to be too overwhelming.

it’s something that is really hard to explain to people from outside the province because we’re quick to be written off (sometimes rightfully so, others not) but it’s something that’s equally hard to explain to people inside the province. As I said it’s something we’re all saturated in, we are born into it or we grow up in it and it’s really hard to confront a lot of things surrounding it. And I definitely have my own biases and background and relation to this issue and I must stress that as furious as I am with people in large groups making dumb ass decisions, I can’t be angry at individuals because I get a lot of why this happens even though I find it personally misguided or ignorant at best and actively harmful, selfish, and self-sabotaging at worst. But when I explain this I hope it makes sense why for a lot of people it feels like the only option.

And my last preface is that I am speaking from an Alberta perspective, if my followers in Saskatchewan want to add on to this please feel free. I’m glossing over a lot here because I’m trying to keep this short and understandable… but when have I ever done that lol.

Yeah, it got long.

so why does the west go conservative. it’s not scheer, and if you remember harper you’ll remember personality is never high on our list of priorities. [insert gif of harper explaining how he too is a human who watches netflix here]

1. History

To sum up two hundred years: Alberta and Saskatchewan were never equal partners in confederation with other provinces. They were purchased and carved up by the Canadian government which then imposed the two party system on the provinces, which prior had consensus government which (i believe) was similar to how NWT and Nunavut continue to operate. They were not given the rights to their own resources until decades after joining confederation. They were given Liberal governments because the Liberals were and are considered the “natural” governing party of Canada, and while Saskatchewan has flopped between Liberal and Conservative governments like many eastern provinces, Alberta has always had a radical streak and has NEVER re-elected an unseated party in its history. And no, I don’t consider the UCP a continuation of the previous 4 decades of conservative rule, even though they imagine themselves to be the inheritors of that legacy.

Fast forward to the direct impacts: in the 70s, world events that severely impacted oil production caused Eastern Canada to absolutely panic and force Alberta and Saskatchewan (yet again) into providing discounts on their production to soften the blow in Ontario and Quebec of rising prices, forbidding them to sell for a profit to the United States. This included both oil products and potash, hugely lucrative products in AB and SK. It was a continuation of Eastern Canada imagining and treating the prairies as property, as chattel, where provinces like Quebec and BC would never be asked to undersell to benefit the rest of the country.

The current federal conservative party is an amalgamation of reactions to this situation and related ones: the Progressive party (which was a complete misnomer) originated in Manitoba, the Reform party emerged from what I understand as the “first wave” of western separatism, and even though Reform was defeated federally it is still a direct ancestor to Stephen Harper and by extension Andrew Scheer. Harper’s policies are the natural product of decades of conservative governments dating back to Preston and Earnest Manning’s Social Credit party in Alberta.

That said, people from both inside and outside the provinces completely misunderstand Harper’s (and Kenney’s) “Western-ness” or “Albertan-ness”. Both of them ran on western issues and appear to speak up for western interests, but those issues and interests only go as far as the CEOs of the oil companies are concerned, not the working class in the industry. Harper and Kenney actively undermined the equalization formula for the west and had the gall to campaign on striking a good deal for the west. Federal politicians do not have to ever strike a good deal for the west, they will ALWAYS prioritize voters in Ontario and Quebec so long as our voting system remains this way.

2. Identity

My next point in the long agonizing question of Why This is a sensitive one. In Alberta we have my parent’s generation who were voting age at the toppling of Social Credit by Lougheed’s Conservatives. For Alberta this was a monumental shift in taking no shit from Ottawa that people still look back on. Lougheed was a hero for demanding a fair price from Canada for Alberta, and he was incredibly concerned with managing the resource and the profits wisely. While conservative governments were natural and long standing in eastern Canada, this was the first time they had taken power in Alberta and they made a dramatic and revolutionary impression, which is not a thing that conservative governments are usually known to do.

My parent’s generation remembers this time of intense prosperity. My parent’s generation raised their children in this boom-bust cycle and my parent’s generation watched as Lougheed’s heritage fund was spent out from under us. I grew up under Ralph Klein’s government- intensely popular for a premier and who’s legacy was as powerful as Lougheed’s, but incredibly polarizing. He gave $300 to every man, woman and child in the province (except my fam because we had just moved back and didn’t have residency, lol) which was memorable if irresponsible. But it was men like Klein who had the charisma and the presence to make people really take pride in the industry, to worship the boom-bust, and to consider all problems solved. Klein did not give a shit about the part of Alberta I grew up in, and friends who lived in the far north of the province fared even worse. It’s absolutely no wonder that the Edmonton area consistently votes “against” the rest of the province when we were left isolated and broken during the bust of the 90s and ignored repeatedly in the mid to late 2000s.

I have a deep seated and extreme resentment for Ralph Klein’s government and it’s not because I missed out on my 300 Ralph Bucks or because I don’t have connections to the industry, it’s because I grew up with a deep seated fear that I wouldn’t be able to complete my education or that if I got sick something horrible would happen. I was legitimately terrified I would not be able to make it to secondary school because of the cuts his government made on rural schools, and for friends of mine who were not as lucky and well supported as I was, it was even worse. I won’t drag their personal stories onto the internet to make my point, but know

But the point of this all is that the people alive today who vote are people who remember this time of prosperity, of fighting Ottawa, and of relative ‘freedom’ from taxation and so on and so forth are constantly trying to hold onto that time. The kids in my generation who I went to school with did not have to graduate high school - my school had a 70% drop out rate because people would go straight to the patch or into a related industry. In Alberta, every industry is a related industry. There is not an aspect of living in Alberta that the patch doesn’t touch. This is hard to understand for people outside the province. It was actual culture shock to me to come to Ontario where funders of schools and businesses are families that date back to confederation rather than Enbridge or Suncor.

Moreover, the people who work in the patch do an incredibly difficult and dangerous job for incredible amounts of money and it’s no wonder they are so valourized. The people who work in the patch are more dependent on the companies than they are on the government. During the fire of 2016, it may have been the government providing evacuation stations, but it was the companies who got people out. Working class people feel seriously undervalued and are obviously seriously defensive about the industry for real, concrete reasons.

The past four decades have shaped generations of people in this way. This is not something easily reversed. Voting conservative is almost inextricable from Albertan identity and it’s impossible to explain concisely. We all grow up with the same arguments and talking points, we are all imbued with anger and defensive remarks from birth, and to people outside the province our arguments can sound rehearsed to the point of sounding cult-like. Stop Using Plastic If You Don’t Like It. Stop Driving and Flying. Stop Importing from Dictatorships. Stop Being a Hypocrite. They are easy, simple mantras to absolve anyone related to the industry (which is everyone) of any guilt because they don’t have to be a hypocrite if they just embrace the reality. There is no room for any critical thought in this identity, there is no room for discussion, there is nothing beyond Don’t Ask Don’t Tell and Don’t Ever Criticize What Keeps Everything Running. It’s normal and natural to feel upset when people who don’t grow up with this line of thinking find it strange.

3. Alienation

So why doesn’t our valourization of the working class translate directly into NDP votes? Why does Rachel Notley become vilified for speaking and acting as Peter Lougheed did in the 1970s? Why do we continue voting conservative and say thank you when they betray us and kick us in the balls every single time? Why do we cover up our oh-so-shameful history of birthing the CCF/NDP out of the desperation and destitution of the Great Depression?

As I’ve been saying it’s complicated, but it’s also really simple. No federal party ever speaks to us. Not a single one. The conservatives barely have to because they know our identity as conservative dates back to before a time when we even had a provincial upper-case Conservative government ourselves. Scheer can parade up and down parliament hill with his appeals to free speech and his pro life base and his white supremacist dogwhistles all he likes because he knows keeping Alberta and Saskatchewan “happy” (read: angry) is easy. This is a man who said himself that he doesn’t need ‘indian votes’ to win and he certainly was far more worried about keeping Doug Ford out of the spotlight during his campaign and pissing off Ontario than he was about us, and premier kenney spent all his time in office campaigning for scheer instead of running the goddamn province, including preparing us for an emergency. And we lap it up while screaming bloody murder if rachel notley is not personally handing out waterbottles on the side of the highway of death.

No party, not even the conservatives, truly speaks to Albertans. We get hated on constantly by the rest of the country because we appear to be full of climate change deniers, but even the CEO of SUNCOR condemns deniers and politicians who cater to them. A lot of Albertans do acknowledge climate change is a reality despite how we’re painted, but because of the misunderstanding we feel directed at us constantly we tend to react badly and would rather hole up in our bunkers and let the rest of the country freeze in the dark - or melt in the sun as it were. No party speaks to working class rural people. No party makes the attempt to speak to people who are still only grappling with already outdated terminology like “global warming” while they are shoveling snow in August or September. No party is talking about actual grievances that working class people in Alberta face, such as long hours away from home and family or intense isolation that leads to addiction and death, that matter more to people than seemingly hypothetical change in climate that happens Elsewhere, not Here. Parties need to start coming up with concrete solutions that will make the inevitable transition more than just necessary but inclusive and beneficial. No one wants to feel like they have to start from scratch, no one wants to worry about what to do or how it will help. We aren’t used to thinking about solving problems, and we keep putting it on the next generation while we make it even harder for them.

The more we are criticized the more militaristic the vocabulary becomes, and that’s why we provincially voted for a war room and tax cuts while taking the money from school lunch programs. We rest on our laurels of having the lowest child poverty rate in the country while stealing money from children and blaming their parents for them going hungry. It’s abominable. And a lot of us realize it. And a lot of us still feel as if we have no choice. A lot of progressive voices get drowned out in stifling silence and any change feels like an existential threat. We got ourselves into this mess, but we all need to work together to get out of it. And that means listening to the strongest opposition we’ve had in nearly a half century. That means being grown ups and sitting at the table with the rest of the country. That means fighting the gut reaction to sputter out talking points you were taught to say because it meant protecting your family. That also means that we need to be listened to in return without smugness or patronizing attitudes from politicians or the rest of the country.

If you want us to switch to alternative energy, you all need to step up and start helping us do that. As long as we feel as if it’s being imposed on us we will struggle and we will fight, but it’s exactly why it’s so important to change the tone of the conversation. Listen to us. Help us. Make us feel like we’re part of the country. Give us the tools we need to be better. Encourage us to be leaders in the energy industry because we love being the best and thrive off healthy competition. Appeal to real, concrete issues for working class people with real concrete solutions.

yeah. uh. [places mic shakily back on the stand] peace im going to bed, fight me or whatever.

#yeah y yeah alberta #long gone saskatchewan #hapo replies #hapo reads canadian history #if you want citations i can and will dig them up so like don't test my patience #if i am misinformed i appreciate a gentle correction #but when i'm speaking of my own experience don't fuckin correct me #weh weh wehxit #neef-breeks #i reread this the next morning and im like wow i didnt touch on so much #but also if i add more i'll lose a thread of what i was saying because i go off on tangents #anyway i still stand by what i've written here even if i didnt embellish enough

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polaristranslations · 5 years

Text

Mayumi Red Eye

001

Doujima Mayumi was a member of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club. Just from the name "Pretty Boy Detectives Club", it sounded like a rather suspicious and puzzling organization, but I couldn't help but admit that learning that such an organization existed in this world was very much a new kind of surprise for me, as a male high school student. Well, each land had its own strange features, after all. If my town could even be visited by a vampire, then it perhaps wasn't any different to be visited by a pretty boy, as well.

Be that as it may, the Pretty Boy Detectives Club was a group that was formed within a middle school, and if I were to look for a similar concept from my own surroundings, then, embarrassing as it was, I could only think of the unit of justice formed by my two sisters, Araragi Karen and Araragi Tsukihi, known as the Fire Sisters, and that made it easier for me to imagine such an unfamiliar situation. However, while the Fire Sisters in their own way were a pretty unfamiliar bunch to begin with (and the fact that I could call my own sisters unfamiliar was something I should probably take seriously, but I'll put that problem aside for now), there appeared to be one major difference between them that made them fundamentally incompatible.

Because, if the aim of the Fire Sisters was righteousness.

Then the aim of each and every member of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club was beauty.

Righteousness was not always beautiful, and beauty wasn't necessarily always righteous—and, for a minion of darkness like me, I couldn't even begin to imagine where to start distinguishing between the two.

However, if it was a matter of distinguishing them, then, even among the Pretty Boy Detectives Club, the member named Doujima Mayumi seemed particularly suited to that task.

Because she was someone who happened to have exceptional eyesight in their possession.

Beautiful Sight Mayumi.

It seemed she was known by that nickname among the members of the club.

As someone who had had the experience of being a vampire, if only for the brief period of time of spring break, I still boasted an eyesight that was capable of, for example, seeing a lost girl, or witnessing a magical girl flying in the sky—but apparently, the eyesight of Beautiful Sight Mayumi was far beyond just that scope.

Because she had even been able to see a star that didn't exist, it was almost awe-inspiring—such a thing had to be a treasured episode that someone like Senjougahara, who loved astronomy, would envy.

Though I didn't dig any further, it seemed that she'd entered the Pretty Boys Detective Club after having gotten entangled with the discovery of that dark star—although, contrary to such a romantic-sounding anecdote, and contrary to the showy image of the words "pretty boys", Doujima Mayumi's personality was considerably warped.

Rather than pessimistic, she was almost spiteful.

Since I myself also had a rather gloomy character, I couldn't speak carelessly, but her gloominess was on the level of a dark star—for example, when I brought up the subject of the Summer Triangle that Senjougahara had taught me about, she had this to say.

"Orihime and Hikoboshi and the constellation Cygnus are together called the Summer Triangle, but, on the day of Tanabata, the ones that form a bridge over the Milky Way are not swans, but herons... That's why I can't trust swans at all. But if you think about it, it's pretty ironic to say that I trust herons more..."[?]

It's amazing that you can think of something so negative while looking at such a majestic triangle, was what I'd thought, unable to hide my shock, even as someone who was more a fan of mathematics than astronomy. But, despite the exceedingly negative attitude this pretty boy had, when it came to trying to escape from the trouble she encountered in our town, I want to make it clear that she never gave up at any point.

"There's no way I would do that. Normally, I'm the kind of person that gives up immediately—but, if it happened to be our leader, that leader would definitely say something like this."

Leader.

That surely meant the leader of the Pretty Boys Detective Club.

"'Giving up on your dreams can sometimes be beautiful—but giving up on reality is never beautiful.'"

It was definitely something that, not only the Fire Sisters, but also I, their older brother, would never say in our entire lives, but it was an exceedingly beautiful saying. It was flowery prose that was enough to make even that negative girl think more positively—I could even say that, although I was a prisoner to derivatives (bibun) and not flowery prose (bibun), it still resounded plenty in my heart.

Anyway, in this case, Doujima Mayumi, who looked up to such a leader, had unfortunately encountered in our town neither swans nor magpies—although, because it was the Milky Way we were talking about, either of those would have been more reasonable.

What Beautiful Sight Mayumi witnessed was—a fish.

In particular, a fish that could be described as a symbol of brutality.

A piranha.

002

With Tanabata coming up, I was steadily doing some mountain climbing, aiming for the Kitashirahebi Shrine—however, my goal wasn't a simple shrine visit. That shrine had already been destroyed, and no god resided there anymore. It was totally empty in terms of a shrine and in terms of a plot of land, and the main shrine had half-collapsed, with only the torii remaining standing.

It had been so empty that there had a risk of it becoming a source for trouble, so this Hawaiian-shirt-wearing old man named Oshino Meme who had visited this town had even gone out of his way to place a "seal" here. That was the kind of place it was, and even I had played a part in the placing of that seal, but in this particular case, I wasn't climbing the mountain for any oddity-related reason.

In short, it was for a preliminary inspection.

After the hellish spring break I experienced alongside the near-death vampire and after the nightmarish Golden Week I'd experienced alongside a classmate named Hanekawa Tsubasa, the girl that I had met by some strange twist of fate—the girl named Senjougahara Hitagi—had her birthday on July 7th, or, in other words, Tanabata. So it was to make the preliminary arrangements to celebrate that birthday that I decided to go mountain climbing on this very day.

Since she was someone who loved the stars, and the day was none other than Tanabata, I'd figured, why don't we all go stargazing together?

Celebrating the birthday of a girl born on July 7th by going stargazing was such a special idea, unparalleled in its originality, that I trembled at my extremely unique creativity.

In the first place, trying to celebrate the birthday of a classmate was behavior that would be completely unheard-of for the me before spring break, who would say stuff like "I don't need friends, because they lower my intensity as a human"... But anyway, this was about the present me.

Be that as it may, even if we wanted to go stargazing, July 7th fell on a weekday this year, so we didn't have the luxury to go as far as visiting an observatory—we needed to settle on a closer location.

At first, I'd thought it would be fine to do it on the roof of our school, but unfortunately, Naoetsu High's rooftop was not free to access.

And we wouldn't dare try to sneak up there.

And so, because it was the tallest point in our town, and because it was a place that people rarely went despite its wide range of vision, I decided to look into the Kitashirahebi Shrine, a good, little-known observation site.

After all, Oshino had called the Kitashirahebi Shrine an "air spot", so it didn't feel wrong at all to interpret that as a spot to view the skies.

However, as I laboriously climbed this mountain trail, I felt that this location hunting wouldn't bring about any favorable results—first of all, I had calmly begun to think that there was no girl in this world that would want to celebrate their birthday at a dilapidated shrine, but even before that, as if I were being cursed by my past self, the most important thing—the weather—was not looking too good.

The clouds had started to look menacing.

It hadn't been that way when I'd left my house, but once I'd arrived at the foot of the mountain and started climbing uphill, the sky had started to become cloudier and cloudier.

Far from the Summer Triangle, I couldn't even see the moon!

It was a dark night.

And it wasn't just cloudy—it actually seemed like it would start to rain. At this rate, if rain started to fall when I was on a mountain with no umbrella, it would just be a dreadful state of affairs.

If this really was a curse from my past self, then my past self must have really been carrying a profound darkness within him.

Well, considering I'd actually turned into a vampire and become a minion of darkness for those two weeks, perhaps that was actually the case, but I wanted him to at least be considerate on the day of Tanabata—but, fortunately enough, that was just needless anxiety.

Well, no, it wasn't needless in that there was suddenly a gap of sunny weather (even though it was night) that peeked through, but needless in that, even if this awful weather was indeed a curse, it wasn't a curse from my past self—at the summit, on the steps of the half-collapsed shrine.

There sat a pretty boy looking gloomy enough to be almost depressed, his head in his hands.

"......"

He looked like a boy in his second year of middle school.

However, there was so little of the liveliness or cheerfulness befitting such an age that I could even say I felt none at all—or rather, it felt like only the air around him had completely stagnated.

It was a gloom dreadful enough to make me think I'd met yet another oddity on the verge of death, just like during spring break. He seemed so much like a black hole that absorbed all light, that I was sure he even had a negative lux value.

I couldn't help but come to the conclusion that the reason for these dark clouds hanging above us was due to this kid—just what exactly was this pretty boy that contained so much grief?

I felt compelled to say that the way he hid his beauty seemed like some sort of youkai in itself, but, as a former vampire, and as someone who was not a specialist but an amateur who had come across various oddity stories—as someone with that level of experience, I could say for certain that he was definitely human.

Well, there had even been a half-vampire that wore a white uniform, this wasn't something that I could make a sweeping statement about, but—which school was that uniform from?

The blazer didn't seem like anything I'd seen around here...

"Ah... Waah...."

The pretty boy, not having noticed me after I stopped underneath the torii, began to shake his head in his hands.

"Oh no oh no oh no oh no... What do I do what do I do what do I do... I don't know I don't know I don't know... Why do I have these eyes why do I have these eyes why do I have these eyes..."

"......"

I'd faced off against a number of people with their own troubles, the near-death vampire being the number one example, but this could be the first time I saw someone being so blatantly troubled like this... It was like he was making his surroundings even gloomier, with no sign of stopping.

By now, even the sky had been completely covered in clouds without a crack, with not a star in sight.

Far from making this an advance look, at this rate, I wouldn't even be able to see an inch ahead of me.

"Leader, you said it would absolutely be all right... You're really all talk, aren't you... Why did I fall for this..."

He was muttering stuff like that.

Leader (danchou)?

Was he talking about heartbreak (danchou no omoi)?

It was true that, if I just left him like this, he could even be at risk of committing seppuku—at any rate, it was no longer the atmosphere of doing a test run for a classmate's birthday celebration.

I couldn't just ignore someone so blatantly troubled.

Also, it seems that recently, there have been rumors out in the world (although they were mainly rumors spread by my friend Hachikuji) that I was being called, not a "storyteller that helped girls in trouble", but a "storyteller that helped only girls in trouble".

It was an impressive way to circulate rumors.

It almost made me want to ask her if she was playing the stock market.

My attitude was that gender didn't matter when it came to people in trouble, and I'd learned that from my second mother, Hanekawa—it was simply a coincidence that, up until now, no worried boy had ever appeared before me. It was quite the coincidence for a series that spanned over twenty volumes, but it certainly was not the case that I was just ignoring boys.

As evidence, wasn't there a troubled middle school boy right in front of me at this very moment? It might be a bit imprudent of me to say it like this, but in order to prove that I wasn't a storyteller that only offered my help to girls, I wasn't going to leave this poor, perplexed boy on his own.

Well, even if not for that, if I just left this boy emanating darkness as he was, then it felt like it would end up never being possible to go stargazing at this shrine, so I had my own circumstances...

"Now then..."

The question was, how was I going to call out to him?

I didn't exactly have a bright disposition myself, so if I multiplied that darkness of his with my own darkness, then I had no idea how things would end up turning out.

In that case, I had no choice but to force myself into constructing a bright personality. It wouldn't do if I made a worried middle school boy overly cautious about me, either. I needed to act like a cool older brother that he could speak to candidly. After all, I even had two little sisters that were in middle school—compared to those two, even a middle school boy would seem cute.

"Yo! Why are you feeling so down, kid?"

"Kyaah!"

When I said that energetic line that I thought I would never say in my entire life and abruptly embraced him from behind, that "kid" let out a very girlish scream—the tone of voice was so girlish that I figured that maybe his voice hadn't changed yet.

"Wh-who!? What!?"

The panic of suddenly being hugged from behind was able to temporarily drown out the darkness that surrounded him—my strategy of sneaking up on him and surprising him was a success.

First impressions were important.

With this, I had surely influenced his impression of me into being a familiar, brotherly character that he could open up to even if it was our first meeting.

At the same time, I felt a certain delight in being able to say, "Hachikuji, I'm not just hugging you because you're a girl—I'll hug anyone indiscriminately, even middle school boys, because I'm just someone that loves hugging people."

Together with that feeling of delight, I took that boy that was still in a state of confusion and hugged him a second time, this time from the front.

"Hey. I'm Araragi Koyomi, a high school third-year," I said, whispering my self-introduction into his ear.

"The, the criminal revealed his own name... Does that mean he's not planning on letting me live...?"

"A criminal? What are you talking about? I'm your savior."

Was it a generation gap? Or maybe regional differences? Either way, the incomprehensible things that the boy said made me surprised.

And when he looked at me, it was as if he suddenly realized something.

"Ah, that's right, the way I (watashi), er, the way I (ore) look right now..." he muttered.

It made even less sense.

I came to the conclusion that it meant that his worries actually ran that deep, so I continued.

"If there's something that's bothering you, then let me help!"

As I said that, I placed an encouraging hand around his shoulders. And—were middle schoolers really like this?—his shoulders were awfully slender, like the shoulders of a girl.

003

The middle school boy's name was Doujima Mayumi-kun.

My first name, Koyomi, was also one that could easily be mistaken for a girl's name, and he surely experienced the same thing many times, so there was no way I didn't feel a strong sense of sympathy for him.

He was a second-year in the middle school section of Yubiwa Academy.

Yubiwa Academy.

Unfortunately, it was a school I hadn't heard of.

As I expected, he'd come a long way from a different town to visit this town.

If so, then I assumed that he came because he was a fan of shrines or maybe a fan of abandoned buildings, but Mayumi-kun was actually neither—the reason he came to visit the Kitashirahebi Shrine was, like me, to look at the stars.

"It was a direct order from Leader, you see... Leader said that, when it comes to stargazing, then that's Doujima Mayumi-kun's specialty, so go and take a look. Whenever that leader starts talking, there's just no way to change that person's mind... Um, aren't you a little close?"

"Huh? Am I?"

It was true that, on the steps to the shrine, Doujima-kun and I were sitting about 5 cm apart, but since we were both guys, was there really a need to worry about how close we were?

Perhaps he was at a difficult age.

Well, he did seem like a rather delicate pretty boy.

However, from my experience, if you already had a fear of strangers in middle school, then it would be hard on you in the future—I didn't want to have this boy live a life that would make him sympathetic to my own sad high school life, so instead I got even closer, stuck right up onto him, put my arm around his shoulders again, and said, "Hey, now, there's no need to be shy."

"H-hiii!"

"Don't worry, Mayumi-kun. People often say that I have an interest in young girls, but I have no interest in middle school boys."

"Th, they say you have an interest in young girls...!?"

So it's not just Sakiguchi-senpai, she murmured in shock.

"Then, I absolutely can't reveal my identity here..."

"Your identity? What do you mean by that, Mayumi-kun?"

"N-no. It's nothing. Yes, feel free to leave your arm around my shoulders like that. You can do it as much as you like."

"All right. I'm really glad, since it feels like I've gotten a little brother. If you were one of my little sisters, I'd probably just knock you out for no reason."

"......"

I wasn't sure why Mayumi-kun was trembling so much, but anyway, considering he'd come all this way to this empty town for some stargazing, I could see why he'd get so depressed at this bad weather.

Or so I'd thought, but that wasn't necessarily it—in the first place, he'd only come on orders from "Leader", which meant that Mayumi-kun himself didn't necessarily enjoy stargazing.

In that case, I assumed that "Leader" had to be the president of the Astronomy Club or something, but it turned out that even this was off the mark.

"I'm a member of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club. And I came to this mountain as part of my detective work—I've managed to fulfill my stargazing duties, but I won't be able to return like this."

"?"

Won't be able to return? What did that mean?

No, even before that—he'd fulfilled his duties?

In this weather? How? Did he mean that he'd finished his observation before it turned cloudy? But no, if it was the time period before it turned cloudy, then it was only the moon that was just barely visible, and if that was all he needed to observe, then he could have done that without needing to climb this mountain.

Actually, the biggest point of uncertainty would be, what in the world was the "Pretty Boy Detectives Club" that he mentioned so casually... So was something like that popular among middle schoolers these days?

Maybe I'd already lost that kind of childlike mindset.

A high school third-year, eighteen years old.

Even though I was still totally a kid, I also got the feeling that I'd matured a lot since my own middle school days—and meanwhile, Mayumi-kun's skin still looked pretty smooth.

"Rub rub."

"Kya, kyaah! What are you doing!?"

"Hm? Mayumi-kun, your cheeks just looked so soft that I wanted to try patting them... Did you have a problem with that?"

"No, no, of course not! After all, we're both guys!"

"Yeah, of course. C'mon, let's rub our cheeks together!"

"Ha, ha ha, ha ha."

In order to soothe the heart of the pretty boy that had emanated darkness on that scale, I'd manifested a Kanbaru-like sociability that was very out-of-character for me, so I was glad that Mayumi-kun showed me a smile as a result.

What, so my social disposition wasn't that bad, after all! So this was what it was like.

I've won, haven't I.

At life.

Well, putting aside the matter of the Pretty Boys Detectives Club as being some sort of school club, I next asked about how Mayumi-kun was able to go stargazing with these clouds.

Did he have some sort of special tool he used, like a telescope that could observe stars even through clouds? It didn't seem like he would normally tell someone so easily, but perhaps thanks to my conversational skills, Mayumi-kun responded.

"I don't need any tools," he said. "If anything, I need a special tool in order to not observe them... Ah, shoot. I said it out loud."

"C'mon, don't be so standoffish! There are no secrets between us, all right? We're brothers who just happened to not be related, aren't we? If you don't keep talking, I'm gonna tickle you! Coochy-coochy-coo!"

"I'll talk I'll talk I'll talk! Ahahaha, stop it stop it stop it! I said I'll talk!"

Ah, it sure is fun for dudes to mess around with each other. This sort of relationship was hard to forge with someone of the opposite sex, I felt deeply in my heart, but then...

"Beautiful Sight Mayumi."

Those mysterious words that he uttered piqued my interest.

"That's what they call me—basically, my eyesight is extremely good."

"Extremely?"

"Yes. No matter how thick the clouds are, in the end they're just bundles of water, so I can see through them—so that's how I could observe the star that I needed to."

"Wow..."

It was pretty hard to believe just like that, but it wasn't something that was impossible—so that was his strong point as a member of his "Detectives Club".

"So that's it. Then, can I lick your eyeballs a little?"

"Of course you can't!? Even if we're both guys, that's way too weird, right!?"

It seemed that I wouldn't be allowed.

However, if he possessed such outstanding eyesight, then it felt like it would be quite a hindrance in your everyday life. Was he really all right?

"Yes. That's why I normally wear glasses, to keep my eyesight in check."

In other words—a special tool.

Well, glasses were tools used to correct one's vision, so even if you used them to keep your vision in check, you could still say that that was still a proper use for them.

"But I lost those glasses somewhere around this shrine... That's why I've been so troubled."

He lost them.

So basically, when he took them off in order to observe the stars, they went missing?

"Mm, I don't wear glasses so I can't say for sure, but in these cases, isn't it usually something like you unconsciously having put them in your pocket or something?"

"Yes... I thought of that and checked myself, but they weren't in my jacket pocket or my slacks pockets..."

"You might not know just from looking by yourself. Here, stay still. I'll look for you!"

"Hyaah! Don't grope around in my pockets! I'm telling you, they're definitely not there! Definitely! Absolutely! I swear on my life!"

I looked with this eyesight of mine, so there's no doubt!

Said Mayumi-kun, stubbornly resisting.

He'd put up quite the struggle, as if his own chastity had been in danger.

He was quite bashful for a boy.

Although, thinking about it, everyone was like that during puberty—in that case, perhaps I didn't really need to worry about Mayumi-kun's future at this stage.

Then, instead of the future, the present was more worrying.

"Well, you can't help it if you lost them, so maybe you should give up and go back home? If you don't go back down the mountain soon, the trains will stop... And it looks like it's going to rain. I can stay behind and look for them for you. If you can just let me know your address, I'll mail them to you later."

"My, my address..." Though he should already have opened up to me by now, he said, "Yes, um, well. In the worst case, I have a spare set, so that won't be necessary," still openly wary about me for some reason. "However—I can't go back down. After meeting you, Araragi-san, it made me want to go back down even more, but even so, I just can't."

From the way he said it, it sounded like him meeting me turned into a form of encouragement for him, but what did he mean by he couldn't? Worried that my snuggling up to him wasn't enough, I decided to show off my powerful side to this young friend of mine and slipped my arm underneath Mayumi-kun's thighs with my other arm still on his shoulders, lifting him up and setting him down on my lap.

He was so light!

Were middle schoolers always this light?

"It's fine! Araragi-san, you're snuggling up to me plenty as it is!"

"Really? Well, all right... Then, why can't you go down?"

"For, for now, would you please let me get back down from your lap..."

"Now, now, no need to hold back, kid. Besides, you've already sat down! Feel free to stay just like that. Here! Now you have a seatbelt!"

"H-hiiii!"

"Whoa, your waist sure is thin. It's not like I was expecting you to be muscular, but I can't feel any stomach muscles at all! It's like I'll be able to feel your ribs. Shouldn't you really be eating more?"

"Hiii, hiii!"

Mayumi-kun had been hesitant to speak, but perhaps due to my great capacity for tolerance (houyouryoku) or even my great capacity for embracing (houyou ryoku), it was as if he decided that he needed to consult with me as soon as possible.

"It's because I can see it," he quickly said.

See it? See what?

"Swimming above the town—there's a giant piranha."

004

A piranha.

A freshwater fish of the order Characiformes, of the family Serrasalmidae.

A carnivorous fish so famous that I probably didn't even need to describe it—but if he was able to see an animal like that, then of course, it made quite a lot of sense to not be able to descend the mountain.

No, it wasn't an animal.

Piranhas didn't soar through the sky, and even the largest ones were still smaller than 50 cm—the word giant shouldn't be a descriptor at all.

In that case, it was not an animal, but a monster.

No—perhaps, even an oddity.

"I can see a piranha about the size of a whale, floating in the air... Can't you see it, too, Araragi-san?"

When he asked, I could only respond that I couldn't—in the first place, I had climbed up this mountain from that very town itself. If there had been a piranha or something flying overhead, then all hell would have broken loose in town right about now. It was a safe bet that this piranha wasn't just something that anyone and everyone could see.

That is, except for Mayumi-kun.

Except for the member of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club, Beautiful Sight Mayumi.

"I see... You must have been pretty scared."

"Eh... So you believe me?"

"Naturally!"

It was so natural that there was no way I could say that it was just a trick of the light or that it was just his imagination—being able to see something that you shouldn't be able to see, or meeting something that shouldn't exist.

Stuff like that was just an everyday occurrence for me, and I was even aware of how sad one would feel if nobody believed you about it. So what I could do now was to take Mayumi-kun, trembling in my lap, and embrace him even more strongly—it kind of felt like his trembling actually increased dramatically, but of course, that had to just be my imagination.

However, a piranha...? Actual piranhas themselves were already pretty scary, but if they became oddities, then honestly, I had no choice but to say that this was something far beyond my capacity.

A piranha monster?

In the worst case, they were even scarier than vampires.

Actually, a point of curiosity could be that, even though I had been a vampire in the past, my eyesight was still not enough to see that piranha—it was a piranha that only Mayumi-kun to see.

In that case, did that mean that there was a fierce carnivorous fish that resided in the innermost depths of his heart?

"Mayumi-kun. Do you think you can open your mouth for a bit? I want to check to see if your teeth have turned all jagged and sharp like a piranha's."

"Is, is there really a need to check something like that?"

"It's fine, just do it."

"Please don't try to just force things along. It's not fine, which is why I'm resisting! The shape of my teeth is something I can just check with my own tongue."

"I'm telling you, I think it'll be a good idea to check that tongue of yours, too, just to make sure. Just leave it to me!"

If the other person were a girl right now, then even if it were for the sake of humanitarian aid, I would feel extremely ashamed and hesitant when it came to peeking inside a girl's mouth, but considering Mayumi-kun was a boy, I had no problems with performing an oral check.

Hmph, Hachikuji had been thoughtlessly saying stuff like that, but wasn't I actually more suited to helping boys out instead? Perhaps I could actually unleash my full efforts like this. Though I was reluctant to say this, perhaps I hadn't been completely thorough when it came to the girls I'd faced up until now—and as I thought that, I turned Mayumi-kun around on top of my lap, placed my hand on his chin, and began to examine inside his mouth.

"Hmm. Let's see..."

I'd told him to leave it to me, but honestly, I hadn't exactly had many opportunities to check the teeth of another person, so it was hard to declare anything for certain. But, well, his teeth looked to be in perfect shape, and were very pretty. In that sense, you could say it was a set of teeth worthy of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club.

But, for a middle school boy, his lips sure looked pretty soft... If anything, my eyes kept being attracted in that direction.

"Ah, no, my lips only look like that because they were done up... The other members put makeup on me... S-so, they won't taste good if you eat them, okay?"

"Hey, hey, I'm not going to eat your lips. I'm not a piranha. Hahaha, although it might be different if it were a girl's lips."

It was a questionable joke made between fellow guys that you would never tell to a member of the opposite sex, and I thought it would lighten the mood, but Mayumi-kun's response was a "Ha, ha ha ha," with a laughter that was as dry as a desert.

I felt so sorry for him.

He must have been really frightened by the piranha in the sky.

However, if I'd been the one to see something that unbelievable, even though I may not get depressed enough to emanate that much darkness, I might still be completely taken aback and choose to hide away in this dilapidated shrine for the rest of my life—but Mayumi-kun was different.

"It's all right now," he said.

As if attacking a weak point that opened up for just an instant, he jumped off of my lap—it seemed his eyesight really was good, as he didn't miss the chance when my embrace loosened just a bit to perform that oral check.

"I've been depressed for long enough. I've decided to go down the mountain now."

"Eh? Is it really all right?"

"Yes, especially because it feels like it's even more dangerous to stay here... I mean, after hearing what you had to say, Araragi-san, I feel more at ease about this."

Actually, a method existed from the beginning.

That was what Mayumi-kun said.

"Yes. It's pretty simple, actually. Basically, if I can't see the piranha, then I won't be afraid—so all I need to do is close my eyes when I go back down?"

"Close your eyes..."

No, no.

He was saying it as if it was a brilliant plan, but that was far from simple; it was a plan made out of sheer desperation. If that was something you could actually do, then you could've done that from the beginning, without getting all depressed—but I didn't even have the chance to stop him like that.

Because Mayumi-kun tripped on his first step.

It was way too obvious that that would happen.

It was the first time I'd seen something so obvious.

Perhaps he'd do better walking across a meadow, but walking down this rocky, desolate mountain path with his eyes closed was way too unreasonable—not to mention, after you tripped, you'd end up falling onto the rocky ground, too.

"Mayumi-kun, are you okay!?"

I rushed over to Mayumi-kun, who'd fallen forward, and picked him up. And then, I felt his body all over to check for broken bones or sprains.

"H-hiii, um, wait, you're feeling me up a little too much..."

Being felt up, Mayumi-kun resisted violently.

That's good, it didn't seem like he was badly hurt.

What a relief.

Well, it seemed he himself had known that it would be dangerous, as he'd taken that first step very carefully. And he must have properly protected himself as he fell, as his smooth cheeks and soft lips were unharmed—although, he wasn't totally uninjured, there was a minor scrape on his knee.

Blood was spreading onto his slacks.

Hmm, it would probably okay to just leave a scratch like this, but, well, the place we were in wasn't exactly a safety zone. It was an air spot for oddities—it would be a problem if a middle school boy that came from afar got something akin to an oddity-like tetanus, so with a single motion, I rolled up the pant leg of Mayumi-kun's trousers.

"You're almost as skillful as a doctor, aren't you..."

"Well, I have some experience, after all."

"With medical treatment?"

"No, with flipping up skirts. Although it might be the first time I've rolled up someone's slacks..."

"Ha, ha ha, is that so. Um, you're rubbing my legs way too much... ...I definitely can't let this guy meet Bare Legs-kun."

So apparently he had a friend named Bare Legs-kun.

Although, he must be a problematic friend if I wasn't supposed to meet him.

As I thought that, I took a good look at the affected area, that is, Mayumi-kun's scraped knee—and when I got a good look, it turned out there was more blood than I thought.

Even Mayumi-kun was going "Uwaah..." in surprise.

Injuries like these were just a matter of course for middle-school-aged boys, but still, it was obvious that people would hate being wounded no matter what their gender was.

To encourage him, I said with an intentionally light tone of voice, "It's fine, it's fine. Something like this will get better if you just put some spit on it," and then I licked his bare knee.

I licked it directly. Slurp.

If the other person were a girl, then I would definitely have to be more tactful and go through the trouble of licking my finger and then using it to rub my saliva onto the affected area, but since it was a guy, it was a lot easier to not have to hold back like this.

He must have been extremely shocked from scraping his knee, as Mayumi-kun's face turned as white as a sheet. Feeling sorry for him, I pulled his slacks back down.

"I think it's going to be pretty hard to go down the mountain with your eyes closed," I said, reprimanding him.

It was quite literally, not watching where you're going. And, seeing as he wasn't a martial arts expert, there was no way he could pull off something like that.

"No... I'm sure I'll be able to do it this time. If I just be careful... It's just a single path down, anyway, and, I know! If I just use a walking stick..."

"......"

He wasn't going to give up.

From the slenderness of his appearance to the depressed state he'd shown just a bit earlier, it seemed that I'd misunderstood him, but Mayumi-kun was a middle schooler with a lot more guts than I'd initially assumed.

I felt almost sorry that I'd lumped him in together with me.

It seemed his guiding principles would not waver.

In that case—I decided upon my own guiding principles at the same time.

"Then, let's go with that. I won't stop you anymore. But, I have one condition."

"Eh? Araragi-san, from what position are you coming from to put a condition on me, when we're meeting for the first time and are completely unrelated..."

"Don't say something so lonely like we're completely unrelated, Mayumi-kun."

When I said this, it was not an act, but bright words out of the kindness of my heart.

"I'll go down the mountain with you. Allow me to be your escort—and if you would rather have a walking stick, then feel free to use me as your walking stick."

005

Though the preliminary inspection for a birthday party had been hit with some unexpected developments, well, there was still some time before Senjougahara's birthday—the weather seemed like it was getting worse, and I could come back to this shrine whenever I wanted, so it felt like more of a priority to make sure Mayumi-kun reached the station safely.

The idea of closing his eyes to block his unnaturally good eyesight and erase the existence of the piranha was not too bad, so if I simply became Mayumi-kun's eyes and walking stick, then going down the mountain safely shouldn't be too difficult.

Although, if you asked me, as someone who'd fought against invisible oddities before, then honestly, there were still some points of concern regarding this plan... However, right now, getting down the mountain before the weather became even worse was of the highest priority.

"Hey, it's actually more dangerous if you don't stick close to me. Just think of it like a three-legged race. I can see why you might be feeling reserved, but there's no need for that awkwardness."

"It's true that it feels awkward, but by no means am I just being reserved..."

"If you want, I don't mind giving you a piggyback ride, all right?"

"No, if you do that, then I'll be found out... Er, I mean, I couldn't allow you to spoil me like that. It's already bad enough that you're acting as a walking stick for me. I mean, it's already enough."

"Is that so? Well, that's fine, then..."

I didn't really mind spoiling him, though.

Perhaps, like Oshino, he held the same belief that "people could only save themselves"—or maybe he was simply just being shy.

In that case, we had no choice to keep proceeding down the mountain unsteadily like this, with our arms and shoulders pressed up against one another. Even though I was acting like I was in fear of a major disaster, considering the way he fell so dramatically back there, doing this wasn't even really an exaggeration.

Incidentally, if he were simply closing his eyes, then there was a risk that he might open them reflexively if he stumbled a bit, so Mayumi-kun was also blindfolded.

He'd untied the necktie around his neck and used it as an eye mask, but when combined with his pretty boy nature, it made him look weirdly sensual... But, right now, it wasn't the time to be concerned about his looks.

I figured it would be better to avoid talking about the piranha until we got off the mountain, but seeing as his eyes were blocked off, it would be really depressing if we didn't talk at all, so along the way, I tried to deliberately engage Mayumi-kun in some conversation. But as a result, I realized that my first impression of the darkness he emanated had not been wrong at all.

For example, he would say things like,

"I don't like being misunderstood, but being understood in itself is also something that I don't really like,"

and like,

"I respect figure skaters. Because, even when they fall partway through, they absolutely get back up and finish skating to the end, right? If it were me, I would 100% get sick of it and quit when I fell down. Like a yokozuna that refuses to appear after a series of defeats,"

and like,

"They call him the 'faithful dog Hachiko', but considering that dog was given such an unaffectionate name like 'Hachiko', it's hard to think that he was faithful to humans at all,"

and like,

"When you talk about intelligence, then ultimately, it just refers to the amount of endurance you have to study continuously for long periods of time. In the end, you just can't win against the physical types,"

and so on, and basically everything he said was negative, to the point that it seemed like he would swallow up his surroundings with his darkness.

But, well, even so, since it was a middle schooler saying those things, it still seemed pretty cute, so I earnestly tried to respond to each and every one of his sayings with things like, "You might just be misunderstanding that you're being misunderstood," and like, "Figure skaters still have upcoming competitions, after all. If they gave up halfway, then they'd lose their next chance, too. And it's not like yokozuna stop appearing in matches because they got sick of it," and like, "I don't know about the 'ko' part, but 'Hachi' part of the name actually has a surprising amount of affection to it," and so on.

However, regarding his point about intelligence being the endurance you needed to pull all-nighters studying, then considering the fact that I'd used my endurance as a former vampire to study for my entrance exams, it was hard to refute—even the members of Team Good Girls, Senjougahara and Hanekawa, had some pretty good endurance, too.

But for someone as negative as Mayumi-kun, who got all depressed and frightened, to keep up the attitude of trying to go down the mountain without giving up—I felt that it was pretty hard to explain that away as him just having guts.

What made him go so far?

"I don't have any guts at all. If I were alone, I would've given up long ago."

"Is that so? So because I'm here for you, you can keep going? I wasn't doing this just because I wanted to hear that from you, but it isn't bad at all to hear something like that."

"Ah, no, I wasn't talking about you..." said Mayumi-kun.

In the complete opposite way of the aforementioned concept of "people can only save themselves"—though Mayumi-kun was pessimistic even regarding his eyesight that should've been a strong point for him, he sounded just a bit triumphant for this subject alone.

"No matter where I am, I'm still a member, after all. And I know very well that those guys would never give up, even in a situation like this."

006

We passed through the torii of Kitashirahebi Shrine and reached the foot of the mountain, but of course it wouldn't be a good idea to ride with both of us when one of us was still blindfolded, so I figured it wasn't a mistake to leave my bicycle there and head for the nearest station on foot. But as we grew closer to the town, the misgivings that I'd been secretly harboring became reality.

Of course, that didn't mean that there hadn't been any trouble up until that point—even if I was acting in the role of his walking stick, it was still pretty difficult to walk on uneven footing without your sense of vision, so Mayumi-kun, as well as I, who he clung to, were covered with leaves and twigs.

Though we didn't get hurt from falling or the like, our clothes did get torn here and there.

I was just in normal clothes, so it was fine for me, but Mayumi-kun was in a school uniform, so the damage could be pretty harsh.

"It's fine. If it gets to it, then I have a different uniform I can wear... Mumble mumble."

He'd said something like that, so it seemed it wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Although, it was interesting that, unlike with his glasses, he'd described it as a different uniform and not a spare.

Did he have two different types of uniforms?

"Well, it didn't take as long as I'd expected, so while we're at it, drop by my house and take a bath, Mayumi-kun. If you want, I'll even go in with you!"

"Uh, uh-huh. Well, I would go if I could."

It was clearly a firm rejection.

Really, this kid was so modest.

I thought it was rather heartwarming, but at that timing, I'd let my guard down a little—as suddenly, Mayumi-kun screamed.

"Hyaah!"

And with that loud scream, he fell onto his behind—and it wasn't because he'd tripped on something.

If he'd tripped, then, like before on the shrine grounds, he would've fallen forward instead.

But unlike before, he'd fallen backwards.[?]

"The—the fish. The piranha."

Sitting on the asphalt, Mayumi-kun pointed.

With a trembling finger, he pointed towards the sky above the town.

There, I could not see anything.

Couldn't see anything.

But it seemed—there was something there for Mayumi-kun.

After coming down the mountain and approaching the town, it must look even bigger to him—that carnivorous fish.

"......"

Yes.

I thought—something like this might happen.

However, I should've taken it into much stronger consideration.

If Mayumi-kun's eyesight could pierce through dark clouds to observe the stars, then I should have guessed at the possibility that he would be able to see through even his own eyelids, or the necktie he was using as a blindfold.

That's why his glasses were an essential item.

Of course, if he could always see through those things, then it would be impossible to even go to sleep at night, so I could guess that he had some way of controlling it arbitrarily, but even so, after approaching the town, and thus the piranha, then if he grew aware of it...

He would be able to see it.

Even if it were invisible, he'd be able to see through to it.

And perhaps, it was because it was arbitrary—the feeling of "the more you didn't want to see something, the more you would end up seeing it" was not something that was limited to people with special eyesight.

I could only feel a sense of ashamed helplessness.

Though we'd somehow managed to get off the mountain, there was no point in the end if we couldn't make it into town.

"What a mistake I've made... For someone like me, who's called the 'Zero Tolerance Butter Knife', this is a huge disgrace."[?]

"Um, do you really have a nickname like that, that sounds like it came out of the newest line-up of light novels?"

Shit.

In the first place, why was it a piranha, anyway?

Oddities had their own reasons for existing—that was what the specialist, Oshino Meme, had said in the past, but in this case, what was the reason that Mayumi-kun held in this case?

"Well, at any rate, you should probably take off that blindfold now, Mayumi-kun. It's backfiring now, and it'll actually be even more dangerous. Can you stand?"

"Y-yes. Can you give me a hand?"

"Of course. You fell pretty badly, but is your butt okay? Let me brush the sand off of you."

"There's no need to trouble your hands for something like that!"

After standing up, Mayumi-kun removed the necktie from his head, and tied it back around his neck—as someone who'd never worn a necktie before, the process seemed pretty tough. It made me feel a bit immoral, like I was strangling the neck of a pretty boy.

"In general, neckties seem a little straining. Wouldn't it feel better to keep your chest more loose?"

"Not at all!"

"But anyway, what should we do about this... If it comes down to it, there's still the option of just forcing our way through."

"B-but, Araragi-san. What if it attacks us when we enter its territory?"

"Hmm..."

It was hard to explain it in a way that would convince him, but personally, I wasn't too worried about something like that happening. If an oddity that was that hazardous lived in the skies above this town, then Oshino would have put some measures in place to deal with it when he came to this town—that collector definitely would not have ignored such a perfect ghost story.

Even if not for that, no matter how gigantic this piranha was, perhaps the level of vampire I had become wouldn't be a match for it—but I highly doubted that it would be able to win against that Oddity Killer known as the iron-blooded, hot-blooded, cold-blooded vampire.

However, it wasn't something I could declare.

I couldn't get rid of the possibility that it was an oddity that would be harmful towards Mayumi-kun alone—just by taking a single step into town, he might end up getting dragged into that world.

And if that happened, I wouldn't be able to protect him.

In the end, since I was nothing but a former vampire, before the question of whether or not I could win against the piranha, I couldn't even see it at all.

"Just checking, Mayumi-kun. When you arrived at this town, you weren't able to see the piranha yet, right? It was when you were about to go down the mountain that you suddenly saw it—is that right?"

"Yes. To be even more precise, it was before I went down the mountain, on top of the shrine, when I got a sweeping view of the town. It suddenly went bam—like a dolphin jumping out of the water."

Although, rather than a dolphin, it was more like a whale.

It was like he'd experienced some crazy whale watching.

However, Mayumi-kun was pretty wild to climb on top of that collapsed shrine just to go stargazing. I didn't know if he just did whatever he wanted because nobody was looking, but maybe he'd received divine punishment from that?

Although, it should be a snake, not a piranha, that was enshrined there, not to mention the fact that that god wasn't even there anymore.

"Would it be impossible to just head in a direction that goes away from the town?"

"It's not impossible, but you'd end up having to go through some mountains, so rather than just making it for the last train, I don't think you'll even make it before daybreak tomorrow... Instead of taking that big of a detour, let's just try to take the long way around to the station, trying to avoid the piranha as much as possible. If we aim for Minaminao Station instead of Nakanao Station..."

If we did that, it might even be better to go back and get my bicycle, even if it took twice the amount of time—as I thought that, my eyes landed on a town map that had been installed to the side of the sidewalk.

Even though I was a local, I was by no means familiar with the lay of the land in these parts—in the first place, I had no reason to come in this direction, except for when I was going to the Kitashirahebi Shrine.

I wouldn't say that I was completely unfamiliar with it, but I was afraid that the piranha might attack us if we didn't choose our route based on the most accurate information, so no amount of caution was too much.

It felt kind of like the game that grade schoolers played, where they pretended that the asphalt was the ocean, and you could only walk on top of the white lines... Although, since a carnivorous fish was flying in the sky, it was like the exact opposite of that game.

Fortunately, the town map was pretty detailed.

However, there was no indication of where we currently were.

Was this a convenient map or an inconvenient one? It was pretty tough to understand... Um, since my house is here...

"Hyaah!"

There, once again, Mayumi-kun screamed.

As if the idea of me brushing the sand off of him pained him that much, he barely managed to not fall on his behind this time, but, just like before, his face was in complete shock.

I'd gotten on guard, thinking that the piranha was finally coming to attack us, but that wasn't it—though Mayumi-kun had pointed at the sky earlier, right now, he was pointing at not even the ground, but the same map that I was looking at.

No.

More precisely—it was in front of it.

"In, in front of that map—there's a piranha. A smaller piranha."

"......?"

Hearing that, I turned back to face the map.

Of course, I couldn't see it.

The map was simply a map—however, Mayumi-kun was saying that he could see another piranha here, on top of the one in the sky. By a smaller piranha, that probably was referring to a piranha of a normal size—although it would still be enough of a threat.

Reflexively, I jumped away from the front of the map.

However, nothing changed after I jumped away—although Mayumi-kun probably wasn't just pretending to be scared as a practical joke to surprise me.

He could definitely see it—and only he could.

...At this rate, I felt like I was cornered.

It was one thing to be able to see a piranha in the sky far overhead, but if there was a piranha floating that close to us, floating perhaps even at eye level, then there was no way we could even walk through the town.

It was like trying to swim through a fish tank.

We would certainly drown.

"Goodness gracious... I never thought that the future when I'd need to perform artificial respiration onto Mayumi-kun would approach so rapidly."

"Um, I'd like to avoid a future like that at all costs..."

Even performing such witty banter at this stage wasn't helpful at all. Mayumi-kun must've started to feel cornered as well, as he was biting down on his soft lip with his beautiful teeth.

In his case, he was showing an expression seemed less cornered and more like he was caught in a pincer attack, between the devil and the deep blue sea—but whether he was cornered or whether he was in a pincer attack, it didn't change the fact that we were completely at a loss for what to do.

Not to mention, the clincher—from overhead.

As if rubbing salt into a wound, or maybe even a piranha into a wound, drops of water began to fall from straight overhead right onto our faces.

Drops of water.

The bad weather had finally reached this stage—at last, it had begun to rain.

Furthermore, it wasn't at the level of just gently drizzling—it was raining with huge drops of water.

Just going off of experience, it was pretty clear that the rain would turn into a heavy downpour pretty soon.

It was pretty clear, even in the darkness of the night.

I'd been thinking that it would be pretty awful if it began to rain while we were still on the mountain, but at this rate, considering that we could still have taken shelter from the rain under the half-collapsed shrine, you could say that coming down the mountain had backfired on us.

To stand here out in the open, without even being able to enter the town, while getting more and more soaked—it was the definition of disastrous.

We were like drowned rats.

That made us sound like animals that would be easy for a piranha to eat—at this rate, it wasn't the time to grumble over trivial matters.

Thinking that there was no choice but to take drastic measures, I looked at my shadow.

The weather made it an environment extremely difficult for shadows to appear, but even so, there was still a faint light coming from the direction of the town, which managed to produce a faint shadow from me.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

An oddity for an oddity—no.

An Oddity Killer for an oddity.

An Oddity Killer (kaii goroshi) that had been kept alive (kaigoroshi)—

"Ah."

Amidst the rain that had gotten to full force in the blink of an eye, Mayumi-kun spoke tersely.

"It disappeared—the piranha."

"Eh...?"

"From the sky—and from the map."

It disappeared.

All of a sudden, he said that.

It was so sudden, so unexpected, that I almost didn't understand what he'd said, but it seemed Mayumi-kun himself was in a whirlwind of confusion, having been left utterly dumbfounded.

Well, of course.

For piranhas of various sizes floating in the air to disappear when it started raining—if they disappeared as soon as they were in water and not air, then wasn't that backwards?

Was it because rainwater wasn't seawater?

No, no, piranhas were freshwater fish.

In the first place, the type of water shouldn't matter if it was an oddity... Considering Mayumi-kun's eyesight which could go through even clouds and neckties, it didn't seem like curtains of rain would be enough to block his view of the piranhas, either.

No, but wait.

Water?

In the first place, eyesight is something that gets adjusted when the information is transmitted to your brain... In the end, eyesight could just be a function of the brain...

And, along those lines, light would also bend.

It would get warped.

And while we weren't talking about Mayumi-kun's warped personality, images weren't necessarily transmitted in a straight line. If they passed through water, then they would get strangely distorted—even the clouds that Mayumi-kun had described as "bundles of water" were similar, although he'd still managed to accomplish his stargazing through them.

They'd passed through and penetrated through.

They passed through too well (toorisugiru)—they were too transparent (toorisugiru).

And.

The floating piranha.

The sweeping view of the town—and the town map.

"...Mayumi-kun!"

In order to confirm the idea that had hit me like a bolt of lightning, I turned to face Mayumi-kun amidst this heavy rain—however, from his appearance, I was hit with an impact like a burst of wind that was enough to blow away my idea entirely.

No.

It wasn't—his appearance.

Having gotten drenched in the blink of an eye from the falling rain, Mayumi-kun's uniform had begun to stick to the body, and the collared shirt under the body had turned see-through even without any power to see through things, displaying the curves of Mayumi-kun's body.

The bulge in the chest area and the narrowness of the waist were thoroughly exposed—and the makeup that had been described as "done up" had been washed away by the rain...

"Ma, Mayumi-kun... Don't tell me, you're actually a girl!?"

"Um, no, you had to have already figured it out at some point."

007

The epilogue; or rather, the punch line.

Though I'd been completely deceived by the name of the "Pretty Boy Detectives Club", the earth-shattering gender-reversal-type narrative trick had finally been revealed, so let us resolve the remaining mystery—namely, the mystery regarding the piranhas that Mayumi-kun, who was actually Mayumi-chan, had witnessed. Of course, it wasn't like I had any specialized knowledge pertaining to "that", so allow me to tell you in advance that the following explanation has been woven together with information that was taught to me the following day by the brains of our group, Hanekawa Tsubasa.

Stereopsis.

To be more precise, it had to do with random dot stereograms—referring to pictures that were constructed as clusters of dots that looked like random noise at first glance, but when you focused on a specific point or intentionally changed up your sense of distance, some sort of design would appear.

Compared to 3-D and even 4-D effects appearing in the movie world, something like this seemed rather analog, but considering that you would be able to see these three-dimensional objects without the use of special glasses, these stereograms were still pretty revolutionary.

Of course, because of how they were constructed, it was difficult to make complicated designs into three-dimensional shapes—only simple constructions like letters or cubes, cups or dice, balls or pencils... As well as simplified animals or plants.

And fish.

In a way, it was a kind of "visualization" similar to how you could connect the stars in the sky to imagine constellations—when Mayumi-chan had gotten a sweeping view of the town on top of the shrine, she'd seen that "visualization".

And she'd seen that same fish when she looked at the town map.

Thinking it through, it was perhaps just a simple matter of coincidence, and although it may not be something that anyone would be able to see, it was possible that someone would have been able to see those piranhas even if they didn't have the special eyesight that Mayumi-chan had—being just one of the functions of humans' eyes.

The function of grasping a sense of distance.

If the bird's-eye view of the town had ended up forming some kind of random dot stereogram.

The roads were generally set up to be straight, and most buildings, when seen from above, took on rectangular shapes—looking at it all from a distance, it could easily appear as a dot pattern of random noise.

In the first place, it was unlikely that a person would look down at a town from above, and even if they were looking at a town map, they probably wouldn't process the information on that map as a single picture. If anything, they'd probably see it from an oblique angle, looking at it part by part.

However, in Mayumi-chan's case, it wasn't just that her eyes were simply good, but also that she had a brain that was capable of processing that information—capable of, say, unconsciously calculating the refractive index of starlight through clouds and then automatically adjusting for it. Therefore, even if it was the sweeping view of a town seen from an oblique angle, she could reconstruct the information transmitted from her optic nerves and reinterpret it in many different ways.

The ability of spatial awareness, or perhaps the eyesight of spatial awareness—as a result, she was able to get an image of the town as if she'd looked down at it from a bird's-eye view.

And had generated a fish above the town via stereopsis.

She'd instantiated it.

When you managed to see the image for just a moment, it ended up being hard to shake it off—it left a strong afterimage in your retinas, so it was like it would never go away.

Since the town map was just a close-up view and not a strict recreation of the town, it seemed hard to say that it formed the same random dot stereogram on its own, but it had simply been enough to remind Mayumi-chan of the bird's-eye view that was already in her brain.

Well, it wasn't really my place to say this, but she seemed like a kid who strongly stuck to her impressions, so after she saw something once, she probably had the tendency of continuing to see it—the reason she called the fish she'd seen neither a whale nor a dolphin nor a sunfish but specifically a piranha could have been because of her preconception of piranhas having jagged teeth.

After all, the construction of the town had most likely only become like a stereogram by chance, and it was unlikely that a person with the expertise needed for something like this did it during the city planning phase just for fun, so the actual design that would appear was probably very distorted—and due to that distortion, it was possible that people would see not the image of a piranha, and instead something like a deep-sea fish. Just like a Rorschach test, there were probably people that saw something completely different.

If it were me.

I would probably see an oni.

Knowing this much, it was pretty obvious why she was stopped seeing it when rain began to fall—obvious (meihaku), or perhaps a blank space (kuuhaku).

It was because there was a blank space in the sky that there was room for the piranha to float around.

But if the falling raindrops continuously filled up that blank space, then she'd end up focusing on that, and there would literally be no more room for the piranha to appear—the visibility of her imagination had been painted over by the visibility of reality.

The amount of information exceeded her limits.

You could perhaps say that, even if her eyesight had no limits, the amount of information her brain could process did have limits—in that case, it was really dependent on how Mayumi-chan's brain decided to interpret what she saw, but at any rate, as a result, it meant that the piranha that Beautiful Sight Mayumi saw above the town and in front of the map was not an oddity at all.

As long as this town didn't used to be a river or a lake or a swamp in the past, it had no connections to fish in the slightest, and there was no way that that held any connections to the Kitashirahebi Shrine, either. That would just be too good to be true.

It was not an oddity, but having said that, it wasn't just a trick of the light or one's imagination, either.

Not a trick of the light, but an optical illusion.

Not one's imagination (ki no sei), but one's functionality (kinousei).

However, if we say that, if we understand all that, then there was no longer any need to fear the piranha—there was no need to close our eyes to it. In fact, it could even serve as a fun attraction to enjoy.

Mayumi-chan and I, unable to see even an inch ahead of us in the rain, ended up walking back into town as if taking an underwater stroll, and I had succeeded in sending, not him, but her to the nearest station.

"Oh, there's no need for you to thank me like that. I only did what anyone would've done."

"Um, I didn't even thank you yet... Although I was hesitating over whether I was even going to. But, yes, you have my thanks. Even if I (ore)... Even if I (watashi) had been on my own, and the piranha disappeared when it began to rain, I think I would have been too scared to go down the mountain."

"Nah, I don't think so. Since you aren't alone at all. But really, I wonder where your glasses went. I'll go back and look for them just in case... But I wonder if there's actually a black hole at that shrine. Will you be fine on your own from here?"

"Yes. There's no trouble at all from here. Sorry for bothering you... Even though you did what anyone would've done, I'm still glad. That you snuggled up close to me, and that you believed what I saw as if it was natural. My leader would probably say something like this. 'It's outrageous to say that you only did what anyone would've done. What you did was absolutely beautiful.'"

"What a cool-sounding leader... Or rather, you could say it's beautiful. Your leader, huh? I'd like to meet that leader someday."

"Ahaha... Of course, I'm sure you'll have the chance to, someday. Because Leader might be as much of a weirdo as you are."

I'd assumed that those words said with that meaningful smile were just said for politeness's sake as she was about to depart, but apparently, it turned out to be Beautiful Sight Mayumi's prediction.

About half a year later, I would end up meeting the extraordinary pretty girl known as the leader of the Pretty Boy Detectives Club with the nickname of "Beautiful Aesthetics Manabu", Soutouin Manabu, and we would end up going on an adventure together.

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