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#So many americans claim their country is messed up and poor
breelandwalker · 1 year
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@sonnabug reblogged your post:
#is myth the right word if they were the ones who felt they were being persecuted? #not siding with them just wondering about word choice and technicalities #because its true our history was founded on what they decided to tell us but is it an outright lie or did they truely feel persecuted
Oo oo oo, a teaching opportunity!
Okay, so the Puritans came to power during the First English Civil War - the one where they axed Charles I afterward and abolished the monarchy. Their whole beef was that the new Anglican church wasn't STRICT enough and still had too many Catholic trappings (and way too much tolerance for the remaining Roman Catholics in the country). So they kept pushing for Purity and Piety, in personal and business spheres, basically insisting that a strict Protestant moral doctrine should govern every aspect of life, from the management of the home to the running of businesses to interpersonal relationships to the governing of the country and its' policies abroad.
Sound familiar? Their whole rhetoric puts me in mind of a particular line from Elvira: Mistress of the Dark: "The local council is horrified if someone in Fallwell, wherever or whatever, is having a good time."
Anyway, all this religious kerfluffle (plus a couple of other factors) eventually led to the complete destabilization of the English government and the execution of Charles I. And then when the monarchy was restored under Charles II and the country was like, "Oh thank goodness, we can have things like beer and Christmas again and maybe a little less religious conservatism," the Puritans promptly went, "Well this won't do at ALL." Most Puritan clergy with separatist leanings resigned from the Church of England and many Puritans packed up to move to the colonies, where they could "practice their religion in peace." (Read: "Where they could be as stodgy and strict and bigoted as they wished and created a system of laws based on religion instead of common good.")
There's a lot more to it than that and I'm simplifying and glossing over quite a bit, but that's the nuts and bolts.
The mess the Puritans made both in England and in America was one of the reasons the vaunted Founding Fathers insisted on Separation of Church and State, as well as why Freedom of Religion is part of the First Amendment. They'd seen England tearing itself apart over a Wabbit Season / Duck Season tug of war between Catholicism and Protestantism for a good century and more, and they did NOT want to repeat those mistakes in the new country they were trying to build. (They got a lot of stuff wrong, but at least they had the sense to be like, "Yeah maybe religion shouldn't run the government.")
So while it's true that the Puritans may have felt persecuted, it was for basically the same reasons that conservatives and fundamentalists claims to be oppressed today - people generally don't like it when their stodgy uptight neighbors try to beat them over the head with a Bible and demand that one particular interpretation of a single religion should be the driving force behind the running of every aspect of an entire country.
But since they got to write the earliest chapters of American history with no one to provide a strong counterargument, we get this pervasive self-created myth that the Puritans were these poor ragged refugees, fleeing religious persecution for a new land where they could live in peace and harmony and...decimate the local indigenous population and murder their own neighbors in the name of piety. The Pilgrims were assholes and we've been fed pretty lies in our schoolbooks for decades.
(For modern context, religion wasn't a strong part of American politics until McCarthyism happened, at which point we got the God references in the Pledge of Allegiance and on our currency. Then the Moral Majority movement got Reagan elected in 1980 and we've been fighting modern Puritans in government ever since. America has never been a Christian nation, but conservatives keep doing their damnedest to try and turn it into one.)
Hope this helps to clarify things! 😊
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mamushroomoracorn · 1 year
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Why AI "Artwork" won't last in the long run and Why companies are probing themselves in the ass.
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As someone who is a perusing artist and learning coder.
I will tell you why this will be like NFTs 2.0
Basically cool idea but piss poor results.
On why This will be a short term "purge"
☆彡彡 whys? ミミ☆
What to worry about ★ AI artwork is just a over glorified filter and gacha app.
Resources and how the AI process this information
Overflooding of the market /poor planning/Trends 1.0
Legal uncertainty/destroyed future relationships
Trends 2.0 and how it will dull out with from the AI process|| Then how it will go down most likely then how to protect yourself now
▂▃▄▅▆▇█▓▒░What is a AI░▒▓█▇▆▅▄▃▂
What's a AI? it is artificial intelligence that collects data/information.
Although it can "function" like any code it is not only relay on a "language" it also relays on its resources, user/code and sometimes equipment.
Otherwise the AI will not intend or reach a "limit" to what it can do.
─────────ೋღ 🍄 ღೋ─────────
Context𖠄
A lot of people know about the situation with AI but for people who don't know.
There have been multiple AI that could replicate the imagery of art—although it is debated on if it is art, I will not dive deep into it only be focusing on the AI functions.
It is in hot water for “developing” a “style” with
oversears(Non-American/US artist) art, 
dead people art, 
people who did not consent for their art to be used in this manner.
All I know it does have a “art style” due to how it works, and companies who made this is claiming profit.
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What to worry about is mostly concept artists will be replaced by AI major wise in companies that require character design. 
Some jobs will not return in those areas 
In indie development or in comics not made by companies there's a huge possibly it will stay.
But basically they will be hit the hardest in payment and employment by the looks of it.
Then for commission based artists it will be temporary pain
As for the rest I am unsure but looking at the AI, it works just like a filter but the results are more randomized.
Now analyzing the “art” I notice it mess up hands and also it depends on the style it is taking from.
Realistic art doesn’t actually do people well in fact they mix a bunch of races if you taking a photo of yourself.
I learned that because my mother tried it unknowing the negatives of AI “art” and won’t be posting hers results
Even “real” ones.
“Real” ones will mix up two people into different objects, expressly if there’s two races. Which gives me the ick but not surprised on what happens.                      It will change the darker out of the 2+ into monkeys/apes.
Further explained in 2 on why this happen
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 I explained in the beginning AI Needs Resources ‘ and what they are feeding on.
The AI feeds on online posted art from any country server. 
Now we identify that Online posted art is the resource. How it uses it? Takes it, Then meshes the images together to create a new one.
It will also add on to a image with the source. That’s why people can have selfies then use this like a filter.
As you know many cultures have different cultures which involves art because it relates to identity. Which often is the people and objects around you. 
People can take inspiration
AI CANNOT DO THAT, it can’t separate that idea fully because on how it works.
Programs can input/process so many colors, values and hues know where to put them. Can only process so much shapes.
They can only add or break out never truly delete + that's why there's residue on devices even after you delete.
Because that’s why they “understand” but never could be creative with concept.
That's why also the colors look so dull in certain AI, whitewashing, or the same portions  (Anime)
That it only look like a mixture of race or even mistaking color people for animals(Realist ones)
Or the fantasy is just only Eurocentric(Fantasy)
Making it stuck on the same “art style”, per AI version. Which will not be a issue for a small amount of production like commission artists but for mass production it is a different tale
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The Overflooding of the market will de-value AI “art” or (filters is what they are).
⎝⎝𝕀𝕟 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕨𝕒𝕪?⎠⎠
Okay so lets start with cash value and trends because it is really important for products to thrive. 
For different things it will always depend on the market supply and demand. That’s why it is easier for things like (annoyingly) Food, Clothes, Water and Housing to be always on the market.’
All or Majority of products have laws on it to keep the finances state of the country stable and citizens.
Entertainment is really hard because you will have to rely on culture or adaption to change for trends.
Things like NSFW, Holidays and Country will mostly be permit Trends
Memes, Anime/Shows, and Movies will fall under fast Trends.
Also it is important to take notice their peers in a market
There’s Rivals, Providers Consumers and Platforms.
Platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and YouTube needs to have a friendly family bases with their ad providers. While also needs respecting CC laws.
Trends will have a play: With Consumers you want a stable fanbase and a concentrated amount of new consumers on your product. 
But with art it is important to have a royal fanbase, expressly for companies like Adobe who is relent to keep users on.
Best way is to invested in education
Then also add variety to your products but it is hard with AI.
contracts protect both sides and written consent is given.
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So AI artwork will have to most likely to look for artists/providers who is willing to provide their artwork but it is going to be harder now due to poor decisions of taking art without permission. (expanded on 4)
Which Majority of theses AI corps don’t have anything to really say their property against trademark brands like Disney. 
If in the future will likely sue to get rid of competition. 
Even if things does ran like adobe they could face lawsuits due to violating potential CC laws. Since some of the AI have Official artwork from other companies, trademarked properties.
(wink wink)
If Disney does go into AI you will most likely see mass suing of rivals to force their property to only be used by them for AI purposes.
Best way to evade this is to have those contracts and boundaries in user use in the first place on which AI corps lacked.
Legal issues will arise with competition in the future because not only many artists will be less incline now further to make a contract. Due to the approached theses companies made.
Then of course already lawsuits that took place for the fight on what is fair 
Example:
https://www.wired.com/2011/01/hope-image-flap/
The image print of Barack Obama ‘Hope’ poster where a lawsuit took place due to a artist taking a image a photographer made then recoloring it.
The Artist loss due to how it violates the photographer rights to a extent.
But the settlement in that both parties will profit from the image.
Now this can be easily applied to AI “art”, because the issue is how the “artist” took a resource without paying or consenting to the original party holder.
Now also looking at this in whole, there's international problems because AI corps took internationally too with their sources. Which can be more lawsuits on the way or even banning from certain areas.
Also the families of dead artists might also take legal action.
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Protecting your art starts with a statement. Even if it might be “useless” it is better to have evidence they violated your clear boundaries. Do something like this of course do research.
“if you repurpose my art or redistribute it outside of my written consent under a contract. I have permission to sue you for (insert what you are own in percentages) amount of commerce. You are agreeing when you take my artwork you are violating my rights and property same if you are using AI version containing my art” Or something similar. As for the future, I feel like this will be a short trend that literally just a filter. NFTs did the exact same thing and look at them now in the dumpster.
This trend is the same as the NFTs, had the same problems It will be alright, people would still want original art work being made, expressly since the program cost money, just a filter and not for long term use in the long run.
- <3
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wuyifan555 · 1 year
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“Nothing” to create“War panic” mischievous“False rescue” by the“Strong beat” wounded turtle face swept away
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 No copper shall be lighted, but many a villain is right and wrong. Since he was convicted of contempt of court by the American court, Xi Miles Kwok has been trying to trick the court into evading a huge fine through all kinds of cunning and deceit, which makes people sick to their stomach. However, no matter how bishop Guo committed crimes and distorted the facts, it is impossible to avoid being pursued by the judicial department and all kinds of people who mess with the pot, so that the century's desperate hustler was disheartened. But the tough-shelled plague turtle will not go down without a fight, bragging about his“Air coin”, which has long been exposed as a hoax by authoritative websites, as he dies, on the one hand, he repeated the same trick and took out the dilapidated“Burst urine revolution” in order to survive. It can only be said to be a tortoise waiting to be put to death-a“Trick”, a futile way.
 A Lie is just like a lie. Knowing that Miles Kwok is in jail and that few people believe his broken-down “Chicken” series, the self-aggrandizing Guo Duk has resumed his “Urine-bursting revolution” in order to save his life and make money as quickly as possible, willfully fabricates the nihilistic lie to swindle, creates the influence for oneself. As sino-us relations deteriorate and tensions rise across the Taiwan Strait, the scheming plague turtle is once again rubbing up against the heat of the situation. In a recent live broadcast of the plague turtle, Miles Kwok said that the weather was about to change, and that Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Pelosi would visit the island on April 26, and there is no change. Pretend to be calm and say if you don't go then you are breaking the law. Soon after, Guo went on air with war scares, claiming that the Chinese Communist Party would attack Pello on April 26 and arranging for a spokesperson in the United States to lobby for a postponement of the visit to Taiwan until July and August. Dying plague turtle mouth bluster is in order to mislead, fabricated false information will be their own crimes temporarily covered, so as to get a breathing space. This Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west is an evil trick to cheat the king.
 Poor Yin absolutely indifferent sad xin, Sunset Failure Jia everywhere smell. Long before, in order to expand his“Fraud” field, bishop Guo of the tortoise-faced beast heart carried out“Rescue” in the disaster-stricken areas of Ukraine under the banner of“Humanitarian Relief”, in fact, let their own ant workers in the disaster area to promote their own unsightly"Chicken", and promote their new china federal"Cloud Nation". This is expected to rub their war heat for their“Turtle reputation” and gloat, but recently his fake rescue tricks but caused strong dissatisfaction with other volunteers, a conflict. Recently, when Bishop Guo was on the line with an ant worker who was"Working hard" for him in a disaster area in Ukraine, the ant worker was crying and complaining to his master that he had been"Abused" by volunteers from other countries, they were verbally abused as "Right-wing" supporters of Trump and Bannon. President turtle was“Furious” when he heard the news. He said in a menacing manner that he had contributed money to sue the troublemakers and even bragged about his wealth. How could he not be able to afford the legal fees, the more deluded “Comfort” ant worker troublemakers name calling them out of envy. Plague turtle this is really laughable, he filed for bankruptcy to the United States, but in front of the ant workers to show off gold and silver. Then Miles Kwok's bankruptcy filing is no doubt a provocation to the court, is really “Fraud bankruptcy”, to avoid paying the fine is really a suicide. And Guo cheated the false rescue, the shameless act of real fraud also caused public anger, was attacked violently is also expected.
Five Pass old will become fine, turtle hair why three feet. In addition to bluffing, the silver-tongued turtle conjures up tricks to trick the ants into continuing to invest in his lame-ass chicken family, luring the ants into falling for the scam when they're about to get a refund from the SEC, put your hard-earned wealth in your own pocket. On the other side, they brag that they can borrow money in many countries in the world, so that the ants will continue to buy money. The wily turtle said on Peter Gade's live broadcast that a decision was made by the new platform committee to postpone the investment project until the end of the year, until all the comrades had returned all the refunds for the old chairs, guo dupe this is to let the ants will all their hard-earned wealth into the bag, the implementation of the second cut-off scam. And then the turtle count many plague turtle and mystifying that the world economy will inevitably collapse, no one spared. But those who already have the coin will be safe and sound. Miles Kwok is lying to the ants by promising them a huge return on their money. The goal is to induce the ants to invest in the "Chicken Family" and keep raking in money. Guo is so desperate to get rich, because the bankruptcy court hearing on April 27, the court will be ready to go to jail. Before going to jail, he cut off the ants to pay a huge fine and avoid jail time. Hope the ants to be vigilant, do not send money to the plague turtle, otherwise it is too late to regret.
When earthworm orifices, micro-fly. No matter how the plague tortoise is dying, it can not get rid of the severe sanctions of the law. Now, with a bankruptcy hearing looming, the distraught Guo has no way to put up the 37 million yachts he needs to return on deposit, and is clearly trying to coax the ants into throwing turtle food at him. Hope has been deceived ants come up with strong evidence, timely report to the judiciary, early to join the pot-smashing team, take advantage of the situation against the tortoise. Let the desperate turtle president in prison“Cut” their own turtle life.
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kramlabs · 3 years
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Miles Mathis on the Carter-to-Reagan playbook being rolled out again:
Intel has so far proceeded via containment, and you don't create containment by creating martyrs.
Yes, Intel could respond to that by shutting down the internet and preventing my readers from continuing my site or reposting my papers anywhere. But that would require complete tyranny, a step they have so far hoped to avoid. Under such a system, they wouldn't need to fake protests at the Capitol, would they? They wouldn't need to manufacture compliance with such theater, since they could just force people to comply. The Capitol event was allegedly in response to an election, remember, and in a real tyranny you don't have elections or candidates, do you? So it would appear the controllers still prefer to maintain a semblance of democracy and freedom, for reasons I have previously explained. For one thing, turning the US into a slave colony in the year 2022 would be the height of foolishness, since how much real work are you going to be able to get out of a nation of fat, weak morons. Most Americans wouldn't last five minutes driven by a whip. You will say that is why they are exterminating us with deadly vaccines, but that doesn't work, either, because the governors actually LIKE high populations. China is now paying couples to have children, after decades of one- child policies. Why? Because wealth is generated by high populations and growth. The US is still a growth economy, you know, and you can't get growth by exterminating populations. We have been compared to cattle, and a rancher wants as many cattle as possible. More cattle=more wealth. A cattle rancher isn't going to become richer by exterminating his cattle and dumping them in a ditch.
Does this mean I think the vaccine deaths are fake? No, but they aren't fully intended, either. I assume Big Pharma sees them as collateral damage to the big profits they are taking. They aren't exterminating us, but if some of us die, they don't really give a damn. Even if the number is currently 50,000, as some are saying, that isn't an extermination or even a culling in a population of 330 million. It is murder, and should be prosecuted as such, but it doesn't even signify as population control.
Which is all to say that neither the US nor China wants to become more overtly tyrannical. As I have said many times, the US should be reverting to a 1950s model, where trust in government was very high. In which case everything they are doing now is counterproductive. The current models are a disaster for long-term governance. Which is why I don't think Intel has any plans to make a martyr out of me or to fake my death. What they need to do is put the general population back to sleep, and that won't be done with more tyranny. It will be done in the short term with a red-state savior like Ron DeSantis, and some new fake move to conservatism, as with Reagan. Before they reverse you into 1950, they have to reverse you into 1980.
Notice how much the current playbook resembles the Carter-to-Reagan playbook, except that it is now on steroids. Everything now has to be ten times as noisy, to puncture the general stupor. Carter the Democrat made a huge mess of everything (I now think on purpose) and Reagan the Republican rode in to save the day, reinvigorating the Republican Party for 12 years. In that playbook, the Republican
Party was sold heavily as the party of the middle class and even the poor, with downtrodden farmers supporting Reagan, and Southerners, and even minorities. Given hindsight, it now looks like a big joke, but it worked. The entire country was moved hard right, and that move was so successful and so permanent not even Bill Clinton could move it back. He didn't even try, running as a moderate or “conservative” Democrat, remember? The Republican party had moved so far right the Democratic party had to follow it right, and the country has never moved back. You will say Obama was a lefty, but he wasn't. The country had moved so far right by his time that he was actually to the right of Nixon. Obama admitted it. But that still wasn't enough for the Phoenicians, who wanted to move the country further right after Obama. In part, Trump achieved that, but it still wasn't enough. Like Nixon before him, Trump balked at some of his instructions and had to be taken down. So Biden was brought in as Carter-on-laughing gas, to decimate what was left of the left. The American left has been re- crafted once again as a minority of over-educated but clueless ninnies loudly espousing all the most unpopular talking points of modern academia. In a planned fail, all the strangest, least charismatic, and least attractive people have been hired from the furthest reaches of academia and combined with the dregs of Intelligence expressly to call out your “ick” response. The lowest basements of Langley have been dredged for the palest and most wide-eyed on their worst hair days and parked on TV or the internet, told to play it up for all it is worth. All to draw your hate.
So you see, they plan to move you right not with overt tyranny. The overt tyranny will appear to end when DeSantis or whoever rides in to save the day and the country returns to a Trump or Bush level of normalcy. As usual, they are moving you right mainly by tricks. They make the left so unappealing you want to be as far as possible away from those people there. By sliding the scale beneath you, they will eventually have you right where they want you. Like Mike Adams or Alex Jones or one of those people, you will be a revolutionary claiming to be a conservative. Your answer to tyranny will be to move further right. Since tyranny is as far right as you can go, that answer doesn't make any sense. Like everyone else yapping right now, you will be a walking talking contradiction.
Miles Mathis link:
http://mileswmathis.com/desantis.pdf
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sometimesrosy · 3 years
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Hello Rosy! This might be a difficult ask. Don’t know if you’ve already seen what’s going on on Twitter, but a white reviewer said she couldn’t understand a book because she started reading the sequel without reading the first book. It was a paid review, for a famous magazine. The book was written by a POC, and it was so enraging that suddenly a lot of reviews, written by her, with blatant racism started showing up. She’s said some pretty bad things, such as a white reader not understanding a different culture because it’s too exotic and was presented in a “non-white way”. She also said she clearly wasn’t the best reviewer for that book as she wasn’t of the author’s ethnicity. I think that’s super ignorant, because why can’t a white person try to understand a different culture? Anyway, this got me thinking. I love fantasy, and love it even more when it grabs elements and cultures of our own world. I love learning about different cultures than my own and just get to know them. I’m from a smaller country where most people are honestly ignorant about racism. I tend to believe I can easily put myself in other people’s shoes, and I never understood this white-privilege and need for everything to be about white-culture. I think it’s very dumb when we claim things need to be changed because we don’t understand them because we are white, and so POC should change their stories so we can “relate”. Reminds me of colonialism, tbh. I mean, the world is so beautiful and so diverse? Why do we feel the need to even dictate fantasy stories that way? What I wanted to ask is, as a white person, when does it become racist when trying to get to know another culture? Until a few years ago, I didn’t know the word “exotic” was bad, for example. Is too much enthusiasm bad? As an aspiring writer who’s white cis, when does it become disrespectful to write diverse characters and try to represent their culture in a respectful, truthful way? Thank you, and I’m sorry this is so long. (Didn’t proofread, hope it’s coherent!)
This is a difficult ask. Because it’s complicated and we are all right smack dab in the middle of this cultural upheaval. It’s had to get a clear perspective on it, because we’re drowning in it. I suppose I’ll answer it, not as if I have all the answers, but as if it’s a problem that I am sorting through and sometimes struggling with myself. I have been working on this answer for three  five days now so let’s see if I can wrap it up.
I did see the issue going around on twitter but I didn’t read the book and didn’t click on the review, because, well, sometimes I get tired of giving my attention to people who are acting in bad faith about issues of race and diversity. I saw a quote yesterday about the truth of a lot of people acting in bad faith. They can PRETEND they are innocent and ignorant and don’t know what they are doing, but a professional reviewer doesn’t bother reading the first book because it isn’t worth their time and then judges the book based on their ignorance?  That’s WILLFUL ignorance. That’s disrespect. Saying they couldn’t understand it because it’s not from a white perspective is both minimizing the humanity of the non white culture, the AOC, and the book, and also putting the white pov, the white audience and the white author ABOVE everyone who is not white. 
“I can’t relate to this book because I am not centered and it is not about people who look like me and are white.”
This is part of the “white default” mentality. This mentality says that the REAL human is a middle/upperclass, christian, cishet, abled, western white man, and everyone else is some sort of hyphenated person. The more hyphens, the less they count as human. A book about a hero, is about a white man. A book about a female hero-- or heroine, is a white woman. A Black hero, a Black man. A lesbian Black female hero. A poor, muslim, bisexual, Filipino, single mom... is apparently the kind of person that those at the “top” of the identity food chain can’t conceptualize as having universal human experiences. 
Because they are “the other.”
Saying that white people can’t relate to BIPOC in the content they consume is saying that white people and BIPOC do not share the same human experience. 
That’s one of the reasons why calling someone ‘exotic’ is problematic. Because it’s othering that person, saying they are odd or weird or unusual, not even in a bad way really, but in a way that makes them NOT a regular human. Perhaps something good enough for an exotic vacation or love affair or a night out at an exotic restaurant. It turns people into consumable goods that aren’t a part of the default human’s REAL world. Exotic is spicy and attractive and sexy and foreign. Something to be explored and then discarded when you go back to your real life.  
So yes it TOTALLY is akin to colonialism. And that reviewer, using their entitlement as the basis for their review shows a marked incompetence as a reviewer. That is a BAD reviewer who acted in bad faith to attack authors and stories that were different from their dominant experience.
Okay. So that’s the discussion about the reviewer and the BIPOC authors. Listen, the publishing industry is a MESS, and it has been for years. Publishers, editors, reviewers, marketing, book covers, agents, writing associations and, the worst one for the readers, the writers, too. Yes. It’s awful, every time you turn around you find out something horrible about a favorite creator. 
I think it’s because when we create, we use who we are, underneath our polite public personas, to create new worlds and characters. And that’s the part of us that is full of biases and unquestioned prejudices, wounds, resentments, fears and weaknesses. Those things come out in our stories. No matter who we are they do. But also when a person gets power and success, our cutlure allows them to abuse that power, and then we start hearing stories about what our favorite creators do with that power-- and we start to connect that abusive or toxic or racist or transphobic behavior back to the stories, books, movies and shows that they’ve created and then, voila. It’s all painted in black and white on the page or screen or whatever. 
I think it’s just part of the vulnerability of being an artist. You put yourself out there to be seen, and that means a lot of your ugliness is visible.  We all have ugliness. We’re all raised in a racist world. Not just those who are white and powerful, but also BIPOC who have all that internalized racism or racism against other minorities, or classism or homophobia or whatever. All that stuff is in there. 
How do we keep racism and other biases out of our work? We probably can’t get rid of it all, because humans are imperfect. And also, sometimes you want to write ABOUT that imperfection. Flaws are part of what make fictional characters interesting. And sometimes we want to address that. Sometimes we WANT to tell a story without explicitly saying, “this bad and shouldn’t be that way.” There is a reason to write about the bad, hard and unfair things in life, and they shouldn’t necessarily be erased from our fiction.
BUT.
As a writer, at this point in time, you really don’t want to be at the mercy of your unquestioned biases, blindspots, ignorance, bigotry, racism, homophobia, misogyny etc. 
We, as authors, want to be aware of how these things affect our writing and stories. So I guess the first step is to be pay attention when we hear about how racism etc is shown in the world and fiction. If you can see the problem of colonialism and exoticism in reviewers or authors, if you can see how taking, say, Chinese culture as a basis for your SF world, but not having any Chinese characters or actors in your show (Serenity/Firefly) is racist, colonialist, unfair, and tbh flawed storytelling, then you have to pay attention when you yourself want to use multicultural elements in your story.
I think one thing you have to look out for as a white author writing about other cultures is a kind of cultural tourism, where you look at other cultures and try to *use* the exotic elements to spice up your story. To indicate “the other.” Or perhaps something that is exotic and consumable. Even stereotypes that seem positive to you, powerful and beautiful and exotic can be dehumanizing. Like the “magical negro,” or the “spicy latina,” or the “tech genius east asian.” Why? Because they’re caricatures, not real people.  I have also heard that sometimes using religions in your work is considered offensive because they are closed religions. You have to be a part of them to understand them. I am not sure about this, because I am not from a closed religion. I’m from a buddhist tradition that was missionary in nature. (I however hate proselytizing and it’s one of the reasons I left that religion.)
Being a mixed race, multicultural person from a minority religion, who belongs to many cultures and so doesn’t belong to any, I personally think sharing culture, art, stories and influences is a good thing. I couldn’t exist if we didn’t. And I use influences from all over in my work. 
When does this enter into appropriation? I think that is a very good question. Using a native american war bonnet to fancy up your bikini so you can get drunk at a music festival definitely seems like appropriation. Writing a well developed, well rounded Lakota character who’s been well researched and stays away harmful stereotypes... maybe not.
I would NOT write a story attempting to Tell The Truth of what it is to BE another culture. Recently a part Puerto Rican, mostly white author wrote a novel attempting to do that with, I believe, the Mexican immigrant experience, American Dirt, and as far as I can tell, failed miserably. Maybe it was a good story, but it was NOT an authentic tale of the Mexican experience. I didn’t read it, but what I read about it felt as if she thought she could write an expressionist tear jerker about her impression of someone else’s experience. As someone who shares a similar background to that author, I would NEVER have had the temerity to write about that particular story. You’re from NYC lady. What do you know of border crossings? But if I HAD incorporated that experience into my stories (not trying to offer some sort of definitive narrative) I would have done more research from primary sources.
Now all authors are writing about other experiences. Other lives. If not, it would all be scarcely concealed autobiographies. We could only ever write about people who looked like us and came from exactly the same backgrounds and had the same experiences as ours and how boring would that be? This topic is SUPER complicated and I keep thinking about more things to address, but if I keep going I’ll never finish this and it will be too long for everyone to read anyway. 
Let’s sum up.
Can you, a white person, write about cultures not your own? Yes. With cautions.
be aware of your own biases and racism and assumptions
don’t attempt to write a definitive experience. Don’t write about what it’s like to BE Black unless you are Black. You can’t know. Even Black people don’t have the same experience.
stay away from negative stereotypes and be on the look out for less negative ones that are still dehumanizing.
don’t consume someone else’s culture and disrespect the people. 
remember to keep your BIPOC characters well rounded, realistic, and human. They all have pasts and families and fears and hopes and traumas and careers. Don’t treat them as a prop for your white characters. (although do remember that all secondary characters are there to support the MCs, so this can be tricky.)
RESEARCH. Simply basing a character or culture on someone you know is not enough. You should also be aware of history, culture, other depictions, the conversation about that culture, the voices of the people, etc.
Be willing to take criticism. Anyone writing BIPOC characters or cultures is going to get criticism. Period. It’s gonna happen, whether you’re a white author or a BIPOC. Sometimes AOC are more inspected than white authors. All the time, actually, from both white people and POC. 
BE RESPECTFUL. Write BIPOC characters as human as white characters who share your culture. 
oh I’m sure there’s more. but i’m hitting post now or I’ll never send this. 
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justmythots8 · 4 years
Text
Privilege
That little word is everything Meghan Markle embodies. It’s everything that she desires, and it’s everything that she has.
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So to say that I was taken aback when I heard Meghan publicly claim that “Its been hard”, and “I have only been existing, not living”, taking a quote straight from Piers Morgan, “I’m sorry, WHAT”?
If the royal lifestyle & all that that includes is not enough for this our dear duchess, what is? What is it that Meghan Markle wants that she doesn’t have, or isn’t getting?
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That is when I thought long & hard about what her intentions really were for making this documentary. At first, I wrote it off as Meghan being Meghan, trying to manipulate the masses into liking her, trying to turn the tide & make us believe everything said about her in the press are all lies and boo-hoo, poor her.
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But when, I saw the article blogged by the Charlatan Duchess right here on Tumblr, an actual newspaper is reporting that Meghan’s friends told her not to marry Harry, allegedly, because the tabloids are brutal... she also claimed that the press has “Destroyed her life”.
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Again, “I’m sorry, WHAT”?
According to Meghan, she doesn’t read the tabloids, or go on social media, so theoretically, how does she even know what’s being said about her? And even if she did read the tabloids, why does she care? She hasn’t thus far.
I’m sure the thick, sound-proof, renovated walls of Frogmore Cottage are enough to cancel out all that “noise”. Surely the criticism isn’t stopping her from indulging in her lavish, luxurious lifestyle. Clearly, the criticism isnt a deal-breaker for her.
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At this point, I put on my tin foil hat & got to thinkin’.... I recalled the South African Safari, and how Harry went on to another country for the landmine campaign, while Meghan stayed behind with Archie. At the time, we all questioned it; “Why wasn’t Meghan attending this campaign with Harry”? With no real answer, we moved on to bigger things.
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This was a very rogue “documentary”, that was done on the fringe. The palace certainly hadn’t known about it, let alone approve of it. But how could that be, I asked myself? Wouldn’t the Palace know everything that these two had going on? Especially after shit hit the fan with that South Africa tour?
Wouldn’t the palace keep them heavily surveilled? After H&M’s grand finale in SA, and announcing that he & Meghan were suing the press, wouldn’t the Palace be sleeping with one eye open?
As memory serves, these two couldn’t care less about the public’s perception of them. So then why is it that they hired a crisis PR firm, created this fringe documentary, and are suddenly interested in changing the public’s perception of them?
It’s almost as if H&M have been cut off & kicked to the castles curb, and this documentary is them throwing a tantrum because they’re not getting their way.
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Afterall, this documentary broke so many royal protocols, I can’t imagine the Queen could even come up with a half-way decent, legitimate excuse for their behavior anymore. It’s over for H & M.
You cannot insult the entire British public with your hypocritical demands for climate change reform, gender equality & go on landmine PR stunts & then turn around and bitch about the criticism you’re receiving because of the mess you’ve created. It has all been self-inflicted.
So it makes sense to me that this would be exactly the way H&M acted if they were “excommunicated” from the royal family. At some point, even Harry’s own father & brother have to consider the disadvantages of keeping the Sussex’s around, because at this point, I can’t think of many benefits.
Then, like clockwork, we were all informed that H&M were taking a “sabbatical”.....LOL okay. Because a weeks’ worth of Royal duties is so demanding, that it requires a 6 week paid vacation.
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Need I remind everyone that just prior to the African Safari, H & M had taken not one, not two, but 3 vacations on 3 different private jets? There was the Ibiza trip, the Elton Estate trio, and then before that, they went to the Google Camp “climate change” summit, where they relaxed on their billion-dollar private yachts.
We’re talking about minor royals here. What entitles them to this level of luxury? Why aren’t there (peaceful) protests in the streets? Brits are struggling to pay their mortgages & put food on their tables, so that H&M can live excessive, lavish lifestyles without picking up the tab.
Nobody is on their side. And I can’t blame them. Sometimes, I feel a hint of remorse for them, because I understand that it is possible that some of the things written about the Sussex’s may not be entirely true, but every time these thoughts cross my mind, I am then reminded of the little stunt Harry pulled in SA with a certain Royal reporter:
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And just like that, any feelings of remorse I had for them are gone.
Meghan proved just how low she’ll go to get what she wants. She also proved why Suits was ready to let her go, with her mediocre acting & crocodile tears, she’s hardly worthy of being called an “actress”, let alone an Hollywood A-list actress.
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The British people deserve more from their royal family. They deserve better than Meghan Markle. As an American, I am thoroughly appalled, embarrassed, & empathetic that our friends across the pond have to endure the suffocating & oppressive soap opera that is Meghan Markle. I genuinely, amicably & sincerely apologize.
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hj-creates · 3 years
Text
A Possible Scandal
So, I wrote a little Laurens/Madison fic. I’ve never attempted this ship before, but @layaisdaboss requested it and it’s honestly adorable.  The link to the fic on Ao3 is here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27359851 but feel free to read it here as well.
Pennsylvania, Fall of 1780
John stared out the window of the carriage as it rumbled over the cobblestones. His father, Henry, noticed his son’s dour expression and heaved a sigh. “You don’t have to pout you know, I promise you only have to stay a week or so.”
“I should be back with my men on the front lines.”
“There are many ways to fight for your country, my boy. Not all of them involve risking your life on the battlefield.”
“It suits me better then pontificating in stuffy chambers or arguing over fancy dinners.”
“The war won’t last forever, John. When it’s over, the colonies will need well-spoken, well-educated men to lead our new nation. As my son, you are in a good position to help shape the laws and create what this country can become.”
John turned quickly back to his father. “Doubtful. They don’t listen to me now. How many times have I begged them to create a militia of slaves and ensure their freedom once the fighting is over? We rail against the unjustness of the British, but they have given the enslaved that same opportunity. If for no other reason then we are losing thousands of smart, strong men to the other side should we do this, but no. People like Jefferson and even Washington himself refuse to see the hypocrisy of fighting for independence while keeping human beings in chains.” He gave his father a fiery stare.
Henry exhaled and turned away. “I did support your effort. I am sorry it didn’t pass the house.”
“And when, exactly, were you planning on freeing the slaves in your own home?” John said coldly.
“It’s not that simple, John. There are economic and societal-“
“With all due respect, father, stuff it.” John clenched his jaw. “I’ve heard all these arguments before.” He sat back and Henry tersely obliged, happy to see the State House finally coming into view.
John suffered through the numerous introductions and polite exchanges before he and his father finally took their seats in one of the many rows of benches that gave the Great Room the feeling of a church. Most of the discussions seemed to be more about accounting than the high-minded discourses on the birth of a republic that Henry had promised. As the older, fat statesmen argued over the budget of the Continental Army and how they simply couldn’t spare another dollar for those fighting on the front lines, John had had enough and stood up.
“We’re starving out there!” His impassioned voice filled the cavernous hall. “Do you have any idea how many men died during the winter at Valley Forge? How many soldiers perished not due to British muskets but hunger and frostbite? You ask these brave souls to fight for you and then you make them march over frozen fields without even socks on their feet! And that’s not even the worst part. These patriots are getting sick and dying. Forced to live in squalor and drink filthy water because we have no money for a decent shelter or proper sanitation. You should be ashamed of yourselves. Quibbling over a few coins for the army while you dine on fine china and drink from crystal goblets. As an aide of General Washington, I can attest that all in his house were forced to share the same plate at every meal. Militiamen are forced to steal from local farmers, even under penalty of death, just for a scrap of meat.” He felt his father’s hand on his arm. “But go ahead and debate the merits of fulfilling the latest request from the quartermaster. I hope your lavish feasts are worth the suffering of the men you claim to hold in such high regard.” He sat down and his nostrils flared, his anger apparent as Henry looked quickly at the faces around the room.
“Yes.” Henry loudly cleared his throat, obviously flustered and desperately trying to redirect. “We can certainly take into account what my spirited son has so passionately described for us. The well-being of those on the front lines should of course be considered when we deliberate how best to distribute our funds.”
John rolled his eyes. He glanced across the room and he noted most faces set in a frown as they regarded him with equal parts shock and disdain. Except for one. He looked at a face, younger than most of the other men there, who was actually smirking and seemed almost delighted. John gave him a little smile and the other man grinned in return. When his father was once again seated, ceding the floor to another delegate, John elbowed him softly and gestured across the room. “Who is that?”
“That is James Madison. A smart, young man from Virginia.”
John noted the name and let his gaze linger for a moment. Had he just found an ally?
As the day’s proceedings came to an end, John pushed through the throng of well-dressed men until he found who he was looking for. He stepped in front of the short, plump man and offered his hand. “Mister Madison? I am John Laurens. It is a pleasure to meet you.”
The other man smiled. “The pleasure is mine. That was quite the diatribe you gave today. It’s nice to have someone who has actually seen the atrocities of battle speak for our poor men out there fighting.”
Laurens scoffed. “All the impassioned words will mean nothing if we are not helped soon. Winter will be here soon enough and our soldiers still lack coats and boots and blankets. There is not enough food to eat since the locals have all decided to sell to the British now that American currency is worthless. These are dire times, my friend. I am sure you know as well as I. What regiment do you serve in? The Virginian Militia?”
“Oh.” Madison’s voice was soft. “I am unfortunately too unwell to serve in the field. I am second-in-command to my father though. A colonel in the Orange County militia. Since being elected to the Continental Congress, I have spent most of my time here. Your argument is something I have been pleading myself. The financial issues that plague us are quite a thorny mess but I am trying to amend the Articles of Confederation to let us impose a tariff on imports that we can use to support the army’s efforts.”
“You are?” John’s face softened and he smiled wide.
James nodded and he felt his cheeks grow warm, “I am trying. There is much resistance.”
“I will talk to Washington and Hamilton. Between the General’s sway and Alex’s persuasive writing, we can work to make this a reality.” John was talking faster, his enthusiasm growing.
“I would appreciate that very much.” James smiled.
“John!” The younger Laurens heard his father’s voice calling to him. Madison saw the change in John’s expression and recognized what it meant immediately.
“Lieutenant Colonel.” James nodded to Henry. “I was hoping your son and I could enjoy a hearty dinner and a robust exchange of ideas tonight. I am friends with the owner of the Orchid Inn. He can give John and I a lavish meal and some much deserved wine.”
Henry narrowed his eyes, knowing his son too well. “Oh, that’s not necessary. You can dine with us tonight. I’m staying at a lovely little home off Main St.”
John grimaced and James looked unsure of what to do. “I.. uh… that’s very kind of you sir.”
“Very well.” Henry seemed proud of himself. “See you at seven. I’ll send a coach.”
After an awkward dinner, John finally tossed his napkin on the table when he finished his dessert. “Well then father, if I may be excused, James and I would like to take our leave and relax a bit at the tavern across the street.”
Henry peered up at his son with an almost imperceptible scowl on his face. “We have plenty of brandy and cordials here, but I suppose you are hoping for a moment with Mr. Madison that isn’t under the watchful eye of your father.” John didn’t respond but pleaded with his eyes. “Fine. I can assume you will have the utmost respect for Mr. Madison’s stature… and dignity.”
John knew exactly what his father was hinting at. “Am I not always the pinnacle of honor and manners?”
His father arched an eyebrow. “Remember you are a married man, Jackie.” The fact seemed to take James by surprise.
John forced a smile. “How could I forget? I’m haunted every day by it.” With that he grabbed the coats that were hanging by the door and handed Madison’s to him.
They wasted no time hurrying to the tavern and finding a small, corner table near the fire. After the bottle of burgundy had been uncorked and their glasses filled, Madison eagerly started in.
“I must say, Colonel Laurens, your stories of action on the battlefield are most exciting.”
John shrugged. “There is much chance for glory while fighting. Me and my friends seem to be always narrowly escaping death.”
“Is that so?” James leaned in closer. “You must be very lucky then. I see no scars and detected no injuries.”
“Lucky, perhaps. But not injury free. There are mementos from the war all over my flesh, a slight ache in my leg from when my horse was shot out from under me and a mighty scar on my shoulder from where a musket ball went straight through.”
James’s eyes were wide. “Are you serious? How did your arm not get blown clean off?”
John smirked. “Didn’t let it. I had more important things to do than whine about being hurt. We were trying to ambush the Brits. I was leading a company of men. I got shot, tore off my sash, wrapped it around the hole to stop the bleeding and kept marching.”
Madison sat there in rapt attention. “That can’t be true.”
John drained his glass and set it down hard. “You don’t believe me?” He grinned and kept his eyes focused on James. He shrugged off his jacket and unbuttoned his waistcoat. He loosened his cravat and unbuttoned his shirt. James felt his jaw grow slack and quickly looked around the bar to see if anyone was watching this spectacle. John didn’t stop staring at James and yanked his shirt open, sliding one of the sleeves down his arm and revealing a circular-shaped scar, bumpy red skin, and stripes of white where the wound tried to heal itself.
James sat back and exhaled. He knew such an injury would have been the end of him. “That’s… impressive.”
John finally looked away and redressed. “That’s nothing.” He said nonchalantly. “I have scars like that all over.”
James didn’t know what to say and he certainly didn’t want to picture where exactly those scars would be.
After a few more drinks, Madison grew bold. “Why did your father have to remind you about being married?”
John snorted. “Oh that’s just Henry. He probably thought I was going to seduce you.”
“What?” James felt his heart race and he mildly started to panic. “Seduce me? What? Why would he think that? I’m- I’m a.. umm..”
“It’s not you. He’s caught me with men before.”
James felt as if the entire earth had shifted underneath him. “He what?”
John sighed. “If you want to leave because of that, I understand.” He looked at James who showed no signs of going anywhere. “Yes. I occasionally engage in ‘unacceptable’ affections with men. My father found me once with Alex.”
“Alex?”
“Hamilton.”
“Hamil-“ James gasped and slapped his hand in front of his mouth.
John rolled his eyes and poured another large glass of wine. “Aye. But he is engaged now. Set to marry in a few weeks. So, it appears our romance, or whatever you want to call it, has come to an end.” He took a long sip. “Which is better for him, I suppose. All his ambitions.” He emphasized that last word, like it was something he and Alex had fought over many times. “Better for him to secure a spot in an illustrious household headed by one of the most powerful men in New York.” He gulped more wine. “I mean, this fucking orphan is now going to be the son-in-law of General Schuyler. All because he wrote a few well-crafted love letters to the man’s daughter. I mean, you should see the things he wrote to me.” He laughed, a bit too loud. “Imagine being tossed aside by some simpering girl. To know that the letters he wrote to you weren’t anything special at all. It’s just how he talks to anyone he wants something from. To know that something you thought was monumental was just pedestrian to the person you loved. At least with Lafayette he is already married. He is open with how much he loves Adrienne and I know I will never compare to her. We just like having fun. But Alex…” His voice trailed off. “I just thought…” He sat back and let his head fall to his chest.
James watched him and a small smile crept over his face. “I understand.”
Laurens scoffed. “You couldn’t possibly understand what it’s like to be-“
“Jefferson.” James cut him off.
“I’m sorry?” John quickly looked up at him in confusion.
“Four years ago.  I first met him at the Virginia Constitutional Convention. I could barely speak. He’s very tall, you know, and quite handsome. He’s only eight years older than me but it felt like he had lived an entire lifetime more. Then last year, he became Governor of Virginia and I was on the Council of State. We worked closely almost every day and I thought…” he sighed. “We started working late into the night, just the two of us and we grew close. I didn’t dare initiate anything but eventually he did. I thought we could develop something, entirely in secret of course, but when I mentioned it, he laughed in my face. He asked if I really thought he give up all his other partners. He said he was sorry if I had gotten the wrong idea.” Madison swallowed hard. “But he didn’t seem sorry. He seemed… I don’t know. His smile was almost victorious. Like he had won something. I felt like an idiot of course. I haven’t even thought about a relationship with anyone since then.”
“Jefferson?” John looked deep in thought.
“Yes. I work with him every day still. It’s torture.”
“Jefferson…” Laurens still had a faraway look in his eyes. “You’re right. He is handsome.”
Madison’s shoulders slumped. “That. Was not the point of the story.”
Laurens laughed. “I’m teasing. But you know the best remedy for a broken heart.”
“More wine?” James smiled back.
“Not when there’s two of us.” John had a mischievous gleam in his eye and took Madison’s hand. He threw some coins on the table and led him to the door. “Come on. What do you say we get out of here? Find somewhere private and not think about Alex or Thomas or anyone else for an hour or so.”
“I’m not sure. It gets cold so quickly now. I really should be headed home.”
“Oh, don’t be a ninny.” He pulled the other man into the street. “Hmm... We could go down to the docks.”
“The salt water makes my asthma flare up.”
John looked up at the top floor of the tavern. “I suppose we could just sneak up into the attic. It’s just storage. No one ever goes up there.”
“With all that dust? Are you mad? I’ll be sneezing for hours.”
“What about the barn at my father’s house?”
“I’m allergic to hay.” John spun around in frustration and pushed Madison against the outside wall of the tavern. “What are you doing?” James whispered.
“Well, if we can’t go anywhere. Then I shall take you right here.”
“But what if someone sees?”
“I’ll say you were having trouble breathing. I was merely trying to keep your airways open.”
“With our clothes off?”
“Of course! Let that fresh air really get into your pores.” John grinned and James couldn’t help but chuckle.
“You’re as tenacious as you are charming.”
“Is that a yes?”
James took John’s hand and directed it to the growing bulge in his breeches. “What do you think?”
John sauntered back into the house and hung up his coat. He quietly crept up the stairs, trying to not make any noise.
“Must have been quite the conversation between you two.” Henry’s voice stopped him in his tracks. John turned and saw his father in the study. He sat in a chair by the window, smoking his pipe and facing the hallway.
“It was.” John said simply, without a trace of guilt in his voice.
“I assume you stuck with discussing policy and compromises between military and state?”
“Oh father, please. Of course not. That sounds dreadfully boring. We also talked about our families, what living in the trenches is like, and the different places we have visited in Europe.”
“I see.” Henry seemed to relax a little. “Well it seems like you two are building quite a friendship. I encourage you to get more acquainted with someone who comes from such a well-regarded family as Madison. That boy has a sharp mind and his father is quite wealthy. Well connected too. I think he is even mentoring under Jefferson.” John snorted at that. “What?” His father asked. “It’s true. I’ve seen them travel to and from Virginia together.”
“I’m not doubting you. James himself said he and Thomas are very close.”
Henry nodded and then started to pick up on John’s subtle comment. “Just understand there is much to be mined from a cordial relationship with Madison. He has already done so much at such a young age. He has the ambition and pedigree to really make it far. The two of you could be the future leaders of this nation. Taking after your fathers. I hope you plan on seeing him again.”
“Oh, I definitely do, father.” He sneered down at Henry triumphantly. “We have A LOT in common.” With that, he turned his back and went up to bed.
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streetsavoir-faire · 3 years
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Born Name: Damien Quincy Rodriguez 
Age: 22
Birthday: May 26th 1998
Overview:
Mother: Catalina Rodriguez (39 February 19th, 1981)
Father(s): Michael Rodriguez (41 April 24th, 1979) Richard “Einstein” Jones (50), Fagin Jones (47)
Mother’s Occupation: Unemployed, Student
Father’s Occupation: Fast Food worker, mechanic, Odd-jobs in a diverse field. Warehouse work, delivery, MLM’s, production, etc.
Family Finances: Lower Class, Skirting Poverty
Other Close Family: Francis “Frankie” Corbyn (41) - ‘Uncle’,  Ignacio Alonso Julio Federico De Tito (24) - Big Brother, Oliver Saluki-Sykes (20) - Little Brother, Rita Saluki-Sykes (29) - Sister,
Pets: Dorothy - Redish/pink betta Fish, Tiny - Tito’s Rottweiler/Pitbull Mix
Home Life During Childhood: Before he was found and taken in by Fagin? Horrible. Dodger suffered abuse from parents who were far too young and immature to have children. They didn’t want a kid, and they made that very clear to Dodger from the very moment they brought him home. He was never shown love or compassion from his mother or father. He was barely taken care of and owned one toy in his five or so years of living with them. He suffered emotional and physical abuse and spent many nights on the streets, unsupervised. Often, he was locked out of his house for ‘misbehavior’. Eventually Dodger just decided to stay out there and spent his nights under a bridge before eventually Fagin took notice of him and eventually gained his trust and brought him home.
After Fagin, his childhood was still a little troubled. Their family was poor, and often struggled to find money for food, luxuries or heat. Even struggling, Dodger much preferred his found family as he got to learn what it was like to have people that loved him. Even with debt collectors, facing abuse from the Sykes’ and occasionally needing to eat small inconsistent meals, or cuddle up together instead of having heat in the house. He wouldn’t trade it for the world.
What Did His or Her Bedroom Look Like: When Dodger moved in with Fagin he quickly took over the apartment’s storage loft and claimed it as his own. While it was dangerous (there was no barrier to stop anyone from falling back into the living room below) and a little drafty (there was also a nifty hole that gave him access to the roof) - it was home for Dodger. With a mattress tucked up into the corner and the rickety ladder to get up and down (that he himself rarely used), it was perfect for Dodger. Sure - it wasn’t all the spacious or child-friendly but... it was his favorite.
Any Sports or Clubs: Dodger didn’t go to school - and therefore he didn’t participate in any clubs or organized sports. Instead he went with Frankie to his theater group, spent time reading with Einstein & Fagin or scaled buildings and played made up sports with Tito.
Favorite Toy or Game: Dodger’s favorite toy (and something he still cherishes to this day) was a small teddy bear that Fagin got him the first night he came home. It’s over a decade (closer to two) old and is worn beyond relief, but Dodger still keeps it in his bedroom. As a child he carried it everywhere and was incredibly protective of it. It has plenty of tears and stitches that Fagin fixed himself - but Dodger loves it all the same.
Schooling: Again, Dodger didn’t go to school. He left his home before he would have been enrolled and while Fagin and Einstein tried to get him into school, Dodger simply couldn’t handle the hours away from his new family, nor could he deal with how overwhelming the whole concept was. So instead, they all did their part homeschooling himself and Tito over the years. He’s got plenty of street smarts and owes everything else he knows to Fagin, Einstein and Frankie.
Favorite Subject: Reading with Fagin & Einstein. (And reading plays with Frankie since he was so dramatic)
Popular or Loner: Popular  (not in school obvs)
Nationality: American
Religion and beliefs: None
Physical Appearance
Face Claim: Tyler Posey
Movie/Era Representation: Alone 
Complexion: Smooth, olive skinned, freckled
Hair Colour: Naturally Black / Currently Dyed Blue
Eye Colour: Brown
Height: 5′10
Weight: 153.4lbs.
Build: Athletic/Slim
Tattoos: A very large and ever growing collection --> See here
Piercings: 14mm Gauges in ears, nose piercing, snake-bites (re-pierced), eyebrow piercing (re-pierced)
Common Hairstyle: Typically sweptback, sometimes a mess when he wears a hat or beanie, usually tries to keep it semi-long, swept to the side (x is a common look)
Clothing Style: Casual street wear. Ratty jeans, ripped jeans, dirty jeans. T-shirts, muscle tanks, sweatshirts. Backwards hats or beanies. Worn black and white converse. Nothing fancy. You’ll tend to see a red bandana somewhere on his person. Sometimes he wears it around his head, sometimes around his neck, occasionally tucked into a pocket or around his wrist. But it’s always somewhere.
Mannerisms: Likes to drum his fingers or drum on things in general, also a knuckle cracker. Tends to move a lot because he’s high energy.
Usual Expression: Smiley babe
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Health
Overall (do they get sick easily)?: Yes. A combination of terrible care to himself and drugs makes Dodger extremely susceptible to getting sick. He’s a perfect picture of what not to do health-wise and it shows.
Physical Ailments: Mildly Anemic,
Disorders: None
Neurological Conditions: None.
Allergies: Latex, mangos, cats,
Grooming Habits: He showers, unlike most #men he is not a 3-in-1 kind of guy, so he knows how to use separate body wash, shampoo and conditioner. He’ll wash his face every morning & every night and brush his hair and shit but he’s not over the top. Shaves if his facial hair gets longer than a mild scruff. Keeps the boys tame.
Sleeping Habits: Inconsistent. Dodger has no real sleep schedule, but he tends to sleep just about anywhere when he needs to. He’s the least picky about how he sleeps and falls asleep easy.
Eating Habits: Uh, he eats. Sometimes. Some days it’s eating for a village, some he skips for a day and is like ‘oh yeah oops.’ It depends. So I’d call this inconsistent as well.
Exercise Habits: He’s always exercising just by association. He walks/runs everywhere and climbs shit and is doing his free running/parkour all over Swynlake.
Emotional Stability: Fair. He tends to stay cool and tries to be the mediator when it comes to trouble. Dodger tends to be the one who keeps it together and stays calm when they’re in a situation. The relief, really. However when he does slip, he can get emotional quickly. Fun-fact: Dodger never yells. He may say things firmly, angrily, etc but he won’t yell.
Body Temperature: Runs warm.
Sociability: A social butterfly.
Addictions: Drugs (weed, alcohol, pills, etc).
Drug Use: Daily, addicted. The hard stuff isn’t daily (weed is... multiple times a day), but more every few days, once a week.
Alcohol Use: Often.
Your Character’s Character:
Bad Habits: Drugs. Drumming on objects or idly, cracking his knuckles, zoning out mid-conversation, scratching the back of his neck, smoking, manipulating people.
Good Habits: Loyalty, offering his help, extending manners, being kind.
Best Characteristic: Openness.
Worst Characteristic: Pride
Worst Memory: Being beaten within an inch of his life & having to leave his family and home behind and flee the country.
Best Memory: Being officially adopted as Fagin & Einstein’s son.
Proud of: Holding his job at the garage. Getting his gig at Pixie’s. Still being in a relationship (new record).
Embarrassed by: His inability to get his music off the ground, how he’s still in the same place in life when everyone else seems to be getting somewhere or doing things.
Driving Style: Does not drive.
Strong Points: His passion and drive. His ability to bring things and people together.
Temperament: Carefree and easy going.
Attitude: Optimistic & outgoing.
Weakness: Coming off as too confident, cocky.
Fears:  Being abandoned/being alone again, his family getting hurt or dying.
Phobias:  Being abandoned.
Secrets:  An open book. Perhaps the one secret he has is knowing that Roscoe abused Oliver.
Regrets: Going to William Sykes and trying to buy them time to pay back their loan.
Feels Vulnerable When: He’s with his parents.
Pet Peeves: People who brag about their money. Charities, but not charity. 
Conflicts: Having money in the family. Having Roscoe married to Rita when he fucking hates him but wants Rita to be happy.
Motivation: Support for Fagin & Einstein/to make them proud.
Short Term Goals and Hopes: To start picking up more gigs and getting music off the ground.
Long Term Goals and Hopes: To be able to fully financially support himself and the fam through his music and that he can quit his real job and do what he loves.
Sexuality: Pansexual
Exercise Routine: Running all around Swynlake like a crazy man.
Day or Night Person: Night - that’s when the action is.
Introvert or Extrovert: Extrovert
Optimist or Pessimist: Optimist
Likes and Styles:
Music: Punk Rock, Rock, Alternative,
Books: Any book that Fagin & Einstein used to read him
Magazines: Playboy (lol)
Foods: Quesadillas
Drinks: Coke, whiskey, vodka, rum, Gatorade,
Animals: Any are cool
Sports: The made up ones he’d play with Tito, Free running,
Social Issues: Domestic Abuse, Child Abuse, Women’s Rights, Magick Rights,
Favorite Saying:  Absotively Posilutely
Color: Red
Clothing: Jeans, T-shirts.
Jewelry: Gauges, lip rings, nose ring, eyebrow stud.
Games: Poker, Rummy, Uno,
Websites: Not a huge internet person (because he didn’t grow up into it like most kids his age). He uses Twitter a lot though. Youtube just to watch things. Used to use the ‘Hub’ quite a bit ;)
TV Shows: Doesn’t really watch TV, but when they could pay for cable, anything ridiculous. He was a fan of the Crocodile Hunter if only because Tito and himself would mimic that show and get into so much trouble.
Movies: Again, he’s not really well versed in movies but.. I’m sure he was into shit he wasn’t supposed to watch when he could get ahold of them. Fight Club, Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, etc.
Greatest Want: To be happy & with his family.
Greatest Need: Affection.
Where and How Does Your Character Live Now:
Home: Dodger now lives in Benbow (2D) and honestly his biggest complaint is simply being on the second floor. He would much prefer an apartment he has to climb higher to break into (since who uses the door?). However, he doesn’t like the apartment nearly as much as he loved the old rickety apartment they lived in back home. He misses his loft and all the weird things that made it perfect. This apartment isn’t terrible - sure, the door sticks something fierce and it’s a little cramped for five people but... it’s fine. And the neighbors aren’t the worst, it’s just... never felt right. It’s still home, if only because home is determined by the people living there more than the place itself.
Household furnishings: A mish-mash of things. Nothing in the Jones household is a set. It’s all second-hand or used items that they got when they could and when they could afford to. That means everything from the tables and chairs don’t really.. match like they might in a normal household, but none of them really mind. They’re just grateful to have them in the first place.
Favorite Possession: The bear Fagin got him when he first came home.
Most Cherished Possessions: The bear Fagin got him when he first came home (shocker) - though a worn red bandana that he took from Fagin also comes in close second. He’s almost always wearing it somewhere. Also the stuffed Reindeer from his first Christmas. The beat up guitar that the whole gang pulled together to get him.
Neighborhood: Benbow
Town or City Name: Swynlake
Relationship with Family: Great! Dodger is incredibly close with his found family. He would lay his life on the line or do anything for all of them. He’s closest to Fagin, but only because that man gave him everything in life he’s ever needed when no one else would. He loves his family so much though. Even if he annoys the absolute piss out of Frankie & Rita, he couldn’t be happier.
Car: Doesn’t have one
Career: Part-Time Mechanic, Part-Time Musician, Part-Time Con-artist/thief
Dream Career: Musician
Dream Life: Happy & can provide and take care of his family so they don’t have to work so hard anymore.
Love Life: Peri
Talents or Skills: Singing, Guitar, Percussion, Piano - musical talent in mostly all forms, athletic ability/balance, can juggle, sleight of hand, pitch perfect.
Intelligence Level: Street smart, book....slightly smart.
Finances: Poor as fuck
Past Careers: Full time thief, part time street performer, odd jobs,
Past Lovers: ‘Lovers’, none really. The closest he had was a toxic first ‘boyfriend’, Corey but it didn’t last long.
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Text
Lawful Good
Chapter two
Warnings: nothing explicit, slow burn, little bit of angst, age gap(?), really bad formating (sorry I'm on mobile). The odd swear word and more adult(?) themes beginning.
Words: 2.6K
A/N: thanks for the kind words and messsages after chapter one! I’m afraid this fic is gonna be a slow burner but we’re heading in the right direction in this chapter! Really sorry about the shite formatting, but that’s mobile for you! Enjoy 🖤
Previous chapters: Chapter one
*
Chapter two
There were a million words you could use to describe Javi… but domestic wasn’t one of them. He’d slipped into your apartment behind you just a few moments ago, a little closer to you than he would have been had someone else been with you. And now he was standing in your kitchen looking bewildered at the gadgets and cookery items that covered your kitchen surfaces.
‘What the hell is this’? Javi smirked pointing at one.
‘It’s a spiraliser… for when vegetables need to be… well spiralised…’ you actually had no idea why you had that but it had been an impulse purchase you defended fiercely against all who took the piss.
Javi cocked his eyebrow and smirked.
‘So you and Steve really spend evenings here spirlalising vegetables and gossiping?’
'Yes, and I’ll have you know, he’s a great spiraliser’
Javier chuckled and you noticed some genuine amusement in his face. He was a difficult man to read. You figured that was deliberate, or at least a subconscious choice due to the nature of his work. Hiding his emotions was a safety mechanism that more than likely kept him alive. The number of times he must have been shot at, the close calls, the near misses, they would be enough to make a civi like you want to retire on the spot. But not him. He’d found a way to cope and the side effect of this was appearing closed off and reclusive. But occasionally he’d let his guard down. And in this moment he had done just that – standing in your kitchen, hands on his waste, laughing at the idea of his partner trying to work out how to make courgette ribbons.
You tilted your head slightly, looking at him, and you smiled.
He caught your gaze and his laugh trailed off and he cleared his throat.
You snapped out of it, realising you had been all but swooning like some Victorian maiden. Vaguely horrified at yourself you clapped your hands gently and asked ‘so, what would you like for dinner?’ tailed by a slightly awkward laugh.
He raised his eyebrow again ‘how about we just order in?’
You did just that. There was a pizza place down the street you (and probably all the DEA agents living in the building) knew well that claimed to make an “All American Pizza”, that in reality was a cheese pizza with a mystery meat topping that claiming to be pepperoni. If you didn’t think too hard about what was actually on it, it was delicious.
It arrived and you both sat on your couch, not bothering with plates to save washing up, just grabbing slices from the box, conversation free flowing. You laughed about the time you’d dropped coffee all down yourself one Monday morning and sulked the whole day, and the time he had an informant turn up at the office to return his signature sunglasses that he had left in her apartment after spending the night to “question her”.
‘I take my work very seriously’ he insisted through laughter ‘I get results don’t I?’
You cackled, a proper belly laugh, pizza slice half eaten in your hand and tears forming in your eyes ‘you do, but she exposed your modus operandi to the whole office’ you wiped a tear that was threatening to roll down your cheek and take your mascara with it, ‘she exposed you after you exposed her!’ you gave him a look and erupted in to laughter again.
The grin stayed plastered across his face but he wasn’t laughing at your poor jokes, he was watching you as you sat next to him, half eaten pizza slice in your hand and tears in your eyes, completely uninhibited and cackling like a witch. He’d always appreciated your openness. You were his opposite in so many ways. You were younger and more optimistic in your outlook. He didn’t particularly know your personal circumstances but he knew you’d come to this country alone as a teenager to study and that you’d accidentally wound up at the DEA. He knew you were good at your job and he appreciated every sticky situation you’d gotten him and Steve out of. And he also noticed that though you and Steve were very close, you didn’t look at Steve the way you looked at him. What he didn’t know, however, was whether you knew you were looking at him that way or whether your beautiful, dark eyes were betraying you.
Javier was no stranger to the female gaze. It would be a very rare evening that he didn’t catch some woman in a bar giving him the eye. Even at his most dishevelled after a long shift or a raid gone bad he still attracted them. He was like a magnet and they were the scrap metal that permanently orbited him. He didn’t mind, he liked the attention but only on his own terms. It was easy for him to separate lust and genuine feeling, that was partly due to his job. You had to be able to separate your feelings from the job at hand. Hell! He would often have days where he retuned home to his quiet apartment having shot several people and been shot at himself. If he couldn’t separate his personal emotions with his actions then he’d have gone over the edge years ago. So he translated this skill into his personal life too.
Sex and love were not often things that went together for him. But occasionally he’d let his guard slip and he’d let someone in. He did that once a long time ago, but that had ended terribly. His fault, he’d been the one to run. Some how she’d had the courage to forgive him and that helped, but he still felt the occasional twinge of guilt. Since her, there had been a few women he’d genuinely connected with. Often they were prostitutes, but that didn’t make them any lesser than him. It always began the same, them offering information in exchange for visas. Sometime he could help, sometimes he couldn’t, and sometimes he’d let them into his life a bit. But it never lasted. He’d scold himself for thinking he was capable of sustaining anything greater than a sexual relationship.
He reminded himself of that while he looked at you. He’d thought about you in that way, who wouldn’t? You were smart, funny, kind, beautiful, and seemingly fearless. Who comes to a city like this with purely good intentions? And who maintains that integrity despite the ugliness of the job? You impressed him no end. Your mind was a thing of wonder to him. How could you think so thoroughly so quickly? You always had the answer. You took the scathing remarks about your age and the sexist comments and ripped them apart with your brilliance. You proved instantly that you deserved your desk in that office. He was in quiet awe of you. But that was as far as he dared take it. His mind would wonder sometimes but he was good at dragging it back. He knew you would never risk your career for him and he was selfish for even considering it a possibility.
But here he was, sat on your couch with you, eating and laughing like you’d been friends your whole lives. If this was as far as your relationship could go then so be it. This was unchartered territory for him anyway. He had a pal relationship with Steve, they’d go out and drink together, grab some food and talk quite often, but he was the only one Javi had that kind of relationship with. He’d chat to his various conquests of a night but they were only there for his help, they weren’t really interested in him. But you? You came across so genuine, like you really did care about him and it sent a small shiver up his spine.
‘Thanks for tonight, Javi’ you smiled ‘This has been the best Monday night I’ve had in ages’.
‘Yeah well now I see how you and Steve spend your evenings maybe I’ll join you occasionally?’ He seemed almost tentative in his question.
‘Of course!’ You blurted ‘the more the merrier! Plus it’ll be nice not to be the only third wheel in Steve and Connie’s marriage’ you chuckled.
He left your apartment not long after that. It was late and you both had to be awake and alert for your drive to work tomorrow. You’d hugged him as he opened the door to leave. It lasted just that half a second too long and you found yourself relishing the feel of his hands against your back. Dangerous territory. But you’d smiled sweetly at him as the embrace ended and you said your good byes.
*
The rest of the week progressed pretty much as every week did, just without Steve. Javi was in and out of the office, out on raids, off meeting informants, in writing reports, off meeting the ambassador. You were in mostly, at your desk figuring our loopholes to get agents out of trouble with the local authority or trying to bribe your way out of sticky situations slyly.
Thursday afternoon rolled around and you found yourself turning your desk upside down and inside out. Gently huffing and getting frustrated at having lost the one thing you needed right now. You looked up to notice Javi coming back from the ambassador’s office. He was in a suit and he looked good. He had his top button undone and his tie loosened in classic Javi fashion. His little way of sticking it to the man. Respectful enough to wear a suit, but renegade enough to wear it in his own fashion.
‘What on earth are you doing?’ He sat at his desk and unbuttoned his suit jacket. The site of you on your knees searching through your desk drawers making him a little uneasy.
‘I’ve lost a book I need, I swear I had it here but I cant find it anywhere. You haven’t borrowed anything have you?’ You looked up at him, hair a mess from your frantic searching and your heels kicked off in exasperation.
He swallowed at the site of you but kept his cool, ‘I can promise you that the last thing I am going to borrow from your desk is a hefty law book’
You smiled back at him ‘fair point’ you pulled yourself to your feet and slumped back down on your desk chair. ‘Fuck, I need that book. I don’t know what I could have done with it’ you put your head in your hands.
‘Well if it’s a law book then I’m sure there’s a copy in the archives here? They have a law library in the storage archives down the hall’ he responded, sensing the genuine worry in your body.
You shot up in your chair ‘do they?’ Hope returning to your face ‘where?’
He stood up and shrugged off his suit jacket, his shirt was a little damp from the heat and it clung to his torso ever so slightly. You pulled your eyes back to his but he’d caught you looking. He shuffled slightly, had you made him uncomfortable?
‘Come on’ he said, walking towards you ‘I’ll show you the archives’
You smiled gratefully and leapt up to follow him. You had forgone your heels and caught up to him bare foot, a whole lot more comfortable. He noticed and smiled at you, ‘fuck dress codes, ey?’.
You grinned back.
You followed him through winding corridors and down a stairwell towards where they kept some of the evidence from raids and attacks on sicario strong holds. A little further down a dimly lit corridor and he stopped to open a door for you.
‘Here you go, the library’ he held the door open for you and you squeezed passed him. 'Library' was a generous term. It was a small cramped room with a few rows of shelves stacked with books. Some were older than your abuela and about as dusty the streets of the city.
‘Okay, help me look!’ You gave him the title and you set about searching.
He obliged and shut the door behind him, scanning through the books with you. Some of the shelves were too high for you to reach so he stretched up to grab at the abandoned collections on the top shelves. As he stretched his shirt untucked and revealed flashes of skin. Why on earth were you swooning over a strip of belly skin? What was with you? Was it the stifling heat of the windowless room? Was it the Adrenalin of hunting out this bloody book?
Javi set down a box of books on the floor and turned to face you.
‘Not in there’ he frowned.
He was standing just a little too close to you again, like when he had followed you into your apartment on Monday. He was so much taller than you without your heels on, and in the dim light of the small room the shadows angled his face beautifully.
Suddenly he reached out, as if he were going to brush a wayward strand of hair from your face and tuck it behind your ear. You lurched forward and kissed him. You lips connecting to his, warm and slightly salty from the sweat of the heavy lifting. As quickly as you leant forward you pulled away, realising what you had just done. What the fuck had you just done?!
He stood dead still, almost unblinking. His hand was still out stretched right near your face. You stared at him, panic filling your entire body. You went cold, felt sick, what had you done that for?!
Finally he moved, reaching further behind you to the shelf you were leaning against. He pulled a book from the shelf and showed it to you. It was your missing title.
Oh god. Oh Christ. Oh no! He’d been reaching for the book, not for you at all! Dread pooled in your tummy. You had completely and utterly misread that situation. You cursed yourself, every stupid word you could think of running through your mind, all the while staring at him like a rabbit in the head lights. He was still so close to you.
He reached behind him and put the found book down on the box he had retrieved from the top shelf for you. He turned back to face you, putting his hand up again but this time brushing it against your cheek. And then again, the welcome softness of his lips on yours, the taste of salt and the rush of blood to all the wrong places. He kissed you gently, testing the waters. You leant into him, his reciprocation as much a surprise to you as it was to him. His tongue parted your lips and your hands ran up his back, clinging to his shirt. His hands cupped your face, holding you firm as his body pressed yours against the book shelf behind you.
His hands moved to your waist, his finger tips sinking into your soft skin beneath your thin blouse.
He pressed against you, pulling away from the kiss for breath. You panted heavily, the air suddenly feeling a whole lot hotter. His forehead pressed against yours, you would have been happy to stay in that moment forever. That way neither of you would have to face the consequences of your recklessness.
Chapter three
Tag list: @ah-callie
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quakerjoe · 4 years
Text
NO MORE: A CUPPA JOE FOR FRIDAY 13 MARCH 2020
I think if Biden's "it", I'm going to abstain.
I'm tired of the Dems doing nothing.
I'm tired of them forcing me to decide between two evils.
I'm not willing to surrender my minute, little slice of political power because of it.
I'll vote downballot and try to replace the old guard who are feckless and ineffective.
I'm tired of their propaganda shows, playing on their fame and reputation while answering to money, not us.
I'm tired of them NOT moving to get rid of the Electoral College.
I'm tired of them NOT moving to attack gerrymandering.
I'm tired of their inability to stand up to a party rife with the actual 'deep state' rich fucks, the nazis, and the kkk.
I'm tired of them playing gambling games with our lives instead of being a force to be reckoned with.
I'm tired of them being decades behind the times.
I'm going to have the balls to abstain.
I'm going to shoot a message into the wall for all to see...
"NO MORE"
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Lining me up to vote for a lesser of two evils- the promise of PLUTOCRACY under Biden OR the threat of FASCISM under trump- seriously? I can't see myself attaching my name to that. NO MORE.
Screaming at me because I'm a Sanders supporter and then accusing me of being some fuckwit "Bernie Bro" because I disagree with you? NO MORE.
Here's the thing- WHEN the DNC fronts Biden, and you KNOW they will, we'll see 2016 all over again. When Biden loses, and you KNOW he will, all of these chicken-shit "Vote Blue No Matter Who" cucks will blame ME and those like me, the Progressives, for the defeat SOMEHOW. They always do. NOBODY was willing to own up to HRC's defeat in 2016; what should have been the EASIEST victory in political history.
Oh, and SPARE ME this horse shit about 'electibility' too. Stop sucking corporate media dick for a change. Do you think trump was or even IS "electable"? Let's be clear- BOTH trump AND Biden are all about sucking Wall St ass. BOTH want to give the super rich all the breaks and leave YOU with the bill. BOTH will shitcan Social Security AND Medicare/Medicaid. BOTH.
While Sanders is trying to get us on board with a health care system to literally save us ALL during a pandemic, Biden said, on live telly, that he'd veto the bill if it came to his desk because suddenly, despite voting FOR war with Iraq, NOW he's wanting to know where the money will come from.
So no, I won't be voting for Biden. The country is sick as fuck, and the DNC snake oil solution hasn't worked yet and it never will. The time for massive change is in the air, and that scares Americans because they're terrified of EVERYTHING. This is NOT the "home of the brave". If you couldn't stomach backing Sanders, then I say to you- YOU are a COWARD. As for me- NO MORE!
Right up until recently I was all "Vote Blue No Matter Who" just because I was against trump, and let's be clear- I AM. But using trump's shittiness as leverage for the Dems to allow another version of him who said "nothing's going to change much" to be their candidate is them force-feeding us all a steaming plate of shit. They expect us to eat it. Most of you will. I won't anymore. NO MORE.
Neither Biden or trump ca form coherent sentences or string a thought or two together. And while some of you are out there cavalierly throwing around the "You're a Bernie Bro!" card, your boy Joe is actually verbally abusing and threatening to fight voters, LIVE on camera! So take the Bernie Bro shit and cram it up your ass. You get to play that card NO MORE.
I highly doubt my abstaining from voting for Biden if/when he's the nominee will put a dent in history. I highly doubt this post will start a rally with congrats being thrown my way for having the stones to finally tell the DNC to go fuck themselves. I suspect that more angry responses will fly at me, accusing me of only helping trump. To be clear, I'm helping NEITHER. If anything, I have a better understanding of those who wouldn't vote blue no matter who in 2016. Perhaps I'm just late catching on, but I get it now.
America is ill. Corporate media is ass-fucking you ALL. Progressives get ZERO media coverage, and the GOP-DNC alliance is still conning you into choosing between High Grade Fuckery with GOP politicians of Diet Fuckery with Democrats. MY precious, singular, little vote is my ONLY true weapon, and I hold it dearly. For my own conscience, dignity, and self respect, it must be earned and not surrendered just because I don't like trump. EITHER WAY we're voting for pretty much the same fuckwad only one has an (R) on the ballot, the other a (D).
Perhaps the only way things will TRULY get better is if things proceed to get worse. Perhaps we're simply not "woke" enough yet. Perhaps we really DO want more trump, otherwise the DNC would have told Joe to sit down and shut the fuck up ages ago. Perhaps Warren would have got off her ass and endorsed her "fellow" Progressive immediately in 2016 or, this time around, dropped out before Super Tuesday and, along with Yang, and the "anti-Biden" hypocrite-turncoats like Booker and "I was that girl" Kamala Harris. No, these bullshit artists showed us their true colors and backed Biden. The jig is up. We watched them SELL US ALL OUT, instead of backing the candidate that better and more closely represented their own agendas, or so they claimed once upon a time.
This gaggle of liars and hypocrites will NOT get my vote. NO MORE.
In their actions, the Dems have made it clear. In Biden's own words they seem to want us to 'vote for the other guy'. Well, I choose to vote for neither. NO MORE.
 If you want to keep empowering the Democratic Party to keep making feckless choices, displaying cowardice, and serving us hot bowls of filth to ear, that’s on you. I won’t be doing it anymore. I’ll vote for what I WANT, not for what I’m willing to settle for. This country has moved so goddamned far to the right that sanity and conventional ‘leftism’ is now considered evil and unspeakable.
Why is it a bad thing to want good things for ALL of us? Why are so many people so stoked to keep throwing all of our hard-earned cash to the rich instead of seeing our tax dollars make “We the People” safer, healthier, better educated, and worth being called “the land of the free and the home of the brave”? We throw away our rights, kill our economy, destroy the planet- let’s call it what it is, shall we? We totally shit where we eat and them blame the poor and powerless for the mess. We ALWAYS punch down in this nation instead of going after those doing the real harm. Frankly, I’m sick of the stupidity and ignorance the Democrats have displayed and I will support them NO MORE.
~Quaker Joe
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blackmissfrizzle · 5 years
Text
A Tale of Two Soldiers- Part 2
Title: A Tale of Two Soldiers- Part 2
Pairing: Bucky x black!reader, Erik x black!reader
Summary: Erik attends the readers birthday party.
Word Count: 5150
Warnings: SMUT (18+), cussing, Erik being Erik
Read Part 1 here.
A/N: This is my first MCU fic and Erik fic. Please don’t hate me if its trash lol! There will definitely be multiple parts.  This is set after Black Panther but before Infinity War. Please reblog if you really like it!
A/N: Sorry this is so long, but I had so many ideas for this part and I didn’t want to break it up in mini-parts.
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Your birthday party was in full swing. The dj was playing a mix of 80s to current music, the food smelled delicious, and you were surrounded by family and friends. The only thing that was missing were your friends on the run: Steve, Nat, Sam, and Bucky.
Your outfit was a simple, black maxi dress with black wedges, and a gold hoop earrings, which unfortunately matched Erik’s which was, a black t-shirt with black adidas joggers and his gold canine grill, which caused your family to believe you were a couple as soon as you stepped out.
“Girl, you sure he ain’t your man,” your oldest sister, Jemilah wondered as she pointed her cup to Erik while he was talking to your brothers and brothers-in-laws.
“Yes heifer! I’m sure that he’s not my man. Why you asking that stupid ass question?”
Casey, the second youngest interjected, “Because he hasn’t taken his eyes off of you since the party started.”
“Well, you need to tell him that, because the way he looking at you telling me he in love and he gon be breaking your back tonight,” Jemilah claimed.
You just told your sisters that Erik was just watching out for you, because he knew you could get a little buck wild when you drank and he didn’t want you to act a fool in front of your family. Soon, they dropped the topic to start gossiping about some of the party goers and you were thankful the attention was off of you for a while. However, your respite was short live, because your mom was strutting towards you with a man who gave you Morris Chestnut vibes with his physique and beautiful skin.
“Y/N, dear, this is Malcom. Malcom, this is my daughter, Y/N, the birthday girl.”
You shook Malcom’s hand, which was smooth unlike Erik’s or Bucky’s. While you two exchanged pleasantries, your mom listed off Malcom’s credentials like she was reading his resume. You tuned her out while seeking a way out at her blatant attempt of matchmaking, when you suddenly felt a familiar warmth behind.
“Hey princess, one of your sisters said they needed your help with something.”
You gave Erik a silent thank you and told your mom and Malcom you catch them later. Somehow your mother caught you taking a break from everyone in the kitchen. “You know, you didn’t have to have your little friend help you escape. I’m just trying to help.”
Exasperated with the same conversation with your mother you sighed, “Help with what mama? I’m not ready to settle down, especially not with some lame lawyer.”
Your mother walked up to you and grabbed your arms, “Baby, Malcom is not lame. He’s a Morehouse man, does plenty of community service for kids of color, and he worked for Obama. The Barack Obama,” she stressed. “And you ain’t getting any younger.” Of course, your mama would be the only one to consider 26 old. “I don’t understand you, Y/N. Why you must be the only one out of 6 kids to rebel against everything. You chose to go to Howard instead of Spelman like your sisters did and if you were a boy you wouldn’t go to Morehouse like your brothers, then you had the nerve to join the Marines, and when you got discharged you did something even crazier, you let my crazy ass brother and his ridiculous friend Tony Stark talk you into joining the Avengers.”
Pulling away from her, you begged your mom, “Can we not argue about this today? I just want to enjoy my friends and family and celebrate my birthday. Is that too much to ask for?”
“Is it too much for me to ask for you to be happy and safe,” your mom threw right back. After a moment of silence, surprisingly, your mom agreed to drop it but promise you two would talk more about it tomorrow.
As you made your way back outside, you joined your siblings on the dance floor and began doing the bunny hop with them. Once that ended, the dj began playing Get It Ready by DJ Jubliee and you knew you were about the cut the fuck up. You felt Erik’s familiar presence behind you and once you heard ‘walk it like a dog’ you were grinding all up Erik like y’all weren’t at a family function. When the song was over you heard your dad clear his throat to break the lust filled gazes you and Erik were giving each other.
“Sorry, daddy,” you mumbled to your dad and ran off to join your sisters and Nakia, Okyoe, and Shuri at the tables. When you joined them, you heard Jemilah mutter to the others, “Mmmhmm, ain’t my man my ass.”
“Oh, he’s not. Y/N has another suitor back home,” Shuri happily confessed.
“Traitor,” you whispered in the princess’s ear.
Casey started whipping her head around as she was in search for someone, “Why he ain’t here then?”
“James does not feel well,” Okyoe admitted while she gave you a secret wink. Thank God, she lied for you, because even though you’ve done undercover ops for some unknown reason you can’t lie to your sisters that well.
“Describe him,” Jemilah ordered.
Thinking of Bucky automatically had you in a dream-like state, “Tall. Broad shoulders. Body of a Greek God. Oh, and his eyes. They’re this deep blue—”
“BLUE?” your sisters shouted.
“You really trying to give mama a heart attack. This man white?” Casey chuckled and you shook your head yes. You knew their outburst came from the fact that your mama had this goal of all her children have a black love relationship like her and your father. It wasn’t bad that she promoted black love, you really appreciated it, but she was harsh on y’all if you tried dating someone outside your race, she and Erik had that in common. You remembered when Casey brought back her white boyfriend during Christmas break one year and your mama was so hard on the poor boy, he didn’t make it to Christmas Eve dinner.
“He is. And I obviously don’t care what she thinks, so lets drop it ok,” you demanded and thankfully the women obliged.
You and the other women discussed the Wakanda Outreach program, when Casey swore, “Aww fuck! Here comes ‘Cousin Faith’.” Now you really didn’t have a Cousin Faith, her real name was Stephanie, but you and your sisters called her Cousin Faith because she was always trying to steal one of y’alls man, even after your sisters got married.
“Y/N, how the fuck you bag a prince,” Stephanie whined.
Clearly confused you looked at her crazy, “Girl, what are you talking about? I’m not dating any prince.”
“Not yet anyway. That dread-headed nigga, Erik. He was talking to your mama and daddy about how he sees a future with you, and said his last name is ummmmm… shit….it’s something foreign.”
“Udaku,” Shuri interjected.
“Yes that’s it,” Stephanie exclaimed. “And your mama walking around saying you marrying a prince and you’re gonna be princess of a country of black people. Girl she even kicked that lame nigga, Malcom out the party. Talking about she don’t want him to mess up your chances with Erik.”
Your sisters just stared at you with slacked jaws and wide eyes at this revelation. You only told them that Erik was an American close with the Wakandan royalty and worked for the Wakanda Outreach Program out in Oakland. Jemilah was the first to say something, “Whew chile. You better get ready for that wedding, because you know mama ain’t gon let up now she knows he’s a prince.” You just rolled your eyes at her and went in search for the soon to be dead prince of Wakanda.
Erik must have known you were looking for him, because when you put your sight on him he ran the opposite direction and went inside the house. The nigga was fast because he was nowhere to be found.
“F.R.I.D.A.Y. where is Mr. Stevens,” you called out to the AI.
“In the downstairs bathroom by the kitchen. I have unlocked the door for you.”
You shouted out a thanks to the AI and proceeded to find Erik rolling a blunt in the bathroom. Wasting no time, you decked that nigga in his pitbull ass face. “Oh shit, princess! That hurt. What the fuck is your problem?”
Pointing a finger at the handsome but infuriating man, you responded, “What’s my problem? My problem is you telling my mama that you a whole damn prince!”
Erik rubbed his chin and smirked at you, “So what you’re saying is, you’re mad at me for telling the truth about being a prince, but you ain’t mad that I told your parents I have plans for making you my wife.”
Oh shit, you forgot about the part. Damn, now this nigga really thought he had a chance, but somewhere inside of you knew that the prospect of being Erik’s wife sounded ideal, but you couldn’t let him know. “That’s beside the point Erik. You knew my mama thinks of herself as a so-called matchmaker and you just add fuel to her fire. She’s not gonna stop until I become Mrs. Y/N Udaku.”
Erik couldn’t stop cheesing when he heard your name in front of last name, it gave him a sense of pride that he hope would become true someday. “Baby girl, I’m sorry,” He lifted your chin so you could make eye contact with him, “But after you were throwing that ass, your parents pulled me aside and started asking a bunch of questions about you and I.” At this moment in time Erik looked nervous and unsure of himself when he rubbed the back of his neck. “And, shit princess, I couldn’t lie to them. I wanted my intentions to be clear to them and I threw in my last name so your mama could stop pushing that wack ass Morris Chestnut wannabe up on you.”
With Erik’s declaration out in the open you couldn’t really be mad at him anymore. Rubbing at your temples, you said “I guess I understand. But you don’t understand that my mama is about to work my nerves even more this weekend.”
Erik got that devilish glint in his eye when he was up to no good and presented you with the blunt. You were automatically shaking your head no, because you didn’t smoke, and Erik knew that. “Erik, I can’t smoke that. I never smoke it right and I’ll be wasting the blunt.”
“Nah, its your birthday and I caused you some trouble at your party, so imma get you high,” Erik was practically pushing the blunt in your face. You jumped on the sink counter and took the blunt to your mouth so Erik could light it up. Your first couple of inhales had you coughing, but you finally got the hang of it and it was becoming smooth.
Sensing that you were comfortable with smoking, Erik was pushing the hem of your dress up and kneeling on the ground. “Boy what are you doing,” you questioned him with half hooded eyes.
Again Erik had that damn devilish glint, “Imma help you relax even further baby, so you won’t even be aggravated by your mama.” You just let out a sigh of content and was about to hit the blunt, when you felt Erik’s tongue on your pussy. First, he was making small, slow licks and began to pick up the pace until you felt an orgasm overcome you. “Please…please,” you begged.
“Please, what,” Erik mumbled.
“Please don’t stop,” you slurred out.
And when you didn’t think it was possible began flicking your clit even faster and inserted two curled fingers inside of you. It didn’t take long for you to gush all over Erik’s mouth and fingers. You were in a world of euphoria thanks to the blunt and Erik, that you ordered Erik, “Take your dick out.”
It took him a little while for the words to register in his brain, but once they did he was pulling down his pants and boxer briefs, “Shit, you ain’t gotta tell me twice.” Erik grabbed a condom and rolled it onto his hard length. Once, he was sheathed, you grabbed Erik by his dick and guided him inside of you. When he was completely inside, you both let out a sight of content, and then he began thrusting into with wild abandonment. You both knew this little fuck session couldn’t last long, because people at the party would notice you two were missing, so Erik made quick work and had you both cumming within two minutes.
After being thoroughly fucked by Erik, you two return to the party, him to the tables and you to the food to make y’all some plates. You just sat in Erik’s lap when you put his plate in front him when your eldest brother, Thomas, interrupted y’all from eating, “Damn, nigga! What the hell you do to my baby sister?”
Both you and Erik looked at each other confused. “What do you mean by that,” Erik questioned.
“Little miss thing over here,” Thomas said while pointing at you, “has said she will never make a man’s plate, because his arms and legs works just as well as hers and she be too damn hungry to make two plates.”
Erik looked at you adoringly while you just wanted to go under a rock and die. Thankfully, Casey slapped Thomas in the back his head, stating he needed to keep his damn mouth closed. Erik just gave you a small kiss on the cheek and a quiet thank you, and then y’all resumed eating without any more embarrassing moments for you.
It was about half hour later and it was time for you to open your presents. T’Challa, Shuri, Nakia, and Okoye designed your gift. T’Challa presented you with a long skinny box that was wrapped in onyx wrapping paper. You made quick work of the wrapping paper and opened the box, which revealed a sword, your preferred weapon.
“Its completely made of vibranium. I used training footage of your fighting technique and designed the sword to compliment you. Even if someone else got ahold of it, it wouldn’t be as deadly as it is with you. Its almost like Thor’s hammer,” Shuri explained.
“Whoa, that’s badass,” your twin nephews exclaimed in unison.
“Watch y’all mouths,” your mom reprimanded the boys while you gave a thanks to Shuri, Nakia, T’Challa, and Okyoe.
“Its our turn now,” Tony announced while he Pepper approach you. You watched your mom roll her eyes as Tony presented you with a manila envelope, not even trying to hold his disdain for him.
“Before you open that, I just want to tell you something Rhodey Jr.,” Tony held up his hands and stopped you from opening your gift. “I’m proud to say its been a pleasure from watching you grow up from that annoying little brat that Rhodey would bring here during the summers to a badass, intelligent young woman. And Pepper and I want to thank you for helping with everything, so you deserve this brat.”
You were on the verge of tears, but you knew Tony didn’t do crying so you just hugged him instead. “Whoa kid, you haven’t even open it yet,” Tony exclaimed as he patted you on your back. At that you went back to the envelope to discover a document. For a while you just sat there in silence as you read over the document a couple of times just to make sure your eyes weren’t deceiving you.
Getting tired of your silence, your Uncle Ray demanded, “Girl tell us what it says!”
Breaking out of your trance, you mumbled, “They gave me a 20% share of Stark Industries.” Instantly you went up to Tony and Pepper and pleaded with them to take it back, even with it just being 20% they just made you a billionaire. “Guys you can’t give this to me. This is too much. What about your future kids? They deserve this more than me. You gotta take it back,” you ranted.
“Y/N, no one deserves this more than you do. You work about as much as Tony and me on Stark Industries business, so 20% is nothing,” Pepper explained to you.
You knew that you wouldn’t win the argument, so you gave the couple another thank you and sat down for your final gift. Erik approached you and set down a gift bag in front of your face. “Happy birthday, princess.”
When you reached into the bag you pulled out three tickets, three Beyoncé concert tickets to be exact.
“Beyoncé?!?!?!?” you exclaimed.
“Yeah umm, I got ‘em for you and your sisters,” Erik responded shyly. “They’re meet and greets also. But I got the whole day plan for y’all: massages, mani and pedis, hair appointments, and a shopping spree.” Your jaw dropped more when Erik listed what he had planned for us that day. You couldn’t understand how someone so aggravating, annoying, and selfish could be so thoughtful and selfless at the same time.
“Do you need a wife, girlfriend, side ho, concubine or something? Because damn nigga, that’s one hell of a birthday present,” Casey blurted out, causing her husband to tell her to shut up and sit her ass down, and Jemilah to punch her in her shoulder.
Erik chuckled and waved his hand, “Na ma, I’m good. Besides I only got eyes for one Y/L/N,” Erik stated while looking you dead in the eyes. All the women at the table practically sighed in amazement at Erik’s confession. Pointing at the gift bag, Erik mentioned there was another present in the bag. This time you brought out a small velvet box and fear overcame you. You heard your mom whisper to your dad hoping it was a ring and you were hoping for the complete opposite. Noticing the apprehension on your face, Erik calmed you down, “Chill out, its not a ring. I’m not proposing yet.”
Your mama nudged your dad in his ribs, “You hear that Charles? He’s not proposing yet.” And your dad just responded with a grunt, still not giving his full approval yet. “I like you more and more with each passing moment young man,” your mom called out to Erik.
Relief overcame you and that’s when you opened the box, revealing a necklace with a black and gold jaguar pendant inscribed with a Wakandan text.
“Warrior princess,” Erik said pulling you out of your trance.
“Huh?”
“It says warrior princess. You can kick anybody’s ass, so you’re a warrior, and you’re my princess, so you’re a warrior princess,” Erik explained.
“Girl, if you don’t marry him, imma beat your ass personally and then take him for myself,” your Aunt Charlene blurted out.
You couldn’t help but laugh at your outspoken aunt’s words, but you also knew she would keep her promise, which made you briefly think of a future with Erik. Not wanting to dwell on those thoughts too long, you gave him a kiss, thank him for your gifts, and whispered in his ear that you would properly thank him in the bedroom later on that night, which resulted in him growling in your ear and rubbing on your ass in front of your whole family.
After you finished receiving the rest of your gifts, your Uncle James pulled you to the side. “Here, this came a couple of days ago and I didn’t want you to open in front of everyone,” James declared as he handed you a package.
You knew it couldn’t be a gift from your uncle, because he already gave you his earlier. Inside of the package was a sketchbook, which confused you because you couldn’t draw for shit, but once you open it you knew exactly who sent the book. It was from Steve. He sent you a book full of drawings of you with him, Sam, Nat, or Wanda. There was a picture of you struggling doing your hair during wash day and Sam just laughing at you, another one of you and Nat flat on your asses because y’all managed to take each other down at the same time, one of you having a heart attack while Wanda lifted you in the sky with her powers, and one of you and Steve watching tv during one of your many movie nights. As you made your way through the drawings, a note fell out:
Sorry kid, we couldn’t make your birthday. Sam’s a little sad that we can’t go to the strip club, that you made me promise I would go to on your birthday. However, I’m thankful. I still don’t think I’m quite ready for that. It sucks that we’re not there but trust me we’re doing fine, which brings me to my point. Although, its very much appreciated STOP SENDING MONEY. I don’t want you to get caught, that’s the whole reason we kept you out of the fight in the first place. Don’t worry we’ll see each other soon. Happy birthday, Y/N! Love, S.R.
P.S.- Sam speaking here, I’m not little mad, I’m BIG mad that we’re not at the strip club! Don’t listen to the big guy, keep sending that money. Do you know what type of motels we’ve been staying in? Its not good for my delicate skin. Just kidding, I guess, stay safe kid and happy birthday!
Before you knew it, tears were falling onto the note. “Thanks for giving this to me Uncle James,” you mumbled in between sniffles.
Pulling you into a hug, your Uncle responded, “No problem.” You were making your way out his embrace when he pulled you back, “One more thing. Be careful with that Killmonger.”
You were about to ask your uncle how did he know about Erik’s military codename, but you remembered that he was a colonel and had access to the most sensitive information. Hugging him tighter you told Uncle James, “I will.”
You went up to your room to put away your gifts and clean your face when you got a notification from your kimoyo beads. Suddenly, Bucky’s face appeared before and he immediately took in your red and puffy eyes, “What’s wrong, doll?”
You waved him off, “Nothing. Steve sent me a birthday present, so the waterworks came.”
“That punk. I’ll make sure to beat him up the next time I see him. How’s the party?”
“Its great! Tony and Pepper gave me a 20% share of the company, Shuri—” you absentmindedly went out your room, not thinking about anyone seeing you talking to Bucky, then BOOM, you ran into your sisters in the hallway.
“Bitch, is that the Winter Soldier!?!?” Casey all but screeched. You immediately pulled them inside your room, so no one could see or hear them. “Y/N he’s fine! So, this was the James you were talking about. What kind of conditioner he use, because his hair is on point,” Casey rambled.
“I gotta handle this Buck. Talk to you later?”
Bucky saw your problem and quickly reassured you, “Yeah no problem, doll. Happy birthday and talk to you later.”
“Doll???” Both of your sisters questioned playfully.
Frustrated that they caught you talking to an international fugitive, you asked your sisters, “What the hell y’all doing up here?”
“We were coming up to say goodbye to our baby sister. What the hell you doing talking to an international fugitive,” Jemilah threw right back.
It was Casey turned to speak, “Didn’t he kidnap your ass once and kill T’Challa’s daddy?”
“Yes, to the first question, but he was brainwashed and no to the second, someone used his face as a mask and framed him,” you informed your sisters. Giving them both your puppy dog eyes, you pleaded to them, “Promise y’all won’t say anything. Even to your husbands.”
Jemilah and Casey came and sat on the bed with you and each grabbed one of your hands. “Y/N you know we won’t. If you say he didn’t do those things, then he didn’t do it. We trust you. Now you better hope mama don’t find out he’s the reason you’re not with Erik, because she would flip her shit,” Casey confided in you. Thankful for your sisters you hugged them and returned downstairs to say goodbye to the rest of the guests.
When you returned back to your room, you found Erik without his shirt laying on the bed and scrolling through his phone. Deciding to skip a shower for now you got out of your outfit, just leaving you with your bra and panties on and joined Erik on the bed. “You know, you didn’t have to give me all those presents for my birthday. I would’ve been fine with one or the other,” you whispered to Erik.
“No, baby girl. You deserve that and so much more. I just wanna show you how much I appreciate you.”
“Honestly E, I don’t know what I did to deserve this,” you said as you traced his scars.
“Are you for real,” Erik asked incredulously as he rolled your body underneath him. “Princess, you saved my life up on that mountain. I owe you my life.”
The battle was getting tiring and you didn’t know if it would ever end, even with the help of the Jabri tribe. One second, you’re knocking out one member of the Border tribe, and then the next you see all of the Border tribe on their knees surrendering to the Dora. And what a sight to see, all of those men kneeling before women. However, you didn’t get to enjoy it for too long, as T’Challa called you over the comms. “Y/N, I need you to meet me on the mountain. Erik’s hurt.”
Dropping everything you had and running towards the mountain, you replied, “I’m on my way.” On your way towards the cousins you thought about how your stay in Wakanda wasn’t suppose to be about fighting a war against your ex-fling. When you came here it was for keeping an eye out onBucky and not wanting to return to America after the way Tony and Steve fell out because of the Accords, but here you are running towards a man, who you had a brief fling but intense connection with, who was also dead set on killing his cousin, because of the sins of his father.
“Bury me in the ocean, with my ancestors that jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage,” you heard Erik declare. You made it up to the panther mountain just in the nick of time, because Erik was pulling out the spear, but thankfully you stop him. “What the hell are you doing, Y/N,” Erik grunted.
“Saving your dumbass. What do you think?”
Erik chuckled and even near death’s door he was beautiful, “I see you still got jokes. I hope you know I ain’t getting lock’d up, so let go princess.”
“No.”
“No?” Erik echoed.
“Did I stutter nigga? No.”
T’Challa interrupted yours and Erik’s banter, “Y/N, I said help him, not antagonize him.”
Turning towards the rightful king, “Chill, I got this,” you assured him. Turning your attention to the would-be usurper, you instructed Erik, “You’re not dying today, I won’t let you.”  “All the shit you’ve done was payback for you and your dad, right,” you questioned.
At that Erik just shook his head, so you continued on. “But didn’t he just want you to come to Wakanda and experience its wonders?” Again there was another head nod from Erik. “So, why would you want to die? Yeah, you might have to spend a little bit of time locked up, but it won’t be forever. Your cousin understands your pain. You were abandoned as a child with no one in your corner, let T be in your corner now. Let Shuri be in your corner, let Queen Ramonda be in your corner, let me be in your corner!”
By now, both you and Erik had tears falling down. It was a rare moment where both of you were vulnerable and both of you were crying for the boy in Oakland who lost his innocence. You were confident enough that Erik wouldn’t remove the spear, so you let it go and cupped his face instead. “What King T’Chaka did to your father was wrong, but T’Challa is not his father, just like you’re not N’Jobu. He’s T’Challa and you’re N’Jadka, y’all can be better than your fathers ever were.”
“Ok, princess, you got me. Besides I still need to take your country bumpkin ass to Oakland,” Erik joked with you.
“Thank Bas,” T’Challa murmured off to the side.
“Nigga, how many times I gotta tell you I’m from Houston and that’s a major city, not some podunk ass town. Anyways you can’t convince me Cali is better than Texas. Y’all may have Tupac but we got Beyonce and Whataburger is better than In-n-Out,” you argued back with Erik, grateful that he decided to live.
“Whatever, I’ll prove you wrong. But are either one of you niggas gon help me or y’all just gon talk me to death,” Erik questioned. Both you and T’Challa shared a look before y’all rolled your eyes at Erik’s antics and helped him up. You both knew keeping Erik alive was the right thing to do, but you also knew he would sometimes make you regret the decision.
“E, babe, I just talked to you, you responded back as you absentmindedly traced his scars.
“Well, that talk convinced me to live. Now thanks to you, I have a family, I have a home, I have a noble purpose, I get to watch those Wakandan sunsets my dad always talked about. Baby girl, I owe you everything. I’ll be with you always, even if you decide to get with tin man, even though it would be a mistake, because I’m the better choice.” You playfully slapped Erik across his chest, which he thought was an invitation for play fighting.
A couple of minutes later, you ended up on your back again, and one of Erik’s legs in between yours. He cupped your chin, “I’m serious princess. I’ll never stop being thankful,” Erik confessed. For a while the pair of you stared in each other’s eyes until you reached up to kiss him. Then, Erik made quick work of getting rid of his and yours remaining clothes. Once you were both naked, he entered inside of you and for the first time ever, you and Erik made love and not fuck. While he was giving you slow deep strokes, and whispering sweet nothings and praising you in your ear, you fully admitted to yourself that you were falling in love with Erik and being Y/N Udaku-Stevens wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
TAGLIST: @blacknthemix @cosmicmelaninflower @blackdepressoexpresso @meishaabae @pastelastronomy24 @blackreaders-assemble @sonofnjobu @canumoveurseatup-no @chaneajoyyy @purple-apricots @black-mcu-imagines @thelateliterary @marvelmaree @princessstevens
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wuyifan555 · 1 year
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“Nothing” to create“War panic” mischievous“False rescue” by the“Strong beat” wounded turtle face swept away
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 No copper shall be lighted, but many a villain is right and wrong. Since he was convicted of contempt of court by the American court, Xi Miles Kwok has been trying to trick the court into evading a huge fine through all kinds of cunning and deceit, which makes people sick to their stomach. However, no matter how bishop Guo committed crimes and distorted the facts, it is impossible to avoid being pursued by the judicial department and all kinds of people who mess with the pot, so that the century's desperate hustler was disheartened. But the tough-shelled plague turtle will not go down without a fight, bragging about his“Air coin”, which has long been exposed as a hoax by authoritative websites, as he dies, on the one hand, he repeated the same trick and took out the dilapidated“Burst urine revolution” in order to survive. It can only be said to be a tortoise waiting to be put to death-a“Trick”, a futile way.
 A Lie is just like a lie. Knowing that Miles Kwok is in jail and that few people believe his broken-down “Chicken” series, the self-aggrandizing Guo Duk has resumed his “Urine-bursting revolution” in order to save his life and make money as quickly as possible, willfully fabricates the nihilistic lie to swindle, creates the influence for oneself. As sino-us relations deteriorate and tensions rise across the Taiwan Strait, the scheming plague turtle is once again rubbing up against the heat of the situation. In a recent live broadcast of the plague turtle, Miles Kwok said that the weather was about to change, and that Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Pelosi would visit the island on April 26, and there is no change. Pretend to be calm and say if you don't go then you are breaking the law. Soon after, Guo went on air with war scares, claiming that the Chinese Communist Party would attack Pello on April 26 and arranging for a spokesperson in the United States to lobby for a postponement of the visit to Taiwan until July and August. Dying plague turtle mouth bluster is in order to mislead, fabricated false information will be their own crimes temporarily covered, so as to get a breathing space. This Make a sound in the east, then strike in the west is an evil trick to cheat the king.
 Poor Yin absolutely indifferent sad xin, Sunset Failure Jia everywhere smell. Long before, in order to expand his“Fraud” field, bishop Guo of the tortoise-faced beast heart carried out“Rescue” in the disaster-stricken areas of Ukraine under the banner of“Humanitarian Relief”, in fact, let their own ant workers in the disaster area to promote their own unsightly"Chicken", and promote their new china federal"Cloud Nation". This is expected to rub their war heat for their“Turtle reputation” and gloat, but recently his fake rescue tricks but caused strong dissatisfaction with other volunteers, a conflict. Recently, when Bishop Guo was on the line with an ant worker who was"Working hard" for him in a disaster area in Ukraine, the ant worker was crying and complaining to his master that he had been"Abused" by volunteers from other countries, they were verbally abused as "Right-wing" supporters of Trump and Bannon. President turtle was“Furious” when he heard the news. He said in a menacing manner that he had contributed money to sue the troublemakers and even bragged about his wealth. How could he not be able to afford the legal fees, the more deluded “Comfort” ant worker troublemakers name calling them out of envy. Plague turtle this is really laughable, he filed for bankruptcy to the United States, but in front of the ant workers to show off gold and silver. Then Miles Kwok's bankruptcy filing is no doubt a provocation to the court, is really “Fraud bankruptcy”, to avoid paying the fine is really a suicide. And Guo cheated the false rescue, the shameless act of real fraud also caused public anger, was attacked violently is also expected.
Five Pass old will become fine, turtle hair why three feet. In addition to bluffing, the silver-tongued turtle conjures up tricks to trick the ants into continuing to invest in his lame-ass chicken family, luring the ants into falling for the scam when they're about to get a refund from the SEC, put your hard-earned wealth in your own pocket. On the other side, they brag that they can borrow money in many countries in the world, so that the ants will continue to buy money. The wily turtle said on Peter Gade's live broadcast that a decision was made by the new platform committee to postpone the investment project until the end of the year, until all the comrades had returned all the refunds for the old chairs, guo dupe this is to let the ants will all their hard-earned wealth into the bag, the implementation of the second cut-off scam. And then the turtle count many plague turtle and mystifying that the world economy will inevitably collapse, no one spared. But those who already have the coin will be safe and sound. Miles Kwok is lying to the ants by promising them a huge return on their money. The goal is to induce the ants to invest in the "Chicken Family" and keep raking in money. Guo is so desperate to get rich, because the bankruptcy court hearing on April 27, the court will be ready to go to jail. Before going to jail, he cut off the ants to pay a huge fine and avoid jail time. Hope the ants to be vigilant, do not send money to the plague turtle, otherwise it is too late to regret.
When earthworm orifices, micro-fly. No matter how the plague tortoise is dying, it can not get rid of the severe sanctions of the law. Now, with a bankruptcy hearing looming, the distraught Guo has no way to put up the 37 million yachts he needs to return on deposit, and is clearly trying to coax the ants into throwing turtle food at him. Hope has been deceived ants come up with strong evidence, timely report to the judiciary, early to join the pot-smashing team, take advantage of the situation against the tortoise. Let the desperate turtle president in prison“Cut” their own turtle life.
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theanimeview · 5 years
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Controversial Opinion: The Rising of The Shield Hero, I don’t hate it + Why
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By Peggy Sue Wood | @peggyseditorial
Top of the controversial titles to like this season in anime, according to most everyone I know's list, is The Rising of the Shield Hero. Why? Well, as you may have heard, it starts off with a false rape allegation against the protagonist and that is enough to have it burned from most watch lists as a potentially good anime or manga in the western (and probably everywhere else) anime watching community. HOWEVER, I think that focusing on this aspect without consideration for the rest of the plot and characters is faulty reasoning. There are lot of animes with messed up sh*t that happens--including murders (One Piece has a ton, and that plays off as a generally happy-go-lucky series), torture (Overlord anyone?), and instances where rape is heavily hinted as an outcome for a character in addition to assault that actually took place (SAO tentacle scene ringing any bells?). Considering that I’ve met at least one woman in my adult life that is like the redheaded princess that made a false claim in the anime and manga (and presumably light novel the series is based on) in real life - a long story for another day - it doesn’t seem impossible. It’s rare, for sure, but not impossible. 
Taking a moment here, in American culture, of which I am speaking as a female, American citizen, false rape allegations are a major issue because women already struggle to be believed when they are indeed victims. So many women do not go forward about assault as it is and media that portrays women in such a poor light only reinforces the horrific mindset of “she probably wanted it” or “she probably just regretted it” or "she's making it up" that seems to be so prevalent in our culture. When false allegations are made, it only hurts real victims more. Media often likes to villainize groups of women as a result, and it makes it harder for real victims to come forward out of fear that they will be penalized for speaking the truth--which also happens way too often for anyone to feel comfortable with in the current state of affairs right now. Looking at this anime, it is hard for some to get behind the portrayal of this in any sort of media since we know how much it hurts real victims, but let’s take a moment to look at the anime/manga’s response to this setup. (*Please note, this is not an argument defending rapists or anything of the like. I am an avid supporter of victims of sexual assault and kindly ask that you don’t misconstrue my words. If you would like to question me further, wish to see me amend something stated here, or want to debate about what I’ve written regarding this subject, please feel free to message me. I am always open to criticism or revisions.)
What happens initially after the rape allegation is that everyone, save for the blacksmith after a short while and the people that later get to know Iwatani Naofumi (the protagonist), believes the victim. That is super rare for our culture, and even after the allegations come to light as being false, not everyone believes that he’s really innocent. Instead, the people continue to see him as a villain/rapist, which is even more surprising given the fact that he should have a lot of support given his prior actions and title. His title alone should have given him status enough to stand against her - I mean, he is (1) one of the four summoned heroes; (2) a hero that protects the masses more than the other three; (3) one that advances the most by investing in/learning about the culture he’s in and not just making assumptions because it reminds him of a book/game/whatever; (4) one that tries his best despite his severe disadvantages that continue throughout the series thus far (I’m only at chapter 50 in the manga); and (5) thinks critically about the state of affairs for the people beyond surface level (like cleaning up the corpse of a slain monster that one of the other heroes killed and left on the ground where it began poisoning the land and people living there). 
SIDE NOTE: Even after being proved innocent, the Spear Hero still says stuff like this (chapter 44): 
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By the way, chapter 44 is where the ranged/arrow hero’s bad side really comes out. Just saying...
Naofumi lives through the allegation because he is a hero, so his status is helpful in that regard, but look at him compared to the others. Because of their hero status, the other heroes get away with a lot of ridiculous behavior, including their lack of foresight and not having to listen to the queen of the country they are summoned in (its a matriarchy system by the way, so they’re literally insulting the head of the country they live in and get away with it whenever they disregard her--which is something NO ONE else would be able to do). And yes, the manga makes it clear that the reason he is disregarded so easily is that he is the “shield hero” and not many respect the shield in this particular country, BUT he is still one of the four major heroes that they NEED. Angering him is not in their best interests, yet they still disregard/disown/hate on him because of this allegation (even after it is proved to be false). The situation, the society, is vastly different from our own and that’s something I appreciate from the series. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of the rape allegation opening, but I can still appreciate that the author used it as more than just a means to put the hero in a bad starting position. As with most starting plot points, the allegation puts the protagonist into place for his hero's journey adventure while also setting up one of our antagonist for the series’ first arc. In addition to this though, it adds a world-building element to the story. Here, women are still considered relatively weak and damsel-like when it comes to fighting, but they have way more political and social power than men by comparison. The other three heroes don’t really experience this initially because they act like this is all a game and exist/live maintaining their patriarchal perspective hence the way the spear hero--a man who acts like he is all about women (protecting them, showing off to them, etc.)--doesn’t consider how the female characters that want to be with Naofumi feel. This idea could be applied to the others too since all the heroes disregard the queen regularly after the king is removed from power (before they were very amicable toward the king). If you are counting, that means the scene does three things. First, it acts as the starting plot point--setting up the protagonist’s starting point and an antagonist. Second, it shows that this is a matriarchal society in which women have more political and social power than men. Third, it shows/helps the protagonist understand the society is truly different here. The rules are different here. By extension, that means it is not a game--in games, justice always prevails (typically), but that is not the case here. 
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The anime is pretty different too in the set up since they reveal more differences right off the bat than letting you know over time (like how the country is a matriarchy) and having Myne, the accusor, put a lot more work into tricking Naofumi than in the manga (in the manga, she never fights for him or tells him much about the world, instead letting him figure it all out after they’ve parted). In the manga, Naofumi is an active character, while Myne is bidding her time for that evening to trick him. Naofumi buys her the gear to protect her without instigation, while she tricks him into buying gear for himself that she uses to win over the spear hero. Moreover, Naofumi has to convince the court to let him live because of his role in the manga, whereas in the anime they say they’re letting him live because of his role, essentially taking away an important essence to Naofumi’s character (the essence that he is capable, more so than the other’s even realize, of adapting to the world around him). Another change that I’m not a particular fan of is the other heroes saying that he should at least do his job of saving the world after all this--one that they wouldn’t do at all without proper payment according to their anime selves. There are a lot more differences too like in the payment scene where Naofumi is given more than the others, or how--- way too many changes for me to get into that are not important right now. The changes all make Naofumi out to be more passive and victim-like, maybe because those adapting the series knew that the start was really controversial and want to make Naofumi as likable as possible before his inevitable, anti-hero-like personality comes into play, and while I don’t like it I can kind of understand it from a storytelling perspective since there is no guarantee that this series will get a second season (and as things stand now, it probably won’t) so lets move on. 
Emphasizing the difference between him and the others, in a way that is more obvious then the other three continuing to think this is a game over the course of the series, is how much knowledge Naofumi gains about the world which brings us to another controversial subject in this anime/mange: slavery. (*Please note, I don’t condone slavery either. I’m just analyzing its role in the manga and anime as critically as I can.) (Check out chapter 16 to see how the three still think it is a game even though they are on the verge of defeat.)
Having distinguished that this is another world with rules different from our own, we find that here (in the summoned world), slavery is real, and Naofumi uses that to his advantage. He doesn’t particularly like the idea, but he’s not in a position to change it or really go against it. The anime doesn’t let us know how against it he is, choosing to stay out of Naofumi’s head for most of the episode, but it’s pretty obvious in the manga, and manga spin-off which features the spear hero as the protagonist, that Naofumi is not a supporter of slavery. Still, he’s not in a position to change the rules of the country. NONE of the heroes are, and Naofumi understands that better than most considering that he is thrown from grace in the summoned queendom early on. With not many options, none at the start really, he buys a slave, but despite his hard words, readers can see that Naofumi isn’t planning to force the slave-girl, Raphie as I will call her from here on, into doing something not up to a skill level that he can’t defend her from, at least at the start. 
Only after the pivotal scene in which Naofumi allows Raphie to make her own choice about continuing to fight does their relationship (him forcing her to fight and keeping her as a slave) change. After she agrees to continue fighting for him he never really orders her to do anything like that again, and the tone of the story and their relationship hints that she’s free to go whenever she likes if she chooses to do so of her own free will.  In the manga, when the spear hero, most loudly but not alone, confronts Naofumi about slavery, the Spear Hero acts high-and-mighty and is silenced temporarily by the response he gets from Raphie before making up his mind that she must be brainwashed. Even after the rape charge is cleared and a bunch of other things happens, none of the heroes can forgive Naofumi from being a slave owner, but that only makes them stand out even more as flawed heroes. (Not just because they don't listen either.)
See, the beauty of this show is that the hero’s path, no matter which one you take, is one uniquely flawed. The Shield Hero has disadvantages and to overcome them he has to get his hands dirty with sins he never would have considered otherwise. The other heroes choose to be lone wolves, playboys, and snobbish--they suffer from hubris, and so while they are not aware of their sins, their path is as stained with blood as Naofumi’s is, if not more. The only difference is that Naofumi is aware of it and trying to use these sins to help others. With Raphie, for example, instead of buying a strong slave that he could have gotten in order to level up faster, he chose one he could help get stronger and healthier because if he had to have a slave, he felt that he might as well chose one he could help. The others, however, justify their sins in ridiculous ways, the most egregious of which, I find, is their sheer lack of concern for the people of the land. They constantly take care of surface level issues without concern for the deeper problems or nuances that come from such situations. Like killing a monster to upgrade their gear and not caring that the corpse literally poisons the land meaning the people can’t grow food or drink the local water without suffering from contamination. Or invading on another person’s hunting territory during the leveling island adventure thing and not caring that it upsets people and prevents them from leveling up in ways that may allow them to protect their homes since heroes can’t be everywhere. 
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I wouldn’t be surprised if all of the other heroes ultimately suffer horribly by the end with Naofumi living quite well-off for his efforts--maybe even being able to abolish slavery, though that does not seem to be a priority for him at all right now. And the good end wouldn't be simply because he's the protagonist, it would be because he's worked for it. If you take the spin-off as canon (I don’t know if it is), the spear hero certainly suffers betrayal at the end. That aside, I wouldn’t be surprised with the other three heroes suffering has nothing to do with their dislike of Naofumi, after all, Naofumi doesn’t make it easy to be likable to other characters (an anti-hero to the readers, in my opinion). The reason I wouldn’t be surprised if the other heroes ultimately suffer a bad end is because the other three heroes suffer from hubris while Naofumi does not. If, like me, you're a fan of ancient Greek and Roman heroes, you know that heroes who have hubris tend to fall on their own sword because of it. Already we see that their arrogance is causing the heroes that once were superior in fighting strength begin to suffer greatly for their hubris as the waves have been getting harder and harder and the other heroes are falling more and more behind Naofumi in necessary skills for living, and fighting, in this world.
In the end, it’s hard for me to hate this series when the storytelling elements are so strong. It paints its world as one filled with complicated grey areas, which is true of our own world and circumstances. By doing so, The Rising of the Shield Hero seems to be a transformative element in its genre. Not that other isekai’s aren’t attempting this kind of nuance in their writing, but the depth of this series stands apart in the current season and I don’t hate it. 
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banjodanger · 4 years
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X-Men Origins: Wolverine(2009)
I’ve got a lot to talk about, so I’m going to jump right in with a very unpopular opinion. This may SHOCK and OFFEND certain readers, but I’m not one to shy away from speaking my mind. More sensitive readers should beware, however, because I’m not going to shy away from rattling cages and saying what NEEDS to be said!
So, ready yourselves, because...
Origins is not the worst X-Men movie.
There. I said it. PBBBBBBTTTT!
I’m not arguing that this was a good movie, hell, there’s a good argument that this isn’t even a competently made movie. But this movie is also responsible for some of the absolute best movies to come from Fox’s X-Men. First Class and Days of Future Past are two of the absolute best movies of this series, and it’s doubtful the other two Wolverine solo movies would have aimed as high as they did if this movie hadn’t been so widely mocked. If you go back to watch this movie, try to keep in mind eight years later this series would get nominated for a screenwriting Oscar. Whatever your opinion of awards, that’s a hell of a turnaround, considering the story this movie tells is like three separate stories stapled together. Finally, however much this movie misunderstands Deadpool, it was right on in casting Ryan Reynolds and eventually gave us better Deadpool movies than we could have hoped for. It shouldn’t go unnoticed that both of those movies use Origins as a solid foundation for jokes. I’m not going to talk too much about Deadpool in this movie, because I plan to cover it in more detail when I get to the first movie.
But I’m not discussing those movies, I’m discussing Origins, and Origins is not very good. The CGI looks cheap and outdated, not just by the standards of the time it was released but by the standards of five years previous. And the movie makes said terrible CGI hard to ignore because, to quote the philosopher Michelle Branch, it is EVERYWHERE. Most people are quick to bring up Wolverine’s claws effects, and they should because they somehow look worse than any of the three previous movies and it’s the most easily noticeable. I’m not expecting them to have Hugh Jackman actually fighting and jumping around on top of a nuclear vent but it looks like they’re doing it in front of computer wallpaper. That hill outside the Hudson’s farmhouse literally looks like the default Windows XP desktop. I’m surprised Agent Zero isn’t hiding behind the recycle bin. This isn’t to say I don’t expect lots of CGI in my comic book movies,but I expect better when someone is dropping over one hundred million for a guy with metal claws to fight a mute with impossibly long sword fists.
I could ignore all the bargain basement effects if there was a good story, but there isn’t one. There’s about two or three stories and they’re all bad. Gavin Hood wanted to make a throwback sevnties-style revenge movie, completely self-contained and R-rated(Hey, does that sound familiar?), but the producers wanted extra characters they could spin off into their own films. And as much as I want to excoriate them for that, I can only get but so mad. This was a big franchise that was approaching ten years since its first film. They were looking towards the future and that’s what their job was. The problem is that failure to find a common ground comes through on the screen. Some of the strongest scenes are between Logan and Victor, to the detriment that most of the other characters who come off as unnecessary cameos. That boxing scene between Logan and Fred Dukes could be a thirty second phone call without really losing anything.
It’s disappointing, too, because a lot of the performances in this movie aren’t bad. Believe me, I wanted to hate Will.I.Am. I was going to drag him and talk about all the terrible music he made but...he’s not bad in this movie. I’m not going to say he missed his calling by not becoming an actor full-time, but I enjoyed his performance and wish the movie had used him a little bit more.
My humps is still one of the worst goddamned songs ever.
Gambit was great in this movie too. Taylor Kitsch had this bizarre run of putting in good performances in hated movies. After this, he did John Carter then the second season of True Detective. That’s a shocking run of bad luck, and too bad to, because he’s good in all three. We missed out not getting at least one more movie with his take on Gambit, because he gets maybe fifteen minutes of screentime but he manages to be memorable, charismatic and charming.
Helicoptering with a bo staff still isn’t part of his goddamn power set though.
And I’m not going to forget Liev Schrieber, who makes an absolutely compelling villain. The only problem with his character at all is that he puts such a great performance that it stretches belief to imagine this is the guy that becomes a silent henchman in the first movie. There’s simply nothing in his performance to suggest they’re the same person. It would be like if the twist of Phantom Menace was that Darth Vader was originally Jar Jar Binks, or if they hired Nora Ephron to write a Hellraiser prequel. 
Even the Scott Summers we get in this movie is pretty good despite looking like a guy that steals copper wiring out of abandoned gas stations. Although I really question why Gambit watches them run off and I guess just assumes they’re being abducted by a good guy.
That leads me into the whole problem with prequels. Things happen in this movie and characters seem to live simply because earlier movies dictate that we have to see them again. It simply does not make sense for Kayla to leave Stryker alive. She has every reason to kill him, but she doesn’t, because he needs to be the villain in X2. Gambit doesn’t chase after the kids because they didn’t want to have him interact with Professor X. Sabretooth survives because he has to fight Wolverine on top of the Staute of Liberty while making no reference to their apparent relationship as siblings, or any words of any kind. This movie is awkwardly shoehorning itself into the lore established by the previous movies and it results in characters saying and doing things that go against what this movie seems to lead up to. The ending of most of those seventies revenge flicks was a bloody murder. Here, Stryker hurts his feet a little. It’s just not the same thing.
Ok, are you ready for the problematic parts?
Let’s start with Native American representation, because it ends up being a pretty big part of this movie. Lynn Collins’ Wikipedia says she claims Cherokee ancestry, so I’ll give the movie credit on that, but as near as I’ve been able to suss out, the myth she tells does not exist outside of this movie. First off, Wolverines do not howl. At all. They’re not wolves, they’re related to weasels. They’re small, vicious bastards. That information was readily available in 2009, by the way. Furthermore, the information I can find says that the moon in Native American mythology is predominantly gendered as male. Now, that’s not a blanket statement. This was the research I was able to conduct, and mythology, as with a lot of oral traditions, are a pretty mutable thing. Given that I was unable to find any mention of this myth that didn’t quote it from the movie, I feel pretty comfortable calling this myth nonsense.
Hey, what’s your tolerance for fatphobia? Because that’s going to impact how you feel about Blob’s character. Look, from his very first appearance he’s been a fat joke. That’s it. He’s a rude fat guy whose mutant power is being fat, hell, part of his power set is described as a “personal gravity field.” So while I can’t blame the movie entirely for this character being problematic, you’ve got to ask why they chose this character as the one that had to stay true to the comic book. He was in poor taste when he was created, when this movie was made, and now. And I absolutely can blame the movie for making him a fat joke.
At least they didn’t go the Ultimate comics route and straight up show him eating another character. Small blessings.
On a more final note, there’s that very strange character choice in the beginning credits. I know that they want to illustrate early that Wolverine doesn’t view violence the same way Sabretooth does, but why would they choose nazis as the villain in that moment? Even if they weren’t the most enjoyably killable villains in history, the last three movies have made the atrocities of the Holocaust a huge emotional linchpin of a major character. So it comes off as a genuine shock that this movie would use, in its introduction, a moment of sympathy for these very same villains. So you needed to show Wolverine with sympathy? Have a bar fight in France after liberating the country. Have them fight in the Korean war. Maybe Wolverine mourns a kid shot on the front lines. There’s a hundred choices that don’t involve Wolverine getting sad over a bunch of nazis.
So, why don’t I think this is the worst X-Men movie? I’m clearly not calling it a forgotten classic, and I’m not recommending you watch it unless you’re a weird completionist blogging about your arrested development on Tumblr. Sure, there’s some forgotten performances in here that deserve some consideration, but the movie is mostly a mess, a result of too many cooks with diverging visions. There’s a good revenge flick here, but it gets buried and muddled by a desire and knowledge that this movie has to simultaneously explain the past that led to the first movie and set up future installments. It tries to do too much and ends up not doing much of anything. I followed up on some of the people involved in this movie. Obviously Ryan Reynolds had the last laugh, but it still took seven years and a leaked teaser. Hugh Jackman learned from the mistakes in this movie and the rest of the Wolverine movies are pretty great. Gavin Hood, who got this job after being nominated for a foreign language Oscar, directed another big-budget flop with Ender’s Game. However, earlier in 2020 he apparently bought a four million dollar house so I don’t feel bad for him. Also, the flop of Ender’s Game could possibly involve Orson Scott Card being a vocal and unapologetic homophobe. Seriously, what is it with beloved fantasy authors and hate towards LGBT groups? You can conceive of wild, uncharted space and magical realms but the idea that two guys love each other is too far out?
Next in the series, from failure comes success, as we meet Xavier and Erik as frenemies and launch a million slash fictions.
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According to a narrative that’s currently popular in the mainstream media and the more lowbrow end of academia, the recent surge in popularity of the American nationalist right was caused by the radicalization of nerds. Dweeby white manchildren, so the story goes, retreated into video games, the science fiction fandom, and anonymous online forums like 4chan, and formed misogynistic, resentment-fueled subcultures within them. These neckbearded neo-Nazis gradually coalesced into the ‘alt-right,’ an internet hate machine that contributed greatly to Toupee Hitler’s otherwise inexplicable rise.
There are many versions of this narrative. The common feature is the ascription of Trump’s electoral victory — and, in some cases, the surge in right-populism all across the Western world — to the vile machinations of movements of fascistic, internet-based nerds; but the details vary. One version, laid down in a popular Tumblr post (at the time of writing, it has over 22,000 notes), ascribes the rise of the alt-right to a successful campaign by Stormfront to turn 4chan Nazi. Another version blames it on Gamergate, allegedly a hate campaign born out of a misogynist’s attempt to “punish his ex-girlfriend” that served as a breeding ground for far-right extremism, and as the petri dish that they organized in before taking over America. The Z-list Youtube celebrity Zinnia Jones has described Gamergate as “one of the worst things ever to happen” because it “enabled Trump” — apparently, a piece of fandom drama ranks up there with the Spanish flu pandemic, the Mongol conquests, the Black Death, the invention of the nuclear bomb, the post-Columbian plagues that depopulated the Americas, and the unfortunate events of the 1940s.
Deployments of the narrative abound. A popular Medium “32-minute read” bears the headline, “4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump.” Politico insists that “the Trump campaign … paid rapt attention to meme culture from the start.” CNET helpfully explains that “what began as a backlash to a debate about how video games portray women led to an internet culture that ultimately helped sweep Donald Trump into office.” Chris Grant, editor-in-chief of Polygon, complains that “the overlap between Gamergate and Trump(ism) is astounding. GG was like the trial run for this whole mess.” The Independent, a British paper, speaks out against the “very geeky” Trump supporters of the alt-right, and claims that “The uncomfortable truth, that should worry anyone praying for a Trump defeat, is that the Alt-right following he has tapped into are more numerous and unpredictable than traditional political commentators understand.” And so on. And for every article that explicitly draws a connection between internet-based youth countercultures and Trump, there are a dozen more that simply make a point of mentioning them in the same breath, and let the reader work out the connection for himself. Trump… Gamergate… Trump… neckbeards… Trump… 4chan… Trump!
At this point, it’s worth taking a step back from the phenomenon of heavy internet users failing for the first time to line up in lockstep behind the Democrats, and looking at the bigger picture. Trump’s electoral success was not driven by the alt-right; it was driven by the usual factors. To make a long story short, Trump won because Clinton ran a bad campaign and took unpopular positions on the issues. Insofar as the election was unusual, it wasn’t because Trump posted a picture of a cartoon frog — Clinton made her own bids for pop-cultural relevance, as did her husband when he took out his saxophone on Arsenio Hall’s show in 1992 — but because Clinton, in violation of a long-standing norm, directly insulted large swathes of the voting population with her “basket of deplorables” line.
Trump’s success is also not unusual in a global context. In recent years, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz won a supermajority in Hungary and proceeded to rewrite the Hungarian constitution to declare Hungary a Christian nation and ensure the electoral dominance of Fidesz for the foreseeable future. Britain voted to leave the European Union, and politicians like Marine Le Pen, Nigel Farage, and Andrzej Duda became household names among the set that pays attention to international politics. Trump is not a uniquely American phenomenon; if anything, he’ll likely prove to be a more moderate parallel to the trends sweeping Europe, just as FDR paralleled the European extremists of the Depression years. Of course, these trends are not just sweeping Europe, as is proven by the victories in Asia of politicians like Narendra Modi and Rodrigo Duterte.
This global trend simply could not have been caused by an obscure piece of American fandom drama. Gamergate and 4chan cannot have contributed to the rise of the right, because the rise of the right happened to approximately the same extent in countries outside the Anglosphere and outside the cultural reach of Anglosphere nerd culture. Even Vox, which once described Trump as “the first Republican nominee whose ethos owes more to 4chan and Gamergate than it does the Bible,” has found that “polarization is accelerating fastest among those using the internet the least.”
Nor could Trump’s rise to power have been substantially helped along by pictures of cartoon frogs. A full analysis of Trump’s victory is beyond the scope of this article, but it borders on delusion to believe that Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania were flipped by 4chan trolls, rather than by such ordinary factors as Trump’s more popular positions on the key issues of immigration and trade and Clinton’s failure to run a functional campaign.
The internet has, however, reshaped American politics; just not in the way pundits say it has. The main effects have been on the left, not the right.
The most obvious effect is that leftists, especially those in the fields that shape and promulgate leftist doctrine, spend a lot of time online. Journalists spend less time cultivating networks of sources and more time ‘building their brand’ and interacting with other journalists; academics network on Twitter; and so on. Connection matters more than ever, and the internet has weakened local scenes and replaced them with placeless ones. Indie game developers from all over the world, for example, can compete for the attention of the largely U.S.-coastal ‘mainstream’ games journalism industry, whose writers are of course all on the same mailing lists, not to mention following each other on Twitter. Journalists, academics, political advisors and the like disappear into their own world — a world where it’s acceptable to wage war on large parts of one’s own audience, or to lead a mainstream presidential candidate to insult a large part of the voting population. And the scenes that are best able to capture the attention of this world will gain power, influence, and the propagation of their norms.
One scene that has been markedly successful in capturing the attention of the journalistic world is the one that developed from the pay-to-post forum Something Awful. Originally a humor site, it became one of the most influential sites on the internet — you probably know that 4chan was created by a Something Awful regular, and that its initial userbase drew heavily from SA. Its influence on politics, however, extends far beyond 4chan. Buckle up, folks: you’re in for a long, confusing, and terrible ride.
In the essay “Exiting the Vampire Castle,” Mark Fisher, who was roundly condemned for writing it and killed himself three years later, attacked not only the identitarianism that has metastasized in academia since the ’60s, an identitarianism in which “the sheer mention of class is now automatically treated as if that means one is trying to downgrade the importance of race and gender,” but also the “paralysing feeling of guilt and suspicion which hangs over left-wing twitter like an acrid, stifling fog” and the “kangaroo courts and character assassinations” that are, as anyone who has observed the state of the left today, overwhelmingly common. This guilt and suspicion, these kangaroo courts and character assassinations, need not have anything to do with politics; in one memorable instance, a once-popular Tumblr communist blogger with the sadly real URL of “fuckyeahmarxismleninism” was dogpiled and laughed into irrelevance for admitting to watching My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic with his daughters. This was seen as a far worse faux pas than even his support of North Korea. I am, unfortunately, not making this up; I saw it all happen firsthand.
These aren’t the kangaroo courts of Stalin. What they are is the schoolyard courts of Helldump, a Something Awful subforum created for the strange purpose of being a schoolyard court. The Something Awful wiki speaks for itself here: “The official birth of Helldump 2000 spawned a new creative outlet for pedophiles, racists, bigots, Ron Paul supporters, gun zealots, defenders of anime and otherwise crap posters to be outed in a thorough, convincing manner by an astute civilian task force. Essentially, it checks and balances the stupidity that seeps its way into the forums as a whole, although (unfortunately) it does not function as a preventive treatment (shit posters still propagate at an alarming rate). Rather, the modus operandi of Helldump is to profile and insult the (assumed) poor goon for his questionable views, and in turn function as a virtual tourniquet in an attempt to stop the bleeding, as well as force said shit poster into online anonymity and/or reclusiveness.” In practice, most of what Helldump did was dogpile furries.
As a side note, internet lore has it that the population of Helldump regulars itself skewed furry. This is not terribly out of the norm for Something Awful, the admin of which employed Shmorky for ten years before firing him on the sensible grounds that he was “secretly into pedophilia incest diaper shitting roleplay” and allegedly “would get way too excited over [SA admin Lowtax’s kids] coming to the office.” (Shmorky has also been reported to at least have once been friends with Rebecca Sugar, the creator of the TV show Steven Universe, which has a remarkably Shmorky-like art style and has as its target demographic the same Tumblr crowd that Shmorky fell in with.)
Zoe Quinn herself was a SA member under the username Eris, and participated in at least one Helldump dogpile. It’s often believed that Gamergate began when her ex-boyfriend posted a ‘callout’ of her abusive behaviors, cheating, and so on — the “Zoe Post” — on 4chan, but he actually joined Something Awful to post it there first. He was quickly banned for it, and the ban message reads: “Thank you for joining the Something Awful Forums in order to post a giant loving psychopathic helldump about your ex-girlfriend in the forum about video games.” (The original phrasing was “giant fucking psychopathic helldump,” but SA has wordfilters.) The belief in a connection between Helldump and ‘callout culture’ is held by the SA moderators themselves.
Helldump was closed after two years, and many of its regulars migrated to a different subforum, Laissez’s Fair, “the original Dirtbag Left.” The SA wiki entry for LF helpfully explains that it was “opened up to put all the Ron Paul shit” and became a “refugee holding bay” for Helldump after the latter was closed. “Over time people started making effort posts about such things the nightmare that is our criminal justice system, social justice in general, as well as the ideas of Karl Marx. The lack of moderation was made up for by basically shouting people out of the forum who were stupid MRAs and concern trolls. Gradually the complexion of the forum shifted from liberal to socialist.” Eventually, LF was closed, because “LF posters went internet detective on mods and posted death threats,” including several to then-President Obama.
At least two regulars on Helldump and LF went on to get careers in journalism. Jeb Lund, who wrote a vague and rambling essay about his posting career for Gawker, went by “Boniface” and “Mobutu Sese Seko” on Something Awful. Under the former pseudonym, he threatened a Helldump victim: “how about you promise never to post here again on pain of being permabanned, otherwise there’s no reason for all the posters here with lexis-nexis to stop at just your email addresses and not go straight for driver’s license photos and info, tax records… the list goes on and on.” Sam Kriss was (or at least was widely believed to be) Dead Ken, as well as Red Ken, Dub Mapocho, Agenbite Inwit, Dead Skeng, and presumably other accounts. After LF was removed from SA, its regulars established and migrated to explicitly Communist forums offsite; he was a regular on one such forum, “tHE rHizzonE”, which was later given some sort of contest by the leftist magazine The Baffler, whose editor was “a fan” of said forum. (Sam Kriss has written for the Baffler.)
Many people from the more leftist parts of SA went on to become “Weird Twitter,” which was puffed by outlets like Buzzfeed. John Herrman and Katie Notopoulos, the authors of the linked piece, gravitated toward LF superstars on Twitter and tried to replicate their style. Some of them, such as Lund, Kriss, David Thorpe (who had a regular column on SA and is now a music journalist), Virgil Texas, Jon Hendren (who was, as docevil, once an admin of the “Fuck You And Die” (FYAD) subforum, but was shamed off the site after a bizarre incident involving a charity event featuring Smash Mouth and Guy Fieri), and Alex Nichols, parlayed those connections into posting careers.
Herrman also profiled a Weird Twitter poster, @CelestialBeard, whose claim to fame was tweeting a lot, and being followed by Herrman on Twitter. @CelestialBeard has since become a transgender brony.
From Weird Twitter, which attracted and assimilated people who weren’t active in SA’s leftist cliques (such as Felix Biederman and Virgil Texas, who just lurked), came Chapo Trap House, darling of every obscure Slate clone from Brooklyn to Queens. Chapo has featured several SA regulars, including Alex Nichols (@Lowenaffchen), who was active on LF as Golden Lion Tamarin (his Twitter username used to be @GLDNLNTMRN), and Dan O’Sullivan (@Bro_Pair), a now-banned former SA moderator whose username is now Fat Curtain Dweller. It’s interesting that a podcast heralded for ‘actually giving a shit’ comes from a subculture that began as pure trolling.
Providing a precise accounting of the impact of Something Awful on the Anglosphere left is difficult, as it would be with any subculture. The history is oral, largely lost, deliberately obfuscated, and shrouded in irony. It is likely that nothing will come of it, and that, in the end, it will be the farce mirroring the tragedy of neoconservatism: an insane political movement that developed out of a bizarre and insular clique in a world where having the right connections matters above all else, writing things that very few people care about but doing a great deal of damage along the way. It seems that the norms of Helldump have become callout culture, SA users’ trolling of the libertarians corralled in LF have become the dirtbag left, and some of those responsible have written for not only Gawker and Buzzfeed, but also The New York Times.
At the very least, the overlap in population is clear and suggestive. Someone can go from being repeatedly banned from a pay-to-post forum for something involving the word “nigger” to writing for the Guardian, the Atlantic and the New York Times, largely on the dubious strength of his Twitter account and forum fame. There are few lessons that can be drawn from this; the obvious one is that perhaps the media rewards expertise less than connectedness.
I’m told that this is what Gamergate was about. But there are many things I’ve been told Gamergate was about. The internet is something awful indeed. And it’s only going to get worse.
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tanadrin · 5 years
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A couple of other disconnected thoughts on immigration and racism generally:
1) You know how every generation of immigrants in American history gets stereotyped as lazy and ignorant and brutish? Compare those with similar stereotypes of the European poor. There’s a reason for the similarity: the US has often drawn on immigration from specifically rural regions to build up its population, starting with the rural parts of Britain in the 1600s and 1700s. But this isn’t either a happenstance feature, or something that the US has succeeded in despite of: the US economy has been (less so now, because it’s less agrarian, but its rural economy still is) structured around needing vast amounts of poor immigrant labor, preferably with limited options so as to restrain their economic and social mobility once they arrive.
This is something that Sarah Taber has, citing the work of historians on the subject, explicated at length on her podcast; it was this need that drove the US portion of the slave trade (similar mechanics even more annihilatory of human life and joy were at work on Caribbean sugar plantations), and in the US as in so many other places in history, the creation of an us-them divide between poor rural whites and slaves--later sharecroppers and poor rural blacks--served to keep this system metastable despite the frequent outbreaks of violence and, before the civil war, the fear of a slave rebellion.
The US has always needed huge amounts of immigrant labor, because it has tended to rely on terribly inefficient farming methods ill-suited to the terrain; it has always despised that immigrant labor, treated it as fearful and destructive to the social order, and, when those fears don’t come to pass, and the sources of immigration shift, rearranged the social hierarchy to put new immigrants at the bottom. I think it’s hard to argue that this is a premeditated process; I don’t think the agrarian elite of the country ever met in smoky rooms and said, “Hey, let’s vilify the Mexicans next.” I think it’s an opportunistic combination of antipatterns and perverse economic incentives and failure modes common to the human race, but, crucially, it doesn’t have to be this way. Even more crucially, not just morally and politically, but economically this is a bad system. It’s stable, sort of, because transitioning away from it requires a combination of social, political, and economic changes that are in few of the politically powerful class’s short-term interests, but in the long term it could make the country a much nicer place to live.
2) An assumption that a lot of anti-immigrant arguments of the form “they’ll change the culture/vote in policies you don’t like/implement sharia law” make is that politics and economic circumstance flows from culture, rather than the reverse. Poor countries with bad social arrangements are the result of culture, or are kept that way as a result of culture, and not vice-versa; this has to be true, or you’d expect that once immigrants came to the US (or a similar country) you wouldn’t have to worry about them assimilating to the local white majority’s liberal and democratic values.
(you might, looking at a Trump rally, conclude that a rural supporter of an antidemocratic authoritarian would be just as at home in the US as in Eritrea or w/e, but let’s set that aside for the moment)
Aside from the fact that’s not borne out at all by the data (all the data, in fact, points to economic circumstances shaping culture!), it’s such a weird idea to advance in this day and age, especially if you claim to be an empiricist! It’s the inheritance not of social science but of romantic nationalism, 19th century ideas about national spirit and the historic destiny of races, where politics and economics and history were seen as extensions of metaphysics, not as areas of inquiry tractable to scientific study! Oh, sure, there were some ill-fated attempts like phrenology to try to ex post facto tack on a scientific justification to some of the more modest claims, but even beyond the fact they were scientifically bankrupt endeavors, full of confirmation bias and shifting goalposts, they were trying to formalize and scientize the study of values, not to study human behavior in the abstract. And modern studies of “““human biodiversity” never manage anything better: they try to make intelligence sound like a bloodless and empirical concept (and maybe it can be!), but by starting with the hypothesis that dysfunctional societies might arise due to innate biological differences (& choosing intelligence as your measure of those differences) you’re already hopelessly muddling ethical/moral action with intelligence with political organization. It’s an epistemological mess.
For example: why might there not be humans that are less smart than average, but also significantly more prosocial, a la (the popular conception of) bonobos? Humans that are smarter, but less sociable and less likely to form urban societies? All the correlates are tied together--intelligence, prosociality, economic success--in a way they certainly very often are not in individuals, and the result is hypothesis that, in good evo-psych fashion, pretend to be carefully dispassionate and rigorous while actually smuggling in a whole cartload of assumptions for the unwary reader, and which conveniently permit the political scientist to ignore the last few thousand years or so of history, as though even if these hypotheses were true the magnitude of the effect of these differences is so vast as to swamp every other material circumstance of human life.
3) Following on from that: any attempt to biologically theorize about intelligence must account at minimum for the fact that traits which are highly adaptive (like intelligence) are extremely constrained (if intelligence is a big advantage for humans, which it seems to be, you shouldn’t get human populations that vary much in intelligence! They should get outcompeted well before the historical era); and, much more importantly, there are subregions of Africa more genetically diverse than the rest of the planet put together--so there should be massive differences in outcomes depending on which population you’re looking at just within one continent. Yet I never seem to encounter race science types who even manage to, like, try to form a basic genetic taxonomy to work with. It’s all “east Asians this” and “sub saharan Africans that.”
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