#he ended up looking a little like some of the relatives on the filipino side hence the text. don't come at me if it's wrong my tagalog is | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

chocoladieimagines · 3 years

Note

If you’re taking reqs may I request Sanemi x black fem reader who is also a demon slayer and short tempered as him?

Absolutely! In the way of being short tempered, I would think of a s/o who isn’t afraid of speaking her mind if need be. So someone who often doesn’t agree with Sanemi’s actions at times since he can be stubborn and quick to lash out. Also doing things without thinking rationally since it can be extremely difficult to dissuade him from something after harboring so much hatred. Basically, whenever she’s around him, it’s just a totally different side of her she shows towards him that he’s just like ‘damn what I do to her’ lol.

Sanemi Shinazugawa x Black!Reader

- You were first to be born to two parents familial of a powerful military caste.

- During the feudal period, samurai were so highly valued in feudal Japan thanks to their lifetime of training in the art of war, their monopoly on the tools of war, and the use of these two values as officers of peace. Without these valuable traits and possessions, society could no longer justify their existence

- The Emperor Meiji realized that Japan was far behind the western nations in technology and that in order to survive as an independent country, they would need to make dramatic changes to catch up.

- They decided that the division of Japanese society into separate social classes hindered modernization. The task of removing the feudal class system was by removing the informal social superiority of the samurai and integrating them into the rest of society as equals.

- Eventually, they came to accept their new station in life and integrated with the rest of society. They became artisans, merchants, and farmers. Many joined the National army as officers or became civil servants.

- However, several people born in foreign countries were granted the title of samurai. The period of the Nanban (Southern Barbarian) in Japan from 1543 to 1614, is named such to mark the arrival of the first Europeans to Japan and ensuing establishing of certain relations of power and culture. The slaves were not only work horses of heavy labor but some were clerics, translators, interpreters and guides.

- There were different kinds of “black”, different hues and heritages as black bodies as slaves were not only from the African continent but also Malaysian and South Asian negrito tribals, black Asian aboriginal tribal peoples were enslaved by white nations during the colonial period. At the same time, Northern or East Asian attempted continuously to invade and conquer their southern neighbors, by land and sea. A man by the name of Takeshi, a black Asian, became a retainer of a daimyo, a great lord who were vassals of the shogun.

- Since the Southeast Asians and South Sea peoples were of darker complexion and with some having similar physical features with Africans, they were all considered “black” by the northern Asian invaders and traders. Condescending attitudes towards the Southeast Asians, Filipinos, and all tribal people, came concurrently with the desire to rule and be superior. Takeshi’s tribe was conquered and became part of lower caste groups and ethnic groups in Japan. After these ethnic groups were obliterated and assimilated with the Japanese as “one” people, Takeshi became born into a samurai family.

- When a child grew up in a samurai family, he was expected to be a warrior when he grew up, so much of his childhood being spent practicing different martial arts. This became respected of him as a Samurai, since not many black people would have the opportune of joining the upper echelons of Japan’s warrior class, the samurai. However, after samurais became abolished, Takeshi’s family still instilled justice and educated the populace of relatives to keep their operations secretive. They kept the tradition of Samurai because of the arisen of demons, since the creatures live in secrecy upon the outskirts of the population, at large being ignorant to their existence.

- By hiding from persecutors, they were closer to villages or clans which trickles down to you as a descendant of Takeshi.

- Your mother was a female warrior, who would be referred as the Onna-Musha if it were premodern times. The Onna-Musha or Bugeisha were trained in martial arts and strategy, and fought alongside the samurai to defend their homes, families and honors.

- After you were born, you were also trained in the same method with a Naginata; a versatile, conventional pole arm with a curved blade at the tip. It allowed onna-bugeisha better balance given their small stature.

- Since killing demons meant forging Nichirin blades out of Scarlet Crimson Ore (which absorbed sunlight to such an extent that decapitation was all that was needed to kill a demon), your family learned to utilize mystical combat in multiple forms of martial arts.

- By using their own life force energy, they may create, shape and manipulate the energy of elements otherwise, specifically solar energy. It appears as a beautiful luminance around the blade of your naginata; resembling the gaseous form of a flame as it shows iridescence of illuminating colors.

- After you were trained from your parents’ devotion of you having self defense, your siblings were born into the world. One by one looking up to you as their role model—someone worthy of imitation. Due to being accompanied by your little brothers and sisters, you felt a sense of a gravitational pull to them. Feeling the necessity of ensuring their safety and security, immutably driving you to respond to even their needs like it was a maternal instinct. Which included developing a distressed mentality that precipitated firing off on someone in defense of an argument (usually for the protection of others).

- Your family was unbeknownst of the Demon Slayer Corps until you encountered a tall, muscular, and slender man with spiky white hair and large lavender eyes. You were surprised to see that his body and face were covered in scars which looked to have “accrued” after years of his (seemingly) encyclopedic knowledge against fighting demons.

- He looked at you strangely as well; you wore a slit silky white kimono patterned by green bamboo lattice and one arm wriggled free of a sleeve, cinched with a matching green sash. Your freed arm allowed view of your sarashi wrapped tightly around your chest as your arm was lightly armored in iron plates and kusari (iron chain mail) sewn together in layers. A conical bamboo hat was loosely tied around your neck so the hat could lie on your back, showing your features to him.

- His eyes ogled you from your Geta sandals and your smooth bared leg to the luster of your garment shining the curvatures of your hips. He silently thought the expression of your features was attractive, especially the thick coily tresses of your hair that framed your face. The way it outwardly levitated from gravity due to its curly strands was particularly unique to him.

- You didn’t like the way he stared at you. It felt like you were on display for his eyes to undress you. “What is your business here?” You inquired, pulling the man’s notice on your hand clenching your weapon. It was said prior that more demons became present near your rural areas. You went on duty to track where they were coming from—inside the woods—only to find the man beheading them and stringing some up for daybreak. He possibly did it to torture them.

- “I should be asking you the same thing.” He scoffed. “Surely you weren’t coming to kill those demons, especially in that attire. Quite provocative for the Demon Slayer’s uniform.” “Excuse me? Provocative? For what uniform? I am not schooled like some student. And what if I am a demon slayer?” You spoke in incredulousness. It seemed so misogynistic to you that you were first judged on the clothing honorary to your tradition. You wondered if he thought it deprived from your abilities.

- He chuckled as if you just made a joke, “You wouldn’t last a day if you think being a Demon Slayer is about getting dolled up. It looks like you’re trying to attract demons more than fend them off.” “And who are you to judge how I dress? Do you think that flaunting your abs will counter my ability of kicking your ass?” “What? These?” He opened his gakuran jacket more to expose the six pack of his abdominal muscles, feeling heat escalate to your cheeks as he beheld more of the scars on his body. He then responded to your gaze with a smirk, “How kind of you to make a comparing example of something that’s attractive. You can touch them too if you’d like.”

- Was he flirting with you? First, he criticized you on you looks, now he decided to taunt you? You grasped your naginata and spaced your feet into a stance. You grabbed the polearm with your backhand over your thigh and your front hand gripped higher up the weapon away from the body. You kept your posture straight for a proper height of the blade.

- He deviously snickered, “What a naughty girl. You know it’s against the rules for demon slayers to fight each other upon confrontation.” “What rules? On our turf, you are on our property. Which means you have the obligation to move or be moved.” You denounced. “Such big talk. I’ll end this quickly so master will barely see it as a fight.”

- With that, he dashed towards you, surprising you to see he didn’t unsheathe his weapon. The way he zipped towards you, he was meaningful of close combat at short range, unlike your naginata which coupled with greatly increased distance gave the spearman a real advantage. You decided in quick process to rely on your agility and powerful kicks as you channel your energy through your attacks. It would greatly enhance and empower yourself and your executions for more efficacy or potency for damage.

- You evaded his swift attack by being able to propel yourself on your naginata, mutually measuring out the steadiness between your weight and the pole. By this, you were able to “squat” on your weapon from above and consider the next attack to perform. Within the time frame of him realizing you’ve dodged his move, you swung your body and temporarily featured upper body strength in defying gravity. You paralleled your body with the ground and for a second’s notice distributed your weight with the naginata—landing a concussive kick into his side. The impact knocked him back a far distance, colliding into a tree.

- You quickly ran towards him, fluently combining fast and slow slashes with side and forward dashes to create variants of attacks and to force him to remain in defense and safe distance from you. Yet, he moved instantaneously in response to his stimulus, being able to try to control his reaction time and adapt into some of your methods of thinking/fighting. Thus, he “used your strength” against you, making the precision of composite punches to your face. You hit the ground, seeing him hover over your body and holding down your arms, “Like I said, our match is over. You will come back with me to face consequences.”

- You managed to pull your legs to your chest and kick him away from you, “I don’t answer to you! I don’t even know who you are or this place you’re loyal to.” You kick your body back up, following back into a stance to prepare you for anymore engagement. “Quit acting so damn confused, you’re a demon slayer aren’t you?” He remarked questionably. You frowned in frustration, wondering if he was subliminally asking something. “Well technically yes, but obviously not in the definition you mean.” You said.

- The man deeply sighed, “Women. You’re so flip-floppy. How can you nod your head yes but say no?” You rolled your eyes, “Because you asshole, I still kill demons, just not in the same uniform as you.” “Hmph, only the swordsman of the Demon Slayer Corps utilize nichirin blades that are powerful enough to kill demons. How could you not be in the organization if you can still kill them?” “My family and I have been living in secrecy from the government because as descendants, our predecessors still practiced the tradition of the samurai. We resorted towards rural settlements by richer jungle to be able to hide our weapons and practices extant because of demons. We’ve never heard of this ‘Demon Slayer Corps’ since we thought we were the only ones being militant and knowledgeable of demons’ existence.”

- Sanemi had many questions but thought it would be wise to save them for Oyakata-Sama. Suddenly, a crow began to drift above you two and utter a series of grating caws, “Ca-Caw! Sanemi Shinazugawa is to report back to Oyakata Sama! Ca-Caw!” “I hate that fucking bird.” You heard Sanemi mumble. “You know my name so you’re coming with me. The Demon Slayer Corps is more sustainably adequate for you anyway.”

- As much as you wanted to protest what he meant in clarification, you knew what he meant. If you were to join the Demon Slayer Corps, you could raise more money for your family, since you were practically cut off from the rest of Japan’s economies. You live without the government’s support which meant that without roads, markets, banks and connections to the rest of the country, no new economies would take root. Instead, you were labor-intensive; plantations that exploit cheap labor available in nearby villages and towns, while the majority of the crops grown are mostly shipped to global markets.

- Upon meeting “Oyakata-Sama”, you hesitantly followed Sanemi’s lead in kneeling before the gentleman. You didn’t want to be rude possibly staring at what appeared to be an illness or disease he had befallen. Nevertheless, he had a gentle and calm demeanor that enraptured you. “Master, I am pleased to see you in good health. I fervently pray for your continued good fortune,” Sanemi wished, suprisingly showing a side of reverence for him. “During my mission, I happened to encounter one of the villagers who says her and her family are samurai and are capable of defending themselves against demons although they have no prior knowledge or connections with the Demon Slayer Corps.”

- “How interesting, especially since the samurai were abolished during the Meiji Restoration at least 44 years ago. May I know your name?” He asked while you were partially listening, due to being soothed by his calming voice. Sanemi elbowed you to catch your attention, “Oh! My name is Y/N L/N, pleased to meet you, sir.” “Indeed a samurai clan. I must know the reason why you and your family decided to keep paying homage to these military warriors.”

- You explained everything about your family to the man; your fighting styles, your way of practicing, your attire, etc. Sanemi “patiently” stayed by your side since he wouldn’t leave without Oyakata’s orders. Although your apparel was a bit disheveled from earlier, Sanemi still slightly thought you pulled the look off, expertly. There was something about your unique fashion that made him feel warmth, magnetism, enticement—weird. For someone as abrasive, hot-blooded and stubborn as he was, he never thought he would be trusted with the idea of intimacy between another person. His cold personality resulted in losing too many people he cared about in the past. Opening himself up again for someone would be too much, especially in a world where it was a war between demons and humans.

- “Sanemi, could you please show Y/N around to sway her interests of joining our alliance?” Oyakata requested, awakening him out of his thoughts. “Of course Master.” Despite starting off on the wrong foot, he did as told, guiding you straightforwardly in detail and didn’t stop if you wanted to pause to look at something. His pace was haste, deciding to take in your surroundings while you had the chance to. Many children participated in the organization; the uniforms were coed between either wearing pleated skirts or hakama pants with the same gakuran top you saw Sanemi in. They appeared to differentiate in colors, Sanemi’s a green tint in the sunlight in the place of some of the darker ones others wore—navy blue, purple, black or even a brown. They also practiced kenjutsu ; where a bokken or wooden sword was used as a safe substitute for katanas for sparring.

- Oyakata informed you about the Demon Slayer Corps so as you were briefly toured, you would understand the things you looked at. But seeing the children risking their lives after the cost of their families, awfully reminded you of your siblings. Back at home, your parents would mostly tend to the domestic chores as they relied on you as one of their warriors to protect the village. Then, they could keep watch of the rest of their children, often something you felt the necessity of doing. Watching over your family. When you noticed Sanemi left you, you went to try and interact with the rest of the Hashira; introducing yourself, producing conversation and helping out with chores if you could.

- You made the most conversation with Shinobu Kocho, Insect Hashira. She displayed a laid back demeanor, a smile frequently present on her face which exhibited a bright and cheery nature. But it facaded her enjoyment of teasing others to the point of being rather sadistic through the jokes she made. You weren’t sure to shocked or to laugh, afraid of how the others would see you. “Oh it’s ok, you can laugh. Especially in front of Tomioka.” She giggled. You breathed a sigh of relief and let a half suppressed snigger peep from your lips.

- Then you cleared your throat, “Is it okay if I ask you about Sanemi Shinazugawa?” Shinobu looked at you questionably, “Why? Are you afraid of him? Trust me, as scary as he may want to make himself look, it’s just a front.” “No, he doesn’t scare me. I initiated a fight with him earlier because of some of the things he said. My people didn’t need to be saved by him, especially if it would’ve been only to disrespect us. It’s like a smack in the face of how we’ve been raising ourselves to be true warriors.” “Yes, I apologize for Shinazugawa. He can do things out of line, unfortunately more times than we know it. But his cold exterior armors a soft soul. I’ve treated his younger brother, Genya; he can be just as ill-tempered and non-cooperative as his brother but he is apparently shy around women, especially my girls, Sumi, Kiyo, and Naho. He told me that he was in search of Sanemi, eldest of seven children, after their family was killed. He remembers Sanemi saved him from their mother but became isolated because he labeled him as a murderer in panic. Up to now, since he is little brother, Shinazugawa throws harsh rebukes at him because he cares for him. Think of it like a bully, most times they’re bowling you by hurting and insulting you, but it can also be their way of showing interest in you or an attraction in the way of giving you a hard time.”

- “I understand. Thank you, Shinobu.” You bowed. “Your welcome, Y/N.” Unbeknownst to you, Sanemi heard your conversation nearby, since he randomly felt he should locate where you were. Later, you bowed to Oyakata when you were on your way back home. He welcomed you to feel free of accompanying them anytime you wanted, they had open arms if you needed protection. Shortly after you left, you felt someone yank you by your arm. You quickly freed yourself by twisting your hand out of the opening where their thumb and finger met.

- “Since when did you have permission to touch me? And why are you trying to pull me somewhere no one can see us?” You questioned Sanemi. “Don’t think that I like you. Don’t think that after what that girl told you that you know me or that I won’t pull my punches.” He warned. “Trust me, I wouldn’t think for a day that I would stoop myself so low.” “And what do you mean by that?” “However you take it. I wouldn’t be concerned about someone who sees me like anyone else or be a doormat.” “Then why are you putting yourself as an example if it wouldn’t affect you?” “Cause it wouldn’t.” “Maybe it would if you’re trying to morally describe yourself.” “Why are you here? Just to make a threat or to walk me home? I can take of myself thank you, remember by how I bested you in combat.”

- “Oh please, I was the one who ended up on top. If our fight lasted you would be talking to that girl for a different reason.” He said, making you laugh. “That’s quite optimistic of you but never underestimate your enemy Shinazugawa. We shall have a rematch, no?” He smirked with a devilish grin, “If that’s your death wish then I shall be your reaper.” His response entertained you and during your exchange, he ended up walking with you home regardless. “Thank you for the laughs Sanemi. It will be fun when I fight you here tomorrow.” You winked.

- That next day, upon his visitation, he attempted to surprise attack you. You successfully dodged it, “Nice day we’re having.” “Hmm.” Then got a view of each other. He noticed you wore a white kosode with sode-kukuri (cords) through the sleeves and opened shoulders. Muna-himo (strings) were attached to each lapel and tied in front to keep the garment closed with your black hakama. He wondered if you could’ve changed into more of a practical outfit because of what he commented. Yet, you moved just as fast and did well at keeping him from getting close enough to impact you. He found an opening and kicked you in the face, causing you to fall.

- “I have a feeling you like being on top of me.” You said to him as he tried to tower you. You rolled your torso into a circular path on the ground and twirled your legs into a v shape. When you tripped Sanemi, it was your turn to crawl on top of him out of humorous reasons. “I like where this fight is heading.” He mischievously thought. “Yeah for me. I disarmed you and you’re in my submission.” He chuckled, “Cause I let you, that’s what makes the fun of it.” He winked then bucked his hips into you. You gasped, taking the opportunity to punch him continuously in his face. Not because of what he did but for being merciless from pulling each other’s punches.

- He didn’t put his guard up but lets the blood trickle from his nose and into the junction of his lips. “Not a scratch.” He smugly smiled, licking the blood away from above his lip. When you treated him afterwards, he formed more respect for you and subconsciously allowed his feelings to pervade his system. He made more nonsensical jokes to hear you laugh and listened to your opinions more than his usual stubborn self. He alarmed you of some of the threats that were coming your way, indirectly inviting you to join him on his missions. It built cooperation between you two, as well as more of a bond than constantly contesting everything. Although, a time when you argued, you hugged him as a way to reassure him that you cared and considered him as your friend. It made you laugh to see him resist from hugging you back.

- You showed more of a friendlier side to him as you would to your family. You introduced him to your siblings which joyfully reminded him of his family, including Genya. One time, while you two were watching the sunset, you saw that one of your little sisters was hesitating to come talk to him. “It’s ok, he won’t bite.” You encouraged her, pulling his attention towards her. She showed him numerous flowers and asked him questions of what was his favorite things. It warmed your heart to see a compassionate side of him as he answered all of them, including you as answer. That made it much aware to you of his feelings for you.

- “Did you know what I meant?” He asked you that night. “Yes, thank you, you’re my favorite too.” You smiled. “But I mean it,” He said, giving you back your hug like you did before. “I hesitated to accept the feeling of love because I don’t want to lose anyone again.” You looked up from the warmth of his chest and into the conveyance of his eyes; now filled with adoration and worship. “Trust me love, I’m not going anywhere.” And you two kissed.

Thank you for reading! I apologize for the late response, I’ve been busy a lot but I wanted to do as you requested! I wish everyone a wonderful day!🤎🍫

#demon slayer x poc!reader #demon slayer x black reader #demon slayer x reader #kny x reader #sanemi fluff #sanemi x reader #hashira x reader #anime x black!reader

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ellewords · 3 years

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new written on the margins question!!! It’s Atsumu Time (though tbh i could also see this happening with best flower girl oikawa too but i’m Biased)

so you go to a relative’s wedding and you bring atsumu with you bc like why not?? he’s met your family already, might as well introduce him to your extended family too BUT you soon regret this so much because him and his charismatic big mouf are getting along TOO well with everyone and now your cousins and sibling(s) are telling embarrassing stories to him about you when you were younger OOGH i can imagine a lot of relatives being like ??? how’d you manage to date a famous volleyball player what’s ur secret?!?

but the Real Threat is with the older aunts and grandmas, who pinch your cheeks while talking about how small you were when they last saw you and how you’ve grown up so beautifully now that you’re older not to mention you’ve got yourself a handsome boyfriend—when’s the wedding?? at this question you CHOKE on your drink and atsumu snickers at your predicament and how flustered you are but still pats your back as you cough and try to recollect your bearings

BUT. you’ve got a little surprise that admittedly you’re quite nervous about!! this is based off of how a few years ago in 2015 i went to the philippines to visit family—my grandparents on my dad’s side had their wedding anniversary and they were renewing their vows i think?? anyways i was asked to sing a song for them at their reception (this also happened when i was younger, probably around 2007/2008 at the wedding anniversary for my grandparents on my mom’s side; all of us grandkids were tasked on preparing a little performance at the reception too)

you’re called up to the stage to sing a lil something and at first atsumu’s like eh? what’s this? but you’re like AH......WELL.....YOU’LL SEE....and when you start singing and playing guitar or something he’s just like :0!!!!!!!!!!! HE’S ENTRANCED......HE FUMBLES WITH HIS PHONE TO RECORD YOU SO HE CAN SAVE THIS FOREVER WHY DIDN’T YA TELL HIM YOU COULD SING OR THAT YOU WERE DOING ALL THIS HUH—🌸

— from elle ! aaah sakuranon ngl i saw “philippines” and my filipino self went 👀 oh? 👀 anyways, tsumu would be so so adorable when meeting family like this charming mf would just make everyone in the room fall in love with him <33 anyways, short lil scenario feat. yn and a very soft atsumu. thank you for this it made me v giddy aaaa i hope you are having a wonderful day <3 this also got a little too long i'm so sorry :<<

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“please, just stop.” you groaned, fingertips rubbing your temples in frustration, elbows resting on the table. meanwhile, atsumu has been laughing it up with your aunts, letting them pinch his cheeks and swoon over how adorable he was. and of course, your boyfriend is eating all that attention up, giving out compliments left, right, and center, “aw, c’mon. ya don’t even look a day over thirty.”

you shut your eyes, resting your forehead on the edge of the table, truly wishing that you were anywhere else — trying your best to drown out whichever drunk cousin was singing his heart out on the stage, interjecting every now and then with some ramble on how “true love does exist. right, everyone?”

there’s hand resting on your back, rubbing slow circles, “what’s wrong, babe? ya alright?”

looking up at him, you sit up straight to gently shove his shoulder, “of course i am, my family’s fallen in love with my boyfriend and telling him every single story from my youth. i feel wonderful!”

atsumu threw his head back in laughter, grinning at the huff that escaped you, the pout on your lips, the way you crossed your arms in front of your chest, the complete tone of sarcasm that laced your words. is it possible that he could fall in love with you even more? part of him should feel bad that he’s taking in every word about the story of your first crush, or watching every single dance performance you’ve ever put on for the family from the ages 3 to 7. “that’s great, ‘m havin’ a lot of fun too.”

he kissed your forehead before returning to watch seven year old you’s rendition of the themes song of your favorite show, “d’ya have anymore of these and could ya send ‘em to me?”

your aunt grinned, “of course, sweetie. but how do i do that?”

you opened your mouth to retort, to save yourself from any more embarrassment, when you hear you name getting called. just like that, your heartbeat increases tenfold, placing a hand over your heart to calm yourself down as you release a shaky breath.

atsumu furrowed his brows as you stood from your seat. he grabs your hand before you could get too far from him, “babe? why are they calling’ for ya?”

a nervous smile forms on your face, “you’ll see.”

he lets go of your hand as the furrow in his brows just grew deeper, confusion only increasing even as you took the mic in your hands, voice trembling ever so slightly as you spoke into the mic, “this is for the happy couple. i wish you a lifetime of love and light.”

the second the music started to play, atsumu is standing from his seat, trying to get as close to the stage as possible. his hands fumbled for his phone, fishing it out of his pocket, almost slipping between his fingers before he could press record.

you tried to keep your eyes away from him, knowing that it will only trip you up as your cue to sing finally came, “hold me close and hold me fast, this magic spell you’ve cast. this is la vie en rose.”

atsumu practically squealed, completely breathless from your singing voice. there are times where he had heard you humming around your apartment, but this was a completely different experience. how could someone's heart stop and speed up at the exact same time? he was transfixed, entranced, everyone in the room had melted away into nothing.

your heart fluttered at the sight of the newly-wedded couple slow dancing to your singing, closing your eyes every now and then as you took in the lyrics you sang, the air of love filling the entirety of the reception hall.

for most of the song, you avoided atsumu’s gaze, knowing that he wasn’t all too far from the stage. but you couldn’t help but make eye contact with him as you sang the final lines, “and when you speak angels sing from above, everyday words seemed to turn into love song.”

tears pricked the corner of atsumu’s eyes, the hand that held his phone trembling slightly. perhaps, it is possible that he could fall in love with you anymore.

you took a breath, giving him a soft smile as you sang the final line, “give your heart and soul to me, and life will always be...la vie en rose.”

yeah, it definitely was possible to fall in love with you more.

the crowd erupted into applause as soon as you ended; but truthfully, you couldn’t really care less about them, your eyes still trained on atsumu’s as he mouthed an “i love you” after the final strum of the acoustic guitar.

“i'm assuming you liked my performance?” you asked, nervous, as you made your way back to him.

“babe! if ya were gonna make me melt, can ya at least give me a heads up?” atsumu exclaimed, wrapping his arms around you, “why didn’t ya tell me about this? yer so so talented, ‘m so proud, can’t believe i'm with someone so amazin’...”

a lil bonus :

you run into sakusa and meian at the gym they practiced at to meet atsumu for a night around town.

“date night with miya?” meian asked, raising a brow at your completely dressed up look.

you respond with a nod and meian continues, “he’ll be down soon, he’s just changing.”

“listen, yn,” sakusa began, tone somewhat teasing — at least, you think it was. sakusa had always been friendly with you. “i think you’re an absolutely fantastic singer but if atsumu shows us that video of you singing at a wedding one more time, i'm shoving his phone down his throat.”

you step back in shock, unaware that atsumu had been doing that in the first place, “he shows you that?”

“every damn day.”

a voice spoke up from behind them, “and how could i not? i have the most talented partner don’t i?”

“someday you’ll get tired of my singing.” you mumbled, leaning into atsumu’s touch as he placed an arm around your shoulders.

“nah, don’t think i ever will.”

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a question: what would the hq characters be like at a wedding? | written on the margins masterlist

taglist : @haikyuutothetop @crystal-lilac @tobioespresso @sushijimawakatoshi @itsmeaudrieee @pantherhappy @jesssobs @mysticstrawberryballoon @cloudedsky_29 @sakusasimpbot

join my hq taglist here. <3

#ngl i was stuck between can’t help falling in love and la vie en rose #but i rewatched himym sooo #anyways i am: soft #written on the margins 🔖#atsumu scenarios #atsumu x reader #atsumu imagines #atsumu fluff #🎐 — 🌸sakuranon! <3

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purplesurveys · 3 years

Text

1167

surveys by emptyliketheocean

Brand of cigarettes you smoke? I don’t smoke cigarettes, or at least I never buy my own packs.

Should you be trusted with a person's life? Idk, that’s for them to decide.

How's your life in general? I lost two relatives from Covid this week alone. So, not very dandy. Still in shock. Waiting for it to all finally crash down so I can grieve and mourn properly. Scared of more losses and hoping there aren’t any more to come.

Have you ever put lipstick on anything besides lips? I don’t wear makeup, but when my friends have put some on me in the past there were a couple of times they dabbed lipsticks on my cheeks.

Have you ever picked a fight you knew you would lose? Metaphorically speaking, yeah. I don’t get into physical fights.

What's something you think is crazy about the world? The concept of centibillionaires and the fact that there are multiple ones who exist.

What do you think about religion? I think the only upside to it is how it has helped save lives for some and how it serves as a guide for others to spread good in the world. Like if your religion has given you purpose and strength, that’s great. But ultimately, I’m not a fan and I most definitely don’t think religion is necessary to be a kind person. In fact, I think it works the opposite...most of the homophobes, misogynists, pro-lifers, and sexists I know are from the Christian faith. Cringe.

What about when religion causes violence? Well I definitely have a bone to pick with this lol. The only reason the Philippines is predominantly Catholic today is precisely that when the Spanish arrived, they used violence to forcingly convert Filipinos - who were then living in peace with their own culture, government, and religion system - to Christianity. And now we’re ‘celebrating’ 500 years of Christianity in the country this year, which was always so off to me because why are we celebrating colonization lol????????????? But anyway, yeah, that is another issue I have with religion. I want nothing to do with it.

What color is one of your hats? I have an off-white summer hat but I have literally never used it in public because it’s huge and it’s 100% going to draw attention.

How do you feel? My shoulders are sore and I’m feeling slightly irritated because of them. I’m also starting to get a bit hungry.

Have you ever gotten in trouble for laughing? A few times.

Something that makes you smile: Free food.

What do you think about surveys with lyrics as the title? Surveys with random lyrics usually end up being the ones with interesting questions, so I actually am more likely to check it out.

Do you have any clothes with small holes in them? Maybe one or two.

Do you think the way you live is really okay? I think I am already quite fortunate with what I have considering what others don’t, so it’s definitely been a while since I have complained about anything during this whole Covid situation, living-situation-wise. Even though we’ve lost a few things, like having to sell one of our cars and with my mom being retrenched, we still get by and have a roof over our heads with working water and electricity and a stocked pantry; and I make enough money to hand a portion of it to my parents twice a month and still treat myself with things I want. There is nothing to bitch about.

Do you know anyone other than a cop who has ever owned a cop car? No.

Have you ever felt fire? No, but electricity, yes. I’ve been shocked before but that was also my own fault lol.

Have you ever seen a person light themselves on fire? Jesus no.

Have you ever used crutches when you didn't need them? Yes. I used to horse around with Katreen’s crutches when she injured her legs in 3rd grade, when she wasn’t using them.

If you had 15 beers you would be: Dead.

Are you as bored as I am? No, I’m good.

Why are you taking this survey? I feel like it.

What would you say if a person asked you why your face was so messed up? “How do you want me to react?” Easiest way to shut a person up and passive aggressively tell them to watch what they say.

What would you do if your first love asked you back out? Be very confused and ask why the sudden decision.

What's your home life like? It’s very routine, due to having to stay at home. I work a 9–6 on weekdays, follow that up with dinner, and use a few hours to scroll through social media until it’s time to sleep. Then on weekends I use the free time to recharge by taking surveys and watch videos of whoever and whatever I’m interested in at the moment. Just waiting for all of this to blow over so I can finally do the things I’m meant to be doing.

Do you have a talent that you don't do anything with? I don’t write a lot for myself these days. I do write frequently for work, which is great - press releases, event scripts, all your PR essentials - but I don’t get stimulated enough since everything is written in the same tone. I really should pick up a notebook and pen soon...

Do you know anyone that is a lesbian? Yes. Not that she’s in my life anymore.

What do you think about your mom? I think she tries her best. But I wish she were more emotionally in touch. And that she starts being politically correct.

What do you think about your dad? He’s worked hard and continues to, and I appreciate all his efforts; and I can’t wait to be able to buy him all the things he wants.

Which parent do you respect the most? Who do you think? Hahahaha.

Is there anything someone could lie to you about that you couldn't forgive? I suppose, like cheating.

Who do you love unconditionally? My two best friends.

Pick an element. Oooookay? Zirconium.

Have you ever wasted a great amount of time and felt horrible about it? It always feels that way on weekends these days because there’s only so much that can be done while stuck at home because of Covid. But I do try to justify it by telling myself I already work too hard during weekdays so it’s ok to bum around at home and do nothing, because using the time to recharge is still productive.

What is something that's been said about you that isn't true? My mom has said a lot of hurtful things directed towards me that I internalized for a very long time, but I’ve since gained the strength to no longer let those words get to me.

Who do you want with you when you're scared? Anyone who can be calm while I’m not.

Know any bands that not many people have heard of? Many of the punk bands I listen to are virtually unknown on this side of the planet.

Do you have any advice for people in general? Don’t be racist.

What's something you like to do in the summer? Complain about the heat.

What's something you like to do in the winter? We don’t get winter here, but I’ve always thought I would love snow if I ever saw it, and that I would probably make a lot of snow angels and play snowball fights.

What do you think about marijuana? I don’t have a strong opinion on it as it’s still a very taboo topic where I’m from and I’ve also been lacking on research. I do know people who use it for recreational purposes and I’ve never been against that.

Do you wish anyone death? Just politicians.

Have you ever felt like you weren't getting anywhere with a person? Yes, it felt that way for a long time. I just was too afraid of confrontation to do anything about it.

What do you feel for the person you first fell in love with? Resentment and a whole lot of nothing.

Where are you? I’m in my bedroom.

Are you waiting for something? Hmm, not necessarily.

Who is someone you just think has a hole in their brain? People who still think Covid is a hoax.

A candy you like? Gummy anything.

Does any part of your body hurt at the moment? My shoulders and neck, hence the neck pillow I’ve since put on while taking this.

Explain how you got the last bruise you had. I honestly have no clue. I currently have a big black circle on my right thigh that just suddenly showed up, and I can’t recall a time I must’ve hit it somewhere.

Are you tired? A little bit because I got up as soon as I woke up, but I wanted to maximize my free time this Sunday before another work week starts. Last Friday would be our last non-working holiday in a while and we’re not getting another one until August. :(

Explain how you got a scar you have. A distant cousin hurled a glass jar towards me when I was 3, during a family reunion. He initially went for my eye because I guess he wanted to blind me, but he missed and ended up hitting my eyebrow instead. My mom has since banned him from talking to me ever since, and I don’t think I’ve ever even seen him since the incident.

Have you ever owned anything illegal? Illegal copies of movies I’ve torrented, sure.

What do you dream about? The most random scenarios. I’ll get the occasional nightmare, but those only happen when I’m going through a period of depression.

Do you ever daydream? Not anymore these days.

How do you feel about vegetarians? I don’t really think anything of them. There are days I’ll particularly feel for them because there aren’t a lot of restaurants with good vegetarian options where I live, though.

A fruit you like: Avocado, in very limited options.

Have you ever seen a person eat a bug? Only bugs that were already prepared a certain way and meant to be eaten; but I’ve never seen a person that just picked up a bug off the ground and went straight to chewing. I imagine I would freak out and gag.

Something you worry about too much: How much is in my bank account.

How do you feel about smoking? I hate how the smell clings to your clothes and all your things when you’ve been smoking or when you’ve been around people who smoke. I also wince when people pose with their cigarettes just to look badass and cool; but as someone who’s since picked up vaping as a habit, my once-intense hatred for smoking and smokers has since changed lol.

If you had to move out of state, where would you go? I would move to a big city. Somewhere noisier and with a lot of lights and foot traffic and general activity.

What is your favorite vampire-related movie? The Twilight Saga hahahahahaha

Is there a person you keep coming back to? My best friends, I guess?

If you're listening to music...Give me a lyric from the song you're listening to. I’m not listening to anything.

#survey #surveys

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bigskydreaming · 4 years

Text

For @imashittalkingmushroom who requested some Tim content. Excerpt from one of the seemingly endless WIPs I toil away at in my downtime because me pace myself, in this economy, hah. This one’s called “The Vienna Game” and is Batfam ensemble versus a new rising threat, which Tim has a revelation about here. This part is just a rough draft for the moment, but you get the idea.

THE VIENNA GAME

Chapter Five: Pawn Storm

Barely five minutes after Tim’s head hit his pillow, he sat bolt upright in bed, heart hammering in his throat.

“They’re all connected,” he said, wide-eyed to an empty room. The lack of a response bequeathed by his surroundings was a bit, well, lacking, so he leaped to his feet and raced down to the hall to the Batcave’s nearest access point.

“They’re all connected,” he shouted again as he took the rough-hewn stone stairs three at a time. His words bounced and rattled off the walls of the cave, winging upwards into its darkest recesses and rousing the bats from their nests overhead. They scattered in every direction, deeper into the darkness, as they reacted to his urgency and intensity with shrieking complaints.

If only his actual family could be similarly moved. But no, they had to suck instead.

“Whozit whatzit howzit?” Dick swiveled in his chair, just enough to shoot the younger boy a quizzical eyebrow but not enough to necessitate removing his feet from next to the Batcomputer’s keyboard, where Bruce was currently drilling holes into them with a patented (and thus wholly ineffective) Batglare.

“What is it Lassie? Did Timmy fall down the well again? One bark for yes, two for no,” Jason said brightly. He bent at the waist and braced his hands on his thighs as though actually talking to a dog; it had the unfortunate side-effect of making his stupid brother a stupid firmly planted rock that did little more than shift the merest micro-meter when Tim rolled his eyes and brusquely shouldered past him.

“That doesn’t even make any sense. I’m Timmy,” he said irritably. Too late he realized the trap he’d blearily wandered into as his jackass brother practically cackled with glee. Tim reddened and quickened his pace to the Batcomputer. “Oh shut up.”

Jason swivelled, but whatever his intended follow-up, he abruptly cut off as an apple core arced out of the shadows and bounced off his head. The second eldest pivoted sharply once more and scowled in the direction it’d come from as Tim absently took note of the several other apple cores scattered around Jason’s feet.

“Would you stop that?”

Cassandra, target of his ire, merely contemplated him for a beat before shaking her head.

“No thank you,” she politely declined, and she bit into a fresh apple with a loud crunch.

“You will be cleaning those up, not Alfred,” their father said, wearily enough Tim got the sense this had been going on for quite some time. His sister just shrugged.

“Worth it.”

Bruce exercised the better part of valor and shifted his attention back to Tim. “And didn’t you say you were going to bed?”

“I did say that,” Tim said agreeably as he barreled forth unto the Batcomputer. He batted (hah - oh no, the sleep deprivation was real) Dick’s feet aside and rebutted Dick’s injurious expression with an apologetic one of his own; apparently appeased, Dick just lithely shrugged and lifted his linked legs straight off the desk’s surface and then just never stopped. Instead he kept lifting his legs up, up and away until he’d transitioned into a perfect handstand on the seat of the chair, which he then transitioned out of by gracefully flipping over the chair’s back and onto his feet. Because see, Tim’s eldest brother’s middle name was not in fact ‘John,’ it was ‘Just That Extra.’

“I even did that,” Tim continued as he set his fingers to dancing swiftly across the keyboard. “But then I realized something.”

“You look ridiculous when you pop your collar,” Steph said knowingly.

“What? No. Wait, when have I ever done that?”

“Umm, the last time you were drunk, duh.”

Tim paused just long enough to shoot his ex an absolutely baffled look, over where she was lounging bonelessly next to Cass.

“When was I drunk?”

Steph tilted her head to the side and squinted in thought. “Drunk, concussed....whatever. It was definitely one of those two. I have pictures. They’re not good.”

Perhaps sensing his impending spontaneous combustion, Bruce interceded, raising a hand to quiet the perpetual storm of sibling (and Steph) nonsense.

“What’s this about, Tim?”

“Our newest Rogue, the one we just finally caught last week,” Tim reported, turning his attention back to the Dance of the Keystrokes. “We have a problem.”

Their father frowned. “Desperado? What’s the problem?”

“His name,” Tim said grimly. He finished pulling up the string of files he’d only minutes ago linked together in his own mind. Flashing into existence on the wall to wall screens before them were all the notes the various members of their family had compiled on the new villain in town, as well as a number of other files for a good dozen or so other relatively new or unknown villains scattered across the globe, with these latter documents pulled from the digital archives of various superhero teams and law enforcement agencies worldwide.

Blitz, a speedster located in Southern California, their indistinct form pixelated and blurred virtue of the crackling halo of electrical energy they seemed to wear like a cloak of St. Elmo’s Fire.

A Filipino man and woman purported to be fraternal twins operating out of a number of hotspots throughout Southeast Asia, with a combined name whose translation from Tagalog roughly amounted to ‘Double Check.’

A young brunette woman seemingly barely out of her teens, with eyes hidden behind an overly large pair of sunglasses, linked to a series of crimes in Argentina and Chile and allegedly going by the name ‘Swindle.’

A black man in his mid to late twenties, moving across the Iberian peninsula, with no reported name given, just a strange adherence to a symbol that appeared to be of a windmill, of all things, and that had local press dubbing him ‘Don Quixote.’

King March, a white man in his late forties to early fifties, with black hair and greying temples and a stern but smug disposition in all the files Interpol had compiled on him due to his frequent appearances as a person of interest throughout Eastern Europe.

A short, acrobatic Latino teleporter who offered up only the name ‘Castle’ in his sporadic run-ins with various hero organizations across the globe.

Tempo, suspected to originally hail from Sri Lanka, and last sighted in Hong Kong of all places...and by no means the only one of this assortment of individuals engaged in criminal enterprises in a city known for its Batman Inc presence.

Undermine, a masked man so far content to operate just out of Australia.

Flag Fall, another masked individual largely spotted in the Southeastern U.S.

An unseen person or persons known only by a calling card left in various Saharan regions, identifying them as someone named ‘Tabia.’

And lastly, a mature black woman out of the UK, sporting a wry, enigmatic smile in the only known picture of her, alongside her alleged pseudonym: Zugzwang.

“It was pretty much total coincidence I put it together,” Tim said as his family gathered more closely behind him to survey the assembled files over his shoulder. “I’d come across most these files over the past couple months, just in passing, as I like to familiarize myself with the various players in most Batman Inc. operating cities, and I was just reading this last file before bed, just to kinda wind down, y’know....”

“That sentence makes me so sad I don’t even have the heart to make fun of you,” Jason interrupted. He frowned. “Wait, that implies I have a heart. Hang on, that doesn’t sound right. And is this, what, sympathy I’m feeling right now? Eww, that is not the emotion I ordered. Take it back.”

Tim glared at him briefly, and then foraged on. “Anyway, as I was saying, I happened to be reading this last file before bed, and her name stuck out for me and from there I just started connecting some dots. See, alone, none of these names stand out as particularly significant, but put them together, and what happens?”

“They all have multiple meanings,” Damian said, scowling at the screens with focused intensity. “Mostly innocuous, but they’re also all....hmm. Chess terminology.”

Tim nodded enthusiastically. “Bingo! Ten points to Stabby Smurf.”

He bent over the keyboard again and started pulling up various video files, catching sight of reflections out of the corner of his eye as he did so. Duke seemed to be mouthing “Stabby Smurf” with a kind of horrified awe and Damian himself seemed unable to decide if he was offended or not. Whoops, that part hadn’t been meant to come out aloud. Tim coughed to cover a grimace slash smirk and hastened back to his point.

“For instance, based on geographical location alone, Flag Fall seems to be an obvious reference to an actual flag, but the term also refers to timed chess matches, when a given player has run out of time to make a move. Swindle isn’t just a term for cheating or fraud, but in chess, refers to when a losing player tricks their opponent into falling for a decoy move that ends the game in a draw instead of a loss. King march is a term for when you advance your king up the board, tempo is a single turn or move, a double check is when two different pieces put an opponent’s king in check simultaneously, and undermining is when you capture a defensive piece of your opponent’s and leave their king undefended.”

He stopped for a breath and Damian quickly stepped into the breach and picked up where he left off, seamlessly following the train of thought. “And Tabia comes from the Arabic for ‘essence,’ but in chess is a key point, specifically a point of departure from which you can perform any number of signature moves. The windmill symbol utilized by this individual in Spain and its surrounding regions most likely then does not reference Don Quixote, but rather a looped series of moves, usually brought upon by a rook and a bishop, which forces an opponent’s king to ‘windmill’ back and forth between just two or three squares in order to keep out of check.”

“And then Blitz of course refers to a specific opening gambit, that can bring about checkmate in four moves or less,” Tim resumed. “And while Castle has so far been assumed to be nothing more than a surname according to various heroes who have encountered him, largely no doubt due to the fact that he doesn’t affect any kind of costume or disguise, when you consider that pretty much all his demonstrations of teleportation utilize a kind of ‘switching’ of two persons’ relative placement in space/time, either as a signature or an actual staple of his power, its far more likely his name is a reference to ‘castling.’ Which of course then just brings us back to Zugzwang, which is a German term that loosely translates to ‘compulsion to move’ and specifically denotes any scenario in chess in which a player has no choice but to move, even though all moves available to them are inevitably going to worsen their position.”

They all took a minute to absorb that then, speed-reading their way through the various files with all the quickness that made it an actual possibility one or more of them might someday make it all the way through a read-through of the entire Wayne Manor Library, even taking into account the minimal time any of them allotted to the having of actual ‘hobbies.’

It was Cass who found something new to seize upon next, though she never once flicked her eyes away from where they tracked the movements of one videoed individual to the next, screen by screen.

“It’s not just the names,” she reported, scrutinizing each figure intently. “They move alike. When they fight. Its not a lot. But enough that they probably trained together, or at least shared a teacher.”

Tim nodded again. “I thought so too, but I wasn’t sure. I don’t have your eye for that, but it seemed like they might.”

“Reeet, record scratch,” Steph jumped in then. “Not to be all ‘talk nerdy to me, baby,’ since we don’t do that any more and whoops, totally forgot for a second that your dad is legit standing right here, wow, awkwaaaaaard, but for those of us still waiting to buy a vowel, why is this a problem with that Desperado dude specifically?”

“Because we’ve been operating off of the assumption that he chose his name as a more obvious reference to simply being some kind of outlaw,” Bruce said. “But in terms of chess specifically, a desperado piece is any piece that is trapped or in danger, and then sacrifices itself to achieve some kind of maximum damage or compensation that greatly outweighs the loss of itself.”

Steph nodded and pursed her lips. “Cool, cool. Okay so first off, let me just say how glad I am that it was you in specific that decided to follow up on that. Definitely the best of all timelines there, like just so, so absolutely stellar, that. It in no way compounded the awkwardness of the moment or contributed to my pending death by mortification. Secondly, oh, like. Yikes, so that’s not great, huh.”

“No, its not,” Bruce said seriously, with only the barest of twitches in the proximity of those things other people use to smile, aka lips. “If all of this turns out to bear fruit, as I suspect it will, the relative ease with which this Desperado was captured is nothing short of ominous. But luckily, we now have a chance to get ahead of whatever else might be in the works there. Excellent work, Tim.”

Tim squirmed, digging deep into the well of his bodily mastery and various techniques for exerting mind over matter. Don’t blush, don’t blush, you’re a super cool crime-fighting dude, not a total dweeb. “Like I said, it was mostly just dumb luck.”

“Hey now, none of that, Baby Bird,” Dick said, clapping him on the shoulder. “You still had to spot the pattern and connect the dots no matter how circumstantial you feel happening across the first dot was. That’s all you, kiddo.”

“Dick, I’m almost eighteen,” Tim whined. Ugh, his brother was the worst. He was going to be calling him Baby Bird when he was eighty at this point. And there went all his attempts at bodily mastery. Insult was added to injury when he stumbled to the side, then, though that had more to do with Jason hip-checking him out of the way so he could take over at the Batcomputer’s keyboard.

“Hey! What the hell was that for, Jay?”

“Umm, saving your ass, duh,” his other older brother said. Tim narrowed his eyes.

“That tracks how, exactly?”

“You were well on your way to immolation by way of embarrassment thanks to all the attention, so I’m stealing your thunder, double duh. Like I said, saving your ass. You’re welcome,” Jason said distractedly, busy with whatever else he was doing aside from being King of the Assholes.

Correction. That brother was the worst.

“Gee, thanks ever so much,” Tim intoned acidly.

“Don’t mention it, brat.”

Tim was still working on a return volley when Jason found whatever it was he was looking for and called up some more files onscreen.

“Okay, so check it out. Remember back in March, when we caught wind of some ‘new talent’ looking to establish a foothold in the local underground, and once we routed them, the only head honcho we could seemingly trace all of that back to was someone we assumed to be named Cassie or Cassandra based on what little we could decrypt of her communications? So now I’m thinking what if we filled in the gaps there wrong, and her name actually was Caissa?”

Tim looked around, but the name didn’t seem to be ringing any bells for anyone else either.

“Okay, I’ll bite. Who the hell is Caissa?”

“The fictional regurgitation of some plagiaristic hack from two hundred years ago.”

“Jason,” Bruce sighed. Jason rolled his eyes.

“Fine, whatever. So there’s this poem by this untalented dumbass named William Jones back in the 1700s, about a made-up Greek goddess of chess, named Caissa. But really, its just a rip-off of a much older poem from the 1500s by an Italian dude named Hieronymus Vida, in which the character of Caissa was originally named Scacchia. So I mean, I’m just saying, if this chick was going by the name Scacchia, I would have pegged what that was a reference to right away, because like, I have taste and so I’m way more familiar with the original version than the ode of a derivative hack. But I guess you just can’t count on bad guys to default to the superior take,” he lamented with a mournful sigh.

“But wait, aren’t you a bad guy?” Duke inquired, all bright eyes and fake innocence. Jason shot him A Look.

“Not this week, duh. Keep up.”

“Oh, sorry, my bad. I forgot to look at the calendar again.”

“You’re forgiven,” Jason said magnaminously. “Anyway, might just be a hunch, but worth looking into, I’d say. If her name really was actually Caissa, this Desperado could be working for her, and he might actually just be Round Two.”

Cass nodded. “Makes sense. Also restores my good name. Thanks little brother.”

“Any time, little sister. This mean you’ll stop throwing shit at me now?”

“Nope.”

“I hate you.”

“I know. Keeps me up at night.”

“You’re nocturnal, you bipedal asshat.”

Cass just smirked some more and sashayed away. Then flipped into a handstand and started walking away on her hands because clearly, she’d been spending too much time with Dick.

Which reminded him - Tim turned his attention back to his oldest brother, mortification forgotten or at least put on hold for the moment.

“Hey, so, a lot of the files noted that several of these people are likely polyglots,” Tim said. “Since Cass thinks they have some kind of shared combat instruction in their background, I’m thinking there’s a chance we could get a better idea of what regions they all might have been in, in order to get that shared instruction, if we could isolate what languages or dialects or even accents they might have in common, y’know? You’ve got the best ear for languages, what do you think?”

Dick nodded thoughtfully as he perused several of the files. “Its a good idea. I’ll get into it. First though, I’ve gotta make a few calls.”

Their father shot him an appraising glance. “Harper?” He asked.

Dick nodded again. “Yeah, Roy, but also Helena and Tiger. Can’t hurt to have all three of them read in on this. Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and where there’s chess, there’s bound to be Checkmate. I’d find it way too big a coincidence if there’s not a connection there somewhere, and if there is one to be found, I’d say those three are our best chance of finding it.”

Bruce made a sour face. Dick arched a challenging eyebrow. Bruce sighed.

“I’m not disagreeing, I just don’t like it.”

Dick laughed. “Well, you don’t like anything, so really we’re all just in awe of your dedication to your Brand, Pops.”

Bruce rolled his eyes and sighed again, before turning his attention back to Tim. “As for you, I think you’ve contributed enough for one night, don’t you? Why don’t you get back to what you were doing before this....what was that again....oh right, getting some sleep?”

Tim made a face of his own. He was way too keyed up now - again - still - to go back to bed now. And again, must he reiterate, he was almost eighteen, helloooooo.

“I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

“Oh good, I’m so glad that’s what’s catching on as the family motto.”

“Don’t see you going to bed,” Tim sulked in a most mature fashion. The absolute height of maturity. Nay, the apogee, the zenith, we’re talking orbital here.

“Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne,” Jason interrupted in a thunderous facsimile of their father’s impressive baritone. “This is a Do As I Say, Not As I Do household!”

“This from the son who makes an art form out of never doing either,” Bruce said dryly.

Jason shrugged and buffed his nails against his chest, blithely unconcerned. “I go my own way. Its part of my charm.”

“Oh cool,” Duke cut in excitedly. “Are we playing that game again where we just make up our own definitions that have nothing to do with the actual words we say?”

Jason gasped and pressed his palm flat over his heart. “Et tu, Daisy Dukes?”

Duke nodded gravely. “Et mi, Sweeney Todd.”

“Boys,” Bruce said wearily.

Both stopped and shot him expectant looks.

“What?”

“I actually have no idea, to be honest. It just feels like one of those things I should attempt to say periodically. Never mind. Carry on.”

Jason snorted and rolled his eyes at Duke as the two of them wandered off towards the opposite end of the cave. “As if we were ever going to do otherwise. He’s so weird sometimes, I swear.”

Duke hummed in agreement. “I think its on account of him being an ancient eldritch being.”

“I’m only forty-two,” Bruce called after them, aggrieved. They ignored him.

“Did you know, he was actually there to witness the actual dawn of time,” Jason said. “And yet, wake him up before noon and its like you’ve committed murder. And I would know. I’ve actually murdered people.”

“That’s true, you have.”

29 notes · View notes

jjmaybankx · 4 years

Text

FEEL THAT LOVE | TWO · TACENDA

JJ MAYBANK FANFICTION MASTERLIST

< ONE

TWO ❀☼❀ TACENDA .✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.☆.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

tacenda (n.) things better left unsaid: matters to be passed over in silence.

☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

HER PARENTS TOLD HER SHE COULDN'T GO.

It was a long shot, and she knew it. Asking her Filipino parents if she could spend the night with Kiara and three guys? Yeah, not happening. She sent Kiara a text that she couldn't sleep over at the Chateau.

Instead, she was merely allowed to go out, but her parents made sure to reiterate that she better be home before midnight.

Her phone beeped, and she looked down at it.

party Boneyard Beach tonight! - Sarah

Sarah Cameron was one of the Kooks that she was able to like more than half of the time. Despite a falling out between Sarah and Kiara, the three understood that Brielle was both of their friends. Though, she was more Kook than she was Kiara's friend.

Even if her parents would never admit to it, they preferred when Brielle was with Sarah Cameron rather than Kiara. Not that they didn't like Kiara or even the rest of the Pogues, but it was just more of a pride thing for them. Her great-grandfather and her grandparents had difficulties becoming accepted with Outer Banks high class social life because of their broken English. It was her mom that was truly the first Kook in their family, and she didn't want to see Brielle outcasted just because of the Pogues. Still, though, the would never admit to it because they were fond of her daughter's friends either way.

Brielle walked downstairs cautiously, looking to see who was down there before she relaxed. She walked into the kitchen to see her family's Yay, or nanny, standing at the kitchen island.

"Hi, Yaya Dettie," Brielle greeted.

Bernadette had been her mother's nanny, brought to American by her grandparents. When her parents took over the family house, they had asked Bernadette if she wanted to go back to the Philippines because they could arrange for it for her. Instead, she insisted on staying around to help take care of Brielle, who was a toddler when Mac's Kusina was starting to pick up business.

Since her grandparents had already passed away when she was growing up, Yaya Dettie was the closest Brielle had to a grandmother, and that was exactly how her family saw her. She was more of a mother figure to Danielle, too, than she was a nanny.

"Here, anak," Bernadette said to her, calling her "child" like she normally did. She slide over a plate of cut oranges before turning around to wash the knife. "Lalabas kaba?"

Brielle understood a little bit of Tagalog, as her own parents only spoke a little. Most of her Tagalog vocabulary were things around the house, things that Bernadette would say. Common phrases she knew was the different variations of asking Brielle if she was going to be leaving, like lalabus kaba or the different ways to ask if she had eaten yet.

Bernadette understood English, but Brielle tried to make an effort to understand her phrases so it was easier for the two of them to speak.

"Opo," she said, yes. "I'm meeting with some friends at the beach."

"Ah," nodded Bernadette. "Wear sunscreen, okay?"

"Opo," she smiled, motioning to her bag. "It's in my bag."

"Alright, be safe. Mahal kita."

"Mahal na mahal kita, Yaya," she smiled as she left.

"Bye," another voice called out from the house as she shut the door, goosebumps raising up her arms and legs.

She didn't call back, pretending as if she didn't hear a damn thing.

She pulled her phone out, sending another text to Kiara, parents said i can go out until midnight. heard there's a party at boneyard. you guys coming?

She made her way towards the Cameron household just as Sarah was walking out her front door. The blonde waved at Brielle.

"Why are you wearing that?" Sarah asked absentmindedly. "I swear, I haven't seen you wear anything but real pants

She had changed out of the white skinny jeans and tube top she was wearing, opting for green baggy pants and a white tank top. She shrugged, and Sarah didn't ask again.

☽༓･*˚⁺‧͙

"Ahh, it's our very own Kook Princess and Asian beauty!" cheered Topper as Sarah and Brielle walked through the sand to the group of teenagers on the beach.

Brielle rolled her eyes, stating, "I'm not Asian," to Topper. She looked at the refreshment table, pouring herself a drink as she declined one from another guy. "I'm Pacific Islander."

"Same thing," he brushed her off to wrap his arms around Sarah, and she just chose to ignore him.

Boneyard Beach parties was one of the only times that Kooks and Pogues chose to be in one place together, relatively having fun. Each side of the island met there to drink, smoke, and hang out with tourist teenagers who happened to hear about the party.

It wasn't that the rivalry ended for a few hours thanks to a party, but the Kooks would socialize with the Kooks, the Pogues with the Pogues, and the tourists somewhere in the mix.

She stood in a group with Sarah and Topper for a bit, the rest of Topper's little entourage following through: Rafe Cameron and Kelce. Kelce was probably the most tolerable of the three boys for Brielle, mainly because he was the one who opened his mouth the least. Rafe Cameron, however, was something else.

A college drop out and twenty years old, he was Sarah's older brother who hung out with Sarah's boyfriend since he seemingly couldn't find anyone his own age to be friends with. He was a drug addict and sometimes, his aggressive side scared the hell out of Brielle. He was always nice to her, though. He was nice to most of the Kooks.

"And the Pogues are here..." muttered Topper, glaring as the four teenagers Brielle was supposed to be spending her evening with walked onto the beach.

Brielle stepped back towards the cooler, pulling out a beer and opening it.

"Thanks, Kookie!"

An arm went around her shoulder and the beer was taken from her hand. She glared at the blonde next to her as he pressed the bottle to his lips.

"JJ," she groaned, shoving his face away from hers, but he kept his arm wrapped around her. "What's wrong with you?"

"Full list or just the Brie-related list?" he asked her.

"You good, Brie?" Kelce called out from their group, the Kooks turning around to glare at the pair behind them.

"I'm fine—"

"Why don't you let go of her, Pogue?" Topper said, walking towards them, but Brielle stood in front of him, holding her ground.

"I said, I'm fine," she reiterated.

Topper halted, looking between JJ and Brielle. She stared back, not faltering. Eventually, she grabbed JJ's wrist and tugged him back to where his own friends were, staring as if ready to jump in if needed.

"You hanging with Pogues now?!" Topper called after her, but she ignored him.

"Kie, come here real quick," Brie asked when they approached, taking the beer out of JJ's hand as the two girls stepped off to the side.

"What was what about?" John B asked JJ.

The blonde stared at Brie with raised eyebrows, "I have no clue, but I liked it. A lot."

"Shut up, man," Pope said, whacking him upside the head. "The two of you annoy the crap outta one another. You just think she's hot."

"You okay?" Kiara asked, putting a hand on her arms.

"I don't wanna stay in that house tonight," Brielle said softly, shaking her head.

"You should tell your parents," Kiara said. "They'd understand."

She shook her head furiously, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Okay, okay," Kiara said, rubbing her shoulders trying to get her to calm down. "We'll figure something out, okay?"

She turned away so her back was completely facing the group of boys so she could recompose herself, but each of them can tell she wasn't alright. When they walked back over, none of them commented on it. Instead, they jumped right into conversation in hopes to make her feel better.

JJ snatched the beer bottle back from her, shooting her a playful smile as he took a sip. He eyed her the whole time, smirking when he saw the little smile on her own face.

"So, who wants to go swimming?" John B asked.

"I'm in pants," laughed Brielle.

John B and Pope looked between one another with a smirk before they appeared on both sides of Brielle. John B grabbed her legs while Pope grabbed under her arms. Kiara laughed as Brielle tried to wiggle out of their grasp, a open mouthed smile on her face.

"Pope! John B! No!" she screamed out, laughing as they neared the water.

"And a one... two... three..."

Upon three, Brielle let out another screech as she flew through the night air and into the cold water, landing on her ass. As a small wave washed up over her, she flipped the two boys off, trying to splash water at them. She stood up as they moved further into the water, letting their bodies fall backwards into the tides.

Kiara had since discarded her shorts and shirt, running towards Brielle and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. JJ zoomed past them, now shirtless as well, his shark tooth necklace dangling back and forth as he moved.

Whatever matters had caused her to cry was now forgotten, pushed to the back of their heads, considering it tacenda. John B and Pope splashed at the two girls, who in turn ran after them.

The Kooks watched from the shore as one of them became someone like Kiara.

"Total idiots," Topper shook his head, looking at Kelce. "You going to do something about that before they totally take her?"

Kelce told him to shut up while Sarah's eyes widened and she turned her head to the side. "What's he talking about?"

"Nothing," Kelce denied.

"No, it's not nothing," Topper said, wrapping an arm around Kelce and patting his shoulder. "My man here has had a thing for Brie since... I don't know how long, okay? But the thing is, he likes her."

"Dude, can you shut up?" Kelce asked his friend.

"Oh, c'mon, like it's not obvious?"

"Sarah's her friend!"

Sarah put her hands up in defense. "If you don't want her to know, I'm not getting involved."

Topper glanced back at the five in the water.

"Just because she's hanging out with them doesn't mean she's going Pogue," Kelce defended. "We've always known she's friends with Kiara."

THREE >

AUTHOR'S NOTE ❀☼❀ .✫*ﾟ･ﾟ｡.☆.*｡･ﾟ✫*.

so, about brie's ethnicity and the "i'm not asian" claims she makes. i am filipino american, so her views on her ethnicity are also my views, my family's views. they are a very controversial view, as i've learned growing up. my parents, my grandparents, and my other family in the philippines have always been taught that we are a pacific island, hence the fact that we were once known as the "Pacific Islands of the Pacific." When American first arrived on our shores, they called my people "The orphans of the Pacific."

As I grew up with these views that I am a pacific islander, people that I go to school with always said, "No, you're Asian." It was always frustrating to have non-filipinos try to educate me on my own culture when i'm getting my views from the island-born and raised family members, but I digress. I've been taught that Philippine culture is much more similar to polynesian cultures, native hawaiian cultures, not mainland asian cultures.

Yes, Philippines is near Asian. Yes, there are some Filipinos in America and on the Island that will consider themselves to be asian. It's what the world has been calling us for some time now. However, me myself, in my family, in my roots, believe i am an islander.

this has been so controversial that sometimes, when filling out information boxes for ethnicity, there will be times filipino gets its own box outside of Asian or Pacific Islander, OR they put "Asian(including Filipino)" since people are starting to realize that some filipinos prefer to just be filipino just just be an Islander.

A common question i'm asked is "then what continent does it belong to?" And I always respond, "What continent does New Zealand belong to?" The answer is always none.

Just a little background to that part of Brielle. While I'm always up for debates, this particular topic is not something i will debate. i acknowledge that it is taught here in america and in some parts of the philippines that we are asian. i, in my own beliefs, look at how our roots go beyond where our island is located in how our culture was before colonization. it's okay to disagree, but i've lived 18 years of people telling me, "Shut up, you're asian" when I say I'm a pacific islander, that I will not have that discussion here.

Thank you.

#jj maybank #jjmaybankx;feel that love #jj maybank fanfiction #jj imagines #jj obx imagine #jj outer banks #jj obx #jj obx imagines #jj outerbanks imagines

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sjrresearch · 4 years

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Bataan and Corregidor 1941-42 - Part 1

Last Stand of the “Battered Ba%$$rds”

(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)

At the start of the Pacific War, the Philippines became a central target for the Japanese, and the islands were turned into a battleground. The events that unfolded at Bataan and Corregidor during the Japanese assault is not only an important piece of World War II history, it provides an incredible framework for potential wargaming scenarios.

Over a series of three posts, we will look at Bataan and Corregidor in-depth, starting with the lead up to the Philippines’ conflict and ending with an understanding of how learning about these locations can help construct wargaming scenarios. It has also been fodder for several fine boardgames on the topic.

Part 1, The Forces Gather

Author’s Note: Though both Philippine and American units fought in Bataan, I will refer to them as “American” collectively.

Most Americans aren’t familiar with names like Bataan and Corregidor. Like most historical topics in grade school, it’s quickly taught and forgotten by everyone, save for historical enthusiasts. In the Philippines, it’s akin to Bunker Hill, or Yorktown. To them, these places are where the modern Philippine nation was founded. Like many others, it was a nation bred on the battlefield.

The Philippines was in a unique state since 1898, when the United States had assumed control of the islands in the wake of the Spanish-American War. In 1935, the Philippines was made an American commonwealth, and a gradual process of making the islands ready for independence by 1946 was begun. To help form an independent Philippine armed forces, General Douglas McArthur was brought in by a Philippine government with the lofty rank of Field Marshal to try to modernize the defenses of the Philippines.

McArthur was seemingly a good choice for advising the nascent Philippine Republic, having served in the islands in his first assignment (1903-1906) after graduation from West Point while his father was Governor-General. He then spent time touring Japan (the future enemy of the Philippines) as his father’s aide de camp, and thus, had seen the Japanese soldier up close. Furthermore, Douglas McArthur and the president of the Philippines, Manuel Quezon, also had a personal relationship, as President Quezon had been friends with McArthur’s father during the latter’s time as Governor-General of the Philippines 35 years before. All of this made McArthur a shoo-in for the job of building a Philippine army.

There were also other incentives to McArthur taking the job. He had just concluded his term as Army Chief of Staff, and his relationship with the new Roosevelt administration was poor, at best (he had been involved in the suppression of the Bonus Marchers in 1932). Though McArthur completed his term in October of 1935, he probably hoped for a change of scenery. One of the assistants McArthur brought with him on this assignment was none other than Dwight D. Eisenhower.

What they found was an army that existed only on paper. Weapons were cast-offs from U.S. service and were of dubious provenance. The first class of trainees wasn’t due for another two years, and the camps to train them hadn’t been built either. And the budget to accomplish all of this was paltry at best. The Philippine Army lacked basics, like uniforms and even boots, with many divisions having to make do with the despised blue denim uniforms that had just been put out of U.S. service. The Navy and Air Corps weren’t doing much better, with the latter only forming their first squadron in 1939.

Worse, the level of training of the Army was poor, with one source stating:

“The men in the 31st Infantry [Division] were more fortunate than those in other regiments, many of whom had never even fired a rifle before entering combat. Nor had their previous five and a half months training under Philippine Army supervision been of much value…Practically none of the men…had fired as many as five rounds with the rifle or the .30 -caliber machine gun. None had fired the .50 caliber machine gun or the mortar.” (pp 29. The Fall of the Philippines, Morton, Lewis, US Army Center for Military History, Washington DC, 1953)

Contrast this with his Japanese opponent, who was most likely a veteran of the ten-year war in China, and was, supply deficiencies aside, well-trained and more than willing to come to grips with his opponent. The Philippine soldier was not ready for war, but war would be thrust upon him anyhow. This wasn’t true of all Filipino soldiers, as the Philippine Scouts, who numbered 12,000, were considered some of the best troops in the pre-war U.S. Army and were relatively well-equipped. However, they were under direct American command, and not under the command of the Philippine Army.

The U.S. troops in the islands themselves numbered 31,095 on the eve of war, and they had their own deficiencies. Funds were short for many years, and until September 1941, no reinforcements had arrived from the United States.

In September, the 200th Coast Artillery Regiment (Anti-Aircraft) arrived, bringing much needed additional anti-aircraft guns. In October, two tank battalions, the 192nd and the 194th, arrived in the islands, with 108 M3 Light Tanks between them, both units were soon formed into a Provisional Tank Group.

In addition, more P-40s and B-17s arrived to reinforce the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) squadrons deployed throughout the islands. These were some of the most modern aircraft in the USAAC at the time, so this was meant as a deterrent to Japan and a signal that the United States was making a major investment in defense of the islands. At the outbreak of war, there were 277 USAAC aircraft of all types in the Philippines, most either at Clark or Nichols Fields on the main island of Luzon. There was also the construction of additional airfields, and many of them were built just in time. However, early warning capabilities against Japanese air attacks were woefully inadequate, and this would come back to haunt the Americans. For example, of the seven radar sets present in the islands, only two had been set up and were working.

Meanwhile, the naval presence in the islands was reliant on the U.S. and consisted of the Asiatic Fleet under Admiral Thomas Hart. His force was more to protect American commercial interests in China and “show the flag” rather than be any real impediment to Japanese aggression. The heaviest he had available was the heavy cruiser Houston, and most of the ships he had were of World War I vintage. His air arm consisted of some PBY patrol aircraft, which were useful, and he had at his disposal the 4th Marine Regiment in Shanghai at the beginning of 1941, but the regiment evacuated to the Philippines in late-November. Hart’s hope was that he could rely on support either from the British, or the Dutch, who had larger fleets in Southeast Asia, or the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii. All of these hopes were, of course, to be cruelly dashed when war came. The only ships Hart had in abundance were submarines, having 29 available as of November 1941. However, American torpedo design did little to help these submarines, as the standard Mark 14 torpedo had a high dud rate, and often, American subs were frustrated in the early part of the war in sinking targets they would have otherwise destroyed had they had better torpedoes.

In March 1941, McArthur was recalled to the U.S. Army and was placed in command of all American forces in the Philippines. Despite assurances and little to work with, McArthur had put together a force of 100,000 men to defend the Philippines. But the force still had many deficiencies, and not all of them, despite efforts on both sides of the Pacific to address them, were rectified in time. Many of these deficiencies would haunt the defenders of Bataan in the months to come.

Japanese Forces and Plans

The Japanese invasion plan for the Philippines was part of an even larger strategy that had been arrived at by the Imperial General Headquarters. It had been derived from separate Army and Navy plans, which had differed little in content. The strategic goal was simple: Seize Malaya for its rubber, the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) for its oil, and expand a defensive perimeter as far out as possible to ensure that any attempt to push the Japanese back was a bloody one, and the Americans and British would prefer a negotiated peace to a long, intractable war. Many of the planned assaults were scheduled to occur within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The Philippines was an objective for two reasons. First, it was a linchpin in the sea lines of communication (SLOC) with the proposed advance into the Dutch East Indies and Malaya. The islands needed to fall to ensure the Japanese had a secure rear area. Secondly, Manila harbor was, and still is, one of the finest deep-water ports in Southeast Asia. The Japanese needed access to that as well to sustain their advance to the south.

The plan as it stood was for simultaneous air attacks on all American installations within hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor. While this was going on, the Japanese 14th Army was to land along the north coast of Luzon and at Davao on the island of Mindanao. Both islands were the most populated in the Philippine chain. The initial objective was to seize airfields to allow the Japanese Army Air Force to provide direct air support to the forces ashore. Once the main part of the USAAC strength was wiped out, the bulk of the 14th Army was to land in Lingayen Gulf just north of Manila and Limon Bay, southeast of Manila. The two prongs of advance were then to advance quickly to Manila, trap the Americans between them, and destroy the enemy in a decisive battle somewhere near Manila. The 14th Army, under the command of General Masaharu Homma, had been given 50 days to complete this task, whereupon half of his command and most of his air support would leave to support operations to the south. As we shall see, the Japanese came nowhere close to meeting this ambitious timetable.

The Japanese planning and information gathering had been meticulous, and they had a very good idea what they would be facing in the Philippines. The Japanese were of the opinion that Americans were good soldiers, but not up to the task of prolonged combat in the tropical jungles that made up a good portion of Luzon. Additionally, Japan did not think much of the Philippine soldier at all.

The main flaw in the Japanese invasion planning was they expected the American force would make its last stand around Manila, and then die in place. The Japanese had no plan for any contingency where the Americans withdrew into Bataan and fortified the peninsula.

As the Japanese expected a relatively easy campaign, they only allotted two divisions, the 16th and 48th Infantry Divisions. It was this over-confidence and optimistic planning that would cost them dearly in the campaign to come.

To be continued in Part 2 – The Curtain Rises – War Comes to the Philippines

At SJR Research, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse SJR Research’s service on our site at SJR Research.

#gaming

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beneaththetangles · 4 years

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Rising and Falling with Japan Sinks: 2020

TWWK: With the possibly exception of DECA-DENCE and its story with a story structure, the most surprising series this anime season may be Japan Sinks: 2020. I tuned in because I’ve become a fan of the director, Masaaki Yuasa, with his other work from this year, Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken, locked in as one of 2020’s best anime. Japan Sinks is a different animal, a violent disaster series originally created to coincide with this year’s Summer Olympic games. Netflix premiered the show, and I blew through it quickly, as did a couple of other staff members, Samuru and @thathilomgirl. But as much as I found the show addicting, I had a challenging time writing about it, and so besides a first impressions post, have avoided doing so. But we three decided to unpack the series together—a good decision, I think, because it perhaps takes three people to really discuss the ups and downs of this series, starting with the why each person tuned in and what they thought of regarding that visceral opening episode.

SPOILERS from throughout the series ahead!

-----

thathilomgirl: Honestly, I watched it because someone in a Discord group I’m in mentioned that the mom was from my home province (XD). The show wasn’t really on my radar early on because I thought it was a movie with a theatrical release, but seeing other word-of-mouth posts eventually made me try it out on a whim. The fact that it was all on Netflix made it easier for me to finish it off so quickly, too. As for my reaction after episode one, well, it really didn’t hold back at all. It seemed fitting for the catastrophic scenario it was supposed to portray.

Samuru: I saw the trailer on Netflix since they constantly preview new anime (I watch a lot of it on that platform.) It looked interesting, and like thathilomgirl, I thought it was a movie! But I was interested more when I discovered it was a series. My first reaction was that the show was not going to be a relaxing one; it seemed to be very serious from the start and it was not afraid to be very realistic and dangerous. The animation was very good (in episode one, at least—more on that later) and it hooked me.

TWWK: For sure! It definitely tried to convey a sense of realism and danger. It felt like 1970s disaster movies, where everything goes wrong and lot of crazy stuff happens, like the bodies falling from the sky—all the death, really—and the disastrous time at the cult sanctuary.

Samuru: I thought the middle section with the cult was out of place. I get that it changed things around and gave the viewer a break from all the destruction, but I didn’t understand why that was even in the anime. Also, the random sexual encounter that was only a few seconds was also unnecessary, but maybe they were just experimenting with ideas?

thathilomgirl: I just thought the psychic cult was just plain weird. Like, even going into how and why it managed to start up at all was kinda strange, even with how well-intentioned the woman was at first. Part of me just wanted to go through the screen and tell her, “This is all well and good, ma’am, but I think you may have gone way off course the moment gold entered the picture.” I thought the best part of that arc was when the old man managed to just nonchalantly broke into the temple to kidnap the woman’s child, just for how tonally different it was from everything else.

TWWK: You know, I actually really liked that section. I think when it comes the narrative, it was the best part of the series. A lot of foreboding and discomfort was building, especially centered around Daniel (Is he really as sweet natured as he seems? Is it like a horror movie, where he was actually just baiting the travelers? Or was he going to be another sad victim?). I think besides giving us a little break from the destruction, and leading to some character development, the section also helped emphasize a theme of the series, which is acceptance of those different from you and the importance of the Japanese coming together despite having different values and being in different generations. Cults have a bad wrap in Japan as they do elsewhere in the world, so this cult not being pure evil in the sense we expected, and their leader truly trying to help, was to me as big a surprise as any in the series.

thathilomgirl: Similar to what you touched upon a bit, I saw a lot of diversity among the characters in the show, whether in race, age, or even the difference in opinion regarding nationalism. It wasn’t that surprising to me, considering the anime was made by Science Saru, who also takes value in diversity as seen from the Eizouken anime. Putting aside any possible bias on my end, having the main characters comprise a Filipino-Japanese family was a good foundation to allow certain issues be addressed in the anime. On the other hand, sometimes it did feel like some non-Japanese characters such as KITE were kind of put on a pedestal because almost every action taken upon by them turned out to be the right decision in the end.

TWWK: Oh man, now I suddenly wonder if this “KITE! Best character of the season!” feeling I have is just feeding into a sense of faux diversity…

Samuru: Good points on the diversity of the characters. I noticed it then but am now really thinking about; I’m glad to have seen it. The anime gave perspectives that some Japanese have with foreigners and just as a people that aren’t often seen in anime. God made us all different, all with varying features, languages, etc. I enjoyed seeing some acceptance of that, especially from Ayumu who just wanted to help others regardless of who they were (as well as her mom and brother, Gō). Gō also expressed how he did not feel very Japanese, and he just wanted to move to Estonia instead. This created friction a few times with other characters, as they thought he either wasn’t Japanese or trying to act like a foreigner. It showed how proud, to a fault, the Japanese are (in the anime) to their culture. I myself am proud of being Hispanic, so I get where they were coming from, but it seemed to be too much on how they were pressuring him, instead of just letting him enjoy other countries and their differences.

TWWK: That’s an interesting thought, though the overall quality of the writing leads me to believe that the writers just didn’t achieve the subtlety in such remarks that may have made for a more intriguing series. But more than that, I don’t think they wanted subtlety; that strong pro-Japanese / anti-everyone else feel from the old man was certainly intentional.

thathilomgirl: There was also that ultra-nationalistic group that refused the Mutohs on their megafloat because the kids weren’t Japanese enough. It was too on-the-nose for me, but if a country did end up getting destroyed one way or another, it wouldn’t surprise me if a group like that started to surface. On another note, the more cynical side of me was wondering if all the non-Japanese characters were inputted in just so the series was able to check off diversity points to get more views and traction from international watchers. It did work on me a bit (and I also saw a lot of that from other anime fans in my country), but I’ve learned not to get too hung up on or cling hard to how certain areas of my identity are represented in the media over the years.

TWWK: Playing on your point, I wonder if Kite, among others, was lifted so highly because Yuasa was looking to strike a sort of balance, one critical of those who would be too nationalistic, to the point of being xenophobic, with an ultimate view that Japan is generally good, and has the potential of being marvelous. We seem to be a little skeptical of their inclusion, but it’s hard not to be when the themes about what Japan is and should be were usually quite bombastic—kind of like all the deaths.

Samuru: Speaking of deaths, I think there were too many. After a while it felt like one of those horror movies where you know who is going to die, except for the main characters (of course!). I knew around the last few episodes who was going to die, but it was still impactful when they did because of the way it happened. I actually felt sad for the loss of those characters.

thathilomgirl: It’s really hard to say for me to judge whether there were “too many deaths” for this show. On one hand, I did at least wish some characters like the Mutoh dad lived for a few more episodes so that we’d be more attached to him. However, realistically speaking, it made a lot more sense considering the aftereffects of what goes on if Japan really did start sinking to the ground and the possible consequences it has for the survivors on the land. By far, the only death I thought was the most out-of-place was for the cult leader’s son. It just came so suddenly like the debris that fell on him, laughter was the only thing that escaped my mouth during that scene.

TWWK: You laughed at that? Oh my gosh haha. I don’t think you were alone, though.

Samuru: I knew that kid was not going to make it, as he barely had any dialogue or interaction so he seemed “expendable” and I noticed that this anime liked to get rid of those minor characters. So yeah, he was on the anime’s “hit list” for sure.

thathilomgirl: There was another thing I noticed regarding death. Among the Mutoh family, Ayumu seems to be the only one who actually visibly struggles throughout the anime, but that’s because she was the only one who actually came face-to-face with watching her entire track team die in front of her eyes as soon as she came to from the initial earthquake. The other family members, meanwhile, were either in a relatively safer area from the ground and/or alone when it occurred. Every other death afterwards just goes on to make the survivor’s guilt she’s experiencing worsen as the story goes on. I also figured out right away that Mari’s seeming indifference to her husband’s death was just her being strong for her kids, because I’ve seen that a lot from the other people in my life. There was never really a good time for her to properly grieve as well, until they arrived at the cult in Shan City.

TWWK: You know, I don’t know…Like you, I noticed the seeming lack of empathy throughout the series, and I think Mari’s final episode or two was definitely meant to show that she hid her emotions on purpose (I think an idea many Asian kids can understand that westerners may not), but I felt like it was too little, too late. It was just so awkward that after the dad’s death, most everyone was kind of okay—even and especially Go. it was just too unrealistic, even with Go kind of in his own world and trying to make sense of it with his dad’s death. It was too disingenuous. Ultimately, I think it was poor writing, confirmed by the fact that Go’s emotional age seemed to drift anywhere between 7 years old and 14.

And I also struggled with the sheer number of character deaths shown. The shock value was important to the series, yes, but it got to be too much for me by the end. The old man getting eaten by the shark was my almost-laughable moment, for instance. And all the self-sacrifice already demonstrated by so many may have taken away some of the emotion of Mari’s death, which affected me, but not terribly deeply. I will say that Haruo’s death got to me, however; I thought that the themes of the show, particularly the idea of the older generation passing their love onto the younger, meant that he and the Mutoh kids would all survive. That was rough.

Samuru: I agree also about the deaths. I think it was somewhat laughable because it just kept happening. I would think, “Uh oh, it’s a new character, he probably won’t last long”. Also, I have new found respect for seagulls, those birds can’t be that ravenous…right? Haruo and Ayumu’s father dying were the most shocking for me. I really thought they would both make it, so once the dad died, I knew all bets were off with this anime and nobody was safe. I thought even Ayumu wouldn’t make it, even though she lost a part of herself in the ordeal. It made it seem very real, unlike a lot of TV shows where the main cast, and only the main cast, escapes just fine.

thathilomgirl: Mari’s death got to me a bit because I was hoping that she would at least last long enough to make it to relative safety before her heart got to her, and because of that storybook she used to read to her kids. But the latter’s just me being really sentimental in general.

TWWK: The show was unusual in the sense that it tried to balance that sentimentality you’re talking about with hard, sudden violence. That’s not an easy thing to do. Comparisons will be made to Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 or other disaster anime and films, like I did earlier, but I also immediately think of American movies regarding 9/11—United 93 and World Trade Center. The earlier had violence and shock on par with Japan Sinks, and it was draining and emotional in a successful way. The latter didn’t feel as overwhelming, nor was it as good a film. I think Japan Sinks found itself somewhere in between those both in how it tried to animate its disaster and in how meaningful the end product is. What did you both ultimately think of the series?

Samuru: I thought the show was excellent and very different than most anime I have seen. I liked the intensity of it, the diversity of the cast, and the originality of the story, even though it’s based on a book from the 70s. A lot of anime try to copy another one, and just add something else to make it standout. This series stands on its own.

However, the animation was off and on for me. There were some scenes in the last episodes that were terrible. I wanted to take pictures of it to share in case I was the only one that was noticing that. I don’t know what was going on with the animators at the end. But how the story concludes in a satisfying way, as I got to see what happened to the survivors and how they were living their lives. It gave hope when there seemed none, which reminded me of this verse: “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).

thathilomgirl: I thought it was a good show overall. Not the best one I’ve ever seen, but it did what it set out to do with its story. Yeah, the animation was a bit off at times, but I thought that was just how Science Saru anime was sometimes (keep in mind that I’ve only seen Eizouken and Ride Your Wave from them so far). I’m glad it ended on a hopeful note with Japan slowly rising back up, and seeing how every Japanese person that survived fared through the eight years since.

TWWK: My thoughts on the series are ultimately not as positive as they were for both of you. After one episode, and based on the studio and director, I commented that this might be the best anime of the year; I was so off that it’s not even funny. What was funny, though, was some of the scenes in the show that were supposed to be serious, as we referred to earlier. And that’s troublesome. Its high moments were extremely high, and could have lifted the show up to a 9 or 10 in my book, while the low moments—like the unintentionally funny ones—were very low, awful even. I gave the series a “7” rating, which is average to mildly good in my book, because it was a balance between those extremes.

Ultimately, though, it’s a major disappointment. Hot on the heels of Eizouken, I thought we could potentially have another classic, which this series is assuredly not. But its mileage will vary, and I very much emphasize that—all of us judged the series differently and felt strongly, one way or another, about many different moments. And there are so many vivid and memorable scenes in this show! Most viewers’ experience will likely be powerful, too, and in that way, I think we can all suggest Japan Sinks: 2020 is well worth the watch.

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The entire Japan Sinks: 2020 series can be streamed now on Netflix. All images courtesy of Netflix.

#Anime #Japan Sinks: 2020 #Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 #Japan Sinks #Japan Sinks 2020 #Nihon Chinbotsu #Articles #Author: TWWK #Author: thathilomgirl #Author: Samuru

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ashlip-arts · 4 years

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1. If waking up is the only thing you can do, worry not.

Do not feel sorry if you’re feeling lazy today or you don't feel like accomplishing anything, there’s still tomorrow. And in today's time, what matters more is you wake up because it's a sign that God has given you another shot in life. You have your own pace to do everything you need as long as there’s a goal in your mind.

2. People will come into your life unexpectedly.

Some people will drop by your life and will make a big impact on your life. They may be people who are strangers to you, but as the quarantine extends for a few more months, they become someone who'll make you smile. You shared the ups and downs of each other's lives, the incomparable laughter shared, and for once, once this is all over, you decided to meet up and that’s okay. Cherish the moments and experiences throughout your journey with every person because someday, in those ordinary days of your life, you'll remember the people who gave you so much lesson and made you grow as a person.

3. Personal health must come first before academics.

Never pressure yourself to complete your academic requirements. Education is important, but so does health, and whenever you feel like doing nothing and you’re feeling off, you can stop what you’re doing. I know time is very precious, but for once, look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself that it's okay to calm down and relax.

4. Your family will always be your strongest companions.

Nothing in the world can replace your family, even though sometimes it doesn’t have your best interest in mind. There will be times when you guys are untiringly arguing about the little things, but you have to believe that it’s normal for family members to argue sometimes. And trust me, that won't change the fact that they still want the best for you and will be supporting you no matter what. They still love you even though you're being too hard on yourself and you're having a hard time loving your entirety. Even though your family can hurt you in a way no one else can, but during struggles, you can always count on them to nourish you and bring out the best in you, again.

5. Give time to hone God-give talents.

We are all naturally gifted, and during this period in time, we should also give time to our skills because it’s a wonderful thing to do. Play musical instruments, cover a song, do some artworks, cook for yourself, and even for your loved ones, sing like there’s no tomorrow. You have all the time in the world to hone your skills and to perfect them. Stop comparing your talent to others, as we all have our unique aspects as a person. Never look for validation of others and let them tell you what they like and what they don't. What matters the most is you love what you're doing and you're giving your all to the passion of doing what you love to do. It will all be enough, just enjoy things and keep on getting better every day.

6. Pain might not what we want, but it is something we need.

Sometimes life gives you so much pain that you barely hold on and it makes you feel very vulnerable and there will be times that you just wish to end the void of losing someone, a friend, a relative, or maybe yourself. The time you feel that the entire world is on your shoulder, continuously crushing and pushing you to the edge of giving up. But dear, that madness, the pain, will only make you stronger than before, it will bring out a better version of yourself. It will teach you so much and you'll barely know it. Take a deep breath because every person has their struggles and everyone has their strategy to deal with it But dear,Rule of parallelismCrushing and pushing you to the edge— and so are you . Time passes by and the pain will eventually stop, so hold on. Life isn't about the destination, it's about the journey.

7. Time is a big factor in life.

Have the wounds healed and the scars of yesterday's struggles have now become unnoticeable? After the encounters of everything that broke you in the past, the people who hurt you and left a scar on you, suddenly you begin to see a better version of yourself and you feel so much better than before. Even though some scars are still visible, it's fine. Remember, warriors got wounded in battles. The scars will be reminders of his bravery and fortitude. Time may not undo the things that broke you, but it also reminds us to heal not for them, but ourselves.

8. Taking care of yourself must become your priority.

During this quarantine period, taking good care of yourself is a must. No one else can do the relaxing for you. Have fun with those little things you do in your bed at 3 in the morning, sing along while your favorite OPM song is playing, take your time in the shower, or maybe try cooking something you saw on the internet, or maybe your favorite dish. Enjoy being yourself at your home. But as much as there's leisure time, never forget to work out as exercising makes your body look better and will help your immune system to be stronger. Get enough sleep and always stay hydrated.

9. Prayer is powerful.

Filipinos are culturally religious and one part of that is praying. Filipinos are known to be prayer warriors. And during the hard times like this, we always come to Him, to lean on to Him and believe that He's in control of everything that's happening. Praying also is a way to communicate with Him, and talking to Him will give you a lighter heart, and the belief that you'll overcome everything will be existent. Individuals seek His guidance amidst the crisis, asking to save everyone who is infected, the medical experts, the victims, the Filipino people, the entire world. Maybe God is not answering right now, but believe that He, always, has a plan. Believe that He's in control of everything and things will get better in time.

10. Anxiety and crying are normal.

Everyone breaks down and cries, just for various reasons. But during this time, the anxious feeling and the urge to cry is common. It won’t make you less of a person if you cry. It’s alright to break down sometimes. It's not a sin to feel sad and feel like the world turned its back on you. Don’t feel sorry for yourself, it doesn't mean that you're weak. Crying won't make you less strong. Letting those tears fall down your face is helpful to ease the pain and the burden you're feeling because life may be unfair to you or your order online just got canceled. Always believe that it's fine to be sad. Sadness is temporary, it is a normal feeling. You may feel like you failed, but hey, you did not, you learned.

11. Boredom will never be an excuse to hurt yourself again.

We are in the quarantine period and of course, everyone is bored and so is your ex-lover. Just focus on yourself and think that he's part of the past now. Move forward in life and see the great things that lie ahead of you. As the famous quote says, "There's a lot of fish in the sea". And you don't have to worry about love. Love is everywhere, and love doesn't need to be a romantic kind of love. If a person cares about you and loves you for who you are, they will want you to grow, be successful, help you become a better version of yourself while you guys are making what you have grown. Know that in the end, the world will always find a way for you to meet the perfect person at the perfect time. Just trust God's timings. Breakups might be stressful and might damage you so much, but someone will come to help you always remember your worth.

12. Pessimism and stress must not be entertained.

Although life is full of drama, it will continue to happen and the only choice we have in life is to never stop living because we have only one life. We only have one precious chance to live our life to the fullest. And stress must nowhere to be found in that single opportunity. Enjoy every little thing you do and figure out the things you love the most. Always look at the positive side of life.

13. Love yourself more than you love anyone.

My mother always reminds me to not lower my standard to anyone, especially in love, because in this world, there this one person who will do everything to love you and while waiting, love yourself more, so that if that person comes, you know how to act maturely and how to reciprocate the love your partner will give you. Love your flaws and embrace your insecurities because thinking about them will just eat up too much of our time and will fill our minds with negative thoughts. But those things don't define us, it will never summarize our entirety. Instead, turn your weakness into a strength so that no one will use it against you.

14. The past doesn’t define who you are in the future.

Mistakes are lessons in life that will make you become a better person. If you’ve made a lot of mistakes in the past, it doesn’t make you less of a person. Although our past reminds us of who we were before and the people who we have been, use that to fuel you and prove that what you've done, doesn't count on what you'll become. You are the ruler of yourself, you are the vase of your garden, so take care of your flowers and let your flower blooms beautifully through positivity and love.

15. Your dreams are always reachable no matter what's going on.

Never give up on your dreams, It’s your ticket that will bring you to places, freeing you from the shackles of impossibility. Look at yourself in the mirror and let go of what's holding you back because you can reach for whatever you're looking up to. Never lose your ability to dream. Be like Peter Pan - he who never held back because your dreams can come true and life will be as colorful as Neverland.

16. Prevention is better than cure.

We often overlook the fact that we could have prevented this pandemic if we have taken necessary precautionary measures. If we help prevent something bad to happen, we won't be needing a lot of time to figure out how to solve things. But as much as we prevent these things from happening, there will be times that God will test us. It might not be what we want to happen, but His plans will always be better than ours.

17. We take a lot of things for granted.

The dusted books in your bookshelf are now being read. The clothes and the pajamas you haven't worn before are now covering your skin almost twice every week. Yes, we take a lot of things for granted. But as much as the personal stuff we have in the corners of our rooms, there are more out there that we often overlook but are now crucial in this period. What I'm talking about are our front liners. Those are the people in the groceries, the janitors, nurses and doctors, health workers. Admit it, at some point in our lives, we have taken them for granted, but this pandemic changed our perspective in what they can do. After this tough time, never forget to thank them and always value what they can do for others.

18. Home is and will always be the safest place on earth.

We often time hear the government says stay in our homes, to not go out if it is not essential. As much as we want to go outside, being behind closed doors will always be the best option. Our homes are the safest and best place. Home is our heart’s sanctuary, but also, it helps us grow and foster.

19. This pandemic brings out the best and the worst in all of us.

Some of us discovered how to cook, some of us got into better shape. Unfortunately, a lot of people lost their jobs and worse, someone might have lost a loved one due to COVID-19. In this trying time, let’s do our fair share to end this pandemic. This time made us find ourselves more, but let us not forget those who just lost a part of their life. This might be a tough time for us, but let us always remember to look at the silver linings in everything that's happening.

20. There's no problem that we cannot surpass.

No dilemma in life can stay forever in our lives. We are definitely in the toughest times of our lives, but let's keep on holding on and believe that this, too, shall pass. There's no mountain we cannot climb and there's more to life than being sad. Learn to believe that we can overcome what's happening and know that you are not alone in this battle. Your family, friends, and most especially, the Lord will never turn their backs on us. . Know that any problem that we encounter, we can always find a way to overcome it and it will help us have a better perspective in life.

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stella-mayne · 4 years

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Character's Full Name: Zoey Ligaya Zilwick

GENERAL INFO:

Name origin: Zoey is Greek meaning life. Middle name is Filipino for Joy

Nickname, if any: Zo & Zozobear and Lia (her tiyas call her this)

(if so, explain its origin – e.g. who created it?): All her close friends/ family call her Zo. Zozobear is her dad’s nickname and her aunts call her only by her Filipino name or a shortened version. Lia.

Place of birth: Philippines

Religion: Ex Roman Catholic- currently doesn’t subscribe to religion

Degree of religious practice: Non-existent

Current address: Castle in Russia

Sexuality: Zoey’s open to connections with people of any gender but has only ever been heteromantic in the past.

Marital status: Single pringle.

List any significant previous romantic partners: Nate, and there were two exes back in college.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE:

Height: Zoey stands at a whooping 5′2

Weight: Around 120? Her weight rarely fluctuates- no matter how crappily she eats.

What is his/her body type: slim/ slender

Eye color?- Milk chocolate brown

Skin tone:Tan in the summer, olive in the winter. She looks sickly in Russia.

Any prominent features/ other distinguishing marks?: Zoey has the slightest sprinkling of freckles on her face which are only visible if she’s bare faced. The sheerest of tinted moisturizers cover them up.

Zoey also has four moles dotting her shoulder blades, three on the left and one that’s identically placed to the middle on the left on her right.

Whom does s/he most look like (e.g. famous person or relative)?: She takes most after her mom- with her dark tresses and similar smiles.

General health (good, excellent, poor...)?: Pretty good, though she does get paranoid at the slightest sign of an illness (which most times is simply the common cold)

Any chronic conditions?: Insomnia- which is why she makes her special treats.

How does s/he dress (mark as many as appropriate):

Does s/he dress to be noticed? Why? Her sole intention is not to be noticed but she does get noticed often due to her style. She she’s style as a form of expression and takes full advantage of it.

Any special jewelry? She mostly sports rings- which is the only thing she takes off when preparing pastries.

If so, why is it special? Zoey wears crystals often, her favourite being a rose quartz ring that was given to her by her dad.

SPEECH AND LANGUAGE/COMMUNICATION:

Pace (does s/he talk fast, average, slow?): When she’s nervous or excited it sounds like she could pass out from the lack of breaths she takes in between sentences. On the average, if it’s just a regular schmegular conversation it’s average pace.

Accent or dialect, if any: Mostly a Filipino accent and but it’s tainted very slightly with a Canadian twang.

Voice tone: Her tone is average- can get high pitched at times.

Any favorite/habitual words/phrases or curse words?: “Shit” is her favourite curse when she burns herself while cooking-- a direct result of her not wearing the appropriate chef apron.

A phrase she prefaces things often with is “I mean...” which she singsongs/ drags out

Describe general vocabulary or speech pattern: she sounds educated but not pretentious. Can sound cultured from time to time depending on the topic.

Common gestures: Hands in pockets, digging her nails into her arm in uncomfortable situations- sometimes enough to break skin.

EVERYDAY BEHAVIOR / HABITS:

Morning Routine:

Describe the character's morning rituals-

Though Zoey sets an alarm she absolutely hates hearing it- it puts her in a bad mood. So she’s trained herself to wake up a couple minutes before it sounds. In Russia her bed is a twin, but in Canada thought it’s a full she sticks to the right side of the bed. She starts everyday by jotting down what snippets of her dream she remembers into a dream journal before doing a yoga flow and or mediation.

She’s usually very chipper in the morning, especially after she’s had her first iced coffee. Almost always having a light breakfast of fruit or a granola bar.

Dinner:

Zoey unabashedly indulges in more than a fair share amount of take out. After working all day in a kitchen she hardly ever goes into hers. If she’s not ordering in she’s eating out with friends.

Bedtime:

Being an occasional insomniac Zoey resorts to her special treats to get a good night’s rest. If she’s had one she knocks right out, if not- unless she’s beat from a day’s work- she tosses and turns and her mind goes into overdrive. (Because of this her dad got her a weighted blanket last Christmas).

Zoey dreams regularly and most times it’s cryptic but she has dreamt things that happened before. Her precognitive dreams are almost always right.

THE PAST:

Was his/her childhood happy? Troubled? Dull? (And does the character remember it accurately?) Zoey had a very stable upbringing in a loving, well off two parent home. She considers herself very lucky for having the childhood she did.

Earliest memory: Her dad squeezing an orange for her because she was too weak to do so herself.

Happiest memory: Bringing her baby sister home

Significant past jobs: She was a barista- it taught her patience.

First crush or romantic love?- Oliver Wilde- green eyed, dark haired cutie in middle school

What was his/her first sexual experience?- A handsy makeout session in the back of her private high school.

Is it a positive/negative memory? Positive.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS:

How in general is she perceived by...

Strangers? Friendly? Warm/ inviting.. fidgety?

Past spouse/lovers? Sweet? Kind hearted? Generous?

The opposite sex? Cute?

Anyone who angers him or her? Idk. Zoey rarely gets angry.

What do most people consider likeable about him/her? That she’s compassionate.

What do most people consider his/her biggest flaw? Her anxiety or that she’s too much of a people pleaser

Any secret attractions? If so, does the other person know it? Has there been any actual romantic/sexual activity?

A given is that she’s still attracted to Nate. And she’s pretty sure he’s aware. She’s also very attracted to the Russian prince- again, Zoey is not the most discrete as her nerves and anxiety tend to give her away.

No sexual activity with the aforementioned. Though some can argue romantic activity such as signs/ actions of affection.

In romantic relationships, is s/he generally monogamous or uncommitted? (If the latter, is s/he honest w/ partners?)

She’s a monogamous hoe. Like. Once she’s into you she’s into you. And she can be very clingy but in the cute mature way not I’d die without you.

Though she may eventually hold feelings for two people at once.

Is his/her sexual behavior inhibited, average, experimental, or reckless? Has this changed

(and if so, why)?

Definitely inhibited. She is not the type to casually hook up (though she has in college) because she’s afraid of creating soul ties with strangers or people whose hearts she doesn’t know well.

When she is involved with someone she trusts and has feelings for she is open to experimenting with things like Tantric sex etc.

Worst end of a relationship (could be friend, romantic, colleague...): Obviously the one with Nate as it was out of her control and sudden. It was because of the abrupt end that she hasn’t healed from it completely or found closure.

Whom does s/he most rely on for practical advice? Her mom

Whom does s/he most rely on for emotional support? Her dad

MENTAL ATTITUDE/PERSONAL BELIEFS:

Any psychological issues (e.g. phobias,depression, paranoia, narcissism, etc.)? As if it weren’t obvious Zoey suffers from anxiety. It was so bad that she would pass out at times. However the psychological issue she’s in denial about is her depression. Which gets worse nearing the anniversary of her sister’s death. A part of her doesn’t want to acknowledge or admit her depression to herself and family because she doesn’t want them to worry that she’d share the same fate as her sister.

Is s/he an optimist or pessimist? She’s a realist, now. Though she can easily be painted or mistaken as an optimist.

Personal philosophy:

What is his/her biggest embarrassment? Possibly getting caught making kush cupcakes by her boss’ son. Yeah that takes the cake- pun intended.

Does s/he believe in fate or destiny? Is s/he superstitious? Very superstitious. And she believes in fate and destiny more than the average human.

What are his/her own favorite attributes (physical and personality)?- Zoey likes her fingers. They strike her as being very delicate and perfect for playing an instrument to showcase them.. like piano.

She loves that she’s friendly and people warm up to her instantly.

What about least favorite? Zoey wished she was braver in expressing her feelings.

Biggest regret: Not picking up the damn phone when her sister called her in class.

Other regrets: Sometimes taking the job in Russia. Not questioning her breakup with Nate more/ advocating for them or herself.

Biggest secret(s): Her sister’s death. She rarely discusses it with anyone.

Does anyone else know these secrets? Her family.

How does s/he react to a crisis? She’ll probably have a panic attack so intense she’ll pass out... or puke. Once that’s subsided she’ll probably come around to trying to find a solution

How does s/he react to change? Zoey is very adaptable but not when it comes to something like death. That’s the one thing she still struggles to grasp and accept.

LIKES/FAVORITES:

Food: Italian (pestp pasta)

Drink: Iced coffee

Book: The fifth agreement

Film: The Lake House (cuz like fate and serendipity)

#character development #just cuz

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jusdanisha · 3 years

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A Trip Down Memory Lane in Zaldivar

Seems like the universe is getting bigger almost by the minute, and I am getting smaller. When I was a child, I had never met anyone from outside our house in Zaldivar Subdivision. It is a middle-sized area around City Heights with arduous paths and natural spaces, about only a small group of individuals living at peace. I was a homebody, that being so, I never experienced going out to play patintero or tumbang preso, or any classic Filipino street game with some kids my age. It was neither mine nor my parents’ choice, Mama also wanted me to experience a pretty ordinary childhood but unfortunately, I was diagnosed with severe asthma at a young age. My mother said that I inherited it from Lola Besing, my great-grandmother. Heedless of the misfortunes, the company of my family never made me feel alone in the four corners of the room. Up to the time that my Mama had to find herself and suddenly went away, Papa had to leave for work purposes and my older sister Ate Jea continued her studies at Miag-ao, leaving me and my younger sister Che behind, we had to transfer and live half of our lives in Cogonal, a small and serene district in Poblacion, Alabel.

All these years later, Mama decided to go back to our quaint and shuttered former home in Zaldivar and clean up all of the things that were left behind. I never had the opportunity to visit our used to be safe space again. We were all too tied up with our personal lives, I guess we never had the time to think of discarding some of our belongings. Honestly, I was not physically, mentally and emotionally prepared coming back to that house again. While I was busy making revisions for our thesis, my Mom reminded me that we should go back to the old house and declutter. “Mang hipos mo ug manglabay ug mga gamit na di na ninyo kinahanglan”, Mom told us to clear off all the superfluous stuff soon after. Annoyed to death, I could hear that line over almost twice or thrice a month. She also said that I should make sure that my schedule will be free on weekends so that there is no other reason that I could not accompany her and my Ate. Without a doubt, my older sister suggested that we should just avail for cleaning services around City Heights just to lessen the work. It has been already weeks since she came back home from Manila to spend Christmas with us. Mama’s eyes flashed exasperation for a moment, telling us not to spend too much money when we can do it ourselves. These past few months, she would always nag us for spending too much rather than saving. Also, Mom said that we should get some stuff that is still available for use, or else she would sell those old clothes, stuffed toys, bags and pair of shoes to our relatives in Bagacay, a local confined Barangay located also in Alabel. As much as I wanted to tell Mama that I do not have any intentions to go back there, I do not want to be scolded out and upset her once more. I already had too much on my plate that time, I was already thinking about college plans and future career goals as I enter twelfth grade the next few months. I was compelling myself all the while that I just needed to clean and get back to the home right away.

Ever since my Mom came back after she left us, we never had the chance to visit our old house. It was too painful for everyone of us, I presume. Reminiscing all the good times, thinking about how the circumstances would be if she has not left us, there was so much to unpack. I could still remember the day we transferred there, from living in an old cramped apartment to owning a large one story house, it was priceless. Waking up with a peck on the cheek and complete breakfast from Mama, tutoring session every after dinner with Papa when he is not onboard, Ate cooking some foreign delicacies during Saturday night and going all together to church every Sunday, these calm little moments before the storm which are engraved in my heart. On the contrary, looking over the other side was full of grim realities. In between these as good as perfect times, noisy disputes usually marked by anger and distress, screams and whispers that are both equitably blaring for days and nights on end were all heard out. They would tire each other out over the next few days, I take on oneself. I assumed right, Mama and Papa would just ignore each other after those times. If truth to be told, the silence was deafening. When all is said and done, my parents came to a parting of the ways.

On our way to the old house, the aroma of yore lingers as it evokes me a sense of nostalgia. Rough and grass-covered road, efflorescing flowers with petals of kaleidoscopic hues and century-old two-story houses were still there, I certainly missed this place. Still, it feels like home for me. I suddenly remembered while I was having a conversation with my Mom when I was in sixth grade, I asked her about the origin of this place. She told us that she do not have any clue about its whereabouts, it was just referred by a friend of my father who also lived nearby along with his family. Zaldivar is a good place for a new beginning, one of the most peaceful subdivisions in GenSan as people were only staying indoors but still manage to connect with their neighbors, the couple said. The area is owned by the Zaldivar family, however, they migrated in the United States in view of the fact that living there is a golden opportunity. Some Filipino families tend to wander in foreign places to live a better life same boat as them, Mama said. This subdivision was like their safety net, in case of having a hard time financially in States. Besides, they told us that this place is perfect for families who are starting anew, wanting to live a peaceful life away from the chaos and pollutants in the downtown. It was like country living in a highly urbanized setting, too good to be true. After almost eight years of living there, I could not deny the fact that Zaldivar is indeed a safe haven for its inhabitants, like how we used to live there before.

When we arrived at the place, Mama immediately told us to go straight in our old rooms and throw away such goods and chattels. By contrast, I instantly headed straight towards my parents’ room, which is my favorite space in the house. I could still see the view of solitary narrow side streets from the window pane, alongside with the natural scenic beauty. This place has not changed over the years, still it looks exactly the same. As much as I wanted to go back home instantly, I started picking up the boxes which contained some dust-filled seafarer essentials. After that, I also saw my Papa’s old clothes, which he used to wear all the time, disarranged. And so, I picked them up first and started to fold them. While I was folding some of his sweaters when he was still in college, I suddenly saw my Mama and Papa’s belongings when they were still high school lovers, which they kept inside a wooden jewellery box. Out of the blue, I went to where my mother is and asked her if she wanted to keep it, she said that I should ask Papa personally nor it depends on me and Ate’s decision because he might lash out on her, which made me dumbfounded. I wanted to ask her about it a long time ago, but I did not have enough courage. Growing up, I was afraid of my own father. He is known for being hot-headed, brusque, and tends to break things like a bear with a sore head when he is not in the mood.

According to Harvard Medical School, anger issues, in what appears like adult temper tantrums, it manifests itself. Throwing objects, picking a fight for no purpose, and aggressive behavior are some of the manifestations of it. Frequently, the meltdowns last less than minutes, as follows, an individual may feel a sense of relief after an outburst, preceded by remorse and humiliation. He has been overworking himself overseas, supposing that it is his own coping mechanism. After a couple of years, he did not come home. At that moment, I wanted to honestly ask him if I should keep or throw their things away, regardless of being keyed up of what he might say. But then, I decided to dial his number, hesitatingly. I was not expecting that he would answer that quick. In a fraction of a second, I asked him if I should keep his, or should I say their things, but then he also said the same thing. I should throw such things that does are not useful anymore, I shivered with fear as I hear his words with its usual outraged tone. He also mentioned about selling the house for it was about time for us to let it go and so on, his expression of views were already gut-wrenching. I had to end the call and immediately throw their things in a black plastic bag. It was already too suffocating for me to stay inside the old house, I was rushing to go home. I needed an air to breathe. This place has not changed over the years, still it feels the same.

On the spur of the moment, I came to think of the reason why is it so hard for me to let go of such things and places where bittersweet memories are on it. A memory hoarder, that is what they used to call me. Having a difficulty discarding or parting with milieu or possessions, regardless of their actual value, I know exactly how it feels. It is a normal human tendency to feel nostalgic from time to time, but, sometimes falling prey to feelings of nostalgia can hinder the progress. Nostalgia is a traitor, a sweet liar, and a feeling too distant yet familiar. It is a guilty pleasure to simmer the aftertaste of every memory stucked in a particular thing, or even a warm and abiding place. Basking in it has never felt so bad. Like how I used to visualize our old house in Zaldivar as a perfect place, but then, it is the exact opposite of what is in my mind and what others used to describe it. I tend to hold onto the fond happenings of the place, but later when I got back, I forgot about how the place felt like when I was a kid. As stated by Jerry Burger, Ph.D., in his research “Returning Home: Reconnecting with Our Childhoods,” returning to an old home is one way of addressing unfinished business from childhood. A childhood home is a certain place where one usually recall his or her never to be forgotten moments throughout life, after all, we must have a closure with those lingering memories. Genuinely marveling at the life I have spent in that particular place, and remembering all sorts of memories – the good, the bad, and everything in between, it was a bittersweet ending. Some things would not go away just because we pretend to forget all about it. Like a fleeting memory, past will always haunt us.

When we returned back home in Cogonal, I immediately rushed into my bed, bawling my eyes out. For sure Mom knew that I would react like this, leaving me alone for hours. In a split second, all the wounds I once thought were healed are not healed at all. Instead, I dug down deeper into its thin skin, causing it to bleed all over again. After everything we have been through, my parents decided to sell the house where we used to call it our safe space. Guess it was not a good place for a new beginning for our family. At last, living in Zaldivar was a beautiful memory that I had to let go. Beyond everything, still, it feels like home for me. “Mang hipos mo ug manglabay ug mga gamit na di na ninyo kinahanglan”, that would be my Mama’s favorite reminder, she would constantly tell us to throw such things away that are not useful anymore. In the long run, we still have to go back to the place we used to hurt for us to heal and move forward. Just like how we easily discard things when they are unused anymore, we must also leave behind a place to take yourself back to the start. At that moment, I mastered the art of letting go.

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scribblindown · 7 years

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The Chocobros visit Asia

AKA they visit their Asian S/O’s country.

To those who asked for more POC headcanons, I hope that I delivered. @little-mini-me-world @insomniacapples @hypaalicious @me-yasato @ka-za-ri @paopuicecream @louisvuittontrashbags @eaddi @musemaya @a-cup-of-insomnia @everyusernameistakensoyeah

A special thanks to all of my friends who helped me with the Philippines, Korea, and China!

I won’t be able to touch on every feature that the countries have, so please understand if I don’t mention every subject! Even so I hope you enjoy! :D.

Noctis:

Destination: Vietnam

First things first, Vietnam is hot. Not only is it extremely hot, it’s also extremely humid, so the weather isn’t very sympathetic to your poor boyfriend in his black leather. Even though Noctis hates showing a lot of skin, he’d be more than willing to strip down to something lighter because of this weather.

Not that you’re complaining, of course, but be warned that Noctis will become a whiny child if the AC ever fails on you.

Noctis also embraces the pj culture like second nature.

In Vietnam, although they’re technically classified as “pajamas,” are just a matching set of tops and bottoms that can be used as sleepwear and regular clothes.

It’s a completely common thing to see out on the streets, and while it’s mostly women and children who wear it, Noctis totally gets on board.

Why do we have two sets of clothes in the first place? Why not just wear pjs all day? The sleepy prince ponders this even when he goes back to Insomnia.

It’s also canon that Noctis doesn’t like coffee, and only drinks it to look more mature, but he sips his way through several cups of Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk before he realizes what he’s drinking.

“But it’s not bitter like Ebony??” O.o

Noctis is all about that glamorous lifestyle, so the two of you buy some street food and sit out on the curb in front of your house to share your bánh mì (bread/sandwich) or bánh xèo (savory fried pancake) like the prince and princesses that you are.

Fishing! Noctis takes relaxing on vacation to the extreme, but in this case, he will be the one to drag you out to a nearby fishing spot or fishing village and fish for who knows how long.

Just don’t let him take a nap near the water afterwards, the mosquitoes will destroy him. (Just saying from personal experience.)

If you’re going to Vietnam to visit family, and you want to have home cooked meals, bring Noctis with you when you go grocery shopping. Use his good looks to your advantage and get discounted or free groceries. He gets super embarrassed when the ladies manning the small shops gush over his looks.

“These are my uncles from my dad’s side, bác hai, bác ba, and bác bốn.” “Uh....Can you translate that for me?” “Oh...Just call them uncle two, uncle three, and uncle four.” “...What?”

And this might just be me being biased, but I think Noctis will look absolutely dashing in a traditional áo dài! It’s just--that image--swoons.

Prompto:

Destination: Philippines

The Philippines is a great place with nice people with a sunny disposition, so Prompto fits right in with the people.

If he thought that Gladin Quay was beautiful, Prompto would have to mentally prepare himself for these waters. Take him to the right spot, and Prompto will gasp and be in awe for what seems to be like forever.

However, this is a double edged sword, Prompto will take hundreds of pictures at once, forcing you to pose for him or wait for him as he snaps at his camera.

Prompto will take pictures of anything and everything when he’s on vacation with you.

It’s a very family orientated place, so be prepared to introduce Prompto to your extended family.

Which makes him even more confused because, “Wait...There’s more??How many Titas (aunts) and Titos (uncles) do you have??”

You’re not sure how to answer that.

You tell him that your family party is at ten the next day, and it’s eleven and you’re still in bed. By the time that he drags you out of bed and gets you dressed, it’s near twelve-thirty and Prompto is ready to apologize to your family for being so late.

Imagine his shock when he finds out that the party barely started. You give him a smug look and simply say, “Filipino time.”

Food! So much food! Aside from the, “You’re so skinny, eat more,” comments from your family, Prompto digs in happily because there is so many to choose from and so much to eat!

He cries about it later because he doesn’t eat rice often, so all of that rice will be storing in his butt and his thighs, but you don’t hear him complaining when he has that plate of lechon (whole roasted pig), tocino (cured pork belly), or longanisa (sausage) and rice in front of him.

Prompto takes his time to try and greet everyone at the party. Even though they don’t speak the same language, your relatives and Prompto can chat up a storm somehow.

Prepare for cheesy party games and embarrassing childhood memories being brought up.

Prompto gets stars in his eyes when he realizes how much to you talk about him to your family.

And karaoke! How can you forget karaoke? It’s basically in your bloodstream.

Prompto and your relatives go at it for hours, and while your cousins absolutely crush him at basketball, Prompto can blow your family out of the water because he has a voice of an angel.

Your relatives will gush over him, and once they accept him, they take him into the family and basically adopt him. It’s pretty tearful to him because his adoptive parents are so distant. You would have to hold him as he cries later.

Gladiolus:

Destination: South Korea

Once more, he basically towers over everyone, and can look clearly over everyone’s heads.

All of the 아저씨 (ajusshis/older males) stare in amazement at this 6′6″ behemoth with a rippling nine pack and badass tattoo.

Walk with him down the streets and you will hear passing comments of, “He’s so handsome!” over and over again.

Bring him to some family or friends and they will tell him, “You have a nice V line!” or, “Your face is very even!”

He gives you a confused look, and you just sigh and try to explain.

When you tell your family that you honestly don’t know what Gladio’s blood type is, the women in your family look at you strangely and tell you, “How do you not know? How can you tell what is personality is like?”

They then all try to guess what his blood type is. You personally think he’s type O.

While his actual beloved Cup Noodle wouldn’t be very common in the stores there, Korea has a large arsenal of instant noodles that you insist is better than Cup Noodle.

Gladio begs to differ, but you catch him buying some of that ramyeon anyway, and cooking them and eating them at the convenience store.

By the time you’ve finished your bowl, he’s already gone through five different types.

He’d never do this back home, but since it’s pretty common here, Gladio has no problem with flaunting your couple status by wearing matching or coordinating outfits.

(Though the two of you would probably have to plan beforehand and get clothes that actually fit him back in Insomnia.)

Gladio would be more into hiking, backpacking, any athletic activity that you can name, so if you’re from any big city, expect to take a break from that and head to the rural areas.

Iris would probably badger him about bringing her back some cute clothes, so he spends a good fraction of his vacation shopping with you for Iris.

He thought he knew you well, but he hasn’t seen his little S/O down multiple bowls of 떡볶이 (tteokbokki/spicy rice cake) in one go yet.

He’s also scarily impressed by your drinking habits in Korea.

Gladio’s good at adapting to things, and this can be a double edged sword. On one hand, he can adapt to the Korean culture and mannerisms quite well while he’s there, but once he goes back to Insomnia, all of that stays like a bad habit.

Nyx wonders why Gladio wouldn’t look at him when they drink anymore and Gladio will unconsciously bow to anything and anyone who makes eye contact with him.

So my friend told me that 나가 (naga) means get out/get lost?? Oh my god, the confusion Gladio will get if his Korean S/O ever says this.

Ignis:

Destination: China

A place that is rich in culture, tradition, and history? Say no more, Ignis will be booking your plane tickets and hotel room before you can even finish saying, “Do you want to go with me?”

Ignis speaks both Mandarin and Cantonese, and if you’ve been away from your homeland for a long time, your family will tease you and say, “He speaks better than you do.”

But don’t take it to heart, they’re mostly just impressed, and the women in your family won’t hesitate to gush about him or talk about how he’s the ideal husband.

If you have strong family ties, they all appreciate how well Ignis cares for you, but even though Ignis can take care of himself, your family won’t hesitate to baby him as well.

Ignis would also be very by the books when it comes to mannerisms, customs, or rules, so it would be up to you to make sure that he doesn’t stress so much about it. It isn’t as strict as he thinks.

Even though it sounds tacky, Ignis would be looking forward to the stereotypical tourist attractions, such as the Great Wall or the Forbidden City, because he’s genuinely interested in the amazing history that those places have.

Interesting to him and some others, but maybe not to you, so prepare for staying at those sites for hours on end as Ignis tries to know everything there is to know about those spots.

Other than visiting the historical, touristy spots, Ignis mostly wants to have the ultimate culinary experience when he’s there.

If the two of you aren’t sightseeing or visiting family, you’re most likely eating together.

Ignis plans a full meal itinerary for almost every single day at some of the best restaurants. Though that doesn’t necessarily mean high-class, Ignis can appreciate food from everywhere.

He’s cultured, not stuck up.

With all of this amazing and authentic food, Ignis always has his little notebook out to jot down those New Recipehs™.

“ 就是这样！我研制出新的配方了！” (”That’s it! I’ve come up with a new recipe!”) “Babe, please, you’re embarrassing me.”

Forces you to wake up super early to go to the markets and get the best deals and freshest food, then strolls down the night markets with you.

Ignis always looks like he stepped off the runway, so the two of you hear many whispers of, “He looks like a model!” or, “Is he a model?”

Don’t leave him alone on the streets for more than a minute, people will figure out that he speaks the languge and girls will try and flirt with your man.

“Hey, Ignis?” “Yes, darling?” “When we go out, can you pretend that you don’t know any Chinese?”

When the two of you return to Insomnia, Ignis naturally tries to emulate the dishes that he has tried. You have the same dish for five days straight in different variations before you finally snap and tell him no more. Ignis moves on to use Noctis and Gladio as his guinea pigs.

Extra: My friends as I asked them for help and to look over my headcanons

Me: [asks my friends to translate Iggy’s famous line for me] Chinese friends; one who was born, raised, and lived in China until recently:..Have you tried google?

Me: [shows my friend a picture of Gladio] Korean friend who doesn’t know anything about FFXV: Oooh, he has a nice face; it’s very even.

Filipino friend: You should make a headcanon about balut, Prompto would freak out. Me: I DON’T WANT TO HURT HIM.

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wednesdayhustlers-aas218-blog · 5 years

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BLOG #9 Mid Semester Project: Interracial relationships

The Fall of the I-Hotel + Ethnic Studies Strike + Who Killed Vincent Chin? + Gook

Each of the documentaries and the film from the mid semester project all showed the different sides of interracial relationships and showed how certain factors can harm these relationships. For example in The Fall of the I-Hotel the Filipino and Chinese communities came together. The Ethnic Studies Strike brought college students and staff of all races together. Gook highlighted the racial tension between African Americans and Koreans. And Who Killed Vincent Chin showed the tensions between Chinese Americans and white Americans.

The I-Hotel is located in Manila town and in the late 60’s there were plans to demolish the hotel which meant all of the predominantly elderly Filipino tenants and the few Chinese tenants would be displaced. The younger generation of Filipinos and Chinese came together to fight for their parents/grandparents who couldn’t fight to keep their homes. Prior to this Filipinos and Chinese didn’t interact, there wasn’t a relationship until after the I-Hotel.

The Ethnic Studies Strike aka the Third World Liberation Front strike was a result of a desire to have ethnic studies because students recognized how euro-centric their education was. There were 15 demands from both Black Student Union and the Third World Liberation Front. Because these demands weren’t being met or addressed the strike continued. It wasn’t just BSU students fighting for an ethnic studies department, it was everyone from black to white and everyone in between. The strike began November 6, 1968 and ended March 21, 1969, a total of 136 days. It took almost a third of a year for their demands for ethnic studies to be met. This shows that under dire circumstances any groups can come together. The success of the strike again showed how different ethnic groups can come together.

Who Killed Vincent Chin? is a documentary about what followed the death of Vincent Chin. Vincent was killed by two white man, Ronald Ebens and his stepson, Michael Nitz. Ronald was angered that he’d lost his job due the growing popularity of Japanese cars in the US. He had been drinking when he attacked and killed Vincent Chin with a baseball bat under the assumption Vincent was one of those Japanese people responsible for his unemployment. Ronald and Michael killed a man, they weren’t sentenced to prison, they were given three years probation, a $3000 fine, and $780 in court costs. That was until his mother began speaking out and protests began that ended up reaching the Supreme Court as a civil rights case. The death of Vincent Chin bought together all sorts of groups, some people wanting justice for Vincent Chin and other siding with Ronald.

Gook is a film that takes place during the 1992 LA Riots not far from the riots. The riots came after the Rodney King hearing, which sparked a lot of anger because there was video proof of Rodney King being beat by four police officers who were all acquitted.

The film shows the different relationships across races and across generations. There’s three different generations in the film. Mr. Kim who is an older Korean immigrant. Eli and Daniel who are two Korean brothers who run a shoe store. As well as Keith and Regina who are Kamilla’s older siblings. And lastly Kamilla, an 11 year old black girl who works with Eli and Daniel.

Eli and Keith on the other hand who are around the same age cannot put aside their differences and constantly are at each other's throats. Anyone from the same generation as Eli and Daniel who are of another race have strong racially based tensions between other races outside of their own. Except for when introducing gender because the black women who would go to the shop would often flirt with Daniel to get those discounts. However generation gaps change the dynamic of interracial relationships. Looking at Eli, Daniel and Mr. Kim’s they have a family dynamic, the love hate type of relationship because Eli and Daniel see themselves as American whereas Mr. Kim sees himself as a Korean immigrant. Eli, Daniel and Kamilla are a generation apart, despite being different races they have a relatively good relationship. Eli and Daniel care for Kamilla and treat her like a little sister. Lastly Mr. Kim and Kamilla are two generations apart and the racial tensions are strong, they don’t ever seem to get along and hate each other to the most extreme degree and it often takes Eli going off on both of them for the gap to be bridged.

Each of these films are examples of how different situations create different types of relationships. In the three documentaries showed how people can come together. The documentaries often showed how the younger generation would often step up to become the voice. Whereas the film, Gook, showed how different generations interact with each other.

#AAS218JADEB

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actualbird · 7 years

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(wc: 2.2k. more tagalog! more pining michael! babysitting! baking! part 1. part 2. or read everything on ao3 over here.)

To heerefarwhereveryouare

:(((((((

From heerefarwhereveryouare

??? What’s up?

To heerefarwhereveryouare

dude super sorry but i gotta cancel on the star trek marathon emergency thing came up in the form of Responsibility

From heerefarwhereveryouare

Awww. What do you mean?

To heerefarwhereveryouare

a couple of relatives had a thing that led to a thing and they need somebody to take care of a thing that somebody is me that thing im taking care of is a 7 year old aka im babysitting my gremlin cousin today :((( :(((((((((((

From heerefarwhereveryouare

Oh, okay. Can I come over? We can still hang. Plus, you’re kind of terrible with anything that can be defined as a child, so I’m a little worried.

To heerefarwhereveryouare

im not that bad :(((( but yes pls get over here oh my god

From heerefarwhereveryouare

Alright, I’ll be there in a few. Turn that :( upside down (:

Michael admits that he finds kids confusing, but he really isn’t that bad with them. He just doesn’t know how to interact with kids, but that’s him with almost everybody. If it’s a non-Jeremy lifeform, chances are he really has to focus to understand anything that’s going on, or just wing everything completely and hope nobody gets injured.

Nikki is definitely a non-Jeremy lifeform.

Nikki is a tiny seven year old terror with at least five colorful clips in her hair at a time. It took at least three family gatherings for her to tolerate Michael within a three meter radius of her, and two more to actually talk to him. Tita says she’s just naturally shy around new people, so Michael tries to relate to her, but most of his attempts are met with head tilts, suspicious squinting, or, when she gets more comfortable around him, derisive comments.

(“It’s broken,” she tells him in Tagalog, waving the Game Boy Color in Michael’s face. “I can’t see anything.”

“It doesn’t have a backlight, so you have to play it somewhere well lit,” he explains.

She frowns, “That’s lame.”

Michael would rather an axe to the face than anybody dissing his Game Boy Color.)

Suffice to say, he’s thankful that at least he won’t be dealing with her alone today.

“Hey, dude,” Michael greets Jeremy at his front door when he arrives. “Thanks for coming.”

“No problem,” Jeremy says, stepping in. “Where’s your cousin?”

“Living room,” he answers. “Just a heads up, she doesn’t speak much English. She can understand it, yeah, so you can relax, but she only speaks a little..”

“That’s alright,” Jeremy shrugs, walking into the living room.

Nikki is sprawled out on the couch in the living room with the kind of defiant pettiness all kids under ten seem to have, swiping disinterestedly on her ipad.

“Yo, Nikki, my friend is here,” Michael calls out. Immediately, Nikki jolts, whipping her head to Jeremy before shyly ducking behind a throw pillow like a cave goblin seeing light for the first time. “Say hi.”

Nikki, obviously, does not say hi, but Jeremy isn’t deterred.

Jeremy sits on the opposite end of the couch and says in a soft, gentle voice, “Hi, I’m Jeremy. What’s your name?”

Puzzled, Michael says, “I just told yo—”

“Nikki, po,” she says softly, eyeing Jeremy over the pillow.

Michael blinks.

“Nice to meet you, Nikki. I like your clips.” Jeremy says, and Nikki actually smiles, raising the pillow up higher to hide it.

“Salamat po,” she says, fiddling with one of her clips that has a tiny cupcake on it.

“Uh, she said ‘thank you’,” Michael translates when Jeremy glances at him, slightly dazed at whatever is going on here.

“You’re welcome. Do you like baking?” Jeremy asks, and Michael is pretty sure he just ended up in another universe because Nikki shoves the pillow down and grins brightly. “We can make something today, if you want?”

“Yeah!” She says, turning to Michael. It’s almost terrifying seeing her smile in his direction. “Kuya Mikey, can we? Please?”

“Wh—Uh. Okay. Sure.” Michael says off of Jeremy’s meaningful glancing and eyebrow movements. “Let’s go check if there’s stuff in the kitchen.”

“Yay!” Nikki cheers, hopping off of the couch and running to the kitchen.

What.

“What,” Michael says to Jeremy’s smug looking expression. “What did you do? Oh my god? Are you some magic kid whisperer or something?”

“It’s not magic,” Jeremy rolls his eyes. “Kids just like doing what they like. Have you only ever tried to talk about video games with her?”

“Yeah but—”

“Not everybody likes video games,” Jeremy says, which, duh of course Michael knows. It’s weird, and he can’t really process it but he knows. “Some people like baking, Mikey.”

“Shut it,” Michael grumbles. “Keep it up, though. I haven’t seen her look anything other than bored or unimpressed, so as weirded out as I am, this an improvement.” Michael leans dramatically against Jeremy. “What would I ever do without you, Jeremy Heere?”

“Probably crash and burn,” Jeremy laughs. “Dude, get off.”

They walk into the kitchen where Nikki is standing, blinking up at cupboards she can’t reach, probably figuring out that this is not her house and that she has no idea where anything is. She turns to them expectantly.

“Okay so,” Michael opens a cupboard. And another one. And another. Just when he’s about to give up, he hits jackpot. “Bingo! We’ve got some brownie mix leftover from the last time we, uh—” Jeremy elbows him the side. “—the last time we made totally normal regular brownies.”

“Are you okay with making brownies, Nikki?” Jeremy asks in that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad soft voice of his that’s starting to make Michael dumb and fluttery.

“Yeah,” she nods enthusiastically, looking at Jeremy like he hung the stars. Which, okay, he can relate to.

“Okay. Michael can you get uh,” Jeremy reads the instructions on the box. “A bowl, a whisk, and whatever, you know the rest. Nikki, can you fetch me two eggs? I’ll get the other stuff.”

Nikki practically bolts to the fridge, and Michael can’t help but smile at seeing her so excited. When he returns laden with a bowl, a whisk, and a brownie pan, Nikki is jumping up and down next to Jeremy, an egg in each hand.

“Here,” Michael hands Jeremy the bowl and Jeremy pours the mix in.

“Uy, wala akong makita,” Nikki says, tugging at Jeremy’s jacket.

“Sorry, uh,” Jeremy glances at Michael. “What did she say?”

“She can’t see what you’re doing,” Michael tells him, looking at Nikki whose head just barely peeks past the kitchen counter.

“Oh, well,” Jeremy bends down and lifts Nikki up much to her delight, if her delighted squee is anything to go by, before depositing on the counter. Michael’s heart clenches for some reason. “Better?”

“Yes po,” she smiles. “Salamat, Kuya Jeremy.”

Michael is speechless.

Jeremy tasks Michael with greasing the pan while he cracks one egg into the mix, doing it slowly in front of Nikki so that she can crack the next one, which miraculously ends in only a few shells landing in the mix. Jeremy lets Nikki mix everything together.

“Pwede ko pong i-try?” Nikki says, tongue dangerously close to the whisk.

Jeremy may not understand the words but he does understand that mischievous look Nikki has. He swipes the whisk away from her grubby mitts. “Nope, sorry. It’ll be better later when it’s finished.” He says. Nikki crosses her arms and pouts, which causes Jeremy to laugh, which makes her pout falter.

They pour the batter into the pan, expertly greased, if Michael may say so himself, and pop it in the oven.

“The box says it’ll take around twenty minutes.” Michael says. Nikki is crouching by the oven, staring at the brownies.

“Alright,” Jeremy says, patting his pockets. “Hey, I think I left my phone in your living room. I’ll be right back. Watch over the brownies for me?”

Michael raises an eyebrow, “They’re not gonna walk away—”

“I will, Kuya Jeremy,” Nikki says solemnly, face as serious as if she’s a bodyguard and that she’ll guard these brownies with her life.

“Thanks,” Jeremy smiles, and he leaves the kitchen.

There’s a beat of awkward silence.

Then Nikki says in Filipino, “Do you have a crush on Kuya Jeremy?”

Michael is really glad he isn’t eating anything this time.

“I—I’m sorry what?” He stutters. “What are you talking about?

“You’re always looking at him,” she grins.

“Yeah, well, you’re always looking at him too!”

“Because I like him too,” Nikki whispers.

“What? That’s not allowed. You’ve known him for like, forty minutes.” Michael says, an odd, protective feeling washing over him for Jeremy. Which is ridiculous.

“You can’t tell me what to do,” she steps on his foot.

“Ow!”

“And you better not tell him! It’s a secret!”

“I won’t, don’t worry,” Michael sighs. “I haven’t even told him myself.”

Nikki gasps, and fuck. “So you do like him!”

“No, I don’t. Shut up,” he hisses. The glint in Nikki’s eyes should’ve warned him that only trouble was to come, but by the time it dawns on him, she’s running out of the kitchen with her tiny little goblin legs.

“KUYA JEREMY,” Nikki yells, skidding into the living room, fuckity fuck. “Kuya Mikey li—”

Before any traitorous words can be said, Michael does a sick slide on the floor, catches her, and covers her awful demon mouth.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up, please,” Michael hisses to Nikki. “Please, I am not kidding, please.”

“Uh,” Jeremy says from the couch, phone in hand. “What’s happening?”

“Noth—Oh my god, ew, did you lick me?” Michael pulls his hand away from Actual Confirmed Gremlin Nikki Mell.

Nikki sticks his tongue out at him, but she looks like she maybe might have an ounce of mercy for Michael.

Maybe.

She points at Michael, “Torpe si Kuya M—.” and he covers her mouth again.

“What now?” Jeremy asks and, fuckity fucking fuck. He glances over to Michael. “What does torpe mean?”

Michael is just about to pull another lie straight out of his ass but Nikki beats him to the punch by biting him, Jesus.

“Dude, not cool.” Michael holds his hand to his chest, hoping to look sad and pitiful so Nikki won’t do anything else that’ll jeopardize Michael’s soul.

It doesn’t work. Nikki stands proud and says in straight English, “It means somebody who is too shy to say how they feel to their crush.”

Michael never thought he’d one day vividly fantasize about launching a seven year old child out a window, but here he is now.

“Okaaaay,” Jeremy says cautiously, picking up on the tension. “So what were you guys talking abo—”

“You!” Nikki says.

“YEAH, YOU AND CHRISTINE,” Michael all but screams. “Haha! We were talking about how you still haven’t told Christine how you feel yet.”

Nikki scrunches her eyebrows, “Christine? Sino yun?”

“Oh, well, I guess that makes sense.” Jeremy, oh so thankfully oblivious Jeremy just smiles sheepishly and scratches the back of his head. “I really do get shy around her, so yeah, I’m torpe.”

“Yeah, you sure are, dude,” Michael carries a squirming Nikki over to the couch and deposits her next to Jeremy. “Jer, why don’t you tell her more about Christine, yeah? I’ll go check on the brownies.”

Michael goes back to the kitchen and catches his breath. That was a close call. That was several close calls in the span of a very short time. Jeremy and Nikki are still in the living room, so this is not time to have a Jeremy Feelings Crisis. Michael takes a second to rein everything back in, then he goes to fetch an oven mitt.

Once the brownies are safely cooling on the counter, he returns to the living room. Nikki is staring adoringly at Jeremy who seems to be waxing poetic on how great Christine was when she was called to read an excerpt of the book they’re reading in class. Nikki notices Michael, and for a seven year old, she conveys quite a lot of emotion into a slight frown.

It’s a look that he interprets as sorry you like your best friend who likes somebody else. Ugh.

“Yo, the brownies are done,” Michael says, and Nikki is back to her bubbly goblin persona in a second. “But they’re still cooling so—”

Nikki runs past him.

“—so I guess you can just go anyway and burn your mouth on molten fudge, or something.” Michael says to the living room and Jeremy. “Dude, thanks again.”

“For what?”

“For coming over, for making Nikki happy, for baking brownies with us,” Michael tells him. “I really appreciate it.”

“It’s really no problem. She’s fun, and I get to hang out with you,” Jeremy slings an arm of Michael shoulders. “What are gagos for, right?”

Oh geez, Michael thinks, suppressing his laughter. “Absolutely.”

When they get to the kitchen, Nikki is trying and failing to climb onto the counter to get to the brownies. Jeremy lifts her up onto the counter as he slices the brownies, Nikki excitedly swinging her legs back and forth. Michael watches, eyes trained on Jeremy as he happily prattles on about Christine’s really cool socks or something. Nikki meets his eyes a few times looking way too understanding for a tiny monster, and Michael just shrugs at her.

Yeah, he’s torpe as fuck, but it’s fine. Being Jeremy’s friend is enough, and he wouldn’t trade it for a dumb confession.

He’s okay. Really.

( glossary of stuff not defined in fic: tita = aunt po = it doesnt...mean anything/have an english translation. it's something we add in sentences when speaking to somebody older or with more authority. it's a sign of respect. kuya = older brother, but is also an honorific for dudes who arent actually your older brother “Pwede ko pong i-try?” = can i try it? "Sino yun?" = who is that?)

#bmc #be more chill #boyf riends #u kno by this point im getting frustrated with these boys now too i jus wanna make em kiss #but making mikey meal pine is just incredible cathartic charot....#iwrotesomething

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make-some-manna · 7 years

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Marco/Janna Speculations based on Star and Marco’s Guide to Mastering Every Dimension

I will be going crazy with the shipping speculations, turning the tiniest little details into gigantic sweeping claims, so don’t take any of this too seriously.

Revelations

Before going crazy with speculations, let’s review some of the base facts given by the book Star and Marco’s Guide to Mastering Every Dimension. Some of these we already knew from past episodes, but some are completely new.

Here they are, organized by source, with numbers to identify references to past episodes.

According to the school yearbook:

Full legal name is Janna Ordonia

According to Star, Janna:

is into witchy stuff and thinks what Star does is witchy

feels at home at the Diaz house and eats their food

likes black magic, daggers, dead-clown seances, the night, street wizards, the color pink [1]

has a crush on nineteenth-century poet John Keats [1]

has a snake eating its own tail (ouroboros) as her spirit animal

is “bananas” (crazy)

According to Marco, Janna:

“flirts with me and makes creepy comments about calling her after my divorce.” [2]

According to Janna herself, she

does not believe in love at first sight

likes raising the dead and thinks a dead guy who raises himself is “a keeper”

encourages getting to know spirit guides/ghosts for seances [3]

encourages the occasional sleep in a grave [3]

believes Marco is not “ready to date someone as fierce as me.”

went on a date with Bernardo, the skeleton she met in the Dimension of Wonders and Amazements, [4] to an underground crypt

sees her body as “an occult temple” and so never touches any drink harder than a cranberry juice cocktail

will never date Bernardo again for unsaid reasons

References to Past Episodes:

Sleepover

Naysaya

Bon Bon the Birthday Clown

Interdimensional Field Trip

Right, now that the facts are out of the way, let’s go crazy with wild speculations.

Speculations

One easy speculation that a lot of people have jumped on is that Janna has Filipino ancestry, based on the fact Ordonia is a Filipino surname. But this of course can go in all sorts of difference directions: the ancestry could be near or remote, she could have diverse ancestry beyond just the surname, etc.

Ultimately, I’m not too interested in imagining scenarios based around any ancestry, as I don’t think it very relevant to Janna’s personality or character.

And besides, let’s be honest here, what we all really want is crazy shipping speculations. So let’s dive on in.

Marco openly classifies what Janna does with him as “flirting.” If Marco takes it as “flirting,” we as the audience are pretty safe in considering it “flirting” as well. So, in other words,

JANNA FLIRTS WITH MARCO.

“Oh, but that doesn’t mean anything,” a few hold-outs might cry. “People flirt all the time just for fun, even married people.”

Perhaps, but part of what makes flirting popular and fun is that it is all about playing with tension that is there but not openly acknowledged. Flirting signals that the people involved find one another attractive and appealing, while still maintaining plausible deniability so as to not commit oneself fully. So, it could be argued that that flirting always means something, but everyone pretends that it means nothing, and that pretending in of itself is what creates much of the meaning.

The main takeaway speculation then, is that Janna finds Marco attractive. But to be blunt, most of us should have already been arguing for that from the butt-slap in ‘Bon Bon the Birthday Clown.’

“Oh, but even if she thinks he’s attractive, it doesn’t mean anything,” the hold-outs might say. “Just look at how Janna went on a date with Bernardo the skeleton.”

In which case I might turn their own previous argument back on them and point out that dating is basically flirting, part 2: more openly acknowledging that they find one another attractive, but still keeping some level of plausible deniability to prevent commitment too fast, hence “friend dates” and “first dates that went nowhere.”

But I will not use that argument, because there’s a much better one: Janna’s remark “And Marco wasn’t ready to date someone as fierce as me.”

Janna feels the need to justify why she is dating Bernardo instead of Marco.

Why would she feel the need to make that justification unless she actually cared a lot about Marco?

And Janna specifically frames it as Marco not being ready for her, which as any experienced flirt knows, is a common flirting tactic: make it seem like any potential barriers to a relationship are due to the other party, to make oneself appear more appealing. So even when talking about dating someone else, Janna still somehow manages to flirt with Marco.

In any case, we are told that Janna will never date Bernardo again, in such a way as to imply something went very badly between them, but without any details at all. Once again, I’m not too keen on trying to speculate here, because the possibilities are endless.

Now as an interlude before jumping into another big speculation block, a few brief, smaller, miscellaneous speculations:

Janna claims that she does not believe in love at first sight. Well, it just so happens that Janna and Marco have a long history together, so that all works out quite well, doesn’t it?

Janna calls her body “an occult temple” and does not drink. It is probably safe to speculate that despite her delinquent attitudes, she avoids drugs.

Janna is reported to feel at home at the Diaz residence and eat their food, encouraging speculation that she has history visiting and staying there. Honestly, at this point, how can the series not have Janna and Marco turn out to be childhood friends? It would be a catastrophic letdown.

Back to the big crazy speculations, let’s talk about Janna specifically, about her personality and character.

Namely, I wish to make the staggering and remarkable claim that Janna is not so different from the stereotypical young teenage girl that she works so hard to defy: I suggest that Janna is at a crossroads in her life and struggling with issues of identity.

Now, I don’t mean to suggest that she secretly cries and moans about existential angst in the privacy of her own room. It is perfectly possible for a maturing young woman to suffer through self-identity without making a big deal about it or even being consciously aware of it. Compare for example Marco’s relatively restrained existentialism, or Star’s own strain of denial.

I speculate that Janna, for whatever reason, feels an obligation to act a certain way and fit into a certain identity. Take for example her love of pink but dislike of admitting so because she doesn’t want to fit the gender stereotype. I speculate that this not only applies to her color opinions, but also to many other attributes about Janna: she ends up being exaggerating or downplaying certain things about herself as she tries to define her own identity.

This is not to say that things like her love of “witchy things” is not genuine, but rather that certain parts of it get played up, that she is emphasizing certain specific parts of herself at the expense of other parts.

Consider the revelation that her crush is the late poet John Keats. (On a side note, the fact that John Keats is a renowned poet suggests we should classify this as one of those “celebrity crushes” that doesn’t particularly mean that much.) Perhaps Janna feels the need to reinforce her self-perception of identity by choosing to crush on a dead celebrity. And perhaps it is due to her need to reinforce her self-perception is why she chooses to emphasize the dead part instead of, say, the romantic poet part.

Perhaps Janna might think that things like love and dating are unbecoming of her, that her self-image of defying gender stereotypes, of loving occult things, of being “fierce,” means that romance is not for her. And perhaps such thoughts are in fact a massive self-denial of a very important part of herself: she loves pink, and her celebrity crush was a romantic poet who wrote extensively on the theme of obsessive love. Perhaps, deep down, part of her deeply craves for a stereotypical “pinkish” sort of romance, but she feels such a desire is in conflict with the other parts of her.

And perhaps that is why she tried dating a skeleton and talked about marriage with a dead guy in the book: she thinks this is the only way to reconcile the two different parts of herself. But this is a very shallow attempt at reconciliation that cannot really work out in the long run (probably why it didn’t work out with Bernardo). Janna will need to sort through a few personal things before she can really have it both ways.

I am sure that there will be many who say I am overthinking this, and seeing stuff that is not there. Perhaps I am, but I don’t think it is a bad thing if I am. These speculations make characters more complex and interesting in my view, and I believe most people would agree; consider the popularity of “find someone who can do both” jokes.

#mannamonday #star vs the forces of evil #svtfoe #Marco Diaz #Janna Ordonia #Manna #Janco

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jobsearchtips02 · 4 years

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Portrait of a Pandemic

During the first two months of 2020, Herine Baron was in a pretty constant state of bliss, driving around Miami accompanied by the pulsating rhythms of Caribbean party music. A new mother at 28, she was enjoying her chubby-cheeked baby, Malcolm, and making plans to build a house. As she returned from maternity leave to her hospital nursing job, she had only one big question hanging over her: should she continue her education with an eye toward administration or more advanced nursing?

Little did she know what lay ahead. Little did anyone.

In Boston, Josee Matela, 21, was juggling: six part-time jobs, three senior-year college classes and two extracurricular responsibilities. It was a grind, but she was buoyed by the end in sight. In May, Matela, the first member of her Filipino immigrant family to attend college in the U.S., would graduate from Boston University with degrees in journalism and international relations. And then, she thought, she would launch.

Mahum Khalid, 27, a hotel worker and student in San Francisco, also felt on the cusp of something life-changing. After years of abusing alcohol and drugs — especially heroin — she had been frightened in late January by a weeks-long manic episode triggered by mixed drug use. Coming out of it, she read on Twitter about Kobe Bryant’s death and the deadly virus in China. She felt like the world was upside down, and she desperately needed to make a change. After entering treatment for the first time, she started collecting days, then weeks, of sobriety.

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In Brooklyn, Parker McAllister, 29, was seeing signs that 2020 would shape up as a year he could present to his parents and say, See? It was all worth it. They had honored his wishes to attend an elite conservatory to study the bass, even hosting fundraisers in their Bedford Stuyvesant brownstone to send him there. Now he had booked 60 shows through the summer, including tours in the Bahamas and Europe. Soon, he believed, he’d be able to help out his parents – who were struggling to hold onto their home in a gentrifying neighborhood – and buy himself some breathing room to slow down and invest in his artistry.

Also in New York City, Ngoc Cindy Pham, 32, had by early this year finally settled into her life as a Brooklyn College business professor. She had grown up in Vietnam, where her parents worked long hours to send her to graduate school in the U.S. Here, she had regularly devoted 18 hours a day to her master’s and doctoral studies, ignoring her personal life for fear she would squander her parents’ sacrifices. She did feel she was living a one-dimensional existence in her “bachelor apartment,” and promised herself she would start dating in 2020. But, before everything changed, she was focused on helping her students move up in the world, much as she had.

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Kara Frey, 26, and Nate Morris, 24, meanwhile, were laying the foundations for a life together in their new apartment in Toledo. They were starting to talk about marriage, and for once, their work lives seemed blessedly stable. Frey, a construction worker, was busy with a five-week installation project at Sephora stores in Southern California, while Morris had just landed a job as a patient registration specialist at a local hospital.

In Odessa, Texas, Jessica Fajardo’s year kicked off with a bang. After searching for work that suited her — trying out dental hygiene, daycare, arcades — she had found her calling as a phlebotomist and her ideal job at a small family medicine center. On Jan. 5, which was her 30th birthday, her colleagues decorated the office and gave her gifts. Then, at day’s end, her best friend, Maria Hernandez, surprised her with a dinner party at a new ramen restaurant. The youngest of five children in a close-knit Mexican-American family, Fajardo was surrounded that night by relatives and friends. When they sang to her, she became overwhelmed.

She wiped away a tear, then blew out her candles.

There existed a time before people spoke each day of deadly viruses and ventilators and mobile morgues; before they socially distanced and self-quarantined and sheltered in place; before, newly fluent in terms like PPE and N95, they clapped and banged pots at sunset to honor doctors, nurses and essential workers.

At the start of 2020, Americans were ushering in a new decade and what was shaping up to be a dynamic presidential election year. China was already reporting patients afflicted by a mysterious disease, but in the United States, many young people were writing New Year’s resolutions and setting what seemed to be reasonable goals.

On Jan. 1, there were about 75 million people in the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 35. Some 3 million were expected to graduate with bachelor’s and post-graduate degrees in the new year, and step into what was forecast to be a healthy job market. At year’s start, the unemployment rate was at a 50-year low, and it was under 2 percent for those with a bachelor’s degree or more. The sectors whose employees skew younger — like retail and food services — were looking robust.

Over the last couple of months, as the picture changed, we interviewed more than 100 young people about who they were before the pandemic, what happened to them when the pandemic struck, and where they find themselves now. For a rolling feature called Notes on the Pandemic, we spoke with college students and young professionals; artists and teachers; gig workers and restaurant employees; nurses, doctors, and other essential workers; incarcerated people and people in recovery; young parents and pregnant women who gave birth during the pandemic.

We wanted to understand how the pandemic has affected younger people at this formative time of their lives, just as financial downturns, war and other major events colored the lives of prior generations.

In some ways, heading into a protracted shutdown, this generation was better equipped. They are more accustomed to navigating the world through technology, to communicating primarily on devices, and to working from home.

Yet: they grew up in the shadow of 9/11. The oldest among them entered the job market after the financial crisis of 2008. The youngest grew up with lockdown drills and the fear of school shootings. Their social media feeds have long been filled with conversations about: the opioid crisis, mass incarceration, rising inequality, political polarization and climate change. It’s a generation in which two in three college students graduate with an average of about $30,000 in debt, and some 1.3 million have served in the military during a period of several overseas conflicts.

Before the pandemic, then, many of those interviewed were already in an unsettled state. And yet they were revving for a future — or at least a year — that seemed to hold promise.

The Pandemic Strikes

On March 11, the day that the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic, Herine Baron, the Miami nurse, was treating a patient who came into her emergency room with a fever. Fifteen minutes before her shift ended, the patient was moved to isolation, and she was tasked with doing his bloodwork. Only at that point was Baron given an N95 respirator mask, a gown and gloves, she said.

Herine Baron, 28, a nurse, spikes a high fever a week after treating a Covid-19 patient.

A week later, while working a night shift, Baron started feeling feverish. By the time she got home, her fever had spiked to 103, so she returned to the hospital. She was admitted with what would be diagnosed as Covid-19.

“I felt like my brain was cooking,” she said.

That same day, after BU announced its classes would be going remote, Josee Matela panicked about losing the jobs that she needed to make it through her final semester. Hunkering down in her campus apartment, she created a spreadsheet — “March Madness,” she called it — to track her finances. Six days later, she found out that students had to leave the university in five days’ time. She felt heartsick. She sobbed on a call to her family in New Jersey, and then proceeded to pack her belongings in trash bags.

“When I had to move out of BU housing,” she said, “it kind of created this shift where the life that I was working on was completely done.”

By March 11, Mahum Khalid had achieved 45 days of sobriety. Considering the negative milestones of her life — she started drinking at nine, taking pills at 13, using heroin at 20 — this was a significant win. But when San Francisco shut down a few days later so did a mental health program she needed after addiction treatment. Then her hours at her hotel job were cut. Suddenly, she was locked down inside her parents’ home, which she had found stultifying even with the freedom to come and go as she pleased to classes, work and Narcotics Anonymous meetings. A nerve-jangling mixture of boredom, frustration and family tensions began to test her resolve.

Parker McAllister, 29, a touring bassist, gets an email from his manager: “Prepare for all of April to be canceled.”

“Being at home is not a good place for my recovery,” she said. “Being stuck in the house is making me want to use.”

On March 12, Parker McAllister, the bassist, ventured to the Lower East Side of Manhattan to check out the band with which he’d soon be touring the Bahamas. Italy’s strict lockdown had already derailed his European tour, but, he thought, would getting stuck (and making money) in an island paradise be the worst thing in the world? He wouldn’t find out. The next day, the band leader called off the trip, and on March 17, McAllister’s manager sent an email: “Prepare for all of April to be canceled.”

After Brooklyn College moved classes online in mid-March, Ngoc Pham busied herself trying to help her students, but they were dealing with problems beyond her control, like canceled internships and family members dying of Covid-19. From time to time, she sent small

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gift cards to those who were clearly struggling. But really, there was little she could do. Alone at home in her sparsely decorated apartment, she felt a discomfort — a sadness — growing. It was exacerbated when, during Zoom meetings, she caught glimpses of her colleagues’ lives: kids, pets, beautiful houses.

“Before I had professional connections, so I didn’t feel too lonely,” she said. “Now all of those connections have disappeared.”

By March 22, Nate Morris had adopted a new routine when he returned home from St. Anne Hospital in Toledo, where his job was to check in patients at the ER. He’d go straight into the basement, remove and wash his scrubs, clean his hands, and then wipe down all surfaces he had touched.

That day, he felt a bit off, but it had been a long work week. The next morning, though, he woke up feeling awful. Neither Morris nor his girlfriend, Kara Frey, were shocked. They knew he was likely exposed to Covid-19 patients at work. But they weren’t worried. He was young, healthy and athletic — a competitive recreational hockey player. They anticipated a few days of misery with cold symptoms.

Nate Morris worked as a hospital worker as coronavirus spread.

Photo: Courtesy of Kara Frey

But Morris started running a fever, and when it couldn’t be broken, his girlfriend had a dawning realization: “I was, like, wow, this is really happening.”

By the time Frey took Morris to the emergency room, he was sick with pneumonia and so dehydrated his kidneys were shutting down. Days later, Morris was placed in a medical coma, intubated and hooked up to a ventilator.

In Odessa, Texas, Jess Fajardo, the phlebotomist, understood almost immediately that her symptoms — coughing, mostly — were bad news. Because she had asthma and diabetes and because she worked at a doctor’s office, she was worried from the minute the coronavirus started spreading across the U.S. She shut herself away in her room at her parents’ house, telling her mother, who’d leave her food outside the door: “Mom, don’t even knock — nothing.”

On March 17, she texted her friend Maria Hernandez: “I think it’s fascinating that the world is cleaning up by slowly getting rid of us. Mother Nature is like, nah, y’all, it’s getting too hot on me. Time to take care of some of y’all.”

But when Fajardo’s symptoms escalated, she wrote Hernandez a different kind of text, with instructions on what to do with her ashes, should the time come.

She finally went to a hospital to get tested on March 27; she was initially denied testing because health officials attributed her symptoms to her obesity, her friend Sarah Jarocki said. (Later, it would turn out that there had been at least 10 Covid-19 cases at the medical office where she worked, according to her boss, Dr. Madhu Pamganamamula. He believes that the chain of infection began with another employee, who then transmitted the virus to Fajardo and the others. He said he shut his office on March 19, the day after the first employee took ill.)

While awaiting her test results, Fajardo experienced a coughing fit so intense it made her cry. The next day, she checked into the hospital, and her test came back positive.

On March 30, she posted an update on Facebook: “I want to thank everyone for your kind words, prayers and encouragements,” she wrote from her hospital bed. “I plan to keep fighting this as best as I can.”

One friend, referring to the music video game Dance Dance Revolution, commented: “So … you don’t want to come play DDR now?”

And Fajardo, who by that point was incapable of talking “without almost hacking up a lung,” responded: “I’m still down for a ‘rona party.”

Before the country quieted to a whisper, one theme in news coverage was inter-generational squabbling. Pointing to spring-break partying and crowded bars in cities yet to shutter, some stories cited older adults complaining that young people weren’t taking the pandemic seriously. Some young people, in turn, said their parents were in denial as they refused to curtail their activities.

Soon, the pandemic erased the differences.

While older Americans faced a far greater risk of severe illness and death, young people started getting sick, too. About 1 in 10 patients admitted to hospitals for Covid-19 symptoms was under 40. By early May, nearly 400 people aged 34 and younger had died of the disease in the United States, according to provisional data that is likely an undercount.

Economically, the pandemic shutdowns hit young Americans hardest. From March to April, unemployment for Americans under 25 tripled. More than half of Americans younger than 30 lost their job or took a pay cut, compared with 40 percent overall, according to a report by the Pew Research Center. Young people dominate certain sectors that have been most profoundly affected — like the food-service industry and the gig economy. Yet most young Americans — two-thirds of those under 30 — had no “rainy day” money set aside to cover their expenses.

Losing jobs, getting kicked off campuses and going remote for work, many young people relocated. Not only college students but many young professionals found themselves back in their childhood bedrooms. Many saw it as temporary, but the last downturn, the 2008 financial crash, drove many young adults back home for what became extended periods; even before the pandemic, one in six people between 25 and 34 lived under their parents’ roofs.

What Just Happened?

Lying in her Miami hospital bed, Baron switched roles and became a patient. Very quickly, she grew disheartened by the way her colleagues at Jackson Memorial Hospital refused to enter her room for fear of catching the virus themselves. In tearful testimony on YouTube, she decried what she saw as her hospital’s missteps; it got more than 220,000 views.

Jackson Memorial said it has investigated Baron’s situation and that “we remain confident that all Jackson’s caregivers are getting the best possible protection during a fast-moving and fast-changing health crisis.”

Herine Baron reunites with her son Malcolm after recovering from Covid-19.

Photo: Courtesy of Herine Baron

During her hospitalization, separated from her baby, Baron pumped, and dumped, her breast milk, fearful of passing on the virus to him. On the day she was discharged, she learned that her son Malcolm had tested positive for Covid-19. This made her sad, she said, especially because doctors had advised her to remain in isolation at home and she wouldn’t be able to nurse her own child back to health. Malcolm remained in the care of his grandmother for another couple of weeks.

In the month that she spent at home, she and her son both recovered fully. One day during that period, for which she was paid worker’s compensation, she had to return to her hospital for further testing. Stepping inside a place that she once venerated, she felt pangs of dread and anxiety. She worried about the day she’d have to return as an employee.

When she did return, it took her time to calm her nerves. But her concerns dissipated. As she saw it, the hospital had improved its handling of the virus and become more supportive of its workers. During daily staff meetings, managers asked her and her colleagues to speak up if they needed anything to help them perform their duties more safely. She began working closely with Covid-19 patients, grateful that she could understand their pain because she had experienced it.

The whole ordeal has left her certain about the decision that nagged at her before the pandemic. If in her carefree state back then, she was contemplating a career pivot toward hospital administration, she has now decided to continue her studies in advanced nursing, doubling down on her original motivation for entering the health field, which was to provide compassionate care to patients.

“I always looked at nurses as heroes, that’s one of the reasons that I became a nurse,” she said. “But I feel like we’re getting recognized more.”

After Josee Matela was forced to move off campus, she was thrown into a semblance of post-grad life, newly navigating bill-splitting and household chores with roommates. She was able to keep three part-time jobs — campus brand manager for HBO, marketing associate for FinTech Sandbox, and co-coordinator of her communications college’s ambassador program. For the time being, she can afford rent, but she’s very anxious about her future income because the job market is so bleak.

Boston University postponed its commencement ceremony. So when Matela completed her final exam for a public diplomacy class, there was nothing to mark the end. She doesn’t know when, if ever, she’ll be able to throw her cap in the air or give her family the joy of watching their first college graduate walk across a stage. To help herself and others like her appreciate how far they’ve come, she created a digital yearbook for first-generation college students.

Josee Matela is the first in her family to graduate college.

Photo: Courtesy of Josee Matela

For the last four years, Matela had been working hard to set herself up for a journalism or international relations career after graduation. At the year’s start, when the job market looked to be red-hot, she anticipated moving immediately to New York or Washington, D.C. Now, though, amid uncertainty, she’s staying in Boston. It is unnatural for her to play the part, as she described herself, of “a very driven bear in hibernation.” But, she said, “I’m willing to take a step back or just see what happens because that’s what the world’s doing.”

Staying home, and home, and home, with her family was challenging for Mahum Khalid at such an early point in her recovery. Before the lockdown, she depended on her hotel job to distract her during the day. At night, Narcotics Anonymous meetings kept her both psychologically and socially tethered; they’d spill over into long post-meeting diner hangouts every Friday evening.

Mahum Khalid, 27, a student and hotel worker, has achieved 52 days of sobriety.

Her hotel job, at first, disappeared completely. And virtual NA just didn’t do it for her. One night, she sneaked a bottle of a relative’s Adderall into her room, and slept with it for comfort — though she didn’t take any, reminding herself that she preferred downers to uppers. At the end of April, when her manager asked her to return to the hotel for five hours a week, she found the outside world brought back old urges. She clocked out of work one day, got in her car and ended up at a liquor store. But she just sat in the parking lot, for a long time, knowing that drinking would likely lead to using. Finally, she turned the car back on, made a U-turn and drove home.

Not long ago, Khalid couldn’t hold onto a job for more than two weeks; in one humiliating instance, she nodded off at her desk and woke up to find a sticky note in her hair saying, “You’re fired.” Sheltering in place, she said, has given her time to reflect on how far she has come from there. It has also afforded her time to dream about building a future once her world reopens: Could she work enough hours to save enough money to buy a farm? Could she build on it a sober living house for others addicts looking to start over? Could she find peace there?

With his performance calendar extending emptily into the future, McAllister wondered how far he could stretch his $1,000 in savings as his earnings slowed. For how long would he be able to pay his parents $800 a month to live in their guest room — which was, in turn, a way to help them pay their mortgage? His father had recently started home dialysis. Would McAllister be able to insulate him from the threat the outside world posed?

Soon, some checks for previous performances arrived, but, with the world now awash in out-of-work musicians, he knew he would need to expand his career beyond the plucking of his bass strings. He lugged his amplifier from his car into his parents’ parlor, so that he could produce something like studio sound. He got some production work, started creating samples for a music-production platform called Splice, and taught himself video-editing. He still practiced his instrument three to four hours daily, he said, but to be competitive, he’d have to learn to be “the engineer, the producer and the musician.”

If two months earlier McAllister had hoped to buy himself some slow-down time with the income from a busy touring schedule, he now had to regroup and hustle. But, he said, he was down to pivot.

Ngoc Cindy Pham, 32, a Brooklyn College professor, cries about quarantine loneliness on a call to her mom in Vietnam.

In mid-April, Ngoc Pham called her mother in Vietnam and broke down crying. The prior month of isolation had been far quieter than the spring she initially planned: preparing her students for graduation, lining them up with jobs and internships, and getting ready for New York Fashion Week as its director of marketing. Instead she was alone, trying to burn time cooking meticulous meals, eating what she could, but still having leftovers for days.

During the lockdown, her loneliness — the whole dating thing never really got off the ground earlier this year — surfaced. She yearned for someone other than her mother to call when she cried, for someone to hug at night.

“It’s really sad to not have anyone to talk to,” she said. “I doubt myself — why have I been working for such a long time? What’s the goal? What is happiness? I’ve tried to redefine what happiness means. Is it a successful career or family?”

Two weeks after Nate Morris started running an intense fever, Kara Frey sat alone on their living room couch in Toledo. In her head, she toggled between two images of her boyfriend: the sturdy, gregarious, hockey player and the unconscious patient lying in a negative-pressure hospital isolation unit.

Kara Frey’s partner, Nate Morris, 24, is placed on ventilator due to Covid-19.

With their cats curled up next to her, she realized it had been 11 days since she had heard her partner’s voice. “I’ve had a couple nights where I’ve missed him so badly, and I’ve just been scared,” she said. “Scared as hell.”

Morris’s hospitalization stretched longer and longer. He’d come off the ventilator for a few hours one day and be back on higher levels of sedation the next. “It really was a huge blow to my optimism,” Frey said. She became exhausted from seeing endless stories in her social media feeds about people refusing to practice social distancing. “I can’t help but think ‘Wow, that might be nice for your worst-case scenario to be staying home,’” she said. “My worst-case scenario is Nate dying.”

Finally, on a sunny Sunday morning, came a series of loud thuds on her bedroom window. Frey emerged from a deep sleep to find Morris’ stepmother standing outside with a message: Nate is trying to reach you. She rolled over and saw the missed calls on her phone. The night before, Morris had woken up and pulled out his breathing tube himself. When they spoke for the first time in three weeks, he asked if Frey had contracted Covid-19 while he was in a coma. She said no. “Good,” he said, “’cause this sucks!”

Nate Morris, 24, a hospital worker, comes out of coma, pulling out his breathing tube.

After Morris woke up, he had some residual issues: a cough, fatigue and paralysis in his left arm. But his personality remained intact. When he FaceTimed his girlfriend to demonstrate his ability to feed himself Jell-O, Frey breathed a sigh of relief. He was still a jokester.

Some things weren’t funny, though. Reflecting on the days before he got sick, Morris saw himself at his hospital’s reception desk, with no protective glass between himself and the patients. He wore a mask, but he was only issued one a day, he said, in a voice still hoarse from a trachea tube. (The hospital, in a statement, said its mask policy was consistent with federal government guidelines, and that it had installed protective screens “as an added precaution” on April 1, which was after Morris got sick. It declined to discuss his case, citing privacy concerns.)

Morris and Frey know there’s a long road ahead, physically, financially, and emotionally. But for now, they’re just happy that the road exists.

The day before she was intubated, Fajardo, the phlebotomist, sang “Happy Birthday” to her best friend. It was hard to do. She was crying, and her breathing was ragged. She tried again by text: “Happy Birthday bestie. Sorry that I’m dying.”

Over the next week, Fajardo’s condition improved, and doctors cleared her for extubation. When they tried, however, she fought them off — so hard one time that she fell out of bed. Over FaceTime, her sister tried to calm her before the next attempt. During the call, Fajardo was crying. She tried to lift her hand, as if to communicate something, but she was too weak.

The next day, which was Easter Sunday, doctors succeeded in removing Fajardo’s breathing tube. But she did not survive the procedure. Her mother, Elsa, said that her rapid deterioration had stunned them.

“I don’t know how long it will take us to recover from her loss,” her mother said.

The Fajardo family held a “drive-through viewing,” and broadcast her funeral live on Facebook. Instead of mourners, the room was filled with 66 gold and white star-shaped balloons, each bearing the name of a person who had attended the viewing. After the service, the balloons were released outside the funeral home. Tied in a cluster, they snagged on an overhead power line, creating a loud explosion and shorting power to the neighborhood. But a few managed to break free, floating off into the sky.

Jess Fajardo blowing out candles at her surprise 30th birthday party in January.

Courtesy of Abby Guerra

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from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/portrait-of-a-pandemic/

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