#its not everyday that your first special interest and your current one get an official collab

[mvvocaloidgifs]

How do y'all feel about Project Voltage? I, personally, am absolutely stoked

#not gif #tier list #project voltage #hatsune miku #vocaloid #japanese vocaloid #its not everyday that your first special interest and your current one get an official collab #i'll definitely be making gifs of every song when they come out #i've been messing with the new editor and it's not as good as the legacy one but it seems like its gotten a little better? #won't reopen requests until january but I have been drafting some and starting to add to the queue

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[aceofpandas]

What-if for Season 4

So at the end of season 3’s episode “Ladybug” we see that Adrien "asking” Lila to get Marinette back in school and what not. Words are spoken and wow just look at how they’re spoken:

That line right there! Okay so I watched this episode in English and in [Latin American] Spanish and wow the way that line is spoken. Both voice actors really conveyed how Adrien would channel his anger. It’s not an emotion we really got to see in Adrien before but in both languages the barely contained anger is something I feel is in line with what we know about Adrien who controls and is conscious of his emotions. It got me thinking about how passive aggressive this boy really is and man oh man how I wish that it get’s worked into season 4. Passive aggressive Adrien Agreste vs. resident liar/manipulator Lila Rossi. Yaaaas sign me up.

Hopefully, this side of him is explored next season and we can finally give Adrien some rivals who can help us explore his character a little more. This ending suggests that Lila is completely in Adrien’s danger radar and he’ll be in Protect Marinette Mode (similar to his Protect Ladybug Mode). In fact, the scene pictured above aligns with his self-sacrificial tendencies that he has as Chat Noir. Lots of people have mentioned that agreeing to the photoshoot is him selling his soul,  but he also establishes that he won’t ever have a genuine friendship with Lila. Bring on the war!

I personally think that Adrien, who we know isn’t too confrontational, will take a subtle approach. And how can he do that? Well, he could channel his inner actor where he can certainly play the part of “friend” while simultaneously working to discredit Lila. 

Like you can not tell me that Adrien, who’s enrolled in a bunch of activities, was not enrolled in acting classes at some point in his homeschooled life. His mom was an actress, so it’s not like his parents would be against the idea of acting lessons. He was even the VA for his own superhero persona in canon’s LB+CN movie lmaoooo. Yes, he’s a model and very much loved by the people of Paris so perhaps being chosen for the role isn’t too surprising, but that also doesn’t mean he has no talent or training for it. Let’s be real, modeling could be the compromise to his parents wanting their son to follow in their footsteps. Modeling is the fashion from his dad and the art of perfecting his facial expressions from his mom.

And like even if acting lessons were never a thing, his mom was around in his life. We know basically nothing about the woman, so really we can speculate that she showed Adrien a thing or two about acting. Let’s say it was through her that Adrien learned to be expressive, to be not expressive, and to be anywhere in between. His mom could have taught him to roll with what life has to offer through ad libs and improv. Adrien we’ve seen to have a dramatic flair as both Adrien and Chat Noir, and he honestly controls his temper waaaay better than we give him credit. Sure he makes mistakes, but really he’s human and he does learn from them (now if only the writing could keep character development for its characters but yeeaaaah).

Here’s a scenario where Adrien can start his stop Lila campaign:

Adrien and Lila are interviewed about the recent shoot and you know questions roll around about how was it working with together, they’re classmates right, are the two dating, yada yada

Adrien answering and not even trying to let Lila get the first word in because the boy is on high alert and knows this girl will try to spin it in her favor

“Oh, it was surprising my father even thought of letting one of my classmates model with me. In fact, I didn’t even know Lila was interested in modeling. Still, it was interesting to work with someone new to the field.”

Which on the surface seems like an ordinary, polite response; appropriate of Adrien but it’s also everything Adrien needs to corner Lila. 

In all of three sentences Adrien says he played no part in making the photoshoot happen, effectively shuts down the possibility of dating Lila, and establishes to the public that Lila is nothing more than a classmate, one he doesn’t even know well.

Lila is annoyed but she’s not giving up because she’s under the impression that Adrien is far too agreeable and spineless therefore she writes him off as Not a Threat

Hahahaha jokes, Adrien plays on people underestimating him

“Well, I didn’t want you to think that I wanted to make it seem like I was using you because we’re friends and friends don’t do that.”

Or something along those lines I dunno

“That’s the great thing about our class everyone is so nice that we can all be friends. Lots of us are so creative and I love getting to know everyone. Nathaniel, Lila’s desk mate, is a great artist; sketching, painting, he’s your guy. He’s currently working on a superhero comic with Marc from the other class and I can’t wait for what else they come up with for the sequel. Ivan, who sits in front of Nathaniel, he’s a rockin’ drummer, and Rose, she’s another one of our classmates, killer voice and awesome lyrics. Her best friend, Juleka plays bass and I’ve actually modeled with her before. Nothing official, but since I know Juleka wants to be a model I honestly thought she was going to be the one I was modeling with for this shoot. Sure it wasn’t a huge shoot, but Juleka did such a great job. And the clothes we modeled were made by our everyday Ladybug, Marinette Dupain-Cheng. Marinette, she’s also our class rep by the way, is such a brilliant designer! Did you know that she actually won one of my father’s contests? Her hat was adored by Audrey Bourgeois AND she was offered the chance to move to New York. And you know…”

Basically, Adrien ends up spending the rest of the interview talking about how much he knows about his friends and “gee it’s such a shame I don’t really know much about you Lila.”

Read: you aren’t special, I have more friends, and I actually pay attention to them.

Bonus point: Alec is the one who interviews them and he picks up on Lila becoming more and more frustrated with Adrien. 

Pretty in character for him to poke the bear *cough* Stormy Weather *cough* so for him to let Adrien take the reins of the interview for the sake of drama isn’t that much of a stretch.

Alec: What about Lila? 

Adrien: I don’t know, I really don’t want to get anything wrong so she can answer

The next day, the interview is the only thing anyone can talk about 

Adrien’s classmates gushing about how sweet Adrien is because he literally showed them that he really cares about them. 

Adrien remembering all this information about all of them and hyping everyone up on TV!!

Friends know each other’s dreams and likes and dislikes and Adrien isn’t known to have lots of free time, but him making the effort to remember all that about each person is flattering to the class

Let Adrien show how much he appreciates and admires his friends pleeeeeeease

Lila can be in the background plotting how to paint Adrien in a bad light 

But uhhh the class is going full Protect This Precious Boy at this point so your plan has to be fool-proof Lila

Bonus point: the class is now more sus of Lila after the whole Marinette-got-expelled-and-then-unexpelled (which is still fresh in their minds). 

No one get’s an expulsion reversed unless they’re innocent 

And dude Lila was in the middle of that whole mess. 

Whatever Lila did shows she has the power to get any of them expelled. 

If the kids aren’t at least wary of Lila in season 4, then the writers really be tripping because too many red flags around Lila for people to just wave them off.

In other news, Marinette starts to trend after enough of Adrien’s fans connect the dots that she’s the same girl who they chased around that time she and Adrien went to the movies

If the majority of Parisians weren’t convinced they were dating back then, oh boy they at least ship it by this point hahahaha

#miraculous ladybug and chat noir #adrien agreste #what if scenario #ml theory #marinette dupain cheng #lila rossi gets a new rival #let other characters have rivals that arent romace based you cowards!! #adrien gets a new rival #my one wish is character development #oops this got long #ml spoilers #maybe? #my headcanons

[libra-araelty]

Hello!

My name is Neo. I am a neurodivergent young adult from the United States.

Neurodivergent, you say?

Yes! Neurodivergent means my brain does not function the same way that a typical human does. However that does not stop me from living a normal, everyday life just like everyone else!

I have Asperger’s Syndrome, Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder (MaDD), and Dyscalculia, all diagnosed. It is also highly suspected that i have Bipolar Disorder and Trichotillomania (TTM), suggested to me by people who have either condition.

Being subject to these conditions, I have quite a few struggles in my daily life. I have sensory issues, so things like uncomfortable clothes and strong scents can make it so I’m unable to function at full capacity. If these sensory issues are pushed further and further, I am at risk of going into a sensory overload or a meltdown. That only happens very rarely for me, though.

My attention span is very flaky, and I have a difficult time staying on one topic for long periods of time. I need constant changing stimuli for me to not burn out while on a task. This ironically contributes to hyperfixation, an intense focus on one particular thing for a period of time. I know, that seems like the opposite of what I said before, but they are linked. See, hyperfixation isn’t exactly something that can be forced. When hyperfocusing, I may not be able to take myself out of that particular focus, and it consumes all my thoughts for however long my brain decides to hyperfixate on it. This contributes to my flaky attention span because instead of being able to force myself to focus on something im supposed to be doing, instead the brain goes “no, you’re going to think about this one thing and we’re going to make it very hard for you to focus on anything BUT this one thing. Special Interests (SI’s) follow a similar, yet more intense pattern. SI’s last much longer, if not lifelong for me. Theyre more prominent and effective on my life than my hyperfixations.

This is where MaDD comes into play. MaDD is a condition that can be adopted and unlearned. The DSM doesn’t recognize it as an official disorder, but it is a condition that exists in many people, especially people with attention or anxiety related contitions. MaDD shares a lot of traits with cases of addiction too, however this one is much easier to take control of and is not exactly harmful. The first word, maladaptive, can be broken in half: Mal and Adaptive. Mal means bad or poor, and adaptive means the ability to adapt. Maladaptive Daydreaming basically means daydreaming that causes poor adaptation skills. MaDDers are typically those who have conditions like Autism, AD(H)D, OCD, General Anxiety, and Dyslexia. Most people adopt the technique of Maladaptive Daydreaming in their childhood or early teens and if not caught early on, can last their entire lives. However, MaDD isn’t essentially a harmful thing. Like I said, it’s easily controlled. You may be asking, “what exactly is it about MaDD that causes poor adaptation? its just daydreaming.” MaDDers daydream at an average of 6 hours minimum a day. These daydreams are intense and easily triggered by everyday things like music, art, friends, even normal emotional events. MaDDers tend to use these dreams as an escape from reality but also a reality of their own, like a lucid dream but for your waking self. The daydreams tend to have intricately woven worlds, stories, chracters, and plots, all feeling just as real to the dreamer as the rest of life itself. MaDDers tend to daydream to escape real situations they may not want to be a part of and sometimes even cancel plans just to continue to daydream.

Why are you telling me all of this? This all seems so personal and insignificant to me.

This is FAR from insignificant to anyone. You may not be Autistic or a MaDDer or even neurodivergent, but I know that as a human being you still have lots of struggles, just like me. Ive told you all about my struggles and you’re probably thinking “wow how pathetic, they cant control their own brain.” Yeah actually, I can. Even if you weren’t thinking that, (which I actually highly doubt anyone was thinking that I just wanted to put an example of worst case scenario) what if I told you that no matter what, no matter who you were or what you were going through, you can still grab hold of yourself and make your life yours? You better believe it, because despite all the conditions I just told you I have, I have taught myself to make my own path in life and not let my struggles decide what my fate is. I believe anything is possible with a little patience and elbow grease, so thats why I have made this blog. It is sorta a combination of a journal, an advice blog, and an inspirational quote blog. I want to be able to share my knowledge of my identity and experiences in order to hopefully inspire someone to get up out of the hole theyre stuck in and make their life their own again! I love the conditions I have, and I use their benefits as my superpowers and dont let the negative aspects of them hold me back. They are a part of me and who I am and I will treat them with just as much love and care as I should treat myself, and hopefully you can treat yourself with the same amount of love too <3

With love,

Neo

P.S.

Heres a couple more fun facts about me!

My biggest special interests are Homestuck, Dragons, and literally just identity in general and have been special to me for almost 5 years now

I love music and my favorite artists are Imagine Dragons, Fall Out Boy, OneRepublic, Vance Joy, hi i’m Case, Of Monsters and Men, and Watsky!

I love to draw and play D&D! I love the character creation and I’m currently working on my own campaign

My personality labels are Sun Libra, Moon Sagittarius, Rising Taurus, INTP-T, 5w4, 541, Ravenclaw, Thunderbird, Seer of Heart, Dersian, True Neutral, Blue-Green Paladin, Firebender, and Skywing Elf

If I were a D&D character I’d be a true neutral forest gnome sorcerer sage who wields a katana and raises dragons

My favorite movies are How To Train Your Dragon (1&2), It, Star Wars, and Pete’s Dragon (2016). My favorite shows are The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, The Dragon Prince, Camp Camp, Gravity Falls, Twelve Forever and The Mandalorian

I love making aesthetics and stimboards, my favorite colors are blue violet, cornflower, sapphire, teal, spring green, and bubblegum pink. I love pastel kawaii fashion because of these colors

I either want to become a cartoonist or a counselor as a career, or both and be able to use one to help the other

#maladaptive daydream disorder #madd #autistic #autism #aspergers #aspergers syndrome #add #adhd #attention deficit disorder #dyscalculia #bipolar disorder #trichotillomania #dyslexia #neurodivergent #positivity #self care #identity #help #advice #actually autistic #actually add #actually madd #actually adhd

[svtmatokis]

Mingyu Office AU! P8

Hi guys!!! I am soooo sorry this took so long and thank you for all the continued support during this short hiatus. My laptop took over two months to fix (it wasn’t serious...just MSI has terrible customer service) and all the work was on here but I FINALLY have it back! I was also on tour for work over the last few months which put a dent on posting as well since a computer wasn’t all readily available >< thank you all again n

I’m so sorry you guys had to wait for this and I’ll be posting the final chapter later tonight or tomorrow (as its going through a few revisions) after that I’ll have a few projects que’d while I work on a new project that I will be revealing fairly soon.

Thank you alllllll sooooo much for the continued support and I you guys enjoy the next project! Much Love ♥

Pairing: Reader x Mingyu

Parts:  1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8

Words: 3471

A few days had passed since the last incident. Seungcheol had given special permission and allowed you and your team to have the project meeting outside of the office in order for you to rest and recuperate and also to give you a peace of mind.

This meant that the meetings ended up at your apartment which Chan and Dahyun found odd since Seungcheol rarely gave special permission like this but they figured it was so you could have some peace since almost everyone on the seventeenth floor had seen the daughter of the China head (Mei Wei) slap you in the face.

Mingyu was practically at your side all the time at the office and Dahyun had seen the immense change that happened in him. He had gone from the charming ladies man to devoted boyfriend and she was extremely amazed that someone like you had managed to make him change like that. What shocked her was that your relationship never changed at the office. You were both professional with one another but there was no doubt that his eyes would follow you whenever you left his side and everyone could see how protective he was of you.

The China team had come and gone and you were happy to finally have your normal schedule back but that didn’t mean it was all that normal.

Various associates had tried to contact you throughout their visit but you rejected each and everyone. Claiming that various projects took up your time which was somewhat true.

It was the week of your one month anniversary with Mingyu and you obviously didn’t expect much but he greeted you with flowers at your door in the morning on the first day and throughout the week, you found little gifts on your desk everyday after lunch ranging from chocolates to little pieces of jewellery ranging from earrings to a bracelet  and you couldn’t help but wonder how Mingyu could afford all of this.

It wasn’t till that Friday when he had taken you out for the official dinner (not like you two didn’t have dinner together at all that week) but this time he had asked you to dress in something of his choice and he took you one of the top restaurants on Gangnam.

“You really didn’t have to do all this. The gifts through the week were more than enough” you said softly as you sipped your wine and Mingyu gave you that cute grin that always managed to make you swoon.

“It’s not a big deal Y/N. Take it as a sign of my affection” he said as he took a bite of his meal. “Do you like it?”

“I love it” you replied instantly, “it’s just… we’ve only been going out for a month….”

“And I had every intention of making you mine since you walked into the boardroom that day” he said making you blush,”and like I said before, I knew you wouldn’t agree until I could prove myself to you. I had a reputation and it wasn’t going to help anything so I had to change.”

You looked at Mingyu and thought about his words and knew that he was right. Had he maintained the reputation he had, you knew that you wouldn’t have had spared a second glance but over the months he had managed to woo you and win you over and you knew the main reason was because of his change in attitude and persona.  

He had rendered you speechless and tried to rectify his words. “I mean… everything I heard from Jun and Minghao about you was amazing and to meet you in person… I realized that I had my work cut out for me..”

You blushed again at his words and shook your head, “you’ve done so much in the last three months and I know when you put something in your mind you won’t stop till it’s done...I find that really admirable.”

Mingyu grinned at your words and before he could say more, the waiter came and offered dessert and soon the two of you found yourselves ready to go.

As Mingyu helped you put on your jacket a familiar voice came from behind you and you turned your head shocked.

“Minghan?” You asked and Mingyu turned his head towards the voice smiling but was surprised over the fact that you too knew this person.

“Little brother, what are you doing here?” He asked and you looked up at Mingyu shocked.

“Little brother?” You asked looking up at your boyfriend as said person approached you.

He gave you a small smile as he put his own jacket on and you knew his look meant that he’d explain later.

“I thought it was you, I didn’t realize till I saw the tattoo on your back” Minghan said as he approached the two of you. “I just didn’t think I would see you with my brother of all people.”

“Of all people? Mingyu asked joining the conversation. “I’m sorry, how do the two of you know each other?”

“If you recall, one of our subsidiaries started an investment group which as you already know is currently one of the main investors of the China office. I met Y/N through VP Lu and we’ve managed to stay in touch over the years.” Minghan explained as you nodded and Mingyus jaw dropped slightly. He couldn’t believe that the two of you were friends and he had no idea about it.

“How did I not know this?” he whispered to himself as Minghan started answering your question.

“And you heard correct. Mingyu’s my older brother.” he said as your jaw dropped.  “He still holds most of the shares and attends meetings monthly since he’s still on the board. I oversee all operations conducted with the companies and we just make sure there’s never a conflict of interest.”

“Is that your monthly doctors appointment?” you asked bluntly and Mingyu nodded as he placed a hand at the small of your back but you instinctively avoided his touch and that threw him off but you wouldn't have been able to tell.

Minghan knew he had cracked open a can of worms that Mingyu hadn’t opened yet but he was shocked that Mingyu didn’t tell you anything about his family. With how much he talked about you during family dinners, he was expecting Mingyu to introduce you to the family sooner. He also knew that opening this can of worms may cause some trouble between the two of you and he hoped that you would understand.

He had heard bits and pieces about the drama over the years through Luhan and knew how you reacted in various situations and only hoped for the best.

“So what are you two up to tonight?” he asked clearing his throat though he already knew the reason.

“We’re celebrating our one month anniversary” Mingyu responded his face full of annoyance which Minghan picked up on instantly knowing he had major plans that night.

“Congratulations.” Minghan said as you thanked him quietly and he looked at his watch. “Mingyu, if you have the time, theres something that I’d like your input on if thats okay.” he then looked at you with an apologetic smile, “It won’t be long, I promise.”

You gave Minghan a smile which he noted didn’t reach your eyes.

“Of course.” you said as Mingyu gave you the valet ticket.

“It won’t be long.” he said smiling and handing you some bills to tip the valet.

“We’ll have to catch up over coffee sometime.” you said giving Minghan a hug.

“Definitely, lets do dinner instead? There’s a restaurant I think you’d like and you paid the last time I was in China so I should return the favor.” he said making you nod.

“Dinner it is. I’ll text you later.” you said walking out the door and the moment it closed, Mingyu smacked his brother on the head.

“What the heck was that for?” Minghan growled.

“You literally asked my girlfriend out in front of me.”  Mingyu growled back, “Now tell me what you need to discuss with me so urgently that it can’t wait till the board meeting next Wednesday.”

“Well…” Minghan started it only took him three minutes to explain the whole situation.

“We’ll see what everyone else thinks at the meeting. Until theres proof that there’s a gain, I can't see why we’d want to scrap the project.” Mingyu responded and stood up, “If that’s all, I’d like to get back to my girlfriend now.”

“Of course.” Minghan responded, “And for the sake of your relationship...don’t hide anything from Y/N...Yanan did that to her for almost five years so she’s probably wary that you didn’t tell her something this big sooner.” he sighed. “But then again, you were always one to leave things to the last minute.”

Mingyu rolled his eyes at Minghan though he knew that Minghan had a point over the fact that he should have brought this topic up with you sooner but he wasn’t going to let his brother know that. The two of you were friends and at one point, he probably knew you better.

When Mingyu got in the car, he could tell something was wrong almost immediately but tried to ignore it as he started thinking about the next phase of the date he had planned. He reached over to take your hand in his but you turned your body so it was facing the window as you folded your hands in your lap.

He gently tucked his hand into your folded ones and managed to pry the two apart, bringing one of them to his lips.

“So I was thinking we could go for a walk at the park by the river before I take you home.” he suggested as he made his way to said park since he wasn’t going to take no for an answer.

“I think I want to go home.” you said softly, looking out the window and Mingyu’s hand tightened around yours.

“Why?” he whined, It’s our three month anniversary and you want to go home already? ‘He asked pouting and you tried not to smile. He was such a puppy.

"Come on, let’s go for a walk…I think we need to talk..” he said a bit more seriously and you sighed in defeat and Mingyu could only do a little happy victory dance in his head.

When you arrived, he got out of the car first and went to the trunk only to appear on your side with a pair of black flats.

“I didn’t think the heels would be ideal and we can’t have your feet hurting now can we?” he asked as he helped you take off your heels and put the flats on, Mingyu then reached into his back pocket to present you with a single daffodil stem which had a small tag attached to it.

‘New beginnings'

You looked at Mingyu confused as he grabbed your hand, “Let’s go”

As you walked down the path, Mingyu stopped and went behind a tree only to come back with an Amaryllis and this time, the tag said something else.

‘Determination’

Looking up at him, he only smiled and offered you his arm. You slowly took it as he lead you further down the path and after a few minutes, the two of you reached a bench that had a gift box with a single bow on it.

“What is this?” you asked, looking between the flowers and the gift box as you sat down. No wonder he insisted on going to the park. But when did he have time to set this all up?

“Open the box” Mingyu said softly as he wrapped his arm around your shoulder.

When you lifted the lid, you were met with bright purple tissue paper and an envelope that contained photos of the two of you and your new friends from the office from the beginning of your friendship to now. You didn’t even remember when some of these were taken but was surprised at a few of them.

There was one of you and Joshua at a get together that Jun organized in efforts for you to get to know the people on your floor and you were surprised to see a photo from the day Mingyu drove you to that big client meeting and then had dinner after and you remembered Jun telling you that he and Minghao had seen the two of you together that night so one of them must have taken the photo.

“When I was at your apartment, I saw all the photos you had with your friends from the old office so I wanted to help you decorate your apartment with your friends from the new.” he explained as you went deeper in the box.

You grinned when you found a few of your favorite candies and snacks and immediately took one of the candies and popped one into your mouth before offering Mingyu one and he happily took it from your fingers with his mouth.

“I know that you have the afternoon munchies…” he started and your head immediately shot up wondering how he knew and he chuckled.

“I know about your snack little snack drawers and little adventures across the street to the dessert shop with Kyulkyung.” he said pulling you closer to him and placing a kiss on the side of your head. “But the fact that you eat so much but gain so little is extremely endearing” he said in your ear as his voice went slightly lower, “And kind of a turn on.”

His last statement caused the heat to rise to your cheeks and you hid your head in his shoulder so he wouldn’t see.

“Can you not...” you whined making Mingyu laugh as he wrapped his arm tighter around you. At least you seemed more relaxed then you had earlier in the car and he was happy that his plan was working despite the slight road block.

“Keep going, there’s one more thing.” he said nudging you and you readjusted yourself.

The last thing was an envelope addressed to you and he urged you to open it.

You skimmed the letter and as you got further into it, your jaw slowly dropped.

“You didn’t…” you whispered and looked at the date of the letter which was about three weeks after the two of you had met. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Do you think you would’ve accepted me back then?” he asked, “Even Jun and Minghao agreed that you probably wouldn’t have thought twice.”

“But you waited almost two and a half months…” you said skimming the letter again.

“And I’m glad I did. But this was to show you how serious I was about you...even when you didn’t know it. I just thought you’d want to know..” he explained, “I couldn’t tell anyone back then so the only way I could express myself was by writing this letter to you.” He then reached behind him to grab another box and you gasped.

“This is too much..” you said and Mingyu laughed.

“This is the last one, I swear.” he said taking the other box out of your lap and replacing it with this one.

You opened it quickly only to find the most gorgeous bouquet you had ever seen decorated with flowers which you knew represented love.

“It’s only been a month but I fell for you the first day, that I will always be truthful to you and tell you everything” he let out a sigh thinking about what happened earlier that night which caused that doubt inside of you. “I was going to tell you everything tonight and I didn’t expect to run into my brother, let alone finding out that the two of you were actually friends…”

Your silence urged him to continue as you processed everything that happened this past night. Mingyu was the heir to one of the biggest investment firms in all of Asia, not only that but he held a high position as Tier 1 associate as the company where you both currently worked. On top of it all, he remained as the majority shareholder at the investment firm which up until recently was actually competition to your company.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” you asked and he sighed.

“Because it’s not really public knowledge that I left the family business. The guys on our floor know but outside of that, I don’t really go announcing it to the world. My dad is still the current head but with his recent health issues, my brother stepped in as CEO once I expressed my wishes to build myself from the ground up but in order to honor my family, I will be stepping back into the role as head once my father decides to retire. My brother and I have come up with a system that works and I only have to be at board meetings once a month but he and my dad still make the big decisions and until my father retires, I am free to do as I please.” he explained.

“So you’ll eventually leave the company” you stated and he nodded with a slight sigh.

“Seungcheol knows about it but until that day comes, which won’t be for a long time might I add. We’ll continue working as we have been. I wanted to tell you sooner but I wanted you to also like me for me..” He rubbed the back of his neck, “And I never knew how to bring the conversation up so it was difficult.”

“But you managed to tell me everything in this letter…” you whispered looking up at him before looking down, “I’ve been burned so many times before that when Minghan told me about you...I froze. I didn’t know how to act and only defaulted to what I usually did…”

“Which was distance yourself and I’m sorry...I never wanted that to happen especially on a day like today.” he took both your hands into his and brought them to his lips, “I wanted to be honest with you from the beginning but I also had my doubts and I haven’t dated much for this same reason…”

You understood completely and nodded your head, “I’m glad you told me now...and I completely understand. Especially with your current fan club at the office…” you thought back to Nayeon who had been forced to apologize to you one day because she “accidentally” spilled coffee on you and you knew that Mingyu had stopped talking to her for that reason.

“You’re important to me...probably one of the most important things to me and I would never intentionally hide anything from you okay?” he asked leaning down to kiss your nose, “i promise that from now on, I’ll be completely honest with you and if anything happens, I’ll make sure to protect you.” He then wrapped you in his arms before leaning down and your lips met in one of the sweetest kisses that he had ever given you.

Your hand clenched the front of his shirt as his lips moved against yours and you suddenly felt yourself getting slightly warm as his hand rested on your thigh and the butterflies were going a hundred miles a second in your stomach and after a few minutes you had to pull away as you felt things were going too fast for a public place.

The two of you walked back hand in hand towards his car with the both of you carrying the flowers and gifts and it wasn’t long till the two of you were standing in front of your door.

“Do you...maybe want to come in for some dessert?” you asked biting your lip lightly and Mingyu resisted the urge to groan. You looked so tempting to him and all he wanted was to take you into your bedroom and not come out for a long time...a very long time.

Leaning down, his lips covered yours in a passionate kiss that had the two of you fighting for dominance but as your back hit the door, you knew that Mingyu wasn’t going to let you win this one.

Pulling away slightly so your foreheads were touching, he whispered, “Dessert sounds great.” before opening the door behind you and gently shoving you back into your apartment where your lips met once more in a more heated kiss.

You felt the heat rise as he gently lifted you up so your legs were wrapped around his and as he carried you to the bedroom, you couldn’t help but think of how right everything felt at that very moment.

#seventeen #mingyu #kpop #seventeen fiction #kpop fiction #mingyu fiction #kim mingyu #kpop imagine #seventeen imagines #mingyu imagine

[naruto-rarepair-bingo]

FAQ

This is meant to be a collection of answers to various asks; if you have a question check here to see if it’s been clarified! New answers will be added here if new questions come up.

Q: Is (insert ship) a rarepair? A: If it has under 400 fics on ao3 it qualifies! We listed the ships that have 400 or more here. If you believe a ship has been left off that list let us know and we’ll check!

Q: A ship recently made 400(+). Does the fill I started for it still count? A: Yes! The list is set for this year, so no new ships will be added to it for now. However, if future events are hosted they will be added to the list and no longer count. 

Q: What if the a ship in the 400(+) group is mostly a background ship? A: Because it is so hard/tedious to find out what is a background pairing for now we are treating anything with 400+ fics as non-rare based on the idea that, even if it’s a background pair, that many fics including it displays a certain level of popularity/commonness within the fandom in general.

Q:Can a non-rarepair be mentioned in a fic? Or used as a sidepair? A:That is fine! As long as a rarepair is the main focus the sidepairs can be from the non-rare list.

Q: Boruto charters don’t count towards ships, but can I do a ship with characters that are from the original series set in the Boruto era? (ex. hanabi/konohamaru) A: Yes!

Q: Can we fill out multiple boards or switch between them? A:Yes! While a bingo is the intended goal, you can fill out whichever squares, on whichever boards, in whatever order you desire. As long as a fill meets the rules and is properly tagged and submitted it will be accepted.

Q: What counts as bingo? A: For this event bingo will be any combination of five in a row. Up-and-down, side-to-side, or diagonal.

Q: So the goal is to get a bingo on any of the three boards? A: The desired goal is to achieve a bingo on whichever board you choose, but people can participate even if they don’t think they’ll make bingo. 

Q: Is there a minimum word count needed? What type of fills are accepted? A: Any type of fill is accepted, not just fics, and as long as you include the pair and the prompt there is no word requirement. The only criteria is that the fill includes a rarepair and the prompt of the square it is meant for.

Q: Where can we post? A: You can posts fills on whatever platform you desire and just link it on tumblr, as long as you properly tag it and say what the link is to. If for some reason you cannot post the link/fill to your own blog you can submit it here!

Q: How do we tag on ao3? A: You can add the information on which square you are filling and anything else that would be tagged on tumblr to an author’s note, the summary, or the actual tags on ao3, whichever way you prefer.

Q: Is there a collection on ao3 or twitter? A: While you can post to twitter there is no collection or official event blog there. Currently there is also no collection on ao3, but one will likely be created afterwords. Keep an eye out for a message requesting permission for your fic to be added to it after the event closes if you post there!

Q: Can one work be used for more than one field? Can one work be counted across multiple boards? A: You can only submit a fill for one square of a board, so you cannot cover multiple prompts on a single board in one work and submit it for multiple squares. However, you can submit one work as a fill for two separate boards, as allowing a fill to count for both cannot result in one work being two of the spaces in a single bingo. The point is for every individual bingo to have five separate fills to go with all five of its squares. 

Q: What do the spaces with character names mean? A: The prompt for those spaces is any rarepair involving that character! If the space says ‘Ino’ any rarepair including her will count.

Q: What if tumblr blocks a warning/trigger tag? A: Just tell us the tag that’s blocked and the alternative you plan to use that tumblr doesn’t block and we’ll add it to the rules post so that it can be blacklisted.

Q: How does the free space work? A: For this event the free space is not a freely given one, but rather a creator’s choice space, similar to a ‘free day’ during a week long event.

Q: What is the randomizer and what is it for? A: It is a tool that randomly generates a rarepair for anyone who would like a to shake it up or who plans to complete the randomizer space as explained in the rules post. Using it is not mandatory if you do not do that space.

Q: Where is the randomizer? What ships are in it? Can I request one be added? A: The randomizer is available here, a list of the ships in it is here, and you can send a request at anytime! We’ll add it, but any asks will not be published to avoid clogging dashes.

Q: What if the ultra-rarepair we are creating for gets a 5th fic before we post? A: Any fics posted to ao3 March 1st or later will not count towards the 0-4 fics for the ultra-rare space. The posting period remains unchanged, this date is just to help people who start writing or creating early not have their idea ruined!

Q: Is there an easy way to know if a ship is eligible for ultra-rare? A: Unfortunately because of the way tagging works and the bulk of ships that qualify there is no easy list. You can manually check by searching for the tag/pair on ao3 or you can send an ask and we will check for you!

Q: Is it okay to have under 18 characters if they are both under 18 and it is sfw? A: Yes, if it’s all sfw two similarly-aged underage characters is fine!

Q: Can I submit a fill for an ot3 (or more)? A: Yes! No paring with three or more characters has 400 fics on ao3, so they’re all eligible.

Q:What do meet cute and h/c mean? A: Meet cute is a trope that refers to the first meeting between a couple, likely a cute romantic meeting similar to a romcom type movie, and h/c is an abbreviation for hurt/comfort fic in which someone is hurt (emotionally or physically) and the other person comforts them.

Q: Can I just have the character from a character bingo square be in the fill but not be a part of the ship? A: No, for the character bingo squares the character must be a part of the ship.

Q: Is there a discord? A: There is not currently one for this specific event and in order to create one more mods would be needed to manage it. However, if enough people display interest it could be looked into.

Q:Do we just fill out boards as we please? Or will there be a prompt announced each day like live bingo? A: Because of various logistic issues, such as the fact all spaces would have to eventually called and that the event doesn’t just end when the first person reaches bingo, calling a different prompt everyday seems arbitrary. Participants can post whenever best suits them within the scheduled months.

Q: What happens when you get bingo or at the end of the event? A: We will be keeping track of participants bingo cards. A post will be made announcing everyone who got bingo at the end of the event. After that a masterlist of fills labeled by the board and prompt they are for will be posted. There will also be a post following the bingo announcement giving special mention to any of those participants who completed an entire board.

#FAQ rarepair bingo #FAQ #rarepairbingo2019

[weissfai-blog1]

Loving the Dangerous You

My mind is now bombarded with so many stories for AePete. I just love Ae and Pete and they are what I will call a soulmate. I learn about Multi-Verse by watching CLAMP stories and what always get me and touch my heart is their aspect of soulmates. That in whatever 'multi-verse' you and your soulmate will be together. A very strong connection. Stronger than the red string of fate. It is the calling of your soul to another. I am creating different AU with Ae and Pete as always.

A university with a different set of rules. AePete AU. My second headcanon.

“Will you be scared to love someone as dangerous as me?”

There’s a hierarchy in every high school and university. The one who tops them all is the Leader and the one who can command so many students to do his bidding. In order  to be the current leader, one must beat the crap out of the previous one. A so-called ceremony. 

Ae become the leader when he was just a freshman, a feat no one ever achieve. He didn’t mean too, but as the man who always steps in to protect his friends, he become one. Regardless whether he likes it or not.

It was actually an accident, Pond was being a nosy ass and without meaning to, he was challenged by the Current Leader, and Ae being Ae, cleaning some of the mess made by Pond, he steps in and in a hand to hand fight won the challenge. 

Everyone was in awe and most of their jaw drops cause Ae may be small but he punch a mean wallop and the leader was turn into a pulp. 

The thing is Ae when in the offense can be deadly that’s why he’d rather use his feet than his hands. So he plans to join the football team of the university.

From that day, respect and admiration was thrown to Ae, even though he doesn’t like the spot light.

The kids (freshmen & seniors) in the school respects their new leader and is awe that he is righteous and will avoid any fight if necessary but when push comes to shove, Ae can kick anyone’s ass. He may be 178cm (5ft8in) only but he can punch someone taller than him and left them in dust.

Many girls are scared of Ae because he may not be taller than some men but he has a sturdy and well-built muscles. His muscles are often flex when playing football. But most of the brave girls can be seen hanging around the football field.

Pond was enjoying it, after all, being the BEST FRIEND & THE RIGHT HAND of the Ai Shorty Boss, he gets to have some gifts too.

Ae doesn’t accept gifts but Pond accepts it on his behalf.

Ae is not interested in any of the girls who confess to him here and there.

He is more focus on football, academics (especially in English cause he is super bad at it) and being a leader.

Being a leader is no joke. Before going home to their dorm (Pond & Ae shares a room) he must check first that no one is hurt badly in the infirmary (injuries that are sustain in school is not his worry). He must also check that no one was being threatened especially the first years who are easy targets.

And when a challenge from other school was officially delivered, he as the leader needs to answer it.

So far, news spread that Ai Ae – The Beast have top the other university leaders and have not lose a fight.

It’s a simple territory rules. There’s five major university in the city. The leaders of each university exist in the first place to stop bloodshed and gang wars that’s form by delinquent students who think they can rule. It is recognized by the university and their professors.

Actually, the teachers are relying most of the time to the leaders cause then the leaders can take care of students who strays.  

The Dorm: GREENWOOD is no ordinary dorm. It was owned by a Japanese man who fell in love with a Thai woman and because they cannot have a baby, built the dorm near the university to take care of many students as possible.

It has a decent bed that host two students, bathroom, study desk and cabinets. Food are served in its very own cafeteria.

Its an all-boys dorm. There are several female dorms but GREENWOOD is most famous for caring the ‘hottest boys’ in the University.

It’s the middle of the semester when a new transfer student was introduced to the university.

Pete is a transfer student. Rumours immediately surround him as the ‘Mistress’ of the other Leader from his previous university.

Pete was said to transferred because of a scandal.

Ae haven’t met Pete because he was busy with the incoming mid examination and football competition with the other department.

But Ae heard a great deal about Pete: looks prettier than any girl, tall, pretty, white, cute, brown hair, slender, cute… there are so many descriptions but the words: pretty and cute keeps on popping out here and there.

Ae can only think of Dear, his highschool friend as cute, Dear is smaller than Ae and often needed help but Ae wont hesitate to kick Dear’s ass especially when Dear is being an annoying prick once or twice.  

Ae met Pete when the later was push to the wall by a student from the other school (Ae doesn’t recognize the uniform) and Pete was about to be punched when he intervene.

Ae was there before that someone landed a punch to Pete, he throws his bag.

Ae was super angry that some twerp from other school will threaten their students. The student tried to fight, but Ae beat him to it, by landing a mean punch on his stomach, the student then doubled in pain and curse Ae and Pete. 

The student shouted, ‘This is not the last Pete! Trump will kill you! Remember that you belong to him! He’ll haunt you! We’ll haunt you!’

Ae turn around and was about to shout and asked Pete when he was struck on his tracks.

Ae never thought that the day will come he will be speechless to see a person so beautiful. The transfer student carefully stand in his full height and Ae notice this beautiful creature is tall, with pretty soft brown hair that covers his forehead, the eyes that stares back at him are teary-eyed but he notice the beautiful brown colour of them – doe eyes, long eyelashes, cute chubby cheeks and red lips form in cupid’s bow.

Ae gulped and shook his head, and when the image of the other is still there, he tried to help him by giving the backpack. ‘Here. Are you okay?’

Pete nodded, ‘Thank you… uhm…’

‘Ae. That’s my name. What’s yours?’

‘Pete’

‘Ah. You’re the transfer student.’ Ae looks at Pete once again and he wanted to change the rumours spreading, this is no cute nor pretty, this is beautiful and angelic if they’ll ask him.

Ae found out that Pete is staying in Greenwood with a room to himself. Greenwood can accept special request like that, though the student should pay double as he is occupying the other side of the room too. There are only 10 special rooms like that.

Since that meeting, many students have observed that Ae treats Pete special, especially Pond who was born to be a nosy best friend. 

When a second assault happen, this time, Ae was not able to be fast enough to help Pete – there were three students who punch Pete and Ae, Pond and Ping was there to help Pete. 

Ae then proclaim to his underling that Pete will be guarded by three or four people especially when he’s busy.

His underlings can see that Pete is very special to Ae, even though Ae keeps on denying that he is treating Pete the same as the others. Just that Pete needs more protection.

His underlings just rolled their eyes and shook their head. They knew a man with a crush and yet dumb jock don’t know it himself.

Pete is very shy and told Ae that he is okay, but Ae insisted that he needs his protection. They are friends. And being friends will start who the hell is Trump and why is Pete being assaulted.

Pete was reluctant to say anything but only told him, ‘P’Trump was a friend. We were close when we were little. We grew up together… and his the only one who accepted me…’ 

‘Accepted?’ Ae’s brow furrows. 

‘I am gay.’

‘So?’

‘Ae… I like men.’

‘So?’

Pete this time has his brow frown, ‘Ae. It means I’m not normal. I am different. I can only get attracted to men…’

‘And so? What’s wrong with being gay? Is that a sickness? No. You’re still you.’

‘Ae doesn’t think I’m weird? Abnormal?’

Ae flick Pete’s forehead, ‘You’re weirdly beautiful. I thought you were an angel at first sight. Abnormal? Just because you’re gay? That’s ridiculous. You can love anyone you want, there’s nothing wrong with it. What’s wrong are the people who pushes their opinions to others and hurt others.’

‘Ae…’

‘Now, tell me, is that all? But why are they assaulting you?’

‘Ae… can I not say it now?’ 

Ae sighs and looks at Pete’s eyes. ‘I wont force you today. But sooner or later you will tell me. I don’t want you to keep secrets from me Pete… please.’

Days, weeks and months, Ae and Pete grew closer. So close that Ae thinks there’s something wrong with his heart. He doesn’t know why he wants to see Pete everyday, every freakin’ second of the day. He doesn’t understand the possessiveness he felt whenever Pete will talk to Pond, Sun, Type, Champ, and the others. Hell he even hates it when girls are flirting with Pete. Ae thanks Bow and Chaaim when they dismisses the girls. 

Their rituals are known to the whole university:

Ae and Pete will eat breakfast at the dorm cafeteria

Ae will accompany Pete until he reaches his classroom (even the professors are so used to this scene)

Pete will be seen when Ae is on football practice

Pete will stay in one corner of the room when Pond and Ping delivers to Ae the reports of students who were into fights, who was injured due to street fights and so on. And Pete accompanied Ae whenever Ae visits the infirmary. 

Pete is also present when some sub leaders will challenge Ae. Pete is a witness on how scary and how Ae can punch and kick someone and left them like a pulp.

Sun, the other best friend of Ae asked this to Ae one time, ‘Are you sure Pete is not hiding something more important?’

‘What do you mean?’ Ae asked dangerously.

‘Well, your Angel is always present whenever you are being challenged. But for someone who looks delicate and soft, he doesn’t flinched when you punch someone. Usually someone delicate even Dear will flinched and cover their faces. But Pete just looks and deadpan.’

Ae didn’t say anything because he knew about that. Pete doesn’t look distraught or anything, but would come to him with a towel or a first aid kit. At first he wanted to ask if his okay seeing so much blood, but Pete just took care of him like its his work.

They were all on a ‘group date’ to watch a movie in the city. And Ae was surprised at how Pete was really popular, maybe because at school no one approaches Pete because they knew Pete is under his protection, but outside the school, Pete is being approach here and there. Sun, Pond, Ping, Dear, Oat are laughing and telling Ae he needs to move fast cause it looks like Pete is hot and not only females, but male eyes are following Pete whenever he goes. 

Ae accompanied Pete at the front of Pete’s room. Pete told Ae, ‘Ae, I have something for you, actually for N’Yim. Its snacks from Europe. My aunt bought so many for me. And I’m wondering if you can give them to N’Yim.’

Ae nodded and both entered Pete’s room.

Pete then remembered that his room has a weird switch location and he turns around to open the switch when his lips accidentally graze Ae’s lips. 

There was silence. 

Both doesn’t know how much redness on their face for the whole room is still covered in darkness, only a small dim light from the outside can be seen.

Pete was about to open the switch when Ae stops his hand and grasp his waist and kiss him.

‘Pete. I think… I think I like you. I know that this is not like for a brother, a friend… but something else. A like that wants me to kiss you again… and again.’

‘Ae…’

‘Pete… can I kiss you again.’

Pete nodded and they shared a kiss so hot and so tender.

Ae smiles while he lies on his bed. 

Pete wore a worried frown on his face. He then opens his phone and type a message to

Pete: P’Trump. We need to talk.

Trump: Are you ready to surrender?

Pete: No.

Trump: Then let’s talk tomorrow. 10am. The usual warehouse.

Pete: See you.

Pete stands at the warehouse exactly 10am and true to his words, Trump is there with ten of his minions.

‘Pete. I told you to come back to me. I need you.’

‘P’Trump. I thought you were my friend. But you used me.’

‘Pete. I never used you. You needed me. I am offering you a chance to belong.’

‘I never wanted to belong to a bloody gang!’

‘So you’d rather be a Leader’s bitch?! I heard about it Pete! You’re that midget’s bitch!’

‘Ae is not like that.’

‘Now, you’re defending him. Let’s see if you can lose your touch.’

Trump nodded and ten of his minions surrounds Pete.

‘Please P… don’t do this…’

Trump turn around.

He heard nothing but grunts and screams of pain. It was when he heard a crying that he turns around and he saw it.

Pete standing with a dangerous look on his eyes and face.

All the men are sprawled on his feet. 

‘So you never lose your touch. You’re still the Bloody Angel of Death.’

‘Stop going and trying to make me came back. I will not fight anymore for you. I don’t want anymore bloodshed!’

‘Does your Master know this?’

Pete’s fist tightened and looks at the carnage before him.

All Trumps men are in pain, crack ribs, blood everywhere from their face to their arms. He was not able to stop himself when he crack one’s arm and he knew it was broken.

‘So he doesn’t know… Pete come back to me.’

‘No P. I think its time we end this. Please don’t come back looking for me anymore.’

Pete walks away but Trump shouted, ‘You think he will accept you? He will never accept an abnormal man like you Pete! You’re a psychopath! You have a twisted other side in you! He will despise you!’

Ae was worried when Pete didn’t reply on his text messages and was not in his room. He had and his minions looks for him everywhere, he was so out of his mind of worry when a text message came to him after three days.

Ai Koon Chai: Ae Krub. I’m sorry. There was an emergency at home. I’ll be back tomorrow.

AE: As long as you’re okay. See you tomorrow.

Ae wanted to ask so many things but he held himself back.

Pete at his room balcony looks at the sky. 

‘Ae… will you be able to accept me? The real me?’

Pete Pitchaya Pecharn Worachoti, the only son of Pum Pecharn Worachoti. A hard man whose associated at secret military opts, taught him military instructed martial arts to defend himself, and Pete has been in multiple fights with men a full head taller and has more muscle mass than him and still win easily. 

Pum taught Pete to defend himself especially as he looks so much like his mother, beautiful and skinny. Pum will often throw Pete inside a ring to fight one of the soldiers under Pum. 

Pete has beaten up multiple large men despite him being as scrawny and built as a girl.

Pete then developed a certain side in him, he doesn’t want to fight, but when he is threatened it triggers him to protect himself and most often than not, the other party will end up with either a broken face or a broken bones. 

Trump uses this advantage to help him secure being a leader, after all Trump is the only friend of Pete and the only one who knew about him being gay.

Pete decided to hide this side from Ae. As Ae was very determine to protect him and he doesn’t want Ae to abandon him. With Ae he felt himself and comfortable… and he likes Ae… more than a friend.

But for now, he cannot accept Ae’s like. Because he doesn’t deserve it as he is hiding so many things.

#lbc #aepete #gangster #my mind is a current mess #so many stories bundle #i need a 6months vacation twice a year #love by chance #hcs

[levicollins95-blog]

Simple Approaches to Prepare for UPSC Current Affairs

The Best Way To Handle Current Affairs for Civil Services: Are you currently trying to find advice on current affairs for upsc ? Appropriate, you will get the most effective answer here. Recently the importance of current affairs has proportionally increased with the analytic development of issues as well as with the increased weightage of setting and science. There is no specific trend in which UPSC has asked questions from current events. Their volatile character could be thought from last year report where many direct questions from current events were picked.

Current Events plays a key role in all the three phases of UPSC planning, especially in the Mains and Interview. It covers a wide selection of matters which overlaps with the CORE matters like Geography, Polity, Economics, History and Dynamic topics like environment, technology and technology. Henceforth, it is hard to categorize issues below a particular heading/topic. Here is the purpose, why most of the aspirants are of the notion that, not many questions have already been requested from current activities in the recent years (from Prelims perspective).

To create in more quality with this part, we would illustrate with several examples. Now every candidate who aspire to become an IAS or IPS Official and want to get ready or get yourself ready for UPSC Civil Service Examination might know the significance of current affairs and just how much weightage provided for current functions in the prelims and mains exam. So, Continue reading to learn more about how exactly to examine current affairs for UPSC prelims & mains. For the data, This is actually the number of these crucial events or affairs :

1. which become the headlines of the magazines and editorial are written. 2. which may have a negative/positive consequences on the society. 3. which remain in subject or debate in society and persons for an extended time. 4. which discover a special interest in reputed magazines for a lengthy time. 5. which may have a quality to make examination oriented records below national/international dilemmas and Bilateral Relation.

Don't allow any institute or anyone inform you usually! Reading the paper EVERYDAY is essential for the preparation. I browse the documents each day for the small amount of time I'd for my preparation. After I decided to appear for the examination, the first step I needed was to sign up to the Hindu and consistently dedicate two hours day-to-day in examining it conclusion to end. I think, reading the report yourself not just helps in greater retention, it also ensures that you will be finding your way through the Mains simultaneously.

My habit of examining the documents was a great help not merely in the Prelims but in addition throughout the answer writing in Mains. I would remember details and numbers from the news headlines that I'd study and applied that in questions wherever I'd small information to frame an effective answer. Also the editorials were of great aid in composition form questions. Therefore my most significant advice will be that you begin studying the paper from the day you determine to seem for the examination, and read it everyday in order to not need backlogs.

Easy Methods to Make for UPSC Current Affairs

One has to be clear about their purpose while reading the news. While you might know which piece of news is worth addressing, you have to also have the ability to dissect the news headlines to determine the areas you will need to retain. While I did so see the documents earlier in the day also, it had been more of a relaxing task and no exercise. Like if I was examining about a scheme, I didn't trouble concerning the Ministry which was employing it or the number of districts it had been to gain etc. I would only be aware that this kind of scheme existed.

But after I began the prep and had the prior year's documents, I knew what precisely to consider in an item of news. That know-how is an essential part of examining the paper. Aimlessly reading the entire report is futile and is likely to be counter-productive. So have the prior year's papers and realize the structure of the questions, then read accordingly. Also, adhere to the syllabus in front of you in order to avoid deviating and losing time.

Also in the event that you sign up for a newspaper, it removes the necessity to make notes on current affairs because most of it is covered by them. I built notes initially however seen that the journal had previously looked after that task for me. I did produce records next but only as factsheets listing important systems for rapid revision during Mains.

Taking an on the web quiz/test day-to-day at night was another important element of my current affairs preparation. I'm glad I used that habit as it served me consolidating and cementing all that I'd read throughout the day. It ensured that I kept more and forgot less. You can find sufficient everyday checks available on the web that you can subscribe to.

I observed the news headlines of all days within my preparation. Rajya Sabha TV was my personal favorite for its simple and unbiased content. I made it a point to watch the debates on this system RS Vishesh. They helped me understand more things in lesser time and were an excellent source of info on burning issues. I applied to view TV throughout dishes to save lots of time.

A lot of instances you should come across fixed parts of one's syllabus in the news. For example, the headlines of a bi-election or perhaps a new countervailing duty required on an item of import. All the instances it will be for topics like polity and economics, so do keep an eye out for such media articles as they might be combined with a static notion and requested in the paper.

Give current affairs its due value as it today forms an important percentage of the paper. So hold abreast with this adjusting development and devote adequate time to it. Whilst it is neither recommended or probable to examine each issue each and every day, current affairs is definitely an exception. The only way to ace it's to follow the news headlines, not need backlogs and get revision tests. Do not get bogged down by the total amount of time it will take to consistently browse the paper. It'd take me 2-2.5 hours initially but gradually I surely could bring it down to 1 hour through the Mains and 45 moments throughout the interview preparation period. As you hold studying, you'll realize that many of media is a follow-up of the pre-existing one. Therefore it will take you reduced time once you become standard at it.

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[omdaily10]

NEVER BEEN BETTER

Album: Fourth

Writers/Producers: Jason Evigan, Sean Douglas, Sam Hollander, Claude Kelly, Steve Robson, Martin Johnson, Peter Wallevik, Daniel Davidsen, Cutfather, Ryan Tedder, TMS, Steve Mac, Wayne Hector, Paul Weller, Jamie Scott, Matt Prime, FutureCut, John Newman

Release Date: 24/11/2014 (Original) / 20/11/2015 (Reissue)

Chart Positions: #1 (UK), #1 (Scotland), #7 (Ireland), #20 (Switzerland), #27 (Australia), #28 (Finland), #38 (Germany), #38 (Denmark), #40 (Austria), #42 (US), #50 (Sweden)

Sales: 861k (UK, 2x Platinum)

As we touched on with our 'Wrapped Up' review, anything longer than six months away in pop and people can start to ask questions about an artist’s future, such is the fickle nature of the beast. Olly was certainly in more of an interesting position than most, having now had two back to back million selling, chart slaying albums. He had quite literally confounded all expectations. ‘Never Been Better’ was a significant album for that reason, but it’s also a landmark album in other respects.

Back when work on the ‘Right Place Right Time’ album had only just got under way in the summer of 2012, a massive shift in personnel happened at Epic Records. Nick Raphael and Jo Charrington, who had overseen Olly from his launch, were poached by Universal Records to head up the relaunched Capitol label, in turn going onto launch the successful careers of 5 Seconds of Summer and Sam Smith.

Eighteen months on, and whilst Olly stayed under the Sony umbrella, he subsequently moved from Epic to the reactivated RCA label, headed up by former Island Records MD Nick Gatfield, meaning he had a new A&R man overseeing him and a new album for the first time since his debut. Now entering his fifth year in pop – which many cynics will tell you is the point popularity can either sustain itself or wane from a peak for an artist – Olly had a hell of a lot to prove. It certainly explains why he took as long as he did on it.

This album had to cement his position and popularity in the UK music scene and most importantly, have the songs to back it up. And it’s fair to say that for the vast majority of the album, that was the case. Certainly, you’d be hard pressed to find a more fitting song to kick off the album than the cheekily titled ‘Did You Miss Me?’

Initially touted as the first single before Olly got cold feet about a potential press backlash regarding misunderstanding of the title, and co-written with Los Angeles based hitmaker Jason Evigan (Maroon 5, Madonna, Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears) this mischief making, horn drenched, Prince-esque strut was bold, brash and attention grabbing: ‘I can tell that you’ve missed me / Cause your eyes give it away / I know you can’t resist me / So show me, show me, show me that you missed me’. It’s a shame he didn’t go with his instincts, because really pop is built on those grand moments of statements of intent.

For that same reason, the title track, co-written with the TMS team, and a record that upped the epic grandeur of ‘Army of Two’ from the last album, was also a highlight. Recorded with a 60-piece orchestra and coming off as part Bond theme part McFly at their hardest, it was a soaring rocket of a track that Olly stretched his vocal chops on, hitting higher notes than he ever had before, and which he performed to devastatingly brilliant effect on the accompanying tour for the album (more on which in a second).

TMS also offered light and shade to Olly’s personality as an artist on the tracks ‘Why Do I Love You’ and ‘Nothing Without You’. The latter was a plaintive, simplistic piano ballad, stating to his then girlfriend of the time that life without her would be nothing. The former track, however, was possibly one of the most dark and experimental tracks he’d done to that point, an almost psychedelic, Northern soul leaning pop number on the agony of being in love with a non-committal partner. It was in many ways, like the renegade evil twin of ‘Oh My Goodness’.

British singer songwriter John Newman, who’d famously topped the charts with drum and bass outfit Rudimental on their 2012 single ‘Feel The Love’, as well as hitting the charts with songs like ‘Come and Get It’ and ‘Love Me Again’, co-wrote ‘Stick With Me’, a pulsing dance track with an eerie choir effect produced by Steve Mac and Wayne Hector. Immediately following it was the very lustful ‘Can’t Say No’, a stripped to the bone part acoustic funk pop number.

But closing off the album was possibly one of the biggest coups Olly could have hoped for in his career at that moment. Some two years previously, he had performed a cover of ‘Broken Stones’, a track from ‘Stanley Road’, the iconic 1995 album from British rock legend Paul Weller, first for The Sun Biz Sessions, and then at his headline slot for the annual iTunes Festival in Camden, North London. Olly had grown up around Paul’s music in his dad’s record collection and had stated what a fan he was of both his solo work and his work in The Jam (he also covered their 1982 chart topper ‘A Town Called Malice’ on the previous tour).

Fast forward to spring 2014, and he was fortunate to meet Paul at the annual Teenage Cancer Trust fundraiser gig at the Royal Albert Hall in London, who mentioned that he had written the bones of a song with Olly in mind. With some additional co-writing from Olly, that song became ‘Let Me In’, a genuinely moving acoustic number which showed off the more soulful, reflective tones in his voice and which you could almost picture being sung around a campfire at dusk.

If ever he’d needed confirmation that he was more of a serious proposition than ever, then his work with such a respected legend was it. In fact, many reviewers subsequently highlighted it as such, with The Guardian proclaiming it to be “the best thing he’s done in his career” in their analysis of the album. Amy Davidson, reviewing the album for Digital Spy, was also full of praise, stating that with ‘Never Been Better’, “Olly isn't in the wallflower business, rather he fully intends on running with his title without a whiff of uncertainty.”

‘Never Been Better’ then, ultimately proved to be a prophetic title – it became his third consecutive UK number one album, once again taking just under a month to achieve its first platinum disc, as well as sailing into the top 10 or top 40 in seven other countries, eventually going onto be certified double platinum by the end of its chart run. It also showed that, far from being forgotten with a year away, Olly’s popularity was quite undiminished and had, well, never been better.

BONUS TRACKS, UNWRAPPED

As with his previous album, the original release of ‘Never Been Better’ came in a standard 13 track version, and a deluxe edition, once again in a digipak booklet format, and substituting the yellows and reds of the standard artwork for a mixture of creams and beiges, as well as four additional tracks.

Highlights among these extra four songs included ‘Ready for Love’, a folksy, rousing foot stomper that you could almost picture being sung by a 70s era Elton John (although no relation to his 1979 song and subsequent 2003 chart topper of the same name). The twilight strewn dreaminess of the ballad ‘History’ ensured that it quickly became a fan favourite, and was performed by Olly on that year’s telethon for ITV’s ‘Text Santa’ charity.

Internationally, fans in Germany and Japan were treated to two further bonus tracks. Only available on copies of the deluxe edition sold in the German entertainment store Mediamarkt, ‘Alone Tonight’ saw Olly team up once again with the Future Cut team on possibly the steamiest sounding song he’d recorded to that point: ‘Kiss me like a stranger / It’s time to misbehave, don’t leave me lonely / I can’t leave you alone tonight’. It’s still currently unavailable for streaming or digital download in any territory at time of writing.

'Alone Tonight’ was also on the deluxe edition in Japan, along with a very special track recorded with another music legend. ‘Sukiyaki’ (literally translated as ‘I Look Up As I Walk’) had been a phenomenally successful record for the Japanese crooner Kyu Sakamoto back in 1961, having sold something in excess of 13m copies worldwide. Olly was invited to re-record a version of the song with English lyrics, titled ‘Look at the Sky’, written by none other than Yoko Ono, who sung his praises highly of his performance of the song.

As of time of writing in May 2019, Olly is still yet to release a Christmas album despite much continual demand for him to do so. The ‘Unwrapped’ EP, a five-track acoustic EP given away free for download on Google Play during December 2014, and recorded at Google’s British headquarters in London, is thus the closest we’ve probably got to an official seasonal release of his. ‘Wrapped Up’ and ‘History’ were performed in his set, along with an additional cover of Wizzard’s ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’, in the same arrangement as his previous recording of the festive favourite for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge in December 2012.

NEVER BEEN BETTER: SPECIAL EDITION

As in 2013, Olly spent much of 2015 touring (and pursuing other activities as we’ll come onto discuss in later entries for this era). Once again with no time to get a full new album ready, he decided to repeat the formula that had worked so well for the last album by repacking it as a special edition for reissue a year after it first came out. A new black and yellow colour scheme adorned the artwork, the original 13 tracks from the album remained. And joining them were seven brand new songs, including a further two singles which we’ll be discussing at a later stage.

Claude Kelly and Steve Robson bought the frenetic funk to ‘Sacrifice’, a lively up-tempo floor filler that hardly had time to pause for breath. Meanwhile, Sam Hollander, an American based songwriter and producer who had written for decidedly more punk pop orientated artists like Blink 182 and Good Charlotte, delivered the haunting, lighters aloft ballad ‘If I Stay’, an empowering song about wanting to not give up on a relationship until the last.

‘Love Shouldn’t Be This Hard’ marked Olly’s first collaboration with Toby Gad, the hitmaker for the likes of Beyoncé, Pixie Lott and JLS. A genuinely compelling, almost country leaning midtempo about that awkward first stages of dating when there’s a desperate but repressed need to fill the silences, it seems all but forgotten now but is a gem worth unearthing.

Rounding off the repacked album were two more recordings for BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge from December 2014: his then new single ‘Up’, performed acoustically with Ella Eyre, who subsequently performed it with him when she supported him on his UK and Ireland arena tour for the album in April 2015, and his version of Wham’s timeless festive favourite ‘Last Christmas’, gentle sleigh bells jingling in the background and all.

Ella also crops up on the second home video release of Olly’s, as the repack included the accompanying DVD of the fourth and final London O2 show of the ‘Never Been Better’ tour, recorded on 7th May 2015, as she performs ‘Up’ with him on there too. The DVD sadly had to omit the popular ‘Funk Medley’ section of the tour that year, owing to the failure of clearance for use of several of the songs in the medley for release. However, the performance of ‘Troublemaker’ with Robbie Williams as a surprise guest is retained and is well worth a watch even now.

The repacked ‘Never Been Better’ had the dual misfortune of coming out during one of the toughest weeks in Olly’s career (more on which in future entries), but also during one of the best for Adele, who released her third album ‘25’ that same week and which sold over 800,000 copies in its first week alone. However, it still returned the album to the top 10 for Christmas that year, ensuring that Olly notched up one of the year’s best-selling albums in the UK for a fifth year on the trot.

#Olly Murs #Olly Murs Daily #10th Anniversary #OMDaily10 #Never Been Better #Fourth Album #2014 #2015 #Retrospective #Review #Deluxe Edition #Special Edition #Unwrapped EP

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[unwoundbobbin]

Nine Worlds 2018 - Sunday & Homeward

This write up is bought to you by a pack of Nerds, so who the hell knows how coherent it will be by the end.

(Actual footage of me)

From Saturday!

Sunday:

Our Last Best Hope for Science Fiction: 25 Years of Babylon 5

A look at a ground breaking sci-fi series, celebrating a show we love and how it grew from a something set on a space station to something truly special.

(Two Centauri, a starfleet officer, and a Morden(?) walk in to a panel...)

This is the panel I missed the talk on Golems for, and much as I wanted to see the Golems, this was 100% worth the trade, because I’ve never met that many people who are in to B5 before, and it was a really funny and thought provoking panel with some beautiful moments in it, including the moments of silence when we remembered those from the Babylon 5 family who have gone beyond the rim.

There was also discussion of favourite moments from Babylon 5. Mine has to be this, from the Centauri’s final assault on the Narn Homeworld. Peter Jurasik’s acting is superb here, but I love that the writers and director made a place in that episode to show the flipping of Mollari when he realises what he’s done - how out of control and repelled he feels by what should be a moment of triumph. And the moment he starts to work his way back towards some sort of redemption.

I think my favourite quote of the whole thing was by the person cosplaying as Londo Mollari:

"Behold minbari Jesus - his name is Jeff" 

(This psycop lurked for the entire panel. It’s as perfectly creepy and wonderful as it sounds. When I mentioned that on twitter, it devolved in to a Babylon 5 pun war...)

When I came out of the B5 panel, the one person I’d seen with a brain slug had become a collective. And they continued to grow in number throughout Sunday. Props to the person who spent an entire year making brain slugs to give away to strangers at Nine Worlds.

(The frightening brain slug collective. They continued to multiply throughout the day. Possibly the creepiest cosplay of the weekend, just because they continued to multiply.)

History’s Hidden Heroes III

Following two years of back-to-back success, the ‘History's Hidden Heroes’ session returns to its original format of ten to fifteen minute mini-talks by individual presenters discussing their favourite figures lost - or pushed aside - from mainstream history. Introduction by EK McAlpine, with talks from Tara, Avery, and Reiley.

This session was run by EK, and the speakers were Avery Delany, Tara Brown, and Reiley Daniels who all spoke about people in history who were part of the LGBTQ community, including some who were trans (though not remembered that way), some who were gender non-conforming, some who were openly queer at a time when that was (more) dangerous than now.

Avery spoke about trans masculine people in history, including a pioneering doctor, James Barry (note - while that Wiki article generally avoids using any pronouns at all, there is a source from the time quoted that misgenders Barry, so be careful if that would cause you any distress).

My favourite quote from Avery was “Do some queer history“, but I also really appreciated something I didn’t get the exact words of, but amounted to the idea that someone wouldn’t live as a gender different to the one they were assigned at birth for over 50 years if they did not actually identify as that gender. I really wish I’d got the actual words, because that quote stuck with me as much as anything.

Tara Brown spoke about three women of colour who were pioneers in blues and jazz - and sexuality, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Gladys Bentley.

One of the most interesting, and awful, takeaways from this talk was the brief discussion about how there is some difference in the historical record as to the sexuality women presented, and that this is due to McCarthyism which basically forced at least Gladys Bentley to present herself as no longer a lesbian. It made me so cross to think of a person as comfortable in their sexuality as Bentley having to forcibly change themselves because of the massive risks that being out and proud served in the backwards looking 1950s America.

Reiley spoke about a quack physician called Charles Hamilton (misgendered practically everywhere on the internet), and the importance of checking multiple sources and subjecting them to due scrutiny.

If anyone enjoyed this panel is interested in other hidden heroes from sources that aim at diversity in who and what they talk about (and use content notices), I highly recommend @missedinhistory, Sawbones, and @rejectedprincesses.

The Future of Nine Worlds

It's time for a chat about Nine Worlds and where it's going. If you have strong thoughts about what you'd like to see the event become, and would like to get involved in making things happen, this is your in-person opportunity to talk about the options and understand how we got where we are.

Went to this, and I honestly don’t have a lot to say about it - not a lot a could say about it because I’m very much not the right person to speak about what happened in the majority of the session.

I will say that the announcement that Nine Worlds was re-constituting after this year’s con felt like a blow to the gut.

(This was an incredibly powerful moment, and to know that even though the current director is stepping back a future nineworlds is possible meant so very much.)

(Main point by what may turn out to be the future team was that Nine Worlds is too precious to lose)

CN for discussion of police at con, and a failure act appropriately to the stated concerns of a con-goer (and more concerned people who did not speak about it at the Future of Nine Worlds panel). When this section is over there will be a delightful gif of Wonder Woman deflecting bullets so scroll below her if you will find this section challenging.

What happened next is best summed up by Alecto101 in this post which I urge you all to read (also please read this followup thread by the same person). Her recollection of what happened at that panel is extremely accurate. I was there, and that is what happened. It was not dealt with adequately by anyone there in an official capacity. Most people who wanted to say something in follow up raised the fact that Alecto101 had not had her question and concerns adequately addressed, and when the people on the stage did so, it was in an inappropriate way that put the emotional and intellectual workload back on the person who had rightly raised legitimate concerns.

I have absolutely no patience with the people who immediately strawmanned (Oh, you don’t want police there at all - you can’t exclude attendees based on job) - I was there and at no point did Alecto101 suggest that.

What I’m trying to say is something EK said much more eloquently: “Concerns about how police participate in 9W and the separation of their jobs and their everyday lives as fans are ABSOLUTELY valid and not the same as “ban cops”.“

The developments since have been a little more positive, and I’m hoping that the reconstitution can be used as a way to build in representation of PoC from the beginning rather than trying to add on later. The way 9W works for members of the LGBTQ or disabled communities needs to be the way it works for the BaME community too, or it is not diverse (I’ve paraphrased here. I’m pretty sure I’ve just mangled the original quote. I can’t remember who said it but it wasn’t originally me).

For followup, I recommend reading Avery Delany’s thread here and this thread on the official Nine Worlds twitter account. This web page from Nine Worlds is also very important reading. If you have the physical, emotional, and mental spoons to do so, please consider signing up to be part of the future.

Finally, if you’re thinking about writing to Alecto, please first consider this tweet from the official Nine Worlds Team: “We do not want people to interact with the blogger on our behalf. We do not need defending. We do not want them pursued again for conversations they don’t want to continue. Their opinions are valid and we are glad to have heard them. “ and just DON’T.

After that I had more con crash, and tried to manage it myself in the quiet room, before worrying that my nose blowing was going to upset those who had sensory overload and needed genuine quiet, and ran away to my room where E wrapped me in a blanket and fed me biscuits until I was human again. She is awesome and I’m totally in her debt. (Thread here of what I struggled with wrt the quiet room - I am not saying it should go away BTW - I don’t know what the right answer is, just that I found it challenging for my own particular issues)

The end of the con was then barrelling towards me at a terrifying speed. I went off site for food with some friends, and then we all formed half of a team for the unofficial “The Not The End of the Con Quiz” as team Last Best Hope for Victory, and we only went and bloody won! Massive props to @knittedace and @laalratty who basically carried our team through two rounds pretty much on their own (even though one of our team who shall remain nameless nearly submitted “Aragorn” as the name of the giant spider in Harry Potter, which was caught before we submitted for marking, but they shall not live it down... for a while anyway :))

(Team Last Best Hope for Victory. Actual quiz victors!)

Went to bed at midnight after several rounds of Slash, which was really the perfect end to a great con (even if I did keep crashing).

(Me on my way home. I look pretty knackered there, but it doesn’t even touch how completely mentally (and to some extent physically) exhausted I was, and still am. Completely worth it though.)

I may have listened to this on the journey home and sobbed. Like I said on my Friday post, it’s somehow become the song of the con for me.

#my stuff #babylon 5 #brain slug collective #brain slugs #nine worlds #nineworlds #Future of Nine Worlds #representation #diversity

[gloriousgardendonut]

Walking the Ridgeway, my own way - one woman and her pup

Genesis 13:17                  Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and                  in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee.

Whilst camping I met a man who originated from Zimbabwe. He told me a story of how he had applied to become a British citizen many years previous after fleeing his own country for fear of persecution. At the time there was a mix up and due to his own misinterpretation of a letter regarding his application he thought he had been denied citizenship. He was a Christian and prayed to God for help. Whilst doing so he came across the above quote from Genesis. On reading it he decided to take it literally and walked from Aberdeen to Lands End  in the hope that God would help him in his predicament. On his return from his walk someone explained to him that the letter was actually saying he could stay in England and due to language difficulties he had misinterpreted it.  He explained to me how he was overjoyed and had enjoyed walking all over the British Isles ever since. He also believed that God had rewarded him as in Genesis. Interestingly, this conversation took place on our campsite the morning of the England versus Sweden game in the World Cup. Having our camper van adorned with England flags he had asked about them and we chatted about how we'd be watching the game later in the local pub. Later in the day he and his wife arrived unexpectedly in the pub and  joined us in cheering England on to victory, he said it had been another wonderful experience for him as he'd never watched football in a pub before. But I diversify, my reason for this bit of blog is to share my thoughts on the recent National Trail I completed. My reason for walking wasn't concerned with religion but rather a personal challenge I set myself for the Gap Year to do something by myself (without other humans). Of course my lovely new pooch came with me to keep me company. As it turned out the walk gave me plenty of thinking time and possibly helped me to see 'the light' in relation to many things on a personal level. I'm sure if people were able to walk everyday, heads and minds would be much clearer and mental health difficulties would be less than they currently are. I might add that having a dog as well helps my mental health enormously so recommend it to anyone. So 'The Walk' - The Ridgeway National Trail - 87 miles from Overton Hill to Ivanhoe Beacon, an ancient trackway used since  prehistoric times and passing  through The Wessex Downs, The Chilterns, secluded valleys and remote woodlands of Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire. Recommended completion time 6-7 days, recommended average daily mileage 14-15 miles, recommended direction West to East. But hang on……recommendations are all well and good but what about the unexpected! For one the unexpected heatwave in England with the highest temperatures since 1976. Then add to that a 15 month old pup that flits from Duracell high power mode (crazy, spinning, jumping) to flat battery mode (puppy nap, refuses to move) at regular intervals through the day. Then finally, start and finish points along the route miles from our pre booked accommodation and in the middle of nowhere. So with these factors in the mix the 14-15 miles per day was the first criteria to be abandoned, replaced on good days with 7am starts we were able to achieve 10-11 miles and on others with later starts maybe 6-7 miles. The heat was usually above 30 degrees by 11am so afternoon walking was not an option for the puppy. Also the puppy got really tired every 2-3 days so we had to include a couple of rest days for him to recover, but is was good for me as well and usually meant we were raring to go the day after. The other big issue was the M40 or more precisely accommodation we'd  booked to the west or east of this. We'd booked a log cabin on a smallholding near to the start of the walk and hoped we could do more of the walk than we did by the time we had to move to our next accommodation - a campsite near the end. As it turned out we still had 40 miles to go (still in the middle) when we had to leave the cabin and go to the campsite. This meant we either needed to return east each day (40 miles first day, 30 miles second day and so on). This would mean taking up valuable pre-lunch walking time and not getting too far before we had to stop because of the heat. So I had an 'ingenious' idea instead of driving back 40 miles, we could pop down the road to Ivanhoe Beacon and start walking backwards, well back to the middle not actually backwards. This would mean we maximised more early morning walking time. Not the traditional way of walking a linear route,  but who cares, we were being adaptable to circumstances and we still eventually walked the whole 87 miles and were probably unique in being the only women and pup do do the route that way……EVER!! We took celebratory pictures at the top of the Beacon (the official end), then celebrated with a pub lunch, knowing we still had 40 miles to do and knowing our excuse for a pub lunch was a fraud!   So what did I see along the way, well the obvious on any national trail is lots of fauna and flora. One of the Ridgeways distinctive characters is chalk, created tens of millions of years ago by the coalescing of dead seashells and mud, it is the stuff you walk on throughout the walk sometimes bright and shiny under foot sometimes buried just under the surface in field and woods. A famous site along the Ridgeway is the chalk horse  on the hillside, you can't actually see it from the Ridgeway, but if you go into the valley you can. Apparently the chalk is permeable and in wetter weather can become very sticky under foot, not a problem for us with the heatwave, rather the glare off its surface probably enhanced the suntan and made us feel even hotter. In the west there is much grassland and pasture, whereas the east was heavily wooded with beech trees, the replacement for the ancient oaks cut down during deforestation many years ago. Interesting and much to the dismay of the puppy, there is little water along the Ridgeway. The chalk soaks it up and so there are no rivers or streams until you get to the middle and hit the Thames at Goring Gap. Unfortunately whilst you can see the Thames for a few miles along this part of the route, there's little opportunity to actually dip your toes in it. We arrived there on a particularly scorching day and found only one place along the bank that was low enough for the pup to enjoy a paddle. In fact he smelt it first and flew down the path so fast to dive in I thought he was chasing something and went into a little panic. The last thing he chased was a sheep in the lakes, not to hurt it but to play with it. He was only 10 months old, it was a scary moment filled with thoughts of an angry farmer reaching for his gun and shooting my new baby dead, alas he returned unharmed, smiling and having no idea of the danger he had just been in. So water lacking we had to take extra supplies in the pack to avoid dehydration. As well as chalk there is stone and at the start of the walk is Britain's largest henge at Avebury. There is a misconception that henge are circles of standing stones like the famous Stonehenge, but this is untrue, they are in fact enclosures, with banks and ditches with opposing entrances. The one in Avebury is spectacular and would have been more so back in the day when more of the chalk was exposed creating a brilliant white circle around the henge. Another place I visited along the route was Waylands Smithy a Neolithic burial chamber enclosed by huge Sarsen stones dating back to 2800BC, wow….that's old. Whilst there in the middle of nowhere and thinking I was on my own, a woman appeared behind one of the stones, after a sharp intake of breath I decided she looked 'of this world' and although she did not acknowledge me (strange), she seemed harmless standing there hugging the stone. Waiting for her to leave, me and the pup did a few modern day selfies and once she'd left I decided to hug the stone too, well when in Rome…… of course it just felt like a cold hard stone with no special powers but to me amazing all the same as it had been sat there putting up with stone huggers for over 5000 years. Talking of strange things along the Ridgeway, as mentioned the east of the way has a lot of woodland…..'if you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise'……… One evening whilst relaxing and partaking of a little vino after a fine days walk along the next section of the way, Simon decided to tell me that he had spoken to a chap that day whilst out cycling. He had told the chap about mine and the pups walk and the chap said he'd done the Ridgeway himself and had a jolly good time of it, until the day he did the Grim's Ditch bit! My eyes widened and my heart quickened as I reluctantly asked for more information. Apparently, according to Simon, the chap had found the place dark, overgrown and difficult under foot with old and gnarled tree stumps, he'd stumbled through feeling increasingly uneasy and a little chilled in his bones. On hearing this I immediately grabbed my guide book and scoured the pages to find this place, my god, there it was 2 miles of it in the middle of the the next days route. I remember swilling an extra glass of rosé before bed and telling myself to put those thoughts of ghosts and superstition out of my head. After a restless night we rose to glorious sunshine and a renewed sense of not believing in ghosts. We set off and within a few miles I became very aware that we were entering Grim's Ditch, my mantra being 'I am a big girl, independent and adventurous, the sun is shining, my dog has big teeth, there is nothing to fear'. All was quiet, it was narrow, a little overgrown meaning I got stung by nettles and kept tripping up over the gnarled tree stumps, did I feel uneasy? A little, it was long, seemed to be never ending, I remembered I was in the middle of nowhere, alone, an easy target, who was Grim anyway? what was he?……………..then suddenly footsteps, heavy, right behind me, my heart leaped, I turned, the chill entering my body, eyes wide I spotted him, right behind me……………the local jogger, 10 stone wet in bright yellow silky shorts. We exchanged hellos and he ran on and I sighed with relief. For the rest of the walk I felt no further fear, in fact the woods became my favourite place on the route, a retreat from the blistering heat, quiet and peaceful. The puppy loved it there too, running and exploring to his heart's content. So then there was the fauna - the animals. I love animals, except COWS, I fear cows, I avoid cows, I have run for my life to escape them and I know they are killers - Google it, you'll find cows have turned on there own farmers and trampled them to death. So when I start any walk I think 'will there be cows?' Normally I have Simon with me on walks in the countryside, he's adept at speaking to the cows and shooing them away whilst I do a large detour around the field they are in. Also he believes the branch he usually picks up before speaking to the cows will protect him, which is good for him. But on the Ridgeway I didn't have my protector. What I did have was an unpredictable dog. Previous I'd had Barney, a tricolour Collie not dissimilar looking to a dairy calf and often the main attraction for curious cows thinking I'd stolen one of their gang, hence my fear was tripled over the 15 years I had him walking with me. Alas no longer with us, I now had this other new dog and was unsure how cows would react to him and him to them, remember he's chased sheep recently. I decided he would always be on the lead when we went anywhere near animals until I knew him better, this left me vulnerable if the cows liked the look of him and wanted to come over. Advice is to let the dog go if you are chased, I wasn't sure I could do that. Anyhow a stroke of amazing good luck, there are very few cows along the Ridgeway, in fact we came across only 2 different herds, one we easily managed to avoid as they were at the other end of the field. The second lot was more difficult, a huge herd bang in the middle of the field we had to cross. On entering this particular field of cows I could see the way marker and kissing gate directly opposite me and beyond the mad staring eyes of Patch and buddies in the middle of the field. Patch is the name I give to the scariest cow in the herd, the one that has a black patch over one eye and makes it known with its killer stare that you've been spotted as soon as you enter the field. Practically choking the pup with the shortest lead possible we detoured round the edge of the field at speed (walking fast, stooping low and avoiding eye contact), all the time observing with military precision all parts of the fence that we could hurl ourselves over in an emergency. We made it to the kissing gate and with sudden lack of dexterity and jelly like fingers we eventually managed to get the gate open and dived through it to safety. Patch and his cronies didn't move an inch and continued to chew the cud waiting for the next fools to pass by. As well as cows there were sheep, chickens, squirrels, pheasants, the odd deer, birds (red kites everywhere) and lots more including horses. This area has a lot of Gallops, this was something I'd not seen before, it's fields with brushwood hurdles for training race horses, the area has many racing stables and most famously the gallops at Lambourn Downs next to the Ridgeway. In fact the Ridgeway in many places is a Byway, meaning it is open to cyclists and horse riders as well as walkers. I walked the Ridgeway at the end of June, it was on the whole really quiet, I saw few people besides the stone hugger, Grim the jogger and a few others, not sure if it is busier  at other times. I did bump into one lady out walking her dogs, she told me she had lived on the Ridgeway for many years and in recent years she had seen less and less people completing the trail, she thought it may be because people had started walking abroad. As our dogs played together we chatted about this and that, then she told me she had lost one of her own dogs the day before, it was ill and had to be put to sleep, the lady cried, I knew just how she felt I'd done exactly the same things a few a months before, a few days after I lost Barney and cried on the first person I saw out on my walk. I comforted her and told her about Barney and we cried together for a brief moment. Eventually we went our separate ways, I didn't ask her name, she didn't ask mine and we'll never meet again but it was one of those moments in time when out of the blue you are able to share something special and find comfort in a total stranger. Later in my walk I felt I needed to give a different stranger a very wide berth. I was pottering along in the sound of nature when I suddenly heard music, as I proceeded it got louder and I could make out that it was some kind of dance music, it seemed odd as there was no housing for miles just fields and tracks. As I turned a corner I saw a large vehicle, it looked like a large mobile home but the whole back end was open like it had been cut open with a tin opener and was now a platform at the back. On the platform was various furniture including a settee and an old tin bath. All around the van were trinkets and boxes of stuff, the music was very loud now and there was odours and a tinge of smoke coming from the van, but I couldn't see in past the beaded curtain spread across the opening. It resembled a den of iniquity and thought it best to sneak past unnoticed, but then the pup started barking at the van, I hurried on not wanting to disturb whoever was inside and briefly wondered what I'd  do if someone came out and invited me in, alas they didn't do so that particular story never happened. All in all this walk was fabulous. There's loads more to enjoy than I've talked about here and I'd definitely recommend people to do it. The Ridgeway is fairly low level and without the heat and a young pup you could if you’re a seasoned walker do more mileage and complete it within a week. I'd recommend booking accommodation along the way or as you go, although you'd need to plan that carefully as some parts are quite remote and it would mean extra walking into the villages to get to accommodation. You could probably wild camp quite easily although it's illegal - but maybe avoid Grim's Ditch unless you are one of those ghost hunter people! On a personal level I feel my confidence has grown and that whilst not always wanting to do things alone I know now that I can and at the same time enjoy it as well. Of course having the pup means I'm not really alone, a dog makes you feel safe, makes you laugh, keeps you company and can be the thing that gets you chatting to other walkers. Also having a taxi service (Simon Preston) to pick me up and drop me off also meant I wasn't alone and didn't have the hassle of carrying all my stuff with me or massaging my own weary feet. On a practical level as the walk can be remote supplies are essentials as there's no local Mickey D's or Ice cream van. I put glucose tabs in my drinks and took lots of drinks for me and the pup. A sandwich suffices but I also took bananas and malt loaf to snack on and obviously the puppy needed food which he supplemented with his own snacks of sheep poo and discarded tissues. As I was on my own I made sure my phone was charged and took a power pack to top up the charge if it ran low, this proved a god send one day when Simon couldn't find me and I needed to give him extra information and my phone ran out of charge, without the extra power I would have been unable to direct him to me. Walking gear, well it was 30 degrees, whilst a bikini would have been nice I opted for shorts, t-shirts, walking boots and a hat. I had a jacket in my pack but didn't get it out once in the 10 days of walking. Confession - I wore the same shorts everyday as they were so comfortable and had big pockets. I also just whipped my shorts down without a care when I needed a pee, no point in finding a bush as no one was around! And finally maps, although the Ridgeway is really well signposted there were still a couple of occasions where it wasn't clear and I had to work things out. Having the trail guidebook was good as well as they give you lots of extra information and things to look out for along the route which you might otherwise miss. So special thanks go to Simon Preston for all the encouragement as well as nightly foot massages, endless cups of tea and being able to actually find me up tracks in the middle of nowhere.  Thanks too to my pup for being the best friend and showing me what a great walking companion he is going to make. And thoughts to my beautiful Barney who was missed every day of the walk, but who gave me my previous 15 years of walking adventures and good times. Without these my horizon of possibilities would be less.

'A horizon of possibilities means the entire spectrum of beliefs, practices and experiences that are open before a particular society, given its ecological, technological and cultural limitations. Each society and each individual usually explores only a tiny fraction of their horizons of possibilities' Sapiens - A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari.

[bambamsgotjams]

Fakery || Han Jisung

Pairing: Han Jisung x Reader

Word Count: 2.8k

Chapter: 00/?

A/N: This is my first official stray kids fic and I’m kind of nervous,,,I hope you all love it as much as I do so far and feedback is greatly appreciated.

Monday 00

I still remember the way it felt to be in a relationship. Feeling loved was hands down one of the best feelings in the world. Let’s be honest, who can resist the feeling of wanted to be touched so tenderly, cared for with compassion, and just be overall fulfilled in complete happiness. There’s just something about being loved that really makes a person’s heart flutter. I still remember the butterflies I first got when I was with him. His name was Kim Minsoo - the first love of my life and also my first heartbreak.

The first time I fell in love was when I was still in a relationship with him. I didn’t realize what his little game was all about until after I experienced my first heartbreak. At first, I was just your everyday school girl with a silly crush on some handsome, popular man. He was what the ladies pinned for and what the boys wanted to be, and me, I felt lucky enough if I even crossed paths with him. I used to be an outcast at my school; the only reason being why I’m sort of well-known around here is because of Minsoo. One of his friends must have found out that I had a crush on him and passed that information on over to Minsoo. I don’t really remember much on how it happened. My heart must have been racing too fast because all I really remember was my vision getting blurry and my pulse speeding the second I heard Minsoo ask me out.

Word must have spread quickly about our relationship because the next thing I knew was that I had girls telling me to either stay away or telling me how lucky I was to be with someone so handsome. Also there were boys left and right drooling over me, which had never happened before in my life. I knew it must have been because Minsoo must have seen something in me that others didn’t notice until we started dating. I should have listened to some of the warnings the other girls told me about Minsoo. They all said that he had this game he liked to play with girls and once his game was over, I was only going to be just another used pawn in his game. I didn’t want to believe them at first, so I ignored them. But that didn’t do much for me, seeing that I am still here and completely heartbroken.

Minsoo used me for money I guess you could say. I remember how I saw him taking money from one of his friends, mentioning my name and how he was going to find some embarrassing way to dump me. My heart had shattered the moment I saw the scene. Minsoo was so sweet and caring for me, always walking me home, telling me how lucky he was to have a beautiful girl like me in his life, and even giving me a promise ring, telling me that I was like no other and he wanted to promise to always be there for me in my life. I knew I had to do something, so right after his little bet I marched right up to him and I yelled at him. I knew Minsoo hated causing a scene, and quite honestly I did too, but it had to be done. People needed to know about Minsoo and his games. Ever since that day I dumped him in the hallway Minsoo had made it his life goal to make my school years living hell.

After my breakup with Minsoo I never felt like I was ever going to be in another relationship again. The feeling of the betrayal and hurt Minsoo had caused stuck with me for a while; I didn’t want to ever feel that kind of pain again. It wasn’t until a close friend of mine said she found a boy that apparently was pretty interested in me when I finally decided to give dating another go.

That basically brings us here to where I am now, sitting in a small cafe waiting upon the arrival of the boy my friend had decided to set me up with. We were supposed to meet here right after school at 3pm. I pull out my phone to check the time and with a sigh I slide it back in my pocket. It’s been nearly an hour since the time we agreed on and I already knew that he had stood me up. I know that I shouldn’t be making these assumptions this soon but just judging by the sympathetic stares that some of the customers are currently giving me and the waiter even stopping by and offering me a free refill, I just knew that what the feeling in my gut was telling me was true.

Deciding that I wasn’t really in any rush, I chose to continue sitting in the booth and finish up my drink until my mom texted me saying that it was time to come home. I don’t really know whether it was the quiet and relaxing atmosphere or the fact that there was still hope that maybe this boy would show up, but something was telling me that I needed to stay here.

I laid my head down on the table and stared out the window. My eyes wandered to the people rushing home from school and work. I smiled as I watched couples holding hands walking past and having a loving conversation. My heart ached to have what made those people so happy. It wasn’t until I saw a familiar group of boys when my head popped up.

I felt my body go stiff as my heart began to race rapidly. I mentally cursed at myself for forgetting. Minsoo and his gang practically lived here every day after school. For a second my eyes met the gaze of his. The second our eyes met his lips shifted into a small smirk as he nudged his friend beside him and the both of them laughed. I tried my best to gather up my school bag and my drink before Minsoo walked into the café, but by the time I was ready to stand up and leave it was too late.

“Hey sweetheart, what ‘cha doing here?” I heard Minsoo sneer as the group behind him giggled.

My fingers clenched tightly around the cup of my drink as I turned my head to face Minsoo. He had a teasing look on his face that his friends seemed to copy. Not going to lie, it did make me feel a little intimidated.

“Look Minsoo,” I spoke up, “I really don’t want to cause any trouble. So before we cause a scene I would like to kindly ask you to leave me alone.”

“[y/n] you don’t have to be shy with me. If you’re on a date you can be honest, I mean, I am,” Minsoo responded as he gestured to the girl that was practically hanging off of his arm. I almost didn’t notice her there.

Minsoo really liked to sweep low when going after girls. I recognized her from passing by in the hallways at school. She was very beautiful, I had to admit. She had beautiful brown eyes and long hair the fell perfectly off of her shoulders. But something I noticed was that she wore way too much eyeliner and her school uniform top had been unbuttoned most of the way showing off part of her lacy black bra and a little more cleavage than what I would like to see.

“I don’t blame you for not speaking up [y/n], I get it. You’re embarrassed because I moved on and you haven’t. Don’t act like I don’t see you practically pinning over me in school.”

I felt my blood beginning to boil as he and his friends laughed and made comments about me not being able to ‘get over him’ and how I’ll never find another relationship because I ruined the most ‘perfect’ one I had ever been in.

 I abruptly slammed my hands on the table as I looked dead into Minsoo’s eyes. The laughing and comments came to a halt as everyone noticed my stare.

 “You know what Minsoo,” I spoke as I slowly stood up from the booth, “I kind of feel sorry for you. You have your head so far up your ass that you didn’t even give me time to answer. In matter of fact, I myself am currently on a date at the moment.”

 I felt the guilt starting to rush through my body as I told the lie. Well, at least the whole thing wasn’t a lie. I really was here on a date, I just didn’t exactly have a date.

 I felt my confidence slowly beginning to slip away as I watched Minsoo take a step closer to me. At this point he was so close that I was pretty sure he could practically smell the scent of my strawberry shampoo and could see the gilt dripping out of my ears.

 “Okay then, where is he?” Minsoo smirked as he towered over me.

 My body began to tremble as I struggled to get the words out of my mouth. My eyes scanned around the coffee shop as if I was hoping there would be something or someone around here who would see me and offer to help. Then I saw him. There was a boy nearing one of the trashcans, a half-eaten donut hanging out of his mouth. He had light red hair peeking out of the beanie he wore along with a big oversized black hoodie. I decided that he looked friendly enough and took a deep breath before looking back to Minsoo.

 “There he is,” I said as I pointed a finger towards the boy. Minsoo and his group of friends turned their heads to look at the boy. The boy must have sensed that a group of people were staring into the back of his head because he immediately stood frozen with a donut hanging out of his mouth. I decided to take the first step by walking up to him and slinging an arm around his waist. The boy looked at me with a confused expression.

 Minsoo started to snicker, I’m assuming from the reaction of the boy. He crossed his arms over his chest as he looked at the awkwardness between me and the boy. “It’s so obvious you’re lying [y/n], like I said, you don’t have pretend that you have a boyfriend just because you feel embarrassed that I have moved on and you have not. Honestly though, who would really want to date a girl like you anyway.”

 I moved my arm away from its place around the boy’s waist as I looked down at the floor in defeat. I should have known that I couldn’t trick Minsoo, but of course I had to panic and act without thinking. Just as I was about to give in and admit up to Minsoo, the sound of an unfamiliar voice spoke up.

 “Don’t talk about my girlfriend like that.”

 I lifted my head up in shock as the boy next to me spoke. He looked straight at Minsoo as he grabbed my hand and brought it up to his lips, placing a small kiss on my knuckles. The boy threw the rest of his donut in the trash before continuing.

 “This girl is really something special and it’s obvious I saw something in her that no one else did. And just judging by the way you’re talking to her about how she ‘never got over you’, I’m pretty sure that it is in matter of fact, you’re the one who has not gotten over her.”

 The boy had left both myself and Minsoo speechless at his words. I watched as Minsoo carefully looked both me and the boy up and down before scoffing. He grabbed the hand of his new girl behind him and pulled her to the opposite side of the café, his group following closely behind.

 I took a deep breath as I watched him leave. The boy’s grip on my hand loosened itself until both of our hands fell back to our sides. I turned to the boy and let out a quiet thank you before quickly rushing back to my table, feeling beyond embarrassed and nervous about the whole situation that just happen. My heart was pounding and my head began to spin as I tried to process everything.

 Somehow I had to manage to keep this lie alive as long as possible, and next time I seriously doubt I’ll have mystery boy there to help me. I could just come up with a story where it just didn’t work out, but I knew that if I did Minsoo wouldn’t let me hear the end of it. He’ll just continue saying about how I’ll never find someone as good as him and how no one will ever love me.

 My thoughts were suddenly interrupted when I heard someone rush into the seat across from me. I lifted my head up to see the boy from earlier sitting in my booth. He lean in close and motioned for me to do so as well. He grabbed my hands and placed them in his own as he quietly whispered to me.

 “The jackass from earlier is looking at you, I thought I’d jump in and pretend to be your boyfriend again.”

 I couldn’t help but blush at his words.

 “Thank you, really I mean it.” I replied as I tried to give him a smile.

 The boy looked up and turned his head slightly towards Minsoo. He stayed like that for a second before turning back to me and letting go of my hands, leaning back in the booth.

 “I’m Jisung by the way,” He introduced himself with a big smile.

 “I’m [y/n],” I replied, “And if you can’t tell that jackass is my ex. His name is Kim Minsoo.”

 Jisung laughed as he leaned forwards again and put his arms on the table in front of him.

 “I recognize him, he’s pretty popular isn’t he.”

 I gave him a confused look as to why he knew who Minsoo was. He seemed to understand my confusion and replied.

 “I go to the same school as you, I recognize your uniform.”

 “Oh really? What class, I don’t think I’ve seen you around before,” I asked him as I repeated his actions, leaning in close.

 “I’m a senior, class 2.”

 “Ah, I see. I’m a senior in class 4,” I replied.

 Jisung looked at me with wide eyes as he gasped.

 “Wow, you’re so smart!” He exclaimed causing me to laugh slightly at his reation.

 The two of us sat together for a little while longer just talking about everything we could think of. I learned quite a bit about Jisung, like how he loves horror movies, his favorite color is red, he’s in a small rap group with a few of his friends, and that he was hoping to audition later after he graduates so he could be an idol someday.

 I had to admit, I did enjoy talking to Jisung and he seemed to take my mind off the fact that I still yet had to face Minsoo about my lie of actually having a boyfriend. I didn’t realize how long we spent talking until a barista stopped by and told us that it was closing time. We looked around the café and noticed that it was now empty and the only customers still here were the two of us. Jisung and I bowed to the barista and gathered our things to leave.

 Once we walked outside, Jisung grabbed my wrist before we could go our separate ways. I watched as he took his phone out and handed it to me.

 “I was thinking, since we seemed to have Minsoo thinking that I’m your boyfriend, maybe we can arrange something, you know, just to keep the act up.”

 I nodded at Jisung and put my number in his contacts. I handed his phone back to him and watched as he smiled big at me.

 “I’ll go ahead and text you tonight, we can talk about the story of how we met and other stuff like that later tonight. I’ll be waiting for you at the front gates tomorrow morning so I can walk you in like a good ‘boyfriend’,” He said as he gave me a small wink.

 I felt myself feeling a little be flustered just being around him. We bid each other goodbye before we both parted ways for the night. The whole way home I couldn’t help but find myself thinking about Jisung. His brown eyes seemed so warm and inviting, his smile seemed to grow bigger the more he talked to me and the way his entire face would light up as he talked about what he loved had my heart racing. Somehow I knew that maybe, just maybe we’d be able to actually pull this off.

#kpop #kpop fanfiction #stray kids #bang chan #kim woojin #lee minho #lee know #seo changbin #hwang hyunjin #han jisung #han #lee felix #kim seungmin #yang jeongin #i.n #stray kids reactions

[templeofgeek]

Star Wars Fan Art By Erin Lefler for #ForceAgainstCyberbullying

With the every growing popularity of geek and nerd culture, more and more people come together to join in on the celebration of their favorite franchises and characters. Fandoms are a wonderful place of community and belonging. Unfortunately, they are still not immune to the eventual toxicity that comes with any large populous.

One such toxic behavior is cyber bullying. No one is immune to cyber bullying. Whether you’re a young kid or a big Hollywood actor. Cyber bullying has a way of bringing a dark cloud over our happiness. Actress Kelly Tran was harassed online for her portrayal of Rose Tico in the latest Star Wars installment, The Last Jedi. So much so that it drove her to delete all her Instagram posts.

Cyberbullying is bullying that takes place over digital devices, and on social media platforms (such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, via text etc.). It includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. Sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying instances can be criminal behavior.

According the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Suicide is the second leading cause of death between 15-19 years old. It was this realization that sparked artist Erin Lefler to make a stand against cyberbullying. In an hopes that cyberbullying would not contribute to any of those deaths by suicide.  We spoke to Erin about her project and what it means to her.

What is The Force Against Cyber Bullying Campaign? Erin: The #forceagainstcyberbullyingcampaign is a campaign I created to shed light on cyber bullying as a problem, as well as to provide support and love to those being cyber bullied. I feel with all the social movements and topics that we see every day on the news, in papers, and on social media, Cyber bullying as a topic gets put on the back burner. But it’s a HUGE problem!!! And it’s something I feel personally should be discussed.

Star Wars Fan Art By Erin Lefler for #ForceAgainstCyberbullying

What inspired you to create this campaign? Erin: I created this campaign after being on the receiving end of a lot of harassment and cyber bullying on some Official Lucasfilms licensed work I’ve done and non licensed Star Wars work that I have done. Which, after those started getting it, it then also started happening on other work of mine, like marvel work, original work, etc. As someone who really loves what they get to do for work, (I mean I get to work for one of the coolest companies [Lucasfilms] ever!) it really felt like a punch to the gut, and like all the air was taken out of me. These were so called “fans” of the exact things I create for work, some of which had been following me for awhile. And they were now targeting and harassing me, for what? Because they didn’t like the way the last movie went down? Because they didn’t like the character I had drawn? This was something that I feel shouldn’t be allowed to happen. No one should be able to call you names, threaten your safety and well-being, or trash your reputation just because you’re doing something you love. You see, I just make art for the company. I’m not the one who wrote the script, I’m not an actress from the film, or even the director. My job is so small compared to those directly involved with the film; like really small. How many people actually know my name compared to say Mark Hamill, Rian Johnson, or Kelly Marie Tran? I’m just doing what I’m paid to do like they are, and I’m also getting to do what I love. It’s every fans dream. But because I have the the name ‘Lucasfilms’ attached to my name, I receive the same amount of hate and harassment if not worse then what the big names do. Having this happen to me got me to think how this type of behavior is so prevalent on the Internet today, and how it has spread across so many fandoms/ many online communities. And most people turn a blind eye to it! Which, I really feel is not okay. I felt alone. I was hurt and confused as to why all this was happening to me. As someone who tries to always look for and be positive about everything, it was hard to accept people could be like this. I had been been physically bullied growing up, but this was a whole new thing I had to learn how to deal with. When I began to publicly share what was happening with my followers across my social media accounts, not only was there an outpouring of support to me, but I was also receiving so many messages of those who were also once cyber bullied, or were currently being cyber bullied. To hear so many voices saying “I’ve been there and I wish I had help” or “ I’m facing the same thing right now and I don’t know what to do”, honestly broke my heart. I wanted to be able to help them all, but how could I? I barely knew how to help myself. I had to take a small break from social media for a few days because I could feel it almost bringing me into a depression. I felt so helpless. Not only were the words of these people harassing me getting me down, but seeing so many others going through the same thing and crying out for help shocked me. I thought ‘How can so many be facing this, and nobody be speaking about this?’ We see and are bombarded everyday by headlines like “which celeb wore it best”, “this celeb got implants”, or “this celeb power couple broke up.” And while there’s nothing wrong with taking an interest in these things, I wondered why are these things are trending when people are out here LITERALLY losing their lives to cyber bullying. Which, made me realize there’s almost no conversation about cyber bullying. It was almost NONEXISTENT. Which is a scary thought when you think about it. What are we saying is ok and teaching is ok to the next generation? So after getting past my anger at those harassing me and the sadness over what they were saying, and for those who were also going through this experience too, I decided someone had to stand up. Enough was enough. We can’t keep pretending this wasn’t happening. So I determined the best way to do this was to create a campaign to spread awareness. Maybe it would become a thing and catch on. Maybe it wouldn’t. But I know I wouldn’t have been happy if I just stood by and let it continue to happen. What type of person would I be if I did that? I’m given the resources and the following to make something of it, so I said “well I mind as well do something.” And it sparked a fire within me, and A determination I never really had before.

Gaurdians Of The Galaxy Fan Art By Erin Lefler for #ForceAgainstCyberbullying

Why do think cyber-bullies bully other people online? Erin: Its hard to really determine the exact reason why people decide it’s OK to do it, but what I can come up with is many people find a strange sense of power behind a keyboard, and there’s almost no fight against cyber bullying. People most likely wouldn’t say these things if they had to look the person in the face, but hiding behind a screen? ‘Aha! There’s no consequence!’ People think. And it’s actually quite the contrary. Cyber bullying can have worse affects! Many people don’t know, but cyber bullying is the leading cause of suicide world wide. That’s a problem! And all for what; just so someone can feel better about themselves online? So they can feel bigger? Unfortunately this is what’s happening. When did this become an okay thing to do? If it’s not OK to do face to face and we raise awareness about that, why do we let cyberbullying slide? There should be accountability like there is for face to face harassment. But since there’s none, it’s open game for them you could say.

How much of a problem do you think cyber-bullying is in Fandom? Erin: I think it’s a huge problem! I’m sitting here, not only as someone who is working for Lucasfilms, but also as someone who is a fan of it. And sadly I’m watching this pull Star Wars fans apart. But it doesn’t stop at Lucasfilms. It spans from marvel, to Disney, to even cosplay. It spans over EVERYTHING. Fandoms are made to bring people together over something that we love. Not to slam someone from having their own opinions, not to say “oh, well this is cosplayer looks so much better than you” or “this art is so much better than yours.” Are you a fan of something? You probably express it in your own special way then. So if it’s okay for you to express it in your own way, it should be acceptable across the board for everyone to express in their way how they’re a fan. Now I’m not saying you can’t have an opinion on how someone expresses their love of a fandom, but is your opinion shared in kind? Should it even be shared at all? If we remembered this, I feel fandoms would become a lot less toxic towards one another. But as of right now it’s a big problem, and it needs to be addressed.

What can people do to stop cyber-bullying? Erin: Surprisingly there’s a lot you can do to stop cyber bullying from happening! First, here’s how not to be a cyber bully: if you don’t have something nice to say, simply DON’T SAY IT. Don’t comment on the tweet or post. Don’t direct message your displeasure to the person. Keep scrolling. Keep moving past it. Don’t hang up on the person to try to shame them. Just think, someone might do the same thing to you down the road. So how do you think you’d feel? If you wouldn’t like it done to you don’t do it to someone else. Simple as that. Next, here’s how to help if you see someone else being cyber bullied: stand with them. Stand up for them. If you see someone commenting ridiculously rude or obscene things at someone, maybe tell them something like this: “Can you please stop? This isn’t appropriate behavior. You wouldn’t like if someone did this to you, so don’t do it to this person.” Or if you see people ganging up against another person, saying it’s ‘just a joke’ or ‘constructive criticism’, try telling them something like: “Saying this doesn’t make your actions here ok. Please stop doing this to (insert person here). You didn’t need to say anything at all if you didn’t like this. So please just leave this person alone.” If you don’t feel brave enough to stand up like that, just send the person being affected by this a message saying something like: “hey I’m sorry you have to deal with this. If there’s anything I can do, please let me know. Please know that you’re not alone and if you need to talk I’m here for you.” If you’re being cyber bullied, there’s a lot of actions you can take to stop cyber bullying. First of all, do not isolate yourself. That’s the worst thing you can do. Talk to others. Surround yourself with those who love you and support you. Next, stand up for yourself. You don’t need to sit back and let it happen. You can politely tell the bullies to stop but honestly that will just add more fuel to their fire. They’re honestly not worth it. So the easy way to stand up for yourself is: 1) block, 2) report, 3) delete.

1). BLOCK. No one has the right to follow you if they’re harassing you. So just block them. This way they won’t be able to message you or comment at you to bully you. 2). REPORT. Now on some social media sites this is more effective than others. Twitter has an amazing report feature. Not only do they do an investigation on it, they let you provide proof to them of what’s happening, and give you updates on their findings. I’ve personally had to use this feature a lot on twitter and have seen some pretty great results with it. Instagram’s report feature isn’t as detailed, but you can still report if you have a problem. 3). DELETE. Okay, I know this might sound generic but yes, delete! (Insert Cyberman here…) if people are leaving harassing comments on your posts, or sending you harassing DM’s, there’s nothing saying they need to stay on your post. Just delete the comment. Delete the direct message. This way you don’t dwell on it, and it doesn’t bring you down. Shake it off!! Don’t give them the satisfaction of a response. Not only are you showing you’re a bigger person, but you’re also sending a message to the bully that their actions have no effect on you.

What message do you have for people who have been victims of cyber bullying? Erin: I think the message I have for those being cyber bullied, or those who have been cyber bullied is: you’re not alone. You’re NEVER alone. You are loved by so many and they all want to help you. There are so many who have been through the same things and have made it out OK. Talk to someone you trusts, don’t go through this by yourself. Don’t ever feel like these things being said to you are true. There’s a reason it’s happening behind a screen. Because the people who are doing it are cowards. And liars. And if they even just barely knew you, they’d know you’re so much more wonderful than their words. Simple as that. And if you’re feeling as the life you’re living isn’t worth living anymore, due to the harassment you’re going through: please rethink this. You are amazing, you are loved, and your life is more than worth it. Please seek help. You don’t have to go through this and feel this way alone. You don’t need to take your life because of people’s thoughtless actions. You have so much more to live for and accomplish. You are worth more than words. Please, remember that. I know I’m rooting you on… You can do this!! I’m going through it too. I know it’s not easy, but you can do it. And you can come out the victor. Just keep fighting against this.

Advice from Stopbullying.gov:

Prevent Cyberbullying

Be Aware of What Your Kids are Doing Online A child may be involved in cyberbullying in several ways. A child can be bullied, bully others, or witness bullying. Parents, teachers, and other adults may not be aware of all the digital media and apps that a child is using. The more digital platforms that a child uses, the more opportunities there are for being exposed to potential cyberbullying.

Warning Signs a Child Being Cyberbullied 

Noticeable increases or decreases in device use, including texting.

A child exhibits emotional responses (laughter, anger, upset) to what is happening on their device.

A child hides their screen or device when others are near, and avoids discussion about what they are doing on their device.

Social media accounts are shut down or new ones appear.

A child starts to avoid social situations, even those that were enjoyed in the past.

A child becomes withdrawn or depressed, or loses interest in people and activities.

What to Do When Cyberbullying Happens

If you notice warning signs that a child may be involved in cyberbullying, take steps to investigate that child’s digital behavior. Cyberbullying is a form of bullying, and adults should take the same approach to address it: support the child being bullied, address the bullying behavior of a participant, and show children that cyberbullying is taken seriously. Because cyberbullying happens online, responding to it requires different approaches. If you think that a child is involved in cyberbullying, there are several things you can do.

Advice For Adult Victims

 Justin W. Patchin from Cyberbullying.Org suggests:  

“First, it is important to keep all evidence of the bullying: messages, posts, comments, etc. If there are ways you can determine who exactly is making the comments, also document that. Second, contact the service or content provider through which the bullying is occurring. For example, if you are being cyberbullied on Facebook, contact them. If you are receiving hurtful or threatening cell phone messages, contact your cell phone company to obtain assistance. Along those same lines, familiarize yourself with the Terms of Use for the various sites you frequent, and the online accounts you sign up for. Many web sites expressly prohibit harassment and if you report it through their established mechanisms, the content and/or bully should be removed from the site in a timely manner. To be sure, some web site administrators are better and quicker at this than others.

Also, please be careful not to retaliate – or do anything that might be perceived by an outsider to have contributed to the problem. Do not respond to the cyberbully except to calmly tell them to stop. If they refuse, you may have to take additional actions. If you are ever afraid for your safety, you need to contact law enforcement to investigate. They can determine whether any threats made are credible. If they are, the police will formally look into it. The evidence that you have collected will help them to evaluate your situation.

You should also take the time to check your state laws. We have discussed some of these laws on this blog and have a summary of many applicable laws here. In Wisconsin, for example, it is a misdemeanor if someone uses computerized communication systems to “frighten, intimidate, threaten, abuse, or harass another person.” It is also against the law to “harass annoy, or offend another person.” See what the laws in your state are to determine if the police should get involved.

If the threats or comments are detrimental to your health, safety, or occupation, you might want to consult with an attorney who specializes in harassment, defamation of character, false light, intentional infliction of emotional distress, or similar types of civil action. A letter sent from an attorney (on law firm letterhead) to the bully may be all that is necessary to get the bullying to stop.”

If You Are The Bully 

Wiki How has a great post about ways to identify bullying behaviors and how to help control them. 

Understand Bullying. Know what constitutes bullying. Learn to identify bullying and fully understand its consequences. Know what causes bullying.

Conduct a Self-Examination. Identify bullying patterns in your life. Identify your insecurities. Reflect on how it feels to bully others.

Take Control of you Behavior. Put yourself in the victim’s perspective. Ask yourself how the victims of bullying feels when you’re bullying them. Ask yourself what the reason is for the bullying. Stopping yourself from bullying. Take a moment to think. Remove yourself from groups of people who reward you for bullying others. Practice empathizing with others. Change outlook on things. Get help from a professional.

Make Amends. Apologize to people you have bullied. Forgive yourself. Treat people with respect from now on.

We can all help prevent suicide. The Lifeline provides 24/7, free and confidential support for people in distress

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline Call 1-800-273-8255 Available 24 hours everyday

For more from Erin Lefler you can visit her website at: https://linktr.ee/butternut_gouache

The Force Against Cyberbullying Campaign With the every growing popularity of geek and nerd culture, more and more people come together to join in on the celebration of their favorite franchises and characters.

#Butternut #butternut_gouache #cyber bullying #Erin Lefler #fandom #Force Aginst Cyber Bullying #GEEK #geek news #rose tico #rose tico instagram #Star Wars

[dennou-translations]

Violet Evergarden: Chapter 13

Please feel free to message me about possible corrections. If you can, consider supporting the creators by buying the official releases here.

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Violet Evergarden

The railway that parted from the southern maritime country Leidenschaftlich finally being extended to northern nations was something quite recent.

Public means of transportation were rather useful for traveling around a wide continent, yet the trains across the mainland contributed greatly not only to each person but also to society in terms of logistics. It could be said that the current results had been achieved due to the North-South feud of the Continental War being terminated on a superficial basis.

The information that a ceremony would be held for the departure of the intercontinental train spread quickly in the city of Leiden, and people rushed in pursue of tickets for the first trip. On the following day, the morning newspaper prior to the departure ceremony – which was completely taken over by the latter – was made to be delivered not only throughout Leidenschaftlich but also to the neighbor countries.

Although it was a trivial article for those who were not interested in the subject, the appearance of a single woman amongst the published photographs of people seeking the tickets instigated, for better or worse, a surreptitious feeling in those who knew her. Lux Sibyl, who would be at the CH Postal Service first-thing in the morning, smiled proudly upon spotting the figure of her beautiful friend. A novelist who quietly recited words in the middle of the mountains was in high spirits as though he had found a treasure amidst the article’s photos, and laid it as decoration on his cutouts wall. A young astronomer on the way of a journey bought two more copies of the same newspaper after a moment of astonishment, and Cattleya, who was on an amanuensis duty at a place far away from the office, asked her male client, with the newspaper at hand, who the cutest one was between herself and the woman displayed in it. Someone who had not seen her face for a long time surrendered himself to tracing it with his fingertips.

It was only a picture, but on the morning of that day, a premonition that something special was about to begin was engraved remarkably in the minds of those who had been involved with Violet Evergarden.

The departure ceremony was held in the Leidenschaftlich Station at two o’clock in the afternoon, and at three o’clock, after the passengers had come aboard the intercontinental train, it left the city by the end of the formalities. Children riding a train for the first time leaned their bodies forward over the windows and praised the scenery, proudly boasting to each other about the good fortune of managing to entrain the first expedition. Those using it for work-related transferences were satisfied with the careful customer service and safe driving, and those who had booked the sleeper cars had their hearts stolen by the comfort as their bodies immediately embraced the drowsiness.

The operation went on without a hitch in general. Minor troubles were witnessed, such as the employees in charge of transporting baggage sending a passenger’s luggage to the wrong room, or a customer from one of the dining cars who had ordered a dish without onions finding a small piece of onion in it and getting angry, but they were nothing that could be considered important.

The passing scenery outside the windows was gradually dyed in madder red, and just an hour after the departure, the world began to be surrounded by signs of the night. Once every hour, the train was required to be refilled with water.

“We will soon temporarily stop at the water supply point, so please sit down as the train will shake.” The porter advised the customers of each car.

As people were completely fascinated with the tour, they did not attempt to impede those who remained on their feet without any intention of sitting down. There were also many who observed the scenery while sipping alcoholic drinks. Those in a good mood did not listen to what others said.

The porter, who had given the warning, smiled while thinking along the lines of “what troublesome patrons” as he gently walked next to said passengers and asked them to take their seats.

It was an exceptionally wonderful voyage. Nobody imagined any tragedies would happen. Nor did anyone find the behavior of those individuals suspicious. The fact that they stuck a knife to the porter’s neck and slit it went unnoticed as well.

That day was genuinely supposed to be a marvelous one for several people.

At two quarters past four o’clock, under the thick clouds spreading in an autumn sky, a corpse was discarded on the railroad track as if it were dirt. It rolled onto the ground, and, before the crows could greedily devour it, it was found by the owner of a nearby meadow, who happened to be passing by. Much like rain pouring onto the surface of a lake, such thing hinted the extent of some sort of big incident. The first drop was the dead body. One, two more drops fell from the sky, which marked the discovery of a problem that was now progressively growing.

The abnormal demeanor of the intercontinental train, which had originally been supposed to make stops yet was passing every station while keeping the passengers on board, caught quite a bit of attention, and at some point, the army was mobilized. First came a report from employees and civilians from one of the stations that were passed by, and the message was relayed to the military police.

The military police based itself mainly on law enforcement duty to protect the safety of the citizens’ everyday lives, and was a separate entity from the army, despite having the word “military” in its name. By the time the military police had arrived at the Leidenschaftlich Army Ministry, a reinforce request for the situation had been issued from the Leidenschaftlich National Railway as well.

The headquarters of the Leidenschaftlich Army Ministry were, in one word, a fort. For a mere building, it had a hardly describable architecture. Firstly, there was a castle tower-like construction that housed the Army Ministry, with double stonewalls surrounding it. There was a dry moat outside of the walls, and the trees and shrubs beyond said moat had been entirely cut down in order to open the view. There was no place for foes to hide in case of invasions. The structure already seemed to intimidate with an unsaid “if you want to defeat me, come try”.

Being able to bask in a constitution that was so well-attuned to hostility was likely a proof that its soldiers had overcome numerous aggressive wars. In such setting, by courtesy of the country’s system, the reinforcement request project, “Case of the Intercontinental Train’s Hijacking”, was set to be launched at the Army Ministry on an early stage, but the recruited officers were not yet aware of the extent of the chaotic rain’s dispersion.

At twenty minutes past five o’clock of that day, in one of the Army Ministry’s rooms, Gilbert Bougainvillea was discussing the course of action of Leidenschaftlich’s army’s Special Offense Force, which he used to lead.

“Disbanding would be reasonable, but if it is to be handed over, I would like to be the one to choose the personnel.”

Gilbert Bougainvillea, who used to be a major of Leidenschaftlich’s army, had equitably served as lieutenant-colonel, and, in recognition of the achievements in the Great War from the Special Offense Force of Leidenschaftlich’s army, then led by himself, yet another position promotion was acknowledged and he was allowed to wear the rank insignia of colonel. After becoming a colonel, operating inside the Army Ministry was basically his main task. The way it was, his troop had been on march both inside and outside of the country, since the circumstances had required post-war armed interventions, yet it was left afloat as a result of his successive career.

“It’s my honest opinion that disbanding it is regrettable. There are members who want to resign from it due to being promoted, but even with those posts vacant, it has a high level of excellence. To the point it can very well work as an independent unit. Well, the higher-ups probably won’t allow that so easily... since they might think of it as your private soldiers.” A bluish black-haired man agreed with Gilbert’s words. “Laurus Schwartzman” was written in the nameplate on his desk.

Gilbert nodded at the outlook of the person who had the same status of colonel as himself but used to be in the position of his superior in the past. “Eventually, we could create this independent unit... From the viewpoint of those who are managing it, a unit that has too much freedom is dangerous, but it spends great efforts when there are big emergencies. However, if we are told that there have been none of those until now, we will not be granted consent. Therefore, I would like to leave a foundation ready for the sake of this occurrence... and, if I am to pass it down to someone else, I want a person who puts everyone’s individual qualities into consideration to take over it. The members were mostly polished by being brought into my personal care, after all.”

“Who do you intend to appoint as successor?”

“Idris. He’s fit for being commander.”

“Isn’t he a fellow without education or supporters? It’s almost like me. Won’t you recommend someone from the Bougainvillea lineage? There ought to be people in the army who are from your branch families.”

“Colonel Laurus... you recommended me because you dislike faction-based nominations, yet now you’re telling me to nominate a Bougainvillea? Idris is clever even without education. He’s also vastly ambitious. As for supporters... I can become one.”

“I was just teasing; don’t get so angry.” At Gilbert’s low voice tone, Laurus soon laughed and apologized. As he became older, Gilbert had come to possess a presence that he did not in his younger days.

“Well, then, regarding the placement of a successor in my troops... I will count with your assistance for the necessary arrangements.”

“And my recompense will be...?”

“My little sister has said she wants to ride a horse with you in our next outing.”

Laurus showed a pleased reaction and Gilbert sighed a little, his shoulders slumping as if a weight had fallen upon them.

Gilbert’s position in the army appeared stable, but it was not so in reality. Although there were people who supported him simply for being a Bougainvillea, there were also those who attempted to ostracize him for it. Gilbert had reached a period in which he would have to decide whom he would take as his allies. Jealousy and corruption always rose wherever there was influence. Gradually gathering into his hands those people who were so hard for him to become like and securing them tightly under his arms was something necessary for Gilbert as of late.

Laurus was someone whose back he had used to observe as if chasing after it when he had joined the army, and now Gilbert was finally side-by-side with him. There were very few who could manage through the promotion from colonel to brigadier-general and from brigadier-general to major-general. As Laurus himself did not display interest in being promoted, Gilbert believed he would not go above being a colonel. His origins, unlike Gilbert’s, did not leave him in an advantageous condition for disputing success, either.

“This is up to the two of you, but please don’t ever upset my sister, since she deeply cherishes you. Promise me.”

“I know she does. She confessed her love for a guy like me, after all. I intend to be with her even in my grave.”

He displayed no signs of looking for competition and his nature could be trusted. For Gilbert to think he could leave his sister to the latter’s care, he had to be a commendable individual.

Upon easing the wrinkles between his brows with the fingertips of his left arm, which had become a prosthetic, Gilbert took in his hand a newspaper unrelated to work that was lying on the desk. Ever since he had read it in the morning after waking up, he had carried it around with him while on-duty. He subconsciously looked at the part of it that had photos of the intercontinental train.

“You’ve... been reading that since morning, huh. You like trains?”

“If there comes a chance to get on a tour ride, I want to try it.” With gestures that could not be perceived as unnatural, he folded the side with the pictures and put the newspaper down.

The two men had been in a situation in which even Laurus had come to question why Gilbert had abandoned the Warrior Maiden of Leidenschaftlich’s army in the aftermath of the Great War, and therefore, he did not wish to get into the topic. As they chatted about trivial everyday matters, someone knocked on the door.

“Colonel Schwartzman... ah, Colonel Bougainvillea, you’re here in a good timing. We are having an emergency meeting. A big incident has happened. The case has been established at the countermeasures headquarters, so please come quickly. Right now, we are summoning all the personnel from the task force.”

Being told so by the administrative official, the two looked at each other’s faces and stood up at the same time.

Those who gathered at the headquarters, in which a roundtable was prepared, were mainly colonels. The occurring incident would be explained by the major-general beforehand.

“First and foremost, at two in the afternoon, a departure ceremony was held in honor of the intercontinental train, and one hour later, the passengers came on board and it left the station. It passed by Attaccare, which was one of it stop stations, and proceeded just like that. It was also at this time that a corpse was thrown off in the vicinity of Attaccare. The body was found and reported by a farmer of that neighborhood. According to the information of the Leidenschaftlich’s National Railway, the train is currently stopping at the Rauschend station, which is one of the water supply points. A demand for reward in exchange for the passengers was issued to Leidenschaftlich through the station’s staff.” While everyone paid attention to him, the major-general said bitingly, “The enemy is telling us to release a political felon who is being kept in the Altair Prison. He’s a criminal from one of the countries that had formed an alliance in the previous war, Rohand. After the proclamation of their defeat, he blackmailed his motherland’s leaders into revoking the announcement, caused an internal conflict and was arrested. The ones responsible for this hijacking incident are maybe his guard dogs, certainly his comrades. Meaning the main offenders of this case are people who still don’t want to acknowledge that they lost the war.”

A feeling of tension ran through the place as the major-general recognized the other party as an ‘enemy’. In Leidenschaftlich, ‘enemies’ brought harm to the whole nation. They would all become targets of elimination, and most of them counted with military power as their means of control, unwilling to solve anything with dialogue.

“To top it off, the enemies hope to migrate to their country. The train is headed to a port at north of the continent. They have a ship prepared there as well. It seems they expect everything to go flawlessly...” The major-general punched the north part of the map laid on the roundtable.

The people seated at the roundtable did not move even upon being startled, and their line of sight was fixed on the major-general. They accepted the anger emanating from him.

“We... we of Leidenschaftlich’s army... exist for the sake of defending our people and territory from foreign threats. To allow something like this after ending a war is a disgrace to Leidenschaflich’s name. But this is not just a matter of honor. There have already been casualties. This is quite an obvious statement, but it’s clear that our country’s people will be taken throughout this trip until the migration succeeds. There are surely women and children who can’t fight back in that midst. It’s not hard to imagine what they’ll go through. We must prevent this no matter what. The ‘enemy’ is moving. The problem is how to take the reins. We shall form a strategy considering the hypothesis of even worst-case scenarios. From this point on, I give everyone, regardless of them being upper or lower ranks, permission for voicing suggestions.”

At the major-general’s words, everyone started composing tactics while observing the map. The train was in motion. If they were to strike it, their only option would be invading it. Attacking from the outside would compromise the lives of the passengers inside. The opinion that there was no choice but stand in wait for it at one of the water supply points and ambush it all at once was settled down no matter what. But the enemy would probably anticipate that much. The concern that a hostage could be killed for display just so the criminals’ passage would be permitted was enunciated, as well as the fact the passengers would be in tantalizing circumstances, as they would not be able to do anything until the train stopped at the water supply point. They sought for urgent contact.

The debate became heated. Amidst it, only Gilbert was reticent as he paled in silence. His ears registered everyone’s exchanges. He was also formulating in his head what proposals he should verbalize, as doing so might be necessary. However, a single fact dominated his entire body and halted its outward functions.

——Violet is on board.

There was no way he could have mistaken her figure as he spotted her in a photography of people trying to buy tickets for the first trip. It was extremely natural for an Auto-Memories Doll traveling around the world to rely on trains. Meaning there would be no one else to be aboard the intercontinental train in her stead.

——If I called Hodgins, would he answer?

He had judged Gilbert for leaving Violet without a trace. In their last conversation, he had said he would be cutting their ties until Gilbert reconsidered it.

“Gilbert...? You’re... quiet, but don’t you have any ideas?”

As Laurus spoke to him from the side, Gilbert turned towards his direction. He was probably making a face that he normally would not. Laurus leaned back with a start.

The major-general promptly noticed it. “What’s wrong, Laurus? Don’t hold back in giving your suggestion.”

“No... I... right, I agree with the ambush at the water supply point. It will be off-the-cuff from the garrison on the railway, but I think we can’t do anything other than prepare the troops and stand in wait... I believe that organizing a plan and personnel that can back us up during a seizure battle after the waiting is most crucial. The fact that stopping at the water supply points is mandatory for the train is its trait, after all.” Once Laurus had uttered his proposition, perhaps due to thinking Gilbert was feeling sick, he asked the latter in a low tone, “You okay?”

Gilbert nodded without saying anything. As the major-general requested his opinion as well, Gilbert settled for saying, “I approve the flow of the current situation’s discussion.”

Since he was worried about Violet’s and the passengers’ safety, Gilbert favored the course of action of a short-term decisive battle.

——Still, it is only a matter of time for an antagonistic view to manifest. Just as he thought so, what Gilbert dreaded soon became a reality.

“I sense an incongruence in this trend. To ensure the success of our scheme, wouldn’t it be better to formulate a plan for us to take control of the train at the last station in that northern port?” After Laurus and Gilbert had expressed their valuations, a colonel who had been solely observing, much like Gilbert until that point, raised his voice.

“Ahmar, when you object, you have to explain your plan in detail.” The major-general urged colonel Ahmar to speak further.

Laurus had an obviously unamused face on. Bearded and enormous, the man named Ahmar was on par with him, but the two of them were like cats and dogs. The people present were aware that the fact Ahmar had not voiced his own suggestions until then was due to wanting to oppose Laurus. The air became heavier.

“This opinion was given just a bit ago, but if we target them at the water supply point and end up letting them pass, the number of deaths would go up, right? The perpetrators would kill hostages for revenge, and their demands towards us would be bound to increase. In that meantime, I can already see that they would use a ransom for their requisitions. If that will be the case, making the other party think that things will proceed as they requested and then taking them down at once is a better idea. I’m sorry for regressing the discussion, but if this is an emergency, I believe we should choose an assured plan.”

“No! If you think about the citizens, we should act immediately! How do you think the people in that train are feeling right now? Are you saying that while knowing how long it takes to reach the last station?! Their families, too, want the army to do something as soon as possible!”

“Laurus, you always show off your principles with emotion-oriented arguments, but that’s unnecessary for a strategy. Results are everything, and we can elaborate the process later on. Are you giving those suggestions by picturing the aftermath of the aftermath? There have already been casualties, and for the sake of causing no more of them, we’ve no choice other than have the passengers endure it.”

The subject of the meeting was split into two sides: Laurus, who thought about the citizens’ rescue before anything else, and Ahmar, who prioritized bringing the situation under control.

Gilbert, who was silent beside Laurus, could even feel his restless heart sort out in the course of events. Rather than agitation, his impatience to do something about the direction that things were taking, which was not the one he wanted, was becoming stronger. Gilbert could not consent to Ahmar’s methods.

It was difficult to imagine that Violet Evergarden would tamely ride all the way to the final station. She would likely take some sort of action. The fact that she was on board enthused not only great hopes but also a sense of unease.

——If she’s on her own, it’s evident that she will be reckless.

She was not the kind of young woman who would not use self-defense were she in a situation that required it. Gilbert had disciplined her that way.

——I must go for her aid. I must protect her. It’s precisely because she’s strong that she...

It would mean taking back his resolve of that day, in which he had shed tears while making the decision to part ways with her. Should she find out he was still alive, Violet would definitely attempt to become Gilbert’s tool once more. That was his biggest fear.

——I don’t want... to see the one I love acting as a tool ever again.

Gilbert asked himself – in the current circumstances, what was the man named Gilbert Bougainvillea most afraid of?

——Violet’s death.

Gilbert asked himself – in the current circumstances, what did he wish for the most?

——Her safety.

Peeking into his heart’s discords, what he had to do was crystal-clear.

——Is this... also fate?

Gilbert closed his eye once. He evened his breathing. The face of the girl he had forsaken resurfaced in his mind. So did her appearance from that picture, which showed she had grown up a good deal curing the meantime they had not seen each other.

He had spent many efforts until managing to secure that position. The next one he would aim for was the seat of major-general. The farther up he climbed, the more he would be able to do in exchange of his free conduct being restricted.

At that moment, while such an incident was going on, he could feel God’s guidance yet again. He had become distressed when worrying about Violet, but could clearly understand what he had to do upon reasoning calmly.

——What are you living for? Don’t get worked-up.

Slowly, slowly, he opened his adhered eyelid.

——I’ve chosen a path in which I’d be able to walk at times like these. The time has come. That is all.

“May I... offer my suggestion?”

No wavering remained in his emerald-green orb. He stared at the major-general and everyone at the round table with his eye open. He knew what conduct he should take even without thinking about it.

“I have an idea.” His voice was neither too loud nor too low. “Firstly, about dispatching soldiers to the garrison located on the train’s route... I agree with it. We simply must not let it go to the North. Should it, by any chance, reach the sea, the navy will be the one to deal with it. I will talk to my older brother, Dietfriet Bougainvillea. As the Major-General has said, we should move while keeping the worst possible scenario in mind.”

It was important to speak with a calm attitude.

“About the current problem of where the dispatched soldiers should engage, I am against a battle at the final station. Should the place turn into a battlefield, emotion-based issues with the northern side will be involved. Those people are heroes from the North’s viewpoint. Showing them being purged in northern lands – their own home – would become a great display, but we should expect that it would instigate a shock big enough to cause an incident. Right now, they are showing a well-behaved attitude towards the Southeast regarding the release of their military forces, but they will definitely hold a grudge against this.”

“We shouldn’t be discussing such a thing now!”

Gilbert responded level-headedly to Ahmar’s angry roar, “The one who talked about picturing the aftermath of the aftermath, Colonel, was you.”

“You... have some nerve to be using such rude words with me, given that you became a colonel just recently...”

“The Major-General stated from the very start that we should give our suggestions freely. Are you against the Major-General’s decision?”

As their superior was cited, Ahmar refused to back off with a “no way”, his face becoming bright red.

Just as Ahmar had done with Laurus, Gilbert laid out a protest, “Please allow me to continue explaining my idea. There is no guarantee that the damage is limited only to the passengers. It is necessary to evacuate all of the stations along the train’s course and the citizens in their proximities as well. Paired to the ambush attack at the water supply point, I propose an infiltration plan by tailing them from the capitol Leiden.” He stated loudly with a manner of speech that had a touch of composure and elegance.

People judged others mostly through vision and hearing. Taking such conduct would make them think, “what this man says is worth listening to”.

“‘Infiltration plan’, you say? Will we make it in time if we start chasing them now?”

Gilbert retorted Ahmar’s mockery without so much as raising a brow, “I will have the Nighthawks take flight.”

“Even if the train is on a stop now, it will eventually move!”

The one who became emotional would lose.

“Even if it does, it will stop again. To replenish water. If the infiltration turns out successful, it will greatly increase the accomplishment rate of the estimated suppression at the water supply point. Rescuing the passengers is a top priority. The more time this hijacking case takes, the more the death toll will rise. Both the criminals’ side and the victims’ side are losing their sanity. You shall know whether or not the Nighthawks will make it in time if you leave it to me. Let us mobilize the Leidenschaftlich Special Offense Force. Of course, I will be the one in command.”

There was a stir. He examined the major-general’s complexion, but the latter did not find fault in his proposal.

Not letting the flow slip away from him, Gilbert resumed speaking, “Just a while ago, there was a remark about how we must prepare personnel specific for this sort of situation, but everyone, have you forgotten? The Leidenschaftlich Special Offense Force has been widely active as a raid unit since wartime. They clearly have the role disposition necessary for the process of an infiltration with a small number of people. If we are told to move now, we can act immediately. Although there may be opinions that I should not be the one commanding on-site given my rank, the troops are still in my care, and my status is of recently-nominated colonel. I shall prove my effectiveness. Please think of me as a board piece. A board piece that will mobilize the navy, and, if everything goes well, fulfill the infiltration which will bring a quick resolution to this. If my troops fail, the ones lying in wait will be the dispatched soldiers of Leidenschaftlich’s army. I find it extremely hard to believe that this incident merely stems from the North’s revenge. There must be... something else happening behind the scenes. There is not only one trap. I feel that... they are seeking for a devastating win, for which they have yet another scheme that we would not be able to crush along with the twofold and threefold traps they have laid out.” After pausing once to swallow saliva, Gilbert inquired, “Major-General, what do you say? I wish you would let me do it.” He pleaded, yet the right to decide was not his. Maintaining his posture, he pleaded even more with his eyes and approach.

Gilbert was aware. From an early age, he had always understood how he should behave in front of whom whenever he was in the presence of others. Were he to make a mistake, admonition would come flying at him. That was the secret for triumph in order to live as a Bougainvillea. Depending on the attitudes he took, he knew what his opponent’s outcome might be. Within the world he understood, he currently existed for the sake of the one and only person that he once did not know he loved.

“Well, give it a try. Demonstrate your abilities as a board piece.”

“I will definitely show you satisfying results.” While replying, Gilbert had already created a different strategy.

If there was something that could have been considered a brilliant day in the life of Samuel LaBeouf, it would be today. He had been elected head engineer of the frontal engine room of the first intercontinental train, which would remain in the country’s history. One had to wonder how many kisses of joy he had planted on the polished, black car walls. He had boasted about it to his family and friends countless times. The people who knew of his efforts praised him sincerely and saw off the first service with a smile. Initially, Samuel had planned to spend his time humming a tune while journeying around the world as the Sun set, replaying that wonderful day in his head.

“The substitutes... still haven’t arrived?”                                         

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry...!”

It was exactly six hours and forty-three minutes into the evening. Samuel had a gun thrust at his neck from behind. The unmoving body of one of his colleague engineer and assistant lay at his feet, head hanging loosely. Said person, who had greeted and chatted with him on that very day, was now immobile. The train which tale had only just started and which name would be engraved in history had suddenly been hijacked and occupied by criminals.

——Why... Why... did it come to this? What did I even do?

When exposed to a cruel fate, people would mostly have similar thoughts. Firstly, they would bemoan their doom.

——Where and what did I do wrong?

Then, they would trace in their brains the way back to when they were struck by misfortune. The time in which the intercontinental train that Samuel had been supposed to drive had left the station of Leidenschaftlich’s capitol city, Leiden, after the departure ceremony was over had been a while before dusk.

The intercontinental train, so-called “Femme Fatale”, was a full thirteen-car train composed of Locomotive 1, 2 and 3, Single-Room Sleeping Car 1 and 2, Simple Sleeping Car 1 and 2, Passenger Car 1 and 2, Panoramic Seats Car, Dining Car 1 and 2, and a freight car. In order to pull the other ten cars, each of the three locomotives had an engineer and engineer assistant, and with a steam whistle as sign, each locomotive would do a triple-heading to adjust its pace. Therefore, even if the driving staff were lacking by just one person, the operation would not go as desired.

Femme Fatale had been invaded by hijackers with weapons not even an hour after departing from Leidenschaftlich. The hijackers had scattered into each car upon the start of the operation, seizing the train from the freight car. In the process, the ones murdered were a porter from Simple Sleeping Car 1, one engineer from Locomotive 3 and Samuel’s partners – a total of three assistants – from Locomotive 1.

Femme Fatale needed replenishment of water, which was its fuel, from the stop stations. Currently, parallel to the water supplying, a demand had been sent to Leidenschaftlich and the National Railway for replacements to the vacant engineer and assistant posts, and the substitutes were being awaited. The hijackers seemed to have made other demands to the government, but did not notify Samuel, who was merely one of the hostages, of such things.

They had a cloth bearing the national emblem of a certain northern country wrapped around their arms. What on Earth was their purpose? Was it to take revenge for their defeat? Did they have even more outrageous plans? Either way, it could be assumed that their group was full of people that behaved carelessly and did not take orders. After all, no matter how much they lacked knowledge of how trains worked, they wound up killing staff members for hindering the operation.

“Don’t worry. If you hadn’t listened to our instructions, it’d be a different story, but since you are a driver, we won’t kill you. This space is crammed. Don’t get too scared and wet your pants. It’d stink.” One of the hijackers said as if to calm Samuel down, perhaps due to his fearful form being unsightly.

“Hum, once the vacancy is supplemented... until what point am I supposed to drive...?”

“Go to the final stop with no changes in the course. What we demand of you is to deliver us safely.”

He had thought that saying anything would irritate them and earn him a violent response. Thus, he was a little surprised to be able to talk normally to them.

——They may be human beings just like me, but I can’t bring myself to think of them as such.

From Samuel’s viewpoint, they seemed like people from a completely different world.

There were obviously people other than Samuel LaBeouf wondering why things had turned out that way. Unlike Samuel, who had his life assured to some extent for being in the position of engineer, the ones in question were the frightened passengers, who had no idea of when they might be killed should they get on the hijackers’ nerves.

Several hours had passed since the incident had started upon arrival at the water supply point. The number of criminals was not too big, but a few of them were monitoring the hostages by taking turns with one another. The information that an engineer and some assistants had put up a resistance and been slaughtered in the frontal engine room, and that replacement personnel was being awaited had not come down to them. The state of tension due to fear persisted for a long while, and the mental condition of the passengers was nearing its limit.

“Aah, really, why did this have to happen?” In the back of Dining Car 2, one of the customers – an elderly gentleman – lamented with his meal gone cold in front of him.

——At this point in time, I was supposed to be seeing my niece wearing her wedding dress and getting married in our hometown.

He had not expected that the train ride, which had begun with such a happy mood, would turn into something so horrid. The big incidents he would see in newspapers and hear about in rumors always took place far away from him, and therefore, he had never imagined that a disaster of similar proportion would actually occur.

He had not been directing his words at anyone in particular, but the woman sitting close to him reacted to them.

“What is an intercontinental train even meant to be...?”

Amidst such an overwrought scenario, a beautiful and refreshing voice echoed in his ears, “Just as the name says, it is a large-scale vehicle that makes connections through a railroad that goes from one end to the other of the continent, and transports anything, from goods to people. It grants accessibility and profit to many. However, trains cannot run if there is no railway. To build railways, the ground must be shaved off. Even if there are flowerbeds or homes on said ground, whatever might be on the way is forcefully removed and their existence is eliminated.” It belonged to an eccentric, attractive woman who only mutely watched the change of colors in the sky without letting out a single scream ever since the car had been taken control of by the hijacker group. As though a machinery or something of the sort was embedded in her head, she talked on smoothly, “In order to build this railroad, it seems that a northern castle, which used to be a cultural monument, was demolished. Moreover, I have heard that operators from the North, the losing side, have suffered profoundly from overwork due to low-wage labor. Paths are opened with explosives so that we can get through mountains. The number of explosion accidents that happened in the process was not small.” The woman’s blue eyes observed the northern country emblem wrapped around the arm of a hijacker that held onto his weapon.

“That can’t be. You shouldn’t tell lies. Such a thing was... not in the newspapers, was it?”

Few were the people who would not become uncomfortable upon hearing that the state or nation they belonged to was the evil side. As the gentleman spoke a little indignantly, the woman – Violet Evergarden – spouted forth, “It is not a very well-known story. I, too, heard it by coincidence when I was traveling. I have been to everywhere, after all. Most likely, it can be presumed that this was their impetus... but if that were the case, taking the chance of destroying this train car and killing us should have been the main goal. They have murdered crew members, but seem to regard the lives of us passengers as considerably important. There... might be some other purpose...”

The gentleman was shaken at such a frail-looking girl uttering the word “murdered”. “By that, you mean...?”

“Who knows? Since they have taken us as hostages... it is reasonable to believe that they are making demands to the government.”

The gentleman was not convinced of Violet’s speech, yet was impressed by her intelligent guess.

——Just... what exactly does this girl do for a living?

She was a mysterious young woman who had an appearance akin to one of those dolls that small children would carry around. The fear that had been enveloping him settled down a little due to his curiosity regarding her.

“Still, that has nothing to do with us. I simply... wanted to attend the wedding of my distant niece.”

“Yes. However,” Violet continued, “Our circumstances also do not matter to them. Each side persisting on their convictions is what wars are about. This place can already be considered a battlefield.”

The world, which had been covered by dusk, morphed into evening. The soft glow of the lanterns hanging in the car produced a gentle light that significantly contrasted with such an edgy situation. Blue eyes stared at the state of the water supply procedures outside, the car’s lamps and the men yelling at a few passengers that had been taken hostage, respectively.

“I should soon... get going.”

It was then that the gentleman finally noticed. She was not merely observing the situation in silence. She had been aiming for some sort of opening.

“Hey, you, I don’t know what you intend to do, but it’s better to stop...”

“It is completely dark outside. This window is rather large, is it not?”

The gentleman was confused at the remarks that did not make sense.

“Sir, if I may ask, do you smoke cigarettes or cigars?”

“Y-Yes.”

“Do you have matches?”

“In my right pocket...”

“Please allow me to borrow just one of them later.” Saying nothing but that, Violet promptly stood up. She slowly raised a hand to her hair’s bundle of braids.

The gentleman could see that her hand grasped a thinly-sharpened silver stick. It was one of her hidden devices, which could be used in both close and long-range combat, but from an ordinary person’s view, it could be perceived as nothing but a thick needle.

However, one of the criminals held Violet at gunpoint as she had started acting odd. “Hey, what are you doing?! Hands up!”

“Understood.” She raised her arms, just as she was told.

The next instant, only the lanterns of the car abruptly burst and the lights went out. The screams of the passengers mingled with the hijackers’ angry voices. But there were no gunshots. The sounds of something striking and of breaking glass continued. Then, it became completely quiet. Everyone was enveloped in bewilderment at the silence that met them amidst the pitch darkness.

What had happened to the hijackers? What had been made of the girl who had suddenly stood up? What on Earth was going on in that car at that moment? While the passengers’ minds were filled with questions, fire was lit back within one of the shattered lanterns. A beautiful woman holding a match emerged from the dark like a spirit. With an index finger against her lips, she whispered a “shh”. The woman stood out vividly against the colors of the night. All the passengers who took notice of her fell silent under compulsion.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance. I am a traveler. Everyone, I am aware that you must be tired. Please wait a little bit longer. I will now take control... of the guards outside and the freight car.” Saying no more than that, Violet blew out the match’s fire with a whiff.

The gentleman realized then that a match had been taken from his breast pocket without his notice.

Within that world of darkness, only noises began to echo yet again as one of the left-side windows was opened and someone landed outside. The sounds of gravel being stepped on and of someone running ensued. After a short while, a man’s groan could be heard. A few seconds later, there was a rustle of something heavy being dragged.

The passengers shuddered, astonished with the unexpected turn of events. They then heard a treading over the gravel once more. It was a nimble pacing, coming close to the car. The footsteps of the unseen person fueled the sense of uneasiness in those who had been immersed in fear for a long time span.

“Excuse me.”

“Hih!” The gentleman yelped curtly as the window was casually knocked from outside.

Violet stood in the outer world, where one could rely solely on moonshine, with the moonlight against her back.

“Everyone, make sure to remain quiet. Please escape before the people from the other cars come to attack this one.”

Doll-like clothes, doll-like features. The hints of her humanity were dim in everything about her.

“Do lend a hand to women, elders and children. Please follow along the railway and walk in the opposite direction of the ride. It will most likely take time, but if you go to the nearest station, the military police will definitely grant you protection. It is not a good idea to stay at this station. People who seemed to be station’s staff were conversing amicably with the guards, so there must be other entities participating in this takeover.”

One could tell without directly seeing her fight. She was not an ordinary person.

People started to climb onto the window and come down in a surge.

“What about you? Will not you come with us?” The gentleman asked the enigmatic woman whom he was curious about once he set his foot on the ground.

Violet shook her head. “I have something to do here. An incident such as this one is a first ever since the war ended. Most likely, Leidenschaftlich’s army will make its move to deal with this strife. It is exceedingly difficult to stop a train... which is like a box with people inside, without attacking from the outside. If the inside is emptied, there will be no need for hesitation. It is clear that a battle will commence at one of the next stop stations. Until then, I have to do what I can...”

“That... isn’t something for you to do, right? Let’s all run away together.”

“No...”

Her blue eyes were staring down at the gentleman in front of her, but her consciousness lay elsewhere.

“No, it is something I must do. This is... This is... for the sake of someone whom I wish to become the strength of, even if indirectly.”

She was looking at Gilbert Bougainvillea, who was, somewhere far in the distance, surely spending efforts on the rescue of the citizens.

“Fortunately, I was going to arrive at the place where that I was heading to one day earlier than planned. I happened to use this train by coincidence, but there are other means of transportation. If I am still able to contact my head office today, they should be able to prepare a substitute for my duties... This is a rather big incident, so my company’s president might have already anticipated this situation and arranged a replacement. That is my only matter of concern.”

“You should be concerned about your own body rather than about things like that. It’s dangerous... Aren’t you just a young girl?”

“Worry not. The night has deepened, so I believe I can take control of this with the least possible damage.”

“‘Control’, you say...”

“Take control” were the words that she had spewed a while before as well. It was neither “put up a resistance” nor “seize”. The standpoint she spoke of was different. She was planning to force the battle into surrender. That beautiful woman did not seem fearful or nervous in the slightest of being outnumbered.

——I have a feeling... that this is not quite having confidence.

All of her actions appeared to the gentleman as an automatic mechanism.

“Aren’t you scared?”

“I am not.” Her attitude was of someone unbothered by the fact that she was about to pick a fight with hijackers.

The train soon started moving.

The gentleman thanked her for saving everyone as she climbed back in and asked lastly, “You, what’s your name?”

Violet’s expression grew even more attractive than before while she placed an index finger against her lips without saying anything. As the train was gone, the gentleman was unable to hear her name.

Back at six hours and twenty-seven minutes, Gilbert had sent out an emergency convocation to his own troops, assembling them at a runway where Nighthawks took flight. All were waiting at a standby place near said runway for the transmission of the operation’s contents, the arming of the troops and the adjustment of the Nighthawk planes to be finalized. He had decided to make use of that time and contact the two men he needed to speak with.

“We are connected to the Leidenschaftlich Navy Ministry.”

“Sorry about that. I’ll borrow this as it is. I’m counting on you to keep people away for now.”

The person from the communication room, whom Gilbert had requested beforehand to make a call to his brother, conceded him the seat.

His brother’s voice could soon be heard. “Gil, you had a favor to ask your great older brother?”

It was the tone of someone feigning displeasure, Gilbert thought.

Although Dietfriet would make requests to Gilbert, the opposite usually did not happen. Whenever he did ask for anything, his brother would take a stance of annoyance, but never refused him. He probably felt indebted to Gilbert for the treatment that he had been giving the latter so far.

“Yeah, Brother. I do have a favor.”

There was no way the older one would be unhappy that his younger brother was relying on him.

Gilbert had been able to declare in the meeting that the navy would be mobilized since his appeals’ chances of success were visible. The circumstances seemed to have been transmitted to the Navy Ministry as well, and so, a request for a battleship to be dispatched and prevent the migration from the port capitol of the North was officially issued.

Even though both were national organizations, Leidenschaftlich’s army and navy were separate entities that shared the military budget. A mediator was needed for one to acquire the other’s cooperation, or else, it was quite difficult to do so whenever there was no great gain for either. With the passage of time, the fact that Dietfriet had betrayed the Bougainvillea – a family that had joined the army for generations – and enlisted into the navy had been turning into an asset for the two brothers. Just as Gilbert, Dietfriet had carved a position for himself that enabled him to move his troops to a large extent.

“Well, then, I will definitely pay you back for this one day.”

“Bring drinks and celebrate my birthday with me when it comes. That’d be enough.”

“If it’s something like this, I’d do it even without it serving as repayment.” Gilbert replied and was about to hang up, but his fingertips, which had stretched towards the communication equipment, halted at the next words from Dietfriet.

“That’s right... just one more thing. The reason you’re so desperate is because of ‘that’, isn’t it? I saw the newspaper. I ended up spotting ‘that’ in it even without wanting to. Has ‘it’ come to see you? ‘It’ discovered that you survived, right? I was curious as to what happened afterwards. Did you make ‘it’ yours?”

“Hah?” It was common since their childhood for his brother to prank him, and so, Gilbert thought that had been tasteless witticism at first. “Stop with the bad jokes at a time like this, Brother. Violet doesn’t know of my survival.”

Silence.

“Brother?”

“It wasn’t a joke. I see... I was sure ‘it’ was gonna go see you as soon as possible, but I was wrong, huh? So ‘it’ is laying low because of this situation... Since you’re so nice, you stayed away in order to give ‘it’ a peaceful life, so you’re sure to be worrying that ‘it’ might find out about you because of this emergency rescue plan. Don’t fret. ‘It’ already knows.”

“What... What are you saying...?” Cold sweat slowly trailed down his back. “There’s... no way she would.” His voice was faltering.

“But it seems so. Last time I saw you during the Flying Letters... I told you I had seen ‘it’, right? Back then, ‘it’ asked me... if you were alive. I gave an answer that neither affirmed nor denied anything. And so, ‘it’... she became convinced. That you were alive, I mean.”

Although Gilbert could not change what had already happened, he felt like saying “wait up”. His vision went white. He was dizzy enough to be on the verge of throwing up. With a hand on his lips, he kept quiet.

——Violet... knows?

“Hey, Gil. You okay?”

He had heard in detail from Hodgins about how much his lie had afflicted and saddened her. If she had learned that he was alive, then Gilbert was nothing to Violet other than the Lord who had tossed her away without so much as praising her military deeds. There would be no helping it if she came to hate him.

“Why... did you do something so uncalled for...?!”

Intense wrath engulfed Gilbert’s heart. He was close to venting, but the only outlet for his rage was his brother.

“Like I care. Don’t involve me in your blind love mess. I didn’t answer, but she was convinced of it. That’s all.”

“You think it’s unrelated to you... Brother, you always... Just how am I supposed to face her...?!”

“The people closest to you are family, right? It looked like she had always been believing that you had lived. When she confirmed that you were, how can I put it? Well, she had her eyes shining like an idiot. If she hasn’t gone there to see you... that’s right. There’s only one thing I can think of. Since she’s a tool, she’s waiting for her Master to pick her back up. She’s probably anticipating a moment when she’ll be needed... ‘cause she’s dumb. It’s a good opportunity, so go fetch her.”

“Brother—!!”

“You were preparing yourself for the worst while making this emergency rescue plan, right? Be thankful to your older brother for giving you this push. Bye, Gil. Leave the sea to me. Next time we meet will be on my birthday... Love ya.”

“Brother, wait!”

The line was turned off one-sidedly. Gilbert was mute out of great perplex.

Perhaps people were waiting for the conversation to end, as the door was knocked from outside the communication room. Someone from his troops handed him a baggage with the weapons and ammo that he had specified. The one who had brought the baggage was concerned about Gilbert’s oozing distress, taking it merely as a glimpse of the intense negotiations with the navy, but in reality, that was not the case.

While checking the baggage’s contents, Gilbert held firmly onto the gun. Should he shoot a bullet into his own head, his worries over everything he was shouldering would certainly be gone, but he could not do so.

He then contacted Leidenschaftlich’s CH Postal Service. A girl with a young-sounding voice answered the phone, but informed him that they were on temporary closing for the day. It seemed that they already knew about the hijacking incident.

“Please announce... that I called to offer help in the hijacking case of the intercontinental train. One of your members is in it, right? If you just say that I am from the Leidenschaftlich army, he should be able to know who it is...”

He could faintly hear a state of agitation on the other side of the line. It was a shout from his old friend, followed by the thud of something like a chair being knocked over as someone stood up, rustles of falling paperwork, and finally, he was able to catch sounds of breathing.

“Gilbert! You... Where have you been and doing what?!” A voice clearly coated in anger echoed in his ears stridently. Regardless, Gilbert wound up feeling joy. It had truly been a long time since he had last talked to Claudia Hodgins.

“I heard just a bit ago from the secretary that you had contacted the army. Sorry. I was in a meeting.”

“Don’t go having meetings while one of my employees is in major trouble! You... know what’s up, don’t you? The army is making its move, right? In the hijacking case of the intercontinental train, I mean! She is... She is...”

“I am aware. Violet is on board, isn’t she? There was a photo of her in the newspaper.”

Hodgins was dumbfounded at Gilbert’s casual response and immediately retorted, “Don’t talk so calmly!” Losing his composure even more, he started making odd claims, “I am the way I am, and you were supposed to be like me too. You were supposed to be like that all along.”

——He’s sentimental, and a boisterous guy.

Gilbert ended up laughing. He felt embarrassed of how much he had longed for that noisy friend of his in the meantime they had not talked to one another. Not letting it show that he was just as anxious as the latter, he replied with words that were not solely his vanity, but also merged with his true sentiments, “As if I can afford to lose my mind. During times of crisis, it’s my duty to come up with means of protecting the citizens.”

“Does Little Violet... count as one of those citizens?”

“Obviously.”

“Are you mad... that I let Little Violet get in danger even though you entrusted her to me?”

Gilbert was sincerely surprised to be asked something completely different. “What are you saying? I’m grateful to you. I wouldn’t have entrusted her... to anyone else. You’re a man with sense of responsibility, so I left her to you. But that has nothing to do with what is happening now.”

“I don’t think so.”

Gilbert realized what Hodgins was talking about as if he had grasped the matter with his hands. Even though he was not at fault, blaming himself while wondering what else he could have done was a trait of his best friend’s personality.

“Hodgins.”

“What?”

“You’re my number one friend.”

“What’s with that, out of the blue...?”

“Hodgins. A friend like you... won’t show up before me ever again. You’re that important, even if you don’t want to be. I’m the same to you, aren’t I? That’s why... I had thought you were taking my sins lightly. You asked me why I had let go of Violet and told me to come see her, right? And said I shouldn’t call you unless I reconsidered it.”

“I did. I definitely did.”

“I... I keenly felt that I was the last person she should see, so I let her go. When we first met, I had believed it was best for me to watch over her while keeping her at arm distance, but that was a façade, and in the end, I used her as a tool.”

“But that... under those circumstances, there was no helping it. I would have done the same.”

“Is that really so? I... don’t think you would. How is she now, the Violet that you guided and raised? If I... hadn’t made the wrong choice... if I hadn’t raised her by my side, she would have grown up without knowing the battlefield. The current Violet is how she was originally supposed to be. That’s why it’s not your fault if something like this happens in the process. For starters, this was an accident.”

“If you’re gonna say that, I can shoot it right back at ya. Don’t make it seem like Little Violet fighting alongside you in the war was something bad. That’s blasphemy against every soldier we lived with in that period. The problem was how you would have guided her after that. And it was then I got angry, because you were prioritizing only your own feelings and not thinking about Little Violet. But, listen! I’ll cease fire temporarily. Now isn’t the time to be on break-up. We’re both her guardians. Let’s save her.” His tone was determined and seemed to deliver the heated, glaring gaze of his greyish blue orbs even through the communication equipment.

“I agree with that... For her sake, anything I can do... In order to keep her away from the army, I have done several preparations to prevent her return. Personal connections, merits... I devoted myself for everything to be the utmost and very best. I’m in the middle of that even at the moment. If it’s to protect Violet, I won’t nitpick methods.”

“So, you’re gonna put up a cool pose like, ‘whatever is not for her sake... shall be excluded, even should that be myself’ and protect her from the shadows?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

By the looks of it, Hodgins also did not seem to know the truth. That meant Violet really had concluded on her own that Gilbert had survived, and, as Dietfriet had said, was simply waiting for him. For her Master to come retrieve her.

“But I wonder about that... Soon, the lie I pinned into her might be busted. There’s a high chance I’ll come in contact with Violet.”

After a brief silence, Hodgins’s request for repetition in the form of a “Haah!?” resounded loudly. He finally took notice of turbine sounds coming from behind Gilbert. “Wait a bit, then where... are you now?”

“Near a runway that was reserved for my troops’ Nighthawks. I’m currently coordinating the departure.” Gilbert loaded his gun while speaking. He had also taken off his military uniform and finished changing into his battle outfit. The latter felt more familiar on his body.

“Of Leidenschaftlich’s Special Offense Force!? Yo-You... are commanding them and going for the rescue?!”

“That’s right.”

“You... said you wouldn’t see her! Is it okay if you do?!”

Silence. Gilbert believed the conversation would drag on for much longer if he revealed that Violet apparently knew about his survival.

“Why are you quiet? Isn’t that it?”

“When everything is over, I’ll apologize and report to you too. This is in order to save Violet. There’s no other option anymore. If we do end up meeting, I’ll beg for forgiveness...”

Their time to talk was shortening.

“Then prepare yourself for the worst. This is something that you caused.” Hodgins said something similar to what Dietfriet had. “So, what will you do once the Nighthawks take flight? Don’t tell me, you’ll jump onto the train while it’s in motion?”

“That’s right.”

“You really... are insane sometimes! A knight-in-shiny-armor gone crazy over love! Haha! I’ll praise you for that.”

Hodgins’s laughter could be heard. As Gilbert was unable to counter-argue, his face reddened.

“By the way, eh, are you... still a lieutenant-colonel? Wasn’t there some deal about you receiving other two rank promotions?”

“You’re full of questions... They waited for my injuries to heal. I became a colonel a few days ago.” With his prosthetic left arm, Gilbert stroked the eyepatch on his palm, which hid the right eye he had lost. Even with only one side of his vision, his handling of weapons had not deteriorated.

“And yet you’re the one in command!? That’s even more insane! The higher-ups sure made a great concession!”

“No more mocking, Hodgins. I told you, didn’t I? If it’s for Violet’s sake, I don’t nitpick my methods. Of course, our objective is to settle down the current situation, but there’s no way that can be done without me commanding on-site. Earlier, you said you’d do everything you can. If those words weren’t a lie, I want you to show me your data-acquiring skills. Is there any information that the military doesn’t know of?”

“Got it. I’ll tell you. But lemme just say one thing.”

“What is it...?”

“You... turn into a huge idiot when it comes to Little Violet, huh. I... like that a lot.”

“Shut up.”

Why was that? Between friends, even if they spent a long while without speaking to each other, once they eventually opened their mouths and reached out to one another, they would end up talking as if the flow of time in that gap had never existed. The two forgot about back when they had stopped contacting each other and begun to chatter.

“I’ll say what we have here, so you tell me too. Let’s have an info exchange. The hijackers had in them the national emblem of a certain northern country, Rohand. Remnants of an extremist party that also caused trouble before by raiding a construction site when the railroad of the intercontinental train was being made are in that group. Still, it seems they were not supposed to be a number of people significant enough to cause such a big incident... they might’ve gotten more collaborators.”

Gilbert ran a pen through his notebook. He also spoke about what he had heard during the meeting, as well as about the demands for a political offender kept in the Altair Prison to be handed over and to migrate to another continent in exchange for the passengers. He was aware that they were not ones to negotiate with in normal circumstances.

“Our information and yours aren’t that different in terms of freshness. The train is currently making a stop at a water supply point. It’s been confirmed through the supplementary information from the Leidenschaftlich National Railway that an engineer and some engineer assistants of the train were killed, and that the criminals sought substitute personnel. It’s good that we were able to buy time, but you said that their numbers must be small since they’re taking such reckless actions despite having a plan, right? Normally, when an anti-government organization swells up and spontaneously discharges like this, it’s mostly due to worthless bastards being drawn into it by a primary factor of making numbers balance. Meaning they have caused a situation where there’s no turning back, huh?”

“Either way, they wanna slap the South in the face and migrate to a country that isn’t their own. Did you know that Rohand’s territory is on the railway’s track? For example, if we had been the ones to lose the war, Leidenschaftlich’s towns had been destroyed and a roadbed had been built across it, what would you think?”

“I would provisionally evacuate, store weapons, gather warriors and come back.”

“If it were me, I’d find my happiness in another land, but you’d do something like that. This is probably also valid for the enemies. And surely there is a comrade of theirs in the Altair Prison whom they’d think that could do it. If I... were the criminal of this incident, and you were in Altair, maybe I’d have done the same as them.”

——If it were you, you’d take a smarter route. Gilbert thought but did not voice it.

Perhaps having been able to realize something from Gilbert’s silence, Hodgins said quickly, “The enemies are level-headed enough only not to kill the passengers, but they’ll soon give in to despair. If that happens, there’s a high chance that the number of deaths will rise. You said our information wasn’t different in freshness, but I still have material. The regulations after the calling-off of military forces in the North are rigid. If the hijackers managed to get weapons, it’s most possible that they imported them from another continent. It’s been confirmed there are armed groups that get their hands into weapons that we’re not yet familiar with through entwined foreign trades with other countries and continents. Still, it looks like the relationship between the arm dealers of these continents and the people of ours who want weapons can’t be considered good. It seems the fees are pretty overcharged. Meaning they’re being taken advantage of.”

“Even Leidenschaftlich has problems in foreign trades with other continents. They are wary of our natural resources and don’t stop just at interchanging goods, but also try to buy lands here. It is, aah... almost like that.”

“Yeah, like a forewarning that there’s some project involving the South and North. You get it? There’s a need to understand the background of the incident happening right now. At first glance, it looks like a fight between Leidenschaftlich, of the South, and a country of the North, Rohand, but in reality, there’s one more entity. It’s only watching. But it exists. As a third influence, it wants to know just how well Leidenschaftlich can handle a situation like this one. Other than being on the side that won the war, we’re also the greatest military nation.”

“Migration plans, another continent, new armaments.”

Albeit messily, a summary of the incident was unraveling within Gilbert. A thread trailed around his mind, and the results of the accumulated information came out. One: the contents of the demands made by the hijackers were that, once the intercontinental train arrived at its last station in the port town, the political offender and war criminal of the North were allowed to migrate with them to another continent. Two: they, who were from the defeated nation, had been able to execute the hijacking through the other continent’s support.

Those with good intuition could tell. The current situation had been induced because the trigger of a next war was about to burst. Just when everyone was thinking that the horrors of wartime had settled down in their continent, there were now other continents targeting it.

As Gilbert’s supposition wound up hitting bull’s-eye, his head grew heavy. “Our victory needs to be overwhelming.”

“Will Leidenschaftlich dispatch rescue troops other than yours?”

“The orders have been given. They’ll target the water supply point, attack, help the passengers escape and engage into battle. It’ll be an ambush from the army garrison of the North. If, by any chance, they still strive towards migrating to another country, the ones they’d have to face next would be the navy. My brother is also on the move. But we can’t let them get to the sea. For that, I have a favor to ask you.”

“What is it? You can say anything.”

“Buy the land of a water supply point station that the train is expected to pass by.”

“Hah?”

“Trains usually require water supply. It’s a one-stop-per-hour ratio. Once the water is replenished, we’ll lose an opportunity of rescue again. However, it’s predictable that they will use hostages as shield and the dispatched northern troops would have to allow their passage. I want a place where they will definitely stop at. And then, I want the railroad to be destroyed so that they won’t be able to not stop... That’s why, buy the property, and break it down.”

“‘Buy it���, you say, like it’s something easy...”

“You can’t?”

“Don’t ask stupidities. It’s not a matter of being able to or not. I will do it. My employee is on that thing!”

“Since it’s you, I did think you’d say that. The lands of the passing points are divided into two types: those owned by the Leidenschaftlich National Railway and those that were rented from the original owners and are in use. When I looked at the map, I was able to narrow the places where we’d be able to have a flashy ambush battle, yet in which it would hardly affect other territories and that the train would afterwards undoubtedly stop at once far away from the water supply point, down to a few stops. And among them, there is only one point that is a private property. I want you to purchase it with your talent for business. From now, as soon as possible.”

Gilbert himself thought he was saying something unreasonable.

“You... Gilbert, you...”

However, he was certain that, if it was his best friend, the latter would definitely manage it.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait. Why did you narrow that down?”

“To tell the truth, the major-general didn’t approve of this strategy.”

“Well, there’s no way anyone would immediately nod at being told ‘let’s buy land, destroy it and kick our enemies’ asses’, is there?”

“It seemed I would have been able to convince him if I’d had more time, but unfortunately, I’m about to fly. I’ve decided right then to make of this not a military, but a private strategy. The money will come from me. Places in possession of the Leidenschaftlich National Railway can’t be negotiated. However, if it’s a land up for rent owned by one person, it can be nominally made private. Buy it under your name. If you become the titular, whatever you do with it is your own business.”

“Even so, it’d be bad to destroy it, right?! It’s being rented by the National Railway, isn’t it?! Even if it’s private in name only, it’s being used by the National Railway. I can’t just go damaging the property.”

“That’s where your assistance comes. After the private property is sold, extort the one responsible for the National Railway. You can do so when the incident settles down. The Leidenschaftlich National Railway’s crisis management will surely be interrogated about its absence after this case is finished. Say that you’ll make an escape route for them. In normal circumstances, I’d rather have them hand the land over themselves, but that’s impossible for bureaucratic bungling. That’s why we’ll be the ones to propose it. If we let the criminals get to the sea, this won’t end just with the ones responsible being fired. In exchange of us being able to go rampant in a private property, make people promise not to investigate them later on. And then, ask a newspaper company to...”

“I’ve been able to catch it somehow. You got me involved in this with the intention of making it into some impressive tale, right?”

“You’re quick.”

The plan that Gilbert had come up with was like a sequence.

The postal company president Claudia Hodgins, for the sake of his employee’s protection and out of worry for the safety of the people taken as hostages, would suggest a cul-de-sac to take place in a territory rented by the Leidenschaftlich National Railway itself (said postal company president was also a former Leidenschaftlich soldier and carried the achievement of having been promoted to major). Fearing the situation’s aggravation, even if the Leidenschaftlich National Railway were to predict through the suggestion of the property owner that the railroad would hardly be usable afterwards, it would prioritize actual lives over expenses and agree to the scheme.

Henceforth, an arrangement of the strategy being transmitted by someone from the army and the plan being immediately executed would be printed out. In reality, the land would not belong to Hodgins since the one paying for it would be Gilbert Bougainvillea, but as long as such fact did not see the light of day, any sort of grandiose story could be created about it. Unlike the current circumstances, severe public criticism was something that could be eased.

“I’m counting on you as insurance. If this doesn’t work, we’ll just carry it over to the next water supply point. However, there will be more victims, and the possibility of Violet’s survival becoming dubious will be higher. A fast resolution is necessary. I’ll let you make use of one of my subordinates. He has the documents for the land’s purchasing, so call him. You’ll probably have to negotiate with its representative, but if it’s you, you can work it out with your misleading flattery.”

“I’m honored for the compliments! But this will definitely be busted later. People know about our relationship, right?”

Gilbert turned around upon being tapped on the shoulder. It seemed the Nighthawks were ready.

“I don’t mind even losing my position for this. But I will try to prove that I’m not someone who can be cut off so easily. Rather than me, what’s important is the citizens’... Violet’s safety. Listen, I don’t forgive those who put the citizens of our Leidenschaftlich in danger, no matter who they are. A number of lives have already been lost. We’ll definitely pay them back. It doesn’t matter who the other party is, be them the North or another continent. Our Leidenschaftlich does not yield to foreign invasion or pressure. It’s been like that ever since its foundation. I will make the enemies regret laying their hands on Leidenschaftlich.” The Bougainvillea heir spat out his quiet anger in a voice tone that even his friend would find ominous.

It was precisely seven hours and sixteen minutes into the evening. Why was there no one around?

One of the hijackers cried out upon seeing the state of Dining Car 2. He looked about. The interior of the dark car shook with the steam whistle of the locomotive.

The train, which had been making a stop, had finally begun to move again. The Leidenschaftlich National Railway had responded to the hijackers’ demands and sent replacement personnel to the pitiful engineer, Samuel LaBeouf. He was currently attempting to drive while another hijacker thrust a gun at him.

Things had expanded to a point in which it was impossible to understand many aspects of the several happenings. One of the aspects was the empty dining car that the man was staring at. Not only the passengers but also his companions, who had been in control of Dining Car 2, were nowhere to be found.

The man recalled a cryptic ghost story passed down at the northern homeland that he used to live in. It stated that when one was abroad a speeding vehicle in the middle of the night, they should not look outside from anywhere other than its front, whether it was a carriage, a car or even a train.

——The reason why is...

He put a hand on the frame of the only window that had been left open.

——...because non-humans are guided by the moonlight and follow it.

Then opened the window to see the back of the car.

——A frightening ghost might be baring its fangs and running after us.

However, what chased the train was nothing but the moon floating in the night sky. The smell of prairies during nighttime only granted the man trapped inside the box called a train slight coldness instead of terror.

“Hah.” The man caressed his chest. Apparitions did not exist – he was able to confirm that much. Rather, what remained unconfirmed was the cause behind the disappearance of the passengers and his comrades.

“I will be taking this.” The words the man heard came from a direction he would never have imagined. By the moment he both caught them and understood their meaning, his collar was simultaneously grabbed and he was tossed outside.

The train was in motion. It was not too fast, but no one would survive unharmed should they fall off. Before the man collided with the ground, what he saw were blue eyes staring at him from atop the train and a golden light sparkling against the moonlit night. While swallowing his breath at such beauty, the man bounced onto the soil like a small ball.

Violet readied her position on the hurtling train. Her hips carried a military saber that she had borrowed from the man when throwing him out. Her body was already equipped with numerous weapons snatched from other hijackers.

After experimenting the saber, dagger, and pistol sword that did not suit her lovely ribbon-tie one-piece once for each, she went back to the saber. It seemed their heaviness was not yet overwhelming, and she put them away in weapon holders that also appeared to have been stolen.

Violet’s fighting style was similar to a spider’s. At first, she had merely defeated one hijacker when bumping onto him, as he had sensed the strange state of the freight car and had come to check it, but as others would come searching for their comrade who had not returned, she concluded, “this is a good opportunity” and hid herself while on standby, eliminating them one by one. Right before losing interest, the hijackers would see the upside-down figure of a woman appearing from outside the window and let out a scream before fainting. She had laid out the yarns and was hunting the preys that she had successfully drawn into her spider web.

There had been four people monitoring the hostages in Dining Car 1. The only remaining hijacker had continued keeping watch while surrounded by people. As he became unable to handle the eeriness of Dining Car 2, he went to seek support from the car ahead.

Although the passengers of Dining Car 2 had been freed during the train’s stop, there was nothing that could be done to somehow rescue the ones of Dining Car 1, even if the guard’s eyes could be evaded. Violet gazed forward as if glaring. She decided that her next task was to take control of the engine room and make the train stop again.

Violet advanced while deftly walking onto the scaffold. Her resolve had no signs of crumbling as she was headed, silent and unaccompanied, towards a seizure battle. She was no longer a girl soldier. There were no commander officers beside her. She was treading through a life in which she did not have back-ups, with no option other than making choices on her own. As a result of that, she was taking actions without anyone’s instructions in order to help the passengers. She was attempting to do what she could as Violet Evergarden.

“Major.”

The train that they happened to be riding in had been taken over. If she had the ability to help them escape, she would simply do so. In retrospect, in case her Lord was indeed alive and in the army, she had utmost trust that he was definitely thinking of a method to save that train, even if said person was not aware of what she was doing.

“Sounds of turbines?” Violet suddenly looked up at the empty night sky. A noise unlike the one of the train’s sprinting mixed with it in her ears. She could see several flying objects looming right over the train.

“There! That’s the culprit!”

A bullet gushed through the night sky. A gunshot echoed along with a man’s voice. From within the locomotive, a gun was aimed at her. One of the hijackers, who had been in a frenzy while looking for the passengers that were nowhere in sight, as well as the person who had most likely caused such a situation, had finally found Violet running on top of the train.

Violet peeled her eyes away from the objects flying in the night sky and concentrated on the battle. She sped up onto the locomotive while lowering her posture. After taking some distance, she constrained the criminals inside the locomotive by shooting at them, then resumed running. The best idea was to get inside the car as soon as possible, but it did not seem that she would be able to do so immediately.

“Who... are you?! The one who helped the hostages of the rear car escape was you, wasn’t it?!”

The men climbed from the window of the Passenger Car to get rid of Violet. From both behind and ahead of her, the men bearing the emblem of the North were gradually approaching her with the intention of attacking from both sides.

“Answer! Who are you?!”

“I am a mere traveler.”

“Liar! Did you know about our plans? No... it’s not like there would be anyone foolish enough to come aboard alone if they knew. Come here! We’ll interrogate you about the details. Put down the weapons.”

Violet put the gun back into the holder.

“Wrong! Leave the weapons at your feet!”

Not listening to the restraint order, she took a large step. “Who...” while saying so, Violet landed on the chest of the one that had been threatening her, her fist diving into his face.

The fist that came from a woman so fine-looking was much heavier than it seemed. The man rolled down, taking a few others with him.

“Who... said anything about complying with you?” with her low grumble, battle commenced.

The men charged at her from back and front. Firstly, she crisscrossed the knife bouts from a man who had come from behind. She defended herself with her left hand, grasped his face and pushed him backwards. As he faltered, she swept him off his feet and, just like that, delivered a kick to drop him off the train.

An enemy who rushed towards her from the front attempted to hit her with his bare hands. It was a tall and broad man. He probably had confidence in his physical strength. Merrily, he targeted Violet’s face. Receiving a series of kicks with both arms, Violet aimed for an opening, placed a hand onto the hull and rotated her long legs. While he was overtaken by her kick, she sank the fist of her free hand into his stomach. But the man seemed to have a hard protection plank hidden under his clothes. She did feel that something had bent, but there were no sounds of bones breaking.

“I’ll crush your face! Die!” After a pause, the man raised his fist towards her once more.

Violet accepted it with one hand, pulled the gun from the holster and shot his thigh at close range.

“You... that’s unfa...”

Nothing was cowardly about Violet, who had been raised in the battlefields. She gently pressed the collapsing man’s shoulder, and he disappeared into the dark with a scream. As Violet was on her own yet again, the rattling of the train resounded in her ears.

That was the power of the woman named Violet Evergarden. It was an actual proof of strength from the weapon whose name was not in the registrations of Leidenschaftlich’s army.

The train’s hijacking plan was failing in a progressive fashion. The perpetrators mostly carried out a rash behavior, but that was not the direct cause. They had enough military force to control the weak passengers. However, and Auto-Memories Doll who prided herself in having the strength of an unmatched warrior had ended up mingling with said passengers.

The moon in the sky had been enclosed in nightly clouds and temporarily disappeared, but the moonshine slowly began to gleam down over the world again. When the moonlight guided Violet once more, there was a different enemy in front of her. Even without being invited, Violet showed herself to them.

“Are you... a soldier of Leidenschaftlich?” The low voice of a man could be heard. It was a quiet way of speaking. He had features that gave off an impression of transparency and steadiness. Although its color was dull in the nightly darkness, he was clad in an azure coat. Rohand’s national emblem was embroidered on it. For whatever reason, he had a long case in hands.

“No, I am no longer a soldier now. I have a question as well. Are you the strongest person among the ones responsible for this takeover? If possible, I would like to fight whoever that person is.”

The man gripped his case firmly. As he did so, its exterior detached and fell to his feet, revealing a bayonet. With flawless etiquette, he bowed at Violet. “I am the leader of Rohand’s chivalric order... as for my name, I’ve already abandoned it. I am the strongest one that you seek. I have... seen you in the battlefield. You’re Leidenschaftlich’s witch, right?” The leader of Rohand’s chivalric order observed Violet under the moonlight with an indescribable gaze. It denoted his fear and wrath at the fact that the young demon of the battlefields had grown up so much and stood before him yet again. However, she was but a beautiful woman no matter how he looked at her, and so, he was perplexed. “Your fighting form was... just like a fierce god... I’ve heard no rumors about you after the Continental War ended, but... I see, so you’ve been doing this kind of obscure work.”

The air that steamed from the leader was unlike the other men that she had fought.

“I apologize for not meeting your expectations, but the witch you speak of has already departed from this world and is not a soldier anymore. I am now only a traveler. I am not doing anything assassin-like, either. I did give your comrades a rough treatment, but they are sure to be alive. Although this is arrogant of me, as a passenger of this train, I have a request. Please release all the hostages.”

“That cannot be done.”

“I suppose so... We are being used as material for some sort of trade. Even I can understand that much. Why are you doing such a thing?”

“It’s to take back the things... and the person... that you guys have trampled over.”

“Do you mean to start another war?”

The chivalric leader chuckled. His voice rose into laughter, but it did not reach his eyes. “I’m sorry, but want to ask you something. Is the war over to you?”

Did she not think she would ever be asked such a question? Violet grew stiff.

“I can’t read you very well since you’re expressionless, but the fact that you aren’t answering means you have a clue, right? That’s what soldiers are about. Forever and always... our memories of viciousness stay with us like remnants of burn marks and do not disappear. It will never be over for me.”

The exchange had a sense of déjà-vu.

“However... in truth, it is already over.”

“Still, war will happen once more.”

Such words were Violet’s former self in essence.

“The faces of my deceased companions. The smell of corpses. The weight of a gun snatched from an enemy’s dead body, the night I spent in pain after being beaten by a senior officer without knowing the motive. I had been able to endure all this... because I believed that, someday, the war would end and supposedly something brilliant awaited me in the future. But how was it in reality? My friend that had been going for the same dream as myself was put in prison, the higher-ups who started the war are living leisurely, and now our nation is becoming our enemy. The soldiers who protected the citizens with their lives at stake are labeled as useless and get stones thrown at them by peasants. My hometown was gone without a trace as the victorious country laid a railway track for its trains over the motherland that we tried to protect. I also tried to forget about it. But, in my heart, forever and ever, even now...”

There were deep dark bags under the chivalric leader’s eyes.

“...even though I wake up in the morning, sleep at night and I am breathing, a fury that I cannot suppress burns within my body at unexpected times. To solve this, I have no choice but kill your country, which made me this way. Not just the South. The West, which conspired with it, too. This is still just a tiny beginning. From this point on, our original lives will start. Are you satisfied? If I have to talk, given that I’m not so good at conversations, I’ll do it with my fists.”

There was a reason why he had said “our”. One, two, three more people who wore the same azure coat as him appeared and took out the bayonet from their own long cases and aimed the weapons at Violet. On top of the train in movement, the former chivalric order with their bayonets and a former girl soldier wielding several kinds of weapons put themselves in position and stood facing one another.

It was like the law of causal response. Violet’s past pursued her no matter how much time passed, never letting her go.

Violet held onto the brooch on her chest only once. “Why... did things turn out this way?” was a question that surfaced in everyone’s minds when cruel things happened, but not in hers. That was because the one who used to be her Lord had told her, “without ever blaming anyone, live on”.

“I am a taciturn myself, so that would be of help.” Violet unsheathed the saber and bowed in a lady-like manner.

At seven hours and thirty-four minutes, Hodgins had proceeded to a branch office of Leidenschaftlich’s National Estate Purchase Agency. It was the place that had been selected and that he had relied on for the construction of the CH Postal Service’s headquarters. Upon claiming that he had a negotiation to discuss with the person in charge, whom he was on close terms with, the receptionist promptly gave him a positive response. Separated by a desk in a private room that he had been led to, the two of them were gazing at each other.

“No, even if you say that, President Hodgins...” Compared to before he had listened to Hodgins, the one in charge – John Wishaw – showed signs of discomfort in his face.

He was a man in his mid-thirties who appeared young enough to be in his twenties. He was often despised for his looks, working as the manager of that branch office regardless.

“Are there any issues?” Fronting him, Claudia Hodgins’s way of speaking was in accordance to their ages, but he was one or two levels above the latter in being a dandy. Normally, one could often witness an attitude that poked fun at people coming from him, but the expression of seriousness he displayed in critical moments could stir people’s hearts, even with them being of the same sex.

John recoiled at Hodgins’s attacking stare. “As I said, your request is extremely hard to accept. About the land ownership purchase of the village you asked for, Ritorno, just acquiring one section of it is already hard, let alone the entire thing...”

“The truth is that just its train station is fine, but it’ll earn us more profit to buy the whole village while we’re at it.”

“The station is the village’s public property, and cannot be a subject of general estate negotiations.”

“No, that’s wrong, isn’t it? I contacted the Leidenschaftlich Legal Affairs Bureau before coming here. The station is a private property. It’s one of the large pieces of land that the village head, Miss Ian, inherited from her ancestors. The railroad that was laid down for the sake of the mining industry that said ancestors had started, and the station that was built for the same reason is Ritorno village’s. Leidenschaftlich’s National Railway uses the station as a water supply point for the trains to make stops at, but passengers can’t get off there. Because it’s a private property. You’d see that if you check the estate registration. Can you open the file in your hands?”

Albeit reluctantly, John opened the documents regarding Ritorno’s territorial data. The proprietary was the head of Ritorno’s coalmines.

“You sure... are knowledgeable.”

What Hodgins had said was true.

“It’s pretty famous. The station where people can’t get off at, that is. It’s got romance to it, right? But it’s not like no one can get off at it. Those who have Ritorno’s coalmine labor certificate and its residents can. It’s because it’s a private estate that outsiders can only enter and leave from a place other than the passage exclusive of those who have permission after undergoing troublesome procedures... Now, let’s return to the problem. I just want the land that has the railway where the intercontinental train will run across.”

——I’ll persuade you. I’ll persuade you. I’ll persuade you. I’ll definitely persuade you.

Hodgins made gestures and drew John Wishaw into his own story, almost like a stage actor. His eyes narrowed softly, but there was no kindness in them. “Shall I explain the usefulness of this transaction in an easy way again? Ritorno village is currently undergoing a continuous decline in population. It used to be famous for its mines, but mining became impossible due to an accident from several years ago. Although the railroads remain, the number of workers is decreasing and young people are leaving. It’s also not a place for tourism. It’s clear that it will turn into ruins. Part of the village was rented when the railroad was laid down. The village’s economy comes from clinging onto the money earned from that with all their might. How many people are there in the village now?”

“Around ninety...”

“That’s about the same number as a few ten-people households in a family gathering. Can they withstand the winter this year? Can they live on without sucking up to the youngsters who work away from home?”

“They must be... having a hard time.”

“I can see the finale of this tale. But there’s something that can turn it into a ‘Never-Ending Story’. Currently, our company does postal services and dispatches Auto-Memories Dolls, but there’s a project that we recently started working on. The manufacturing industry. Right now, we order letters, stamps and seal wax from other companies, but we are planning to manufacture and sell our own in the future. I’ll hire all the villagers for that, from elders to children, as long as their hands can move.” Hodgins stood up and sat on the sofa that John was on.

Although there was a distance between the two, it was short. John’s nervousness increased, but he was somewhat relieved in comparison to when Hodgins was in front of him.

It was psychologically less menacing to talk side-by-side than have a face-to-face conversation. The lesser one had to look at the other’s face, the more the tension would alleviate. Hodgins was never taught about such fact by anyone, instead acting on his own experience.

“What are you worried about?”

“Is there any realtor who could instantly close a deal after being told that the land to be bought would be transformed into a battlefield?”

“I see... There is a resistance... I get it, I get it. I totally get it. Of course, I won’t force you.” He repeated the words that empathized empathy, then lowered down the conditions already presented, “If I can’t buy the Ritorno village, I’ll buy the proposed site. I’ll buy it anyways. I explained the reason why from the get-go. I want to solve the hijacking incident happening right now faster than what the army is taking to make a move. For that, I need a place where there could be gunfire. I want to buy not only the station but the whole village and introduce business to it as an assurance. Y’know, I’m in the same position.” Next, he presented the conditions once more in a direction that appealed to emotions, “A girl who is like a daughter to me and was left in my care by the most precious friend in my life is on that train. I want to save her. I have connections with the Leidenschaftlich army. I tried asking about it, and the way things are now, it seems it’d be hard to execute a rescue if the train doesn’t stop. The best idea is to aim for a water supply point, attack, help the passengers escape and bring about the battlefield, but the military forces can’t be immediately readied just with forestalling. It would turn not into support from our own country, but into an ambush attack in a land occupied by the North’s army. Incidents like that are out of reach from the army’s handling, and the one that gets mobilized is the Special Firearms Attack Unit.”

The Special Firearms Attack Unit consisted of offense troops dispatched whenever there were cases that would be too much for the military police to deal with in domestic and overseas territories owned by Leidenschaftlich. As Leidenschaftlich, which had struggled with invasions during its long history, had always been successful in its interceptions, it would build national military bases in the invading countries as a partial compensation. During the Continental War, they had taken the role of stock areas as well. The Special Firearms Attack Unit was certain to be present in military divisions and maintained the peace and security of their vicinities. The one which would be mobilized that time was not the troop from the division near the station that the train had already left behind, but the troop from the division that lay further ahead.

“That’s why I will buy the land where a water supply point that the train is expected to pass by soon is located.”

John gulped noisily at Hodgins’s words.

“I’ll buy it and destroy the rails. I’ll create a place in which the army will be able to move around easily. It will also be advantageous for the Special Firearms Attack Unit, which will arrive before they do. The conclusion of this situation will be much faster if they come, right? Anyways, I want to make the target stop moving. It’s not about being able to do it or not. I will do it. My employee is on board. John, are you married? You aren’t, right? Then, are your parents doing well? I see. I wonder what you’d think if your parents were aboard that hijacked train with guns pointed at them in this very moment. I believe that the number of deaths will be much smaller if you help me right here and now. On the other hand, if you refuse, the risk of who-knows-how-many people dying will increase. You could be either a hero or a reaper.”

“B-But, we’d be doing that without the government’s authorization, right?”

Hodgins grinned. “The responsibility for it isn’t yours. After all, the contractor is me. If what we’re about to do works out, it’d be just me doing whatever with my own land.”

“That is... inconceivable. Are you saying you have personal troops or something? Even if you manage to stop the train by chance, rescuing the passengers would be impossible...”

Hodgins did not display frustration in front of that young man, who was completely seized with fear. On the contrary, he put a hand on the latter’s knee and spoke in an even gentler and sweeter approach than before, “I’m the one who decides whether it’s impossible or not.” However, he was clad in a forceful aura. “I’m not an idiot either. There’s no way I’d be a stranger to battlefields. I’m not proud of it, but I used to lead troops in the past.”

A scent that had been unknown to John during his entire life wafted from Hodgins to the tip of his nose. As he glanced at his side, their eyes met. The latter’s greyish blue eyes, good physique, broad shoulders and warm chest were right on sight.

“I... the fighting power that I have... I don’t wanna call it ‘fighting power’, but still... I now move on by trusting the power of the people that lend me their strength.” His hand that had rested on John’s knee grasped the latter’s own hand without his notice.

In regards of Hodgins, his field of expertise – having a way with words – was one that could capture others, but its true value did not lie there.

“Aren’t you just an intermediator? There’s only one thing I want you to do.”

At any rate, his ability to blend poison and honey in order to deceive people was unmatched.

“I want you to propose this deal to the village chief. That’s all, John.” As John remained silent, Hodgins put another hand on his knee. “I want to get to know... your human candor.”

——I’m sorry, beautiful-hearted youth.

One step short of his next chessboard move, Hodgins felt his conscience ache.

——I’m really sorry for dragging you into something like this. But there’s someone who wants to make that place into a battlefield.

His checkmate on John Wishaw was accompanied by a smile. “So, will you become one of the rescuers? If you can’t do it, I don’t mind contacting the village myself. You’re a manager and I’m a trader. We’re both proficient in talking, but if it were me, I could get the agreement of a client in five minutes. I’ll show you that skill of mine.”

Over the double lines in the contract for land renting written on parchment, the name of the new contractor – Claudia Hodgins – was printed. As the document procedures were finished soundly, Hodgins unreservedly patted John’s shoulder while the latter hung his head depressively as though wondering if they had not actually done something outrageous. Hodgins then called his company, the CH Postal Service, after being allowed to borrow the telephone.

Gilbert and Hodgins were not the only ones distressed by the current strife. After one ringback tone, Lux answered.

“Little Lux. Is everyone moving according to my instructions?”

“They’ve all been dispatched. If you give permission, President, I can call and get them to move right about now. It’s mostly the postmen, though...”

“You’ve only gathered strong ones amongst the men, so that’s okay. A fast-working secretary is the best thing...!”

“Have you already put the plan in motion?”

“Poor lands are bought often, after all. It’s easier than seducing a girl. More importantly, the station of the village I’m about to mention, Ritorno village... tell everyone to lay waste to it, no matter what method they use. We’ve talked to the villagers. Anyhow, it has to get to a point where the fact that the train won’t be able to pass it by will be clearly visible from the engine room. Don’t let them forget to wear a red cloth so that others will be able to tell them apart from the enemies. Also, tell them to fire a smoke bomb as a signal that the plan is being executed.”

“It might be late for this but, hum, even if it’s for the sake of a rescue... won’t the influential people of this country be angry at us or something...?”

“That’s right. Even if it’s my property, people will probably be upset. After all, a private business – a postal company, no less – will be taking actions that will bring big damage to the economic activities of the state management.”

“Are you all right with this?”

“What we’ll do is destroy the railroad and protect the people who will escape from the train when it suddenly stops. We won’t interfere with the military... as long as the guys who are there don’t go rampant... most likely... yeah. Even if they do, getting yelled at is my job. I have an acquaintance from a newspaper company. If this incident brings something good, I’ll ask them to write an article that will make it difficult to put the blame on us. Everyone involved will be livid, but big organizations are weak against public opinion that the army joins into, and there are matters that could be used against us, which is why I will do something about it. I won’t let anyone do anything that would end with you stranded in the streets, so stay calm. Anyways, just tell everyone that, once the locomotive stops, they must concentrate on rescuing the passengers, and run away if they think things are dangerous. That’s all. I’m about to head there on the Nighthawk that my friend arranged for me.”

“President Hodgins.”

“What is it, Little Lux?”

“I want to go too.”

“No can do. I need someone patrolling the office in my stead. I trust and count on you.”

“Violet was my first friend! I... may not be able to do anything, but… I want to go help her even if I do nothing!” Lux said with a tearful voice.

“Little Lux. It’s not like you can’t do anything. It’s because you can that I’m leaving the company to your care. What you can do now is let me stay free. There’s a lot of work that can be done as I move. That’s linked to helping Little Violet. I’ll definitely save her and come back, so just you wait.”

“Really...?”

“Really. I’m always causing you trouble, but have faith in me.”

“I do. I do, so please come back soon... as fast as possible... with everyone, I mean.”

“I will come back. To you, who are protecting my place to return to, that is.”

Eight o’clock in the evening – the time in which people’s days would come to an end and they would be arriving at their homes. In a certain town of a certain country, Cattleya Baudelaire was having an argument with the cabby of a shared carriage. It seemed that the streetlights illuminating her almost meant to reveal her anxiety just from how unreliably they shone.

“The carriage arranged for today has been completely occupied, so I can’t let you get on.” The cabby’s explanation was mixed with a candid advice.

“Like I said, I’m begging you!”

Cattleya’s nose and cheeks were dyed red. Such thing would be a given when exposed to cold weather or quarreling, but she was rosy up to her eyes as if they were bloodshot due suppressing the urge to cry.

“You know it, right, that the intercontinental train was hijacked?! I... have to go there! My... my... my colleague is... my frie... nd is... I... got to know about it, and then... and then...”

Cattleya, who had come to find out about the circumstances, had been traveling in an extreme rush after finishing work. She had already passed by the transportation facilities of two cities. When doing so, she had contacted the CH Postal Service and was finally close to the coalmine village that Hodgins had instructed her to go to. The last vehicle headed to that village was about to depart.

“Don’t say such selfish things, Young Lady! Just move already. The world doesn’t spin around you. You’re causing problems to the customers that went through the proper procedures.”

“I’d do the procedures if I could! But Violet might die! I... I... have to go help her! That girl... is super strong, but now that things have come to this, I don’t know if she’s okay! If she dies, then... That’s why I want to go! Please, I could even just go holding onto the scaffold, so let me in!”

Seeing Cattleya shed tears in exasperation, the cabby was at a loss of words. “I’d like to do so if I could...” He looked into the carriage. The people inside were giving him irritated looks, telling him to hurry up and go. However, there was a single man who stood up without glaring at him.

The carriage’s doors, which had been closed, opened up. From within it, a dark-haired man with a gentle aura poked his head out. “Hey, I’ll get down. Let her take my place.” He had a distinctive voice tone.

“Master... but... you...”

“I don’t mind it. I’ll stay in this town for one more night. Can you prepare the earliest carriage of tomorrow morning for me?” The man broke into an uplifting smile.

The cabby was exceedingly moved by his overflowing kindness. Those who worked in the service industry would mostly meet clients with troubles. Finding such a compassionate one was a first in his long life working as a cabby. His chest grew warm due to having heard about Cattleya’s situation as well.

“Hey, Young Lady! Be thankful to this kind person... dang it. Master, I’m unloading your luggage. Young Lady, give me yours.”

“E-Eh?”

“Someone is getting off so that you can replace him. So you’ll be able to hop in and go to where your friend who is about to die is at. Good for you...”

“Seriously...? T-Thank you. Thank you very much!”

“The one you should thank is that young man.” The cabby said while taking her luggage.

Still unable to believe the luck that had befallen her, she faced the man while still surprised and bowed her head. “T-Thanks! Thanks for real! I’ll pay the fee for your stay; thanks for real!”

The man let out a giggle at Cattleya’s aspect and stretched his hand out. He wiped the teardrops traveling down her cheeks with his fingertips. The act was so natural that Cattleya had not been able to react negatively. Rather, she embraced a feeling of ecstasy that was almost like how she would feel around Hodgins.

“H-Hum... erm...”

“I don’t mind it, Young Lady.”

The man’s orbs somehow held a cohesive power. The mole under his hazel eye was charming.

“You’d said ‘Violet’, hadn’t you? Violet Evergarden?”

“Yeah, you... hum, do you happen to know her?”

“That’s right. I had her write a letter for me once. I guess...” After being quiet for a brief moment as if in thought, he spoke with profound significance, “hm, that you could say... we have a deep relationship which we can’t tell people about. We’re also old friends. I’d intended to go see her in a bit, but it seems Leidenschaftlich is getting involved in stuff that reeks of fire. I’ll let some more time pass to go see her. Can you send her my regards?” With a black cloak on, the man started walking away as if melting into the night.

“W-What’s your name?! I’ll give her... your name!”

As Cattleya said so, the man turned around and laughed. His pale skin made him look like a ghost against the nightly road.

“Edward Jones.” The man waved his hand, and Cattleya waved back with a big smile.

The fact that nobody noticed he was actually a fugitive formerly on death row was one of the happenings of that night.

Also at eight o’clock, Gilbert Bougainvillea was glaring at the ground after setting his body out of the Nighthawk. It was a sight that could make one feel dizzy. They were flying quite high, as to not be spotted by the enemy.

“Found it; it’s at northwest.”

“All right, Colonel Bougainvillea. I copy.”

At northwest was a glowing object rushing through the pitch-black terrain through the rifts between the clouds. It was the intercontinental train ‘Femme Fatale’.

“This is Unit 1. We’ve found Femme Fatale. Begin descending.”

With the signal from the pilot’s radio, the total of seven Nighthawks systematically targeted the earth. In the process, they witnessed a fireball rising noisily from amongst the mountains in the direction of the train’s track.

“That’s the smoke bomb released from the water supply point that the Colonel talked about.”

“Switch to strategy number three. Unit 5 will retreat. Join the Special Firearms Attack Unit, which is waiting for the train’s arrival, and inform them of the situation. Say that the target has fortunately stopped due to a sudden forest fire or something of the sort. In order, from Unit 1 onward, the first half of the combatant team will land on the battlefield. We will seize Locomotive 1, 2 and 3, which are the heads of this thirteen-car train. Act after the emergency stop. Following the descend of the combatant team’s first half, the second half will give support and start a surprise attack from the outside after landing. There will be civilians assisting us with protecting the crew. Whoever has a red cloth around their arm is a cooperator. Don’t attack them by mistake. All right, listen up, everyone. The result of this strategy could determine the outcome of this unit’s continuity. If it’s you guys, you can probably to work things out wherever you go, but I want you to stay somewhere my eyes can reach for a little longer.”

The pilot of Unit 1 let out a chuckle. It was because Gilbert had said something off-character.

“I pray for our success. Well, first half, prepare to descend.”

With a total of six units – save for the fifth, which had now withdrawn – and a personnel of twelve people, Gilbert’s troop, the Leidenschaftlich Special Offense Force, was in formation and currently attempting to challenge the hijacked intercontinental train. Firstly, the six people in the back seats would land on top of the train and begin the suppression. The train’s Locomotive 1, 2 and 3, which operated connectedly, would each be taken control of by two people. Divided into those who would go inside and those who would stay outside, they would start their fight against the hijackers. Subsequently, the six people of the pilot group would lodge near the place scheduled as the train’s next stop. It was a plan that allowed them to give cover to the six people infiltrating the train and protect the passengers from outside.

Gilbert led the members of the Special Offense Force, which was a compilation of a few elected people, not with the army conduct of a team that followed the usual form of leadership, but as ordinary squad members that would engage in a coordinated battle, after having them memorize the instructions of his meticulous plan. Even if they were short on one person, someone else would compensate by taking on their task.

Along with the members of the first group, Gilbert jumped from the Nighthawk charging forward and fell onto the top of the running train. Low-altitude flights could not last long. He had bet on the moment, leaped, and, after desperately grabbing hold of the hull, he fixed his stance on the train.

Evidently, the people inside would notice that there were aircraft turbine sounds overhead. A man who seemed to be a hijacker from Locomotive 1 came out. Gilbert stretched his artificial left arm and punched him in the face, and as the man recoiled, he grabbed the nape of the latter’s neck, dragging him out from the window by the torso. Although a hijacker from the nearby Locomotive 2 fired his gun at Gilbert, he wound up hitting the unfortunate man whose body was half outside.

“Colonel, I’ll be going ahead.”

One of Gilbert’s troop members, who had jumped off and landed after him, twisted his small body and kicked a hijacker from Locomotive 2 that had Gilbert at gunpoint, getting into the train in the process. Gilbert threw the man shedding blood out of the locomotive and sneaked into it as well.

“Please help! Don’t kill me! If I die, so will the passengers and this locomotive!” the one who scream-cried as if begging for his life was the pitiful Samuel LaBeouf.

His assistants were dead. One young engineer assistant substitute was growing pale while attempting not to step on a corpse, and there was no sign of other hijackers.

“Please be at ease. I am a colonel of Leidenschaftlich’s army, Gilbert Bougainvillea. We are now initializing the rescue operation of this train’s passengers.”

“A-An ally? Someone from the military?” He had probably been bracing himself the whole time, since he shed a single tear with a clearly relieved expression.

Gilbert gently tapped his shoulder. “You were quite brave. It would have been the worst possible situation had you become distraught. You’re worthy of a medal.”

The sincerity in Gilbert’s facial traits and the aura surrounding him brought about a coaxing effect unlike the one Hodgins’s would. Anyone would be overcome with emotion upon being told such things by a beautiful soldier who had stretched out a helping hand to them during critical circumstances. Extremely touched, Samuel started trembling.

“Engineer, what is your name?”

“Sa-Samuel, Colonel.”

“Mister Samuel. Seeing you as a hero of Leidenschaftlich, there’s a favor I want to ask. What’s the next water supply point?”

“It’s Ritorno.”

“There’s another of our battalions in that place. There will be a big signal, so please make an emergency stop before entering the station’s premises.”

“‘S-Signal’, you say?”

“You will know the signal when you see it. After the stop, please evacuate from here and run to the direction of the village.”

Samuel and his assistant looked at each other.

“But, the passengers... and also... my other colleagues...” Samuel looked down at the bodies of his former co-workers.

“Even if they aren’t alive anymore, I want to hand them over to their families.” The two said in unison.

“Everything will be fine. Another unit of the army is supposed to arrive besides ours. Once everything is over, the ones who have passed on and you two will be delivered back to our country. However, I want those who can still move their legs to evacuate temporarily on their own. People with red cloths on their arms are overseeing the evacuation. Please go along with them.”

Perhaps due to feeling comforted, Samuel heaved a huge sigh. However, as though to shake off his relief, gunshots could be heard from somewhere.

——Is someone... in the middle of a fight?

Gilbert had ordered his subordinates to mingle with the turmoil of the emergency stop and crush the enemies after blowing smoke shells inside the cars. Should there be attacks from within Locomotive 3 onward, they would be as much of an obstacle as possible. Presently, the number of members who had come first was of six people. Out of the recruits selected for that elite troop, each bore combat power equal to ten ordinary soldiers.

“I think... this is probably from outside. Given the sound.”

Being told so by Samuel, Gilbert tried to set his head out the window. His face was hit by tree branches.

“Since a while ago, something’s been off. I’ve been hearing shouts. I... have been praised since I was little only for my good ears, so even if it’s from very far, I can hear people cursing.”

“You should be more proud of yourself. If what you say is true, we must aid whoever isn’t in the criminals’ side. Sorry. I’m going upstairs. Again, don’t forget your mission.”

At Gilbert’s words, Samuel nodded while showing a smile that denoted both delight and nervousness.

Despite hindered by the air resistance, Gilbert climbed onto the top of the train once more. The land on which the railway had been built probably used to have a flower garden in the past. Despite having been trampled on, the petals of the flowers that still held life scattered in the wind that opposed the train’s course. Within the world of pure darkness, colors such as white, blue, yellow, red and orange not yet mowed by autumn flew about. Although they would eventually be reduced to dust, they created a stunning sight that decorated part of the world until their very end. Far beyond the rich hues, Gilbert found who he was looking for.

“Colonel, does the situation require reinforcements?!” The sixth unit descended after the others, and Gilbert’s pair had just landed as if on cue.

Gilbert stopped him with a hand. “Idris. It seems a civilian is fighting against the hijackers... We should have noticed it earlier.”

“We were frantic about our fall during the landing, after all. I also didn’t see anything. Well, then...”

“I will go. I will be nominating you as the next commander. If I by any chance do not return, you take charge.”

“Do you mean this seriously?”

“I do.”

“I have enough talent to get promotions and surpass you soon. Please, come back safely and continue standing in front of me. If I don’t have someone to chase...”

Instead of replying, Gilbert knocked his shoulder with a fist.

The group of people wearing blue coats erased the figure of the person he sought. Moreover, he would have to go all the way from the foremost car to get to her. It would take time.

Gilbert broke into run without hesitation.

Still at around eight o’clock, bullets flew from the bayonets of the chivalric men. Though they scratched Violet’s body, she dodged the direct hits and charged forward.

Scuffling above a moving vehicle against such a number of people was testing. Perhaps the other party was aware of that much, as someone other than the chivalric leader attacked first. Violet ran as if being sucked in by him. He defended himself from the saber swung down at him with the bayonet, but Violet was able to avoid the several gunshots by taking a large distance, and then started running adroitly once again.

“For our war comrades that were killed by you!”

Violet threw the sheath at the face of the man who blurted that out and dealt him a jump-kick instead of slashing him. The chivalric man, whose legs had lost balance, seemed to be about to collapse, but managed to stand still. He grinned and pulled the bayonet’s trigger.

A bullet was fired. With her eyes wide, Violet avoided it just by swiftly moving her neck. Her ribbons flew away. Blood welled from her bundle of braids and her hair came undone. Her ear had been grazed. The bleeding gusted, but she did not let any agonized sounds out.

Violet kicked the man in the chest with the tip of her boot. He screamed as he fell. However, the next person to go down was Violet herself. Even though she took on the repeated bayonet blows raining onto her back with the saber, she lost in weight. The saber itself was gone from her hands after being shot at.

The knight who had attacked Violet’s back found her as she somehow managed to cling to a window frame. When a surprised passenger tried to open said window, she inserted a hand into the gap and pushed it open with her mechanical arm. Just like that, she entered Passenger Car 2.

“What happened?!”

“That woman, she went inside...”

The remaining chivalric men realized that the lights of the Passenger Car 2, which had been shining from below their feet, were suddenly gone. The passengers were screaming.

“S-Should we go back in?”

“Wait.”

The other two men were silenced by the chivalric leader’s order of restraint.

Eventually, they could no longer hear any screams from the window that Violet had vanished into. They could not catch a single noise.

The chivalric leader was deep in thought. What kind of mess would the witch-like former girl soldier make next?

“Who... is down there?”

“Someone from the deployment armed organization that we hired.”

“There were people from it in the Panoramic Seats Car and Dining Car 1 too. But, the people positioned in these last two cars chased that woman up here... and were defeated. They’re supposedly being replaced, though.”

As the lights went off again, screams intensified from the Panoramic Seats Car and Dining Car 1, respectively. And then, they became quiet.

The chivalric leader felt goosebumps under his blue cloak at such bizarre phenomenon-like happenings. “She’s moving.”

‘Femme Fatale’ was a thirteen-car train composed, from front to back, of Locomotive 1, 2 and 3, Single-Room Sleeping Car 1 and 2, Simple Sleeping Car 1 and 2, Passenger Car 1 and 2, Panoramic Seats Car, Dining Car 1 and 2, and a freight car. Violet had jumped into Passenger Car 2. And then, she had probably moved on to Panoramic Seats Car and Dining Car 1. She herself had emptied Dining Car 2. What would she do by running off to a place that had nothing?

“Leader, maybe we really should go inside...” one of the chivalric men attempted to say, but his knee collapsed and he dropped down. A hole had been caved in it.

More gunshots followed suit.

“Get down!”

Bullets brushed their heads.

The unharmed chivalric man extended a hand to the injured one. The palm that had stretched out to help was shot.

“Retreat! Go in and call for reinforcements!”

“But, Leader—”

“Bring a gun of larger caliber!”

The subordinates crawled towards the concatenation while pressing down their fresh wounds.

The direction where the bullet had come from was undoubtedly from the last car. The shooting had been done in succession, but ceased yet again. The eyes of the chivalric leader could see something blossoming from within the darkness.

“So they have escaped? I will pursue them later. Well, then, one more time.” ‘It’ politely called out to him and waited for him to stand up.

The woman was a battlefield conductor. She played melodies through concocting attacks, enhancing the emotions of her spectators with overwhelming martial arts, flabbergasting them with unimaginable actions and dominating the area completely. No matter how wet with blood her hair was, how torn her clothes were, or how many injuries she earned...

“Well, then, one more time.”

...she did not stop fighting. The chivalric leader had come to clearly understand why she was nicknamed the Warrior Maiden of Leidenschaftlich.

“Here I go, Major.”

Violet was likely out of bullets. She discarded the riffle that she had stolen from an enemy downstairs. She then took out a dagger. The weapon of her opponent, the chivalric leader, was a bayonet. The weight of their swing was different.

The two clashed with one another without saying anything. She dealt him consecutive blows with her knife-edge, but in the end, the dagger lost to the bayonet in weight and snapped. Violet disposed of the weapon that she became unable to use, tossing it away with her prosthetic arm without even sparing it a glance. It scratched the chivalric leader’s face, yet he, too, indomitably swung the bayonet from the side and hammered Violet’s body with it. As her posture crumbled with the impact, more strikes ensued. As Violet dodged from the tip of the bayonet’s blade, her chest was cut. She instantly set her hand out, swaying her weight just like that, turning her body over and taking some distance. Perhaps because he was indeed superior to the others, the attacks from the leader were different from theirs in agility.

Violet looked for weapons at hand. She reached into her skirt and pulled a ballistic knife out of the knife holder fastened around her thigh.

The needles once concealed in her hair had disappeared back when her hairdo had come undone. The ballistic knife was the last weapon. After it, she only had her fists.

“Just how many weapons do you have hidden within your person?”

“They are for self-defense.” With her breath ragged like that of a beast, Violet stepped backwards. She knew that the next attack would be an important blow to determine the outcome of the battle. Although she was up against someone inferior to her in fighting power, anyone would be breathing heavily after continuously standing up and battling to that point. Regardless, she did not have so much as a teaspoon of will to lose.

That was until she realized something that had been supposed to be on her exposed collar was gone. Her rough breathing halted. Her line of sight darted about as she withdrew.

“Although I am your enemy, I admire your thirst for victory. You know not to give up.”

It was not something she should worry about in such circumstances. Nevertheless, her eyes searched for the brooch. She was unable to immediately find the object that twinkled, mismatched and beautiful, on top of the train.

“It is not... as if I wish to win. By winning this fight, there is not a single thing I would gain.” Violet spoke unwittingly fast. She should not let him realize that she was searching for something.

“Then what do you seek through fighting?”

“Nothing, it’s just that a situation in which I have to fight has been created. That’s why I do so. To me, fighting is living. If I lose, it only means I will die.”

“You’re saying there’s no emotion in that?”

“I do not know. I... know nothing about myself. I am a former soldier, but I do not remember anything from before becoming one. It might be late at this point, but I wonder... if it isn’t strange for me not to remember anything like this. I don’t know where I was born, whose child I am or what my name used to be. But, whether or not any of that has troubled me, I would say it never once did. That... That...” While speaking, Violet found the brooch. It bumped right against the chivalric leader’s feet.

He noticed it as well.

“That is because... I have been waiting for something that would cancel all of it out.”

She pushed down and killed the feeling that she wanted to rush over to and take hold of.

“Just when I thought that the talk was getting long... so this is it?” The leader signaled for her to halt with his palm while picking it up. It was his first time seeing that it belonged to someone. “Is it something important?”

Would he throw it away if she nodded at that? Or would he give it back? Violet did not know. However, if she were in his shoes and had someone she must save and things she must do no matter what after that battle, doubtlessly, she would have to try imagining herself in his position in order to understand his thinking.

If she were him...

“Come get it!”

...that object would become a mere bait to attract her enemy, regardless of what kinds of feelings it was packed with.

The brooch was tossed into the air. Violet instantly broke into run. The chivalric leader’s bayonet came at her. Violet aimed at his feet and flung the ballistic knife. Perhaps he had anticipated that much, as he repelled it as if outriding it. In that meantime, Violet grabbed the brooch. The gem floating in the night sky was the same as her Lord’s eyes, which she had defined as the most beautiful thing in the world.

“Idiot!!”

She prevented an attack with her left arm, which was not the one gripping the brooch. As she lost her center of gravity due to consecutive blows, she fell back one, two, three steps. And then, finally, Violet’s left arm broke apart, spewing out many of its parts. They were smashed and severed from her in a way that made them seem like scattering petals.

Thump, thump, thump. Violet felt her heartbeats echo unpleasantly in her ears.

For some reason, time was flowing slowly. The chivalric leader swung down his saber while raising his voice as he spouted some sort of insult at her. Her back hit the train’s scaffold. As he stepped on her stomach with his military shoe, she was unable to move. A few seconds thereafter, she would be skewered. Everything was unfolding, but it was as if it all were in slow motion.

Rather than the tip of the blade approaching her, Violet stared at the emerald brooch that she had not let go of until the very end. It was firmly grasped within her right hand. She had wanted to gaze into that green during her last moments were her eyes open while she was still alive.

Its shine was that person himself.

——Major.

He would not go anywhere anymore.

——Major.

They would not be apart anymore.

——Major, I... lived.

That made her extremely ‘happy’.

——Major, do you remember... that you embraced me when we first met? You had feared me for a long time. Beasts can sense that sort of fright very keenly. Even so, you kept me by your side. Most likely... I... definitely... had been thrown away because I would settle in the hands of anybody. Even so, I had wanted to be useful because you needed me. The days in which I was unable to see you were of continuous lacking, as well as experiences that seemed to give place to more of it. I had always wondered why you had told others to say that you had passed on. One day, should I have managed to meet you, I had wanted to reply to your question of “why can’t you understand my feelings” and to the words “I love you”. Major, was I... was your Violet... still loved by you?

Rather than the sound of bones and flesh being severed, gunshots that seemed to cut through the wind ensued. The bayonet disappeared from Violet’s line of sight. The arm of the chivalric leader was abruptly swung as if it were a toy, and he was kicked to the opposite direction.

Someone was fighting back.

The chivalric leader asked in shouts who the third person was, but did not receive an answer. The other silently drew his saber and shielded Violet. He then began to attack. At such way of handling a blade as he readied it and the back that she had always walked along with, Violet swallowed her breath.

“Violet, are you alive!?”

That voice was the exact one Violet would replay in her head as to not forget it. Her heartbeats reverberated intensely. Albeit forcefully, she raised her body.

The man cut down the squad leader with his saber and turned on his heels towards her with a frantic expression. Before her eyes was a person unlike how he used to be in the days that she had contact with him. His appearance had changed greatly from when the two of them had first met. However, there was one thing that remained intact: the fact that once blue and green orbs locked with one another, time would halt between them for just a little while. It was as if they meant to say, “Time, stay still. You are beautiful.”

Such was how things were from the very start.

“Major!”

From the very start, the two of them had been born to meet by chance in that manner.

Gilbert dashed towards Violet, supporting her frame. “Come, Violet.” He knelt down, and, after lifting her squatted body and carrying her sideways, he took off his sword belt and wrapped it around his arm. He then wrapped it around Violet’s. “I will... explain the circumstances later. There are many things that I want to apologize to you for. But for now, forgive what I’m going to do... Don’t ever let go.”

Violet recalled what she had been firmly grasping – the emerald brooch that she had retrieved hastily during the fight. She slowly unveiled her fingers and showed it to Gilbert. She then looked straight at him. While only he was reflected within that blue, her lips shaking, she was unable to muster any word out. She merely wished to inform him that she had kept the item.

Upon seeing the emerald brooch, Gilbert’s eyes distorted bitterly. “You... still had this?” His demeanor as he took the brooch from Violet’s palm and put it back on her as if to sew back together her blouse, which had been ripped on the chest area, was the same as of his past self.

“...jor.” She attempted to say something to him – anything would do. “Major!”

However, the chivalric leader, who was supposed to be lying down, was trying to stand up. Supported by one of his injured underlings, he pointed a large-caliber shotgun at them. “You dog of Leidenschaftlich...!” His neck bled with the blow from Gilbert’s blade. He spewed blood bubbles. “I’ll erase you! I’ll erase the two of you at once! You’re needless in this realm! Disappear from our world! Disappear! Disappear! Disappear!”

Either side would be unable to fight without receiving assistance. It was too late to convince the other party to put an end to the conflict. Neither could shrink back.

“Major, please leave me behind.” Violet said without hesitation. If releasing her and letting her fall to the ground would make things easier, since it was him, he would definitely be able to overcome the situation. That was what she believed.

“I told you not to let go.” Gilbert shook his head. His grip on Violet’s arm and torso grew even stronger. He then raised his other, prosthetic hand from above the train.

The chivalric leader laughed. He had most likely concluded that the embracing pair had chosen to die together.

“Major... then, please,” Violet gazed at her Lord, who was far more beautiful than the gem that she had been unceasingly protecting, “do not go anywhere.”

The shotgun was aimed at them.

“Please, stay by my side... I do not mind however you treat me. I simply want to be with you. That is all. Nothing else... is necessary. Major, I...”

She had learned how to write and could speak countless words, yet they would not properly come out in front of the person she truly cherished.

“...want to be together with you.”

The one standing there was not a doll. It was a girl who yearned for love from only one man.

“I’m not going anywhere... I need you. I’ll be by your side...!” Gilbert Bougainvillea answered the plea as if yelling.

It was because something other than a bullet had flown into their line of sight.

At twenty minutes past eight o’clock, Samuel LaBeouf, who worked as an engineer in the unfortunate intercontinental train, obeyed the command from the Leidenschaftlich colonel that had showed up like an electric shock and continued his task while waiting for the signal. What on Earth would said signal be? Even though he had been told that he would immediately know once he saw it, what should he do if he accidentally missed it?

Nevertheless, his worry was unnecessary. After all, an occurrence that would supposedly break the current situation in the deadlock awaited him.

An ostentatious blast arose, explosion lights scattering in the darkness of the night. At such a timing, a terrible catastrophe was happening ahead, in Ritorno village.

“What’s that?! Stop, stop! Emergency stop!”

The station was on fire.

Back at seven hours and fifty minutes, an attractive young man with sandy blond hair and sky blue eyes was hanging up the phone with an “I got it”. His outfit was slightly mismatched for the small assembly place of a desolate village.

“Benedict, what did President Hodgins say?” inquired a hard-faced, equipped man with black skin and a thinly shaved hairdo in the form of a crucifix, wearing a striped shirt and shoulder holsters.

“The old man is coming here. He gave us three orders. One: to lay waste to this village’s station in a flashy way, so that it will be visible from the train heading towards it. Two: to aid the passengers and consequently rescue V. Three: to suppress that armed group as they will likely put up resistance. A contract has already been sealed by law. This land belongs to our company. He said it’s okay to wreck it without hesitation. Everybody, let’s go save V!”

During the convocation from Lux, who was in the headquarters, she had attempted to make the CH employees there congregated take guns. In response to that, everyone had started noisily frolicking as if they were in a festival.

Each of them had different ages and skin colors. They were the people Hodgins had gathered and described as “all weirdoes with their own circumstances”. The ones who had been called and rushed to that assembly spot were them – the postmen who made deliveries throughout the entire continent. It was unthinkable that they were about to participate in a dangerous rescue operation by an emergency order from their boss. Their attitude was closer to drunkards at a bar.

In contrast to them, a funeral-like atmosphere loomed over the villagers of Ritorno. It was only the expected, for a bizarre postal agency staff carrying weapons had suddenly informed them that their village’s station would be destroyed.

Benedict walked over to the oldest woman in their midst, who was seated on a chair. “Granny, we’ll make a bit of a fuss. If there are people amongst the villagers who can treat the wounded, I want you to bring them along if you can.”

“You’re already going to make me work?” It was an accusing manner of speech.

Benedict frowned. “You guys were convinced by our good-for-nothing President’s words and sold this, right? Aren’t you well-off, since every single person in this village is gonna be employed by our office? Granny, you’re our colleague too. You’re now a company employee, so of course we’ll make you work. If you suspect we’re deceiving you, you’re wrong.” With the click of his cross-shaped heels resounding, he stood in front of the village chief, abruptly bringing his face close to hers. “You’re mistaking that with being protected. If that old man thinks about doing something, he can use some pretty awful methods. But he didn’t do so and instead made proper negotiations, and also complied with the price discussions, right? The Old Man... the President treats people crudely, but he treasures his workers. Right now, we’re on the move for the sake of an employee that he’s super attached to as if she were his daughter. She’s like a little sister to me too. We cherish her. So don’t be so scared. Stand tall.”

“That’s right. The President definitely rewards hard work with payment and support. The industry will function here only in the future. At the outset, lifesaving will be our duty, Chief.” Another postman added, as if to assist Benedict’s rough persuasion.

“Are you really going to do this?”

“We are. Once it’s said we’ll do it, we definitely will. And if we’re beaten, we’ll do it over. That’s what our agency is about.”

“You don’t hate it, right?”

“Oh, what’s that? You can put on a strong face too?”

“I’m a woman born and raised in coalmines. What a foolish question.”

Even though a huge incident was about to begin, the air surrounding them was light, and everyone walked one after the other towards the station in a somewhat calm atmosphere. In spite of them having confronted the problem of how to break down the station, the chief offered the remaining coalmine explosives that were no longer used.

“Granny, you’re getting into it, huh?” Benedict gave the village chief a thumbs-up to show his gratitude.

However, there seemed to be several people with traumas prevenient from detonations, and so most of the villagers were merely observing from afar and the postmen were the ones who installed the explosives.

“I... When I was born, the mine had already been closed, so it’s my first time seeing an explosion!”

Children making merry were the sole spectators that approached the area.

As he was caused to step back, Benedict commented, “Good for you.”

“I’m bad at dealing with adults, but this is amazing!”

“You’re bad with adults?”

“Before I was born, there was a blast in our coalmine and it’s still burning even now. And it’s said that a lot of people died in it. I’ve never seen my grandfathers. Both died from that.”

“Hmm...”

“It’s already been buried, yet it’s the only spot that doesn’t get covered by snow during the winter. It’s super hot. I can’t make too much fun of it when I think about how my grandpas are probably down there, though. It’s better not to be a coal miner, but I don’t like being poor either.”

“Is that so...?” Benedict put a hand on the head of the child that attempted to continue speaking and ruffled his hair. He looked one more time at the village chief, who was sitting on a chair that someone had arranged for her.

“Are the preparations done?”

“Yeah.”

“This is importunate of me, but your President really will compensate us plenty for this matter, won’t he...? I’ve gotten worried. Although this is lifesaving... our station might be just one of the train’s passage points, but if it gets destroyed, Leidenschaftlich most likely won’t stay quiet.”

“I’m telling you not to fret, aren’t I?” Benedict put a hand on his hip, and after a brief moment, he laughed mockingly. It was probably because the person in question had surfaced in his mind. “He’s incredible. When he gotta do something, he does it. He’s a good man. So be at ease.” He said reassuringly.

“Is that true...? I sold the village because surviving our winter would cost us a lot... I want the children leaving this place as immigrants to build their own lives, too. Your job will be the last straw of this favor. I will probably be able to meet your President eventually, but you tell him as well.”

“It’s okay. I’ll talk to him too.”

“I’m counting on you.” A smile appeared on her wrinkle-covered face. Surely, there were wrinkles that she had acquired not simply from aging, but from numerous hardships.

“Granny,” Benedict raised a thumb, “you’re a woman of the coalmines, right? Don’t get scared of some big fireworks. I like strong women.”

“Kids shouldn’t talk so haughtily.” The village chief laughed. Perhaps due to laughing too much, tears formed thinly in the corners of her eyes.

A while thereafter, a flicker was ignited on the fuse line. The way it danced in the middle of the night was like a blaze serpent.

At Benedict’s call, everyone started the countdown, “Five, four, three, two, one!”

Heat, wind and blares surged and overwhelmed the people present. Hot gusts and shock waves burst up, the women letting out screams. The rail flew away and the station’s building collapsed, covered in flames. It was a spectacular sight. Still, what an occurrence. Like a flower blooming in the evening, the destruction was somewhat beautiful. Long accustomed to explosions, the elderly ladies clapped their hands, the children wept, and the CH postal service’s personnel cheered while blowing whistles. Each then took back their weapons.

“It might be late to say this, but that doesn’t seem like a job postmen should be doing.”

“Well, it’s fine from time to time, right? Considering my previous occupation, I would never refuse a request from the President, since he brought me back into decency.”

“Are we decent, though? By the way, are we gonna receive any bonuses for going through this danger?”

“It’s sweltering. Shouldn’t we extinguish that fire before the rescue? Benedict, hey, Leader.”

“Y’all are noisy. Listen. Make sure you don’t get mistaken and shot by the army. No accidental shootings, either. Friendly fire is the worst. Don’t get carried away and do anything radical. Also, put on the identifier. If any of you find V, tell me immediately. She’ll get a lecture for giving us this trouble. Anyways, our main objective is V!”

The train’s sounds could be heard in the distance.

Benedict wrapped a red cloth around his arm. “Welp, after the fireworks, comes the festival.” With his pistols ready, he licked his lips.

At twenty minutes past eight o’clock, the after-effects of the massive explosion also reached Violet and Gilbert. Scattering light and flames soared like flowers from within the pitch-darkness ahead. A part of the station’s roof, which had been blown up, came flying and directly struck the backs of the chivalric leader and his subordinate. The trigger was pulled, yet the bullet disappeared into the wrong direction. As the two had not been prepared to even hold themselves in place, with expressions of surprise, they hit the car frame and rolled down. Violet had instantly attempted to offer her hand to them as they crossed her side, but such arm was the damaged one.

“Violet, don’t let go!”

Gilbert endured the impact until the train completely came to a stop while supporting Violet. He could catch the screams of the passengers. The train stopped without turning over, just barely about to collide with the station.

Without a moment’s delay, gunshots could be heard. A smoke curtain was leaking out of the train’s front. Members of Leidenschaftlich’s Special Offense Force were beginning to take control of it by seizing the opportunity, as Gilbert had. Additionally, while avoiding obstacles in the station, not just one but several motorcycles leaped towards the train. To say they were leaping was an odd manner of speech, but there was no helping it since it was happening in the literal sense. They were coming both as single riders and in pairs, but there was one thing all of them had in common.

“Everyone who wants to run away, come here!”

They were employees of the CH Postal Service. Taking advantage of the commotion, they rode the motorcycles that were normally used for delivering letters and started guiding those who were trying to escape towards the direction of the village. Amongst them was a strong man who snipped back at the hijackers that were shooting intensely through the window glasses. It was Violet’s colleague, Benedict. The other Leidenschaftlich battalion, which acted as reinforcement to the rescue, made its appearance as well.

Gilbert exhaled a sigh at the sight before him. So did Violet. It seemed that all the measures to protect the passengers were working finely.

In their peace of mind, the two were petrified for a while. After all, the scene was frighteningly whimsical. Ashes, sparks and fire flashes dissipated through the wind in the darkness of the sky, dancing as they rained down.

Gilbert took off the sword belt he had tied around Violet. He then striped the jacket of his battle uniform and put it over her shoulders. “Violet.”

It seemed dangerous to get down in such conditions. The next action Gilbert was supposed to take was to contour the turmoil and entrust Violet to the rescuing team of postmen. He also had to return to the battle and help suppress the chaos.

“Major.”

“Violet, listen.”

“I’ll land you a hand, so you have to get up.” was what he had been about to say, but the words retreated to the back of his throat as he looked at her.

Violet’s eyes flickered. The tears she had accumulated seemed about to flood even now.

“Major...” She steadfastly held onto her chest area, where her brooch rested on.

Gilbert Bougainvillea was right in front of her eyes. Just that fact made the sound of her heartbeats loud in a way not even the battlefield could manage.

“I will fight too. You have come to save the civilians, right?” Perhaps because she had always been disciplining herself into being as a machine, Violet attempted to be of use to Gilbert even in such circumstances.

“You’re a part of them.”

“I am... Major’s... tool.”

“You’re no tool. You, who I am to protect, should not fight. That duty is mine as the Colonel of Leidenschaftlich’s army, Gilbert Bougainvillea. It is also the job of my subordinates. Violet, I will deliver you to a safe spot now.”

Violet’s face was of someone who had received a blow. “Colonel... Major... Colonel... Gil... bert.”

“I don’t mind being called ‘Major’.”

“Ma... j... Gilbert...” Violet wound up hiding her face with her right hand. Tears traveled down the gaps between her fingers.

She was currently ‘sad’.

“If... I am not a tool, why... did you say you would not let go...?”

Being told that he would not to let go had made her ‘contented’. However, being denied of her own reason of existence was ‘sorrowful’. If he had showed himself to her once again, why would he not allow her to go back to being a tool? In Violet’s perspective, she was aware that her value lay only within violence.

“Violet.”

As she forever swayed between being a tool and a person, at that moment, Gilbert attempted once again to convey something to the girl who did not know love.

“I made your life a mess. I let you go to war. I hurt you. I regretted it so much that I thought of killing myself. Yet I knew that you had always been searching for me. Even though I had decided to protect you from afar, today, I couldn’t hold back and ended up coming. I am... not the sort of man you take me to be. Not a magnificent lord, nor an honorable individual. I’m definitely not worthy of you.”

That his love would not run out, no matter what she was, wherever she was living or even if she were a fool.

“Still, even now, I love you as a person. To me, you’re not a tool.”

“Even... if I... am not... a tool...?”

“I am not your master anymore, either. Regardless, I want you to let me stay by your side.”

Silence.

“Violet?”

Violet allowed something that seemed to fiercely burn her throat to pass through. Her tears were feverish. They were proof of her feelings, which she had only shed a number of times that could be counted with one hand in her life.

The first time she had cried had been when she used to be a girl soldier. She was a young female tool with beautiful eyes of gem-like blue irises and golden lashes.

“I...”

Her current self no longer had the same stature as when she and Gilbert had first met. Neither was her appearance the same as when she had been to the battlefields. Her hair had grown lengthier and she had become the graceful and dignified young woman who now stood before him. With the grown-up figure of the girl he had loved, as the existence whose hand he had let go of, she now stood before Gilbert.

“I...”

After a few years had gone by, she had finally arrived at the place where she would be able to transmit her feelings.

“Had not understood at first... the meaning of Major leaving me, handing me over to the Evergarden couple, and entrusting me to President Hodgins. Or the reason you had told me to become free. I merely... wondered all the while about why you had not discarded me, despite the fact I was not needed. I did not understand... any of your feelings, Major. Even now, Major, despite you telling me this, I find myself thinking that I am better off as a tool. I... I am the one... who is not worthy of you, Major... My existence is... like some kind of failed product that was created by mistake. That is why the thoughts of people, too... But...”

Large teardrops streamed from her blue eyes. They trailed along her chin, pouring onto her emerald brooch.

“I have become able to somewhat feel. With this new life, which Major granted me, it was only little by little, but I have become able to understand. The sadness and joy... pride, fear, everything... that someone can feel towards another person... I do not fathom those as my own, however. But through writing on others’ behalf, and through the people I meet, I can feel them. Major, I... gradually... have also come to understand... the things you say.”

The things he had said. The things he had told her about.

“If I... had done more for you when you were younger, I wonder if you would have interest in these things.”

“Even if... you think that... to me, you are...”

“Do you... want my orders that much?”

“Why... do you think of everything as an order no matter what?! Do you... really believe I see you as a tool? If that were the case, I would not have held the little you in my arms or made sure that no one would mess with you as you grew up! Regardless of anything, you don’t realize... how I feel... about you. Normally... anyone would... surely understand. The reason why I’m angry and why I’m suffering is you. Still, you don’t comprehend a single fraction of that.”

“Do you not have feelings? That’s not it, right? It’s not as if you have none. Isn’t that right? If you don’t have feelings, then what is this expression? You can make a face like that, can’t you? You have feelings. You have... a heart just like mine, right!?”

“To love is... to think that you... want to protect someone the most in the world.”

“You’re important... and precious. I don’t ever want you to be hurt. I want you to be happy. I want you to be well. That’s why, Violet... you should live on and become free. Escape from the military and live your life. You’ll be fine even if I’m not around. Violet, I love you. Please live.”

“I have come... to understand them.” Before she realized, her voice had deflated as if withering. Her field of vision was blurring as well. Tears continued to spill from Violet’s blue eyes. The lips that used to say she did not understand feelings mustered different words, “I understand... ‘I love you’... a little as well.”

She did not understand everything yet. Nevertheless, without denying any of it, she meant to understand it from then on. The motive behind her intention of making such efforts was being told that she was loved by Gilbert Bougainvillea.

Gilbert’s chest was tight with the emotions going rampant in it. A thin film of tears spread in his eyes from grief and delight.

“Violet.” Gilbert stretched his hand out.

His fingertips halted halfway. He had suddenly become afraid of touching her body – something he had had no time to feel just a moment before since he, in order to protect her, had held onto her with deathly desperation.

Would she accept him? She was Gilbert’s tool no more. Neither was she a small child. He could not touch her so easily.

Violet Evergarden – one living being, the only woman he loved in the world – stood there. It was Gilbert’s first time ever loving someone. He used not to know the intricacies of loving and being loved.

Within the sounds of battle that suited the two of them, something was finally commencing.

Gilbert adored her crying figure so much he could not help himself. “Violet, I want to wipe your tears.”

At the request, Violet hid her face within her hand even more. Surely she disliked being seen weeping. In her own reasoning, she dreaded the possibility of being hated by the man in front of her through any and each one of her actions. She instinctively assumed that, although love was something gentle, it was also fragile.

“Violet, please. Show me your face. No matter what form you take, my feelings towards you won’t change.” As she did not look his way, Gilbert said while laughing shyly, “See, I’m on the verge of crying too.”

In truth, his tears were already pouring. He was unable to poise himself. There was no stopping them. Tears formed and fell, formed and fell. Just as his feelings for her, they could not be impeded.

“Violet.”

Violet’s body shuddered as her name was called – just called – by him.

“It’s fine if it’s little by little. If you... are coming... to understand it, I will wait any amount of time. Little by little is okay. I won’t... pry for an answer immediately. Until you say ‘I understand’... I will wait however long it takes... only for you. Today, I’d wanted to tell you ‘I love you’ once again, but it’s not as if I had desired anything from you in return.”

His tears wound up spilling once again.

“I... will not steal from you anymore, and I don’t wish to do anything other than give. If, one day, you ever come to think that you ‘understood’, I want you to accept my love. Violet.” The man said to the sobbing girl, who attempted to suppress her tears with her artificial arm, “I love you. Let me dry your tears.”

The one behind the wrist that he took hold of and moved away was not a taciturn, expressionless and truly machine-like Auto-Memories Doll. Instead, it was a human child who was crying out of slight happiness and fear from receiving the ‘number one’ form of love from someone for the first time.

Gilbert embraced Violet, who shed tears while trembling, after slowly caressing her cheeks. “I’ve always wanted to do this.” He whispered as more tears overflowed.

“Violet, I love you.” 

‘Auto-Memories Doll’. It had been a long time since such name had caused a scandal.

The creator was the researcher of mechanical dolls, Professor Orland. His wife, Molly, was a novelist, and all had started once she had posteriorly lost her sight. After becoming a blind woman, Molly was extremely depressed for being unable to write novels, which was the meaning of her life, and had grown weaker with each day. Unable to bear seeing such a thing, Professor Orland had built the first Auto-Memories Doll. It was meant for processing everything said by the voice of its established master, as well as writing down words said by human voices – in other words, a machine that served for ‘amanuensis’.

Although he had only meant to make one for his beloved wife, it had later become well-known with the support of a great amount of people. Currently, Auto-Memories Dolls were sold at a reasonably low price, and there were types that could be rented or borrowed.

Those who worked with amanuensis were referred to as ‘Auto-Memories Dolls’ around the world. It was a profession revered by many since ancient times.

In the industry that dealt with Auto-Memories Dolls, there was a particularly famous individual. Her voice had a sweet ring to it and matched her beauty. She was a female Auto-Memories Doll with golden hair and blue eyes.

Her workplace was CH Postal Service from a grandiose southern country, Leidenschaftlich. It was a notorious company, which had received awarding from the Army Ministry for its cooperation in resolving the hijacking incident of a certain train. The young president of CH Postal Service had been featured in the newspapers of the time bringing supplies to the scene. The postmen had worked to rescue the passengers. A brunette of impressive beauty had wailed while hugging the wounded and wrapping them in blankets.

The company had had several photos of it published, but it was not as if they had any connection to her popularity. If anything, to say that the company was known because she was part of it was more accurate. Stamps with the name of the flower that she had been named after were best-selling items out of the ones produced by CH Postal Service. From one person to another, the rumors about her knew not where to stop.

Exactly what kind of being was she, you ask? The impressions from those who had actually met her were many. Some would say her voice was pleasant. Some would say her handwriting was pretty. Some would say their hearts were saved by her. Some would praise her charms by claiming they had been bewitched by her.

Have you become interested in requesting her services? I shall tell you how to hire her. If you wish to meet her, all you must do is give a call. If you search in a telephone book for a postal company in the name of ‘Hodgins’, you should be able to find it right away. Most likely, a young woman with a still childish and intellectual manner of speech will immediately hear your requirements through the phone. When inquired if you have preference for any Auto-Memories Doll, say her name. You might be left in the waiting list, but an Auto-Memories Doll who is worth waiting for shall be sent to you in the future. As long as a customer wishes, she will appear anywhere anytime.

“I rush to wherever my clients might desire. I am from the Auto-Memories Doll service, Violet Evergarden.”

She was but a slightly strange girl.

#violet evergarden #akatsuki kana #kyoto animation #kyoani #takase akiko #novel #my translation

[statetalks]

Why Do Republicans Wear Blue Ties

How Did The 2000 Election Solidify Red For Republican And Blue For Democrat

How To Combine & Wear A Pocket Square With Ties, Shirts & Suits

The 2000 election between Gore and Bush was a momentous event for American politics. The election became a constitutional crisis and dragged on for 36 days, leading to constant television and newspaper coverage of recounts and debates over which candidate won each swing state. Networks banded together on their color selection for each party for the purposes of uniformity, choosing red to represent states Bush won, and blue for those Gore won.

It was also during this election that the New York Times and USA Today ran their first full-color electoral state maps featuring red for Republican and blue for Democrat.;

Do you know where the Democrat and Republican Parties got their names? Find out here.;

But why these particular colors? Thats a difficult question to answer because all news stations want to take credit for what is now the standard.

The credit of the colors rests in part with New York Times graphics editor Archie Tse, who used red for Republicans in 2000 election maps because red begins with R, Republican begins with R. Whatever the reason, all of the news outlets certainly played a part in establishing blue and red as the colors when they collectively used them the same way.

What Does Your Tie Color Mean

Get the girl.

What do these three things have in common?; The right image.

We all know that first impressions can be influenced by what you wear.; Whether conscious or not, people make grandiose assumptions based upon your everyday appearance.

A tie is one of the most influential tools at your disposal.; Thats why you always reach for your lucky tie when you are about to close a deal or why the girl at happy hour playfully touches your tie to show shes interested.; Your tie makes a powerful statement and its important to know what image you are projecting.

Its called the power tie for a reason, and by wearing a red tie you are implying that you mean business.; Just like Tiger Woods wears a red shirt to convey dominance, the red tie is a reaffirmation of strength, authority and dominance within the professional world.; For a less aggressive approach, switch out your vibrant red for a softer shade of burgundy.

Yellow/Gold

Yellow is the approachable cousin of the power tie.; While still conveying authority, intelligence and positivity, yellow is the subtle version of a red power tie.; This is the perfect tie to wear for a first interview, because it shows you are confident and not afraid of a challenge.

Blue

Green

Orange

Orange is the wild card of tie colors.; A bright orange tie will imply that you are enthusiastic, open-minded and adventurous.; It is the perfect tie for making a memorable first impression and creating a sense of excitement within the workplace.

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Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee John McCain take part in the first debate of the 2008 elections at the University of Mississippi on September 26, 2008 in Oxford, MS. AFP PHOTO / PAUL J. RICHARDS

;The default color scheme for presidential ties is so conservative that it is nearly impossible to imagine something like pistachio, fuchsia or neon-anything ever making the cut. Sometimes, of course, being an outlier can help secure the needed benefit of the doubt. Bob Dole wore a moderate-green tie to his 1996 debate against the incumbent Bill Clinton. Such a choice helped create an overall image that pundits found informed, thoughtful, and elevated. It briefly albeit unsuccessfully buoyed Doles campaign. Hillary Clinton did not wear ties during her runs for the presidency. Still, her accessories were scrutinized by the media with particular focus on , bracelets, and headbands. Alternately, when democratic primary candidate Andrew Yang showed up to a 2019 Democratic Primary debate with no tie at all, his historic bold move turned heads across the political spectrum from Fox News to the New Yorker. Ultimately, it was a minor side note in what cost him the nomination proving that the country is just not ready for a tie-less president.

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Desks Are Closets Too

Heather: I have an emergency blazer in my desk that I can whip out if I feel I need to, and then an extra pair of flats in my desk. You do so much walking in DC that flats wear out really quickly. Ill keep Band-Aids and Neosporin in my desk, too, for when Im breaking in a pair of shoes. Ill get new flats every four months Ill just go to Marshalls and get whats on sale.

Jen: Im a big fan of having a lot of jackets that I keep in the office. You never know what day youll need to go staff your boss on the senate floor. Jackets that you can put on regardless of whether youre wearing slacks or a dress or a skirt and a top I think thats one of the easiest things to keep on hand. Then I have a black sweater, because these buildings can be terribly temperature controlled.

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There Arent Real Forces Within The Gop Leading Change

There is some appetite for change within the GOP. In those 2024 polls, at least a third of Republicans either were supporting a GOP presidential candidate other than Trump or were undecided.;

In YouGov Blues polling, only about 40 percent of Republicans identified themselves as Trump Republicans. A recent survey from Fabrizio, Lee and Associates, a GOP-leaning firm that worked on Trumps presidential campaigns, found that about 40 percent of Republican voters didnt want Trump to continue to be a leader in the party. Those numbers dont necessarily mean that those voters want the GOP to change drastically. But there is a substantial number of Trump-skeptical/ready-to-move-on-from-Trump Republican voters. But that sentiment isnt really showing up in the Republican Partys actions during the last three months basically everything GOP officials in states and in Washington are doing lines up with the Trumpian approach. So what gives?;

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It is hard to see Republicans changing course, even if a meaningful minority of voters in the party wants changes, without some elite institutions and powerful people in the party pushing a new vision. And its hard to see real anti-Trumpism forces emerging in the GOP right now.;

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The Partys Core Activists Dont Want To Shift Gears

This is the simplest and most obvious explanation: The GOP isnt changing directions because the people driving the car dont want to.;

When we think of Republicans, we tend to think of either rank-and-file GOP voters or the partys highest-profile elected officials, particularly its leaders in Congress. But in many ways, the partys direction is driven by a group between those two: conservative organizations like Club for Growth and the Heritage Foundation, GOP officials at the local and state level and right-wing media outlets. That segment of the party has been especially resistant to the GOP abandoning its current mix of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, opposition to expansions of programs that benefit the poor and an identity politics that centers white Americans and conservative Christians.

You could see the power and preferences of this group in the response to the Capitol insurrection.

In the days immediately following Jan. 6, many GOP elected officials, most notably McConnell, signaled that the party should make a permanent break from Trump. Pollsfound an increased number of rank-and-file GOP voters were dissatisfied with the outgoing president. But by the time the Senate held its trial over Trumps actions a month later, it was clear that the party was basically back in line with Trump.;

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When Defeated Politicians Feel Blue They Wear It

He was feeling blue.;

There he stood, front and center in his home state,;cloaked in failure. Sad Senator Marco Rubio addressed the crowd Tuesday:

“While it is not God’s plan that I be president in 2016 or maybe ever, and while today my campaign is suspended…we must do all we can to ensure that this nation remains a special place.”

He certainly wore his heart on his sleeve well, in this case, his tie. It was dark blue.

Following in the footsteps of Jeb Bush, who sported a silk navy tie, and Ben Carson, who wore a powder blue striped shirt at their respective concessions, Rubio, too, wore the color.;

And it wasn’t by coincidence. Premeditated or subconscious, blue is the color when you’re feeling the shade.;

“Wearing a blue tie is the right choice for conceding in an election,” said Lauren Rothman, a Washington, D.C.-based political stylist, consultant and author of the Style Bible.

“The color communicates two emotions at the same time: optimism and sadness.”

Rothman,;who’s dressed many a politician for their concession speeches,;said that blue sends the message for supporters to continue following them on to their next chapters and that they have officially had a standstill.;

“There’s a sense of calmness to it and comfort as if showing that it’s okay, it’s going to be all right,” she said.

Lee Eiseman, a color specialist and expert, agreed.;

But Eiseman did clarify that there are different signifiers of blue depending on the hue.;

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How The Colors Came To Be Red White And Blue

Of the 205 sovereign nations in the world, 21 share red, white and blue as their flags colors. But why do so many share the same trio of colors, and what do they represent?

On July 4, 1776, a resolution was passed by Congress authorizing the development of a seal for the new country which reflected the Founding Fathers values.

When presenting the seal which was officially adopted on June 20, 1782 Secretary of the Continental Congress, Charles Thomson, explained, White signifies purity and innocence. Red, hardiness and valor, and blue signifies vigilance, perseverance and justice.

The meaning behind the colors have since shifted slightly. In 1986, President Ronald Reagan declared it the Year of the Flag, stating, The colors of our flag signify the qualities of the human spirit we Americans cherish. Red for courage and readiness to sacrifice; white for pure intentions and high ideals; and blue for vigilance and justice.

According to TIME Magazine, however, Mike Buss, a flag expert with the American Legion, points to the red, white and blue used in the Union Jack of England.

They come from the three colors that the Founding Fathers had served under or had been exposed to, said Buss.

Therefore, some of the correlation between the United States use of red, white and blue along with 20 other countries, including Puerto Rico, Australia and Cuba, could come from their historical correlation with England.

Why Politicians Wear Only Red And Blue Ties

Why does Trump Scotch tape his tie?

Joe Dziemianowicz of the Daily News wrote that even though President Obama doesnt like to reduce America into a collection of red states and blue states, he wore only red and blue neckties in his first 11 days in office. Is that just a coincidence?

Not according to science Robert Roy Britt of LiveScience explains why in high-stakes politics and business, there are only two color of ties, red and blue:

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What Do The State Of The Unions Purple Ties Mean

Whats in a tie? If youre President Obama giving the State of the Union address, it can mean quite a bit. Tonight, Obama, along with Vice-President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House John Boehner, made a sartorial show of solidarity. The three leaders sported purple ties because as every first-grade student knows blue and red make purple, and it may be a visual signifier of Obamas desire for bi-partisan cooperation. This isnt the first time Obama and Biden have rocked the royal hue: The pair, along with thenSpeaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, all wore purple during the 2010 State of the Union. And then, as now, pundits speculated about its meaning. There is kind of a connotation in politics that comes through color, said fashion blogger Mary Tomer, of last years tie choices. I dont think its too much of a stretch to think purple couldve been chosen;symbolically.

Has Trump Been Wearing A Purple Tie More Often Lately

The last couple of weeks Ive noticed him wearing a purple tie.

Do Republicans notice this? Care?

Does it mean anything?

Why would it matter even if he was? Its a goddamn tie. You people love imagining bullshit where it doesnt exist.

Saying you people is almost always a derogatory remark. If you dont like the OPs question, address your answer to her.

Im with . Look around at other threads. Assumptions made on behalf of Trump supporters, and even supposing to know what our president plans, knows, wants, likes. Until Trump opposers are willing to stop lumping us in a pit of lost causes, expect the same in return.

, I have had the same observation, so perhaps he has. Does it have any significance? I believe only time will tell.

I think that if he is in fact wearing purple, he is doing it to reflect the electorate and its attitudes as the American population slowly moves to embrace the democratic party.

Are the colors of his tie supposed to mean anything?And WHY do Trump supporters get all bent out of shape and when thinking Trump opposers lump them in all together, but do the exact same thing when it comes to dealing with opposers?

So he bought a new tie. He wore the red one for almost three years, and he cant ever seem to tie it right. Glad he got a new one.

I think its some kind of white power salute.

Disclaimer: The above statement is a joke.

Which you people? and I?

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Which States Are Considered Red And Which Are Blue

To go along with the colors, the terms red state and blue state were popularized by anchorman Tim Russert during and immediately after the 2000 election. Today, these terms are used to refer to which party a state voted for during a presidential election.;

Generally speaking, the Northeast and the West Coast are considered a collection of blue states as most of them have sided with the Democrats since the early 1990s.

The Southern states have sided with Republicans since the 2000s, while the Midwest tends to be tougher to predict. For example, Illinois and Minnesota are currently considered blue states, while Missouri and Nebraska are red. Hawaii and Alaska have been traditionally considered blue and red respectively as neither has switched parties since the late 1980s .

The Southwest has been split since 2000 with Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado going blue more often than red and Utah and Arizona voting predictably red. Finally, we come to the coveted purple states or swing states,;such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Michigan. These states switched colors in recent elections and are often a key focus of electoral campaigning and strategy. Swing states can vary by election year.

Color And Clothing Choices

When we see certain colors, they produce chemical reactions in our brains that can make us feel certain emotions. For example you are more likely to order more food in a restaurant that is decorated with a lot of red because that color makes us hungry. Sports teams often paint the opposing teams locker room pink because that color makes people tired. Guests on late night TV hang out in the Green Room before coming on stage because that color is the most calming and relaxing. So what could certain candidates be trying to sell you via their color and clothing choices?

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When Its Time To Head Back To The Office And On The Few Days When I Wear A Suit And Tie I Should Retire My Red Ties Right Unless I Want Everyone To Assume I Am A Trump Supporter Is It Possible For Any Man To Wear A Red Tie Now And Not Immediately Call To Mind The Former President Ken Newton Mass

Though the death of the tie is declared regularly especially given the pressures of both the long-term office-casual movement and our current working-from-home reality Guy Trebay, our mens wear critic, maintains that you should not count the accessory out quite yet. As he said, even if were not wearing them much during lockdown, you dont want to give up on an element of the wardrobe thats been around for 400 years.

Ties can, after all, be used to signal your club, your interests, whether you are a jokester, a brainiac or even a clown. Not to mention, as you say, political affiliation.

The question is whether the party dividing line between red and blue that has swept even the necktie into its maw will remain uppermost in everyones minds now that unity is the word of the moment . Given how central red ties were to President Trumps uniform, it is natural to think that we may now have a Pavlovian response to the color. But the fact is, red ties were a wardrobe staple long before Mr. Trump got hold of them.

Its the combination of shade and style that makes the statement of allegiance, not simply one or the other. Thats what you should keep in mind when getting dressed. Then go ahead: Tie one on.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-do-republicans-wear-blue-ties/