#i will always be sq trash
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Hesperid
Image © Paizo Publishing. Accessed at Archives of Nethys here
[I was not expecting Paizo to make a specific fey based on the Hesperides from Greek mythology instead of just making them nymphs, but I like it.]
Hesperid
CR 9 LN Fey
This humanoid woman has a radiant beauty, her hair and skin colors reminiscent of the light of a sunset. She has long pointed ears and no pupils, marking her fey nature.
The hesperids are fey creatures that guard areas of natural beauty in the mortal realm. They are tied to the setting sun, and their domains always include a good view of the sunset. Hesperids also guard other objects as well—treasures prized by the fey or druidic circles, or historical relics thought lost. These prizes are disguised as golden apples, often mixed with mere trash disguised the same way in order to thwart robbery. More powerful hesperids may guard magical artifacts. In order to defend their landscape and their treasures, hesperids will fight, using conjured sunlight like a druid wields a flame blade.
Because of their ties to the regular cycle of the planet’s orbit, hesperids have lawful minds. Other fey sometimes see them as stodgy, but also respect their reliability and even tempers. Hesperids get along well with most lawful outsiders, as well as bronze and gold dragons, and are stern opponents of forces of undeath. They recognize that darkness has its place in the cosmic order, but are most comfortable in bright lights.
Hesperid Boons and Banes (CL 13th, DC 23)
The most likely boon a hesperid would give to a mortal would be a lesser treasure, typically exchanged for something more relevant to the fey, plus access to the hesperid’s healing magic. Still, some are charmed by mortal artistry, and give their blessings as patrons of the arts. Those who try to steal from a hesperid are sometimes cursed with permanent blindness.
Boon: The glow of the hesperid fills your heart. You gain a +1 sacred bonus to all saving throws, and a +4 competence bonus to all Craft and Perform checks. This bonus lasts for 1 week.
Bane: You are permanently blinded. The blindness can be removed with remove blindness or a similar effect, but returns with the sunrise each day unless it is removed with a break enchantment, limited wish, wish or miracle
Hesperid CR 9
XP 6,400
LN Medium fey
Init +6; Senses low-light vision, Perception +23
Defense
AC 23, touch 23, flat-footed 16(+6 Dex, +1 dodge, +6 deflection)
hp 110 (13d6+65)
Fort +8, Ref +14, Will +12
DR 10/cold iron
Defensive Abilities unearthly grace; Weakness sunset dependent
Offense
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)
Melee sunset ribbon +13/+8 touch (1d10+6 plus 1d6 fire)
Ranged sunset ribbon +13 touch (1d10+6 plus 1d6 fire)
Spell-like Abilities CL 13th, concentration +19 (+23 casting defensively)
At will—daylight, veil (DC 22, self only)
3/day—cure critical wounds (DC 20), quickened glitterdust (DC 18), searing light
Statistics
Str 11, Dex 22, Con 19, Int 18, Wis 19, Cha 22
Base Atk +7; CMB +7; CMD 36
Feats Alertness, Combat Casting,Defensive Combat Training, Dodge, Quicken SLA (glitterdust),Toughness, Weapon Finesse
Skills Acrobatics +21, Bluff +21, Climb +15, Diplomacy +21, Fly +25, Intimidate +18, Knowledge (geography, local, nature) +19, Knowledge (arcana, history) +16, Perception +23, Perform (any one) +21, Sense Motive +23, Stealth + 21
Languages Common, Sylvan, Utopian
SQ golden apple
Ecology
Environment any coastal or hills
Organization solitary or enclave (2-6)
Treasure double standards
Special Abilities
Golden Apple (Su) As a standard action, a hesperid can transform any object of up to 10 cubic feet of material into a golden apple weighing 1 pound. This lasts until the hesperid dismisses the effect as a standard action or if the item has spent 24 hours outside of the hesperid’s bonded location.
Sunset Dependent (Su) A hesperid is mystically bonded to a location that has a good view of the sunset
under ideal conditions—cliffs, islands and valleys are common sites. A hesperid that leaves this area, or who is not outside when the sun sets in that area (even if she can’t see, or if weather hides the sun), takes 1d6 points of Constitution drain per day. A hesperid can bind to a new location with a 24 hour ritual.
Sunset Ribbon (Su) A hesperid can conjure a ribbon of sunlight as a swift action, and dismiss it as a swift action. With this ribbon, she can make melee touch attacks as an attack action, or may snap it like a whip as a standard action to fire a ray up to 180 feet. Regardless of how the hesperid uses it to attack, the sunset ribbon deals 1d10 points of slashing damage modified by the hesperid’s Charisma modifier and 1d6 fire damage. Undead, or other creatures with negative energy affinity, take an additional 1d6 points of damage.
Unearthly Grace (Su) A hesperid gains her Charisma modifier as a deflection bonus to AC and CMD.
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Woman From Bhopal Creates Her Own Jungle By Practicing Terrace Gardening – Has 4,000 Plants In A “Jungle Vase”
This is one of the best solutions to all of the environmental issues we currently face: having more green babies. Things would have been different if we had a larger green cover on earth, but some people use the justification that “we live in a concert jungle, we don’t have enough space for plantation or gardening in an apartment culture”
Agriculture assistant professor Sakshi Bharadwaj has grown plants that have therapeutic properties, produce a lot of oxygen, and absorb radiation. The young gardener has transformed her 850-square-foot backyard into a miniature forest.
An environmentalist from Bhopal, Sakshi has grown about 4,000 plants of 450 species, including 150 rare ones. And the catch is – she is upcycling kitchen waste and household plastic trash while growing her green babies.
Sakshi Bharadwaj’s environmental initiative is classified as “creating an 850 sq ft sustainable, urban, vertical, & overhead mini jungle” in the 2021 OMG Book of Records.
She is not just a gardening enthusiast but is also a creative innovator of a brighter greener future.
A New Look To The Old Idea Of Terrace Gardening
Recall the garden your grandparents had in their youth. Back then, they would plant oxygen-emitting trees like neem, pipal, and banyan. Today, however, we live in bungalows, flats, and studio apartments that are severely space-constrained. From housefront gardens to terrace gardening, the concept of gardening has undergone a significant change due to our lifestyle change.
As a result, Sakshi, who also conducts online workshops on gardening and horticulture nationally and internationally, wanted to plant lesser-known species that could replace these traditional large plants and serve the same purpose.
Sakshi started terrace gardening as a mental stress reliever but quickly discovered a pure form of love for it. Along with terrace gardening, Sakshi eventually began to show concern for the planet’s future.
All households have organic kitchen waste like leftover vegetables, fruit skins, empty bags, single-use boxes, and the list goes on, which takes a while to decompose, so she started using it in unique ways and converted kitchen waste into vermicompost and bio-enzymes.
To reduce urban waste, Sakshi believes that recycling non-biodegradable household waste in creative ways is a good idea. Newspapers, plastic bottles, cans, milk pouches, and other items we sell are a few examples of such materials. She consequently planted flowers in milk pouches, bottles, cans, and dried and empty coconut shells.
Spread The Love For Green
In the year 2020, she stumbled upon a group of online gardeners who were cultivating rare and exotic plants. The young lady then got in touch with them, bought some of these unusual plants, and then got in touch with people who could help her expand her collection.
Sakshi decided to major in microbiology. The already intense interest grew even more intense as soon as she started working as an assistant professor.
She said, “As I taught plants’ genetics, I thought of having a first-hand experience of these theories in my own garden.” To satisfy this desire she decided to start her own space where she can experiment and grow her own jungle.
She practises different methods at home. She claimed to have lost a lot of plants while conducting experiments, but she had always learned something new, which she later applied to her gardening skills.
She sourced from various places, explored a number of varieties, and has grown a mind-blowing space for herself. Just like a human child Sakshi believes that every plant has different requirements.
Some require black soil, while still others require regular tilling (gudai) to promote air circulation. Some grow best in soil that is mixed with sand. The young gardening expert went on to say that while some plants can withstand direct sunlight, others need shade.
A True Plant Mom
This plant mother is very concerned about raising her little plants, Sakshi has thoroughly experimented with terrace gardening and its science.
Based on her observations, she developed a soil with a charcoal mixture & coconut husk that can retain water for a longer period of time. The soil first-hand created by her is so reliable that she waters her plants once every two days even when the temperature soars to 46-48 degrees, and the green babies still thrive.
Among the rare species found in the garden are Albo monstera, Variegated Syngonium, Philodendron mexicanum, Begonias, Palms, Peperomia, Ficus, Philodendron Millettia, Epipremnum, Calathea, Sansevieria, Chlorophytum, Black JJ,and others.
The young environmentalist hopes to connect with like-minded people and work to replenish the declining green cover in Bhopal, the state capital. In fact, she believed that the study of plantations should be a part of both school and college curricula.
Despite environmental science being taught in schools, the young environmentalist bemoans the fact that children still lack fundamental knowledge of plants. The 26-year-old asserted that it is impossible for any 10- to 12-year-old to understand how to plant a sapling.
Sakshi adds that this ought to be considered in civil engineering as well so that we can have durable, green buildings that incorporate vegetation into urban planning. This young woman thinks that change only occurs when we change our little steps.
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life changes
I don't really write personal things on Tumblr anymore, mostly because I just don't even use Tumblr that much anymore. But honestly, I have nowhere else to write anymore. But I have big news and I just want to talk about it!
I moved out at almost 23, I was still 22 and I moved out in June 2017 to Omaha into my first apartment. I got here first and waited for my then-girlfriend to move here from New York. We lived in that first apartment until early 2020, after we got our dog we moved to a first-floor unit in the same apartment complex. We've been in this unit for two and a half years and our lease was coming up and we started to think about where we were going next. We had so many options, we knew we needed a bigger space but everything seemed out of reach.
A couple months ago we found a house to rent, but it was available immediately and first come, first serve, and lots of people were interested. We were still locked into our lease for another two to three months and to break the lease we would have to come up with $3000 to break our lease and pay what left we owed. So we turned down the house and just waited until it got closer to our lease coming to an end.
We have really good friends in Lincoln, NE and we've been going to see them almost every Friday since the beginning of August. Some things just started to make sense about moving to Lincoln instead of staying in Omaha.
1) My dad works in Lincoln
2) My brother lives in Lincoln
3) My best friends live in Lincoln
4) It's not Omaha
5) It's not as busy, Lincoln is a smaller, older, established city, and yes there is always going to be traffic, but Omaha, NE is rated for the WORST drivers in the WHOLE COUNTRY. I want OUT OF HERE lol
So we started looking for places in Lincoln, we wanted something where we wouldn't have upstairs neighbors or side neighbors. Currently, we have a SHIT upstairs neighbor and he's been here for a few months and I'm so over it. We discussed apartments and renting a house, and then we started looking at modular homes (trailers, basically.) These were everything we wanted (and more) and to us it didn't even matter if it was a trailer. (IE: people tend to look at people who live in trailers/modular homes as "white trash" or "poor") But every picture I looked at, as we drove around the area, it's absolutely wonderful.
We did our application and things started to move forward pretty fast. I kept getting contacted by the person almost on a daily basis. We picked from a few addresses she gave us, chose our home, put our deposit down, and then picked a move-in date. We get access to the new place on October 11th! We don't have to be out of this current place until October 24th, so I'm going to have to stay here to work from home until our internet is installed in the new place on October 22nd. At that point pretty much everything is going to be moved in to the new place besides my work set up lol.
The cool thing about the new place, and we're not doing it to all the rooms, I just want to do my office, WE CAN PAINT. In these apartments, you can only paint one wall. That's it. So I can paint my entire office whatever I want!
So right now, we live in a one-bedroom and one-bathroom apartment. It's like 700 sq/ft and it's just way too small, and we're paying over $1,000 for it. We're moving into a three-bedroom, two-bathroom TRAILER for just a little bit more than what we're paying here. And it's absolutely beautiful on the inside, whereas here we get the most barebones shit, everything is beige, and the cabinets are an awful off-white color with oak wood handles. The floor is the nastiest shade of tan you can imagine that collects so many stains and it's disgusting. And the longer you live here obviously it's going to get tamped down from walking all over it. I swear these kinds of complexes are a scam. "Put down your security deposit and you'll get it back if everything is perfect when you leave." Like, listen... I've lived here for two and a half years, there's going to be normal wear and tear, and honestly... you should be replacing the carpet after every tenant anyway, don't keep my security deposit just because we LIVED here for two years.
This is the new place, we obviously don't have access to it yet because we haven't signed the lease yet. We get access on October 11th and I'm just so excited. We have a small window of like two weeks that we're able to move slowly and not have to do it all at once. No upstairs neighbors, no downstairs neighbors, a little yard, big neighborhood where I can walk my dog. I didn't even realize I wanted this so bad until it happened. I can't wait to see the inside and put my aesthetic together for my very own office. I know we're renting, but this feels like it's going to be our HOME, not just a one-bedroom apartment with one bathroom with very, very limited space. It's going to be an adjustment, but I think it'll be super nice to have a place all to ourselves.
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#once upon a time#swan queen#ouatedit#sqedit#emma swan#regina mills#otp: i know her#mine#my gifs#*ouatgif#i will always be sq trash#look it’s my otp tag
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Imagine hating a ship so much you waste time making anti graphics/gifsets about it, That’s so pathetic honestly. You’re so jealous of everything the canon ship got that you prefer to spread hate about the one you hate that spread love for the one you love.
#1#2#3#4#5#Funny how the fuckery comes always from the same side#Reminds me of the SQs#Garcys are the same#Fanon shippers are so predictable LMAO#and I thought the ouat fandom was bad#Timeless fandom is practically equal in fandom fuckery#Wyatt is being trashed like Robin was#OQ hated on like Lyatt is#For once I'm the one who got the canon and the happy end and knowing it pisses off the haters it makes it even more great
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I love when fandoms agree about a character being a top/bottom but I miss the swanqueen fandom discussing if regina is a top or a power bottom
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6, 12 and 16 for OUAT for the salty ask meme? 💗
LIBBY I MISS YOU <333 thank you for the ask, my love! @bewilderedmoth
6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?
i never hated any pairing from ouat, tbh. BUT i will say that fandom opened my eyes to swan queen! when i first watched the show, i was super into captain swan bc they were both pretty and i was a big killian girl (i know, who the fuck was i right?). i saw little things between emma and regina but i was always focused on hook (who was i?!?!?) but then i was doing a deep tumblr dive in the ouat tags one night and i saw a little blurb about sq and i read it and i was like "...wait a hot minute" and i went to that person's blog and from there to someone else's blog and it just spiraled downward from there and now here we are, full blown swanqueen trash! :)
12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn’t? Why?
the frozen arc! i thoroughly enjoyed the entire frozen arc with the snow queen villain! i'm not sure why so many people hated it! even ppl i work with who watched the show said they stopped watching during the frozen arc and i am like WHAT WHY HOW?! i thought it was so so so good and i loved elsa and emma's friendship (the friend she deserved) and the snow queen having a past with emma and giving emma those lost memories back so she could remember that she was once loved as a child and that someone did want her zasxdcfvgh that whole arc was *chefs kiss* and idk whyyyyy anyone would say otherwise! also the casting for the frozen characters was literally perfect?????
16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?
.....do i really need to state the obvious? lmao. *cough* swan queen would be endgame *cough*. lmao i joke (not really) BUT i would change emma's ending for sure. nothing against captain swan, really if that's her true love then good for them, BUT i would've loved for emma's happy ending to just be henry and her family. i don't think she needed a man to be her happy ending and that's not how her story should've ended. it should've ended with her being happy with henry and her parents and if she's w hook in the end then that's fine but i don't think they needed to get married and make a whole show of their relationship and shoving it in everyone's face like 'emma is happy now bc she's married yay she's so happy!!!' like no that's not what this show was about (at least not for me). the charming/swan/mills family is the ultimate happy ending, not romantic relationships, and i would've changed that aspect.
ALSO i would've never killed neal. if the actor needed to go do other stuff, cool that's life, but he didn't need to die in order for the actor to go away. i believe they killed him off for cs to thrive, but it was unnecessary and just unrealistic in my opinion. i would've loved more scenes of emma & neal co-parenting henry together and even if he wasn't constantly around, it would've been nice knowing that he was still in henry's life with little comments about henry going to see him/spending a weekend with him/whatever they could think of even if the actor wasn't available to have screen time.
#wow these got away from me#sorry for the long windedness lmao#ty libby!#libby tag#bewilderedmoth#ask games
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but barnaby has always been conscious of his good looks, for example in other tlsqs like celestial ball, first date and vday, he mentions that people can't say no to his cheekbones and how popular he is with girls. He's even shown confidence in his skills like duelling, his insecurities are more about selfworth
(Everything below, take it with a grain of salt considering I have my own headcanons for him and I've just begun y6.)
Yes, he is conscious, with working eyes is hard not to - the heartthrob line does exist and lives in my head rent free - but it has never been explicitly shown that he's being super confident about it - talking mostly about appearances.
And here he is being aware explicitly or not:
I'm not saying he thinks he's ugly. Someone can look amazing and still be unsure of themselves, take all compliments as politeness, or have a impostor syndrome.
But confidence is something that goes beyond looks - I'm talking Diego Rivera and his many many lovers even though he looked like Shrek. In the dating things, for example, he never says you picked him because "who could resist this pretty face?" (which wouldn't be unreasonable considering Merula won't shut about being the most powerful witch in Hogwarts).
Like these, is he being funny or does he seriously not know, people are looking because he's handsome? I personally don't know, the writers don't show, at least in my interpretation, if this is supposed to be him "bragging" or 'haha Barnaby clueless'.
Also I don't think his 'being strong' is only about strength, it's about image as well. He knows he's strong and desirable, but also thinks that he needs those things for people to like him. Needs to compensate for his lack of wit with the way he looks.
(But it also involves other things like not believing he could be a seer in the Hippogriff SQ, having self doubt in the All Wizards' tournament and the OWLs SQ even though those involved things everyone knows he's good at [competing and understanding Magizoology]).
I don't like drawing this parallel, but I can't help but use the Malfoys as comparison. For as different as he is from his parents in ideals, Barnaby was raised by them and whether he wants it or not, he probably got that thing of 'presentation' the rich blood purists have. Think Lucius with his cane and his pose, and Draco with his rings and his suits. (The designers most probably gave Barnaby those rings because it's seen in the movies Draco and his friends wearing them). Then think Barnaby and his hair, popped collar, rolled up sleeves, cool sneakers.
BUT the difference comes in how they've been raised, Barnaby was belittled and humiliated by his father, and not spoiled and praised like Draco. The game is not gonna tackle this cause it would go too deep and out of the curve, but I bet his father not only insulted his inteligence or strength but also his appearance. (If you know Hannibal, I'm think Francis Dolarhyde and how his grandma treated him like trash and even after he grew into a handsome man...)
Little is said about his mother, but I think the self confidence he has originated from her - where his father pushed, she pulled, teaching him to be proud and be strong and know he's 'better' for his name and his blood status. Which didn't surge that much effect cause his father's push was stronger than her pull.
And finally my favorite line he ever said:
I'll never find out what he means by 'creature', but it can encapsulate many things, including perception of self image. When I think like this I can even see parallels between him and Ismelda and how they build a persona for themselves.
Whether you agree with what I said or not, I think it's safe to say JC put him to the side in matter of character arc, not just him ofc, but his conflicts and back story is rarely discussed in exchange for making him the dumb comedic relief.
#sorry this is all over the place#but I had to spill it out#i dont mind people disagreeing with my points because it gives me an excuse to talk about barnaby#am i reading too much into this?#most likely#will i stop? nah#it's never black and white#and i understand people will interpret him differently#i like to look at other barnaby×mc shippers and imagine as different version of barnaby#nobody has the same view and makes for interesting content#barnaby lee#screencaps#rambling#hphm
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The Bartender - Part 2
Genre: Bartender!AU
Pairing: Jinhwan x You (Female!Reader)
Warnings: Mentions of alcohol
Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 | Words: 2,036
For some reason, you thought Jay’s would look different now that it was dark outside. You’d only ever seen it in the daylight and when it was closed, so didn’t it make sense that it would seem like an entirely different place when it was almost nighttime and crowded with people?
But, alas, as soon as you walked through the door with Emma, you knew exactly where you were. You knew that you could close your eyes and be able to find your way back to the kitchen with no problem whatsoever. You knew exactly where the bathrooms were, where the back door leading out to the trash cans was, and where the three air conditioning vents were.
But tonight was not about work! You shook your head a little bit to rid yourself of health inspection thoughts, and then Emma looped her arm through yours to lead you over to the bar.
You tried to avoid looking anywhere near behind the bar for as long as you possibly could, wanting to prolong finding out if Jinhwan was actually working tonight -- and if he was, if he was working behind the bar. Most likely not because he was the owner. He should be back in some office on the other side of the kitchen working on finances or contacting suppliers or --
“Y/N!”
Ah, okay. No. There he was. Behind the bar.
And, after making eye contact with you, his face lit up. He had the biggest, sweetest, most genuine smile on his face. If you were being truthful with yourself, it made your heart flutter.
“Jinhwan,” you greeted shortly, nodding at him.
“You finally decided to visit!” His gaze shifted to Emma standing next to you, and he lifted his eyebrows. “And you brought a friend.”
As soon as you and Emma slid onto two empty bar stools, you gestured to your friend. “This is Emma. Emma, this is Jinhwan, the owner.”
“Oh, first name basis,” Emma smirked as Jinhwan reached out to shake her hand in greeting. “Interesting.”
“We’ve known each other for two years now, and this is the first time she’s come to my bar. Can you believe that?” Jinhwan asked her.
You pursed your lips (though you found you were trying not to smirk with amusement) and interjected. “Okay, that’s not an accurate representation.”
“Does she always talk like that?” Jinhwan inquired, leaning on the bar closer to Emma. “So... professional?”
Before you could retort that no, you did not always talk so professionally, Emma answered with, “Oh, yeah. All the time.”
“Wha --!” you stammered, nudging Emma’s arm with your elbow. “I do not!”
Emma completely ignored you, though, and continued on. “You should have heard her when she broke up with her college girlfriend. She came to me and said ‘We have ended our relationship.’”
You felt your cheeks start to burn, but instead of teasing you... Jinhwan turned to gaze at you fondly. His eyes were warm and inviting -- as was his smile -- and, if you can believe it, he reached out and tapped your nose.
“You are even cuter than I thought.”
Your brow furrowed immediately. “Please don’t touch me.”
Jinhwan straightened up and murmured an apology before grabbing a menu and setting it down in front of you and Emma. “First drink is on me,” he proclaimed.
“Ooh, thanks!” Emma grinned before eagerly perusing the menu.
“I’ll have a cider,” you told him without even looking; you just knew what you liked, so there was really no use pretending like you were deciding on something when you already knew what you wanted.
Jinhwan smirked and let out a breathless chuckle. “So, you can decide so quickly what you want to drink, but you still can’t decide if you’ll go out with me?”
You heard Emma gasp softly, and she said, “You’ve asked her out?!”
“Many times,” he shrugged. “She’s never said ‘yes,’ but she’s never said ‘no’ so I keep trying.”
“Because I’m working!” you pointed out defensively. “Even more than that, I’m inspecting your bar. I can hardly accept an offer of a date while I’m giving you a health inspection score.”
Jinhwan’s face lit up as he reached underneath the bar and produced a bottle of cider. “Accept? So, you will go out with me?”
You waited as he pried off the bottle cap and slid your cider over to you before answering him... but all you did in response to his question was raise your eyebrows and take a drink.
“If she’s not saying ‘no,’ then you’re good,” Emma translated as she closed the menu. “Old-fashioned, please.”
“Coming right up.”
When Jinhwan turned around to start making Emma’s drink, she nudged your arm with her elbow just as you had done to her a couple of minutes ago.
“Excuse me!” she hissed. “Give me the deets! What is going on?!”
“Nothing! I’m the health inspector for this place -- like I told you -- and he does nothing but flirt with me the whole time I’m here. That’s it!”
“That’s it? That’s not it -- do you like him?!”
“I’ve spoken with him, like, four times before tonight,” you pointed out with pursed lips.
Emma narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “...So? You can totally like a guy without ever talking to him.”
Why did both Emma and Jinhwan have the same views on liking someone else? They seemed to be very cavalier with their feelings!
“Well, I prefer to actually know a person!”
“And that’s why you’ve been single for so long! If you see someone attractive, you just gotta go for it! Give it a shot! You never know what could happen!” Emma urged.
“If you’re just going to nag me about being single all night, please admit it now so I can just go home,” you requested with a very unamused tone.
An expression which was a mix of annoyance and shame flashed on Emma’s face, and she held up one hand in defeat. “All right, I’m done.”
“One Old-fashioned,” Jinhwan interrupted, setting down a glass in front of Emma. And then he looked up and gestured toward one corner of the bar. “There’s an empty booth back there if you guys want to sit.”
“Thank you very much,” you accepted, taking your bottle and standing up. You knew if you and Emma sat at the bar with Jinhwan in such close proximity, your friend would break her unspoken promise to stop badgering you about him.
But there was something you had completely forgotten.
When you had a certain amount of alcohol in your system, you had a tendency to get... we’ll just say emotional.
In your everyday life, you were a pretty deep thinker; after a drink or two, you let those thoughts come to the surface. Emma had become your friend-therapist quite often during your university days, and after about an hour at Jay’s, she was quickly becoming one again.
And what else were you going to talk about other than Jinhwan?
“Of course, I think he’s cute,” you acknowledged with a frown. “But how am I supposed to go out with him? He’s a client.”
“You put in a request to not be his health inspector anymore!” Emma replied, her brow furrowed deeply. “That’s how you’re supposed to go out with him! Y/N, come on! He said he’s been asking you out for years, and you’ve been interested this whole time?!”
“Yes!” you cried, though there was definitely a whine hidden in your voice, as well.
Emma let out a deep sigh before downing the rest of her drink. She shook her head and muttered. “You are hopeless.”
“I know,” you lamented, crossing your arms over the tabletop and resting your chin on top of your hands.
“Do you want another drink?”
“No, I’ve had enough.”
“True. Once you start whining, I know you’ve hit your limit.”
You shot Emma a pointed look as she started to scoot out from the booth.
“I have to pee, I’ll be right back.”
You simply sighed in response, letting your head loll over to the side so your cheek was pressed against your arm.
Not even five seconds after Emma left, someone came to your table to clear away the empty glass and bottle.
“Another round?” you heard Jinhwan’s familiar voice ask.
Immediately, you sat up straight, though your head started spinning from the sudden rush of blood.
“No,” you answered, briefly closing your eyes. “No, thanks.”
Much to your surprise, Jinhwan took your empty drinks without another word and headed back to the bar.
...Why were you disappointed that he hadn’t stayed? Or that he hadn’t tried to flirt with you or ask you out again?
Okay, you definitely knew you’d had enough to drink. When you actually admitted to yourself that you wanted Jinhwan to flirt with you, there was quite enough alcohol in your body.
So, it was probably a good thing Jinhwan hadn’t --
All of a sudden, he slid into the booth across from you, taking Emma’s recently vacated seat.
And you remembered just how attractive his face was.
“You okay?” he asked with a slightly wrinkled forehead. Wrinkled and adorable. “You seem down.”
“Down?” you repeated. “No, no -- I just -- drinking makes me more emotional. I’m not, like, drunk or anything, though. I’m just a lightweight.”
Jinhwan smirked, letting out a soft laugh. “Why am I not surprised?”
“And I’m not surprised that you’re not surprised.”
He laughed again, this time with a bit more vigor.
“No, I’m fine,” you assured him again, waving a hand through the air. “Thank you for checking on me, though. That was really nice of you. Really sweet.”
Jinhwan looked surprised by your words, but his expression barely registered in your mind as you reached out and put a hand over his, grasping his fingers in yours.
“Thank you, really. I don’t know what you see in me, but I’m really, really flattered that someone as good-looking and thoughtful as you would like me,” you said.
Jinhwan put his other hand over yours, squeezing it as a soft grin pulled at his lips. “...You think I’m good-looking?”
“Of course, I do,” you answered immediately. “I’ve just only ever seen you at work, and I absolutely cannot -- I could never make plans for a date while I’m on the job.”
His soft grin lifted up on one side to form a smirk you’d become all too familiar with over the last two years. “You’re not on the job now,” he stated.
Your heart did a somersault in your chest. “...No,” you breathed with a small shake of your head. “I’m not.”
He squeezed your hands again and then asked, “So... would you like to go out with me?”
“Yes,” you answered before you could second guess yourself and before you could remember that it was a bad idea to go on a date with a client.
Just as it had when you’d walked in earlier, Jinhwan’s face lit up. But then his gaze flitted upward above your head, and he suddenly began to scoot out from the booth, letting your hand slip from his.
“Oh, no, don’t let me interrupt,” Emma’s voice said from behind you.
“You’re good,” Jinhwan assured her. “We were just --”
Your eyes had been following Jinhwan as he’d slid out of the seat, stood next to the table, and gestured for Emma to take her place again. You could see his lips moving, but you had no idea what he was saying -- did it even matter what he was saying, though?
Because, for some reason, there was an urge building up inside of you as you stared at him. An urge that was quickly becoming so overwhelming, you knew you wouldn’t be able to hold yourself back. An urge you knew was only coming to the surface because of the alcohol -- but that was neither here nor there. Not right now.
You had the unmistakable, unbearable, unavoidable urge to kiss Kim Jinhwan.
So, you stood up and did it. You reached up, took his face in your hands, and you desperately pressed your lips to his.
Part 3
#kwritersworldnet#ikon scenarios#ikon imagines#ikon au#ikon fluff#ikon fanfic#jinhwan scenarios#jinhwan imagines#jinhwan au#jinhwan fluff#jinhwan fanfic#kpop scenarios#kpop imagines#kpop au#kpop fluff#kpop fanfic#ikon#jinhwan#kim jinhwan#ikon jay
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Senyuu AU Masterpost
I asked if I should do this on Twitter but Twitter is trash for big posts like this so I’m posting it on Tumblr.
I’m calling this an AU masterpost but I’m including canon alternate versions of characters too. I’m writing this assuming you don’t know anything past S4, but it will contain spoilers for F5 and the Haruhara Robinson Channel content.
Since the majority of these AUs are entirely fan-based with only the slightest bit of official content, I’ll also discuss common fanwork concepts, including things like special ship names for particular AUs.
Table of Contents
Common AUs
Web
SQ
High School
Magical Girl Alfo-chan
Visual kei
2P
Less Common AUs
High School Detectives/Police
Himura + Yami
Rosicks + Hialba
Sheepba
Wild West
Obscure AUs/Outfit Changes
Feral Ros + Adventurer Alba
Formal Wear
Karaoke
Kindergarten
Saeki-san
Scientist Ros
University
Urashima Tarou
Vampire Ros
Wedding
Canon-Adjacent AUs/Canon Alternate Characters
Albatross
Boss + Sleepiez
Creasion + Maoruba
Elf’s Universe (”0verse”)
Meta Ros
This got super-long so I highly suggest using CTRL/CMD+F to jump to just the ones you’re interested in!
Common AUs
All the AUs in this category are universes you see everywhere in fan content, regardless of how much official content there is for it.
Web
Alright, this isn't an "AU", but including it for completion's sake. This is the main canon, the original Alba and Ros from the original webcomic. The anime and the Main Quest manga can be considered to be equivalent to the web-verse.
Official Japanese | English Scanlations
SQ
(Image from Jump SQ’s website.)
SQ is an “official” Senyuu AU - it’s basically Senyuu if Alba and Ros kept their Season 1 dynamic forever and nothing really bad ever happened. Haruhara has said a number of times that an important thing about SQ is that everything sad has gone poof, which is why he decides against giving a sad dramatic reason why Ros’ name went from Sion to Ros in SQ-verse. Other notable changes in SQ include Januar being human, Elf being a demon, and Foyfoy being cute and shy.
Senyuu SQ originally ran in the Jump SQ magazine for thirty chapters (Official Japanese | English Scanlations), named as such because of the magazine it ran in. More recently, Haruhara began releasing SQ Senyuu! on his channel, where the SQ stands for Super Quality and definitely not anything copyrighted (Official Japanese | English Scanlations.) The chapters released on his channel were sometimes in draft form, so he additionally inked some and released it in doujinshi form (Official Japanese | English Scanlations), along with a doujinshi-exclusive chapter.
Senyuu SQ Alba (seen above) looks identical to Web S1 Alba. SQ Senyuu! Alba (seen below) looks like Web S2 Alba but short and without the Red Fox scarf. SQ Ros doesn’t change appearances between Senyuu SQ and SQ Senyuu! He has the Web S1 Ros hairstyle, but lacks his armour and sword - his bat is his most defining feature.
High School
There’s actually two different high school AUs:
SQ Academy: There’s three omake chapters in SQ Senyuu where everyone is in high school - see here and here, in volumes 1 and 2 respectively. In the SQ High School AU, Ros, Alba, Hime-chan, Foyfoy, Januar, and Rudolf are students, while Rchi is a teacher. Alba is the president of an unnamed club with Ros as a club member.
(Image from Haruhara’s twitter.)
Soccer Club Drama CD: This drama CD was released with one of the MQ volumes. You can only buy the original Japanese on auction sites now, but you can listen to the audio and read a translated transcript here! This AU features only Ros, Alba, and Crea, who are all part of the same soccer club. Alba is the club president.
In both AUs, Ros calls Alba “Prez”. The canon content for both AUs is rather sparse, so the Prez thing is usually the only thing that’s retained in most fanworks. Reincarnation stories are pretty popular in fanworks, but there’s no hints or implications in either official High School AU that it’s connected to SQ or Web canons. Usually people use the Drama CD designs (probably because they don’t want to draw Ros with S1 hair.) Sometimes they use the SQ Academy designs at the start, then change to the Drama CD designs in second-year or something.
There’s also the Senyuu Light Music Club from one of the web omakes, which features Crea and Elf. I haven’t seen any works incorporate it though.
Japanese terminology glossary
High School AU: 学パロ - Gakuparo
Prez: 部長 - Buchou
---
Magical Girl Alfo-chan
This is the mahou shoujo parody of Senyuu, featuring Alba as a girl - Alfo-chan - and Ros as a cat - Roll.
(Image no longer available online.)
Roll is usually made into a cute catboy that can transform into a cat, because I mean, why wouldn’t you. And also presumably people want a Roll they can ship with Alfo-chan. For some reason there’s also a lot of works that ship Alfo-chan with Creasion, though I’m not sure where it came from.
The “official title” of this parody is actually Magical Princess Alfo-chan, not Magic Girl Alfo-chan, and most fanworks on pixiv are found under this name.
Japanese terminology glossary
Magical Princess Alfo-chan: マジカルプルンセスアルフォちゃん
Alfo: アルフォちゃん
Roll: ロール
Alfo/Creasion: アシルフォ - Ashirufo
Alfo/Roll: ロルアル - Roruaru
---
Visual kei
Visual kei is a music genre - you can read about it here. This AU started because Haruhara drew a pic of Alba and Ros in visual-kei-like outfits, and then it all spiraled from there. There’s three images that fuel this entire AU:
(Image from Haruhara’s twitter. Note that you can find a higher quality scan of this art if you download this artbook scan here.)
(Image from Haruhara’s twitter.)
(Image no longer available online.)
The Alba and Ros in the first image were dubbed Visual-ba and Visual-ros, the Ros in the second image “Roppongi” (because his t-shirt says “Roppongi Hills”, and the Alba in the last image “Kuroba” (because Kuro means black and he’s black-haired.) Why were the bottom two images lumped in with the first? That’s a mystery that may never be solved.
There’s two common variations of the AU in fanworks.
The first is where Kuroba + Visual-ba and Roppongi + Visual-ros are two pairs of brothers, and typically the pairings go Kuroba/Visual-ros and Roppongi/Visual-ba. In this variation, Visual-ba basically always gets to be Alba, while Roppongi and Visual-ros often take the names Ros and Sion respectively.
The second common variation is where Kuroba and Roppongi are just the civilian identities of Visual-ba and Visual-ros, which doesn’t have a pithy shipname in Japanese.
With regards to their visual kei identities, I’ve also usually seen two main variations - either Alba and Ros are currently in a singing group together, or Ros used to be a famous singer and Alba is currently trying to get famous under his tutelage.
Haruhara has also recently posted a glow-up pic of Visual-ba, bringing the grand total of official art in this AU to... four.
Japanese terminology glossary
Visual kei: ビジュアル系 - vijyuaru kei (Note that while technically ヴィジュアル is the correct term in Japanese, in the Senyuu fandom, ビジュアル is used for everything, probably because it’s easier to type and say.)
Visual-ba: ビジュアル - bijyuaru
Visual-ros: ビジュロス - bijyurosu
Roppongi: 六本木
Kuroba: 黒髪アルバ - Kurokami Alba (lit. Black-Haired Alba) --> クロバ
Kuroba/Visual-ros: ジュロ黒 - jyurokuro or 黒ジュロ - kurojyuro
Roppongi/Visual-ba: 六ビジュ - rokubijyu or ビジュ六 - bijyuroku
Visual-ros/Visual-ba: ビジュロスアル - bijyurosuaru, 派生ロスアル - haseirosuaru
---
2P
“2P” is used in many fandoms to refer to alternate character designs that are often associated with different personalities as well. In Senyuu, the official 2P designs are all alternate colourings:
(Image from Haruhara’s pixiv.)
(Image from one of Haruhara’s artbooks which doesn’t seem to have an online scan, sorry for the bad quality.)
Likely because the bottom two are only available in an artbook, I haven’t seen many fanworks with them. 2P AUs tend to be only 2P Alba and Ros, with some occasional 2P Rchimedes or 2P Crea (who’s typically drawn as 2P Rchimedes with short hair.) 2P Ros is usually drawn with blue eyes, presumably to match with his red Mana Maker. 2P Rchi is also common enough - she tends to be drawn with a blue and black scheme, to contrast with her canon pink and white scheme (example).
2P Alba and Ros have varying personalities in fanworks, but the one consistency seems to be that their personalities are nothing like canon. 2P Ros tends to be the silent serious type or a yandere. 2P Alba tends to be an innocent happy boy or a yandere. You may be seeing a pattern here.
Note also that 2P Ros is usually referred to as 2P Creasion, for obvious reasons.
Japanese terminology glossary
2P Alba/2P Ros: 2Pアシアル - 2P ashiaru or 2Pアルアシ - 2P aruashi. Both are sometimes shortened by removing the “2P”.
Less Common AUs
These AUs aren’t seen quite as much as the juggernauts above, but you’ve probably still seen them around occasionally.
High School Detectives/Police
There’s a few different detective-related fanworks floating out there, based on one of the three official chapters: Detective Ros in Senyuu SQ, Senyuu Police from the webcomic, and High School Detective Teufel in Main Quest Vol. 6, which hasn’t been scanlated yet (runs):
I haven’t seen too much art of High School Detective Teufel, but I’ve seen a couple fics and art out there for both Senyuu Police and Detective Ros, mostly Senyuu Police.
Himura + Yami
(Image from Haruhara’s Skeb.)
This isn’t really a Senyuu AU, but it shows up enough to include it here. Himura and Yami are two characters that Haruhara drew - you can see this original picture of them on page 12 of the artbook here. Himura is the redhead - at first, he meant to draw Alba, but he decided in the end it wasn’t Alba anymore and renamed the file to “Himura,psd.” Yami is just a fan-name - he’s only referred to as “the boy that shouldn’t be seen” in the artbook. Himura and Yami eventually appear in Gakumon! with the names Rahimu and Damia respectively.
Senyuu fanworks that include them usually have Himura being an Alba that fell into despair after Ros’ disappearance, while Yami is a physical manifestation of his despair.
Japanese terminology glossary
Himura-kun: 火村くん
Himura-kun/Yami: やみひむ
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Rosicks + Hialba
This is yet another AU that was born from a mere two pieces of official art:
(Image from Haruhara’s twitter.)
(Image from Haruhara Robinson channel.)
The first picture is entitled “Soldier Rosicks” - Haruhara posted it saying it was a Ros beta design. The second picture is an scrapped Alba design for web season 2. Hialba was originally revealed on the NicoNico channel Hiaruron that Haruhara shares with a couple other artists, and so he got the name “Hiaruba” --> Hialba from the channel name.
Fanworks typically have Hialba as dead inside and sad because of Ros’ disappearance, and Rosicks as a gruff irritable guy who isn’t Ros and doesn’t like being compared to him. Cue angst because Hialba sees Rosicks as just Ros, etc.
Japanese terminology glossary
Hialba: ひあるば
Rosicks/Hialba: ロシひあ - Roshihia
---
Sheepba
Sheepba originates from a New Year’s illustration Haruhara made for the year of the sheep:
(Image from Haruhara’s pixiv.)
While Haruhara has done this for multiple years - there’s illustrations of Alba as a dog, a rat, etc. - Sheepba in particular became particularly popular. Why? Is it the floofy body? The innocent expression? Nay. I say there’s but one reason for Sheepba’s popularity in comparison to other Chinese Zodiac/Alba hybrids-
Haruhara has produced a crapton of Sheepba merch over the years.
I believe he’s made coloured sheep versions of other characters too for merch, but I unfortunately wasn’t able to find any of them. I was, however, able to find outlined drawings of them:
(Image from Haruhara’s twitter.)
Enjoy this flock of Senyuu sheep. And be prepared to see some uh... questionable things if you choose to browse the ひつじるば - Hitsujiba tag.
Wild West
This AU comes from the Wild West parody in this chapter. The fanworks I’ve seen tend to have Ros be some dangerous outlaw with a huge bounty.
Obscure AUs/Outfit Changes
These AUs tend to be only used as outfit changes, or aren’t seen often at all.
Feral Ros + Adventurer Alba
Basically a Tarzan AU. Based on this Haruhara Channel comic: Official Japanese | English Scanlation.
Formal Wear
You may sometimes see Alba and Ros wearing suits. There’s two pieces of art this originates from:
(Image from Haruahara’s twitter.)
(Image from Haruhara’s twitter.)
There’s also a corresponding Ros-in-suit-with-striped-shirt photo that you can see in the artbook here.
Karaoke
You may have seen characters dressed up as what seemed like waiter outfits. That may have come from the Senyuu Karaoke collaboration that happened around when the anime aired:
(Image from collaboration website.)
Kindergarten
This comes from the recent Haruhara Robinson channel comics - Senyuu Kindergarten Story #1 and Story #2.
It features Alba and Rchi as kindergarten teachers to the rest of the Senyuu cast.
Saeki-san
Haruhara was the writer for a manga called Dignified Asleep Saeki-san (Official Japanese | English Scanlations), which was a romcom that featured a girl called Saeki determined to sleep in class, and a boy called Tokimiya who sits next to her.
When the manga began serialization, Haruhara drew a parody sketch of the manga where Ros is Tokimiya and Alba is Saeki.
(Image from Haruhara’s twitter.)
Scientist Ros
You may have seen art of Ros wearing the glasses + lab coat combo from when he made the Mana Maker in season 3:
Or from when Alba had his... questionable body measurement exam in Senyuu+:
Or when they both wore glasses in the Haruhara Robinson Channel doujinshi Crea-kun Has Cheerfully Fallen to the Dark Side:
University
A while back, Haruhara drew a picture of Alba and Ros in the winter wearing coats:
(Image from Haruhara’s pixiv.)
A little more recently, he was commission to redraw the image:
(Image from Haruhara’s pixiv.)
Fanworks that use Alba and Ros in these outfits often treat them as university AUs (and usually have them on a date.)
Urashima Tarou
Urashima Tarou is an old Japanese fairytale which Haruhara used as the setting for one of his omake segments. If you’ve seen turtle Alba:
Or Ros in old-timey fishing clothes:
That’s where it’s from.
Vampire Ros
The typical Vampire Ros design comes from an SQ chapter where Alba and Ros disguise themselves as demons after chasing Elf into the demon world.
Alba is usually either a werewolf (presumably because werewolves and vampires are a common pair) or some hapless human that Ros sucks blood from.
Wedding
(Image from Haruhara’s twitter.)
Haruhara drew this when he was getting married(?) because it apparently felt less embarrassing to draw his protagonist getting married than to draw him and his wife.
Fans promptly used the outfit to marry Alba off to Ros, likely galvanized by the Mana Maker + Hero Symbol combo on Alba’s head.
Canon Adjacent AUs/Canon Alternate Characters
Moved to an overflow post here because this one got big enough that Tumblr stopped saving my post.
#senyuu#senyuu content#senyuu spoilers#my commentary#no point in tagging much#there's an approximately 0% chance tumblr will let this show up in search#I added so many links and images
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FOOD IN THE TIME OF SOCIAL DISTANCING — Day 35, Barbecue Chicken Pie
I realize everyone’s into making bread now, but I think pie crust is really where it’s at. You don’t need yeast to make a pie crust, and for less flour than a loaf of bread, you are gifting yourself with a full meal. (This of course is if you bake savory pies. You...probably shouldn’t be eating cherry pie as a meal, at least not every meal. Dessert does not have enough nutrients for that.)
Anyway, I’m currently avoiding social obligations like “responding to texts” and reading Diane Wynne Jones’ Fire and Hemlock. The latter is mostly because I bought it forever ago during an intense bout of Tam Lin fervor, and never seemed to get around to reading it. (I’m only a 1/3 of the way through the book right now, so no spoilers.)
I was never a Howl’s Moving Castle fan---the Miyazaki movie suited me much more than the book---but as an older reader I appreciate how much time and attention Wynne Jones devotes to the mundane. As a teen who wanted to escape into epic fantasy, I found this tendency extraordinarily dull and unsatisfying; as an adult circumscribed by all the small, dull tasks that make up a life, it’s become something honest. I wrote long ago that it’s hard to think of Tolkien’s elves doing anything crushingly mundane; trying to imagine Elrond doing laundry or scrubbing the garderobe seems wrong somehow. But Wynne Jones is all about that sort of ordinariness, even as strangeness happens in and around her characters.
It might even be hitting harder than usual, since “ordinariness, surrounded by the strange” feels like a general descriptor of the world these days. I am still here, my apartment is still here, my job (thank god) is still here, but the whole world is different. I make bread and pie crust---use the same recipes I’ve made dozens of times, across the span of years and multiple state lines---and yet it’s at 2am, or a Saturday that doesn’t feel drastically different than a Tuesday because I do everything in the 600 sq. ft that is my apartment. I go to the Jewel like I always have, while adjusting my face mask before entering; I fanatically wash my hands after taking out the trash, because I pressed elevator buttons and clutched door handles and I don’t know who in my apartment complex might be sick.
It’s wholly fictional that “may you live in interesting times,” is an old Chinese curse. Nevertheless, I would like things to be less interesting. I want to be in a small English town and devote all my time to football and literature, avoiding my mother’s moods, and what I’m going to eat for tea. That would be nice.
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Hii I love your blog and i love bungou stray dogs Would you recommend a couple of animes
OH BOI! I’VE WANTED AN ASK LIKE THIS FOR A WHILE!
While I recommend some more than others, I enjoyed all of these anime. I mostly copied and pasted another list that I made, but there we go! Have fun!
Feel Good Stuff – Some stuff that leaves you feeling good about stuff. Whether the majority of the series or film is lighthearted or it’s just laidback, both will be included here.
Tokyo Godfathers: one of my favourite anime movies and far more light-hearted than Koe no Katachi (warning though for slurs used in this movie towards transwomen – she’s still the best character in the movie and the movie makes a point to let her know that she’s the best human on this very planet because Hana is a treasure)
Gin no Saji: If you’ve watched Fullmetal Alchemist, it has the same creator except it’s slice-of-life on a farm. I found it to be touching because it squares in on student experiences and connections. Also has sage advice.
Barakamon: Has children actually voiced by children. I watched it during a really important period of time for me. It centres and hits points that a lot of artists have.
Kimi to Boku: I can’t remember why I enjoyed this anime. I just know that I did for some reason. It was really simple.
The Boy and the Beast: I have mixed thoughts about this movie, but at the end of the day, I really enjoyed it.
Zombieland Saga: I just find it nice to find an idol anime that doesn’t focus on the whole “the girls all have to be cute”. One is a biker chick, one is indicated to be a former prostitute, one is a verified transgirl.
Those Movies That Have to be Mentioned – I’m legally obligated to mention these.
Anthem of the Heart: sounds like a crack premise (“girl gets cursed by an egg to never speak again after seeing her dad cheat with another woman in a love hotel like a castle”) but ends up being really good.
Your Name: practically everyone has watched that.
Koe no Katachi: A lot of people have watched this already. I always recommend it, but it’s very emotionally heavy and deals with suicide, bullying, and disability. It’s ending can make you cry from happiness though.
Wolf Children: Well, only if you’re okay with crying (at least on the inside)
Hotarubi no Mori e: It’s only 40 minutes. Probably won’t make people cry, but yeah, I can’t say that much.
Shounen – crack open one of these, and the boys and girls are sure to come
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood: I’m legally obligated to mention this. it was one of my first anime (after Magi) and it was amazing.
My Hero Academia: Yeah... I had to mention this too.
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic: It was my first anime. It has a lot of shonen crap, but it’s also dialogue-heavy.
Seishun Buta Yarou: Drew in fanbois for the “plot” (bunny girl - what else can I say) and made people stay for the actual plot. It ended up being really quirky and funny. It was like the Monogatari series (which I tried and didn’t like) but better and more “legal”
Yakusoku no Neverland: If you’ve watched Chicken Run, imagine that with people. It’s a farm that farms children so they try to run.
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Shonen Jump doesn’t have that many misses.
Noragami: The gags resonated with 14-year-old me
Assassination Classroom: Underdeveloped cast? Yeah, but it was still a really good Shonen Jump adaptation.
Comedy – The stuff that’s not quite conventionally “shounen or shoujo” but still tries to make you laugh, no matter how hard they try or how hit-and-miss they are
Mob Psycho 100: The second season is amazing. I found it to be a really good solid show.
Hinamatsuri: If you like Mob Psycho or if you just like the idea of an adult adopting a kid and teaching them stuff along with the kid teaching them, this is the one for you. I was laughing and crying (from tears of laughter) at this.
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun: I can’t label this a romance because the romance doesn’t go anywhere. We start at square one and we finish at square one, but the stuff that happens in the meantime makes it all worth it.
Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou / Nichijou: Hit-and-miss, but there are a lot of iconic moments here.
Hataraku Saibou: I think this fits the best here. It’s just a good solid anime about cells in your body.
Shoujo/Romance – In case you need some fluff to fill the dark times; cheese levels vary.
Fruits Basket: Shoujo at its best.
Kono Oto Tomare: I don’t know how this got produced by Shonen Jump SQ because it’s like a cliche shoujo that would make even shoujo manga readers throw up flowers
Toradora: It’s a hit-and-miss for people just because the main character is a tsundere (played by the queen of tsundere herself)
Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi: this ended up being a guilty pleasure for me – not quite a direct romance but direct enough
Haikara-san go Tooru: Technically a movie and only has the first part, but the manga is from mid-70s is a shining example of the feminist boom in Japan after WWII
Gamers!: This was best explained by a comment I read somewhere going “I love this anime, but it makes me want to bang my head on a wall repeatedly”. Misunderstandings: The Anime. Everyone has a hard time.
Kaguya-sama: It was a huge hit in the 2019 Winter season of anime and for good reason. It’s getting a new season coming up too.
Wotakoi: Two adults falling in love. It’s funny and a little bit niche and directed towards otaku.
Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo: Technically a shounen, it was a harem anime that ended up being pretty good? I was so side-tracked by the idea of that, especially since I found the premise mildly interesting. The manga gets extra points for being really cute with that last chapter. I mean, it has boobs, ass, and a lot of kissing, but the female mangaka was taught by the creator of Fairy Tail so it’s really runs in their roots.
Shigatsu no Kimi no Uso: Ultimately included this one in romance, but many would say this belongs in the next category.
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime: This is so heavy on cheese that I had to pause at times and go “what am I doing? Is this how I die? How will my family react to me watching this?” (the last question is one I ask of myself often)
Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun: A lot of people who’ve watched BSD like this anime. Tumblr loves this anime.
The Horror! The Horror! Some Dark Stuff That Belongs in a Cauldron, and those onion-cutting ninjas. – Honestly, it’s not my favourite genre, but some of these ended up being among my favourite anime?
Death Parade: It wasn’t in the genre I usually watch (no comedy at all), yet I was moved every time? That last figure skating scene was *Canadian-French Accent* C’est Magnifique.
Shinsekai Yori: I watched this anime feeling SOOOOO UNEASY. Nothing was even happening that was “scary”. It was just the mere ideas behind it as the eerie world-building led me to go “WAHHHHH” over my computer. It’s one of the best anime I’ve watched, but I can’t recommend it to everyone.
Mousou Dairinin: It’s Satoshi Kon but sane. You actually get a conclusive ending. It has a surprisingly current message behind it though. It’s like Satoshi Kon continues to influence.
Perfect Blue: Now to the less sane Satoshi Kon work that confused me. Western movies literally copied one of the scenes from this movie.
No. 6: I can’t list this anywhere else, but it was the first anime to depict a really, really, really sweet gay relationship. Even though it was a complete fail adaptation-wise, it also gave Hosoya (voice actor) inspiration to keep going. It’s a gift.
Anohana: *ahem* I was recommended the anime by someone I’m no longer close with, but the memories that I had watching this and the message was probably the closest an anime has brought me to actually crying in a non-depressive fashion.
Gakkougurashi: Cute girls doing cute things with zombies that are about to eat them and destroy them all.
Erased: Okay, compared to other great series that I’ve yet to watch (Steins;Gate and Monster), it’s probably trash, but I remember really enjoying it when I first watched it.
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TIM AND CODY TIM AND CODY TIM AND CODY 🥺🥺🥺
DAD TIM TIME DAD TIM TIME. these two are so good istg
enjoy
When Tim was awoken by someone knocking on his door his first thought was ‘’You’re kidding me.’’. He hadn’t gotten a decent sleep in almost a week, and most days found himself running off of only four or five hours. Not even melatonin was helping. He groaned into his pillow and rolled over.
‘’Mrrroooowwww…’’
Tim sighed and looked down. Laying by his arm was a skinny grey cat that gave him an irritated look. Probably because Tim had woken it. He rolled his eyes. ‘’Well excuse me, Kralie.’’ he muttered. He sat up, being sure not to disturb his other cat, Brian, who was curled up near his feet, sleeping peacefully. He carefully climbed off his bed and sighed, running a hand through his messy black hair. It had to be late, it was pitch black in the room. The only light came from the tank where his pet frog lived. He could barely just spot the outline of his third cat Jay sitting and staring at a wall for no apparent reason. He did that a lot. Tim had given up trying to figure out why. He strode across the room and over to his door. He pulled it open and looked up.
‘’Mmmh?’’ he grunted as he blinked at the person in front of his door. In the darkness he could barely recognise the skinny frame and fluffy hair of Cody. The slightly taller boy fiddled with his hands nervously.
‘’Sorry for waking you.’’ he whispered. Tim shook his head.
‘’I wasn’t sleeping.’’ he lied. ‘’What’s wrong, kid?’’
‘’I…’’ Cody shrugged. ‘’I couldn’t sleep. And I-I kept thinking about stuff…’’ he murmured. He glanced up from the floor, looking at Tim anxiously.
‘’You need a distraction?’’ the older man asked. Cody gave a slight nod. Tim sighed gently. ‘’Alright. Lemme get dressed then.’’ he murmured. He heard Cody mumble out a feeble ‘thanks’ as he closed the door. Tim put on some comfy sweatpants and an old warm fleece. He walked back to the door and opened it. Cody perked up a bit, looking at him. Tim stepped out of the room and put his hands in his pockets. ‘’C’mon kid. I feel like going out.’’
Cody chuckled a bit. ‘’I was hoping you’d say that…’’ he murmured as he followed Tim upstairs. ‘’I looked out my window earlier. It’s a really nice night.’’
‘’Yeah?’’ Tim looked over his shoulder at Cody, smiling a bit. ‘’Good.’’
The two of them crept through the living room, careful not to alert Slender upstairs. They unlocked the front door and stepped out into the night. They walked over to Tim’s car. It was an old, busted up thing he’d been driving since 2005, and he refused to replace it. That car had been through hell and back right along with Tim, and every time it broke down Tim would just fix it himself. Usually with help from Cody and anybody else that thought they could lend a hand. Tim climbed into the driver’s seat and watched Cody climb into the seat next to him. The car smelled musty and there were some miscellaneous stains on the seats and dashboard. Tim turned the ignition on and the dashcam hanging from the mirror came to life. He drummed his hands on the steering wheel and looked at Cody.
‘’So, where to?’’ he asked. Cody shrugged. ‘’You hungry?’’
Cody smiled a bit and nodded. ‘’Yeah, actually.’’
‘’What’re we eating?’’ Tim asked as he drove the car towards and along the dirt path that’d lead out of the forest.
‘’Hm…’’ Cody frowned, running his tongue over his teeth as he thought. ‘’Baskin robbins sounds really good...but taco bell does too-’’
‘’Dinner and dessert.’’ Tim replied. He glanced at Cody and smiled. Cody grinned. He was being spoiled tonight.
------
‘’So Brian looks the guy dead in the eyes and says ‘that’s a serious problem. Go to a doctor or you’ll die in like three days’.’’
‘’PFFFFT- SO WHAT HAPPENED TO THE GUY???’’
‘’Well- I dunno, I never saw him again.’’ Tim grinned to himself as he balled up the wrapper from his taco. ‘’Maybe he did die, I dunno.’’ he shrugged.
‘’You think Brian killed him?’’
‘’Probably.’’ Tim nodded and laughed quietly. ‘’I swear, there was nothing behind Brian’s eyes. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was a wanted murderer or some shit.’’
Cody tilted his head. ‘’Is that why you guys were friends?’’
Tim snorted. ‘’Yeah. Except I can hide the fact that I’m secretly a feral guy who runs around the woods in a mask. With Brian you kinda knew.’’ Cody snickered. He loved hearing Tim’s stories. He always found a way to make it funny, and he’d had more than his fair share of bizarre experiences. ‘’Here, kid, gimme your trash. I’ll throw it out for ya.’’
Cody passed over the empty taco bell bag and watched Tim stuff his own trash into it. He reached over and unlocked the door, stepping out. ‘’C’mon, we’ll walk up to get the ice cream.’’
Cody climbed out of the car and followed Tim across the parking lot. He tilted his head. ‘’You sure you wanna walk through the cold?’’ he asked, mostly just to start conversation.
‘’Yeah? Gotta burn it off somehow,’’ Tim replied as he put the empty bag in the bin beside the entrance to the taco bell. ‘’Some of us have slow metabolisms, twig boy.’’ he shot Cody a grin. They both knew that wasn’t the real reason. Tim didn’t desperately need to lose weight, he just wanted to spend more time with Cody. He wanted to savor the night together, even if it was chilly.
Conversation came easy to them. Cody was impulsive, and liked to say whatever first came to mind. Tim always had a sarcastic comment to respond with. Cody liked that about Tim. He never judged. He always took Cody's ideas, as far-fetched as they were, seriously. He was supportive.
"Hey kid," Tim suddenly spoke up. Cody looked at him. "...going out with you like this- it means a lot." He smiled at him. Cody softened.
"...me too." He murmured. He wasn't good with emotions. At all. "Uh- like- you're always...nice to me and I- appreciate that." He fiddled with his hands. "...yeah."
Tim laughed gently. "I appreciate you too kid." He murmured. "Honestly. You're great." He paused for a moment, debating what to say next, but Cody cut him off.
"You're like a dad to me." He blurted. Tim blinked in surprise. Cody slapped his hands over his mouth, staring at him with wide eyes.
It was silent for a moment. Then Tim smiled. Then grinned, then began laughing quietly. His laughs became louder and Cody glanced away in embarrassment.
"Pffft-! Kid-!"
"Shut up!" Cody yelped back. Tim quieted his laughs and smiled.
"I'm not laughing at you, Cody," He murmured. Cody muttered something to himself. "...why do you think I call you 'kid' so often?" He asked gently. Cody looked up. Tim shrugged a bit. "Never saw myself as- y'know- a dad, but fuck if I don't care about you like one."
Cody stared at him. Then a bright grin curled up his face. Before Tim could do anything, Cody tackled him into a tight hug. The two stumbled back and Tim grunted from the impact. He'd had worse of course, and he wasn't going to push Cody off. Not at a time like this. He laughed gently and curled his arms around Cody, squeezing the skinny boy tight.
"T-Ti-" Cody grunted. "Dad-"
"Hm?"
"You're...sq-squeezing the air...outta me…"
Tim suddenly released him and looked up in surprise. He smiled a bit. "Sorry kid." He murmured. Cody grunted.
"It's fine." He mumbled. "I think my ribs are still intact. We're good."
#ask#frozensriracha#writing#creepypasta fanfic#creepypasta fanfiction#creepypasta#x virus#x virus creepypasta#cody#tim wright#tim mh#mh tim#marble hornets
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Things have actually been going really well for me lately. The baby is no longer a baby. He's a walking, talking toddler. He's such a good boy and is as easy as a toddler can be. He's so incredibly smart! And seriously insanely cute.
My ex moved out of the condo and we sold it out of the family to one of my best friends. Thank God that curse is out of our family. My son and I used the inheritance money to move my ex into a house where the baby will have a backyard and the ex won't have neighbors on top of him. He just does not get along with people very well. But when he is happy then the baby and I are happy too. My ex takes him every Thursday afternoon and I pick him up Sunday mornings. It's such a welcome relief to still be able to have some single woman time.
Understand that my ex is straight up fucking crazy. There is literally no way to describe his crazy. But in general he believes in outlandish conspiracy theories, he always thinks everyone is against him, and it's taken him a year to trust me completely. He believes that eating dandelions are the cure for literally everything. BUT, he's amazing with his grandson. Who knows what the future will hold as Phoenix grows. But all I can focus on right now is the here and now. And here and now, I need my me time.
That said though, I feel like I've crossed over into a place of utter enjoyment when it comes to this little dude. The fact that he can now communicate definitely helps in that regard. We have so so so much fun together and my couch potato days are officially over... Which is a very good thing. there isn't a whole lot One can do during a pandemic, but we found our places to go and have fun. I have decided to move to a new house with a backyard. The community I'm moving to is huge and has at least 15 parks within it. It also has a beach, a lake, six pools, including two pools that he could play in tomorrow if they were open. His daycare/learning center is there as well as an elementary school. So that will be awesome as he grows, he can make friends that are in the same neighborhood easily. The grounds are absolutely beautiful. It's costing me an arm and a leg in this, but he's worth it. Plus it looks like my current house will sell for over $100,000 more than what I paid for it 6 years ago. That definitely helps ease the pain of buying a 1700 sq ft home at a premium.
I decided to do a sort of burning bowl ritual around Melody's things as I begin to prepare my house to sell. I found some papers with some step work that had some bad memories for her. I found out a lot of stuff about her time as an addict that I didn't know, which I expected. So I gathered those and other items and writings that represented the bad years. I kept all of her journals that were during her sober times so her child can have them one day. But I put all that stuff together, grabbed the metal box that she used to put her methadone in, and burned it. I meditated during this "ceremony" set an intention to let go of the addict and keep the memory of my daughter and the good times we had alive and well. I was going to put the ashes on her grave, but then I thought against it, because I didn't want to put the bad memories on her grave. So I put the addict where it belongs, in the trash. Only the good part of Melody remains in this house.
While I still don't feel her presence per se, I talk to her all the time. I'm always so hopeful that she's seeing her little boy grow up, and laughing her beautiful laugh at his silliness. I miss her so so much, but I still don't cry as much as I feel like other people cry when they lose their child. I still can only attribute that lack of emotion to the relief of no anxiety, stress, financial strain, etc. that the addict caused me. I've made peace with my lack of emotion for the most part because I really feel like Melody understands. And my grandson has a lot to do with my happiness these days as well.
I can't believe I've been raising him for a year and a half and he will be two in May. As much stress as my ex caused me over the last year and a half, the amount of gratitude that I feel for his stepping up to the plate, and helping me with our grandson is immeasurable. I don't know how many men, who had been divorced for 30 years, would help their ex the way he has helped me. So is his rent paid for the next year with the inheritance & condo sale money? Yep! I'm also using Melody's social Security money to cover his bills. He does work occasionally, if I had to guess I'd say about once every two months he gets up off of his ass and works. If I didn't say before he has his own painting business. Which of course during the pandemic slowed tremendously. But as the pandemic is lifting, I know for a fact that this is the busy season for painting. He's told me that he's had a lot of previous customers hit him up. But he is a lot more depressed than I am as he has a 6-year-old son and the mother of that child will not let him see his son. That coupled with Melody passing away has really hit him hard. His grandson is the light in his life, But I really feel that depression (and laziness too) prevent him from working enough to support himself. He's going to have to figure it out though, because after this year, he will be on his own. And the year is already flying by. I guess we'll see how that pans out.
I'm so grateful to my son too. He was the executor of his grandmother's will where the small inheritance came from. He was the one that agreed to take some of the inheritance money and cover his dad's rent for a year at my request. I will say though that now that my grandson is getting older, if my ex goes off his rocker and I have to keep him full time, I think I can handle it now. I mean, I could probably could have handled it just fine over entire time the last year & a half. But it's a pretty jarring adjustment going from being single with grown children and having all the me time I want, to having none. Anyway I'm rambling...
I hadn't posted in a while and just wanted to express how well things are going in this little journals/blog or whatever.
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This is truly magnificent analysis. It's a bit of a long read, but it is ABSOLUTELY magically clarifying. I'll include my thoughts in a follow-up because this is perfectly in line with something I've been thinking about for a while.
Buckle up, this one is a bit of a roller coaster.
Let’s talk population density.
Do you know the population density of the zip code you live in?
What about the population density of where you spent your formative years?
That’s a bit of a rhetorical question, because I’m guessing the answer is no. I certainly didn’t, so I’d be impressed and surprised if I asked someone this question in casual conversation and they rattled off the number to me.
I’d never thought about population density until I traveled to India in 2018. We flew into Mumbai which has a population density of 75,000 people per sq. mi. To give you some perspective, NYC has 27,000 per sq. mi. (post originally said 10,431people but that is per sq. km. not mi.) and as most of my friends are familiar with King of The Hammers, in Johnson Valley, when Hammertown doesn’t exist, it has a population density of 15.2 people per sq. mi.
Mumbai has the highest population density of any city in the world, and until you’ve experienced it, it’s hard to describe. If you have ever been in the first 10 rows of a sold-out standing room only concert, that is as close as I can relate to how people move through the streets of Mumbai. There is literally no such thing as personal space. Not for you, not for your vehicle. I think one of the most fascinating things our entire group realized in Mumbai is whatever you do, do NOT stop. Merge in, merge out, but sudden stops cause pile ups of humans, vehicles, etc. Everything is in fluid motion, when you step into the stream you go with the current, when you need to leave the stream you move to the edges and hop out. What was also interesting was the lack of rage or frustration we saw, and the lack of accidents! I don’t think I saw two people yell at each other the entire time we were there. Same with car accidents, I saw one slight bumper brush. Nothing worth stopping over, as every car had marks from similar encounters.
You would think with so much closeness fights would break out often, accidents would be on every corner. But something strange happens. There is no space for the individual in that type of population density. If you wanted to stop and be mad or outraged, you would literally be trampled. So you move with the flow, or you step outside of it. One person cannot go against the current and be successful, individual needs simply cannot matter for society to function in that type of population density. This is different from NYC where you do see individuals disagree on street corners. Because even as dense as NYC is there is room for the individual. Even our most densely populated cities are nothing compared to other countries. America has space and the individual has rights.
When this country was founded the population density of even our biggest cities was a fraction of large cities in Europe. Which is why our constitution so heavily outlines the liberties and freedoms of the individual compared to places like England where their population density even today is 10 times that of the United States as a whole.
Ever since news of the pandemic broke I’ve found myself fascinated with population density in the US. This fascination started because it seemed obvious to me that the transmission of COVID would happen far faster in our highest population density areas of the country. Wikipedia has a list of cities by population density. Here’s how the top 20 most dense cities breaks down: 9 in New Jersey (NYC metro area),4 in CA (LA metro area), 3 in NY (NYC metro area), 2 in Florida (Miami metro area), 1 in Mass (Boston metro area), and 1 in Kentucky (Louisville). Except for Kentucky these population dense areas directly correlate to the highest areas of infection in the country.
But my fascination with population density didn’t stop at the pandemic. I wanted to understand population densities of different areas. I started looking up places I’d lived and visited that felt both dense and sparse population wise. It should come as no surprise that cities are always the most dense and rural areas are always the most sparse.
Then as the mask debate started unfolding in my newsfeed, I found myself loosely assigning a population density to people as they made their stance on masks known. Those that lived in higher population densities were usually more for masks than those who lived in less population dense areas.
Again, this made sense. Those that live in cities encounter more people in a day going about their routine. If they live in high-density housing, they share elevators, stairwells, mailrooms, lobbies, etc. The needs of the individual matter less the higher the density, so fighting the mask goes against the stream. You can do it, but it’s not easy.
Those I know that live more rural were less inclined to want to wear masks. I’ve found a general rule of thumb in casual conversation is if you can walk to your nearest market (even if it’s a gas station or 7/11), you understand the need for a mask. If you MUST drive to your nearest market, you likely don’t have to encounter many people in a day if you choose not to, and masks feel like just another unnecessary restriction imposed by the government. The individual has more freedoms and rejects government oversight more the lower the population density.
At some point this year I saw some people sharing an image of the US broken up by red states (Republican) vs. blue states (Democrat), compared to a map of COVID cases. At the time, the blue states almost directly correlated to where the highest COVID outbreaks were happening. The conclusion those sharing this map were trying to draw was that COVID was political and made up by the political leaders of blue states. It was largely those living in unaffected areas sharing this map and drawing these conclusions.
What I took from these images was that the higher the density the more likely an area was to be run by Democrats. Which lead me down a rabbit hole. Apparently, someone named Dave Troy noticed the same thing, and wrote an interesting article based on the 2012 election between Obama and Romney. 98% of the 50 most dense counties voted Obama. 98% of the 50 least dense counties voted Romney.
And this Dave guy sounds like someone I would enjoy having a discussion with. Because this data drew him to the same question I had. Where is the crossover point in population density between those that vote Republican vs. those that vote Democrat? The data says that at about 800 people per sq. mi. people switch from voting primarily Republican to voting primarily Democrat. Below 800 people per sq. mi. there is a 66% chance that you voted Republican in 2012. The data doesn’t appear much different in the following years.
So why does this matter? Because how you were raised and how you live has a huge impact on what matters to you from your politicians and your government.
Those I know that grew up in less dense areas had to be self-reliant. When calling 911 means you’re likely waiting 20 minutes or longer for police, an ambulance, or a fire truck. You have to be able to defend yourself, handle your own first aid, and rely on your neighbors to help in critical emergency situations. When I tell people in Southern California that where I grew up had volunteer firefighters and EMTs they don’t believe me.
The more rural you are, the less you rely on government entities for your day-to-day needs. The most rural have well water, septic systems, take their trash to the dump, if it snows, they have a vehicle that can plow, and the truly rural use propane for power and heat. They are not reliant on most services provided by the public utilities. They use guns as tools to protect their animals and their family from prey and from vermin. They do not really encounter homeless people, as even the poorest can usually find a shack to live out of and require a vehicle to get around. These people in less dense areas do not depend on the government to solve their problems. They’d prefer government stay out of their lives completely. Less taxes, less oversight, less being told what to do. To the rural, it seems like every time the government interferes in their life, they lose another freedom, and their quality of life diminishes.
Those I know that grew up in more dense areas are used to calling 911 to handle emergencies. Their streets are swept in the summer and plowed in the winter. Their trash is picked up on the same day weekly. They don’t have space for cars and tools, so they tend to take public transportation or walk. They call someone when something breaks that requires tools they don’t own. They are used to encountering the homeless on the streets as part of their daily life. The truly poor and homeless usually end up in cities as the services to help the sick, mentally ill and the poorest among us are more available in dense areas. So the wealthy interact with the poor in cities far more than they do in rural areas. Those in higher density areas are willing to pay for government services because they are a regular part of their daily lives and make life more manageable. Without these services, the quality of life they know would not exist.
This got me thinking about some research I did a few years ago, when I learned that the average American only lives 18 miles from their mother. Those in NY and PA only live on average 8 miles from their mothers. From Kentucky to Louisiana the average is 6 miles. Less than 20% of Americans live more than a few hours drive from mom. The further you move from home depends greatly on your education and income. For the most part, the wealthier you are, the more you can pay for child and elder care, making it easier to travel further from home. Also, the more educated, the more likely you are to travel to utilize your education in a specialized career field.
So what does this have to do with population density? Most Americans never leave the population density we were raised in. Why does this matter? Because that means most Americans can’t understand or relate to the needs of those that live in population densities that differ from their own.
My friends that have been raised in cities see guns primarily as a source of violence. My friends that live rurally see guns as a necessary tool for their way of life. My friends that have been raised rurally don’t understand the need for taxes and government services, where they come from you take care of your own problems. My friends that live in cities, could not imagine a life without public utilities and governmental oversight of social problems.
Neither are wrong. Their needs and perspective are just vastly different.
I also realized that I’m probably in a small percentage of the American population. I have spent the last 20 years living more than 2500 miles from my closest family members, which puts me into the 20% category plus I was raised and lived in both high density population areas and low density population areas throughout my life.
Here’s my life by population density:
Age: 0-10 Zip: 14613 Pop Dens: 7323.5 people per sq. mi.
Age: 11-18 Zip: 14468 Pop Dens: 345 people per sq. mi.
Age: 18-22 Zip: 14850 Pop Dens: 5,722 people per sq. mi.
Age: 25-32 Zip: 92606 Pop Dens: 4,913 people per sq. mi.
Age: 33-43 Zip: 91773/91750 Pop Dens 2,163/1245 people per sq. mi.
I went to inner city schools as a young child. I was upset that my mother could not put my hair in corn rows with the pretty beads like my friends wore. I learned civil rights songs taught to me by our bi-racial music teacher and came home and sang them for my disapproving father who was raised in Shinglehouse, PA with a population density of 26.5 people per sq. mi.
Then at the age of 11 my family moved out of the city and into the country. We lived on 20+ acres of land and the population was 98% white. I didn’t walk to school anymore, heck, we didn’t really walk to our neighbor’s house because country roads don’t have sidewalks.
Then I went away to college for 4 years where I lived part of that time on the 11th floor of a tower, with a shared elevator, lobby, and I didn’t own a car. I walked everywhere, took the bus or would grab a ride from my few friends with cars if it wasn’t feasible to take public transportation.
After college I moved to Southern California. I spent my first 10 years as an adult mostly living in condos and townhomes in wealthier higher density areas, where I would say the majority leaned slightly left, but there was a fiscally conservative undertone. But I spent most weekends taking my Jeep to lower population density areas to live a life more closely to what I had on the farm growing up. Less government oversights. No one ticketing my Jeep for a few stickers as a commercial vehicle, etc.
Currently, I live in Los Angeles County, one of the highest populations in the country. But I live in one of the lowest density zip codes within that county. We have horse property and rodeos, and one of the only country bars in Southern California. Our population is almost completely split down the middle between left and right. I don’t have a sidewalk but a half a mile down the road they do. I can walk to the 7/11 and the subway around the corner but need to drive to the closest grocery store.
I’ve come to realize that just about every polarizing debate I see my friends having; I can see both sides of the argument. And I’m starting to suspect it’s because I’ve lived in both their worlds. I can relate and understand their needs and where they are coming from because I’ve experienced each of their way of life to a certain extent. Most in this country are raised one way and live that way for life. And how we want to live really comes down to the population density in which we have existed.
I truly believe our population density experience matters more to our political views than education, income, race, gender or sexuality.
As a society we are so wrapped up in left vs. right. Liberal vs. conservative. We figure out which we identify with and lump every social/political issue we agree with into “our” category, and everyone we disagree with into “their” category. I don’t see this really helping us hear each other any better. It more results in people trying to prove why they are right.
Since I’ve started considering people’s population density experiences in life (if I know them and have a reasonable idea) I have found a new filter with which to view information that is far more conducive to understanding their point of view than the filters we currently use.
Mark Twain once wrote, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
And while I think there’s some truth to that, travel in Mark Twain’s day and age is different than how we travel today. For instance, when I go to Baja, I like to stay in the small towns and eat at the local restaurants. But I have many friends that only go to all inclusive resorts, or stay in tourist areas, never venturing outside of the luxury they are there to enjoy. They don’t spend time in the rural areas seeing what life is really like. Traveling with ULTRA4 and for off road has kept me outside of most tourist areas. Where there’s only one place to stay and you have to explore local eating options. Seeing the countryside and how people live both in US and in Europe. I prefer to travel this way.
Many of us with the means to travel prefer to vacation how we live. The more rural we live day to day, the less spending a week in NYC sounds like fun. But going camping in the woods likely appeals to us. And those that live in cities, tend to not choose wilderness adventures for their downtime. The travel to help us see how other people live that existed in Twain’s time doesn’t really happen in our service oriented society where restaurants and hotels are abundant most places. We can eat at the same restaurants and sleep at the same hotels from one side of the country to the other. We’ve stopped getting outside of our own bubbles even when we travel.
I don’t know what we can do that would expose us to other ways of life like travel in Twain’s age did. But we probably need to figure it out to stop the divide from separating this country further.
From the beginning of 1900s through the Vietnam War between 7 and 9 percent of Americans were in military service. Today less than 0.5% of Americans serve in the military. That was one way that we used to expose Americans to life outside of what they grew up with. College is another way, but as costs have risen, more students continue to live at home and attend community colleges or local universities vs. leaving home to experience a different way of life between 18 and 22.
I find myself thinking about kids who go off to the army or away to college. They are forced outside their comfort zones. Some thrive there, some don’t. But they learn a different way of existing, at least for a little while. The type of travel Mark Twain is talking about. Part of me wonders if we shouldn’t offer some sort of service requirement for our youth between say 18 and 20 that requires them to get involved in something to help the country, away from where they were raised, military or civil service. If they were raised in a city, working on rural projects. If they were raised rurally, working on urban projects. Just to have a frame of reference for how diverse this country truly is and how different our needs are based on that diversity. But this is a topic for another day. You’ve already been too kind reading this far.
I don’t have the answers. But I’m glad I’ve finally put down some of the thoughts I’ve had floating around in my head regarding population density. Kudos to those of you that stuck it out.
If you’re like me and are curious about your own population density experiences, I’ve included a link in the comments where you can throw in zip codes and see what your exposure has been.
https://medium.com/@davetroy/is-population-density-the-key-to-understanding-voting-behavior-191acc302a2b
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Random List of Anime Recommendation:
This is mostly directed for @caratheillustrious but I figured posting it wouldn’t really be that much of a problem anyway. I’ll divide these up into categories in terms of mood.
Feel Good Stuff – Some stuff that leaves you feeling good about stuff. Whether the majority of the series or film is lighthearted or it’s just laidback, both will be included here.
Tokyo Godfathers: one of my favourite anime movies and far more light-hearted than Koe no Katachi (warning though for slurs used in this movie towards transwomen – she’s still the best character in the movie and the movie makes a point to let her know that she’s the best human on this very planet because Hana is a treasure)
Gin no Saji: If you've watched Fullmetal Alchemist, it has the same creator except it's slice-of-life on a farm. I found it to be touching because it squares in on student experiences and connections. Also has sage advice.
Barakamon: Has children actually voiced by children. I watched it during a really important period of time for me. It centres and hits points that a lot of artists have.
Kimi to Boku: I can't remember why I enjoyed this anime. I just know that I did for some reason. It was really simple.
The Boy and the Beast: I have mixed thoughts about this movie, but at the end of the day, I really enjoyed it.
Zombieland Saga: I just find it nice to find an idol anime that doesn’t focus on the whole “the girls all have to be cute”. One is a biker chick, one is indicated to be a former prostitute, one is a verified transgirl.
Those Movies That Have to be Mentioned – I’m legally obligated to mention these.
Anthem of the Heart: sounds like a crack premise ("girl gets cursed by an egg to never speak again after seeing her dad cheat with another woman in a love hotel like a castle") but ends up being really good.
Your Name: practically everyone has watched that.
Koe no Katachi: A lot of people have watched this already. I always recommend it, but it's very emotionally heavy and deals with suicide, bullying, and disability. It's ending can make you cry from happiness though.
Wolf Children: Well, only if you're okay with crying (at least on the inside)
Hotarubi no Mori e: It's only 40 minutes. Probably won’t make people cry, but yeah, I can’t say that much.
Shounen – crack open one of these, and the boys and girls are sure to come
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic: It was my first anime. It has a lot of shonen crap, but it's also dialogue-heavy.
Seishun Buta Yarou: Drew in fanbois for the "plot" (bunny girl - what else can I say) and made people stay for the actual plot. It ended up being really quirky and funny. It was like the Monogatari series (which I tried and didn't like) but better and more "legal"
Yakusoku no Neverland: If you've watched Chicken Run, imagine that with people. It's a farm that farms children so they try to run.
Kimetsu no Yaiba: Shonen Jump doesn't have that many misses.
Noragami: The gags resonated with 14-year-old me
Assassination Classroom: Underdeveloped cast? Yeah, but it was still a really good Shonen Jump adaptation.
SKET Dance: The romance is too... canonly ambiguous for me to really put this under “romance”, it’s a comedy but can be serious, so I decided to put it under here. It’s quickly become one of my favourites.
Comedy – The stuff that’s not quite conventionally “shounen or shoujo” but still tries to make you laugh, no matter how hard they try or how hit-and-miss they are
Mob Psycho 100: The second season is amazing. I found it to be a really good solid show.
Hinamatsuri: If you like Mob Psycho or if you just like the idea of an adult adopting a kid and teaching them stuff along with the kid teaching them, this is the one for you. I was laughing and crying (from tears of laughter) at this.
Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun: I can’t label this a romance because the romance doesn’t go anywhere. We start at square one and we finish at square one, but the stuff that happens in the meantime makes it all worth it.
Danshi Koukousei no Nichijou / Nichijou: Hit-and-miss, but there are a lot of iconic moments here.
Hataraku Saibou: I think this fits the best here. It’s just a good solid anime about cells in your body.
Shoujo/Romance – In case you need some fluff to fill the dark times; cheese levels vary.
Fruits Basket: Shoujo at its best.
Kono Oto Tomare: I don't know how this got produced by Shonen Jump SQ because it's like a cliche shoujo that would make even shoujo manga readers throw up flowers
Toradora: It's a hit-and-miss for people just because the main character is a tsundere (played by the queen of tsundere herself)
Ookami-san to Shichinin no Nakama-tachi: this ended up being a guilty pleasure for me – not quite a direct romance but direct enough
Haikara-san go Tooru: Technically a movie and only has the first part, but the manga is from mid-70s is a shining example of the feminist boom in Japan after WWII
Gamers!: This was best explained by a comment I read somewhere going “I love this anime, but it makes me want to bang my head on a wall repeatedly”. Misunderstandings: The Anime. Everyone has a hard time.
Kaguya-sama: It was a huge hit in the 2019 Winter season of anime and for good reason. It’s getting a new season coming up too.
Wotakoi: Two adults falling in love. It’s funny and a little bit niche and directed towards otaku.
Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo: Technically a shounen, it was a harem anime that ended up being pretty good? I was so side-tracked by the idea of that, especially since I found the premise mildly interesting. The manga gets extra points for being really cute with that last chapter. I mean, it has boobs, ass, and a lot of kissing, but the female mangaka was taught by the creator of Fairy Tail so it’s really runs in their roots.
Shigatsu no Kimi no Uso: Ultimately included this one in romance, but many would say this belongs in the next category.
Akagami no Shirayuki-hime: This is so heavy on cheese that I had to pause at times and go “what am I doing? Is this how I die? How will my family react to me watching this?” (the last question is one I ask of myself often)
Hamefura: Have you ever wished for a harem with GUYS and GALS?! Have you ever wished for a bisexual harem with a protagonist is dumb, and literally everyone but her knows it?! Look no further!
Araburu Kisetsu no Otome-domo yo.: I found this to be a very empowering anime. It tackles the sexuality of women, and it does it in a very... unique package.
The Horror! The Horror! Some Dark Stuff That Belongs in a Cauldron, and those onion-cutting ninjas. – Honestly, it’s not my favourite genre, but some of these ended up being among my favourite anime?
Death Parade: It wasn't in the genre I usually watch (no comedy at all), yet I was moved every time? That last figure skating scene was *Canadian-French Accent* C’est Magnifique.
Shinsekai Yori: I watched this anime feeling SOOOOO UNEASY. Nothing was even happening that was “scary”. It was just the mere ideas behind it as the eerie world-building led me to go “WAHHHHH” over my computer. It’s one of the best anime I’ve watched, but I can’t recommend it to everyone.
Mousou Dairinin: It’s Satoshi Kon but sane. You actually get a conclusive ending. It has a surprisingly current message behind it though. It’s like Satoshi Kon continues to influence.
Perfect Blue: Now to the less sane Satoshi Kon work that confused me. Western movies literally copied one of the scenes from this movie.
No. 6: I can’t list this anywhere else, but it was the first anime to depict a really, really, really sweet gay relationship. Even though it was a complete fail adaptation-wise, it also gave Hosoya (voice actor) inspiration to keep going. It’s a gift.
Anohana: *ahem* I was recommended the anime by someone I’m no longer close with, but the memories that I had watching this and the message was probably the closest an anime has brought me to actually crying in a non-depressive fashion.
Gakkougurashi: Cute girls doing cute things with zombies that are about to eat them and destroy them all.
Erased: Okay, compared to other great series that I’ve yet to watch (Steins;Gate and Monster), it’s probably trash, but I remember really enjoying it when I first watched it.
And that ends my TED Talk.
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