#national dog day 2022 march
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How To Celebrate Your Dog At International Dog Day on August 26 2022
How To Celebrate Your Dog At International Dog Day on August 26 2022
It’s almost time for International Dog Day again! This is one of our favorite annual celebrations, and there are lots of ways you can help make it the best yet.
Adopting a dog from a shelter rather than buying one from a breeder is more important than ever, as millions of dogs wind up in shelters across the country each year. If you’ve been considering welcoming a new pup into your home, be sure…
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#happy international dog day 2022#international bring your dog to work day 2022#international dog biscuit day 2022#international dog day 2021#international dog day 2022 australia#international dog day 2022 canada#international doodle dog day 2022#international guide dog day 2022#international guide dog day 2022 australia#international hot dog day 2022#international search and rescue dog day 2022#national dog day 2022 march#national dog day 2022 may#national dog day 2022 uk#national dog day 2023#national dog mom day 2022#national dog month#national puppy day#national therapy dog day 2022#pet appreciation week 2022#pet holidays
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OC: Halia "Sigma" Connors
Name: Halia Connors
Age: 23 (As of 2022)
Alias(es): Halie (by her aunt), Lia, Raven, Sigma, Corporal, Bravo 7 - 3
Gender: Female
Birthday: March 7th, 1999
Nationality: American
Place of birth: San Diego, California, USA
Languages: English (her mother language), Spanish.
Occupation/Rank: Senior Airman/Corporal
Affiliation: U.S Air Force (formerly), associate member of Task
Force 141, JTF - Ghost Team
Hair color: Natural black
Eye color: Bright blue
Scars: None
Piercings: 1 (belly piercing)
Face claim: Emily Rudd
Height: 5’5 (165 cm)
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Build: Toned
Blood type: O+
Family: Unnamed mother (deceased), Unnamed father (deceased), Lala Connors (aunt), Ruby (German Shepherd dog)
Siblings: none
Personality: ENTJ-A, a quick thinker and has high intelligence, not wasting any time, gets a job done.
Friendly: not afraid to start conversation, likes to chat with people when not on the missions.
Serious: Serious, yet logical, she's beauty, she's grace, she'll break your knees.
Strong-willed: has a lot of determination and always tries to do what she can.
FAVOURITES
Color: Toriquise
Season: Autumn
Food: Macaroni with cheese
Drink: Black tea with lemon, hot coffee and kiwi lemonade
Dessert: Coconut Yogurt
Hobbies: Singing, hiking, play tennis, spending free time with Ruby
ABILITIES
Fighting style: Can rely on strength, speed, intelligence and stealth, but she's more into stealth type, can sneak attack enemies from behind, but she's brutal too while in combat.
Weapons: she's mastered firearms mastery, also very proficient with knives and in-field crafts.
Planes: a safe flyer, she only flies for air support if needed.
TRIVIA
Sigma is a dog person.
While Halia is left to train in the Air Force, her aunt felt lonely. But in 2 years (2020) Lala bought a female German Shepherd to prevent loneliness. After Hassan's death, Sigma came back home to her aunt and she was greeted by Ruby in surprise, then she began to love her.
The "Sigma" callsign not only mean the eighteen letter of the alphabet, but also an cosmology. A property of galaxies used when trying to work out the mystery of galaxies and their supermassive black holes.
Sigma sometimes wears darkers gears and clothes on a missions. (stealth type)
She can drive. She started her driving lessons when she was 18, but still was in high school. Missed most of her classes, but did her school work in time.
Used to have a long hair. HATES PONYTAILS. Uncomfortable, tight, hurts her scalp, because it gives her a headache. While being in U.S. Air Force, she used a fishbraid.
Sigma never dyed her hair, because she wants to keep her natural black hair healthy.
Sigma is allergic to sunflower seeds.
Had a boyfriend once in high school, but it didn't worked out well.
Sigma is ambidextrous. Can work with both hands well.
BIOGRAPHY
Born and raised in San Diego, Halia’s parents were killed by the secret organization when she was 10 years old, they destroyed their home while Halia managed to run away safely. Until then, Lala, her aunt found her and adopted her.
Years passed by, when she finished high school when she was 19, Halia decided to join the U.S Air Force, living up to her father’s legacy, then she found her code name "Sigma" in the first place, passed every training with flying colors. Halia was intelligent and very active all those days while in training. She left her aunt too to live her normal and peaceful life.
Other than being in Air Force, Halia rarely contacted her, writing letters, had no time to rest for the training. She build her relationship with her aunt very well for years. Until then, she made her allies in U.S Air Force who could trust them.
When became an Senior Airman/Corporal, General Shepherd and Kate Laswell contacted her that she has a mission in Las Almas, in close air, to help Ghost, Alejandro and Soap to capture Hassan and work with Graves and his Shadow mercanaries.
#art#myart#oc#call of duty oc#cod oc#call of duty#cod mwii#original character#call of duty modern warfare 2#call of duty modern warfare ii#Halia Sigma Connors#cod mw22#call of duty modern warfare#Call of duty modern warfare 2022#oc profile#artist on tumblr
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The Bradshaw son and Seresin daughter - introduction
Characters: Bradley Bradshaw x female!OC Madison Ella Hanscott, Son!OC Nicolas Peter Bradshaw, Jake Seresin x female!OC Quinn Kelsell, Daughter!OC Hazel Alexandra Seresin, Son!OC Benjamin Jacob Seresin
Warnings: in this chapter: mention of (teenage) pregnancy, pregnancy difficulties, Navy inaccuracy. (Let me know if I forgot a warning)
Summary of the story: The 16 year old daughter of Jake Seresin gets pregnant. The dad: the 18 year old son of Bradley Bradshaw. How will the dads react to their kids becoming teen parents?
A/N: English is not my first language, so if there is any spelling or grammar errors: please let me know
next part - masterlist
Introducing the families
✈️ Name: Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw
✈️ Birthday: June 27, 1984
✈️ Nationality: American
✈️ Gender: male
✈️ Profession: Naval Aviator
✈️ Husband to Madison Ella Hanscott
✈️ Father to Nicolas Peter Bradshaw
✈️ He and Madison met at the navy base in 2020, 1 year after the dagger mission.
✈️ Madison was there for a documentary about the Navy troughout the years, Bradley was one of the people Madison interviewed.
✈️ Bradley asked her out on the last day of shooting the documentary.
✈️ After 2 years of dating, the couple got married on July 10, 2022. 9 months later Nicolas Peter Bradshaw was born.
✈️ Bradley has a good bond with his son and is very found of the idea of his son becoming a naval aviator like he is.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
📓 Name: Madison Ella Hanscott
📓 Birthday: March 5, 1991
📓 Nationality: American
📓 Gender: female
📓 Profession: writer and TV journalist
📓 Wife to Bradley Bradshaw
📓 Mother to Nicolas Peter Bradshaw
📓 She and Bradley met at the navy base in 2020, 1 year after the dagger mission when Madison was in charge of a documentary about the Navy.
📓 She is best friends with Quinn Kelsell.
📓 She is a very busy person and does a lot of overwork.
📓 Her and Bradley decided to buy Sparky for Nick when he was 16. It was around the time both her and Bradley were both very busy with their jobs and they didn’t want Nick to feel alone in his home.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
🏈 Name: Nicolas Peter Bradshaw
🏈 Birthday: April 9, 2023
🏈 Nationality: American
🏈 Gender: male
🏈 Profession: Naval academy student
🏈 Son to Bradley Bradshaw and Madison Ella Hanscott
🏈 Boyfriend to Hazel Alexandra Seresin
🏈 Nick used to play football in high school but stopped to focus on getting into the naval academy.
🏈 His best friend is his dog Sparky
🏈 His dads opinion is very important to him.
🏈 He is named after his grandad and his dads godfather.
🏈 He fell in love with Hazel when she came knocking on her door. She was wearing a sundress and crying about her first date standing her up. Nick was 17 and Hazel was 15. Nick took her out and slowly fell in love with his best friend.
🏈 Nobody knows they are together because they don’t want it to be weird between their parents if they ever break up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
✈️ Name: Jake “Hangman” Seresin
✈️ Birthday: November 17, 1987
✈️ Nationality: American
✈️ Gender: male
✈️ Profession: Naval Aviator
✈️ Husband to Quinn Kelsell
✈️ Father to Hazel Alexandra Seresin and Benjamin Jacob Seresin
✈️ He and Quinn met at a Bradshaw party in 2021. With Jake being Bradley’s best friend and Quinn being Madisons best friend it was bound to happen for them to meet.
✈️ They dated for 3 years before getting married on December 27, 2024.
✈️ Jake comes from a big family and wanted to have a big family like his own.
✈️ He is very over protected of Hazel and Benjamin.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
🩺 Name: Quinn Kelsell
🩺 Birthday: January 24, 1992
🩺 Nationality: American
🩺 Gender: female
🩺 Profession: doctor
🩺 Wife to Jake Seresin
🩺 Mother to Hazel Alexandra Seresin and Benjamin Jacob Seresin
🩺 She and Jake met at a Bradshaw party in 2021.
🩺 Quinn comes from a small family but wanted to have a big one of her own.
🩺 She and Jake wanted to have more kids after Benjamin, but the doctors said it could be dangerous for Quinns body to have more. That’s when they decided to just having two kids.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
📚 Name: Hazel Alexandra Seresin
📚 Birthday: August 2, 2025
📚 Nationality: American
📚 Gender: female
📚 Profession: High School student
📚 Daughter to Jake Seresin and Quinn Kelsell
📚 Girlfriend to Nicolas Peter Bradshaw
📚 Sister to Benjamin Jacob Seresin
📚 Hazel isn’t sure yet about what she wants to do after high school so she focuses mostly on her studies.
📚 She fell in love with Nick a month after he took her out after her first date stood her up. Nick was playing with Sparky on the beach while she was reading on her towel.
📚 She cares about what people think of her and can get quite emotional at times.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
🛹 Name: Benjamin Jacob Seresin
🛹 Birthday: September 16, 2027
🛹 Nationality: American
🛹 Gender: male
🛹 Profession: High School student
🛹 Son to Jake Seresin and Quinn Kelsell
🛹 Younger brother to Hazel Alexandra Seresin
🛹 Benjamin loves skateboarding
🛹 He is close to his sister
🛹 When the Bradshaw family went on vacation or went away for the weekend, Benjamin was in charge if Sparky.
🛹 He wants to be a doctor like his mom.
🛹 Benjamin is named after his grandad and his own dad.
Taglist: @confusedpimp (let me know if you want to be tagged)
#top gun x reader#top gun headcanons#top gun au#rooster top gun#top gun rooster#top gun hangman#top gun fandom#top gun imagine#top gun maverick#top gun fanfiction#bradley rooster bradshaw#bradley bradshaw fic#bradley bradshaw fanfiction#bradley bradshaw x female reader#bradley bradshaw x oc#jake seresin x reader#jake seresin#top gun maverick hangman#hangman fanfiction#jake hangman fic#hangman top gun#jake seresin imagine#Jake seresin x oC#jake hangman seresin#jake hangman imagine
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Hello Sophia,
I’ve been curious about any relationships and linkages between SMA title, Alba and Jinx. Finally, I’ve managed to discover Chris’ influencer profile on one marketing platform (note: Carbons Dating The Web estimated creation date: 2023-06-01).
There are some interesting facts and figures in the case study:
Premium US dog superfood brand, Jinx is redefining dog nutrition and is sold at Walmart stores across the country. Its audience are 71% female, typically single or married and aged in their thirties. English-speaking, Jinx’s followers are 84% US-based, with India, The Philippines, Indonesia and Brazil as secondary markets. Top cities for its customers include New York, LA, San Francisco and Chicago.
Looking at celebrity influences, Chris Evans does not appear in the list.
Media-wise, Buzzfeed, Betches Media, The New York Times, HGTV, The New Yorker, People Magazine, Vice and Bon Appetit come out on top for consumption.
Chris’ audience is 67% female, typically single and aged 25-34. English-speaking, his followers are typically based in the US, with Brazil, India, Italy and Mexico as other territories. Top cities include São Paulo, New York and LA. On basic demographics, Chris Evans and Jinx are rather well matched, particularly if the brand is hoping to reach a slightly younger customer base.
Diving into likes and interests, Film & TV rank highly, as well as music, dance, sport, college, poetry, Mexican food and spirituality. Pets is present, with 1.5% of the share, which is 1.3x the platform average, putting Chris Evan’s profile in the top 20% of all Instagram accounts for pets.
Looking at media consumption, Buzzfeed, BBC, CNN, 9GAG, New York Times, TIME Magazine, The New Yorker, GQ and Hugo Gloss dominate. Crucially, Jinx isn’t listed as one of Chris Evan’s follower’s main brand affinities. Instead, the likes of Marvel, Disney, NASA, Starbucks, Google, PlayStation and Sephora lead. That being said, no other pet food brand appears.
It is important to note that Chris Evans is one of a few celebrity investors in Jinx. However, he is still quite an organic brand ambassador, being known for his relationship with his dog. Overall, it’s a smart match for brand and talent that taps into authentic interests and with the addition of Evans as creative director for campaigns, it appears to be a more substantial collaboration than a simple awareness-based sponsorship.
November 2020 – Chris followed Alba.
16 November 2021 – Pooch loving celebs Trevor Noah, Chris Evans, NFL star Odell Beckham Jr. and CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz are among the latest high-profile investors in Jinx.
PageSix: Chris Evans and more A-listers invest in healthy dog food brand.
2022
9 March – Pet Age: Walmart Partnership Expands Distribution of Premium Dog Food Brand Jinx.
10 March – Pet Product News: Jinx Pet Food Now Available at Walmart.
21 May – People Mag: Chris Evans celebrates National Rescue Dog Day with adorable photo of himself and pet Dodger.
2 June – Buzzfeed announces Puppy interview.
18 June – Buzzfeed releases Puppy interview.
24 June – Alba’s first like in 2022 (iPhone post).
15 July – Laser focused interview.
16 July – Chris liked Alba’s MHGP post.
17 July – JustJared, Daily Mail and Buzzfeed report Chris Evans is laser focused on finding a partner (no mention of Alba).
18 July – People Mag: Chris Evans Says He's 'Laser-Focused on Finding a Partner' to Spend His Life With.
20 July – Chris’ Dating Poll by Buzzfeed.
27 July – Entertainment Tonight meet Chris Evans' 'Long-Term Partner': His Adorable Dog Dodger!
Forbes: Chris Evans Partners With Jinx Premium Dog Food.
Adweek: Chris is Future Jinx Ad Star.
CNN: Talking dog parenting with Chris Evans.
People: Chris Evans Says His Pet Dodger Is 'a Cut Above the Average Dog,' But Admits 'I'm Probably Biased'.
26 August – People Mag: Chris Evans Celebrates National Dog Day with Pup Dodger: 'In My House, Every Day.
27 August – E! news tweet: When Captain America found his perfect sidekick. ❤️ Happy #InternationalDogDay to Chris Evans & Dodger.
October – Alba deactivated her IG account.
6 October – People mag: the actor and his beloved rescue dog Dodger star in a new ad spot for dog food company Jinx.
11 October – Alba reactivated her account. Chris liked 2 WN posts.
7 November – SMA announcement on Monday's The Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
Chris Evans Is PEOPLE's 2022 Sexiest Man Alive.
Entertainment Tonight: Chris Evans Reacted to Getting 'People' Magazine's 2022 Sexiest Man Alive (editor Julie Jordan: “If he is dating someone he will talk about it or you will see him with the person”.
10 November – People: Chris Evans Is Dating Actress Alba Baptista: 'It's Serious,' Says Source — He's 'Never Been Happier'.
OK! Mag: Chris Evans & Actress Alba Baptista's Relationship Confirmed Months After Packing On The PDA At 'Super Affectionate' Date Night.
PageSix: Chris Evans and girlfriend Alba Baptista hold hands in first PDA photos.
12 November – Daily Mail: 'World's Sexiest Man' Chris Evans, 41, is seen holding hands with Alba Baptista, 25, for the FIRST time on a romantic stroll in Central Park.
E! News: Chris Evans & Alba Baptista Confirm Romance With PDA Stroll.
14 November – E! News tweet: The strongest bond in the universe (Dodger).
10 December – Alba deactivated her IG account.
2023
10 March – Alba reactivated her IG account.
18 April – Alba at Ghosted Premiere in NY.
26 April – People: Jinx to bring "The Dog Dream Box" to dog lovers nationwide.
28 April – Pet Food Processing: To celebrate Pet Month in May, Jinx launched a new limited-edition “The Dog Dream Box” collaboration with celebrity Chris Evans, brand ambassador at Jinx, and his dog Dodger.
J2 June – 40/29 News: 2023 Walmart Associates' Celebration.
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Hallmark - 2023 Year in Review
Hallmark Movies and Original Series - 2023 Year in Review
As the year is coming to a close here is a complete list the movies and original series that aired on the Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and Hallmark Movies Now.
104 movies aired across three Hallmark networks
3 original series aired on the Hallmark Channel
2 original series aired their first seasons
1 original series canceled
69 movies aired on the Hallmark Channel (not including the Love Club movies that aired on HMN first)
29 movies aired on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
6 movies aired on Hallmark Movies Now
June Weddings movie block returned
5 New Year New Movies films
4 Loveuary films
7 Spring Into Love films
4 June Weddings films
2 Christmas in July films
5 Summer Nights films
7 Fall Into Love films
31 Countdown to Christmas films
4 films aired outside themed movie blocks on the Hallmark Channel
11 mystery films aired on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
9 non mystery movies aired on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
9 Miracles of Christmas films
4 Mahogany films aired across 2 networks
2 DaySpring films aired
3 National Park movies aired
1 actor, Cameron Mathison, jumped ship & signed a contract with Great American Family
3 royal movies
1 reboot (Aurora Teagarden)
2 extended Christmas in Countdown movies (2022) aired on Hallmark Movies Now
Hallmark Channel Movies
The Dog Lover's Guide to Dating - January 1 (New Year New Movies)
The Wedding Veil Expectations - January 7 (New Year New Movies)
The Wedding Veil Inspiration - January 14 (New Year New Movies)
The Wedding Veil Journey - January 21 (New Year New Movies)
Love in Glacier National: A National Park Romance - January 28 (New Year New Movies)
Sweeter Than Chocolate - February 4 (Loveuary)
A Paris Proposal - February 11 (Loveuary)
Welcome to Valentine - February 18 (Loveuary)
Made for Each Other - February 25 (Loveuary)
Game of Love - March 11
A Winning Team - March 18
A Picture of Her - March 25 (Spring Into Love)
Love in the Maldives - April 1 (Spring Into Love)
The Professional Bridesmaid - April 8 (Spring Into Love)
The Wedding Cottage - April 15 (Spring Into Love)
A Pinch of Portugal - April 22 (Spring Into Love)
Hearts in the Game - April 29 (Spring Into Love)
When Love Springs - May 6 (Spring Into Love)
Dream Moms - May 13
Love in Zion National: A National Park Romance - May 20
Wedding Season - June 3 (June Weddings)
Love's Greek to Me - June 10 (June Weddings)
The Wedding Contract - June 17 (June Weddings)
Make Me a Match - June 24 (June Weddings)
A Royal Christmas Crush - July 8 (Christmas in July)
Take Me Back for Christmas - July 15 (Christmas in July)
Aloha Heart - July 29 (Summer Nights)
Making Waves - August 5 (Summer Nights)
A Safari Romance - August 12 (Summer Nights)
Never Too Late to Celebrate - August 19 (Summer Nights)
Napa Ever After - August 26 - (Summer Nights) (Mahogany Films)
Love in the Great Smoky Mountains: A National Park Romance - September 2 (Fall Into Love)
Fourth Down and Love - September 9 (Fall Into Love)
Notes of Autumn - September 16 (Fall Into Love)
Retreat to You - September 23 (Fall Into Love)
A Very Venice Romance - September 30 (Fall Into Love)
3 Bed, 2 Bath, 1 Ghost - October 7 (Fall Into You)
Field Day - October 14 (Fall Into You)
Checkin' It Twice - October 20 (Countdown to Christmas)
Where Are You, Christmas? - October 21 (Countdown to Christmas)
Under the Christmas Sky - October 22 (Countdown to Christmas)
Christmas by Design - October 27 (Countdown to Christmas)
Mystic Christmas - October 28 (Countdown to Christmas)
Joyeux Noel - October 29 (Countdown to Christmas)
Flipping for Christmas - November 3 (Countdown to Christmas)
Never Been Chris'd - November 4 (Countdown to Christmas)
The Santa Summit - November 5 (Countdown to Christmas)
Everything Christmas - November 10 (Countdown to Christmas)
Christmas Island - November 11 (Countdown to Christmas)
A Heidelberg Holiday - November 12 (Countdown to Christmas)
Navigating Christmas - November 17 (Countdown to Christmas)
A Merry Scottish Christmas - November 18 (Countdown to Christmas)
Holiday Hotline - November 19 (Countdown to Christmas)
Catch Me If You Claus - November 23 (Countdown to Christmas) (A Merry Thanksgiving Weekend)
Letters to Santa - November 24 (Countdown to Christmas) (A Merry Thanksgiving Weekend)
Holiday Road - November 24 (Countdown to Christmas) (A Merry Thanksgiving Weekend)
Christmas in Notting Hill - November 25 (Countdown to Christmas) (A Merry Thanksgiving Weekend)
Haul Out the Holly: Lit Up - November 25 (Countdown to Christmas) (A Merry Thanksgiving Weekend)
Our Christmas Mural - November 26 (Countdown to Christmas) (A Merry Thanksgiving Weekend)
A Biltmore Christmas - November 26 (Countdown to Christmas) (A Merry Thanksgiving Weekend)
My Norwegian Holiday - December 1 (Countdown to Christmas)
A Not So Royal Christmas - December 2 (Countdown to Christmas)
Christmas With a Kiss - December 3 (Countdown to Christmas) (Mahogany Films)
Magic in Mistletoe - December 8 (Countdown to Christmas)
Christmas on Cherry Lane - December 9 (Countdown to Christmas)
Round and Round - December 10 (Countdown to Christmas)
The Secret Gift of Christmas - December 15 (Countdown to Christmas)
Sealed with a List - December 16 (Countdown to Christmas)
Friends & Family Christmas - December 17 (Countdown to Christmas)
Hallmark Channel Original Series
The Way Home - January 1 thru March 26 (season 1, 10 episodes)
Ride - March 26 thru May 29 (season 1, 10 episodes)
When Calls the Heart - July 30 thru October 15 (season 10, 12 episodes)
Hallmark Movies & Mysteries
Family History Mysteries: Buried Part - January 8
Curious Caterer: Grilling Season - February 5
A Nashville Legacy - February 26 (Mahogany Films)
Unexpected Grace - March 12
The Cases of Mystery Lane - March 19
The Blessing Bracelet - April 9 (DaySpring Films)
Spring Breakthrough - April 30 (Mahogany Films)
The Jane Mysteries: Inheritance Lost - May 12
Carrot Cake Murder: A Hannah Swensen Mystery - May 19
The Dancing Detective: A Deadly Tango - June 2
Aurora Teagarden Mysteries: Something New - June 9
A Lifelong Love - July 21
Big Sky River: The Bridal Path - August 11
The More Love Grows - August 18
Guiding Emily - September 8
Come Fly with Me - September 15
Haunted Harmony Mysteries: Murder in G Major - September 22
Mystery Island - September 29
A Zest for Death: A Hannah Swensen Mystery - October 6
Curious Caterer: Fatal Vows - October 13
Ms Christmas Comes to Town - October 26 (Miracles of Christmas)
My Christmas Guide - November 2 (Miracles of Christmas)
Mystery on Mistletoe Lane - November 9 (Miracles of Christmas)
A World Record Christmas - November 16 (Miracles of Christmas)
A Season for Family - November 22 (Miracles of Christmas)
Time for Her to Cone Home for Christmas - November 30 (Miracles of Christmas)
To All a Good Night - December 7 (Miracles of Christmas)
Heaven Down Here - December 14 (Miracles of Christmas)
Miracle in Bethlehem, PA - December 21 (Miracles of Christmas) (DaySpring Films)
Hallmark Movies Now
The Love Club: Nicole's Pen Pal - February 2 (March 4 on HC)
The Love Club: Sydney's Journey - February 9 (May 27 on HC)
The Love Club: Lauren's Journey - February 16 (May 29 on HC)
The Love Club: Tara's Tune - February 23 (May 29 on HC)
Rescuing Christmas - December 7
An Ice Palace Romance - December 14
#hallmark history#hallmark movies#hallmark orgiinal series#mahogany#dayspring films#signature mysteries#hallmark channel#hallmark movies & mysteries#hallmark movies now
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2023 Round-Up: The Year In Music
With Wizkid’s EP, Soundman Vol. 2, arriving ten days to the close of the year, 2023 has delivered an experience that confers on it a special place in Nigerian music lore—an album by each member of our putative big 3. Timeless, Davido’s well crafted, much appreciated comeback piece arrived in March, while Burna Boy's seventh studio album, the sonically brilliant but thematically petulant I Told Them… debuted in August. It is the first time since 2020 that these three stars have aligned in a single year, but this convergence is only one in a long list of the truly significant events of Nigerian music in 2023.
The music scene this year has delivered the expected good, with underground artists breaking through barriers to emerge the year's most successful singers; the unexpected bad, in the mysterious death of the young, promising Mohbad; and the numerous ugly, best-forgotten events, like when artist Oladips appeared to fake his own death in promotion of his new album. To navigate through this topsy-turvy sea, here is our round-up of the biggest Nigerian music happenings in 2023.
Our 2022 edition of this round-up was expectedly dominated, much like the year was, by tales of the exploits of Asake, who was a mainstay in the year's music scene, successfully arresting the attention of an entire country with a series of hits, each a little more fiery than the last, until his debut album arrived to cement his place in Nigerian music. 2023 has seen him continue his run with no break in stride, as he released his sophomore album, Work Of Art in June, which spawned tracks like "Lonely At The Top" and "Amapiano" that ensured his name continued to ring out in the new year. At the same time, it was also a gathering of the harvest of last year's sedulous work. He received Headies Awards for Album Of The Year and Next Rated, a Trace Award for Best Anglophone artist, and a nomination for the inaugural Best Afrobeats song at the MTV VMAs. And with his song, "Amapiano" already receiving a nomination for the 2024 Grammy's new Best African Music Performance category, it remains to be seen if Asake can bring his dominance to a third consecutive year.
Elsewhere, other rising stars continued to follow the paths that were first charted years ago. Rema, long earmarked to be Afropop's future prince, took several large steps towards his throne in 2023. The most visible of these was securing a global hit, "Calm Down", which, with its Selena Gomez–assisted remix, was a fixture on UK and US charts, eventually peaking at number 3 on Billboard Hot 100 in September. For these exploits, accolades came in droves, from national platforms like The Headies and Soundcity, to African award organisations like AFRIMMA and Trace Awards, with his crowning moment coming at the MTV Video Music Awards, where he clinched the prize for Best Afrobeats song alongside Selena Gomez. Seyi Vibez, another artist who had made a standout showing of consistency last year, sustained his momentum in 2023 with two albums and two EPs released over the course of the year.
As these stars ascended the next stages of their respective careers, 2023 provided a new set of upcoming acts writing the first chapters of their mainstream stories. Two of them, Odumodublvck and Shallipopi, spent the year dividing opinions for the sounds and themes of their music, but what is surely beyond argument is how much progress they made in 2023, propelling themselves to clinch the headlines this year, for good and bad. Odumodublvck released Eziokwu and its deluxe, that held fan favourites like Dog Eat Dog and Declan Rice side by side with new entries like "Blood On The Dance Floor" and "Kubolor", ensuring he remained in circulation on radio channels for most of the year. Shallipopi's debut EP, Planet Pluto and album, Presido La Pluto also debuted to strong reactions.
And 2023 was a year that would bring the spotlight to emerging female acts as well, which merits acknowledgement in Nigeria’s male-dominated music industry. Qing Madi's "Ole" featured Bnxn, and was propelled by its combination of brilliant storytelling, exquisite delivery and smart collaboration to a spot in the top 20 of the Turntable top 100. She quickly built on this with her eponymous debut EP, which included other tracks like "Vision" and "American Love" that are providing her with.
Bloody Civilian is another female act whose career has been driven thus far by a combination of talent and an eye for ingenious collaboration. It was how she made her entry on the most auspicious of stages, singing opposite Rema on "Wake Up", a track off the Black Panther: Wakanda Forever album. If that debut flew under the radar for most Nigerians, then her feature on "Blood On The Dance Floor", providing a piquant variation to Odumodublvck and Wale's rugged sensibilities, did not. In 2023, she released first her debut EP, Anger Management in June, before its sequel arrived in November, this time sporting remixes from the original that featured stars like Joeboy, Odumodublvck, Fave and more. For female acts higher placed in the ladder of Nigerian music—Tems, Ayra Starr and Tiwa Savage, and Fave—it was a relatively quiet year, so we can expect a lot more in 2024, especially from Tems, who has already released two singles in anticipation of her debut album.
A dark cloud was cast over the musically prolific year with the passing of Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Aloba, AKA Mohbad, best known for tracks like "Feel Good" and "Ask About Me", under circumstances that are yet to be fully understood. Whilst the initial outrage over his maltreatment at the hands of Marlian Music, his record label, has now waned, Nigerian music lovers still carry in their hearts the memory of an artist whose music brought peace to millions, even as it seemingly eluded the singer himself.
As Nigerians struggled, and still do, to accept his untimely death, a few other singers took to the studio to pay him proper homage. Bella Shmurda released "My Brother" in his late friend's honour. Chiké and Zoro released their cross-country collaborations with the artist, titled "M.A.D." and "Egwu" respectively. The latter took his tribute a step further, pledging the proceeds from the song to Mohbad's family, a wholesome gesture similar to that made by fast-rising singer Khaid when he released his own tribute to Mohbad, "Forever".
2023 was also a year for big albums by big artists. Already counting the projects by Davido (Timeless), Burna Boy (I Told Them…) and Wizkid (Soundman Vol. 2), other Nigerian music veterans glided the year with full length projects, including Wande Coal (Legend Or No Legend), Olamide (Unruly), Adekunle Gold (Tequila Ever After) and Kizz Daniel (Maverick). Also sustaining Nigeria's relatively new album culture were the younger stars, who logged in albums like Ru The World (Ruger), Boy Alone Deluxe (Omah Lay), Emeka Must Shine (Blaqbonez) and Tears Of The Sun (Teni, making a long awaited return)
In all, a lot of indicators from 2023 suggest Nigerian music's global flight will not be ending anytime soon—with global music platforms like The Grammys and MTV carving out categories for Afrobeats, and Wizkid and Burna Boy bolstering their UK profiles with performances in Tottenham Hotspur and London stadiums respectively. In sound, Nigerian music gained more depth and diversity, with artists like Odumodublvck, Zlatan, Blaqbonez Jeriq and Kcee helping to incorporate Igbo culture, and especially its iconic Oja flute, into mainstream music. With so many young talents making their entrances, and a host of seasoned veterans showing no signs of slowing down, 2024 promises to be an even more enjoyable experience for lovers of Nigerian music.
This article was written by Afrobeats City Contributor Ezema Patrick - @ezemapatrick (Twitter)
Afrobeats City doesn’t own the right to the images
#afrobeats#Afrobeatscity#African music#2023 wrapped#nigeria#odumodublvck#Rema#wizkid#burna boy#Afrobeats UK#Afrobeats london
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A great deal of praise has been heaped on Europe and the United States for their sustained and determined response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with much of the congratulatory talk centered on the damage being done to Russia. Kyiv’s Western allies have provided the fledgling Ukrainian military with Javelin and Stinger missiles, rocket artillery, and, most recently, modern tanks. Yet, until Feb. 24, 2022, the United States made little effort to deter Russia, despite ample evidence that it intended to invade.
From President George W. Bush’s tepid response to the 2008 invasion of Georgia to the Biden administration’s antebellum halfhearted gestures of support for Ukraine, U.S. policies left the perception that the United States was not willing to make a renewed assault painful for Russia. The result was yet another war and a tremendously costly one at that.
It is often difficult to determine when deterrence works because, almost by definition, it is the proverbial dog that does not bark. Absent being in the room when leaders remark that they are not carrying out an action due to a threat, it is difficult to assign the cause to deterrence.
When it comes to war, realist scholars such as John Mearsheimer have noted that for deterrence to succeed, the state seeking war should perceive that the chances of success would be low and the costs high. Part of altering a state’s calculus is simple numbers: how many tanks, missiles, aircraft, and other weapons the defending state possesses. In his seminal work Arms and Influence, Thomas Schelling artfully puts it, “The power to hurt is bargaining power.”
This created the central failure of U.S. policy. Refusing to send sophisticated weapons to Ukraine failed to signal to Russian leaders that an invasion of Ukraine would hurt—and potentially even fail.
In the run-up to the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin thought that his forces would march into Kyiv in a matter of days with few losses. After all, the international community did little when he annexed Crimea in 2014. Washington’s muted reaction to previous Russian provocations signaled an unwillingness to incur any costs to prevent Russia from doing what it wanted. U.S. intransigence toward providing lethal aid seemed to confirm that Ukraine lacked the capacity to resist, further reinforcing the Russian belief that the invasion would likely be easy and quick. The recent war in Ukraine is, therefore, a direct result of the West’s lack of resolve and failure to credibly deter Russia. Moscow thought it could get away with murder—as it had in the past.
Recall the aftermath of the 2008 invasion of Georgia. The Bush administration airlifted Georgian soldiers serving in Iraq back to Georgia to fight, provided a humanitarian aid package, and offered tersely worded denouncements and demarches. But it categorically rejected providing Georgia with serious military assistance in the form of anti-tank missiles and air defense missiles and even refrained from implementing punishing economic sanctions against Russia. The United States’ lack of resolve to punish Russia for its gross violation of international law was underscored when U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley’s remark “Are we prepared to go to war with Russia over Georgia?”—made during a National Security Council meeting after the war started—was later released to the media.
When the Obama administration took office, his team sought to reset relations with Russia. In short order, the United States abandoned Bush administration plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe, canceled sanctions against Russian arms sector, and reduced the U.S. presence in Europe. By 2013, there were no U.S. tanks on German soil, a historic end to a deterrent force that had been in place for nearly seven decades. U.S. Army troops across Europe shrunk to a historic low of 30,000, just one-tenth of the commitment during the Cold War.
The United States did little to prevent or respond to the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Rejecting calls from within the administration and a bipartisan coalition in Congress, the Obama White House outright refused to provide any form of lethal aid to embattled Ukrainian defenders.
President Barack Obama, encouraged by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was worried that providing even defensive weapons could result in an uncontrollable escalation. Ukraine also suffered from significant corruption, and there was fear that the weapons might fall into the wrong hands—a consideration that hadn’t come into play in far more corrupt states like Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result, Ukrainian pleas for Javelin anti-tank missiles, Apache attack helicopters, and other weapons were ignored. Instead, the administration rapidly provided $120 million in security assistance and another $75 million in military equipment such as night vision goggles, medical supplies, Humvees, and unarmed unmanned aerial systems. During Obama’s tenure, total military assistance amounted to $600 million—but never included weapons.
For its primary response to the 2014 invasion, the administration banked on punishing sanctions to alter Russian behavior. These amounted to travel bans levied on senior Russian political, military, and economic leaders; frozen assets; and economic restrictions. Key business leaders and cronies of Putin were targeted, and entire industries were banned from doing business with the United States. Many allies followed suit.
Such actions were seen as “smart sanctions” that focused, like precision-guided munitions, on hitting critical industries or individuals involved in the conduct of the war. The hope was to minimize the damage to common Russians. But without making the public pay a price for war, the economic pain was inherently limited. Russia simply devalued the ruble and cashed out the reserves it had built up in its central bank from a decade of high energy prices to weather the sanctions-induced recession—a cost it felt worth paying in return for the seizure of Crimea.
The shootdown of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July 2014 by Russian-controlled separatists was also met with a muted response from Washington. The U.S. response was limited to assisting the investigation and calling on Russia to end the war against Ukraine. While some additional sanctions were levied against Russia, particularly by Europe, the attack actually served to harden Obama’s resolve against providing weapons to Ukraine, reflecting his worries about further escalation.
Instead, to improve deterrence against Russia, the administration pushed for NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence. The new defense posture consisted of four multinational battalion-sized units deployed to areas—the Baltic states and Poland—most likely to be attacked. However, these measures were meant to deter Russian aggression only against NATO states and had no bearing on the danger of future conflict in Ukraine.
Next, the Obama administration established the Joint Multinational Training Group-Ukraine in 2015 with the mission of training, equipping, training center development, and doctrinal assistance to the Ukrainian armed forces. The group included hundreds of trainers from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Lithuania. Notably, U.S. trainers were limited to providing only “nonlethal training” to the Ukrainians, producing a muddled and incoherent set of rules. For example, U.S. trainers could train Ukrainians on small unit tactics that involved “shooting, moving, and communicating” but were prohibited from teaching sniper skills because these were considered “lethal.” That lack of commitment signaled, yet again, that the United States was not willing to give Ukraine the training or firepower it would need to repel Russia.
The Trump administration aimed to make a clean break with its predecessor and demonstrate strength. But in reality, President Donald Trump’s approach differed little from the previous two administrations. He reversed the prohibition on providing lethal aid to Ukraine and agreed to ship the much-desired Javelin missiles. Still, only 210 were delivered along with a paltry 37 launchers. More importantly, they were banned from being used in combat and instead were required to be locked up in a storage facility to serve as a “strategic deterrent.”
The amount of security assistance saw similar cosmetic changes, with a modest bump up to $350 million in the administration’s first year. But those unexceptional annual increases came with caveats and considerable drama. In 2019, when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Trump for more Javelins, he demurred and blocked the delivery of nearly $400 million in assistance unless Zelensky agreed to investigate former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden—his opponent in the 2020 election—and his son. Trump held up the assistance for 55 days, only releasing it when his actions became public, eventually leading to Trump’s first impeachment.
Even though Trump begrudgingly allowed the Javelins and more aid, his administration was unwilling to send a general officer to serve as the senior defense official in Ukraine. The Obama administration had appointed retired Gen. John Abizaid to be the senior defense advisor to Ukraine, but he was only a part-time consultant and no longer on active duty. Abizaid supported assigning an active-duty general to Ukraine to coordinate the U.S. effort and made this known to U.S. European Command and the Defense Department. The response was that the U.S. military did not have a general it could dedicate to the mission.
Previously, when the priority was great enough, the U.S. miliary has assigned generals or admirals to serve in the U.S. embassies in Israel, the U.K., Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq—yet could not spare even one of its 620 generals or admirals for Ukraine.
Further weakening the U.S. deterrent posture, Trump began questioning the United States’ commitment to NATO and even declined to affirm NATO’s Article 5, its most important mutual defense clause. Worse, in 2018, Trump employed heavy-handed tactics more suited for a transactional relationship than an alliance, explicitly threatening member states that he would not come to their aid in the event of a Russian attack unless they paid up. Trump described NATO as “obsolete” and, like a 1940s union boss, harshly decried its European members for not paying their dues.
By some accounts, Trump was even considering the nuclear option: leaving NATO altogether. The message to Russia from such fratricidal melees was clear: If the United States would not protect fellow NATO states that it was treaty-bound to defend, then the United States would definitely not defend a non-NATO country in Russia’s backyard.
The poor signaling only continued with the Biden administration. Even as it became clearer that Russia was considering an attack, the United States drastically limited the supply of weapons that it provided to Ukraine. In November 2021, U.S. officials snubbed Ukrainian requests for shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles—a purely defensive weapon.
Then, in December, barely two months before the invasion, the White House hesitated approving a package of “lethal and nonlethal assistance” that included Javelins, counter-artillery radars, sniper rifles, small arms, and other equipment because it worried that the assistance would be “too provocative to Russia.”
Only when it became clear that the invasion was imminent did the United States provide a modicum of uptick in aid, consisting of a limited number of Javelin and Stinger missiles, with the latter coming from U.S. allies as opposed to from the United States itself. Useful as those proved, they did not alter Russia’s cost-benefit analysis. And with little talk of additional aid, this was a clear signal to Russia that the United States’ commitment would hardly be different from what it was in 2014.
Most of all, the United States seemed to be convinced, as Moscow was, that Ukrainian resistance would rapidly crumble in the face of a Russian assault. Given the United States’ paltry efforts to build Ukraine’s military into one that could credibly deter Russia, it should not be surprising that both nations made this miscalculation. On Feb. 14, 2022, just prior to the invasion, the United States sent another important signal that further communicated a lack of commitment to Ukraine and a resignation that the war was already lost: It announced it was closing its embassy in Kyiv. By comparison, the United States refused to close its embassy in Paris even as Nazi Germany threatened France and maintained an embassy in Vichy after the surrender and occupation. The closure of the Kyiv embassy echoed moves by the U.S. military to withdraw the vast majority of military advisors days earlier.
Both actions conveyed clearly that the United States had little stake in Ukraine and was not willing to risk American lives. In many ways, it gave a green light for the Russian assault that Moscow anticipated to be a fait accompli repeat of Crimea. To the Ukrainians, it sent the message that instead of fighting, they should pursue a diplomatic solution as they had done, unsuccessfully, for Crimea in 2014.
In the final weeks before the invasion, there was some debate in Washington as to whether to impose withering sanctions in an attempt to deter Russia or afterward as a punishment and future deterrent. But Russia had already amassed more than 100,000 troops at Ukraine’s border, a momentous strategic move that bore considerable costs. Barring a significant deterrent act by the United States and its allies, the die had already been cast. Sanctions could possibly have inflicted enough of a cost to deter the invasion, but one of Russia’s key lessons from 2014 was that it could weather any new measures that the United States and its allies were likely to implement.
When the invasion came, U.S. actions spoke louder than words. Officials in the Biden administration believed that Ukraine could not win and that Kyiv would fall within days. The United States even offered to evacuate Zelensky, to which he famously replied, “I need ammunition, not a ride.” Publicly communicating an expectation that the invasion would be over quickly only undermined deterrence by signaling the cost would be minimal to Russia. It was only after Ukraine demonstrated capability and resolve that significant military assistance began flowing and punishing sanctions were enacted—actions that, ironically, might have deterred Russia in the first place.
The sad irony is that U.S. leaders, of both parties, chose to avoid deterrence for fear of escalating conflict—only to find themselves continually escalating their support once conflict started. Time after time, the United States chose the option that was perceived as the least provocative but that instead led to the Russians becoming convinced that they were safe to carry out the most provocative action of all: a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The United States ignored the eternal wisdom of the Latin phrase Si vis pacem, para bellum (“If you want peace, prepare for war”) and instead hoped that half-steps and compromise would suffice. While so far those decisions have prevented direct conflict between two nuclear-armed superpowers, they have caused Russia and the West to be locked in a continuing series of escalations with an increasing danger of a miscalculation that could lead to exactly that scenario.
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Isekai Quartet Reacts ch6
An: I'm using the OVAs for Subtitles of the songs only, because I believe they are non-canon. That and because I don't find the first one funny. If you haven't read the first interlude before this, go back and read it. Also just finished the isekai quartet movie as my new year's celebration (Dec 31 of 2022). And Re zero’s timeline just got a whole lot more complicated. Because they now have season 2 development/powers, and at the end both Otto and Garfiel join the school.
THAT’s excluding the only semi-cannon of Alec Hoshin (Re zero) appearance who made the nation where Anatasia came from and is her namesake. AND the only appearance of Glittering Angel Neko Nyan-san (Overlord) who is the Wind God of the Slane Theocracy. Because his hair is blue and blue is associated with wind in Marumya’s mind. AND Alec dropped even more fuel for the Subaru=Flugel/Emilia=Satella/Repeating World Cycle ala Hinduism Theories.
BECAUSE OF FUCKING COURSE HE DID! WHY CAN’T SUBARU AND EMILIA JUST BE THEMSELVES WITHOUT ALSO BEING A CHARACTER FROM PRE-CALAMITY! …or maybe Tappei is an extreme Legend of Zelda fanboy. But hey, we get solid confidence and character building from Ainz. So everything is a net positive. Overall, I enjoyed it more than Avatar: Way of Water. Also if anyone is decent at buddhism or zen buddhism, plz respond.
>.> don’t know if I’ll go back to rewrite but. I’ve decided that Cocytus lying down is too demeaning to him, so he’s now in an indented seat in the ground, with the floor reaching his chest.
Got a job on March 27 2023, so I now do eight hour work shifts for 3 days of the week. In the meantime, my other fic Isekai Heroes has become the longest running IQ fic clocking in over 10 chapters. I also completed all 22 volumes of Shield Hero for that story, and read more of the Overlord LNs for that. Currently I am in the process of reading the entirety of Overpowered Hero. …finished Overpowered, and wow it got very “Tonight’s Episode: The Author’s Barely Disguised (Public Humiliation) Fetish.”
Also Seiya is not a planet buster like Vegeta. When placed into a distorted world (thanks Goddess of Atrocity) that (he thought) had absolutely no impact on the true world of Geaebrande, he didn’t blow up the planet. So, (so far at least) all mentions of blowing planets up are hyperbole. Like Reinhard cutting/destroying the world and then recreating it as a side effect of Killing the Beast of the End.
As a side effect of having to constantly pause/I watched and rewatched this anime too many times thus none of the jokes are landing and I don’t know where I should have the characters be laughing.
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A series of irrigated grain paddies was shown. Frogs/another farm ambiance animal made their noises. Another bit of farmland was shown near what was presumably Kazuma’s house. A blurry computer screen was shown before Kazuma raised his hand and tugged on his sleeve.
“There we go…” Kazuma said.
The camera zoomed out to look down at Kazuma and his room. Many books/mangas were shown via their spine art from behind Kazuma and his dual monitor computer.
“I normally shut myself in at home, but unusually for me, today I made up my mind to go out.” Kazuma thought while more of his room was shown.
A closer perspective showed that there were game cases mixed in with the presumed manga. In addition next to his computer were two slimes from Dragon Quest, a magical girl, an anthro cat, a dog wearing sunglasses that might have been female judging by the placement of the flower on its head. An anthro pig next to a shank of meat.
“Why do you have those blue slimes?” Seiya asked. “Only Gaebrande has them.”
Kazuma turned to look him in the eye. “How did you miss the genre defining masterpieces known as Dragon Quest? They basically made a lot of the conventions of the Japanese RPG game.”
“That’s what I said!” Ristarte threw up her arms.
Seiya rubbed his nose. “What you said was [Ah, there’s still a Japanese person who doesn’t know what a slime is.], you didn’t name drop anything.”
“So you have heard of Dragon Quest?!” Ristarte twitched her head. “Then how did you not see the slimes, they are basically the poster figures of the Dragon Quest Franchise!”
The chat log scrolled by, unfortunately untranslated. Kazuma zipped up his tracksuit. Kazuma nodded to himself, picked up his backpack, and walked out of his bedroom.
“All to get my hands on the first-run limited edition-” Kazuma closed his door and the scenery changed to a bridge over a small valley. “Of a popular online game that goes on sale today.”
Time passed as we faded from back and to a faucet above a pond or puddle with tadpoles in it. A bus passed to reveal a happy Kazuma clutching the aforementioned game’s cover.
“A five hour round trip! I’m glad I was able to buy it.” Kazuma said.
I believe the main theme music is played with piano notes.
“In store exclusives, officials or not, really are playing dirty.” Kazuma commented, slightly glaring at the game he just brought.
Kazuma squinted as the sun blared its presence to all within its gravity well. “This sunlight is my worst enemy after three straight all-nighters.” Kazuma thought while using his hand to block the sun.
“Are you sure you got the right game? Because you should already be hallucinating by then.” Tanya asked.
“How the hell did your body not cave in at the first excuse for sleep like mine did?” Subaru asked.
“Considering there was a massive line, yes I am sure I got the correct game. The hallucination, you’ll see later. Regarding the sleep thing, sports drinks.” Kazuma answered.
Kazuma turned his back on the sunlight and staggered his way home. A highschool girl was walking towards Kazuma and a Truck was gaining ground.
“Time to get home and play the hell out of this.” Kazuma thought.
The girl was happily walking by looking at her cream-covered smartphone. Kazuma walked past her and moved his eyes to glance back at her.
“A girl from my highschool?” Kazuma asked himself.
“High school?” Raphtalia asked.
“Because of the sheer amount of stuff discovered in the Renaissance and Industrial Eras, we’ve had to group education into various age groups.” Naofumi said. “For Japan schooling starts as young as three years old in the Preschool, where the basic Hiragana script and other basic essentials are taught. From preschool we start with the compulsory and government paid public schools. Unless you are rich enough to afford a private school.
In elementary schools we learn a decent chunk of our knowledge considering it starts when we are 6 years old and goes on for 6 years. Though because it only reaches the titular elementary stuff not many organizations fund elementary level schooling and the government pays for over 90% of them. Then there is the final compulsory school for 3 years called the Junior High School. These are noteworthy because they have even fewer private schools than elementary schools and the fact that all of them require their own uniforms.
High Schools however require exams to enter and tuition for the three years that you are there. But do their best to apply the finishing touches to your education and prepare you to enter college where you can study to become lawyers or merchants and other ‘high society’ type positions.”
Emilia giggled. “That’s what I feel like my current education is.”
“Why do you think I am such a nagger at taking breaks, hm?” Subaru asked, left eyebrow raised.
Emilia bowed to his wisdom.
“The government paid for most of that education?!” Satoru said in his mind. “Perhaps mom wouldn’t have died if the government or corps paid for that.”
Kazuma and the music halted as he saw something offscreen. In the midst of the glaring sunlight, Kazuma saw Truck-Kun barreling through the fields directly towards the highschool girl.
“Look out! That truck’s going to-” Kazuma shouted as he pushed the girl out of the way.
Though Truck-Kun’s true form as a tractor did pass the screen as the camera rapidly filtered between all three members of this accident.
The more prospective members of the theater noticed the change.
“Oh good, he didn’t actually get reaped by Truck-kun.” Tanya thought.
“Why did the trophy for killing over ten thousand human players appear here?” Ainz thought.
Kazuma’s backpack leapt off his back, spilling the game he so desperately wanted. Leaving Kazuma, the girl, and his items hanging in the air in the supposed headlights. The cloudy blue sky was shown.
“Why would I choose now, of all times, to do something so out of character?” Kazuma asked himself.
The game case flipped open dramatically, spilling its contents. A dark purple/brown haired knight figurine, the manual, and the actual CD case all shown in the sunlight. The box had the title of Mrtiad or Myriad (with a sword replacing the r?) Swords II. The CD case fell down to reveal the figurine knight in the front. To the left was a blond haired person wearing a black blindfold and steel-gray armor. To the right was a blond woman wearing golden bikini armor. And behind them all was the stereotypical Old Man Detity.
DVD static played as it faded to white. More DVD screen tearing/static played as Kazuma jerked back into awareness. He was sitting on a red-cushioned chair which was on a very soft/low saturation chess board. Gray mist hung close to the ground, and faint spots of light were shown. Across from Kazuma was a white chair with a white nightstand next to it and a red book upon the night stand.
“Wait, this means that I, a literal skeleton-appearing undead, am the only one out of the main Protags to die?!” Satoru screamed in his mind.
Heels clicked as Aqua walked on screen. Stylishly showing off her sex appeal, though in the most modest way Konosuba will ever be.
“Satou Kazuma-san.” Aqua said elegantly as she walked past Kazuma. “Welcome to the afterlife.”
Megumin and Darkness just sat there resisting the sway of Aqua’s voice.
“That hair ornament, it's the molecular structure of water right?” Satoru questioned.
Those who knew what a molecular structure was twitched and looked at Aqua better.
Aqua merely had an insanely smug grin on her face. “The others I can understand, but you Kazuma? How you could miss the obvious for so long and you call me an idiot!”
Kazuma blushed heavily.
Those unaware of molecules deduced that it was the smallest instance of Water possible.
“Water is associated with purity and life, among other things. So she’ll definitely be the most troublesome of our fellow schoolmates, regardless of her personality.” Demiurge and Albedo thought. “Though I doubt she would be so foolish as to break a non aggression treaty that she offered. Through the wisdom of the Supreme Beings, we should have enough Water Breathing Rings to counteract any drowning attempts. …assuming her water doesn’t behave like acid to the undead and unholy, especially not Lord Herohero grade.”
“I doubt our ‘Divine’ Level equipment will hold up against an actual Goddess.” Satoru thought.
Mare frowned. “Would most of my spells have even worked on her? Petite Disaster will have worked anyways but that costs so much mana, and if that doesn’t work then I am useless damage wise.”
“Will her body fluids have the Holy aspect to them?” Shalltear thought.
“Please don’t be as insane as the other three Heroes.” the Shield Cast pleaded.
“So that's why her ‘complaint’ was about water.” The Re zero cast thought.
“Unfortunately, you passed away moments ago.” Aqua continued.
A lens flare-heavy blue cube rotated in place behind the nightstand as Aqua sat down. The camera looked at Kazuma from above Aqua’s head.
“Your life was a short one, but you are, in fact, dead.” Aqua said.
Aqua had her best 'Customer Service’ Smile applied.
“Just one question…” Kazuma started. “What about the girl I pushed out of harm's way?”
“She’s alive.” Aqua said.
Kazuma breathed a sigh of relief and placed a hand against himself. “Thank goodness.”
Kazuma’s eyes glittered in tears of relief. “That means my death wasn’t in vain.”
Aqua tilted her head in confusion, either hearing Kazuma’s thoughts or guessing from her knowledge of humans. Aqua’s legs were shown as she uncrossed them, the pussy flash/pantyshot never manifesting.
“Actually, she never would have gotten hurt,” Aqua said. “Even if you had never pushed her out of the way.” The soft angelic choir stopped.
Kazuma jerked his head upwards to look at Aqua, the music cut as well. “Huh?”
Aqua opened the red book and read. “That tractor was going to stop before it hit her.”
Kazuma leaned forward. “Huh? Wait a second.”
Emilia frowned. “Does no good deed go unpunished in this theater?” Emilia shook her head. “Don’t be so pessimistic, just because she didn’t need saving doesn’t invalidate the feelings behind Kazuma’s actions. …like I did with Subaru.”
Aqua curled into her recliner, cringing at what she did. Kazuma leaned over and fiddled with her hair, providing slight comfort for the both of them.
“She let out her actual personality and that’s why Kazuma took her down to my world, didn’t she?” Darkness and Megumin thought.
Aqua leaned closer, “What is it?”
Kazuma’s eyes vibrated as he struggled to comprehend. “[Tractor]?”
A loud rumble like Truck-kun going on an overpass played as a fade to white showed the scene that actually happened. A white and beige truck’s cargo trailer was shown in the distance. An old man in a wide brimmed khaki colored hat in gray and brown clothes, slowly driving his tractor. The girl blissfully on her phone, confident that the old man knew what he was doing.
“Yes, it was a tractor.” Aqua narrated.
Another flash showed the old man and girl waving at each other.
Kazuma leaned even farther forward. “Huh? Then what happened? Did I die by getting plowed over by a tractor?”
“No, you died of shock.” Aqua explained.
“How did you die from surprise, when medical shock is just a faulty blood flow.” Tanya thought.
A camera shutter sound effect played as Kazuma was shown on the pavement. His eyes blank, mouth wide and drooling, arms flailed in imagined pain.
“You mistakenly thought a truck ran over you.” Aqua narrated.
Kazuma jerked back, impacting his chair. “I died of shock?!”
Aqua held a hand up to her lips as she held in her first laugh. She collapsed back into her chair, hands futilely gesturing Kazuma to stop. Only to give in and let out a belly-clenching laugh. A massive pure hearted grin on her face and her knees bouncing from the force of her laughter.
“Yep, there’s the Aqua we know.” Darkness and Megumin said, hanging their heads.
Ristarte let out a deep sigh. “Are Satoru and I the only good-hearted divinities in this room?”
Aqua curled tighter into her ball of shame, shuffling herself to avoid Naofumi’s glare.
“Her humbling has yet to take hold of her, perhaps we could have served that role.” Albedo and Demiurge thought.
“Ah, false gods.” the military records, save Tanya thought.
“Right, going to practice my anti-’divine’ techniques on her, then Weaver.” Tanya thought.
Kazuma's eyes almost rivaled his corpse’s eyes in how much they were dead inside and utterly appalled at Aqua.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Aqua wiped away a tear of pure joy. “But you’re the first human to ever die in such a bizarre way.”
“Because it’s a physical impossibility.” Tanya said. “Medical Shock refers to blood not reaching vital organs. And while sleep deprivation is rarely fatal, the fatalities don’t manifest as that. 24 hours without sleep makes your hand eye coordination worse, impaired judgment and decision making, altered perception, and just because nature is a cruel mistress, tremors/spasms in your limbs!” Tanya glared at Kazuma. “So, by staying up that long, you actively got worse at the thing you were trying to do.”
“Oi, it seemed like it was a good idea at the time!” Kazuma defended his past self.
Ristarte frowned, remembering some stories of the medical field. “Yeah that's what they always say on why there is an eel or glass bottle up their ass.”
A beat that sounded like cards being shuffled played. Aqua bent over her armrest, closer to the red book and laughed into her hand some more.
“I’ve never even met this girl before. What’s her deal?” Kazuma the neet blissfully unaware of Customer Service Jobs.
Kazuma hunched into himself out of sheer anger.
The old man, his presumed wife, and several police looking EMTs were looking at Kazuma’s passed out figure. His wet spot in the center of the camera’s view.
“You were so terrified that you’d be run over, you wet yourself.” Aqua explained through further laughter.
The hospital was shown with Kazuma’s ambulance in the drop off zone.
“You passed out and were taken to a nearby hospital,” Aqua said.
Four heads were barely visible through the fifth overhead light. The doctor in the upper left had a hand in front of their face, eyes closed like they were coughing. The nurse in the bottom left was doing the same at a different angle. The doctor in the bottom right was adjusting their glasses. The nurse in the upper right was the only one showing proper human compassion as demanded by their profession.
“And the doctors and nurses laughed at you as you had a heart attack-” Aqua said.
“You could have just said heart attack and medical malpractice.” Satoru suggested, rubbing his temples.
“And medical shock would just be a symptom of the heart attack, I suppose.” Beatrice said, also rubbing her temples.
Kazuma leaned fully back in his chair, covering his ears and futilely trying to kick away the bad news. “Stop! I don’t wanna hear it!”
Aqua got up and walked over as Kazuma repeated himself as futilely tried to shake the words out of his head. Aqua’s face slid next to Kazuma’s, hand held up to provide a conspiratorial shield. “Your family just rushed to the hospital, and now even they’re laughing out loud at the cause of death.”
“Oi.” Puck, the resident bad father, proclaimed his displeasure.
Megumin and Darkness, both being an older sister/cousin, frowned. Aqua curled even deeper into her ball of shame. Naofumi snapped his glare towards the screen.
“The hell!” Naofumi thought.
“Oi.” Albedo, the resident bad mother, proclaimed her displeasure. “Leave stuff for me to do.”
Ainz, the parent with no disciplinary bone in his body, merely breathed a deep sigh of disappointment into his hands. “This right here is what I am trying to avoid with my tomb.”
The rest of the room merely sat in disgusted silence.
Kazuma became a bobblehead out of sheer not wanting to know. “Stop! Stop!”
“Well…” Aqua flicked her hair and her Hagamoro dissolved into bubbles. “I’ve vented enough stress for now.”
Kazuma made a teary eyed angry face. “Damn her!”
The music started tinkling and the soft choir resumed.
“My name is Aqua.” the goddess finally introduced herself. “I’m a goddess who guides humans who die young to the afterlife.”
Kazuma attentively listened but was still marred by her asshole tendencies.
“You have two choices.” Aqua explained. “You can start from square one with a new life, or you can go to heaven and carry on like an old man.” Aqua’s boobs bounced as she bent over and raised her conspiratorial hand shield once more. “To tell you the truth, Heaven isn’t the dreamy place you all imagine it to be.” She said shyly looking around like she would be punished for speaking out.
“Huh?” Kazuma asked around Aqua’s pantyless booty.
“Not only is there no TV, there are no manga or games, either.” Aqua explained. “You don’t even have a physical body,” the camera left the booty shot to focus on Aqua’s mouth. “So you can’t do anything sexual, either.”
Kazuma, being a sexual person, had his face scarred with shock and disappointment, maybe even a hint of despair. The camera also felt despair and reverted to the previous booty angle.
“There’s nothing to do there but bask in the sun for all of eternity.” Aqua explained.
“What?” Kazuma voiced his displeasure.
Aqua got up in Kazuma’s face and did a miniature nod. “Yeah, you don’t want to go to a boring place like Heaven, do you?”
Kazuma, having fully converted into a neet and having his personal space breached, looked away and blushed. “Uh, right…”
Aqua got even closer to Kazuma’s face, providing ship fuel. “On the other hand, starting over from square one isn’t so fun, either.” Now their noses were roughly a centimeter apart. “On that note, I’ve got a great offer for you.” Aqua leaned back slightly, “You like games, don’t you?”
“Huh?” The sheer confusing mess that was Aqua made Kazuma forget about the Isekai Craze.
Aqua stood up to her full height, placed a hand over her heart, and stretched out her other arm to the max. Dramatic/talk show piano music played.
“That world, which has long enjoyed peace,” Kazuma raised an eyebrow at Aqua’s display.
Megumin and Darkness snorted.
“That was true roughly 700 years ago.” Megumin explained to the room. “Before our current Demon King was born and gained access to the Demon King Class.”
“Ah, so not a single terrible dynasty.” Zettour said, sighing as he comprehended the problem.
Megumin nodded. “Indeed the previous dynasty was founded by a fallen hero, so it's not even limited to the infernal races.”
The others winced as containment before neutralization just got harder.
“Would Flugel’s bones be able to contain the class, like they could for the Sloth Authority?” Beatrice thought to herself. “Or another world’s Flugel?”
“And why hasn’t that world experienced an industrial revolution and thus have easy access to an equalizer such as guns?” Ristarte smiled with sharp edges. “It's not because of your Heaven suppressing the knowledge needed for that, is it?”
Aqua turned to her with a supremely offended face. “The Mobile Fortress Destroyer pushed back the tech level. So there was an era of post industrialization, but sadly the Destroyer is one of, if not the only, piece of tech that still exists from that era.”
“So yes, you did by proxy.” the rest of the room thought.
“Wouldn’t there be a non-magical damage limit?” Shalltear asked, finger on her chin.
Shalltear’s lamprey form was shown riddled with arrows and various other weaponry, but was undamaged.“Oh, fuck you!” Visha said. “Why do you follow that logic?”
“Do it yourself, you coward.” Shalltear smugly replied while looking into Visha’s eyes.
“Eh, the Demon King does have a version of that, but it's weaker and we don’t have a convenient way of mass producing explosives.” Darkness said looking down to her left hip remembering her father’s lessons.
“Hm, would Dynamite and/or Napalm work on him?” Satoru asked, the nagging concern of technology outpacing magic reared its head.
“I think so, but again no way to manufacture those in sufficient quantities.” Aqua frowned and crossed her arms as she remembered her metaphysic lessons.
“As for the logic I was talking about, it means she can only be harmed by sufficiently magical things like silver or healing potions.” Vishia explained.
Use guns to explain the Skill Floor and Great Filter ideas. Tanya wrote in her notebook.
“Is being threatened by the Demon King’s Army.” Aqua continued.
The camera zoomed into Aqua’s face, tilted upwards to give an imperialist/gracious air to Aqua. “The livelihoods its citizens have worked for are being trampled by monsters.”
Aqua pivoted in place, moving her arms and putting on a despairing air. With a click an angelic stage light turned on and bathed Aqua in its glow, who was praising the sun with her arms in an upwards Y. “Everyone lives in fear of the Demon King’s Army’s merciless pillage and slaughter!”
Aqua’s hair jiggled and mimicked a dog’s tail wagging. “...Slaughter!
Kazuma gulped in nervousness. Aqua held her pose and smiled for another few seconds before dropping them to lean closer to Kazuma once more.
“Since that’s the sort of world it is, everyone is refusing to be reborn, so the population is declining because of infertility.” Aqua explained.
“If you can not grow new souls in mass. My world has literal piles of dead orphans that I had to go past to get to work. And said piles were new every week, if not every day.” Satoru wrote in his notebook to remind himself to offer Aqua.
“I see…” Kazuma lied about his comprehension.
Aqua had a cute angle pose before turning sideways and shrugging. “So we decided, [Why not send people who’ve died in other worlds with their bodies and memories intact?]-”
“That’s resurrection, not reincarnation.” Tanya was visibly trying to control her anger.
Aqua looked Tanya in the eyes and merely said, “Zen Buddhism.”
Tanya’s argument hitched and collapsed out of existence, causing a physical hiccup.
“Zen Buddhism is the second major religion of Japan and was primarily worshiped by the Samurai. It had a cycle of reincarnation, as in reborn in an infant body after dying, that you progressed in called Samsara. After so many lives full of dedication, you were supposed to reach Nirvana, Buddhism’s version of Aqua’s Heaven. But in Samsara you grow stronger with each life judged by how much you have achieved enlightenment.” Subaru explained once he realized that Tanya wouldn’t.
“Ah, so that's why you praised their timing. The Buddha is that religion’s god?” Ram asked, remembering his praise of the Buddha as she slipped into slumber when they were retrieving her foolish twin.
“Eh, yes and no, because if you reach sufficient enlightenment you can become your own Buddha and/or fuse with the Original Buddha.” Subaru explained, wiggling his left hand. “That and everything and everyone including the Buddha are all illusions, thus you want to break free by embracing nothingness and being true to yourself. At least that was in Zen Buddhism, in more Orthodox/the Original Denomination of Buddhism, Nirvana was simply the best afterlife (which functioned as rest stops in the cycle of reincarnation) that you could unlock.”
Ram slowly rubbed her temples. “If everything is an illusion, then nothing is.”
“Mostly it’s an existentialism thing but over all, Zen buddhism making sense died with the samurai at Shiroshima.” Tanya shrugged. “As for why I know the difference now, resurrection is one of the main tenets of Christianity, whose focal point of worship is Europe.”
“Ah, the wonders of sectoral differences.” Lergen said.
Ram and Cocytus scribbled in: Buddhism and it’s sects.
“What’s the point in sending me there if I’m just going to be killed?” Kazuma asked, visibly unsure.
“That’s why I’m doing you a big favor.” Aqua said from off screen.
A soft beat played as Aqua was shown once more with a hand gently raised.
“I’m granting you the right to bring any one thing of your choosing with you.” Aqua doomed herself to roughly a year and a half of struggle. Aqua crossed her arms and winked. “It could be a powerful weapon, or a tremendous talent.”
The two of them were shown from Kazuma’s book of the dead’s perspective.
“You’ll be able to redo your life with all your original memories.” Aqua said, raising her opposite hand and bobbling slightly towards Kazuma. “To top it off, you can bring one thing of your choosing!”
The camera slightly zoomed in as the world connecting portal swirled open behind Kazuma.
“And the people of the parallel will earn someone battle-ready to help them.” Aqua said. “Not a bad deal, don’t you think?”
Crystalline chimes played as Kazuma closed his hands.
“Um, I want to ask something.” Kazuma said.
Aqua was shown in a neutral but attentive pose.
“Will I be able to speak this other world’s language?” Kazuma asked.
A kazoo-like thing or synth something played as Aqua pulled up a booklet out of thin air.
“That won’t be an issue.” Aqua said.
We were shown the insides of the book, specifically a page titled Parallel World Reincarnation Guide and Contract. With the subtitle being: The First Ever Parallel World Guide! (For Shut-ins). Unhelpfully the book was mostly untranslated. Though there was an infographic of a soul either going to Heaven or becoming a hero after being run over.
Tanya sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.
Kazuma was shown hesitantly reading the book with Aqua guiding his vision. Aqua’s eyes were cut off by the letterboxing, putting her in a sultry and sinister light.
“With the kind support of us gods,” Aqua said. “We’ll overload your brain so you’ll be able to learn it instantly.”
Kazuma’s eyes widened as he heard that and found the fine print section. Said fine print being: Caution! Because the process of installing the ability to speak the parallel world’s language into the one who wishes to be reincarnated there (henceforth referred to as “Reincarnated”) requires instantaneous overloading of the hippocampus and cerebral cortex (henceforth referred to as “Brain”), Reincarnated’s Brain may, in rare cases, lose certain faculties (go “p**f”). Should this occur, according to Article 1296 Clauses 2 and 5 and Article 2051 Clause 3, Reincarnated may not hold those responsible for his reincarnation accountable.
The room just stared at Aqua.
“We do heal the injured.” Aqua defended herself, curling up slightly.
“Sheesh, I thought my Unified Divine Realm had the legalese.” Ristarte muttered.
“Why not an auto-translation effect?” Satoru asked with a finger raised.
“We do not have a god of languages.” Aqua said. “It was either this or having the Reincarnated unable to communicate at all. Unless we went with the actual reincarnation thing, but then the primary objective of the battle-ready unit is completely negated.”
Satoru sighed and lowered his finger.
“Teacher, what was the plan if Subaru couldn’t speak our language?” Roswaal thought, smiled sharp and eyes closed.
“As a side effect,” Aqua said as she used a hand to cover the fine print. “You might just go “poof” if you’re unlucky though.”
Tanya glared at Aqua. “I can see why your superiors kicked you out of Heaven.”
Kazuma was glaring at the fine print through Aqua’s hands.
“So all that leaves you to do is to choose a powerful ability or piece of equipment.” Aqua’s Customer Service Smile was back in full force.
Kazuma dragged his glare to meet Aqua’s closed eyes as the instrument stopped. “I just heard you mention something really serious. What do you mean, [poof]?”
Audio-visual sparkles radiated from Aqua’s Customer Service Smile. “I never said that.”
“Yes, you did.” Kazuma said as the sparkles faded.
Trumpets played as Aqua twirled in the air with a stupid amount of sparkles forming wings.
“Now, choose!” Aqua commanded as she bent over backwards.
Sheets of paper fell down around her. A sword with stony protrusions from its back edge was shown on a descriptive pamphlet, two shadowy-swords show that it was a weapon-type gift. The name of the sword was untranslated and its description was too small to read.
“I’ll grant you one power that is second to none!” Aqua said with the stone sword covering her shoulder.
A lizard-like beast flew in front of Aqua’s face, the ambient sparkles made the lizard appear to have glowing eyes. A different curved sword with a dragonic (?) head and sharp rocky scales served as the transition. Both of which were on pamphlets.
Kazuma looked around at the options he had on his hands and knees.
“Ah, good ol’ decision paralysis.” Satoru nodded in commencernation.
“This is my gamer’s intuition talking,” Kazuma thought. “But all of the abilities and equipment here are totally broken!”
“They do not look like they are unusable.” Emilia asked with her head tilted.
“Broken in this instance of gaming terms, means something ‘unfairly’ powerful.” Kazuma said, with his right index finger raised. “Some examples are: DND Divine Spellcasters being able to swap all of their known spells to any other spell their Patron knows with a 6-8 hour sleep. Thus they can adapt to any type of enemy and environment. Another is putting a ranged character who uses her allies HP pool count in her line to deal direct damage to the enemy player behind a melee character who deals Area of Effect Damage on attack, gains an additional attack per turn, and increases his max hp pool per enemy he kills.”
The room hummed.
“So Reinhard.” The Re zero cast except Subaru thought.
“Well, it’s a good thing and a shame that our Divine Spellcasters can’t do that.” The Overlord Cast thought.
Soft chimes played as Kazuma picked up one sheet and gazed at another.
“If I’m going to a world where magic exists, I absolutely have to try it out!” Kazuma thought.
Kazuma picked up the second sheet and started comparing them.
Satoru opened his mental mouth to ask about the details-
Aqua’s seductive lips tore a potato chip in half, the camera zoomed out from the vore-fuel to show Aqua completely bored.
“Hey, hurry it up.” Aqua said with half of the broken chip wiggling.
Soft percussion instruments played, giving a jovial country music vibe
“Allow him time to formulate his thoughts.” Satoru said, rubbing the bridge of his absent nose.
“No matter what you pick, it’s all the same.” Aqua said. “Nobody’s expecting much from a shut-in game otaku anyways.”
Kazuma squeaked/squealed like a more feral ape. “I-I’m not an otaku!”
Kazuma tossed the papers away, bowing down to his hands and knees. “And I died after leaving my house, so I’m not a shut-in, either!”
Repeating his movement several times, blowing away some of the papers.
Aqua licked her fingers, getting any non-visible chip dust off. Aqua looked completely bone tired as she played with her hair using only her index finger.
“None of that matters. Just hurry it up.” Aqua said. “I’ve still got lots more deceased humans to guide, you know.”
“And this is why you have more than one Judge of the Dead.” Ristarte said, rubbing her head. “Either that or time dilation and/or super speed.”
“For reference, on earth alone 106 humans die per minute and 6,392 per hour.” Aqua said. “While I am only in charge of Japan’s region and even then only their NEETs, that still is an unacceptable delay to my bosses. That is with the time dilation already applied.”
The room hummed.
“Damn her!” Kazuma thought.
Aqua still looked distinctly unimpressed. Kazuma meanwhile had sweat pooling on his face and wrinkles on the bridge of his nose.
“Getting all cocky just because she’s a little bit cute…” Kazuma thought.
Aqua merely had a smug smile at the confirmation of her thoughts.
Kazuma on his fists and knees sounded like a gorilla as he breathed heavily, overpowering the faint chimes. His eyes were shadowed as he plotted.
“[Hurry up and decide], huh?” Kazuma asked. “I’ll do just that, then.”
Kazuma stood up. “Pick one thing to bring to this parallel world, right?”
Kazuma stumbled under the weight of what he was about to do.
Aqua, slightly interested in where he was going, paused her eating of the chips. “That’s right.”
Before eating the chip in her hand anyways.
Kazuma’s hand was shown, the end of the track suit bright against the dramatically black room. It pointed straight forward.
“Okay, I pick you.” Kazuma said.
“Okay, In hindsight I should have seen that coming.” Aqua said.
Shalltear giggled, causing a slight ripple across the room.
“I mean my Heaven gave out monster summoning abilities before, so why not an entire goddess?” Aqua shrugged. “Especially one that was insulting to a sleep deprived and delirious boy.”
Aqua blinked, utterly adorable with the potato chip in her mouth. And utterly not comprehending what Kazuma said. The chimes returned as Aqua pushed in the chip and chewed. A loud horn played as the portal manifested beneath Kazuma’s feet. Aqua kicked her feet as she stood up.
“All right, stand there and don’t leave the magic circle-” Aqua was mostly out of her chair.
“What did you just say?” Aqua’s eyes widened.
The sound of an offscreen door opening echoed through the weird chime-heavy limbo. Aqua looked up to the forming magic circle above her. An Angel Woman descended out of the summoning circle. Flaunting her curves and a soft twinkling melody played.
“Where’s the metal?” Shalltear asked. “Angels should be metallic, except Victim.”
“Ah.” Zettour said, hand in palm. “They split the difference.”
On the left side were the biblical angels in all their eldritch beauty. On the right were the pretty boys and girls of the renaissance era, most of them had pastel colored wings in the stained glass depictions. Though notably on the bottom ring of the left side were normal human looking angels. The bottom was pushed up to reveal Yggdrasil’s Angels.
Kazuma coughed at the sight of the ‘biblically’ accurate angels. “Wait, Kirby, Bayonetta, Final Fantasy 7,and Neon Genesis Evangelion are accurate?! I thought NGE was just the stylization of Christianity spread like butter on toast over aliens.”
The non-Military Records crew just sat there for a few seconds comprehending Yahweh’s Angels.
“Yep, that’s definitely splitting the difference.” Filo said, nodding with a closed eye smile.
“So, if one wants to use angels, they would have to try really hard not to lean on Abrahamic Literature.” Demiurge said, his tail curled around his waist and its tip twitched in his lap.
Zettour nodded.
“Ah, this is where you tell the ‘Heroes’ about the Demon King’s Aura thing.” Kazuma said, left hand holding his forehead.
Aqua nodded.
Kazuma rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“We have heard your request.” Said the angel with wings at full spread and golden sparks falling in a shower around her. “I shall take over your job from here on out, Aqua-sama.”
“She’ll do a better job than you, not insulting the faux-customer.” Tanya said. [0]
Kazuma joined the chorus of Oohs as the golden shower faded.
“Huh?” Aqua adorably squeaked.
Another Isekai Magic Circle blossomed underneath Aqua.
“Satou Kazuma-san’s Wish complies with the regulations and has been accepted.” the Angel landed.
The magic circles spun, flared into blue light and made energy tunnels leading upwards.
Aqua glanced down at the circle. “Hey, what is this? Wh-What? You’ve got to be kidding.”
Kazuma looked at Aqua.
Aqua closed her eyes and tried to wave away the magic circle. “No, no, no! Come on, um…”
“This is not right!” Aqua threw her arms back, lost her pupils, and did the second instance of Aqua crying meme. “Taking a goddess with you is against the rules!”
Aqua pressed against the magic, squishing like a sea creature in an aquarium’s glass wall.
“It must be illegal!” Aqua pressed her face against the magic-glass. “This has to be illegal!”
“Oh, come on. It’s only the human world, you’ll be fine.” Naofumi said, eyes rolled before they settled into a glare.
Subaru and Shalltear coughed.
“You should be fine.” Naofumi corrected himself.
“Wait!” Aqua banged on the magic. “Wait!”
“Please have a safe trip, Aqua-sama.” The angel said. “Should you successfully defeat the Demon King, I will send someone to pick you up.”The angel smiled with her eyes closed. Aqua, with her eyes back to normal, dropped her hands to her hips.
“I may have the ability to heal since I'm a goddess,” Aqua said, placing her hands on her chest. “But I have no fighting ability to speak of! There’s no way I can beat the Demon King!”
Aqua gripped her head in exasperation before she was lifted off her feet.
“Hey, wait!” Aqua cried out as she looked to the ground growing distant.
Kazuma chuckled over Aqua’s booty.
“How does it feel to get dragged away with the guy you treated like a total idiot?” Kazuma asked.
Kazuma with his hair in hentai protag mode chucked once more. His hair parted to reveal one eye as he pointed at Aqua.
“You’ve been designated as the one thing I’ll be bringing along,” Kazuma said, hands moving into a megalovania posture. “So if you’re a goddess, use your godly powers or whatever to make my life as easy as possible!”
“You know, a lot of things make sense if you are following what Kazuma asked of you, however subconsciously.” Darkness rubbed her chin.
Aqua, Kazuma, and Megumin raised an objection finger before going over their memories and hung their heads.
“No!” Aqua cried and hugged herself. “I don’t want to go to a parallel world with a man like this!”
Aqua cried once more causing Kazuma to laugh in mock-sadistic glee. The angel’s wings extended, casting off cosmetic feathers.
“Brave hero, I pray that of the great many prospective heroes,” the angel said with extended arms and her feathers falling down around her. “You will be the one to defeat the demon king.”
The angel’s skirt flapped in the wind, revealing that she too had no panties. Nor genitalia, if she did it was hidden by a light beam.
“If you do so, we shall grant any wish you desire as a gift from the gods.” the angel revealed.
“Whoa, for real?!” Kazuma jerked in his beam.
“Wow, an actual reward.” Naofumi smirked. “How lucky for you.”
“We. Are. Not. Parasites!” Aqua wiggled in her seat. “We’re symbiotes, close yes. But not the same.”
Aqua leaned forward enough that her head completely obscured Kazuma.
“That’s my line!” Aqua cried.
“Now, go forth on your journey!” The angel ignored her superior.
The blackness at the end of the tunnel instantly shattered into blue squares, blue and green circles, and a white light at the center. The angelic choir resumed as Kazuma laughed as he was vacuumed into the light. Aqua’s despair-ridden face flew in from behind the camera.
“No!” Aqua shouted.
Which caused Kazuma to sadistically laugh again. Everything dissolved into a screen of white before the blue sky and fluffy clouds were shown. One of the Angel’s feathers floated down from the sky. Said feather gently landed on a shallow stream of water, which caused small ripples above the pebbles on the crook’s bottom. Horns played as the camera zoomed out to show a woman in a purple witch/wizard outfit and a green shirted man crossing a cobblestone bridge.
By the bridge was a low-detailed fisherman whose line glinted in the sunlight. A man’s laughter echoed from somewhere as the camera changed to a wagon pulling away. Which revealed Kazuma and Aqua fully intact and mature. Aqua hung her head and hands in front of her thighs. Kazuma stood beside her in a confident but neutral pose with his fists on either side of his hips.
Belzerg: Axel, The Town of Beginners, appeared before them in a blue text box above their heads. With a bit-style sound effect chime and a swirling symbol around the Otherworld’s characters for Axel.
Tanya narrowed her eyes. “Hm, depending on how you write that. The name Belzerg could be read as Berserk.”
“We are not backwards hillbillies!” Darkness reflexly defended her nation. “We are basically the only reason why the world hasn’t been conquered yet, especially because we are the only nation whose borders are touching the Demon King’s borders. Our two Great Noble Houses have been assimilating power for countless Demon Kings, if they only manage to kill Generals and not the Demon King themselves. The Dustines Family assimilated the defensive abilities and the Sinfonia Family assimilated the offensive abilities. Thus they are called the House of the Shield and the House of the Sword respectively.”
“Ah, so their version of the Slane Theocracy is actually doing their jobs.” The Overlord cast thought. “Lucky for that humanity.”
“Thus, if I am following your logic correctly, then those who actually slay a Demon King are assimilated into the Royal Family.” Filo said. “They were the ones you were talking about during the power level discussion.”
Darkness nodded. “That and I can’t hit anything, so I can’t ‘grind’ for Kazuma.”
“Hm, I guess I should count Jaldbaoth lucky that Rampossa didn’t have the Belzerg-style of strength,” Demiurge thought. “What is a demon to a king? Especially considering there is a precedent with the Legemon. I might have needed to break out my true strength, or just have one of my Evil Lords take place in the physical battles.”
“So not hyperbole of the Warmaster,” Seiya thought. “How lucky for that world, to not have only one hero capable of saving them.”
“I might actually respect Trash if he could ‘put me in my place’, but that chance has passed.” Naofumi thought. “Especially if he doesn’t use that strength against the Waves.”
Kazuma blinked when Darkness nodded and turned to Aqua with a sharp smile. “I pulled you down before you could say that, I'm guessing?”
The town’s background muttering resumed, as we zoomed into Kazuma’s face. Who took a deep breath and blinked, before the camera turned to show a street.
“It’s a parallel world.” Kazuma narrated.
A girl in a sun hat and red dress was shown chasing two ducks/white birds past two gossiping women and two men bargaining over fruit prices.
“Wait, you have children?” Satoru asked.
“Yes, hence why it's difficult to motivate the others into fighting the Demon King.” Aqua said, hands folded in her lap. “If the Demon King projected a massive field where kids aren’t born at all, It would make my job stupidly harder yet paradoxically extremely easy.”
“Well, I’m glad that the demon king can’t do that.” The rest of the room generally thought. “Nor is he just removing the reproductive organs all together.”
“Hey, this really is a parallel world!” Kazuma continued to narrate over the girl’s misfortune.
The two pairs of adults turned their heads as the girl and her birds exited stage right. A blacksmith, his wife, and two kids who were playing a game with a stick were shown. Two women close to a barn and thus fuzzy were in the background chatting.
“W-Wait, I’m really going to be using magic.” Kazuma said.
A group of adventurers appeared, at the very left was a dark elf man dressed with armored plates and a green tunic. Next to him was a human woman in a black/beige horned helmet, beige pauldrons and boobplate. With a red and white leotard, her sleeves were black with red gloves and elbow bands. Which held beige arm plates over her elbows. Her legs were the same, save for the fact that her legging only came up to her mid thighs.
A huge sword hung off her hip, which was underneath the woman’s extended hand. The wizard in purple robes and a black bodysuit with a navel window stood next to her. Their blue-tinted white hair was underneath a purple hat. The wizard’s tiny glasses did not prevent the wizard’s obvious attention from showing. Behind the wizard was a man who similarly exposed his guts with a black and red jacket. A thick brown belt with a red and gray loin cloth over green paths completed his ensemble.
A pair of two adventures had passed in front of the five, with the second woman in red obscuring a woman in green. The red thief-like woman left revealing that the green woman had brown hair and wore a two-tone purple bodysuit.
“Why is there an Elf?” Megumin asked. “Axel hasn’t had one in decades, mostly because the Elves and other such races have their own training spots. Hence why they just skip to the front lines.”
“If they even send help at all.” Aqua, Darkness, and Megumin thought. [1]
“Elves are basically a synonym for fantasy back on earth.” Kazuma said. “Same with Dwarves, Dragons, Demons, Angels, Gods, and Giants.”
The others hummed.
“And going on adventures in this world from now on?” Kazuma asked himself, smiling in glee.
Cheerful notes played over Aqua’s gasping.
“Goodbye, shut-in life!” Kazuma assumed an assertive stance.
“So what happened to not being a hermit?” Beatrice asked. “Or was that just a deflective denial, I suppose?”
Kazuma hung his head. “It was the latter.”
“Hello, new world!” Kazuma praised the sun for a brief moment.
Kazuma let his arms down before raising his right fist in a confident stance. “I can really start anew in this world!”
Aqua gasped before she weeped as she rubbed her head with both of her hands. Kazuma glared at her out of the corner of his eyes. He turned his head to properly stare at her in dismay.
“Hey, shut up.” Kazuma demanded.
Carnival-like notes played as Aqua clawed at her bangs that hung in front of her face.
“What am I going to do if everyone thinks I’m friends with a crazy woman?” Kazuma asked.
“More importantly, isn’t there something you’re supposed to give me at a time like this?” Kazuma asked.
“I do believe the opportunity to gain items has passed.” Satoru said, sarcasm audible.
The others nodded as Kazuma blushed.
Kazuma raised his hands to point at himself, a smug smile on his face. Aqua’s weeps had faded into near inaudibility.
“Look at what I'm wearing. I’m in a tracksuit.” Kazuma complained.
Kazuma pointed his hands to the sides, closed his eyes, and still had the smug smile.
“Here I am in a fantasy world, and all I have is a single tracksuit.” Kazuma complained.
“And a literal goddess.” Subaru said.
Kazuma’s blush intensified as he sank into his chair.
Kazuma opened his eyes and let his hands fall down to his hips.
“Isn’t there a bare minimum of starter equipment I should-” Kazuma was interrupted by Aqua grabbing his collar.
Kazuma, for a single frame, had his eyes shrink as Aqua shook the annoying boy. The camera however chose to focus on Aqua’s weeping face, her open mouth had a cute flesh fang. Aqua, and by extension the offscreen Kazuma, rocked back and forth for a few seconds. Then with a bit-like sound effect a pause screen appeared over Aqua’s face. Underneath the giant English letters of PAUSE bracketed by hyphens, was a smaller English sentence of Press Start Button.
This pause screen continued for a few seconds as even the music stopped.
“Ah, I wish I could just do that and take a few moments to gather my thoughts.” Subaru thought.
A different bit-type note played as the video resumed with Aqua breathing in. The two of them were shown between a mother with her son and a man looking at the last two people to be Isekai’d from Aqua’s Heaven.
“Wh-What the heck?! Stop! Stop it!” Kazuma pleaded with Aqua.
The mother turned around with a face of dismay as she pulled her shocked son away from the first feud of the pseudo-couple.
“I get it, okay?! I’m sorry!” Kazuma said.
Kazuma placed his hands on Aqua’s shoulders, which stopped her from rocking his world any further. …for now.
“If you hate it that much, then you can go home.” Kazuma said.
Kazuma pushed the goddess away, hung his left arm behind his hip, and readjusted his collar with his right arm.
“I’ll figure out the rest on my own.” Kazuma said.
“What are you talking about?” Aqua threw her arms back, causing her to adopt an arrow-like pose. “I’m in trouble because I can’t go back.”
Aqua folded her hands in front of her chest. “What do I do? Huh? What am I gonna do?”
“If you can’t go back because you are currently classified as [Kazuma’s Item], then the most logical course of action is securing money.” Zettour said. “Healing is, was, and will continue to be a dependable source of income for those capable. Construction is also a thing, so too with mercenary work.”
“We went with construction.” Aqua answered.
The others hummed
Aqua’s hands fell to her sides as she wept once more.
“What am I supposed to do from now on?” The Goddess of Tears cried.
Kazuma’s low detailed and nonchalant look was wasted on the crying goddess. With a speed streak-like sound effect Kazuma raised a hand to gain Aqua’s attention.
“Hey, calm down, Goddess.” Kazuma commanded as he lowered his hand once more. “Times like these call for guilds.”
Kazuma placed a hand on his chin. “Going to places like that to gather intel is what you do in RPGs.”
Aqua leaned back in subdued surprise as Kazuma pronounced the entire words of the RPG acronym.
“Huh? You’re supposed to be some game otaku shut-in.” Aqua asked. “Why are you so reliable?”
“Someone has to pick up your slack.” Puck said.
Aqua joined her pseudo-spouse in the blush and chair sinkage departments.
Kazuma ignored her comments as he turned away.
“All right! Let’s go, Goddess.” Kazuma said.
“Hey, wait.” Aqua’s train of thought had drowned already.
An electric string instrument played as Aqua’s ass overtook the camera once more.
“Why this camera angle again?” Albedo asked, fists slightly curled.
“This is my role, not yours!” Albedo thought.
“I am the closest thing my pantheon has to a Romantic Love Goddess, and as you can heard by the declining birthrate problem, I am a terrible one.” Aqua said. “Can’t even be a proper Lust/Fertility Goddess.”
Aqua scribbled into her notebook: Teach Subaru Escape Artistry, Parkour, and Breakdancing.
“I really hope that the sexual stuff gets toned down in the next episodes.” The protags except Kazuma thought.
“You can call me “Goddess” if you like,” Aqua narrated over her hipsway. “But when you can, call me “Aqua”, so we don’t cause a commotion.”
“I have the slightest suspicion that being undetected has already passed.” Shalltear said with lidded eyes.
“I get it.” Kazuma said, the camera changed to the back of his head. “If you’re a goddess, wouldn’t you know where we can find an adventurer’s guild.”
Aqua blinked as Kazuma turned his head to stare her in the eyes.
“I’m a goddess.” Aqua said. “There’s no way I’d know about every little lowly place like that.”
Aqua blushed.
Aqua leaned her head, which caused her hair to wiggle as she saw Kazuma’s disappointed and disgusted face.
“This girl’s useless.” Kazuma thought.
“Useless as in actually useless, or uselessly like Subaru?” Ram asked with lidded eyes and crossed arms.
Kazuma, Darkness, and Megumin raised a finger and opened their mouths to defend their viewpoint. Before they closed their mouths and lowered their fingers as they remembered how Aqua played her parts.
“Useless like Subaru.” Aqua answered for them.
Ram saw Subaru blush and tried to fold into himself. However he was stopped by Emilia, what caught the passive half of the Oni God’s attention was the faint glimmer of disbelief.
“Do I never compliment him at all?” Ram thought. “Not even backhanded ones?”
Ram hid her glance to her aggressive twin.
“I really hope that he never committed self harm, or far worse suicide, from my barbs. Ram clutched her elbows. “They would be the final coin in the pouch if my little sister actually followed through on her impulses.”
Ram took a quiet breath through her nose. “No, Subaru said that he was only questioned by Rem. So, she must have restrained herself. It's a waste of energy and time to ponder such depressing possibilities that never would and/or did happen. He does not act like he is, or ever was, afraid of us. …which her impulses would definitely make him.”
The screen shifted to show Axel from above. Right above the town was a large forest, where the Tranquility Queen resides. Smaller sections of woodland surrounded the town, only broken up by green fields. The light brown rooftops that formed human civilization had claimed 97% of the protected lands inside the massive wall. A few bits of the remaining kand were fields or lawns, most of the rest were small pockets of trees. But the largest non-human feature of the town was the river that curved in the middle, which formed a spoon or a bowl.
“Thank you for your business.” a merchant said while he handed a large slab of meat to a mother.
The mother’s youngest was safely strapped to her back and blissfully asleep. She had four other kinds besides her of indeterminate age. The second youngest, and the closest to the mother’s purple-like skirt was a girl with her hair tied into twin tails. The presumed third youngest had a green shirt on and an index finger on his lower lip, eyes firmly glued to the Capital A Anime Stick of Meat.
The child with the largest head merely had eyes for their mother. While the child right in front of the vase, which was presumably for water storage, had his arms behind his head. A purple scarf/collar over his cyan shirt. This boy’s eyes merely had attention for his youngest sibling or the comically small shopping basket his mother had.
“No, you’re not going to derail this by going into how purple dye was so expensive that it became a synonym for royalty.” Tanya thought as she rubbed her temples. “Nor will you do the same for the other dyes that should have been impossible for that era’s tech level. Excluding magic. What’s next, this world’s female underwear industry has access to modern elastics and/or a substitute, thus the girls would be wearing stuff that is closer to 20th and 21st century panties than the historically accurate Braies which were more like shorts that fell down to the mid thigh.”
Megumin crossed her legs as she felt a phantom draft.
“Thank you.” The mother said as she smacked her infant with the Stick of Meat. “Up we go…”
The infant thankfully was too asleep to cry out in shock or pain.
Kazuma and Aqua appeared before a large building, which had an announcement tower in the back. Above the front door sat a bird-like symbol. On their left was a green pillar and on their right was a purple pillar. Behind them were more merchant stalls and their customers. Another 8-bit style ding played as a brown bar extended itself across the screen, above it stood the label Adventurer’s guild.
From the perspective of the door, both the human and goddess had silly looking faces.
“Looks like this is the place.” Kazuma said.
Something went bang the camera which startled a hiccup out of Aqua.
“Scary!” Aqua said as they climbed the stairs.
The door swung open off screen as the camera decided to show the …emblem of Belzerg (or the Adventurer's guild) over the doorway, at a tilt. Either way, the upper part of the emblem had a bird with its wings fully unfurled, two V sections connected the wings to the main body of the bird. Which fanned out to an upside-down omega symbol for the tail.
“Welcome!” A blonde barmaid said as she twirled towards the door with 4 fuzzy Nereoid Drinks in her hand. “If you’re here to eat, please take any open seat.”
The camera showed Kazuma and Aqua unprepared for the level of prep in the barmaid’s voice.
“If you need job guidance, head to the counter inside.” the barmaid continued reading off her mental script.
The barmaid turned and walked off the right side of the screen. Aqua merely stared at the bubbly while Kazuma raised his hand.
“Thank you.” Kazuma obligately followed his own mental script for social interaction at a public place.
The camera turned to see …indoor lamp posts. A sign or plinth that had no writing at all but three pink circles, eight yellow pyramids arranged into two pyramid shapes, and two pink dots in two pyramid shapes.
Two men in dark colored clothing tapped their drinks together, their tablemate hunched over his food. Seems like they had some sort of bird, while the bearded yet bald man had the addition of cake. A red haired barmaid carried more food past the three men. Behind the drinks was an oak-like load-bearing pillar with dark red and dark green ribbons wrapped around it. The original barmaid walked past the table in her pinkish heels.
She stepped aside to reveal a man in plate armor looking up at a woman in a sports bra and battle panties. More potted plants broke up the monotony of the tavern.
Tanya mentally groaned at the sight of the battle panties and the elastic industry that it eluded to.
On one of the ribbon clad support pillars hung a dragon(?)’s skeleton. Around a horizontal support pillar was a wheel that might have served as a clock, if it rotated. The entire tavern was shown from the back, which revealed the statue of a hero, presumably one of the Belzerg Royalty and/or the dragon slayer underneath the skeleton. Another one of those odd plinths was on the opposite side of the statue’s feet.
Closest to the camera were a red head female mage talking to her melee party member. On the sides of the ceiling were banners detailing either the Mobile Fortress Destroyer or the founding of Belzerg. Above the Adventurer’s Info Desk had the statue bust of a Lizard Runner. In front of Kazuma and Aqua (behind them from this camera view) was the Barbarian Shopkeep that was only made canon in the Dust Spinoff Novels.
Kazuma hummed as he took in the atmosphere with a smirk on his face.
“Hey!” The barbarian called. “Haven’t seen you around here before.”
“You really wouldn’t have, and if you did. I would be concerned for you.” Subaru said.
Aqua squeaked as her pinprick eyes saw the bearded barbarian’s gaze. Kazuma, still in his sleep deprived apathetic mood, had no reaction. Said barbarian raised a finger to point at them.
“And what’s with the weird clothes?” The barbarian asked
“Oh,” Kazuma walked up to the barbarian. “We’ve actually come a long way, and we just got into town.”
Kazuma placed an assertive hand onto the table and his other hand on his hip. His eyes closed as he paused for one dramatic second.
“I want to become an adventurer to fight the Demon King’s Army, too.” Kazuma opened his eyes and relied on his Protagonist CharismaTM.
The barbarian breathed through his nose before he closed his eyes.
“Is that right, you reckless punk?” the barbarian said.
The barbarian twirled around and adopted the Crazy Eyes Pose (the one where an eye is normal sized and the other is widened).
“Welcome to the gates of Hell!” The barbarian said before he hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “If you’re lookin’ for the guild admission desk, it’s over there.”
Thus Kazuma and Aqua walked past the statue of the Founder of Belzerg.
“Hey.” Aqua said, which caused Kazuma to halt.
Kazuma turned his head over his shoulder with a hum.
“How can you make up a story like that on the spot?” Aqua asked.
“Well, it is the truth.” Satoru said, head slightly tilted to the side. “Just a bit farther than that barbarian understood.”
The room nodded.
“Listen, Aqua.” Kazuma assumed a lecturing tone.
“Okay.” Aqua hummed.
Kazuma raised a hand to seemingly hold the statue’s sword tip. “Today we’ll register with a guild and find a place to stay the night.”
“G-Got it.” Aqua nodded her head and raised her hands in front of her chest. “I don’t know anything about games, but I guess that’s how it works in worlds like this, right?”
“By which I meant, I have no first hand experience playing the games.” Aqua explained. “All I knew was observing their world and reading from the books of the dead.”
Kazuma raised his hand even further to directly point at Aqua. “Exactly. All right, let’s go.”
The pseudo-couple dropped their arms and walked off.
“Oh, wait.” Aqua muttered with her knife-hands framing her booty. “You seem like such a capable guy.”
The camera changed to a front view of both Kazuma and Aqua.
“Why were you a shut-in otaku with no friends or girlfriend before?” Aqua asked.
“Did you not just read a book that detailed his entire life, or was that book merely how he died?” Satoru asked.
Aqua blushed and hung her head.
Kazuma grunted and gritted his teeth at that.
“Why did you seclude yourself every day and act like such a shut-in NEET?” Aqua asked.
Kazuma gritted his teeth even more before he half turned towards Aqua and pointed an accusatory finger towards her.
“Stop calling me a shut-in NEET, you bitch.” Kazuma proceeded to escalate the situation. “Don’t lump “shut-in” and “NEET” together.”
“Well, in the mid 2010s, they did become basically synonyms.” Ristarte said. “Along with NEET becoming a synonym for utmost laziness.”
The rest of the room hawed.
Thankfully his outburst produced no reactions. Specifically the next frame was a mid-back length red haired mage in a bowler(?) hat and a dark haired warrior sitting at a bar. The bartender merely shook his tumbler and produced a soft clanging sound that signaled that there was ice in them. The mage’s staff sat next to her and conveniently covered the menu.
The next frame showcased Luna the receptionist in her alcove, the camera specifically panning up past her large tits to showcase Luna’s dark yellow hair and amber colored eyes.
“Hello. What can I do for you today?” Luna asked, firmly in her customer management mode.
The camera zoomed out to showcase the three other desks, though Luna was the only receptionist on duty. At desk number three, desk number one was against the wall to the right. There were two different signs framing this help area, their text too blurry to translate.
“Um, we’d like to become adventurers.” Kazuma said.
“I see.” Luna’s autopilot brain replied.
Luna closed her eyes and smiled. “In that case, you’ll first need to pay the registration fee.”
The camera showed Kazuma smiling with his eyes closed, not processing anything. Aqua stood by a support pillar. The Founder’s statue and its red caper separated the two.
“Sure, Sure…” Kazuma said.
Kazuma’s very tired neurons fired and transmitted the information gathered by his ears to his cerebral cortrex.
“Huh?” Kazuma opened his eyes as he stopped smiling. “Registration fee?”
Kazuma turned his head towards Aqua.
“Do you have any money?” Kazuma asked.
Aqua shook her head in the negative, her mouth still an adorable tiny dot.
“You dragged me here without any warning.” Aqua reminded Kazuma. “Of course I don’t.”
Kazuma had stress sweat all over his despairing face. Luna still had her autopilot brain active and her hands neatly clasped each other.
“This girl’s useless…” Kazuma blamed everyone but himself.
“Yeah well, that’s what happens when you don’t give prep time.” Seiya said, glaring at Kazuma.
Kazuma shrunk into his chair. “Oh come on, I just got the courage to sit back up properly! I mean, as much properly you can be in a recliner chair.”
The tavern was shown from above as a barmaid walked past two fully seated tables. Kazuma and Aqua were sitting in the loneliest corner by the window. Kazuma was shown alone before a reddish-brown haired barmaid came up to the table.
“Are you ready to order?” the barmaid asked the depressed pseudo-couple.
“Um, I’m still thinking about it…” Kazuma said.
The barmaid sighed as she turned away, holding her clipboard to her chest.
“Please take your time.” the barmaid's autopilot brain replied.
The heads of the two isekai’d were shown. Well more specifically their eyes and noses, or at least Kazuma’s when he looked up and across to Aqua.
“Hey, what should we do?” Kazuma asked. “We’ve already hit a roadblock.”
A circular shield with a cog wheel on the outer rim, a bumpy-flower like ring just inside of the cog wheel, and inside of the flower was a plus (or cross if one wanted to ascribe more Christianity than was necessary) which had two swords that peaked out at diagonal angles, and formed a blunt 8 pointed star of chaos. Was shown over their table, high up on the wall.
“Normally we’d get a minimal amount of equipment and enough to cover basic living expenses, at least.” Kazuma continued to complain. “This is totally inhospitable.”
Kazuma shrunk even further under Puck and Tanya’s gazes. Satoru had a bemused tint in his wavering flame eyes. Naofumi, Raphtalia, and Filo directed their deadpan stares towards the 16 year old. Rista had gripped Seiya’s mouth closed and pulled his head towards the screen.
Aqua raised her head to stare Kazuma in the eyes.
“There goes your reliability, just like that.” Aqua said. “Well, I guess it was inevitable. You are a shut-in NEET.”
“Don’t call me a shut-in NEET.” Kazuma glared at the goddess.
Aqua placed her hands on the table and pushed herself up.
“Fine. I guess it’s my turn now.” Aqua said as she adopted a confident hand on hip pose.
Kazuma looked attentive at the goddess’ new found confidence.
“Let me show you what a goddess can do!” Aqua said.
Aqua waved goodbye as she walked away to horns playing. Thus Aqua walked up to an old man calmly drinking his beverage of choice. Hand grabbed the barrel-like mug from the side, the other hand supported the drink from below. She stopped right before the camera and treated the audience to another shot of her booty. Which perspective wise was the same size as the man’s torso.
“You there, priest! State your denomination!” Aqua said, visible hand on her hip.
“Hm?” Went the old man as he opened up his eyes.
Aqua had a cute and confident grin on her face, hands on her hips with the backs of them pressed against her Shrodinger’s Dress. Flutes played.
“I’m Aqua.” the goddess introduced herself. “Yes, the object of worship for the Religious Cult of Axis: The goddess Aqua!”
Aqua blinked as she raised a hand to point at the priest.
“If thou art one of my followers…” Aqua said.
Aqua bowed from a side view, the old man priest had a bit of nervous sweat rolling down his face.
“It’d be a huge help if you could lend me some money!” Aqua pleaded in a rapid squeaky voice.
“I’m in the Eris Sect, actually…” the priest busted the goddess’s bubble.
Aqua instantly snapped into a shocked face with far more nervous sweat than the priest and the bridge of her nose/between her eyes became red. The flutes stopped with a bang as even Kazuma knew how far Aqua shoved her foot down her throat. His eyes were mere pinpricks and his jaw fell open. …if he wasn’t just now realizing that Aqua wore nothing under her dress in the next camera angle.
All was silent enough for a woman’s giggles to echo through the tavern which overlapped with the theather’s
“Oh, you are? I’m sorry.” Aqua said in a quiet/dead tone.
She turned around as she rubbed her head, but the priest raised his hand.
“Oh, young lady, are you with the Axis Cult?” the priest’s brain jiggled into motion. “The relationship of the goddesses Aqua and Eris is that of Superior and Subordinate.”
“The difference is the ‘quality’ of faith and what we embody.” Aqua said. “For Eris as the Goddess of Luck and Commerce, every action of probability such as shooting an arrow into a crowd of enemies, will empower her. Of course more specialized things such as trying to infiltrate a mansion or dice games will provide more faith towards her, especially if something valuable to more than the thief and current holder is at stake.”
Everyone else’ eyes widened, mentally filling in why Aqua is a senior goddess. Water, after all, was a widely observed physical thing and essential to most life. While Luck and Commerce were only things that sapients could spend time thinking about once their essentials were met. Or in the case of luck, bemoaning their lack of luck because they couldn’t fulfill their essential needs.
“Oh no, you’re the collective consciousness type of deity.” Satoru said, voicing everyone’s thoughts, head in his hands..
“Ah, so that’s why my village has so many sealed detities around it.” Megumin rubbed her chin. “It is easier than killing or converting everyone of their disciples-dreamers. Let alone actual battles to the death with the detities. Which has the potential of fragmenting said deity and/or embedding the ‘idea’ of them into every viewer.”
“So If I want to keep her around and she loses all of her followers, then I would have to personally worship her?” Kazuma thought, eyes on his hands fiddling in his lap.
“I wonder if there is an analogue to Megumin’s clan in my world.” Demiurge thought, left hand on chin as his right hand wrote mental scribbles on the chitin of his tail. “That way I can give Jaldaboath the goal of unsealing his master. Assuming that my plan of making Jaldabaoth the Demon King falls through. But if Jaldabaoth has a god that he ‘answers’ to, then that will increase Lord Satoru’s Momon Persona when he defeats said god. I’ve already implanted the Tri-Armagedden Evil Statue as the reason for the Demonic Disturbance. So I can just say that this god made that statue.”
“And it prevents them from growing stronger and influencing reality, whether that be by empowering their faithful or deciding that 2+2=Purple Pineapple.” Aqua nodded. “Being sealed and forgotten has weakened them.”
Aqua glanced towards Subaru and Shalltear “Should have weakened them.”
“So what happens if you die?” Subaru asked.
“Among lots of other things, Water magic won’t work any more.” Aqua said. “While that doesn’t seem too bad, you must understand that their world doesn’t have the evaporation cycle being the cause of rain, instead it is drunk elementals that cause storms and rain is managed by the lesser spirits. Admittedly evaporation does fulfill the role of making the elementals ‘drunk’ off of the mana in the ocean boiling away into the clouds where the elementals hover.” [2]
“Assuming I just don’t wake up back in Heaven because I got crippled.” Aqua thought. “Seriously, I forgot the whole deal between the Storm Elementals stripping the women in thanks for the adventurers beating them back into sobriety. WHICH I REALLY SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BECAUSE I AM THE WATER GODDESS! Or the fact that Devils have the ability to save up multiple lives via Arcana, the negative energy of this world. Which also provides magic resistant to at least the Dragons. Oh and in sufficient concentrations such as a High Ranking Devil being in one place for centuries, Arcana can rip open a portal to hell. While Divine Mana only grants silly-grade regeneration. Because fuck us.”
Again the room's eyes widened.
Satoru’s eye flames narrowed. “If there is no water magic, then that means there is no healing magic nor irrigation for agriculture. Thus mass famines that will weaken nations, if not destroy them outright. And because there is no food, your armies will starve while the Demon King can just modify some beasts to grow food directly from their bodies. Or modify slimes to function as irrigation. And have his combat minions be completely immune to everything but the now absent water magic.”
The others in the room rubbed their temples.
“If you are so important then why did your superiors even allow you to leave?” Puck said, teeth gritted. “While I am the Great Spirit of Fire, in my world Fire Magic covers both hot and cold temperatures. It is a title that will be passed onto another Fire Spirit with my death. It is what happened when I killed Melakouera. But that is just a random title humans made, same with the Beast of the End. it doesn’t have any effects on Od Laguna.”
“Is the Winter Shogun your heir? Does your Heaven have a backup plan at all?” A twitch traveled down Puck’s spine to the tip of his tail.
“I am planning on being the last Water-type deity of my Pantheon.” Aqua said. “But probably that is what would happen if mortals wanted to Apotheosis him. Or one of his subordinate Snow Sprites, which if you kill one of them, then winter is shortened by a single day.”
The others except Kazuma, Darkness, and Megumin blinked.
“That’s odd.” Puck summarized the room’s thoughts as he rubbed his temples. “First the manually controlled water, and now this season decoupled from the time of the year? What’s next, all plant life being mobile and extremely hostile?”
Megumin opened her mouth.
“Oh come on!” Puck said, spasmed from head to tail tip, this time the twitch traveled down to his paws as well. “I was being rhetorical!”
“Well, so long as you don’t swallow the seeds whole.” Megumin explained. “Then most of the plant life just pulls up their roots and runs away. Only the vegetables actually attack you, hence why you need permits to grow them. So I don’t think you can count that as hostile.”
The room blinked again.
Lergen rubbed his head. “The childhood fears of plant life growing inside of you if you swallow a seed. Should not be a literal thing.”
“A-Allergies can be t-triggered if the f-flowers engulf their enemies’ f-faces.” Mare said as he tapped his chin.
“Eh, haven’t seen any flowers do that.” Megumin waved her hand. “They mostly run around and make the teacher force his students to round them up. Maybe if there was a vicious Tranquility Girl nearby, but uh.”
The room filled in the blanks of that happening when their species’ common name was that.
Warn Kazuma of the Tranquility Queen and the Manticores that live near Axel. Darkness wrote in her notebook.
Ah, that is easier and harder than the Unified Divine Realm’s ranking system of how many worlds you have saved. Ristarte thought. Ask Aqua about ascended humans.
Hm, guess Aqua is vulnerable to Ovid and Dante-type Orators. Rudersdorf frowned.
Aqua blinked and turned her head back.
“This must be fate. I saw earlier that you couldn’t cover the fee, correct?” The priest continued.
The priest laid out several golden coins on the table. They were engraved with the dull star of chaos which maybe is the emblem of Belzerg Kingdom.
“Here. Please consider this Eris-sama’s divine blessing.” the priest said while doing the cross motion. …which was a Christian thing.
The military records crew, except Tanya, all breathed in through their noses and counted to ten.
Aqua’s dismay tinted appearance straightened at the sight. Her body and hair cast far more shadow than it should.
“Still, no matter how devout a believer you are, you mustn’t call yourself a goddess.” The priest rubbed his beard.
“Uh, yes. I’m sorry.” Aqua said while she completed her turn and walked over to grab the coins. “Thank you very much…”
Aqua clutched the few coins to her chest before Kazuma’s mouth twitched, eyebrows knotted as Aqua walked back. A soft giggle-sigh escaped Aqua’s lips as she stood in front of her ‘owner’.
“He didn’t even believe that I'm a goddess.” Aqua complained.
Aqua’s eyes wavered under her tears. “By the way, Eris is a goddess ranked beneath me. A believer in my subordinate took pity on me and lent me money…”
Aqua’s eyes wobbled so much that they were audible.
Kazuma looked away and down at the floor. “Y-Yeah…”
Luna was shown wiping off her desk, more accurately her hand. She paused as the camera zoomed out to show Luna nearly horizontal with her butt pointing to the lower right corner of the screen. Kazuma and Aqua’s eyes were covered by their hair bangs.
“Um,” Kazuma brought up his hand. “We’ve brought the registration fee.”
Luna stood up as she stopped her washing, “S-Sure…”
“Something told me that she didn’t want to make eye contact with us…” Kazuma narrated over the request board.
Luna turned around, “Allow me to formally explain.”
Kazuma and Aqua were shown as Luna’s autopilot brain swapped back on.
“Adventurers each have their own occupations.” Luna said before she pointed to the card. “This is your registration card. It keeps track of how many monsters you’ve vanquished.”
“So, you don’t have to cut off the ears or other body parts to confirm the kill?” Satoru said, left hand on chin.
“We are not backwards hillbillies!” Darkness said, fists clutched at her side.
“Besides, if all the adventurers are looking for is to cut off their ears.” Tanya said with a shrug. “Then the natural thing to do is to make a monster breeding farm, cut off the associated body part, sell the part, and then use the money to expand your breeding facilities. Which will eventually get exposed and release far more monsters than originally was.”
Albedo closed her eyes and mentally groaned at such an easy answer to raise money, which she and Demiurge completely missed. Then not one of Lord Satoru’s operatives would lack for money in the human world. Demiurge resisted the urge to slap himself upside the head with his tail as he came to the same conclusion.
“Okay, I get why Albedo and Demiurge didn’t think of that because they have to run Nazarick and deduce Lord Satoru’s plots to take over the world respectively.” Aura thought, head in her hands with Mare gently rubbing her head. “But I am the Beastmaster, so I should have thought of that myself! Hey, for that matter, why don’t we see if Mare could grow one of the rare (for the New World) plants and harvest those to give to Lord Satoru’s Momon Persona. Which would increase his fame because he can now accurately identify AND harvest rare plant materials.”
“I could have the Lizardmen see if they have any other rare resources suitable for trade to human settlements.” Cocytus thought. “Then have Lord Satoru as Momon formally meet them and bring trade. Increasing his fame not only as a Human Hero, but as a Hero of many races.”
Satoru placed a hand on his forehead. “Oh, I am such a dumbass for not thinking of that. It would certainly give Aura and Mare something to do so that they aren’t bored.”
Tanya gave half-lidded glares to the Nazarick crew. “[Geniuses], Suuuuure.”
The NPCs accepted that remark and hung their heads.
“As your level increases, you’ll earn points that you can use to learn skills, so please work hard to raise your level.” Luna said as she folded her hands in front of her waist.
A blue crystal orb was shown, yellow and light gray metal formed a clockwork machination around the orb. Below the orb were three cyan laser focusing discs. The Card Maker was held up by two dark gray claws.
“Now, both of you, please hold your hands over this crystal.” Luna asked.
The camera swapped to show Kazuma reaching to the crystal. Aqua was interested in the clockwork of the Card Maker.
“Like this?” the boy asked.
With a click and the sound of a film reel rolling, the crystal lit up with an inner like as the clockwork spun. Which prompted an amazed [ha] to spill from Kazuma’s lips. Cyan bubbles gathered in the crystal before they descended to the focusing lens. The clockwork clicked and swirled as a violin played over the fantastically rendered CGI. the focusing lens, more like small bowls as the camera zoomed in and provided clarity, wobbled as the cyan bubbles passed through them to reach the needle at the bottom.
With a soft electronic whistle, the needle tip glowed and shot the concentrated bubbles down at the card. Etching into it the details of Kazuma.
“With this, you will each learn your current status,” Luna said as the laser wrote down Kazuma’s name. “So please choose your desired occupation based on your stats.”
The laser-pen was shown from below, looking like a saucer-type final boss. The laser passed over the camera twice before we returned to Kazuma’s very invested face.
“Here it comes!” Kazuma leaned closer. “Now my tremendous latent abilities will be made apparent, and there’ll be an uproar throughout the guild!”
“I mean…” Kazuma scratched his left cheek. “I guess I did receive it, with that sheer delay of leveling up.”
“You also did get it by proxy of Aqua.” Megumin and Darkness said.
Aqua nodded.
Kazuma blushed.
“So, Subaru truly isn’t the only one with that type of expectations.” Emilia thought with half-lidded eyes.
The laser etching finished, leaving a lot of words in the Belzerg script that went untranslated. Below a stylized portrait of Kazuma were six bubbles that detailed the type of class he had. To the left of that was his skill list and presumably his current stat point number. Above that was his name in the script, which looked like the scribbles of a space architect. Luna picked up the card and then turned around.
“Yes, thank you very much.” Luna said while reading Kazuma’s card. “Satou Kazuma-san, is it? Let me see…”
The camera showed Kazuma gleefully awaiting his destiny and Aqua mildly interested.
“Average across the board.” Luna said. “With the exception of decently high intelligence…”
Luna blinked. “Oh? Your luck is extraordinarily high.”
Kazuma blushed as most of the room nodded in agreement with Luna.
“Of course,” Luna held Kazuma’s card to her chest, a hesitant look on her face. “Luck isn’t a very essential stat for an adventurer… with this much luck, I’d recommend becoming a merchant or something similar.”
Kazuma had the barest hints of despair on his face, Aqua tried and mostly succeeded in suppressing her giggles behind a meritful smirk and her hand.
“Ah, the [Easy Growth] thing is a hidden stat.” Rudersdorf said, tapping his left hand’s fingers against his left palm. “On one hand, it's convenient not to hang a [please assassinate me] sign around their necks. On the other hand, I do not envy your nation’s strategists when it comes to your nation’s future.”
“We did identify the previous Cheat Users by their black hair and odd artifacts.” Darkness explained. “But roughly 20 years ago there was a push from the demon king that focused down on black haired people, so Mitsurugi and Kazuma are the latest in the trend of disinformation.” [4]
“Ah, what is a mere twenty years to a goddess?” The rest of the room thought, realizing that the demon king wouldn’t use a dagger in place of a broadsword.
Kazuma glared at the snickering Aqua over his shoulder. “Hey, she’s disapproving of my adventurer’s lifestyle right off the bat. What’s going on?”
“U-Um,” Kazuma turned towards Luna, he hunched over. “Make my primary job [Adventurer], please.”
“W-Well,” Luna’s brain switched into consultation mode. “You can always change jobs when you level up!”
“Y-You’re right!” Kazuma said, straightening his back as he took his card.
“Eh? You don’t have to wait until level 40 before your Class-Up Ritual?” Raphtaila asked, her ears twitched as she remembered the battle against the Class-upped Bandit that was cut from the anime. “No wait, you have that very slow leveling process. Thus you wouldn’t need to restrict access to the Class-Up ritual.”
Raphtalia glanced at Filo’s Cowlick-Tiara thing.
“Would you gain stats from changing your class?” Raphtalia asked. “It happened to us, so you should have the same thing. …though, you don’t have the Waves as a phenomenon.”
Aqua shook her head. “No we don’t have to wait, no our stats don’t grow when we change classes. The only way for stats to grow is leveling, training, and Dragon Meat.”
Kazuma turned towards Aqua. “Hey, if Dragon Meat is a stat boosting item, and at least Mitsu-prick can easily kill a Dragon.” Kazuma reached over to pinch Aqua’s cheeks. “Then, why oh why, isn’t Dragon Meat being served as a regular, if expensive, meal here at Axel’s Adventurer’s Guild?”
“Because Dragons are converters who seek out Arcana, the energy of hell, absorbing it. They break it down into usable energies and rare materials like Manatite that form in their treasure hoards, the stat increase is just a side effect. But because the Dragons are not native to hell, they all go insane and must be put down.” Aqua said through her pinched cheeks. “The other side effect of this conversion process makes it so that Arcana can be smelled by anyone, not just the Divines. Thus if you were to serve Dragon Meat, you would get numerous complaints about the smell.” [3]
Kazuma closed his eyes, breathed out his nose, and let Aqua go.
“Ah, if only Volcanica’s meat could do the same thing.” Roswaal thought. “Then Subaru would be on board with my plan to kill the Dragon, he must be desperate to be worthwhile in combat.”
“Eating to get stronger? What a lazy growth method.” The casts of Overlord, Military Records, Rista, Seiya, and Subaru thought.
“Ah, so more of the cardinal weapons.” Raphtailia and Filo thought.
“Subaru and Kazuma are going to be so pissed that I can grow stronger just by eating everything.” Naofumi thought of his shield’s absorption ability. Blissfully unaware of his time as the Tray (Mirror) Hero in the second Glass World arc.
“Of course we can’t have that type of ‘metaphysics’, no that would mean Subaru would be useful in more situations.” Puck’s left eye twitched. “Apparently we can’t have nice things.”
“I know that the last heartbeat of a Dragon and/or the blood of a Dragon is one possible solution to my frozen forest.” Emilia frowned and glanced at her lap. “But why can’t we have such an easy way to gain power? That isn’t being born with it like myself, or tremendous training like Wilhelm?”
Emilia breathed in through her nose, held her breath for 10 seconds, and released it from her mouth.
“I. Am. Not. Her.” Emilia thought.
Ram laid a hand on her twin’s back which broke Rem out of her angry thought spiral.
Kazuma opened his eyes and stared down Aqua.
His face dropped as he saw for himself, exactly how terrible his stats were.
“The weakest job, huh?” Kazuma thought as Aqua walked past behind him.
The machine swirled for a brief moment then Luna let out a loud gasp.
“Aside from your intelligence being below average,” Luna said around her hand in front of her mouth. “And your luck being the lowest possible level, all of your stats are drastically above average!”
“Yeah,” Zettour nodded. “Being dragged down from Heaven would qualify for the lowest luck possible.”
“If we didn’t just see part of Subaru’s first day.” The rest of the room finished the thought.
Luna’s boobs jiggled as she turned towards Aqua.
“What?” Aqua’s just stated intelligence kicked in. “Does that mean I’m really amazing?”
A mirthful jingle played as Luna retrieved Aqua’s card.
“A-Amazing is an understatement!” Luna said. “The mage class, which requires intelligence, is out of the question, but other than that, you can be anything you want!”
Two barmaids and four male customers were shown as they turned towards Luna, Kazuma, and Aqua.
“A Crusader, Sword Master, Arch Priest…” Luna continued over their interested looks. “Nearly any Advanced Class right from the start!”
The red haired barmaid walked in front of them, the camera focused on her interested face as Luna’s final syllable left her lips. Before Aqua and Kazuma were shown once again, Kazuma looked at Aqua with a dejected expression as Aqua had a closed eye smug smile on her face. One arm supported the other whose hand had her raised index finger twirling in place.
“I see. It’s a shame there’s no [Goddess] Occupation,” Aqua said, she opened her eyes and placed her hands on her hips. “But in my case, maybe I’ll be an Arch Priest who heals her allies.”
“An Arch Priest!” Luna said.
The camera panned up Aqua’s body starting at her hips
“An almighty Class that commands all recovery and support magic, and that boasts enough strength to stand at the front line!” Luna’s narration ended at Aqua’s pleasant smile.
The tavern erupted into cheers and trumpets. Still images of celebrating adventurers passed before Luna turned around after getting Aqua’s card. Luna was suddenly flanked by two other receptionists, the left one was an elf with light green hair. The right was a human with a darker shade of green.
“Without further ado, welcome to our adventurer’s guild, Lady Aqua.” Luna said.
The camera retreated to show further uniformed staff members, Luna took her free arm and placed it under her boobs like she was going to bow. All of the …behind the scenes staff wore the same uniform. A brown vest over a secondary vest this time colored navy, which had a white long sleeved shirt underneath that. A red tie provided a centering effect compared to the yellow star that was over everyone’s heart. The look was completed with a gray pair of pants with the navy vest’s coattails covering the belt.
To the left of the elf was a moderately tall brown haired human man who had his arms folded behind his waist. To that one’s left stood a far larger, both in height and width, man with his arms crossed.
“All of our staff will be looking forward to your future exploits.” Luna said.
“Why couldn’t Re-Estize be developed enough to have these adventurer’s cards?” The NPCs thought. “Then Lord Satoru wouldn’t have to waste his time doing menial tasks.”
A wide shot of the guild filled to the brim with adventurers who all cheered before the camera cut back to Aqua’s smiling face.
“Starting off as an Archpriest is incredible!” Said one female adventurer amongst the crowd.
Aqua’s hair did its pseudo dog tail wagging as the camera routed around her, as Aqua looked around the crowd. Aqua closed her eyes as she rubbed her head and waved with her free hand.
“Someone like you might actually be able to beat the Demon King, you reckless girl!” Said the Barbarian as he was moved behind Aqua.
The turning movement ended when the disappointed Kazuma got onto screen.
“No event like this is going to happen for me?” Kazuma asked.
Aqua pivoted towards Kazuma, a smile beaming across her face and finger pointed directly at Kazuma.
“It’s the adventurer’s life for us starting today, Kazuma!” Aqua said.
“I thought you absolutely hated all this.” Kazuma replied, still down.
Aqua blinked and lowered her hand, “Did I?”
Kazuma merely closed his eyes and sighed. The camera swapped to just above the statue’s head, showing the massive crowd. Kazuma half turned before the entire crowd was blurred out to focus on the statue. Then the camera showed the statue from Kazuma’s perspective.
“Well, anyways, everything thus far has been basically character creation,” Kazuma thought, as he turned to the camera and a small smile grew. “Now our adventure is about to begin.”
The camera zoomed into Kazuma’s face before blending into a blinding white. Axel was shown from the treetops, sunlight peeking from above the wall. Then one of the nearby mountains was shown with a tower to the side, in between was the sunlight behind the horizon. No, it was the dawn of a new day and the dawn of the end of the Demon King. trumpets and other horns played continuously until the next spoke line over this montage.
A dove flew past the screen at a very close distance, close enough for the viewer to count the individual feathers. Which was helped by the fact that the bird was rapidly losing feathers as it flew up and away from the camera.
A mound of dirt was shown before an offscreen Kazuma swung his pickaxe into the ground. Kazuma was shown mid backswing, down to his white undershirt and green tracksuit pants. The top half wrapped around his waist and a white headband from somewhere applied to his forehead. Kazuma gritted his teeth as he once more swung the pickaxe forward, obscuring the sight of a short set of scaffolding to repair the wall’’s face.
The animation exaggerated Kazuma’s determined but despairing face as he commenced the hard labor of groundbreaking.
Kazuma was shown from afar with several other men digging to either provide stone for the wall or to make a foundation. In the foreground Aqua was providing water to three men in the shade of a lean-to. Kazuma was next shown to be carrying the back of a massive timber that was tied to a bag of coal or the result of their mining, only for the weight to be too much and he collapsed which caused the rocks to fall out.
A small amount of dust, the same amount as Aura kicked up, billowed around him as Kazuma laid on his back amongst the rocks which narrowly missed him. Kazuma slowly glanced up to the blonde foreman who had his arms crossed and a massive frown. Kazuma jolted upwards and raised an apology salute while the other worker was scratching his head and a faint light of dismay shone in his eyes.
“Why didn’t you participate in the hard labor, if your stats are so good?” Filo asked.
“Well, that would be training.” Aqua shrugged. “As a Goddess, my stats are already at the cap that they naturally can grow to be, whether that be training or leveling. So the only way for me to grow stat wise is Dragon Meat.”
The others blinked as Kazuma placed his hands on Aqua’s shoulders and gave her a pitying look.
“I don’t need your pity.” Aqua said as she removed Kazuma’s hands from her shoulders.
“Ah, too bad about Aqua not doing the hard work.” Tanya thought. “Might have seen some Popeye-type action. …and the joy of a ‘Goddess’ forced to do the same menial tasks as us.”
A pair of horses were shown with their heads between the stable bars.
“What are those?” Emilia asked. “Why do they look like Melakuera?”
“First a fire cat, and now a fire horse.” Tanya breathed in. “Ah, proper fantasy.”
“Those are horses?” Ram said. “Hn, I like the look of Land Dragons better. At least the scales don’t get everywhere like fur does.”
The entire stable was shown before Kazuma’s face was shown with closed eyes on a bundle of hay. Kazuma then rolled over to face a pile of horseshit, he then smelled it and jerked away. Kazuma glared at the scat and held his nose closed.
“You know, if Aqua actually pulled her weight.” Filo said. “Then maybe you wouldn’t have to sleep in a stable.”
Aqua hung her head.
“…and that’s another thing I am forced to be grateful about.” Naofumi thought, head in hands. “How lucky I was to not be forced to sleep in a stable, even when the entire nation hated my guts.”
Raphtalia gently rubbed the back of her Master’s head.
“Well, at least Subaru didn’t have to deal with this.” Rem thought.
“Oh come on, why couldn’t I have joined the party early enough to sleep in the stable with them?” Darkness bit her tongue to prevent her jealousy from showing on her face.
Her party mates all had half lidded eyes as they sensed their perverted knight’s thoughts.
“Wow, Aqua didn’t cry about that?” Megumin thought. “I guess she does have a modicum of self control.”
Megumin twisted in her seat.
“At least I didn’t force Kazuma to smell my pee during that doll incident.” Megumin thought. “Couldn’t the stable owner find an actually clean cell for them to sleep in?”
“Aw, of course I miss such a delightful bounding experience.” Darkness shuddered. “Kazuma could have used my body as a blanket and as an air freshener.”
The camera shifted to show Aqua right behind Kazuma, blissfully asleep and selfishly hogging the only tiny blanket. More scat was just below Kazuma, to the point where if he straightened his legs, then his feet would be barely an inch away. Kazuma’s shoulders shook before the camera showed the outside of the barn, above which was a pleasant navy night sky partially hidden by the clouds.
Beneath the barn laid a gently babbling crook which ended in the screen’s bottom right corner. The crook’s end gently shimmered like Kazuma’s tears.
Kazuma blurred as he swung the pickaxe in the light of day, his expression far more maniac today. The other workers, however, were far more impressed with Aqua’s …Talents to see what Kazuma was doing. Though Aqua did eventually learn enough construction skills to expand a castle under daily [Explosion] bombardment by Wolbach, the one who taught Megumin explosion.
So Aqua flourishly applying mortar, or whatever the brick binding element is called, does have a purpose. Though her white shirt, green pants, gray boots, and yellow bandana certainly was …an interesting design choice. One that only highlighted Aqua’s delight as she spun around to face the crowd, which included Kazuma who had stopped working.
Aqua dumped a bucket of water over her head as she did the pseudo-shower of apparently Japanese tradition. Kazuma and Aqua were shown back in their original gear drinking milk. Whose vendor was just to the side of them in a purple apron and a light purple shirt with a white hat. Both Aqua and Kazuma held their left hands on their waists as they completely drained the glass jugs of milk.
The adventurer’s guild was shown at night and Kazuma bit into a drumstick and had to pull the meat apart with his teeth. Aqua bit into cheese on a fork before she and Kazuma bumped their Nereoid drinks together.
Kazuma threw a large blanket onto a pile of hay, which was finally free of horse scat. Aqua turned around and leapt backwards onto the blanket. Hands held close to her chest before she threw them out and upwards as she landed. Kazuma too was making a Y shape but he was face down into their new blanket.
Kazuma was finally working in unison with the other groundbreakers, but still wildly threw his head back and forth. …well mostly in sync, he was in a line with the others who were in actual synchronization. Kazuma operated the crane lifting up three more bricks to the top of the wall, and Aqua took a free ride. She waved some encouragement towards Kazuma as he got her level with the top of the wall.
Aqua and Kazuma were shown side by side as they did the bucket of water thing. They then banged their drinks together once more. They both sensed the presence of their construction co-workers and their eyes shrunk to pinpricks as they saw the entirety of the crew before them. Said crew was understandably pissed because of their lackluster work efforts. Kazuma and Aqua quietly shook in fear.
A white flash then Kazuma was shown line dancing with the other men, each of which was holding their own drinks. Everyone had their eyes closed as they swayed from side to side. Aqua bumped drinks with two of her co-workers as some of the tavern goers raised their mugs to the partying group of workers.
The camera zoomed out of Aqua chugging so much alcohol that even she had a small blush over her nose. Kazuma had a hand on his head as he closed his eyes and leaned back, nearly resting on his boss. In front of Kazuma was another filled to the brim mug, in fact the foam of the drink was overflowing. Next to the overflowing drink laid a plate of drum sticks. After that Kazuma rubbed Aqua’s back as she puked out a rainbow, a large one in fact with a modest puddle by their feet.
The next day Aqua slathered on more mortar in a sideways V shape, the duo did the bathtub bathing thing, and this time Aqua joined Kazuma in the conga line. The post dance drinking was skipped to replay the rainbow puking once more.
The dove lost the same amount of feathers as it heralded the dawn of a new day.
Kazuma still made his overly exaggerated faces but this time he was in sync with the other workers, Aqua made a sideways V Mortar. Then Aqua and Kazuma drained their small glasses of milk. …the clip of Kazuma eating a drumstick and Aqua eating cheese replayed. They toasted their drinks and the full conga line was shown in this replay. Before it zoomed into Aqua’s cheerful but closed eyes face. As transparent liquid droplets filled the bottom half of the screen.
The droplets continued as it went to Kazuma’s face, also full of enjoyment.
The navy blue sky filled with stars as the camera raced up to show the full moon. The music reached a crescendo as Aqua and Kazuma, now finally having separate blankets of their own. Laid down on their sack of hay. A beat filled with the white noise of nightlife animals as their work closes were hung on a drying line above them.
“Wait, this isn’t right!” Kazuma lunged into a seating position.
“Really, what was your first indication?” Lergen snarked.
“What isn’t?” Aqua asked, not willing to exit the comfort of her blanket by sitting up.
Kazuma placed his hand over his mouth. “No, wait a second!”
That caused Aqua to shuffle herself upwards and push her blanket down to her hips. Her blue nightgown was just a shade lighter than her hair or her eyes, it had a bare neck with exposed shoulders. Her nightgown was prevented from falling by two white straps connected to a thick white band. Above her breasts was a small tie, a dark purple circle with yellow trim. The main body of the tie was red and ended in a white chevron.
“What’s wrong?” Aqua asked. “Did you forget to use the bathroom before bed? It’s dark. Do you want me to go with you?”
Kazuma jolted his hand away and crunched it into a fist as he glared at Aqua.
“No need! It's not that!” Kazuma yelled
The stable owner was apparently close enough to hear that and banged against the wall. …further frightening their horses if said animals were awake. Aqua’s hair twirled as Kazuma hunched into himself, fists near his chin in an ametur’s boxing pose. His eyes were pinpricks as he stared at the wall separating him and a potential beatdown because of a noise complaint. Aqua completed her motion and her final pose was that karate chop hand position.
“Keep it down!” Shouted back the stable owner as Aqua’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks.
The pseudo-couple twisted their spines as they waved their hands and closed their eyes in the exact same way.
“W-We’re sorry!” They both stuttered in the same way.
Kazuma spread mortar over a seam in the bricks before placing a new brick over the seam. Aqua was sat a few feet away on a wooden stool so she could make a higher layer of bricks. Kazuma picked up another brick and laid it upon the mortar.
“We didn’t come here to be laborers.” Kazuma said.
“Oh,” Aqua jolted out of autopilot and turned towards Kazuma. “That’s right!”
Aqua pulled her brick and …mortar spreader thing away from her work station. “I need you to defeat the Demon King, or I’ll never be able to go home!”
Kazuma had a face of mute despair upon that. So much despair that the next scene was bathwater rippling as Kazuma gingerly lowered himself in.
“Her intelligence stat was lower than a human’s.” Kazuma thought.
“Oh, wait.” Aqua leaned over to Kazuma. Hand hiding a smirk. “You forgot as well.”
Kazuma hung his head.
Kazuma walked out of the bathhouse, carrying a small wooden box.
“All of the monsters near town have been long since exterminated.” Kazuma thought. “With no monsters, there's no need for anyone to give us fetch quests.”
================= Bloopers:
-during the pick a power section-
“I’m surprised that you didn’t say that Heroes marry into Belzerg’s Royalty if they killed a Demon King, and Nobility if they didn’t.” Darkness said. “Thus the Royal Family has abilities on par with the Heroic Cheats.”
“Why only Belzerg?” Aura asked.
“We’re the frontlines and have been for countless Demon Kings.” Megumin said.
“Thus the other nations provide elite troops to shore up our defenses and give other types of support. But the main financial backer of Belzerg is Elroad, a nation built on gambling.” Darkness clarified. Vol10 stuff.
------
“YOU CALL THAT REINCARNATION?!” Tanya yelled, trying to fly over to Kazuma to choke him. Luckily for Kazuma, Visha and Lergen knew Tanya very well and pinned her down. “THAT'S RESURRECTION NOT REINCARNATION!”
“Why would there be a separate term?” Aqua tilted her head.
“CAUSE THEY-” Weiss shoved an unwrapped chocolate bar into his superior’s mouth.
“Because they are widely different things.” Ristarte sighed, hanging her head at her fellow goddess’ stupidity.
--------------deleted cuz I was about to go into Christian-Norse relations and the Crusades.
The non-Military Records crew just sat there for a few seconds comprehending Yahweh’s Angels.
“Angels are also metaphors. Hence why the Cherubim have a human head for love, an ox head for strength, a lion’s head for majesty, and an eagle’s head for cunning.” Rudersdorf said. “Though as you can see on the left, the standard angel looks like a human, being the ones to interact with us most. “Be Not Afraid” does not help with that many eyes. The reason why they have white wings and halos, when they didn’t in the bible, is because the renaissance artists needed a way to differentiate their humans and angels.”
Satoru rested his head in his palms. “So, why did the Cherubim become the angel baby archers?”
“Valentine’s Day, a day where you’re supposed to give chocolate to your significant other.” Rudersdorf explained. “Thus the greco-roman minor deity named Eros/Cupid whose weaponry bestows love, usually in the romantic sense, to anyone they wound. Even himself. Got assimilated into said holiday, because we of the Abrahamic Faiths just love to take someone else’s properties and make it ours. Like what happened to Yuletide (a celebration of Norse’s Great God Odin) into a celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth.”
Satoru perked up. “Oh, right. Christians also transcribed the Norse Literature.”
The other worlds stared at the Military Records cast.
Rudersdorf raised an eyebrow, “Would you prefer the violent way known as the Crusades?”
----
Blooper: if the Axis Cultists were shown.
“This is my role, not yours!” Albedo thought.
In response a group of humans labeled the ‘Axis Cult (Aqua’s Faithful)’ were shown in all of their sexual deviancy. Particularly the various monsters charging the cultists, seeing/overhearing their affiliation, and instantly bolting for the horizon. An image was shown simply titled: Who controls art. On the bottom left was a monarch, in the middle was an eccentric millionaire, on the right was a furry with wads of cash.
“If there is a hole there is a way?” Zettour held his head in his hands. “What is this, the Roman Empire in popular depiction?”
“Oh, splendid. Yet more Eight Fingers-like organizations.” Sebas thought, ki bristled underneath his skin. “Thankfully this one doesn’t have any slave-brothels. …or at least ones that Weaver has yet to reveal to us.”
The others, save Darkness and Megumin, sat in silence absorbing the Axis Cult.
“So, Yggdrasil closed down without any word of a sequel or something.” Aqua, the Goddess of Monster Fuckers and other sexually societal Outcasts, shook her head no. “And that’s just the furries/heteromorph-only players. Especially considering that Name Recognition is just as valuable, if not more so, than Gold.”
“Especially since Satoru’s Earth had only humans and thus Yggdrasil (and its contemporaries) would be one of the only escapes from the cruelty of man.” Aqua raised her hands into a confused shrug. “And the other races couldn’t sabotage their ‘harmless’ reputations like hippos. Compared to Shark’s reputation of monsters always on the prowl.”
“Again, we are just as monstrous as you think we are.” Shalltear and Demiurge thought, cupping their heads in their hands.
“Unfortunately like Bitch/Whore did for women in general, Balscus ruined religions for Mr. Naofumi.” Raphtalia thought, rubbing her temples. “Otherwise you would maybe have a new convert. If you weren’t so lust focused.”
“So, your solution to you using people from a nation of declining birth rates and put them into a world of declining birth rates.” Tanya thought. “Was to reincarnate the people from the world of declining birth rates back into Japan. I’ve heard that [If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it] from the Americans. But this is ridiculous.”
=======Preview.
s1ep5/6:
“Why? Did you aim for his arm?” Puck’s tail twitched, Rem’s pinprick eyes were reflected in Puck’s very sharp teeth. “Why am I not the only one of his allies to kill him?”
S1ep7 re:zero
A pair of hands grasped Subaru’s and broke him out of his nightmare.
The oni twins merely turned their heads towards Subaru as they remember the first interaction they were allowed to keep.
“A simple hand holding is what caused you to forgive us?” Ram stated with half-lidded eyes. “You are far too kind, unnaturally so. The barest of bare minimums of kindness do not make up for what we did.”
….
Subaru leapt off the cliff.
“No, I retract that unnatural kindness comment.” Ram said. “You’re insane. Literally insane.”
S1ep8 of re:zero.
-------
“So, not only are you completely and utterly insane.” Tanya threw her hands up. “But you don’t even give yourself any rest? Seriously, wait a day or two before you are all chummy with those demons.”
“Racing against a dog clock, remember?” Subaru said.
S1ep14 of re:zero.
“Rem. Rem.” Subaru muttered as he dragged himself through the tragedy around him.
“I’ll count this as healing.” Rem said as she stared down at her hands.
Subaru opened his mouth.
“Yes, I know that it’s because you don’t want to actualize the thought of Emilia being hurt.” Rem spoke before Subaru could. “But thinking about people that have harmed you being hurt, is perfectly normal and a sane thing to do. Which you are in short supply of both.”
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S1ep2 of Shield Hero:
“You need to trust more.” Subaru said.
“You need to trust LESS!” Naofumi, Tanya, and Ainz shouted back at him.
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[0] Said angel being completely and utterly terrible was, in fact, the trigger for the party actually killing the demon king. By provoking Aqua’s good hearted nature with the fact that no one else is coming after Kazuma until Aqua is returned. No natives. No isekais. Nothing. Thus the Demon King thinks Kazuma is the Doom Slayer.
[1]the reason why I say this, is because in vol 4 (later half of season 2) Kazuma expresses shock at finding an Elf and Dwarf in Aqua’s church-town. So, elves and dwarves must skip Axel if they come. Also in vol 10, even another human nation does not want to support Belzerg. So why would non humans (other than Aqua and Eris) help? Remember that Belzerg has held back this current demon king for 7 centuries, several of them even before the Crimson Demon clan was made.
To the point where the Belzerd nobility have agreements for the Talentless. If a Talentless only kills a General, then they can marry into the nobility. The Dustiness Family (aka Darkness family) which has only accepted defensive cheats, there’s a rival family for offensive cheats. The royal family itself only accepts the Talentless who actually killed a Demon King. So, the other nations and races are basically blissfully unaware of the danger that the world is in. (which isn’t really shown because it's a comedy series).
Afterall, Belzerg has stood for many generations of Demon Kings, why should this one be any different.
[2]Yes, I know that the common fanon is that all water molecules would disappear with Aqua’s death. But that’s not how I interpated the debate between Aqua, Megumin, Darkness, and Lucy (vol14). But what about Eris not having big boobs if all her faithful believe that she has them? To which I reply: Fanon has Eris being an ascended human like Ristarte. I forget if that is actually canon to the ln, but that is what I am using.
Thus, like Ristarte and Cerceus, Eris is immune (or at least resistant) to attempts to mold her form and facts about her.
[3]in canon, Dragons do have Arcana but that only grants magic resist for them. The smell and stat increase is also canon. Again, I am spending far too much time trying to make sense out of a comedy series.
[4]Yeah it’s canon that Wiz is literally the reason why Konosuba’s Demon King isn’t overlord vol14/later half of s4, or any of the Overly Cautious Demon Kings.
AN: Brain: hey you know what’s a good idea? Use the power picking section to brainstorm powers. Me actually writing: oh hell no. even though I did come up with powers and how to connect them into explaining Actual Speed v Esoteric Speed (using DC’s Flash) vs Action Economy (using Brain Unglaus). That is just too unwieldy, SO STOP APPEARING IN MY MIND, BRAIN!
In other news, that thing about Mare smashing the ice statute of Brain? Yeah I thought it was a personal smack with his staff, ‘comedic’ or otherwise. Not that Brain was caught up in the AOE of Mare’s spells. So Mare is surprisingly less of an asshole than I thought he was.
"I respect you enough to command my subordinates to freeze you into cryostasis, take your weapon as a trophy, but not enough to move your body out of the AOE of my coworker." -Cocytus to Brain.
Unless the road the nobles took to Ainz’ rubble throne was the street Brain defended, then Cocytus must have asked Mare not to destroy the street.
In other news: I’ve got a tumblr, worldweaverofmediocrity. Go there to see progress updates on this story (and maybe others)
I want to have subaru discuss the normal cour length of 12/13 episodes, thus he mistakenly believes that most of the mansion loops (such as the ones where the Oni Twin were cruel to him) wouldn’t be featured in favor of saving the screen time for pete. Thus, he (alone in his head) doesn’t need to explain why he committed a (heroic) suicide nor why he isn’t deeply afraid of said twins. Nor his self harming habit. Or his fear of chains. But I have no idea where to put that, maybe I should save that for the next re:zero episode.
…and i basically lost my first job because of crippling anke pain/constantly under preforming. So job search twice in one year. …yay -_-
I don’t expect to live past 8/30/23, because I have an endoscopy and that requires anatheisa (the part i’m worried about) i’ve underwent that far too many times (like 15+ because when I was 6-8 I had to do an endoscopy every six weeks), so i’ve rolled the dice too amny times. If I don’t take this down in like 5 days, then i’m dead. Writing this last bit during a panick attack.
#isekai quartet#re:zero#overlord#saga of tanya the evil#the overpowered hero is overly cautious#overly cautious hero#overly cautious#konosuba#writing#my writing#the rising of the shield hero
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Hey! How are you doing? Hope you're having a lovely day whenever you read this!!
So, I have two different things to ask, but I'll make them both, sorry to be bothering and hope this doesnt get too long lol
1st. I know that Adrienne was a deeply Christian woman from birth to death, and I know that in some time in her life she helped out Protestants (?). So, my question here is basically, did she always helped people from other religions like that? or that was just something she used to do out of charity without caring too much about those people? Did she always sort of have it in her or did she only started it because of everything that was happening in the country? (dont know if i worded that in a understandable way, if i didnt let me know)
2nd. did the lafayette's (and their respective families) owned any sort of pets? (I've heard of that dog that Gilbert had and when he died, it went to live with his valet (?), but when did he got that dog too? did it simply appear in front of the house and it stayed? so many questions... so many questions... lmao)
Dear @msrandonstuff,
Don’t you worry, I am never bothered by asks! :-)
For the first question, Adrienne was a devout catholic. She was taught by her mother and the duchess d’Ayen always allowed Adrienne, her sisters and later La Fayette, when he moved in with the family, to question things. In my opinion that is not only a very healthy way to teach religion but also reduces prejudges. Adrienne's husband La Fayette was a great champignon of religious freedom. He wrote to George Washington on May 11, 1785:
102 ⟨Protestants⟩ in 12 ⟨France⟩ are under intolerable 80 ⟨Despotism⟩—altho’ oppen persecution does not now Exist, yet it depends upon the whim of 25 ⟨king⟩; 28 ⟨queen⟩, 29 ⟨parliament⟩, or any of 32 ⟨the Ministers⟩—marriages are not legal among them—their wills Have no force By law—their children are to Be Bastards—their parsons to Be Hanged—I Have put it into My Head to Be a 1400 ⟨Leader⟩ in that affair, and to Have their Situation changed—with that wiew I am Going, under other pretences to Visit their chief places of abode, With a Consent of 42 ⟨Castries⟩, and an other—(…) it is a Work of time, and of Some danger to me, Because none of them Would give me a Scrap of paper, or Countenance whatsoever—But I Run My chance—(…).
“To George Washington from Lafayette, 11 May 1785,” Founders Online, National Archives, [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, vol. 2, 18 July 1784 – 18 May 1785, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1992, pp. 550–551.] (10/01/2022)
La Fayette was not lying, when he said that the undertaking could be somewhat dangerous to him. He wrote his letter in ciphers, tasked John Quincy Adams with delivering the letter personally because Adams was just returning to the States and asked Washington not to reply to his portion of the letter. Washington urged La Fayette to be carful and to that La Fayette replied on February 11, 1786:
(…) I thank you most tenderly, my dear General, for the Caution You Give me, which I will improve, and find that Satisfaction in my prudence to think it is dictated By You—I Hope, Betwen us, that in the Course of Next winter the affair of the protestants Will take a Good turn (…)
“To George Washington from Lafayette, 6 February 1786,” Founders Online, National Archives, [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Confederation Series, vol. 3, 19 May 1785 – 31 March 1786, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994, pp. 538–547.] (10/01/2022)
I got a bit distracted here so back to the question at hand. Adrienne was not opposed to Protestants gaining civil rights, but she was very opposed to every action that was directed against the Roman Catholic religion. She absolutely and staunchly refused to take mess from a priest who had sworn the civil oath and when La Fayette, himself more or less reluctantly, received the new Bishop of Paris for dinner, Adrienne made it a point to not partake. That was not just a private dispute about religious customs, but her absence at the dinner table made national headlines.
La Fayette was not happy about Adrienne’s behaviors during this time as he himself was between a rock and a hard place. He believed in religious freedom but was forced to carry out the politics of the assembly – politics that he often did not fully support. Adrienne was normally his strength and stay but in matters of religion she refused to bow even to her husband.
Adrienne had a firm stand on religious matters and she was willing to face serious repercussions for following her faith. I could not recall a specific event where Adrienne helped Protestants in particular and I also think that she did not knew a great many Protestants personally (simply because they were not in her private circles.) But Adrienne was also a gentle and carrying soul, a mother and someone who deeply believed in Christian charity, and I therefore can not imagine that she would have turned away someone needing or seeking her help, solely because of their religion.
As to the second question, yes, the La Fayette’s owned a number of animals but we have to differentiate here. After his release from prison and return to France, La Fayette started farming at La Grange. From Jules Germain Cloquet’s book we know that during the height of the farm, La Fayette owned 1000 – 1200 sheep, 30 – 40 cows and 100 – 150 pigs. Cloquet described the animal population of La Grange in great detail. How they came to the farm, how they were housed, how they were feed, how they smelled (the pigs emitted no “disagreeable smell”) and what not.
La Fayette also had a little ménagerie at La Grange for more exotic animals that he was gifted. Cloquet wrote:
One is a grated enclosure, a sort of ménagerie, in which Lafayette kept such foreign animals as were sent to him. After his return to France, he had received, from Governor Clarke, a young gray bear from the Missouri territory. Ever animated with the desire of being useful to his fellow-citizens, he refused to keep so rare an animal at Lagrange, and made a present of it to the professors of the Museum of Natural History, to be placed in their ménagerie.
Jules Germain Cloquet, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette, Baldwin and Cradock, London, 1835, p. 213.
As to more domestic animals, you already mentioned La Fayette’s little white dog. Cloquet wrote:
During his malady, Lafayette was very fond of a small white bitch, which he had received, I believe, from Madame de Bourck, and which never quitted him. The animal, which was gifted with a remarkable degree of instinct, permitted nobody, except Bastien, to approach her master’s clothes when he was in bed, expressed joy or sorrow according as he felt better or worse, and might have served as a thermometer to indicate the state of his health. Since the General’s death, she has followed Bastien to Lagrange, but has never resumed her gaiety.
Jules Germain Cloquet, Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette, Baldwin and Cradock, London, 1835, p. 274.
La Fayette most likely owned more dogs during his lifetime, but I have neither numbers nor names for you. He was, however, quite knowledgeable about the different breeds and sometimes got his hands on dogs that his friends in America wanted to purchase. He was also a lover of horses and while he owned several horses during his lifetime, one is especially famous: Jean Le Blac – I wrote about him in a post on here but thanks to tumblr’s *exceptional* search-engine I can not even find my own post.
Hope that helped and I hope you day was/is just as lovely as mine was! :-)
#ask me anything#msrandonstuff#marquis de lafayette#la fayette#french history#french revolution#history#letter#adrienne de lafayette#adrienne de noailles#animals#founders online#religion#jules germain cloquet#memoirs#1785#1786#jean le blanc#tumblr being tumblr
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LOADING FILE 📂 . . . OPENING LOONA’S PROFILE
##basics !!
birthname: ya sang
english name: piper ya
nicknames: belly, nation's ace, armstrong, moon child, star, pip-pip, bella, weasley
birthdate: april 1, 2000
zodiac signs: aries / dragon
birthplace: south korea
hometown: cheongdam, seoul, south korea
current residence: seoul, south korea
nationality: south korean
ethnicity: korean
languages: korean (native), english (conversational), japanese (conversational), spanish (advanced), mandarin (conversational)
##physical traits !!
height: 166 cm / 5 ft 5 in
weight: 45 kg / 99 lbs
blood type: o positive
eye color: black
natural hair color: dark brown
notable features: cat eyes, mole on left eyebrow arch and left side of her nose, faded scar on right thigh, and dark birthmark on left calf
modifications: 4x lobes each ear and 5 tattoos
faceclaim: hwang yeji (itzy)
vocal claim: taeyeon (snds)
rap claim: bibi (soloist)
dance claim: hwang yeji (itzy)
##career info !!
stage name: loona
solo fandom: roses / rosies
positions: n/a
debut date: march 9, 2019 (korea), january 15, 2020 (japan)
years active: 2019 - present
agency: big hit entertainment / hybe labels - 2019
former agency: n/a
group: txt / tomorrow by together
representative emoji: 👽 / 🌙
##personal information !!
mbti type: infp
family: father, sister, aunt, two dogs
positive traits: hardworking, passionate
negative traits: over critical of herself, low self esteem
phobia(s): atychiphobia ( fear of failure )
habit(s): day dreaming, jumping when excited, biting her nails
##trivia !!
she goes live to shows off her art, even stream sometime, her favorite things to draw/paint is astrology, horoscopes, and her friends
the members say she a neat freak
despite there being not set positions, many fans say loona could be the main dancer
she got the scar on her thigh from falling out a tree and on to a fence
loona stated she hates being center
loona has very severe allergies, with both blueberries and real leather
loona got scouted while working at a restaurant
she loves mint chocolate
her favorite place in hybe building is the roof, because she can see the stars
2022 © writerblock-sucks
layout inspired by @txt-yoohyeon
taglist : @ateez-seul @lovely-sanie @skzfairies @still-astray (feel free to send an ask to be on/off the taglist)
#aes!ocnet#deluxeocnet#txt 6th member#txt sixth member#6th member of txt#txt extra member#txt female addition#txt female member#txt female oc#txt imagines#txt au#kpop extra member#kpop oc#kpop addition#kpop female addition#kpop female oc#kpop au#kpop imagines#kpop additional member#kpop female member
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2022 in gifs
the lovely @nikolatexla and @bellamuertes tagged me to share my favourite and most popular posts from each month of the year! thank you 💕
(I'm gonna do gifsets only because I don't really have popular OR fav posts that aren't gifs lol :') also, this is gonna include sets posted to group/sideblogs because I think it's more fun that way and a lot of my best work was not on main hehe :))
january
most popular: hollywood a.d. bathtub scene (on dailytxf)
favourite: paris, texas (on cinematv)
february
most popular: scully in three of a kind (on dailytxf)
favourite: per manum parallel
march
most popular: spock + space dog (on cinematv)
favourite: my 1 year txf anniverary
april
most popular & favourite: the x files but it's just the memes (on dailytxf)
may
most popular: the x files but again it's just the memes (on dailytxf)
favourite: audrey's dance
june
most popular: the most upsetting scene from the wrath of khan :')
favourite: summertime (on vintageblr)
july
most popular: la haine (on vintageblr)
favourite: well, you know what they say
august
most popular: the best scene ever in the history of cinema (on wrathofkhan)
favourite: breaking bad colour theory
september
most popular: jose chung's pie scene
favourite: happy x-files day! (on dailytxf)
october
most popular: AND IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT
favourite: pscentral event 8: dynamics
november
most popular: data & spot (on tvarchive)
favourite pscentral event 9: comfort
december
most popular: jiji scene from kiki's delivery service (on vintageblr)
favourite: (I'm gonna pick 2 bc I'm equally proud of them and they equally deserved better...rip :')) pscentral event 10: best of 2022 // season 6 mcwexler + the national, the pull of you
overall I'd say it was a good year for me in terms of gifs! I had some highs and some (very low) lows but I feel like I really grew as a gifmaker, as cheesy as that may sound, and I got a lot of love from all kinds of corners of this website for which I am very grateful! 💓
tagging @jimmymcgill @davisbette @mulderscully @delphines @jackharkness @batemans if u want :)
#tag games#ok logging off for the night! I spent last new year's on tumblr and i'm definitely not doing that again fhskfbjk#happy new year everyone <333
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2022: ☆ January ☆ February ☆ March ☆ April ☆ May ☆ June ☆ July ☆ August ☆
Thomas Hunt x Alex Spencer
[HollywoodU] [Red Carpet Diaries]
Restless [RCD]: Alex is having trouble falling asleep… for some reason…
The Bogart Diaries #33: National Dog Day [RCD] : Alex forgot National Dog Day, so they take Bogart out for a special afternoon with all his favorite things, but is it enough?
Trapped (Hunt’s Journal) [HWU]:Hunt reflects on his night being trapped in the studio with Alex.
My Weakness (Hunt’s Journal)[HWU]: Following the events of the Date Auction in which Hunt was punched by and then punched a drunk idiot to defend Alex and confessed his weakness to her, he goes home and journals about the events.
The One I Want [HWU]: After confessing to Alex she’s the one he wants at his dinner party, their moment together lingers a little longer.
Being Together [HWU]: Hunt and Alex are taking the ferry to Catalina Island for their first official date.
Forbidden Romance [HWU]: Hunt can’t stop himself from critique films, even on a date.
Worth the Risk [HWU]: At the drive in, Hunt and Alex await the movie’s start.
Moving In Together [HWU]: Following Rachel’s wedding, Hunt asks Alex to move in with him. Now, comes the unpacking.
A Night to Remember [HWU]: While moving in to his their house, Alex finds a small curious box with something familiar.
My Forever (Hunt’s Journal) [HWU] : What started out as a simple gift from the flea market changed everything. (engagement)
Kiss the Cook [HWU]: After moving in, Alex and Hunt make dinner together.
Bryce Lahela x Olivia Hadley[Open Heart]
Lucky: Bryce and Olivia are adorable idiots in love.
Tiramissu: Bryce visits Olivia at the hospital on his day off and brings her favorite dessert.
Pretty in White: Olivia is feeling self-conscious about her bold wardrobe choice for the gala.
Commissions, sketches, and edits below the cut
🖤 Alex and Thomas Hunt Kiss (RCD Book 2)
🖤 Thomas Hunt x Alex Spencer : Hollywood U art scenes
#01: Kiss the Cook by @bayleedrawsx
#02: You’re my Weakness by @rpbys
#03: The One I Want by @hydn-jpg
#04: Being Together by @vantaray
#05: Worth the Risk by @gokushairgel
#06: Free by @/artsy_elii (Instagram)
#07: Moving in Together by @/seirachannn (Instagram)
#08: A Night to Remember by @/irdeinfierno (Instagram)
#09: My Forever by @/artbyainna (Instagram)
#10: And That’s a Wrap by @/sherry_artwo (Instagram)
#11: Not Goodbye (gift) from @hydn-jpg
#12: Trapped by @/mm1kaa_ (Instagram)
Hollywood U appreciation week art masterlist
🖤 Olivia + Bryce Lahela picnic kiss art by @/Irdeinfierno (Instagram)
🖤 Chibi Bryce Head art + gif by @/cikilemon on IG
🖤 Tyril + Maiele gift commission and drabble for @lilyoffandoms
Farewell to Hollywood U Masterlist
Moodboards + Edits:
Red Carpet Diaries Moodboard
Thomas Hunt Moodboard
Addison Sinclair Moodboard
Blades of Light and Shadow Moodboard
Daenarya Moodboard
Thomas Hunt and Alex magazine cover edits
Videos:
Amour Hunt Date Quest Videos
Hollywood U assorted Videos
Custom Hunt Funkos
Thomas Hunt Custom Funko Pops
Thomas Hunt Custom Funko Pops #2
Thomas Hunt Custom Funko Pops #3
HWU Screenshots + Memories:
Alex ruining Hunt’s plans to remain a bachelor for life
Hunt admits Alex is the one he wants
Thomas Hunt outfit assets
Hunt plays Choices
Reward: Thomas Hunt (aka the best reward)
Alex tripping on purpose so Hunt would catch her aka idiots in love
Thomas and Alex in Couples Corner gifs and other gifs and screenshots
Thomas and Alex workshopping gifs
Missing You (idiots in love) screenshot
#thomas hunt#thomas hunt x mc#thomas hunt x oc#thomas hunt rcd#thomas orson hunt#professor hunt#red carpet diaries#hollywood u#bryce lahela#open heart#bryce lahela x mc#bryce lahela x oc#hunt x mc#hwu hunt#rcd hunt#professor hunt x mc#choices#playchoices#choices game#lovealexhunt#august2022
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Songs of the South
I made a chronological playlist of Caitlyn's life, starting from Spanish colonization all the way to the Year of Our Lord 2022.
Song explanations under cut.
Overture
“Sally In The Garden/Big Country/Molly Put the Kettle On”
I chose this song to begin the playlist, as it’s a medley of folk music that sets the mysterious, jovial tone. My intention here is to keep the listener interested to see how these themes appear later on.
St. Augustine and La Florida
This section begins Caitlyn Montgomery’s life. She’s born Catalina Maria Fortunata de la Rosa Fernandez, a Spanish colony discovered in the wildflowers of her native land.
“Wildflowers” – Being born out of wildflowers, I thought this opening song was appropriate
“Dormite Mi Niño” – This is a common lullaby in Spanish-speaking countries, which I thought was a good way to symbolize the beginning of Caitlyn’s consciousness
“Alma Mía” – This song is foreshadowing for her future life. While she’s using Spanish a primary language, she feels misunderstood and alone, especially after England takes her away from her homeland. She yearns to find a soul like her own.
“Lo Que Perdimos” – This song as well is sung to an unknown lover, foreshadowing her future.
Under British Rule
“Howling” – I chose this song to express her longing and unhappiness with confinement in England, and that she is never able to be the lady that England wants her to be. She’s howling at night in frustration, though she doesn’t dare express these emotions in front of him.
“Madison’s Whim” – This begins her return to America, finding it very different than the continent she left nearly a century prior. This song sets the tone for the ones to come.
“Lees of Old Virginia” – Her patron families, the southern gentry, were the controlling figures in her life for the next two centuries. It only feels appropriate to introduce them with one of my favorite himbos.
“The Captain’s Daughter” – This song is our first introduction to the character Alfred F Jones. While Alfred is Arthur’s son, he acts and looks like a common laborer, and so Cait is forbidden from associating with him beyond a professional setting. Her wealth, however, brings her no comfort.
“Flowers” – Cait is absolutely smitten with this boy the moment she meets him, but their income gap is impossible to ignore. This song is sung from Alfred’s perspective. He has no life to offer her that would compare to the luxury and comfort she currently enjoys with her patrons.
“Fish and Tea” – The rumblings of revolution begin to sneak out of the taverns. Unrest seeps into the streets. War appears imminent.
“Molasses to Rum” – I would be dishonest to attempt to tell Caitlyn’s, or the South’s, story without addressing slavery. This song does an excellent job of talking about the subject and how the southern gentry relied on the barbaric practice to fund their lifestyles.
Declaring Independence
“Address to the Ladies” – In addition to being a contemporary song of the start of the revolution, the themes of giving up fineries and comfort for the cause of patriotism will return throughout Cait’s life.
“Lovely Nancy” – A marching song signals the start of the revolution in our timeline.
“When Creation Was Young” – Caitlyn and Alfred exchange letters throughout the revolution. Knowing that Alfred was raised Puritan, she uses Biblical imagery to express her affections for him.
“Dog” – Caitlyn is still a teenager at this time, and so spent a lot of time daydreaming of their future as unified nation.
“The World Turned Upside Down” – A classic revolution-era song, used here to signal the end of the war and the beginning of a new world. The United States of America takes its first fledgling steps.
Antebellum Days
“Long Hot Summer Days” – Industry and agriculture existed in a tense balance for the beginning of American history. Barges and canals brought cotton shipments to the coast for international markets.
“From This Valley” – Expressing gratitude to God for the peaceful and independent life they’ve created, this song represents their settling into new roles as protectors of the new nation.
“Rivers and Roads” – While the union existed on paper, the connections between the states were still dangerous to traverse. The young couple would, nevertheless, cross treacherous rivers for one another’s sake.
“If You Want a Song” – As the South expanded westward, a culture of music followed. The folk-style of this song represents the music of the slaves as the practice expanded with the political boundaries.
“The Clearness is Gone” – Trouble brews in the new nation. Compromises are made, and distinct lines get blurred. What seemed like a perfect idea soon proves to be a looming disaster.
“Don’t Call Me Names” – The disagreements turn from political to personal. Insults fly around Congress and the common people. When Preston and Brooks had their famous “disagreement”, the country was already set to come to blows.
“King of Anything” – The South begins to resent the North and the compromises that make no one happy. However, the North has a much larger voting population, and so controls more of the federal government. Cait begins to wonder why she lets Alfred boss her and her people around.
“Katie Queen of Tennessee” – If she isn’t bowing to Alfred, she might as well be the queen of her own kingdom. She declares herself independent of him.
Civil Blood Makes Civil Hands Unclean
“General Lee” – This instrumental ballad opens up the Civil War. General Lee himself didn’t join the Southern Cause immediately, but I liked the way this one sounded.
“I Never Knew You” – Now that the lovers were separated by the throes of war against each other, the begin to wonder what they ever saw in the other.
“White Flag” – The Confederate Army considered themselves to merely be carrying out the cause of original independence from the British to its logical conclusion. They believed their cause of self-determination was righteous, and so never considered the possibility of losing the war.
“Roll Alabama, Roll” – A shanty written about the CSS Alabama, which was instrumental to the Confederates during the course of the war.
“Dixie” – The unofficial anthem of the Confederate States of America.
“Southron’s Battle Cry of Freedom” – During the Civil War, both parties engaged in parodying each other’s songs.
“Sticks that Made Thunder” – This song represents the Battle of Gettysburg, marking the turning point of the war. From this point onward, Dixie was doomed.
“The Battle Cry of Freedom” – The songs shift from supporting the Confederacy to supporting the Union as the war draws to its end.
“Union Dixie” – The common belief that Confederates were traitors rather than fellow countrymen became very hard to undo, especially when Reconstruction began.
“No Children” – “Hand in unlovable hand”. Come on. I had to.
“Arsonist’s Lullabye” – If I don’t include a reference to the burning of Atlanta, is it really one of my creative projects?
“Whiskey Lullaby” – Caitlyn died at the final battle of the war: Appomattox Courthouse. The next few songs are about this final day.
“I Want to Say I’m Sorry” – Upon finding Caitlyn’s body, which didn’t resurrect, Alfred grieves and regrets that their relationship deteriorated the way that it did.
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” – This song is sung from the perspective of the people of Dixie who were broken and beaten down by the war. The civilians and innocents on both sides of the war were severely impacted, and the scars left on this nation are deep. However
“Shiloh’s Hill” – This instrumental track closes out the Civil War on a sober note.
“Front Porch” – When Cait finally resurrects after the war, she’s left without any memories or idea of who she is. This song is about her trying to navigate through life with only what Alfred tells her. She’s trying to regain her memories, but continually gets confused by Alfred’s lies.
“Duet” – One of the lies that Alfred tells her is that they’ve been married for five years. She has no problem accepting this, as one of the few things she remembers is that she loved him.
“Vanity” – When her memories are restored, and she realizes that she lost the war, she spirals into deep depression. Her only chance at independence was quashed, and she feels entirely powerless. Everything she plans, says, and does is meaningless.
“Letter to Lady J” – Reconstruction begins. The cleanup of the war’s aftermath begins. There’s many questions of what to do, and who to blame for the problems they were all facing. Animosity still rages.
“Geraldine” – Reconstruction is resisted by the Southern people. What the North calls progress, the South calls exploitation, and a destruction of property and liberty.
“The Rain Keeps Falling” – Caitlyn’s depression slowly begins to lift in rediscovering herself and the love of her people. Religion continues to unite the South.
“February Seven” – As she starts to forgive Alfred for his lies and the harm that the war caused one another, she realizes that she wants him back.
“Along Together” – Rebuilding a nation is difficult. They might as well do it together, but that requires a level of trust that they aren’t sure they have yet.
The Turn of the Century
“The Devil Went Down to Georgia” – A classic song depicting the clash of cultures. The Devil, North influence, offers gold in exchange for the South’s soul.
“Angel From Montgomery” – Southern culture transforms. Musical traditions become more distinct. African-American spirituals are one of these traditions that evolves as the century progresses.
“The Wreck of the Old 97” – Industry expanded rapidly in the South. Often too rapidly. Train wrecks and other industrial accidents were more common in the South than the North due to this rapid expansion.
“Song of the South” – This is a quick overview of the South at the turn of the century. The region was the poorest in the nation. The Great Depression further deepened this economic disparity. The Tennessee Valley Authority was one project in FDR’s New Deal that succeeded in improving the economic status of Southerners.
“Louise” - During this time, Cait and Alfred resumed living together as a married couple. However, the Depression strained their newly re-formed relationship.
“Coat of Many Colors” – Dolly Parton sang about her experiences in the very poorest regions of the South. This is in incredible juxtaposition to the conspicuous consumption of the southern gentry who started the war. The following next few songs are chosen mostly because the songs have Southern themes and sound nice.
“Hey Porter” – I just like Johnny Cash. It has good vibes. He’s singing about Tennessee.
“Wherever You Are” – I’ve got no explanation for this song, actually. I just really like it. Listen to the lyrics and decide for yourself if there’s any connotations in there.
“If You’re Gonna Play in Texas” – Despite the best attempts of the federal government to nationalize the culture, you do, in fact, need a fiddle in the band to play in Texas.
“My Tennessee Mountain Home” – Country music like this romanticized the ‘Hidden Eden’ of the South, which contributed to the massive migration of northerners southward. Air conditioning made this move possible.
“Mountain Music” – We love romanticization of the South.
“Jolene” – I don’t need to explain Jolene to you. Just enjoy it.
“Hold Out Your Hand” – Back to seriousness, Cait became more personally industrious during the early 20th century, especially during the Depression. She became involved in rum-running and production during Prohibition.
“Heartache After Heartache” – With the economy going through the lowest lows and highest highs, Alfred and Cait’s relationship fluctuated a lot in the first few decades.
“Down With The Shine” – One of the most common arguments that these two would have regarded Caitlyn’s drinking problem. She’d developed alcoholism due to the trauma she experienced during the war and Reconstruction. While Cait does occasionally drink, she’s much more cautious in the modern day.
“Paradise” – With the increase in industrialization, farms and forests are replaced with factories and homes. I’ll let you decide whether you think that’s a good thing.
Mid-Century Hysteria
“A Thing Called Love” – Following the end of the World Wars, Alfred and Cait followed the societal trend of buying a house in the suburbs and living a quiet, prosperous life. They knew it was ultimately an act they were both putting on, but it was enjoyable while it lasted.
“No Matter Where You Are” – That’s not to say that they didn’t actually love each other. They did. Having a unified front was just also useful politically.
“Bees” – I just like to imagine these idiots trying to figure each other out. Mutual pining for something real but always unable to get it.
“Queen of the House” – The typical housewife of the 1950s was at once freed by machines of convenience and restrained by societal expectations. If housekeeping was so easy now, why wasn’t any individual woman’s house not spotless all the time?
“Just One of the Guys” – The big fight of the late 1950s was the problem of children. Caitlyn felt left out of her community because she was childless. They tried to have kids, but ultimately Alfred determined that it was impossible. Caitlyn didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer, and began experimenting with new medications and fertility treatments. These treatments ended up making Cait very sick, and she was getting increasingly frustrated and upset.
“Lay All Your Love on Me” – When she was trying to have kids, Caitlyn became obsessive, and possessive of Alfred. She accused him of cheating, of not being invested in their marriage, in not wanting her to be happy. She demanded all of his attention all of the time.
“Die From A Broken Heart” – Ultimately, Alfred couldn’t let her destroy herself with treatments and frustration. He abandoned her at their small home in Alabama and returned to DC.
Space And Race
“Squirrel of Possibility” – An instrumental break brings us into the next decade. 1960.
“Morning Song” – Abandoned by Alfred, Caitlyn struggled to find purpose in life.
“I Shouldn’t Go Anywhere” – Caitlyn turned back to drinking to deal with the abandonment.
“Mississippi Goddamn” – This decade marked an explosion of Civil Rights Activism. Segregation had been the norm since the end of the Civil War. Tensions were at an all time high as the economy improved, but living conditions of Black Americans stayed poor.
“Side by Side” – Martin Luther King Jr. was the most recognizable face of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. His leadership led to the desegregation of public spaces and workplaces. Caitlyn finally took notice of him during his Selma March in 1965. While originally skeptical that radical change could be accomplish, she was persuaded to join the protests as they continued throughout the rest of the decade.
“Launch” – In addition to altering the laws of society, the South was overcoming the laws of physics. Apollo 11 launched July 16, 1969, sending the first humans to walk on the moon.
“Fly Me To The Moon” – This was one of the songs that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins had onboard the Saturn V on their mission.
“Lunar Landing” – Optimism soared at the end of this decade. Humanity had seemingly done the impossible. Caitlyn herself worked in the Huntsville labs running small experiments and calculations.
Two Centuries and Beyond
“The South’s Gonna Do It Again” – A hundred years and counting from their massive defeat, the South is slowly recovering from their economic and political losses. While it’s very unlikely that Dixie will ever hold the sway that she once did, modern Southerners are no longer interested in influencing the federal government, and would prefer to be left entirely alone. A sense of Southern-ness as an identity remains strong.
“662” – Music and art that focuses on small areas and what makes the South, and specific areas within the South, special, have become very popular.
“9 To 5” – Dolly Parton always says it best. Country music is, at its core, about celebrating the Southerner and complaining about everything putting you down.
“Merry Go ‘Round” – Many areas of the South remain relatively poor and are stuck in a cycle of poverty. The solution to these cycles was never federal involvement, but fellow Southerners encouraging and helping each other out.
“Automatic” – Some say that the soul of the South was damaged by industrialization. I don’t know if I believe that, since I’m awfully fond of air conditioning and espresso. But it’s an interesting philosophy.
“Damn Country Music” – One problem of the national popularity of country music is that the market has become saturated with shallow lyrics and soulless stories. Everybody knows somebody who ran off to Nashville to make their fortune. Most of them end up bartenders for bachelorette parties.
“Postcard Memories” – At the turn of the 21st century, Alfred and Caitlyn reconnected and decided to give their marriage another shot, moving to DC together.
“Musta Been Something” – This try was very short-lived, only last for fifteen years, culminating in a breakup in 2015, 150 years after the end of the war.
“Sick of Losing Soulmates” – Neither were pleased with the breakup, and are still looking for solutions to their relationship problems.
“Mercy” – The on-again-off-again cycle that these two have had for the past several centuries is exhausting both of them.
“The Trouble with Wanting” – Both of them want to get back together, but have such severe communication and trust issues that it seems impossible to them.
“Because of Yours” – Their lives have been intertwined since the first English settlers landed on the shores of Virginia. The rivers and mountains run the wrong way for North and South to ever be separated.
“Better With Time” – Ultimately, I think they will get back together. Like a fine wine, these fools get better with time.
#playlist#did i spend more time on this than on my job today?#yes#it's okay it's fun#go listen to my playlist for lore#Spotify
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I have not been updating my blog! My first journey out this year was in February and March. I was fortunate to visit my cousins Eric and Dianne Common in Guntersville, Alabama. My dOg and their Roscoe, Winston, and Teddy (cat) got along well. It's so welcoming at their home. I stayed in Nashville on my way south to Alabama. It actually *snowed* in Nashville when we were there. I had my Sorel boots and dOg had his snowsuit, so we were cozy. It all melted in two days!
I went back to Michigan for the Celebration of Life on April 2, 2022 for my brother Chris L Common and his wife, Cindy Jones Common. They were tragically killed by a distracted 17 year old girl driver in Sarasota, Florida just after Christmas, 2021. They were out running as they did on a regular basis, and the girl hit them. My two brothers were at the celebration. My niece and nephew, Kelly and Chris, did an absolutely wonderful job in this remembrance gathering for their parents.
I stayed at my son's house in Ferndale. I flew out to see our mom on her 93rd birthday on May 27, 2022. I surprised her! I hadn't seen her since she moved from Michigan to California in December, 2021. She showed me all around her beautiful new place, Emerald Court, Anaheim. Mom introduced me to her new friends. I feel her move was a very good one. I got her full keyboard set up for her to play. She also can play the baby grand at Emerald Court. It's amazing how the mind puts out the music! She's an incredible pianist. She enjoys going to activities, but I know she misses regular church attendance.
I left Michigan again on June 17, 2022. I picked up my trailer in Piqua, Ohio and proceeded to Indiana. Next I went through Kentucky, and then stayed in the Nashville area for about a week. My journey route was dictated at first by available RV sites.
Then it was across the great Mississippi River to Arkansas! This was my first time to this state. I thought about two friends' experiences in Arkansas.
Then I made it to Texas! We stayed at a Love's Truck Stop south of Texarkana. That will hopefully never happen again in hot weather. Hardly slept; my Jackery battery ran out of steam to power the fan. The only good thing about it is that we were on the road by 6am! Traveling when it's 80° rather than the afternoon temp of 107° was a bit easier. You know travel at that time of the day will not happen often for me!
I finally got to San Antonio, where my cousins live. Charlie and Debbie Common, originally from the Flint, Michigan area, are raising their 18 month old granddaughter. The four of us plus dOg hung out, and went out to dinner for their 45th anniversary.
Next we drove a bit out of our way, but I wanted to see the Tesla Giga Factory, SE of Austin. It was a sight to behold. Huge! Previously, I'd seen its grand opening on TV - the Cyber Rodeo!
Then we stayed at a state park near Burnet, Texas. This was my first time not having cell service! Couldn't pick up any TV stations on my antenna, either. What to do, what to do? I'd just bought my new Purple mattress, plus I had a book given to me by Kim. I read a bit and went to sleep.
Currently we are at Abilene State Park. The state parks are generally prettier, have bigger sites, and are less expensive than private RV parks. I have water and a much-needed power supply, so all is well. The rate is $20/night. Even dOg is ready to come back inside because of the oppressive heat. There's a warning out again today from the National Weather Service about the high temperatures. So far the Texas power grid has provided us with unending AC. I think it's safe to say that I can mark Texas off of my list of states to potentially move to!
I've caught you up on our adventures so far this year. I will be writing more frequently and posting pictures of the incredible things in our big country.
Bai bai for now!
(Japanese for Bye bye)
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Holidays 3.3
Holidays
Africa Environment Day
Bonza Bottler Day
Caregiver Appreciation Day
Common Fumitory Day (French Republic)
Creation Day
Discovery Day (a.k.a. Magellan Day; Guam)
Ear Day (Japan)
Family Day (Mexico)
First Sitting of the People's Majlis (Maldives)
Flag Day (Kyrgyzstan)
Free Pass Day
If Pets Had Thumbs Day
International Ear Care Day
International Omega-3 Awareness Day
International Sex Workers Rights Day
International TAPS Day
International Threesome Day
International Tripawd Awareness Day
International Writers’ Day
I Want You To Be Happy Day
Japanese Girl's Day (Hawaii)
Kentucky Meat Shower Day
Liberation and Freedom Day (Charlottesville, Virginia)
Martyr’s Day (Malawi)
Minnie the Moocher Day
Missouri Compromise Day
MIstress Day (China)
Moonlighting Day
Mother’s Day (Republic of Georgia)
National Academy of Sciences Day
National Accounts Receivable Appreciation Day
National Anthem Day
National Deskfast Day
National Dry Cleaning Day
National Hair Removal Day
National Henry L. Hooks Day
National Jackson Day
National Rita Day
National Robin Day
Navy Reserve Day
Nintendo Switch Day
Peach Blossom Day (Hunan, China)
Princess Festival (ポケモンひなまつり; Pokémon Girls' Festival)
Read the Ingredients Day
Samjinnal (Korea)
Simplify Your Life Day
Sportsmen's Day (Egypt)
Star-Spangled Banner Day
Stop the Epidemic of Police Violence Day
Talk in the Third Person Day
TB-303 Appreciation Day
Teacher’s Day (Lebanon)
Top Gun Day
Triple Negative Breast Cancer Awareness Day
Unity Day (Sudan)
Veterans Day (East Timor)
Wangari Maathai Day
What If Cats and Dogs Had Opposable Thumbs Day
World Birth Defects Day
World Dyscalculia Day
World Healing Day
World Hearing Day
World Wildlife Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Canadian Bacon Day
Heart-Accelerating Sodium-Enriched Cold Cuts Day (a.k.a. Cold Cuts Day)
International Irish Whiskey Day
International School Meals Day
International Tripel Day
National Cold Cuts Day
National Moscow Mule Day
National Mulled Wine Day
National Noodle Day
National Soup It Forward Day
Pork Belly Day (a.k.a. Samgyeopsal Day; South Korea)
33 Flavors Day
1st Sunday in March
Children’s Day (New Zealand) [1st Sunday]
Clean Up Australia Day [1st Sunday]
Daughters’ and Sons’ Day [1st Sunday]
Finisher’s Medal Day [1st Sunday]
Girl Scout Sabbath [1st Sunday]
Grandmothers’ Day (Belgium; France) [1st Sunday]
International Children’s Day of Broadcasting [1st Sunday]
Namesake Day [1st Sunday of Name Week]
National Day of Reflection (UK) [1st Sunday]
Vasaloppet (Sweden) [1st Sunday]
World Japanese Spitz Day (Japan) [1st Sunday]
Weekly Holidays beginning March 3 (1st Week)
Celebrate Your Name Week [1st Full Week]
Chocolate Chip Cookie Week [thru 3.9]
Dental Assistant Recognition Week [1st Full Week]
Groundwater Awareness Week [1st Full Week]
International Women’s Week [thru 3.9]
National Consumer Protection Week [thru 3.9]
National Newspapers in Education Week [1st Full Week]
National Procrastination Week [thru 3.9]
National Professional Pet Sitters Week [1st Full Week]
National Schools Social Work Week [thru 3.9]
No More Week [thru 3.9]
Read An E-Book Week [1st Full Week]
Save Your Vision Week [1st Full Week]
Teen Tech Week [1st Saturday]
Women in Construction Week [thru 3.9]
Women of Aviation Worldwide Week [From Sunday before 3.8 to Next Sunday]
Words Matter Week [1st Full Week]
Independence & Related Days
Alista (Declared; 2015) [unrecognized]
Azrania (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]
Celebration of the Throne Day (Morocco)
Florida Statehood Day (#27; 1845)
Liberation Day (Bulgaria)
Myrotania (Declared; 2013) [unrecognized]
Obscurium (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]
Scoria (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]
Festivals Beginning March 3, 2024
Coffee Fest New York (New York, New York) [thru 3.5]
Kosher Chili Cookout (Houston, Texas)
San Diego Restaurant Week (San Diego, California) [thru 3.10]
Tokyo Marathon (Tokyo, Japan)
Feast Days
Aegir’s Day (a..k.a. Ægir, brewer to the gods of Asgard; Celtic Sea Festival)
Aelred (Christian; Saint)
Alexander Gabriel Decamps (Artology)
Anselm, Duke of Friuli (Christian; Saint)
Arachne’s Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)
Arnold Newman (Artology)
Arthelais (Christian; Saint, Virgin)
Asger Jorn (Artology)
Chapchâr Kût (Spring Festival; Mizoram, India)
Cunigunde of Luxembourg (a.k.a. Cunegunda or Cunegund; Christian; Saint)
Day of Remembrance for Prince Igor (Asatru/Slavic Pagan)
Emeterius and Chelidonius, in Spain (Christian; Martyrs)
Eutropius (Christian; Saint)
Feast of Purification (Bali)
Festival of the Girlchild (Pagan)
Gervinus (Christian; Saint)
Herodotus (Positivist; Saint)
Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival a.k.a. Girl's Day; Japan)
Isabel Bishop (Artology)
Katharine Drexel (Christian; Saint)
John and Charles Wesley (Episcopal Church (USA))
Lamalisse of Scotland (Christian; Saint)
Marinus and Asterius of Caesarea (Christian; Martyrs)
Marriage of the March Nymphs (Shamanism)
Momo no Seekuh (Peach Festival; Shinto)
Mr. Smellsalot (Muppetism)
Mulled Wine Day (Pastafarian)
Newmar Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Non (Sainted Mother of St. David; Celtic Book of Days)
Nonnita (Christian; Saint)
Third Sunday in Lent (Western Christianity) (a.k.a. ...
Oculi Sunday
Scrutiny Sunday
Septuagesima Sunday
Veneration of the Cross
Triple Goddess Day (Everyday Wicca)
Wenchang Wang Day (Chinese God of Literature)
Winwaloe (a.k.a. Winnal or Winwaloc; Christian; Saint)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Lucky Day (Philippines) [15 of 71]
Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]
Premieres
Aquamarine (TV Series; 2006)
Banquet Busters (Andy Panda Cartoon; 1948)
The Brave Engineer (Disney Cartoon; 1950)
Broadway Folly (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1930)
The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1965)
Carmen, by Georges Bizet (Opera; 1875)
The Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint-Saëns (Musical Suite; 1886)
The Castle of Llyr, by Lloyd Alexander [Chronicles of Prydain #3]
Corn Plastered (WB MM Cartoon; 1951)
Daisy Jones & The Six (TV Series; 2023)
Daria (Animated TV Series; 1997)
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (Comedy Film; 2006)
A Day in June (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1944)
Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Treasure Island (Anime Film; 2018)
Dream a Little Dream (Film; 1989)
Essays in Persuasion, by John Maynard Keynes (Economics Book; 1931)
Flashdance… What a Feeling, by Irene Cara (Song; 1983)
Frenesi, recorded by Artie Shaw (Song; 1940)
Horton Hears a Who (Animated Film; 2008)
(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea, by Elvis Costello (Song; 1978)
Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye (Disneyland Ride; 1995)
I Sing the Body Electric, by Ray Bradbury (Short Story; 1969)
Jerry and the Goldfish (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1951)
Juno and the Paycock, by Seán O'Casey (Play; 1924)
Lateral Thinking, by Edward de Bono (Philosophy Book; 1970)
Link: Legend of Zelda (Short Film; 2017)
Lionel Lion (Phantasies Cartoon; 1944)
Logan (Film; 2017)
The Massacre, by 50 Cent (Album; 2005)
Master of Puppets, by Metallica (Album; 1986)
Matlock (TV Series; 1986)
Miniature Golf (Atari 2600 Video Game; 1978)
Minnie the Moocher, recorded by Cab Calloway (Song; 1931)
Moonlighting (TV Series; 1985)
Our Flag Means Death (TV Series; 2022)
Plastic Beach, by Gorillaz (Album; 2010)
Playful Pluto (Disney Cartoon; 1934)
Quack-a-Doodle-Doo (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1950)
Rocket 88 recorded, by Ike Turner (Song (possibly 1st R&R track); 1951)
Rocket Man, by Elton John (Song; 1972)
Rockferry, by Duffy (Album; 2008)
Serenade No. 1 in D, by Johannes Brahms (Serenade; 1860)
The Shooting of Dan McGoo (Tex Avery MGM Droopy Cartoon; 1945)
Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, “The Scottish Symphony,” by Felix Mendelssohn (Symphony; 1842)
Table 19 (Film; 2017)
Topper, by Thorne Smith (Novel; 1926)
Vikings (TV Series; 2013)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, by Henry Farrell (Novel; 1960)
Wonder Woman (WB Animated Film; 2009)
Today’s Name Days
Camilla, Friedrich, Kunigunde (Austria)
Asterius, Kamila, Kunigunda, Marin, Marinko, Maroje (Croatia)
Kamil (Czech Republic)
Kunigunde (Denmark)
Egle, Haili, Halliki, Helliki (Estonia)
Kauko (Finland)
Guénolé, Marin (France)
Camilla, Friedrich, Kunigunde, Leif (Germany)
Kleonikos (Greece)
Kornélia (Hungary)
Cunegonda, Tiziano, Viola (Italy)
Marts, Matejs, Matīss, Tālis (Latvia)
Kunigunda, Nona, Nonita, Tulė, Uosis (Lithuania)
Gunnbjørg, Gunnveig (Norway)
Asteriusz, Hieronim, Kunegunda, Lucjola, Maryna, Wierzchosława (Poland)
Cleonic, Eutropiu, Vasilisc (Romania)
Bohumil (Slovakia)
Celedonio, Emeterio, Marcia (Spain)
Gunborg, Gunvor (Sweden)
Alasdair, Alastair, Alec, Alejandra, Alejandro, Alex, Alexa, Alexander, Alexandra, Alexandria, Alexia, Alexis, Alexus, Ali, Alondra, Dale, Darnell, Lex, Lexi, Lexie, Lexus, Sandie, Sandra, Sandy, Sasha, Xander (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 63 of 2024; 303 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 7 of week 9 of 2024
Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 15 of 28]
Chinese: Month 1 (Bing-Yin), Day 23 (Bing-Yin)
Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025)
Hebrew: 23 Adair I 5784
Islamic: 22 Sha’ban 1445
J Cal: 3 Green; Threesday [3 of 30]
Julian: 19 February 2024
Moon: 60%: Waning Gibbous
Positivist: 7 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Thales]
Runic Half Month: Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) [Day 9 of 15]
Season: Winter (Day 74 of 89)
Week: 1st Week of March
Zodiac: Pisces (Day 14 of 30)
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Holidays 3.3
Holidays
Africa Environment Day
Bonza Bottler Day
Caregiver Appreciation Day
Common Fumitory Day (French Republic)
Creation Day
Discovery Day (a.k.a. Magellan Day; Guam)
Ear Day (Japan)
Family Day (Mexico)
First Sitting of the People's Majlis (Maldives)
Flag Day (Kyrgyzstan)
Free Pass Day
If Pets Had Thumbs Day
International Ear Care Day
International Omega-3 Awareness Day
International Sex Workers Rights Day
International TAPS Day
International Threesome Day
International Tripawd Awareness Day
International Writers’ Day
I Want You To Be Happy Day
Japanese Girl's Day (Hawaii)
Kentucky Meat Shower Day
Liberation and Freedom Day (Charlottesville, Virginia)
Martyr’s Day (Malawi)
Minnie the Moocher Day
Missouri Compromise Day
MIstress Day (China)
Moonlighting Day
Mother’s Day (Republic of Georgia)
National Academy of Sciences Day
National Accounts Receivable Appreciation Day
National Anthem Day
National Deskfast Day
National Dry Cleaning Day
National Hair Removal Day
National Henry L. Hooks Day
National Jackson Day
National Rita Day
National Robin Day
Navy Reserve Day
Nintendo Switch Day
Peach Blossom Day (Hunan, China)
Princess Festival (ポケモンひなまつり; Pokémon Girls' Festival)
Read the Ingredients Day
Samjinnal (Korea)
Simplify Your Life Day
Sportsmen's Day (Egypt)
Star-Spangled Banner Day
Stop the Epidemic of Police Violence Day
Talk in the Third Person Day
TB-303 Appreciation Day
Teacher’s Day (Lebanon)
Top Gun Day
Triple Negative Breast Cancer Awareness Day
Unity Day (Sudan)
Veterans Day (East Timor)
Wangari Maathai Day
What If Cats and Dogs Had Opposable Thumbs Day
World Birth Defects Day
World Dyscalculia Day
World Healing Day
World Hearing Day
World Wildlife Day
Food & Drink Celebrations
Canadian Bacon Day
Heart-Accelerating Sodium-Enriched Cold Cuts Day (a.k.a. Cold Cuts Day)
International Irish Whiskey Day
International School Meals Day
International Tripel Day
National Cold Cuts Day
National Moscow Mule Day
National Mulled Wine Day
National Noodle Day
National Soup It Forward Day
Pork Belly Day (a.k.a. Samgyeopsal Day; South Korea)
33 Flavors Day
1st Sunday in March
Children’s Day (New Zealand) [1st Sunday]
Clean Up Australia Day [1st Sunday]
Daughters’ and Sons’ Day [1st Sunday]
Finisher’s Medal Day [1st Sunday]
Girl Scout Sabbath [1st Sunday]
Grandmothers’ Day (Belgium; France) [1st Sunday]
International Children’s Day of Broadcasting [1st Sunday]
Namesake Day [1st Sunday of Name Week]
National Day of Reflection (UK) [1st Sunday]
Vasaloppet (Sweden) [1st Sunday]
World Japanese Spitz Day (Japan) [1st Sunday]
Weekly Holidays beginning March 3 (1st Week)
Celebrate Your Name Week [1st Full Week]
Chocolate Chip Cookie Week [thru 3.9]
Dental Assistant Recognition Week [1st Full Week]
Groundwater Awareness Week [1st Full Week]
International Women’s Week [thru 3.9]
National Consumer Protection Week [thru 3.9]
National Newspapers in Education Week [1st Full Week]
National Procrastination Week [thru 3.9]
National Professional Pet Sitters Week [1st Full Week]
National Schools Social Work Week [thru 3.9]
No More Week [thru 3.9]
Read An E-Book Week [1st Full Week]
Save Your Vision Week [1st Full Week]
Teen Tech Week [1st Saturday]
Women in Construction Week [thru 3.9]
Women of Aviation Worldwide Week [From Sunday before 3.8 to Next Sunday]
Words Matter Week [1st Full Week]
Independence & Related Days
Alista (Declared; 2015) [unrecognized]
Azrania (Declared; 2022) [unrecognized]
Celebration of the Throne Day (Morocco)
Florida Statehood Day (#27; 1845)
Liberation Day (Bulgaria)
Myrotania (Declared; 2013) [unrecognized]
Obscurium (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]
Scoria (Declared; 2018) [unrecognized]
Festivals Beginning March 3, 2024
Coffee Fest New York (New York, New York) [thru 3.5]
Kosher Chili Cookout (Houston, Texas)
San Diego Restaurant Week (San Diego, California) [thru 3.10]
Tokyo Marathon (Tokyo, Japan)
Feast Days
Aegir’s Day (a..k.a. Ægir, brewer to the gods of Asgard; Celtic Sea Festival)
Aelred (Christian; Saint)
Alexander Gabriel Decamps (Artology)
Anselm, Duke of Friuli (Christian; Saint)
Arachne’s Day (Starza Pagan Book of Days)
Arnold Newman (Artology)
Arthelais (Christian; Saint, Virgin)
Asger Jorn (Artology)
Chapchâr Kût (Spring Festival; Mizoram, India)
Cunigunde of Luxembourg (a.k.a. Cunegunda or Cunegund; Christian; Saint)
Day of Remembrance for Prince Igor (Asatru/Slavic Pagan)
Emeterius and Chelidonius, in Spain (Christian; Martyrs)
Eutropius (Christian; Saint)
Feast of Purification (Bali)
Festival of the Girlchild (Pagan)
Gervinus (Christian; Saint)
Herodotus (Positivist; Saint)
Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival a.k.a. Girl's Day; Japan)
Isabel Bishop (Artology)
Katharine Drexel (Christian; Saint)
John and Charles Wesley (Episcopal Church (USA))
Lamalisse of Scotland (Christian; Saint)
Marinus and Asterius of Caesarea (Christian; Martyrs)
Marriage of the March Nymphs (Shamanism)
Momo no Seekuh (Peach Festival; Shinto)
Mr. Smellsalot (Muppetism)
Mulled Wine Day (Pastafarian)
Newmar Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saint)
Non (Sainted Mother of St. David; Celtic Book of Days)
Nonnita (Christian; Saint)
Third Sunday in Lent (Western Christianity) (a.k.a. ...
Oculi Sunday
Scrutiny Sunday
Septuagesima Sunday
Veneration of the Cross
Triple Goddess Day (Everyday Wicca)
Wenchang Wang Day (Chinese God of Literature)
Winwaloe (a.k.a. Winnal or Winwaloc; Christian; Saint)
Lucky & Unlucky Days
Lucky Day (Philippines) [15 of 71]
Taian (大安 Japan) [Lucky all day.]
Premieres
Aquamarine (TV Series; 2006)
Banquet Busters (Andy Panda Cartoon; 1948)
The Brave Engineer (Disney Cartoon; 1950)
Broadway Folly (Oswald the Lucky Rabbit Cartoon; 1930)
The Brothers Carry-Mouse-Off (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1965)
Carmen, by Georges Bizet (Opera; 1875)
The Carnival of the Animals, by Camille Saint-Saëns (Musical Suite; 1886)
The Castle of Llyr, by Lloyd Alexander [Chronicles of Prydain #3]
Corn Plastered (WB MM Cartoon; 1951)
Daisy Jones & The Six (TV Series; 2023)
Daria (Animated TV Series; 1997)
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party (Comedy Film; 2006)
A Day in June (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1944)
Doraemon the Movie: Nobita’s Treasure Island (Anime Film; 2018)
Dream a Little Dream (Film; 1989)
Essays in Persuasion, by John Maynard Keynes (Economics Book; 1931)
Flashdance… What a Feeling, by Irene Cara (Song; 1983)
Frenesi, recorded by Artie Shaw (Song; 1940)
Horton Hears a Who (Animated Film; 2008)
(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea, by Elvis Costello (Song; 1978)
Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye (Disneyland Ride; 1995)
I Sing the Body Electric, by Ray Bradbury (Short Story; 1969)
Jerry and the Goldfish (Tom & Jerry Cartoon; 1951)
Juno and the Paycock, by Seán O'Casey (Play; 1924)
Lateral Thinking, by Edward de Bono (Philosophy Book; 1970)
Link: Legend of Zelda (Short Film; 2017)
Lionel Lion (Phantasies Cartoon; 1944)
Logan (Film; 2017)
The Massacre, by 50 Cent (Album; 2005)
Master of Puppets, by Metallica (Album; 1986)
Matlock (TV Series; 1986)
Miniature Golf (Atari 2600 Video Game; 1978)
Minnie the Moocher, recorded by Cab Calloway (Song; 1931)
Moonlighting (TV Series; 1985)
Our Flag Means Death (TV Series; 2022)
Plastic Beach, by Gorillaz (Album; 2010)
Playful Pluto (Disney Cartoon; 1934)
Quack-a-Doodle-Doo (Noveltoons Cartoon; 1950)
Rocket 88 recorded, by Ike Turner (Song (possibly 1st R&R track); 1951)
Rocket Man, by Elton John (Song; 1972)
Rockferry, by Duffy (Album; 2008)
Serenade No. 1 in D, by Johannes Brahms (Serenade; 1860)
The Shooting of Dan McGoo (Tex Avery MGM Droopy Cartoon; 1945)
Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, “The Scottish Symphony,” by Felix Mendelssohn (Symphony; 1842)
Table 19 (Film; 2017)
Topper, by Thorne Smith (Novel; 1926)
Vikings (TV Series; 2013)
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, by Henry Farrell (Novel; 1960)
Wonder Woman (WB Animated Film; 2009)
Today’s Name Days
Camilla, Friedrich, Kunigunde (Austria)
Asterius, Kamila, Kunigunda, Marin, Marinko, Maroje (Croatia)
Kamil (Czech Republic)
Kunigunde (Denmark)
Egle, Haili, Halliki, Helliki (Estonia)
Kauko (Finland)
Guénolé, Marin (France)
Camilla, Friedrich, Kunigunde, Leif (Germany)
Kleonikos (Greece)
Kornélia (Hungary)
Cunegonda, Tiziano, Viola (Italy)
Marts, Matejs, Matīss, Tālis (Latvia)
Kunigunda, Nona, Nonita, Tulė, Uosis (Lithuania)
Gunnbjørg, Gunnveig (Norway)
Asteriusz, Hieronim, Kunegunda, Lucjola, Maryna, Wierzchosława (Poland)
Cleonic, Eutropiu, Vasilisc (Romania)
Bohumil (Slovakia)
Celedonio, Emeterio, Marcia (Spain)
Gunborg, Gunvor (Sweden)
Alasdair, Alastair, Alec, Alejandra, Alejandro, Alex, Alexa, Alexander, Alexandra, Alexandria, Alexia, Alexis, Alexus, Ali, Alondra, Dale, Darnell, Lex, Lexi, Lexie, Lexus, Sandie, Sandra, Sandy, Sasha, Xander (USA)
Today is Also…
Day of Year: Day 63 of 2024; 303 days remaining in the year
ISO: Day 7 of week 9 of 2024
Celtic Tree Calendar: Nuin (Ash) [Day 15 of 28]
Chinese: Month 1 (Bing-Yin), Day 23 (Bing-Yin)
Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025)
Hebrew: 23 Adair I 5784
Islamic: 22 Sha’ban 1445
J Cal: 3 Green; Threesday [3 of 30]
Julian: 19 February 2024
Moon: 60%: Waning Gibbous
Positivist: 7 Aristotle (3rd Month) [Thales]
Runic Half Month: Tyr (Cosmic Pillar) [Day 9 of 15]
Season: Winter (Day 74 of 89)
Week: 1st Week of March
Zodiac: Pisces (Day 14 of 30)
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