Plausible Chaos

Since Eridians are cosexual and sexual dimorphism isn’t really a thing for them I thought of the reason as to how Adrian grew so much larger while Rocky was away

Curious pebble (2/?)

Teens orufrey 🥰

And Olly's goatee origin story:

[cw: gore]

I adore mermay, and thought to myself, now, what would make this an appropriately Frankenstein mermay?

Brigg Roald Amundsen (1952) in the North Atlantic

I'm a huge proponent of public transit, rail in specific, and I'm very glad that the greater Seattle area is finally starting to see some solid light rail infrastructure sprouting up in the form of the 1 and 2 lines, but that in no way stops me from critiquing the decisions made in planning and implementation.

Light Rail, in it's colloquial form here in the US, is basically always a compromise solution. It's cheaper than subways, can make good use of existing right-of-way around freeways, and can function as a kind of low-capacity commuter rail in the subways while behaving more like a tram or streetcar in downtown areas. It is crucially, however, not a streetcar, nor is it a commuter rail. Streetcars make frequent stops and are optimized for dense areas with lots of traffic. Commuter rails are larger and stop lest frequently, optimized for bringing suburban residents into city centers. Commuter rail should, however, be independent of street traffic so it can travel at higher speeds. For this reason, most of the Link light rail system in seattle is actually not at-grade (street level), but on either elevated or sub-grade track. Downtown, the lightrail actually functions as a low-capacity low-frequency subway system in what used to be the bus tunnel (we don't have time, but yes it was stupid). Everywhere else, it's up on elevated tracks that largely follow the freeway system.

There are three stations, all immediately south of that Mount Baker elevated station, where the Link actually runs at-grade. These stations run through the historic low income immigrant neighborhoods of southeast seattle. Here, the trains are forced to stop at red lights, interact with crossing and left-turning traffic, and even cross through terrifyingly narrow pedestrian islands. They could have built elevated track here, as they did everywhere else, but they didn't. they didn't want to spend the money. I have personally watched light rail cars carrying hundreds of people have to wait two full minutes for cars turning left in front of them, delaying trains so like, 5 people could drive there. Once it reaches the end of this low income immigrant-dominant neighborhood, however, the Link returns to it's above-grade status, with Mount Baker being the first elevated stop. You want to know how this woman, who claims she was misdirected by her GPS, probably ended up here? I would bet anything she tried to make a turn at the intersection just before the stop and got confused. The intersection, for reference, looks like this:

I'm not saying it's an easy mistake to make, but given the number of people who drive through here every day, it's honestly not that surprising that someone, especially someone who is from out of town, or someone who is used to shared streetcar lanes, would eventually make this mistake. When you're dealing with a city of hundreds of thousands of people, it's only a matter of time before a mistake like this happens. but it is only possible for it to happen because of the decisions made in the planning process, and one of those decisions was "we can save money if we make everything worse in that part of town where all the foreign poors live", and so they built the thing at-grade, instead of keeping it elevated like everywhere else.

“Freedom always has a price.”

“You’re not taking that job.”

Yuta looks up from the table where he’s been sadly contemplating his thumbs, running them over themselves in an anxious tick he usually masks from anyone but Maki. His eyebrows go up, then furrow, probably at her tone and less at the general declaration that she doesn’t fucking like it when the senior jujutsu personnel try to hand him scummy jobs.

“They’re special grade sorcerers,” Yuta says softly. “It would be dangerous to send anyone else—”

“Curse users.”

“What?”

“You called them ‘sorcerers’. They aren’t that anymore. Not after they do what they did.”

“Allegedly.”

“We’re far past that and you know it. There’s no sparing anyone because of their sob-story and they always have a sob-story.”

“I’m strong enough to talk them down if—"

She points. “That. Right there. That’s why you’re not the one.”

Yuta is quiet. “It’s me or Yuji. I won’t let Yuji—"

“No. It’s you, Yuji, or me. And between the three of us, only one of us won’t flinch about killing human beings.” Maki reaches over the table, puts her palm over his phone, and slides it to the center of the table in front of him. “Drop the job. Recommend me for it. They only asked you to see if you’d say ‘yes’. Swap jobs with me.”

“We’re spread thin. You won’t have back up.

“You think I can’t handle them alone?”

“Of course you can, but they are tricky. This is stupid but tactically, one of them can fly at will.”

“Then send Rika with me,” she says, shocked to find its both sensible and her perfect excuse. “You won’t need her and if you’re so worried, send her as back up. You know she doesn’t cry about killing and she’s gotten very smart. She won’t hesitate.”

Yuta’s jaw tenses. “I wouldn’t hesitate.”

“You would, it wouldn’t matter and the curse users would die anyway, but you would hesitate. Okay? Don’t— Yuta. I love you and whatever you decide to kill will die—” Maki reaches over the table and fits her palm to his cheek, watches him startle slightly, his eyes widening—"but you don’t want to.”

There’s a micro-expression, so fast she only catches it in her divine eye, but it’s relief. There in the slight release of tension around his eyes and something that gives in his mouth and shoulders. He covers it quickly. Blinking up at her with a more familiar and conscious look of disbelief.  The thought comes idly, He’s so beautiful when he’s appalled.

“You do?”

“I do.” She lowers her voice an octave. “Does that make you hate me? A little?”

“No.” His hand catches hers, holds her palm against his cheek. He turns his face into it as if for comfort, despite what she just said. “Of course not…”

“Then let me do this for you.” Maki brings her other hand to frame his face, to make him look at her, almost nose to nose as she whispers, “You and Yuji hold the line against the monsters. Let me deal with the humans who act like monsters. I am fucking glad to do it. Okay?”

Yuta closes his eyes when she tilts her forehead against his.

“It’s my responsibility…”

“No. It’s not. Being the scariest Swiss Army Knife in Jujutsu Society doesn’t mean it’s always you, every fucking time.” She shakes him a little. “This is bounty hunting. It’s not even a world-ending threat. These people just like to make money using their jujutsu sorcery for vicious shit. There is no reason it has to be you hunting them to death. It’s not your thing, Yuta.”

“They asked me—”