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Seto nodded, he'd hoped that would be Jounouchi's reply, he honestly didn't want to do this alone, though he neither wanted to admit that nor force the other man's hand. So he was glad they were on the same page.

"I thought as much as well. However, if we can find a way to perhaps threaten/bribe him into getting rid of the demon before we...well, you know...that would be best. I'm going to see if I can have him removed from the hospital tomorrow night, I have an idea about where we can take him. If you can think up whatever bribes might work for him - anything within the realm of possibility as obviously payment won't be the issue - I'll arrange what comes after. Meet me in front of the shrine at say midnight tomorrow after everyone else has gone to bed? Even if we are delayed a day it'll give us a chance to discuss again, as obviously I don't want to keep pulling you aside, people will know we are up to something."

With an accord reached Seto locked his vehicle and began to make his way back toward the shrine to see what the sleeping arrangements might be and find out what the rest of Jounouchi's friends had been up to while they were out.

((That's pretty shitty about DA but I suppose not surprising. Just a shame that laws over creative property favour bigger companies rather than actual creators. I mean it's like film rights with movie studios, they aren't in favour of who created content, just in favour of which multi-billion dollar studio holds rights which sucks and definitely makes Disney's continuous acquisitions alarming. I mean a platform taking a cut (even a sizable cut if it makes the connection/sale) is one thing, but taking, selling and not notifying the creator is basically just legalised theft. Anyhow I haven't uploaded anything on DA in a long time, and I probably won't be doing so as it just doesn't work for me as a platform, but thanks for the heads up. Will probably just stick with blogs if I put work online, and in the past I've mostly put up rough/not great work I wasn't planning to do anything with (at least not without major revision). I wonder if there's a conflict with DA's ToS with stuff uploaded by artists that's copyrighted/protected elsewhere, b/c then obviously DA wouldn't be stealing from an artist but from a person/company/organisation with its own legal rights to the content. It's weird thinking about this in relation to my own studies. I mean copyright laws in Britain didn't exist really until the 18th century, many authors didn't profit off their work (and many didn't want to b/c it was considered low class to write for money). It's like we've gone from a few centuries back where we actually regulated and passed laws to protect creative property to now go forward to a point where that can be stripped away again.

Yea I hope something shifts with teaching staff at Universities. I mean it really leads to teaching quality suffering, obviously teachers who have to spend half their time applying for new jobs every year are not putting in the same effort they could be in the classroom. Plus students who want recommendations are hard pressed to even find a professor again after they've left the university (and in some cases the state/country/etc). And most permanent positions are research staff and some care about teaching but a lot care more about their research and just make less time for students, especially undergrads. Honestly I think universities would benefit from offering an equal portion of paid teaching only positions to research only positions and more of a scale of research/teaching (with some leaning more toward teaching but perhaps working toward research, and others leaning towards research and moving away from teaching) staff in between. I mean really the only non-permanent staff should be TAs and such, with maybe a small percentage of part time/transitional staff just on the basis of people who want or need that. I have no idea really about formative in the UK so I was talking about the US, my friend is teaching back in the bay area in the district I went to for middle/HS. Think you might have talked to her once way back when as she used Gaia (names Jill, think username on here was h20girl or something). But I think it varies from district to district, state to state, so you'd have to look into your area to see what the deal is. Though at least in CA it seems to be pretty standard that new teachers aren't overly secure, but often even older teachers can be cut pretty easily and even tenure doesn't mean you legally can't be fired/let go just that you have more protections and entitlements to contest it. I think the more flexible you are about what level you want to teach and where the less of a worry it is. Like she only wants to do primary school which means even if there are openings in HS she wouldn't go for them. And she really wants to stay at the district she's at but obviously I think if she really was let go and could get no position she'd start expanding options. With art I think it ends up in the same category as music and languages where it is at risk of being cut from a school all together. I mean my HS cut German and started trying to cut French (though Spanish will probably always be safe) and then decided to let go one of the music teachers even though the band director was close to retirement. And promptly retired after they did that, where tail between legs they went back to the guy who frankly had been running everything for years and he said screw you and moved to the east coast. Good for him, but yea it's a shame how little security non-core subjects have, and even core-subjects. If you can work at a private school that can sometimes be better though in terms of security as they are more likely to keep arts and language programmes as it can be one of the draws of those types of schools. I really wish I knew Latin, I think one of the most secure positions is teaching Latin at a private HS, just b/c so few people can do it. Though honestly it's not what I'd want to teach, but might enjoy it. But yea, ramble aside, I guess just investigate hiring practices in the districts near you and if you can find out (maybe from other teachers) how new teacher contracts look it'll give you some idea.

Well when I get around to writing non-fanfic erotica I will def let you know, only slowly delving in now with fanfic so we'll see how it goes, but it is something I enjoy just not something I have a lot of practice in yet. I might go to Yaoi-con in 2017 assuming I'm in CA so will let you know closer to, I definitely would love to go again and it'd be great to meet up. Idk when Sara even plans to move back to the US (she's been in Japan for the last year and will be there at least until next April as that's when her second year contract will be up for work) so it might not be an issue but I would probably be fine with not going with her and dealing with whatever fallout that might bring. The last time I went she wasn't going to go and only went b/c I was going to go with Meg to keep me away from her (didn't quite realise that was the game plan until after she'd done it) so I think if we planned to go I would just stick to going with you. I mean part of our original fallout was about her trying to control who I hung out with and when so honestly if she can't this time be okay with I have other friends that I'm hanging out without her then I think we'll have a problem again. I don't think I told you but she threw a fit when I got engaged (it wasn't a good time for her) and we've mostly gotten past that but it was the first time where I wondered if maybe I made a mistake and still get a bit angry about it sometimes. I do really like her and she's trying to be supportive but yea, I have no plans to go to Y-con with Sara even if she is in the country so I am happy to say that if you can make it the next time I can go I'll plan to go with you. Sara also has plenty of other people at this point to go to conventions with and she prefers to party at conventions now which really isn't my cup of tea.

Yea subbing is a good option if you can't get a job right away as well, so you could always apply for jobs and apply to sub and if you don't get a job then you'll have the subbing. Yea teaching formative at least has vacations and stuff, I mean you can get away even if it's not just 9-5. With university and research the problem is I could always be researching something, writing a paper, trying to publish a paper, applying for conferences, etc etc. There's never a point where well it's the weekend, it's summer, etc. There's always something 24/7, 365 (366 on leap years) days a year. I don't think I want that. I may thrive, but I think atm my priorities are leaning towards personal life over work life. And I definitely feel you on the boomers. I mean in the UK university was free for that generation and affordable in the US (you could work a part time job and pay your way through uni without debt). A university degree pretty much guaranteed a job, and there were plenty of jobs that didn't require a degree yet still paid a wage on which to support a family to go around. Houses were affordable. Like we have a lot of things they don't, but we hardly got a fair start and it's unfair to say that we are lazy b/c we couldn't predict how they'd ruin the economy. But people just do not relate well to the struggles of others. I listen to Tory MPs (members of parliament, Tories are conservatives, current party in power in UK) complain that their £74K a year (over 100K in dollars) plus second home in London expenses, travel expenses, other expenses and perks, etc are just not enough to live on and they really need further raises when the average household income in the UK is £33K and this is people with no + perks and most MPs come from money. Like they say they can't live and are absolutely not recognising that they are all people earning 3x the average family, around 5x the minimum wage and all those people have to make do so how dare they say they have some sort of plight? They complain about not being able to afford second homes in London, and some people can't afford a first home in s**t areas of the country. The way boomers or the wealthy or anyone can be so out of touch with people who have less than them, and just convince themselves that privilege plays no part is just sickening.

Ended up ill after the festival which sucks, so will hopefully go see X-men next Monday but we'll see, and will let you know.

Yes Iron Man is very low down for me, and Cap, Bucky and Falcon are probably my top 3 at the moment (followed by Black Widow, and I imagine Panther has a shot at being up there in the future) so makes Civil War and Winter Soldier very strong contenders for me as these are the films showcasing my favourites. I agree about Falcon coming into his own in Civil War, and honestly it's CW that's moved him from a character I like to one of my faves. And yea I doubt I'd like comic Panther and didn't expect to like film Panther but he developed well across it and was this nice voice of reason yet he had to find his way there, so that worked for me. Yea I know enough about comics to know that the battle would probably be very different but I thought it was good and ended up actually really liking the we'll have a mid-movie battle rather than an epic ending battle. I agree with you about the Wanda tragedy though and wish they'd done something a bit less frustrating, though it at least worked. And yea while thinking about it I know having Civil War be this short period rather than this drawn out thing actually seems really silly, it just worked well and I appreciate the focus on characterization over drawn out battle so I really don't mind it at all. I do agree Ultron did what it needed to do, but it will always be one of the lower down films for me b/c that's basically all it did (though it does have some great moments). Vision I will say has potential, we'll see where he goes. Right now he's not doing it for me and his focus on Wanda doesn't exactly make sense to me (not sure if there's more reason given in the comics for why he so specifically watches her) but he may still surprise me yet. This franchise is doing a good job of that.

Haha, yea we definitely take things different. Like I took Fitz's line there as agreeing with Lincoln b/c he'd rather try and save Daisy, b/c he cares about her in his own right, and that Jemma might be focused on the responsible thing but not necessarily the right thing. And yea I didn't take it as research as worthy of being saved but getting to know Will enough to see him as a human rather than a sore point. I mean even when he found Will I found he kind of had learned to care about Will on his own, and even hesitated (needing Coulson) when Will turned out to be Hive. Fitz is very human to me. I mean looking at so many horrible things in the world, and the way people don't care about people, and it's easy b/c they don't know ppl. I mean I get the argument he should have just felt Will deserved to be saved b/c he's a person. But that's not a human reaction at all. We hear refugee stories and tragedy stories like Orlando and we feel as names are released, photos, as the spin can be personal. But we so easily ignore so much suffering and don't care, or even justify suffering (lumping all refugees or Muslims in as terrorists to make hatred okay) all the time. We as people do not save people b/c they deserved to be saved, but b/c we learn enough about that to grow and feel compelled to act. Fitz needing to find something worthwhile in Will doesn't make him inherently good, but it makes him fantastically human and it's what I do love about him. But yea I don't really think Jemma and Fitz work for me as a relationship, never thought they would, and totally won't mind if they don't work out (though would rather they actually manage to not work out rather than one of them is killed off and the other has to 'learn to move on'). And a big part of that is not really believing that Jemma has managed to move Fitz out of that close friend category. So we'll see where that goes. I really love Bobbi and Hunter, but definitely wouldn't mind if they did explore less heteronormative relationships. Like I think Joey is the first character they've introduced that's gay (unless I'm horribly forgetting someone) and they kind of just dropped it in. So be nice if they did less convention. Jemma and Fitz are an obvious couple, and yet not at all a realistic one, and I'm not interested in them working out in the long run (I'd love to see Fitz love someone besides Jemma). But yea I think Grant's actor is great and he's played all his roles well. It's definitely down to script not acting where I think Grant is a bit too much of a mess for me. And yes the whole time me and Tom were like just kill him, kill him now. Why are you taking him with you? And when he saw Fitz and Will, it was like okay you really have no reason to not being shooting Grant other than plot point. I agree with you on Lincoln, I didn't dislike him but nor did I particularly like him. So of all the possible options I think he was the best one. I don't think Joey or Elena had been developed enough yet to have enough impact if they were the ones who died, and anyone else would have bugged me way more. So if someone had to die Lincoln was probably the best bet. I mean I don't like Daisy, but she's the main character for now and I don't think that's changing anytime soon. I did like how Lincoln ended though, I think it was about as nice a moment as you were going to get. Though I'm wondering if this is really the end of Hive, I have my doubts. Anyhow will probably wait for next season to run through at least a bit and then do the binge thing again b/c it just works best for me and this show I think. Watching week to week it makes it harder to feel motivated after a weaker episode.

With shows like SN I def am okay with filler as long as it's a good stand alone episode. Kind of like Doctor Who. It's an interesting enough universe that stand alones can work absolutely well, but if they are a boring standalone you end up being 10x as resentful of filler. I think SN has less and less room for filler now though so I do agree it needs to hold onto more focus.

Yea our DM lives with his parents still (he's only 20 and goes to uni locally) so it's just their kitchen table that seats 6 and we can probably squeeze another two chairs around. But it wouldn't be comfortable. Sometimes we host in our living room and 6 is comfortable, but could probably squeeze 3 onto the couch and get an extra 2 or so chairs so could probably could seat up to 9 maybe 10, but yea if our core group was bigger than 8 it'd probably be a problem.

Yea I have a hard time with accents, and I think I am capable of hearing less distinctions. Like Tom will try to help me sometime with Welsh, or even in English. He'll say something two ways, supposedly, but I won't hear a difference. So for me it's not laziness it's just if you can't hear the difference how are you supposed to produce it? Requires a lot of slow and intense listening to try and figure out some differences and some things I've just never caught. If you only want brush up Spanish I'd maybe recommend Duolingo. It's the main thing I'm using for Welsh and keeping up with my French (my Greek has gone wayside for now). I always end up solid on reading and writing b/c I have a great memory, and it's pronunciation and listening comprehension that's difficult. But generally it's easier to learn more than one language at a time as it stimulates your brain and I find pushing myself on French helps me with Welsh which is my priority. I'm getting slowly better at thinking in other languages which is the main thing you want to do with a language. Like if I hit a gap in Welsh sometimes my brain fills it with French rather than English, but that's pushing me to think in French which is pushing me to be better with language. But yea Duolingo isn't perfect but it is a useful tool. I have 5 years of French so it's a good supplement, and I have Tom for Welsh so it's a good supplement. So you might find it works and you could at least get some basics down. But yea I'm in the languages for the brain stimulation. And b/c it's cool. biggrin ))

It had ended up taking three days to get everything set up, and while meeting Jounouchi at midnight each evening to discuss plans thus far had gone smoothly - despite the tension everyone else seemed to have no problem sleeping at night - Seto was becoming increasingly irate with the lack of progress. Days were spent further researching inevitable dead ends, or leads so obscure even the priestess was unsure how to pursue them further. While everyone else was more or less comfortable staying at the shrine, quarters were tight and the uncertainty was creating a palpable tension.

When Jounouchi arrived that evening, asking if things were ready yet, Seto was happy to confirm that they were. Quietly they exited the shrine and headed to Seto's vehicle. He wanted to be quick, even in the middle of the night the drive to where they were going was close to two hours, making it back before the others woke would be tight. In fact they were unlikely to make it back before the priestess and other members of the shrine arose, but he hoped they'd be unlikely to say anything.

- - -

Hoovering over Hirutani, who was bound, gagged and at the moment completely unconscious was getting dull. Hopefully the playthings would arrive soon...hopefully after tonight there would be freedom, then the real fun could begin. The spirit moved about the room, trying to get a sense of surroundings while waiting for the welcome party. Ideally Hirutani would remain asleep, assisting didn't sound appealing atm, assisting wouldn't necessarily grant the freedom desired, craved, needed.

- - -

Just over an hour and a half later Seto pulled off the road onto a dark farm path. He noticed Jounouchi looking around at barren fields and the derelict buildings. Surreptitiously purchasing the lot - with cash, sourced from a number of locations, only some on the up and up - had been easy. It wasn't his first choice of a location, but it was perhaps the best option if tonight ended the way tonight was likely to end. Parking the car in front of a roofless barn Seto exited the vehicle, motioning silently for Jounouchi to follow him. If his instructions had been obeyed Hirutani would be drugged and tied up in the back of the building, he should be waking up any moment. Discreetly he placed a small hand gun into a coat pocket. There were other weapons inside, weapons designed to encourage talking, but in the end if they ran out of alternatives there was no reason this shouldn't end quickly.

"Last chance to back out, you ready?"

((Sure and obviously did. I can't think of anything to do with the group anyhow unless you wanted to create conflict, obviously I don't have any characters well positioned for that atm so moved forward to plot. biggrin

Well that's good to know, I mean DA still isn't the best forum for writing type stuff so I still don't use it a lot, but nice to know that isn't the case. Frankly I'd always worried more about someone else stealing stuff off DA - in the event I ever had work I felt was good enough that I'd mind that - than DA actually stabbing me in the back. But yea it's great that acquisition rights enable creators to keep creating by selling their works, but it also sucks because corporations are dicks and generally don't share and/or just ruin an original product for a new purpose so much of the time. And creators who maybe wanted to touch an original universe (in comics, books, etc) later might not be able to access there own stuff depending on what they agreed to. Like if I ever finish anything I'd probably be pretty stringent on what I'd be willing to sell, even if I needed the money. I just hate the idea that I'd lose control of my own writing while still living.

You talking to Jill was like 6 years ago for a short while in this forum so I really don't think you'd remember. I think she popped in around/just before Dulce started posting here, and of course that was a long time ago too. Upside, she didn't lose her position but it's been cut to part time but then they gave her another part time position. Also apparently because she did her credential work with the district it's placed her higher in the probationary ranking than she would otherwise be, so she's pretty close to almost being at the position where she would have a permanent job (barring of course disasters in district funding). And getting her the two positions shows that they seem keen to want to ensure they keep her so that's good. In CA I think there is a primary credential, and then subject specific at secondary level (e.g. English, Maths, etc). Also things like PE, Music and Art and such are subject specific but you can use them across the board, primary or secondary, so my friend with PE can teach PE at primary or high school.

Yes I think the quality and of research and teaching both would improve if they did more to separate out positions, and then I think it'd be easier to create more permanent positions. Hiring teaching staff on the basis of their research credentials doesn't always lead to the best teaching staff, but neither does having non-permanent staff. But yea, I'm the same way. I'd like to be able to keep a toe in the research community, write papers and publish when I feel I have something worthwhile to publish, but focus on teaching and not worry that my job is gone if I'm not publishing new research.

Be great if both you and Dulce could come, but yea should have a better idea sometime into next year whether I can make it in 2017. I've never properly cosplayed because I'm not good at making stuff/never want to spend a lot of money. So something I'd be interested in but unsure what I'd do. I've tended to go as Dib from Invader Zim most years but never gotten a wig (but have hat like one he wears in an episode and usually just use that to cover my non-Dib hair). But yea panels and shopping is generally what I do as well. I've heard of Overwatch but haven't played it. Basically need to hand in thesis and then can go back to new games so only played things I've played before in down time and that I won't get sucked into. Got heavily sucked into Dragon Age: II last summer and don't have time for that this year. Inquisition is 100% where I'm starting as soon as I hand-in though. Would you recommend Overwatch?

And yes she moved to Japan about a year and a half ago, she could be back by Fall 2017 as she hasn't decided if she'll stay a 3rd year or not. She likes teaching but hates working more hours than she feels she's being compensated for (which frankly that is teaching) and hasn't made any good friends (but honestly it was in my third year in the UK where I finally found my niche friend wise, and felt like this was home, so that's just normal but I get that it's lonely). However, if it becomes an issue I'll deal with it and honestly not going to have regrets if it she decides to make it one, that'll be on her. I mean she's made a lot of effort to be a better friend, and I get her issues, but yea we fell out last time because she tried to control who I was friends with and when I got to spend time with them (and flipped because I hung out with people without her) which would be scary controlling even if we were dating (never ever ever), that level of controlling over a friend? Yea no, if she goes back to that I don't think I'd be able to continue the friendship anyhow, but again that would be her choice and definitely wouldn't expect your or anyone else to feel at cause. Because that wouldn't be the case.

Agreed, and definitely not summer for life as a professor as summer is when you actually try to get a lot of research, conferences etc done b/c you aren't teaching (though in the US some are still teaching). It would be one of the nice things about being a teacher though. Yea Tories are like Republicans. Toss b/w whether Lib Dems or Labour are more like Democrats. Labour and Tories are kind of the top two parties here, but Labour has been a bit of a joke lately too. This Buzzfeed article is actually a really good summary of what happened with Brexit: Britain's Completely Batshit Week Since Brexit, Explained For Americans. I will not be home in November but I will vote absentee, definitely voting.

Yea, so many movies I want to see and just no time. Still want to see Star Trek and Suicide Squad but heard they didn't review very well which was disappointing. Was very sad about Anton Yelchin's death (played Chekov in the Star Trek reboot), what a tragic way to go and he was my favourite character so also will miss his character, but glad they aren't going to re-cast him within this reboot.

Yea the battle could hardly be called a civil war (one battle does not a war make). I think atm they are in more of a cold than civil type of war, but still really liked the film. Jury is still out for me on Vision, could see it going either way - with if it goes toward whiny I definitely am unlikely to like him. I guess atm Vision hasn't done much I particularly dislike, but he hasn't done anything I've liked either. He's just kinda there. So we'll see.

Well I don't view Fitz's justifying his feelings on Will as a trait but an action, and I can definitely like people who've done things I've disliked - just so long as the good outweigh the bad. Again if this was something repeatedly coming up I could see it being a problem with Fitz as a character, but it was a one time thing, it was perhaps a mistake, but yea, trait is probably 100% not the word I'd use here so sorry if I used it before (too lazy to go check). Him thinking about the issue doesn't mean he was never not going to save him, and controlling thoughts and feelings is just not that easy. I mean the real world sucks, and we could probably all be doing more to help people, save lives, and most of us don't. Saying we would if we had the option and he almost didn't...well, I could imagine a lot of people almost wouldn't in a lot of cases. But he didn't ambivalent for days, he already had research going so I viewed as he was working on it but finally brought Jemma in once he reconciled his feelings about the situation. But yea I do hope the relationship ends because I don't think it's a good one. It's uninteresting, and Jemma is not believably into him. But yea Daisy's reaction is definitely annoying, but very Daisy. I'm torn on how I feel about Hive still being there (but def can see it happening). I liked Hive, and I don't think they went as far with Hive as they could, but I also kind of want something new. So I'll give it a chance either way but I'll probably feel more critical about here's Hive again then and now we are trying to progress.

See I can memorise tons of vocab, and usually grammar, but yea pronunciation is my Achilles heel. It effects speaking and has an even bigger impact on listening because my brain can't line up what I hear with what I know. But going to keep working at it.))