Welcome to Gaia! ::

'Yea,' he muttered softly, mostly to himself. They'd shortly be at the beach location they'd been directed to. Kaiba needed to mentally prepare himself for anything.

((Sure he didn't. wink

Sorry, crazy week in run up to conference and getting ready to go home. Prob won't get back here until Sunday when I get home, although maybe the night I'm staying at the airport. I can never sleep before a flight, my flight is at 6am but it's DST in the UK that day so it'll really be 5am - which already has me nervous. So not going to stay at home to sleep for 3 hours, in which I won't sleep. Will instead sit and panic at the airport as I do before each flight. But yea, will be less poof in a few days. smile ))

Seto pulled the limo the side of the road when they were near enough to the location to head out on foot. They'd have to trek down to the beach and head off toward a small wooded area. The beach itself wouldn't necessarily be deserted, but the meeting place would likely be quite isolated. Seto felt another twinge of guilt wash over him as he once again ended a call from his brother.

'You ready?' Seto opened his door to exit the vehicle and head for the embankment; he didn't look back but he expected Jounouchi would follow him.

((Sorry, this is the worst jet-lag has ever been for me. I've had more free time but my creative impulse has been fuzzy and low. Starting to feel normal again as of today though, so let's hope I've recovered. Don't know why it was so bad this time. Hope all those tasks are moving along nicely/completed. Definitely hope health insurance has been sorted. I have a friend trying to buy a motorcycle but he keeps getting jerked around so he could probably relate to your pain, hopefully you will be behind new - or at least new for you - wheels soon. smile ))

'Well have to get a bit further into the woods,' Seto offered noting that Jounouchi was already looking for traces of his sister and Anzu. The location they'd been given was a bit more secluded than the initial beach entrance. He could tell from bent shrubbery and small foot indents that someone else, two someones, had been here before them.

((Well that's too bad about the car worth being lowered, but I suppose you don't really buy used cars thinking about resale, and cars constantly depreciate. By the time you need a new car again perhaps will be a bit less hooked on fossil fuels. I wish, but it could happen. The technology is pretty much there, just those with power also tend to have an invested in interest in blocking the progress of alternative power/fuel sources (also environmentally and financially more sustainable). At least the previous owners agreed to cover the fee which is nice. So yay working car and health insurance! Definitely two good things to have in life.))

'We're getting close, be ready,' Seto ordered, though primarily speaking to himself.

((Omg I loved Winter Soldier! It came out in the UK March 26th so I saw it last week before I came back to the US and have been absolutely frustrated the entire time I've been home that nobody has seen it yet. Was not that into Bucky in the previous Captain America but totally fangirling now, omg, love the winter solider! I feel like this is the first film that didn't really end with a return to the status quo, it really shook things and that was just absolutely amazing. Even though I knew some things were obviously just suspense rather than fact (like the Fury thing) it just really had you on the edge of your seat. It's funny I think Captain America is the franchise I expected to like the least and yet has been the one I have absolutely liked the most.

Good luck with the allergy thing. I definitely think more health care needs to cover contraceptive. We want to fix welfare, access to birth control will be a good step toward doing that. But I'm glad it works out for what you need.))

After several minutes they entered a clearing, up ahead Seto could make out Shizuka, clearly tied to the tree behind her. This had to be a trap, he wanted to look around and layout the situation, but he knew the second Jounouchi saw Shizuka he was going to run and that would take away any possible element of surprise. Although, this spirit seemed pretty capable of tracking at least one of them, so they probably didn't have that anyhow. Still, it would be smarter to approach with caution, not that he would be doing any of that if it was Mokuba captured up ahead.

((Yea it's weird to me to have all these movies out in the UK first, but as I currently live in the UK I love it. It's by far my favorite film thus far, I actually don't really like the Iron Man franchise and the first one is my least favourite of the bunch. There are just no characters in the Iron Man franchise I like. I think Iron Man is a good character but he holds no personal interest for me, and everyone else around him just bores me, so yea other than the Hulk (which I haven't seen but don't think I'd like much) Iron Man is kind of in last place for me by far. I would have said I liked the Avengers best before this but that has moved to second. This movie just had me in suspense the whole time, even with things I knew hadn't 'really' happened and at the end it's the first movie to really not just return to status quo which I think has me so much more invested. I do like certain war movies but didn't think I'd like a patriotism message, however Captain America (the first one) surprised me. I think that's one thing I've also really liked about the Captain America films, it's the only franchise that keeps surprising me. I've always liked Iron Man less than I thought I would, I enjoy the Thor movies but for very shallow reasons, I go into the Captain America movies expecting very little and keep ending up pleasantly surprised (and in the case of the latter mind actually blown). So it does have that advantage for me of being the series I just absolutely expected to have no interest in and yet it keeps putting out a tight, intriguing film. We'll see how it goes with a third movie, I don't think I'll go in with low expectations again. Not after I've been unexpectedly impressed twice. I wrote off one time as a fluke, but I can't write off two.

I agree on abortion, I think people have a right to it. It's not a choice I think I could make (and hopefully won't have to), but I think abortion is a better option than someone having a child that they do not want and there really is no shortage of kids who need a home to create more orphans. The big thing I think is education and access to preventive contraception though. I think if more people had access to free birth control and condoms and the know how to understand how to use/importance of using we would dramatically cut down on the amount of people who'd even be considering that route. On a completely fiscal perspective with our current healthcare system I definitely don't see sex change being something that will ever be cheap much less free even if it doesn't seem right. It's an expensive procedure and while abortion could arguably reduce welfare babies you couldn't make an argument for how economically a sex change can be beneficial for government funding bodies. Other than potentially saying happier people are better works and thus contribute more to the economy, but I can clearly see that the American government doesn't exactly consider personal happiness in the way that other countries might. confused ))

Seto shuddered as gunfire pounded into the tree around Shizuka, Jounouchi came crashing to a halt a few feet ahead of him. A voice both familiar and yet unrecognisably cold trilled around them, leaving Seto unable to identify the point of origin.

'Keep running little Jou, I dare you.'

((Haha, I know, I've ruined what is probably my favorite solo franchise!! xd I might give the Hulk a go at some point but I did read the plot synopsis and was a bit 'meh'. Also, I did like Ruffalo enough in the Avengers that I'd probably watch his Hulk movie, just finding it hard enough to after the fact go back and watch a movie starring some other guy. Lol my boyfriend is forever annoyed that I like the second Iron Man film more than the first, I've found I at least have a few people who are in my club which just annoys him more. For all it's problems we still tended to like the third one the best - although the ending is pretty almost unforgivably problematic. Still, it was the film I was the least bored during and it had the villain I liked the best so it holds for me for those reasons. I'm going to try and have low expectations for Captain America 3, you know what I'm sure I do where is it possibly going to go now? rofl

I guess that's why I can support abortion even though in practice it's not something I could easily consider. I don't believe living and right to life are necessarily the same. I mean cows are living, and by eating them I'm robbing them of life, but I don't feel guilty about doing so. It's just nature. In the wild animals abandon young because it can't have a proper chance at life all the time (because they don't want it, because there is not enough food, etc etc). It's sad but it's a natural part of life. People get more up and arms about abortion than about impoverished cultures that abandon or mistreat fully born babies which will never make sense to me. I'd rather people end a life before it was a person (and I do personally believe cells alone do not make a person, that person-hood is something that comes a bit later) than abuse, mistreat and neglect it once it actually is one. Then of course there is always the case of rape pregnancies, nobody should have to carry that mark if they don't feel they are able. It's just so complicated and I do want there to be a solution that stops unintentional/unwanted pregnancies before it has to come to this stage. Education and contraception are a step in that direction, maybe one day there will be even more, don't know what that would be.

I think there is some research into identifying gender - not just sex - in utero. So perhaps in an idealised world, when people are still developing, one day science will be at a point to go beyond just cosmetic and chemical changes later in life and potentially enable people to be born into the body they feel they are meant to be in. Though, I suppose that's something that people would fight as well.

'Going to show yourself?' Seto asked, trying to suppress the fear beneath his famous snark.

'Hahaha, that doesn't sound very fun,' Anzu laughed, taking another potshot right over Shizuka's head, 'I brought you two here so we can all have fun together, let's have fun okay?'

((Maybe if Ruffalo pulls off a solid Hulk movie I'll go watch the other one, just to compare. smile

Yea, I get it's a complicated position and I get why people are divided. I can only come down on it's not right for one person to make this decision for another person, I will always believe in the right to choose. And again I always come down on there are way too many people, my friend who wants to sterilize all of humanity might be taking it to an extreme. However, I come down on less people, particularly unwanted people. I'm glad I'm alive, but if I wasn't here (or if there are souls and I was here in some other form or whatever) than I also wouldn't - couldn't - care. I guess I don't see the individual anymore, I see the big picture. I guess that's why I can support abortion, because in the big picture it makes sense, it's problematic as an individual case to case scenario. So I vote choice. I vote parents make the choice. Because there are the children who never get over the abandonment. They might not be the majority, but they are there too. That scenario is never going to be a good one, either way.

Again, that is a scenario for a level of technology that of course we don't have now if ever. I'm talking about ideal not about reality. In the ideal you don't get it wrong. I'm very aware the ideal will never be reality. Despite what dystopian technology would have you believe. I don't know if there will ever be a realistic fix, I really doubt to see it in our lifetime though))