Friendly Village: a second grade trip

Remembering the dissonance of a second grade reader in the Bronx

PS 25 in 1905.  I attended some 55 years later. The school is still there, on 811 E 149th St. NYC.gov That diasporic feeling  There is no one place or time when diaspora occurs…it is a perpetual space of change and displacement. An awareness. It’s a process I share with many, whether by blood, place or experience, with locations linked by oceans and shaped by the relentless squeeze for money…

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when Bad asks Foolish and Baghera “yknow what you do when you’re upset?” and Foolish quietly goes “go out into a desert?” he shot me dead in my home.

Foolish, who spent all his time in the dsmp out in the desert building on his own, never really appreciated. who’s only community builds were never really used - a massive fuck off mansion for Tubbo and Ranboo in Snowchester they never moved into, Kinoko Kingdom which got more appreciation by Quackity, who hated it, than any of the meant to be residents, and the Among Us bunker that never saw the light of day. who’s only friends ended up executing him at a banquet, and the other blackmailing him into joining his city. but it didn’t truly matter - he had the desert to return to, and another massive project to build, even if it was just him around to appreciate it.

the desert was as beautiful as it was dangerous. it was not friendly, and it was not kind, but it was where he built his life. it was where he retreated to when everything else was shit.

and then, however many years later, he finds companionship in the qsmp. people love his builds, use his builds - but appreciate him for more than that. he sticks close instead of moving thousands of blocks away. he falls in love with Vegetta, then he takes care of his daughter. his beloved Leo. he learns another language so she doesn’t have to struggle with his, and they teach each other as they talk. he gets her everything she asks for even if he rolls his eyes and teases her for being spoiled, because he loves her, because he’d move heaven and earth for her. he tells her that she’s good, and that she’s shown him that there’s more to life than just being alone and building all the time.

and then Leo’s gone. and when the panic has settled and the realization that he can’t do anything hits, he goes and works on the titan. he builds and tries not to cry. for a short time, he goes and takes people exploring since they’re also online, and he tasks himself with distracting them to cheer them up (with the bonus of taking out his aggravation on monsters), and he can’t be upset if he’s with company. but lately they haven’t been around, and he’s mostly alone again - so he goes back to building. returning to hours and hours on his own, making more headway in a few days than he has in a month on his build.

he retreats to the desert. where he’s alone, where there’s nothing but him and the sand and his builds, where there’s nothing else in the world, because the rest of the world is unbearable.

Regular ninjas can also walk "like a civilian" and Tori is a freak because she does it all the time, or I have misunderstood the situation?

regular ninja can imitate, but to be good enough to move 100% like a civilian all the time to fool another observant ninja usually takes a lot of training/practice. plasticity!tori uses the fact that passing for a civilian is a difficult skill to her advantage a bit: her cover as a "harmless" civilian is pretty absolute because she, naturally, has no tells.

i expanded a little on this in an unpublished toxicity bit (reborn au au, obito POV):

Tori hummed, pulling apart a piece of bread and watching steam rise from it with a look of childish joy. Obito watched as Shikaku eyed her. Tori was wearing a baggy sweater and skirt, sitting there for all the world like a completely normal civilian child. She managed it in a way neither Deidara or Itachi could, stuck as they were moving unapologetically like trained ninja even if they were as small as children. She held herself in a way that would make any undercover specialist envious, like only someone who had spent an entire lifetime as a civilian could.  Shikaku was clever enough to recognize Tori’s little trick for the danger that it was. Every neuron in his massive brain must want to dismiss the actual most disarming face in the village. Obito watched, thrilled, as his brows furrowed ever so slightly. He hoped she made him nervous.

people always complain about the Tazmily villagers being massive cunts to Lucas during Mother 3 (understandably so, though i think it’s given the entire town a bad rap that isn’t totally deserved) but honestly i kinda. really like it? there’s just something interesting about how a lot of rpgs like this have your town or whatever town you go to supporting you. it’s a neat subversion to have the town you grow up in turn on you for trying to save them because they don’t know any better.

it’s extremely interesting seeing your town, people who have known you your whole life, fall victim to propaganda and lies to the point that they act in unrecognizable ways, but you choose to help them anyways because it’s in your nature.  when the world resets, it gives them a chance to start over.  i think that’s the implication of the ending, considering a lot of Mother 3 is about letting go and forgiving.  i think the villagers needed to be shitty to help drive home that theme (though a lot of them remained relatively kind, i’d say about 50/50 either way).

it also does a lot to say that cruelty can come from anywhere. you don’t have to be a bad person to do bad things like that, but also that it isn’t necessarily a permanent thing, or that there’s more to people than just the bad things they’ve done.  i feel like Mother 3 ends with the idea that the world is given another chance, and that’s huge.  even if the world was cruel, it still deserved kindness back in hopes of a better future.  the Tazmily villagers are still just people, after all.

Itoi gave the villagers a lot of depth to show how multi-faceted people can be, both kind and cruel, good and bad, and leaves the ending up in the air for people to decide what everyone will choose to do once the world begins anew.  one can only hope that they would do better.

So, you know how when an author is writing og!Cale and they want to give him a power, sometimes they give him fantasy spirit stuff? Well, I want elementals to have the usual 'spirit king per attribute' that you usually find in fantasy mangas, but make the water spirit king an axolotl and let og!Cale befriend them.

And when I say Axolotl Water Spirit King I mean 'non-parlant little flying axolotl' that can turn into a 'giantic, water-looking-like, could swallow a pirate ship, still non-parlant axolotl' a la Ponyo.

Just, Imagine og!Cale who was just minding his business and finds a little dorky amphibian that got trapped in a net. And the little dorky one smiles at him. He has no choice but to help it.

The little one likes him. They become friends :D!!

So, turns out his animal friend can fly. Cool.

His new friend decided to follow him— Wait, where is he going?

...Oh.

So, his little friend is not so little anymore.

Ey, don't— spit it out! Spit the bad woman out!

And he doesn't like his relatives.

Melody Tinker’s bedroom

...has anyone thought about how Joel's villagers view Sausage. I mean--okay, so we know they worship Joel, right? And because of that you can kind of assume they worship Hermes too? So what about Sausage? They just see this random ass human guy flying up to God's house every other day to drop off their other god. Like...do you think they think he's a god too? Or do they think he's just...some guy? I need answers

Interstellar Lab's EBIOS project

Paris-based research group interstellar labs is working to bring a Mars-ready village to North America’s Mojave desert – one of the driest places on the continent – to further research on how humans could live on other planets, while simultaneously learning how to create more sustainable communities on Earth.

The design employs space technologies called EBIOS (experimental bio-regenerative stations), the first closed-loop controlled environment habitats on Earth of their kind. According to Interstellar Lab, EBIOS are a framework for regenerative living, providing solutions for water recycling, food production, waste management and nature preservation.  

The site will be able to support up to 100 people in glass-clad domes, served by futuristic transport systems. In addition to laboratories in a dedicated science area where inhabitants can test life-support technologies, there will also be an art and music centre.

AAAROOON!!!!!

DON'T HIDE ALL THE LOST FOOTAGE BEHIND A PAYWALL!!

I'M NOT PAYING $65 DOLLARS FOR YOUR STUPID PREMIUM CHANNEL!!!!

AAAARRROOOONNNN!!!!!

>Dragon Village Collection has a sizable english fandom *vibrates* >DVC also allows foreigners to participate in Creator Dragon contests *VIBRATES FASTER*

QSMP Day 48 Lore Summary

It's that time of the day again, everybody, here we go!!!

So to start off the day, we have Fit logging in to find Dapper and Ramón together, so he just decides that, y'know what? Dapper can stay for a playdate. While they're together tho, they receive some strange coordinates they're meant to follow. The coords lead them out into the ocean and, out of nowhere, a mysterious black sign with a smiley face on it appears. Fit is understandably spooked, so he decides to go back home and tries to summon Cucurucho to question them, which actually works.

Fit tries to question Cucurucho about the binary entity, however, Cucurucho expresses confusion at this, saying they don't know what Fit is talking about and that they had no hand in the attack to the eggs. Fit theorises Cucurucho either truly doesn't know this binary entity exists or straight up doesn't want to admit it does because they don't want it to be known it's causing problems to the Federation since they want to protect the eggs. (They also pretty much confirmed they're non binary since they asked what a pronoun is when Fit asked them, just thought I'd let you know okay-).

Fit goes to visit Philza and tells him everything that has happened, then starts theorising with him, and is surprised to find out Phil has his own theories, especially since he believes Cucurucho and the binary entity might be one and the same (due to him watching the admin changing skins, whether this was intended or a coincidence remains unknown at the moment). Fit believes Philza would make a good addition to the theorists club and wants to tell Maxo about it.

Speaking of which, Maxo logs in a while later and checks if anyone has answered his radio message (no one has) and is later visited by Philza, with whom he shares some theories regarding Cucurucho, the Federation and the binary entity, as well as the codes they've been given since the very beginning (the Morse code that translated to "look for a way out", the binary code name of the entity which keeps changing to different stuff, etc).

Later on, Bad would visit Maxo to get his egg back and also to theorise even some more and try to convince him to get into a pyramid scheme, because these two can't ever give it a rest. It seems like they're also suspicious of the true purpose of the eggs, even if they love them, because they're not sure if the Federation aren't trying to use them to spy on them or control them. Bad will also later theorise that Cucurucho can turn invisible, as well as he'll find yet another black sign reading "Well done", not ominous at all!

But in between all of this we will have a party at Quackity's new house which is in Foolish's dragon's tongue, much to Foolish's dismay. At least he will have Roier's castle if he and Bobby die? Also, Leonarda started a shop and Foolish invited everyone to its inauguration!!

Aside of that though, and going back to the theories, Bad now believes it would be wise to pretend to love the island in order to keep Cucurucho in check, something he will tell Forever later. Speaking of Cucurucho they seem to be very desperate to make sure no one wants to leave the island, as they immediately asked Roier what his problem was when he expressed his desire to leave and quickly tried to find a solution. What the reason for that might be? Who knows...

"Merry Christmas" © Greg Abbott 2023-12-19.

Literally why am I thinking up ideas for a Fallout: Stardew Valley mod?

How do the other countries react to the Iwa massacre? Does anyone even know about it or do they try to hide the fact that they lost 50% of their ninja force? Does the Akatsuki step in to grant some fun help in exchange for more political clout :)))

LMAO i literally didn't think that far ahead because it's not "canon" to reborn au; it was just me exploring a scenario. but given how i've been characterizing them, iwa would attempt to hide it. but they've lost a shit load on manpower in one go, so people will notice the sudden reduction in missions and them abruptly pulling field agents and stuff like that, and eventually they're going to connect it to the konoha team, especially given tori just straight up told the kiri team what happened to kushina. so i think the rumor mill is INSANE. everyone's reputation goes bananas

i think if tori hadn't told kiri that iwa made a move on kushina, the other nations would freak out because it would kind of look like konoha did something insane to another village for no reason. but i think the rumor mill concluding it was in retaliation to iwa doing something dumb AF would make the other villages feels safer lmao. not safe enough that konoha doesn't get blacklisted from a chunin exams for a few years, but.... meh. what are their clients going to do, NOT hire the village capable of infiltrating and knocking iwa off the map?

there might be a risk of another nation trying to overthrown iwa once it's clear they've been weakened, so ame is paying close attention because they've dubbed themselves the ninja cops. so yes iwa might suddenly find themselves asking for some favors :)

my brain is very gone. i cannot read questions but i wanna participate. what’s your fav kind of tea? how do you take your tea?

ooh i love a lot of types of tea so i could never pick a single favorite. i'd say for a single (though often large) cup of hot tea my preference is usually for something strong and fruity. i like herbal blends with hibiscus, peaflower, rosehip etc and/or dried fruit pieces, although this year i've really been enjoying a couple of fruity white or green tea/herbal blends. i love these hot and either unsweetened or with just a drop of honey. this is also usually what i take in my thermal mug to campus bc it doesn't easily suffer from overbrewing so i can brew it in the morning at 9am and have a still-hot cup of tea to drink in rehearsal at 6pm. although occasionally i'll take something black to drink as a single cup; my preference is usually for something strong and spiced, with a bit of cream and lightly sweetened. but if i'm sitting down for an hour or two and enjoying a whole pot of tea, i'm usually drinking either one of the fruit/tea blends or i'm drinking an oolong, no sweetener. i have this WONDERFUL oolong in my cabinet right now from a regional teashop i love that's scented with grape and blackberry and it's got the most well rounded, juicy body to it -- if i had to pick a single favorite it might be that but it's expensive and small batch so i try to save it for when i can really sit down and enjoy it.

as for iced teas: love a cold fruity or hibiscus tea, barely sweet; black tea, strong and lightly sweet, especially with milk (a la boba shop milk tea or chai latte); LOVE an arnold palmer (half unsweet tea/half lemonade); and whatever the hell they put in diet snapple, i could go through cases of that shit all by myself in no time flat.

basically the only teas i don't really like are anything minty, chamomile, and plain green teas and matcha. although i'm recently becoming a convert to the joys of jasmine tea. besides it just tasting good what i love about tea is that there's just So Much out there that there's always something new to try and fall in love with

ok last lil doodle, animal crossing Mizuki concept