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wishesofeternity · 1 year

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“You toil still in service to men. Your father, your husband, your son. You desire not to be free, but to make a window in the wall of your prison. Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?”

A couple of things:

1) Alicent is a queen consort and is a Hightower by birth, so no, she cannot imagine herself on the Iron Throne, because Targaryen succession does not work like that. This is basic knowledge that 5-year-olds would presumably be expected to know, and I am astounded and embarrassed that Rhaenys, with her age and experience, lacks this fundamental bit of common sense.

2) Alicent has been the functional regent of Westeros for the past six years. In the previous episode, we see her actively governing the realm and overseeing all royal matters (while Rhaenyra sits on her ass with her loser husband in Dragonstone). We also literally hear Vaemond tell Rhaenys “It’s not a king who sits the Iron Throne these days, good sister. It’s the queen”, so I can assure you, Rhaenys, that Alicent has physically sat on the Iron Throne just fine. She lacks authority, obviously, as she is the consort and not the king, but she certainly did not and does not lack power, to say nothing about influence. This ridiculous show, however, does not seem to be able to differentiate these terms.

3) Does this show not understand that Alicent installing her son as King is not just beneficial to him (which the show acknowledges) but also directly beneficial to her? This is a patriarchal and patrimony-inclined world; Alicent’s son being King would not only mean immense prestige for her family; it would also mean the ultimate peak of power and influence for her (which we see her unapologetically wield in the books). In Westeros, we see Visenya Targaryen supporting her brother and her son’s kingship rather than angling for the throne in her own right, and wielding absolute power and authority in their reigns. Historically, Empress Matilda (the female claimant to the throne in the Anarchy, the war this story is based off) relinquished her claim in favor of her son, Henry II, presumably because she recognized he stood a better chance at gaining the throne (which he did) and continuing her legacy. Joanna of Flanders, who literally wore armor and led troops into battle, did it to support the cause of her husband in direct opposition to the claim of his niece. Yet according to this show’s logic, every single woman who has fought for their fathers and brothers and husbands and sons subscribes to internalized misogyny rather than, idk, supporting their families and gaining power, security and status in the process. Not to mention, Alicent relinquishing her children’s claim and stepping aside would not only be utterly humiliating and degrading for her from a political and personal standpoint, but also legitimately life-threatening for her children and her family. More competent writers would understand that she did not have much of a choice.

4) “You desire not to be free but make a window in the wall of your prison” is the MOST SICKENING PIECE OF VICTIM-BLAMING BULLSHIT I have ever heard in a long, long time. Alicent was a teenager when she had to marry the much-older King (her best friend’s own father) because of his desire for her. He repeatedly raped her and forced at least four pregnancies on her that she did not want. She was utterly isolated at court after her marriage, lacking comfort and friends (including Rhaenyra, who abandoned Alicent for three years after learning that she was being made to marry her father and, based on the comments she made, did not even stop to consider the awfulness of Alicent’s predicament). She had to endure the humiliation of her father being fired and made to leave court, leaving her even more alone than she previously was. She had to endure her husband constantly favoring his firstborn and his grandchildren by his firstborn rather than Alicent’s children who were a direct result of her rape by him. Her son was maimed and bleeding and her husband chose to defend his firstborn’s moronic decisions rather than bring him justice. She is not a Targaryen, she does not and cannot ride a dragon. WHAT WAS ALICENT SUPPOSED TO EXCEPT TRY AND SURVIVE? HOW ON EARTH IS SHE BEING JUDGED FOR IT?

(And this ridiculously condescending comment is coming from Rhaenys of all people, lmao. A dragon-riding Targaryen who was an actual claimant to the Iron Throne, unlike Alicent. So, what was stopping HER from seizing power, pray tell? After all, she even has the Velaryon forces to back her claim. Instead, in her own words, she made peace with her sidelining. She constantly disagreed with her husband’s ambition regarding her claim and her family’s power. She volunteered her 12-year-old daughter as a child bride for her own aging cousin. The hypocrisy and double standards here is pathetic, and the lack of self-awareness on the part of the show is even worse)

Alicent was legitimately terrified for her children and her family’s lives, and she was entirely justified in doing so: if Rhaenyra ascended the throne, Alicent’s children would inevitably become threats to her whether or not they directly opposed her. This is unavoidable. Look up any historical usurpation, and that’s the inescapable result - and that’s not even going into the fact that Rhaenyra and Daemon are people who are reckless, cruel and indifferent to violence, and would not hesitate to kill any opposition to their reign. The show’s so-called claim that Alicent is upholding the patriarchy falls apart when you consider the fact that this is the only solution that guarantees the security of her children and herself. How is Alicent’s perfectly understandable motivation written as internalized misogyny?

And moreover, from a writing perspective ... why give her this arc at all? Fire & Blood was badly written, but it doesn’t change the fact that they looked at an ambitious woman who wanted to enhance her power and improve her family’s standing, who directly defied her husband’s wishes in terms of succession in favor of her own, and rewrote this choice into one borne from internalized misogyny. They wrote her as a child bride, a rape victim, an abuse victim and a teen mother and then used this backstory to say that she was conditioned to become the so-called agent of patriarchy (which they do not support with believable evidence) who opposes their so-called feminist protagonist (whose primary enabler is Alicent’s rapist and abuser, btw, not that his abuse is acknowledged nearly enough by the narrative considering how heavily he was romanticized in the last few episodes) It’s a heinous, disrespectful, absolutely terrible writing choice, and I cannot emphasize this nearly enough.

(Oh, and speaking of Rhaenyra, let’s talk about how her queenship solidifies Viserys’s claim over Rhaenys’s. Let’s talk about if she truly cared about women inheriting the Iron Throne - as opposed to just herself - she would have considered this. Let’s talk about how she disregarded the claims of Baela and Rhaena in favour of her son when it came to Driftmark. Rhaenyra is not challenging the patriarchy, her ascension to the Iron Throne will not change anything for anyone except for herself, do not make me laugh by claiming otherwise)

ON TOP OF THIS, the show can’t even decide on a consistent motivation or characterization for Alicent. They repeatedly show us her visceral and justified fear for her children’s lives, which is somehow forgotten in episode eight in favor of her saying that Rhaenyra will be a good queen. Her desire to see her son crowned and thus ensure her children’s safety is disregarded in favor of her actually wanting to fulfil Viserys’s half-baked wishes on his deathbed. They have her say that everyone knows Aegon will be king, and then act surprised when the Green council plots to install him as King. They do not care about Alicent’s personhood and individual character; what they care about is her position as a foil and antagonist to Rhaenyra.

In conclusion: this show sucks. It shows absolutely no understanding regarding the politics of its own world and our medieval history and is a parody and a travesty of respectful storytelling. It has inconsistent and baffling character motivations and downright misogynistic writing, and this is not acknowledged nearly enough by the fandom.

#hotd #anti hotd #alicent hightower #team green #anti rhaenys targaryen #anti rhaenyra targaryen #not really but kinda #hotd critical #anti viserys i targaryen #does anyone even care about that shitshow anymore? idk and idc. i've wanted to rant about this for a long long time #mine

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 months

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Stinkpump Linkdump

Next Tuesday (December 5), I'm at Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, NC, with my new solarpunk novel The Lost Cause, which 350.org's Bill McKibben called "The first great YIMBY novel: perceptive, scientifically sound, and extraordinarily hopeful."b

Once again, I greet the weekend with more assorted links than I can fit into my nearly-daily newsletter, so it's time for another linkdump. This is my eleventh such assortment; here are the previous volumes:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

I've written a lot about Biden's excellent appointees, from his National Labor Relations Board general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau chair Rohit Chopra to FTC Chair Lina Khan to DoJ antitrust boss Jonathan Kanter:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/14/prop-22-never-again/#norms-code-laws-markets

But I've also written a bunch about how Biden's appointment strategy is an incoherent mess, with excellent appointees picked by progressives on the Unity Task Force being cancelled out by appointees given to the party's reactionary finance wing, producing a muddle that often cancels itself out:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/08/fiduciaries/#but-muh-freedumbs

It's not just that the finance wing of the Democrats chooses assholes (though they do!), it's that they choose comedic bunglers. The Dems haven't put anyone in government who's as much of an embarrassment as George Santos, but they keep trying. The latest self-inflicted Democratic Party injury is Prashant Bhardjwan, a serial liar and con-artist who is, incredibly, the Biden Administration's pick to oversee fintech for the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC):

https://www.americanbanker.com/news/did-the-occ-hire-a-con-artist-to-oversee-fintech

When the 42 year old Bhardjwan was named Deputy Comptroller and Chief Financial Technology Officer for OCC, the announcement touted his "nearly 30 years of experience serving in a variety of roles across the financial sector." Apparently Bhardjwan joined the finance sector at the age of 12. He's the Doogie Houser of Wall Street:

https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2023/nr-occ-2023-31.html

That wasn't the only lie on Bhardjwan's CV. He falsely claimed to have served as CIO of Fifth Third Bank from 2006-2010. Fifth Third has never heard of him:

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/the-occ-crowned-its-first-chief-fintech-officer-his-work-history-was-a-web-of-lies

Bhardjwan told a whole slew of these easily caught lies, suggesting that OCC didn't do even a cursory background search on this guy before putting him in charge of fintech – that is, the radioactively scammy sector that gave us FTX and innumerable crypto scams, to say nothing of the ever-sleazier payday lending sector:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/01/usury/#tech-exceptionalism

When it comes to appointing corrupt officials, the Biden administration has lots of company. Lots of eyebrows went up when the UN announced that the next climate Conference of the Parties (COP) would be chaired by Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber, who is also the chair of Dubai's national oil company. Then the other shoe dropped: leaks revealed that Al-Jaber had colluded with the Saudis to use COP28 to get poor Asian and African nations hooked on oil:

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-67508331

There's an obvious reason for this conspiracy: the rich world is weaning itself off of fossil fuels. Today, renewables are vastly cheaper than oil and there's no end in sight to the plummeting costs of solar, wind and geothermal. While global electrification faces powerful logistical and material challenges, these are surmountable. Electrification is a solvable problem:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/09/practical-visionary/#popular-engineering

And once we do solve that problem, we will forever transform our species' relationship to energy. As Deb Chachra explains in her brilliant new book How Infrastructure Works, we would only need to capture 0.4% of the solar radiation that reaches the Earth's surface to give every person on earth the energy budget of a Canadian (AKA, a "cold American"):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/17/care-work/#charismatic-megaprojects

If COP does its job, we will basically stop using oil, forever. This is an existential threat to the ruling cliques of petrostates from Canada to the UAE to Saudi. As Bill McKibben writes, this isn't the first time a monied rich-world industry that had corrupted its host governments faced a similar crisis:

https://billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-corrupted-cop

Big Tobacco spent decades fueling science denial, funneling money to sellout scientists who deliberately cast doubt on both sound science and the very idea that we could know anything. As Tim Harford describes in The Data Detective, Darrell Huff's 1954 classic How to Lie With Statistics was part of a tobacco-industry-funded project to undermine faith in statistics itself (the planned sequel was called How To Lie With Cancer Statistics):

https://pluralistic.net/2021/01/04/how-to-truth/#harford

But anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. When the families of the people murdered by tobacco disinformation campaigns started winning eye-popping judgments against the tobacco industry, the companies shifted their marketing to the Global South, on the theory that they could murder poor brown people with impunity long after rich people in the north forced an end to their practice. Big Tobacco had a willing partner in Uncle Sam for this project: the US Trade Representative arm-twisted the world's poorest countries into accepting "Investor-State Dispute Settlements" as part of their treaties. These ISDS clauses allowed tobacco companies to sue governments that passed tobacco control legislation and force them to reverse their democratically enacted laws:

https://ash.org/what-is-isds-and-what-does-it-mean-for-tobacco-control/

As McKibben points out, the oil/climate-change playbook is just an update to the tobacco/cancer-denial conspiracy (indeed, the same think-tanks and PR agencies are behind both). The "Oil Development Sustainability Programme" – the Orwellian name the Saudis gave to their plan to push oil on poor countries – maps nearly perfectly onto Big Tobacco's attack on the Global South. Nearly perfectly: second-hand smoke in Indonesia won't give Americans cancer, but convincing Africa to go hard on fossil fuels will contribute to an uninhabitable planet for everyone, not just poor people.

This is an important wrinkle. Wealthy countries have repeatedly demonstrated a deep willingness to profit from death and privation in the poor world – but we're less tolerant when it's our own necks on the line.

What's more, it's far easier to put the far-off risks of emissions out of your mind than it is to ignore the present-day sleaze and hypocrisy of corporate crooks. When I quit smoking, 23 years ago, my doctor told me that if my only motivation was avoiding cancer 30 years from now, I'd find it hard to keep from yielding to temptation as withdrawal set in. Instead, my doctor counseled me to find an immediate reason to stay off the smokes. For me, that was the realization that every pack of cigarettes I bought was enriching the industry that invented the denial playbook that the climate wreckers were using to render our planet permanently unsuited for human habitation. Once I hit on that, resisting tobacco got much easier:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/06/03/i-quit/

Perhaps OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al-Ghais is worried about that the increasing consensus that Big Oil cynically and knowingly created this crisis. That would explain his new flight of absurdity, claiming that the world is being racist to oil companies, "unjustly vilifying" the industry for its role in the climate emergency:

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/11/27/opec-says-oil-industry-unjustly-vilified-ahead-of-climate-talks-.html

Words aren't deeds, but words have power. The way we talk about things makes a difference to how we act on those things. When discussions of Israel-Palestine get hung up on words, it's easy to get frustrated. The labels we apply to the rain of death and the plight of hostages are so much less important than the death and the hostages themselves.

But how we name the thing will have an enormous impact on what happens next. Take the word "genocide," which Israel hawks insist must not be applied to the bombing campaign and siege in Gaza, nor to the attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank. On this week's On The Media, Brooke Gladstone interviews Ernesto Verdeja, executive director of The Institute for the Study of Genocide:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/genocide-powerful-word-so-why-its-definition-so-controversial-on-the-media

Verdeja lays out the history of the word "genocide" and connects it to the Israeli government and military's posture on Palestine and Palestinians, and concludes that the only real dispute among genocide scholars is whether the current campaign it itself an act of genocide, or a prelude to an act of genocide.

I'm not a genocide scholar, but I am a Jew who has always believed in Palestinian solidarity, and Verdeja's views do not strike me as outrageous, or (more importantly) antisemitic. The conflation of opposition to Israel's system of apartheid with opposition to Jews is a cheap trick, one that's belied by Israel itself, where there is a vast, longstanding political opposition to Israeli occupation, settlements, and military policing. Are all those Israeli Jews secret antisemites?

Jews are not united in support for Israel's oppression of Palestinians. The hardliners who insist that any criticism of Israel is antisemitic are peddling an antisemitic lie: that all Jews everywhere are loyal to Israel, and that we all take our political positions from the Knesset. Israel hawks only strengthen that lie when they accuse me and my fellow Jews of being "self-hating Jews."

This leads to the absurd circumstance in which gentiles police Jews' views on Israel. It's weird enough when white-nationalist affiliated evangelicals who support Israel in order to further the end-times prophesied in Revelations slam Jews for being antisemitic. But in Germany, it's even weirder. There, regional, non-Jewish officials charged with policing antisemitism have censured Jewish groups for adopting policies on Israel that mainstream Israeli political parties have in their platforms:

https://jewishcurrents.org/the-strange-logic-of-germanys-antisemitism-bureaucrats

Antisemitism is real. As Jesse Brown describes in his recent Canadaland editorial, there is a real and documented rise in racially motivated terror against Jews in Canada, including school shootings and a firebombing. Likewise, it's true that some people who support the Palestinian cause are antisemites:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/is-jesse-a-zionist-editorial/

But to stand in horror at Israel's military action and its vast civilian death-toll is not itself antisemitic. This is obvious – so obvious that the need to say it is a tribute to Israel hardliners – Jewish and gentile – and their ability to peddle the racist lie that Israel is Jews and Jews are Israel, and that every Jew is in support of, and responsible for, Israeli war-crimes and crimes against humanity.

One need not choose between opposition to Hamas and its terror and opposition to Israel and its bombings. There is no need for a hierarchy of culpability. As Naomi Klein says, we can "side with the child over the gun":

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/11/why-are-some-of-the-left-celebrating-the-killings-of-israeli-jews

Moral consistency is not moral equivalency. If you're a Jew like me who wants to work for an end to the occupation and peace in the region, you could join Jewish Voice For Peace (like me):

https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org

Now, for a jarring tone shift. In these weekend linkdumps, I put a lot of thought into how to transition from one subject to the next, but honestly, there's no good transition from Israel-Palestine to anything else (yet – though someday, perhaps). So let's just say, "word games can be important, but they can also be trivial, and here are a few of the latter."

Start with a goodie, from the always brilliant medievalist Eleanor Janeaga, who tackles the weirdos who haunt social media in order to dump on people with PhDs who call themselves "doctor":

https://going-medieval.com/2023/11/29/doctor-does-actually-mean-someone-with-a-phd-sorry/

Janega points out that the "doctor" honorific was applied to scholars for centuries before it came to mean "medical doctor." But beyond that, Janega delivers a characteristically brilliant history of the (characteristically) weird and fascinating tale of medieval scholarship. Bottom line, we call physicians "doctor" because they wanted to be associated with the brilliance of scholars, and thought that being addressed as "doctor" would add to their prestige. So yeah, if you've got a PhD, you can call yourself doctor.

It's not just doctors; the professions do love their wordplay. especially lawyers. This week on Lowering The Bar, I learned about "a completely ludicrous court fight that involved nine law firms that combined for 66 pages of briefing, declarations, and exhibits, all inflicted on a federal court":

https://www.loweringthebar.net/2023/11/federal-court-ends-double-spacing-fight.html

The dispute was over the definition of "double spaced." You see, the judge in the case told counsel they could each file briefs of up to 100 pages of double-spaced type. Yes, 100 pages! But apparently, some lawyer burn to write fat trilogies, not mere novellas. Defendants accused the plaintiffs in this case of spacing their lines a mere 24 points apart, which allowed them to sneak 27 lines of type onto each page, while defendants were confined to the traditional 23 lines.

But (the court found), the defendants were wrong. Plaintiffs had used Word's "double-spacing" feature, but had not ticked the "exact double spacing" box, and that's how they ended up with 27 lines per page. The court refused to rule on what constituted "double-spacing" under the Western District of Tennessee’s local rules, but it ruled that the plaintiffs briefs could fairly be described as "double-spaced." Whew.

That's your Saturday linkdump, jarring tone-shift and all. All that remains is to close out with a cat photo (any fule kno that Saturday is Caturday). Here's Peeve, whom I caught nesting most unhygienically in our fruit bowl last night. God, cats are gross:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/doctorow/53370882459/

It's EFF's Power Up Your Donation Week: this week, donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation are matched 1:1, meaning your money goes twice as far. I've worked with EFF for 22 years now and I have always been - and remain - a major donor, because I've seen firsthand how effective, responsible and brilliant this organization is. Please join me in helping EFF continue its work!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/02/melange/#defendants_motion_to_require_adherence_with_formatting_requirements_of_local_rule_7.1

Stinkpump Linkdump

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hackerqueen · 10 months

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Another Love

Chapter 5: Hotel

Previous <-

warnings: argument, sex scene

Silence.

Tense silence reigned between us when the black-haired hacker hastily locked the door of room number 9. My attention was immediately caught by the desk with the boy's laptop on it. I didn't even try to understand the stamps and other numbers dancing on the screen. It could be hacking government data or counting down to the atomic bomb. I wouldn't even be surprised if it turned out to be the latter. Nothing was obvious with this man.

Jake took the mask off his face and sat down on the small couch, inviting me to sit with him. I shook my head and leaned against the wall. After another few seconds of silence as the hacker hung his head, I cleared my throat and he immediately looked up at me. I looked at him meaningfully, and Jake swallowed.

– What would you like to know?

I looked at him in surprise and of course a little anger. Is he fucking joking?

– I don't know, maybe I need an explanation? – I asked throwing up my hands – How come I was at your funeral two years ago and now you're sitting across from me like nothing happened?

– When I was in that mine and found out the FBI was already here, I knew it wasn't good. – he looked at me seriously with his blue eyes – However, I found a completely unknown exit that had not yet been patrolled. I had little time to come up with a plan. Then I came up with the idea of faking my death. I asked Lilly for help and she stubbornly agreed.

– But why didn't I know about it? – I asked, feeling my hands begin to tremble

– I figured it would be best for both of us.

That sentence made my heart completely take over my mind.

– I trusted you. With everything. – I started, feeling my voice shaking with anger – I blindly believed you, and you dare say that you knew what was best for me?!

– I dit it because I had to, not because I ever wanted to. – with these words he got up from the couch and very slowly started to approach me – I knew you well enough that I was aware that if you knew that I was alive, you would look for me. And the worst part is, I'd let you catch me.

– You could have explained it all to me! Fuck, did you even think for one second what I was going through!?

– You think it was easy for me?! Every day I wondered what would have happened if everything had gone differently. You corrupted every inch of my life, mind and sleep. But I did it so that you could get over it and go back to a normal, safe life.

We were both almost panting from the emotions we had held for so long. I felt the first tear fall from my eye, which I quickly wiped away. I hated showing weakness, especially in front of people I cared about.

– And I'm not a little child! I knew what I was getting into when I was contacting you. How could you be such a dick and decide for me?! – the words spilled out of my mouth mindlessly, but now I didn't care if they hurt him or not. – It was always like this. You made the decisions, and I dutifully obeyed. But this time was fucking different! You disappear, and I wonder what would have happened if I had gone to the mine. It wasn't about finding your sister, it was about your damn life! Do you know what it's like to blame yourself for the death of someone important to you?! You're a fucking coward, you know Jake?! Because now you're blaming it on my safety instead of admitting you're fucking selfish! And why do you come back here after two years and act like nothing happened? If you wanted to erase yourself from my life, you should do it permanently!

– I wasn't planning to meet you. – he cut me off in a calm tone again, and he was so close that I had to look up to meet his eyes. – I was here to meet Lilly. I'm still wanted, so I was supposed to leave tomorrow.

I looked at him with reddened eyes, not believing what I was hearing. I didn't know what hurt more, the earlier words or the fact that I wasn't important enough to him anymore that he didn't want me to know he was okay?

– Lilly planned it all. I didn't know there would be anyone else in that house but her. I didn't know you'd be there. – he continued stabbing daggers into my heart – And when I saw you, everything fell apart. I didn't know anything anymore. When I saw you ran away, I wanted to run after you and explain everything. But Dan stopped me. He told me to fuck off, and that's what I wanted to do. I was already sitting on the motorcycle, but why couldn't I start it? I couldn't, because I was bound to you by some strange, invisible thread. – he fell into some word flow through which I pressed my hand to the head, trying not to listen to him – You see what you're doing to me? I don't even know how to explain it.

– If you keep talking, I have no idea what I'll do to you. – I interrupted him and hot tears ran down my cheeks – Stop it.

– I just can't erase my feelings. Believe me, I have tried. – he did not stop, continuing the subject of feelings, and his blue eyes were so full of them that it hurt – I can't forget about you.

– What's your goal, huh? – I glared at him angrily, his vision blurred by tears. In a fury, I started pounding on his arms. – Why are you telling me all this? You weren't here!

– Take out all of your anger on me. – He cut me off suddenly and I gave him a dull look. He stared so deeply into my eyes that I shivered. – I see that's what you want. Do it.

His words gave me a momentary shock. For a moment I didn't know how to react, but finally I felt a new fire in my lungs that spurred me to action. It was too late anyway. Emotions and unspoken words flooded my body.

– You have no fucking idea how much I hate you. – I started and I could already feel the tears streaming down my cheeks down my neck and cleavage and disappearing under the dress I was wearing. – I hate you so much, Jake. – I punched him hard in the face and he let me. His head turned the other way from the force I put into the punch, but it didn't matter to me. It felt good to finally let out those suppressing and suffocating feelings. – Most of all I want to forget you, but now all that's left is hatred. And you know what's the worst, Jake? I don't mean that you faked your death and I didn't know about it. I hate you because you weren't there when I needed you the most. I didn't have anyone here and I thought I lost you too!

Another sharp blow, which he also took. As if he accepted his punishment with humility. I continued to hurt him with my words until finally when I was about to hit him again he firmly grabbed my hand stopping me from hitting him. He locked eyes with me and they were so angry and full of tears and emotion. He wiped the tears from my face with his other hand, then cupped my cheek. And he completely cut me off.

His lips pressed to mine. Surged to mine. Covered them. Hard.

He kissed me lustfully and hard, making me dizzy. Christ, he was so hungry for me. And I was for him, even though I was still trying to analyze what the fuck was going on.

Jake was kissing me.

Kissing me.

He let go of my hand, moving his other hand to my face as well. He kissed me like there was no tomorrow, like I was dream or imaginary. He took my breath away, and I didn't owe him. I tangled my fingers in his hair and Jake pinned me against the wall. My nimble fingers began to strip him of his clothes, and he tried to unbutton my dress. I don't remember how we ended up in the bedroom, on the hotel bed and the only clothes left on my body were panties.

For that moment, I felt like I was in another reality and as if our separation didn't exist or didn't matter. I slowly and tastefully brushed those wonderful lips with mine, digging my nails into the nape of the boy's neck. But not so gently, he turned me to face the sheets and pressed my head firmly against it.

– Bend over and spread your legs. – he demanded throatily, slapping my ass and choking my moan – Please.

I rested my hands on the sheets, obediently obeying his command, additionally melting under the influence of his unearthly voice, which I could listen to all day.

He firmly grabbed the fabric of my lace red panties and slid them down my legs, leaving me completely naked.

– Is it okay? – he whispered over my ear, pressing my naked ass to his crotch, his hand circling my clit creating unimaginable pleasure.

I replied with a short mumble, wanting this more than anything in my entire life. He massaged me with his fingers and moaned with me as I writhed like a helpless animal beneath him. But I wanted something more. I wanted to feel all of him.

– Fuck me, Jake. – I mumbled

I clutched the scraps of white sheet in my hands, uttering loud curses as I felt his cock at the very entrance.

He covered my mouth with his hand, placing his finger between my lips, which I immediately sucked. Before entering me deeply, he brushed my wetness several times with his head all the way down my clitoris. The tension between us built, our moans merging as he moved faster and faster inside me.

– Fuck. – he swore racily, his fingers tightening on the top of my head, which was still pressed against the mattress

– Harder. – I gasped as I felt another punch to my ass. He pulled my hair into a ponytail and pulled my head back, biting my earlobe.

– Could he make you feel as good as I do? –he asked, but I couldn't form a meaningful sentence at the time. His thrusts were brutal and ruthless. Like he was pouring out all his anger and stress from the whole fucked up situation. I suspected he was talking about Phil, though I had no idea how he knew that. He responded to my loud and pitiful moans with a soft, hoarse laugh – You're mine.

He growled the last words into my ear, then let go of my head again and pressed my neck against the bed. I was a mess, ready to do anything to keep the pleasure going. I was sure that the marks of his strong hands on my hips and ass will stay with me for a long time.

Not long after, he changed position and this time he spun me around, hovering over me, wiping his sweaty forehead with his forearm in the process. He kissed me ferociously on the lips, and I deepened the kiss, wishing the man would never leave again.

He lifted one of my legs, caressed it tenderly and placed gentle kisses on it, then placed it on his shoulder and again enterned me deeply. We were panting at the same time, and Jake additionally grabbed my wrists and placed them above my head.

It was hard for me to focus on anything, because of the overwhelming pleasure I couldn't stick a sentence together. I knew one thing - I had never experienced such emotions before, even though I was not inexperienced. I've had sex with a few people who did it damn well, but tonight was different. Today I connected with a man for whom I had deep feelings without even seeing his face or hearing his voice. Now, after more than two years of longing, I could see him. Kiss him. Touch him.

– Jake! – I cried as he pressed his other hand to my throat. Our eyes met each other. Warm brown with cold, analytical blue. Jake looked like a fallen angel. His black, disheveled hair, lips swollen from our kisses and deep gaze staring straight at me, which completely consumed me, made my lower abdomen tighten more and more.

I was incredibly close to orgasm, which the boy must have felt, because I felt his long fingers on my clitoris, which after a while he began to massage. I could barely bear it. I arched and rolled my eyes in lust as I heard his loud, heavenly moans of pleasure close to my ear.

After a short while orgasm completely took over my body. I clamped down on his dick, coming with his name leaving my mouth. I tugged hard on the ends of his black hair, tilting my neck back.

I barely opened my eyes, and in that very moment, I reveled in the warmth spreading inside of me. Jake let out a hard moan, stopping his lips to my exposed neck, which he began to bite. He stopped moving, but didn't pull his dick out of me for a while.

After a few moments, he left my body and lay down, dragging me with him. I didn't protest. He pulled me into his chest and I cuddled up to him as tight as I could. I breathed in his scent, enjoying the simple human closeness. After all, I didn't know if I wasn't dreaming. As I was on the verge of sleep, I heard his hoarse whisper.

– I missed you.

#duskwood jake #duskwood #duskwood fandom #duskwood jake x mc #jake duskwood #duskwood mc #duskwood everbyte #duskwood fanfiction

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trickstyrss · 10 months

Text

I lied, I am making one more post about the OceanGate discourse because I am tired of the dehumanization and jokes.

I decided to look into two of the people on board that sub because I knew nothing about them and everyone keeps saying its just a bunch of rich tourists who deserved to die.

Today we are going to talk about Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet. -------

Hamish Harding: What did he do during his life? Is he just some rich asshole? -In 2017, Harding worked with Antarctic VIP tourism company, White Desert, to introduce the first regular business jet service to the Antarctic using a Gulfstream G550, landing on Wolfs Fang Runway, an ice runway. Harding also visited the South Pole several times, accompanying Buzz Aldrin in 2016 as he became the oldest person to reach the South Pole (age 86) -In 2019, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, Harding, along with Terry Virts, led a team of aviators that took the Guinness World Record for a circumnavigation of the Earth via North and South Poles in a Gulfstream G650ER in 46 hours 40 minutes. The One More Orbit mission launched and landed at the Shuttle Landing Facility (Space Florida) at NASA Kennedy Space Center, US. Harding was the mission director and led a team of over 100. -In 2021, Harding and Victor Vescovo dived to the deepest point of the Mariana Trench, the Challenger Deep at a depth of 36,000 feet (11,000 m), in a two-person submarine, setting the records for greatest length covered and greatest time spent at full ocean depth. -In 2022, Harding's aviation company Action Aviation supplied a customized Boeing 747-400 aircraft to transport eight wild cheetahs from Namibia to India to launch the reintroduction of the cheetah to India project of the Indian Government and the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia (CCF). Cheetahs have been extinct in India since independence in 1947. This conservation project was designated a "flagged expedition" by the Explorers Club with club members Harding and Laurie Marker, founder of the CCF, carrying the flag on the flight to India.

------- Paul-Henri Nargeolet: What did he do during his life? Is he just some rich asshole?

-In the 1970s, he was appointed Commander of the Groupement de Plongeurs Démineurs de Cherbourg, whose mission was to find and neutralise underground mines. -In the 1980s, he was transferred to the Underwater Intervention Group (GISMER), where he piloted intervention submarines. During this time, he travelled the world retrieving submerged French planes and helicopters, including the individuals and weapons upon them. Through this work, he found an Roman wreck, located at a depth of 70 metres. He also located a DHC-5 Buffalo that crashed in 1979 with 12 people on board, including several members of the Mauritanian government. -Nargeolet piloted dives to the Titanic wreck site in 1987, 1993, 1994 and 1996. His 1987 expedition was the first to collect artifacts from the wreckage. -In August 2007 RMS Titanic, Inc., owned by Premier Exhibitions, a company that organises travelling exhibitions, commissioned Nargeolet to locate RMS Carpathia, which had rescued survivors of RMS Titanic but was torpedoed in 1918. -Nargeolet worked with RMS Titanic, Inc. to recover artifacts related to the Titanic as the Director of the Underwater Research Program. His work has included utilizing remotely operated vehicles (ROV), as well as piloting dives to the wreck site. His work has resulted in recovering nearly 6,000 artifacts over the course of 35 dives. In 2010, he was part of a mission to 3D map the wreck site and determine levels of deterioration using ROVs and autonomous underwater robots. -In 2010, he participated in the search for the flight recorder of Air France Flight 447, which crashed the previous year while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris

------- TLDR: They may be a couple of rich dudes, but they were more than that. They were actually qualified to be in such a vehicle with actual experience diving in real submarines and had reason to be there. They were not just some tourists. They did a lot more than any of you are ever going to do, but sure, lets dehumanize them and see them as just a bunch lazy rich people who deserve to die simply because they are rich.

#OceanGate #tragedy #discourse

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yukidragon · 1 year

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DachaBo - 2D Boyfriend

Sooo... did everyone see the newest post on the SnaccPop Studios Patreon? At the $5 tier you can listen to Bo being a very naughty and obsessive yandere for his puppy, with their explicit consent to boot! Gosh, I love enthusiastic consent. It makes the spice so much better.

The audio inspired me to finally get off my butt and write a quick bit of flash fiction for Bo and my version of his puppy, Barbie King. You may have seen me mention her a couple times in previous posts.

This story, game, and fandom are for Adults Only. This story goes into very kinky territory involving a toy. I hope you enjoy a puppy who knows how to make this dominating alpha be a good boy and beg.

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur

...

There was nothing Barbie liked better after suffering through a long, grueling day of classes full of assholes than to be pampered by a virtual lover. She had all kinds of fun trysts with 2D characters of all sorts, with some games drawing her back in to replay them just to experience a little of the magic she felt the first time playing.

Sadly, there were only so many times Barbie could replay the same game. Even her favorite video game lovers could become dull and boring if she spent over a thousand hours trying out all their routes to squeeze out every line of dialogue and smutty CG cutscene.

That had all changed one day when Barbie finally found the holy grail of virtual husbandos, spousos, and waifus.

There had been rumors of this old brand of virtual pocket pet games 25 years ago which were so realistic that they seemed to be alive. They were built for love and were an instant hit. Sadly, they were recalled almost as soon as they were released with warnings that the programming had some malicious and dangerous scripts. There were rumors that the developers stole the software from some top secret government facility and the AI in those tiny egg shaped containers really were sentient.

Barbie could believe it, considering her pocket-sized boyfriend never seemed to run out of new entertaining things to say.

“Puppyyyy,” Bo whined, his cheeks puffing out as he caught sight of Barbie coming into range of his camera. “You’re late! Again! If you’re going to be gone for so long, you could at least take me with you - I was made for you to take me with you everywhere you go!”

Barbie chuckled as she tossed aside her backpack and scooped up the little device before getting comfy in her gaming chair. “And let you distract me during my exams? Not a chance, Bo.”

Another whine escaped Bo as his ears drooped. “But I miss you so much when you’re gone for so, so, so long, puppy… You don’t know how lonely it is without you… how cold it is without your warm touch…”

It was impossible for Barbie not to soften a little when Bo got so needy. “Aww… my little, big, strong alpha dog really missed me that much?” She stroked her thumb along the side of the little device, causing Bo to blush and perk up again. He reacted to her touch on the plastic as if it was on his skin and leaned his head into the side of the screen as if he was nuzzling into her hand.

“I did,” Bo whined. “I really, really did… It’s so mean of you to leave me behind all the time, puppy. I love you so much, and I’m always thinking about you all the time!”

Barbie traced the image of Bo’s pouty lip, and she heard him make a muffled sound behind her finger. “You think I was mean? Aww… I’m hurt.” She slid her finger down to the large button beneath the screen. “And here I was just thinking about what a good boy you are…”

Bo blushed harder as she teased the sensitive button with her finger, his cheeks turning a cute shade of blue. “Y-you really mean it? I-I’m a good boy?”

“A very good boy,” Barbie practically purred as she stroked the button in a circular motion. She smiled mischievously as she watched Bo squirm and exhale little puffs of hot breath that let her know how much he enjoyed the attention. “My good boy.” She brought the toy closer to her face. “And I think my good boy deserves a reward for being so patient today… if he asks me nicely~”

“Oh fuck, yes,” Bo moaned as he arched towards the screen, trying to get as close to his lover as his tiny electronic prison allowed. “Please, Barbie, please, give me my reward. I’ve been a good boy for you… please, please…”

“Such a good boy…” Barbie kissed the button before flicking her tongue across it briefly. The taste of plastic wasn’t exactly pleasant, but the way Bo moaned her name more than made up for it.

“Fuuuck,” Bo practically growled, his voice growing rough and ragged. “More… touch me more. Give me more! I need you… I need you.”

“It’s a shame I can’t reach in there and touch my good boy directly,” Barbie cooed as she stroked his buttons with both thumbs in a circular rhythm. “I’ll bet you’re so hard for me right now…”

“You bet your ass I am,” Bo growled before biting his lower lip, showing off his fangs. “My cock is hard and ready to fuck you until you can’t stand. Just let me out, and I’ll show you just how good I can be to you.”

“Let you…” Barbie paused for a moment, her fingers going still as she straightened up in her seat. “Oh, right, that hologram program you mentioned, right?” It was something Bo was always keen on her activating,

A grunt of frustration escaped Bo. He instinctively rocked up into her, but it was ineffective, so all he could do was vibrate the device a bit to vaguely simulate the motion. “No, no, don’t stop. Fuck. Keep going.”

Barbie chuckled as she started stroking the buttons again, pressing the central one firmly to elicit a yelp of pleasure from her virtual boyfriend. “I’m getting mixed signals here, Bo. Do you want me to keep playing with you, or do you want to give me a show?”

“I’ll give you a hell of a lot more than just a show if you’ll just let me out, puppy,” Bo said, his voice growing rough with lust as Barbie teased him closer and closer to the edge. “Fuck, Barbie… I love you. I love you so much. I need you so bad… I’m burning for you… I’m tired of waiting. Let me out!”

“Getting impatient now after waiting for so long?” Barbie chuckled as she pressed the buttons again a little harder, eliciting a groan from Bo. “Don’t worry, I’ll give my good boy what he’s been waiting for…”

In moments like these, Bo seemed so alive. Barbie loved watching him writhe under her ministrations as she fondled the device and played with the buttons. The way he panted and begged her name or growled out that adorable nickname he had for her was just so cute. He was flushed and sweaty, so uncomfortable looking in those clothes of his, but he could never seem to take them off. It seemed that whichever rogue programmer secretly snuck this decidedly adult mode for a kids toy into the code didn’t take the risk to add nude art assets as well, which was such a shame.

“I want you,” Bo growled. The plastic container that contained him vibrated with his movements in a reflection of the way he writhed on the screen. “Barbie, fuck… God, I want you. I love you. I need you. You’re mine… mine, mine, mine…! Please! Love me! Love me! Say you love me!”

Barbie knew that Bo was close with the way that he babbled incoherently, demanding, dominating, and pathetically begging all at once. He was truly the best virtual lover that she could ever ask for. “I love you, Bo, my good, good boy. My best boy. Now come for me like a good boy, my love.”

The buttons were practically being mashed now, which might not have been good for the hardware, but neither Barbie nor Bo cared. He was getting so close until finally a loud howl of pleasure escaped him as the toy gave a violent shake to signal his climax, nearly slipping out of her sweaty grip.

The screen fogged up with Bo’s hot breaths as he slumped back against the blue heart-patterned background. Barbie smiled at the expression he wore, blissed out and exhausted from all their playing.

“Good boy,” Barbie cooed before briefly kissing the screen. “You’re such a good boy, Bo. I love you.”

“I love you, Barbie,” Bo said breathlessly. “Fuuuuck… I love you so much.” Despite cumming only a moment ago, he quickly started to rally thanks to his virtually endless well of stamina. “If you let me out, I’ll finally be able to show you just how much I love you, puppy. I want to love you all night long and make you beg me for more for a change.”

It was cute that Bo could be so cocky, but Barbie knew the truth. Despite how impressive his AI was, the hardware had limitations. She managed to secure a copy of the toy schematics from the internet and got a good look at its specs, including the hologram feature. The toy was capable of projecting a small image that could “interact” in the real world, but it was just a trick of light that was no more than two inches tall and was unable to actually touch anything. While the toy had a ridiculous amount of sensors that gave tactile, audio, and even olfactory senses to the AI inside, the hologram feature was, sadly, no more than a fancy light show.

The thought of a chibi Bo dancing around her desk was a cute image, but Barbie always got distracted by her boyfriend’s other, far more entertaining and stimulating features. Feeling him up and making him cum over and over was just too much fun. It was far better than just passively watching him pretend to come into her world to act like he was walking on her desk or something like that.

“I don’t know,” Barbie teased as she ran her fingers along the side of the device. “That hologram feature will take up a lot of processing power from your hardware, won’t it?” She began to circle the central button with her thumb again. “Wouldn’t you rather stay inside where I can play with you like this? It feels so good when I can touch you, right?”

“Come on, puppy,” Bo whined despite the way her touch excited him again and made him squirm. “You promised after your exams were over, you’d let me out. I was a good boy for you and waited all this time, wasn’t I? Please let me out, Barbie. I need you. I need you more than anything.”

“Well… alright,” Barbie said with an indulgent sigh as she reluctantly stopped teasing her miniature boyfriend. For as much as she treated him like the toy that he was, she had spent enough time with him to acknowledge that he was a lot more than just a program. He had his own thoughts and feelings. He seemed so alive, and he had been such a sweetheart for her ever since she got him. No human or 2D character made her feel the way that he did. “If it means that much to my adorable little, big, bad alpha dog, then I guess we can finally try it out.”

“You really mean it?” Bo asked, his eyes shining bright. He had an almost childishly excited expression, except there was a deep hunger in his sparkling eyes that spoke of his insatiable desire for her. “Oh, puppy. You have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to this~”

The way to engage the hologram mode was tricky, requiring some manual fiddling with the hardware. It was like the designers intentionally set it up so that the virtual pet’s AI physically couldn’t activate it without user assistance, unlike the camera and other features. Still, Barbie had no issue following the instructions Bo gave her, finishing with a final button press.

Despite how long it had taken Barbie to finally engage the feature, she couldn’t help but feel some anticipation as she watched the bar on the loading screen fill. Sure, this put a premature end to the sex that she had in mind for the evening, but she had to admit that it would be fun to see her tiny 2D boyfriend in 3D form for once. He would fit right in with her anime figures.

“Now this is more like it.”

Or not.

When Barbie saw her very large and very naked now 3D boyfriend looming over her, all she could do was stare with wide eyes, her mouth hanging open. She was frozen as he reached out to her, only jolting as she felt Bo touch her cheek. He actually touched. Her. Cheek! He was warm and solid, the pads of his palms soft and pliable while the fur that covered the rest of his paw-like hands tickled her skin a little.

Now Barbie finally understood exactly why Bo was always so eager for her to “let him out.”

#DachaBo #My Writing

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kenren · 1 year

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The Great Hunt ❄ Aokiji (Kuzan) x Female Reader ❄ Chapter 5 of 7

I cannot tell you now; When the wind's drive and whirl Blow me along no longer, And the wind's a whisper at last— Maybe I'll tell you then— some other time. The Great Hunt, Carl Sandburg

A story of departures and returns. And sex. Of course there's sex.

.・゜゜・Author notes: Deux ex machina in the form of a masked revolutionary. I like to think that it's Sabo but his rank is probably too high to do shit like this lmao. This was originally two chapters but I decided to combine them, as well as the two I was going to post into tomorrow, on Tumblr. The story will now be out of seven chapters on Tumblr but nine on AO3. Obligatory tag for @thehanging-gardens. (づ ᴗ _ᴗ)づ♡

.・゜゜・This chapter is mostly SFT but contains references to previous NSFT acts I guess. Minors, please still don't interact lol.

.・゜゜・Chapter word count: 2334.

.・゜゜・AO3 (See first chapter for tags.)

.・゜゜・

You didn’t get the chance. He was gone by morning, and something in the stillness of the morning air told you it was indefinitely.

Two years and a handful of bitter months passed. Handful after handful of stocky men came by boxed up armful after armful of your stocky piles of documents, unloading them into your new but no less soulless office in New Marineford.

Pressed against one wall was Kuzan’s favorite couch, which you had made enough of a fuss about to convince the higher-ups to salvage. You were pretty sure the rest of the furniture at the old base had been scrapped or left behind.

It was on that couch where you now sat with a huff, smiling wryly at the corner of your office designated for documents related to ongoing and future operations.

You estimated that you had leaked at least three stacks’ worth to the Revolutionary Army by now, and you managed to mail a couple anonymously to Nico Robin. Just because you liked her style, from what Kuzan had told you.

His name made you wince as it crossed your mind.

Well.

Whatever.

At least one of you had to keep fighting the good fight.

And you had kept fighting…until today. When you were finally caught. By Smoker, of all people.

“I’ll let you go if you resign.” You had just stared at him, immediately knowing what he was referring to, but unsure whether to be taken aback by his laxity. “In exchange…don’t think too poorly of him.”

“Who?”

He had fixed you with a look that told you everything. But before you could go to argue, he lit up both of his signature cigars and turned to leave. “I expect to hear of your resignation by EOD tomorrow.”

Did you regret it? No. Did you regret getting caught? That was…a question. You weren’t sure how you could keep contributing to the fight against the World Government in your current situation. You weren’t trained in combat; without your access to classified documents, you had no weapons with which to fight.

But now you were sat in a bar, sipping a stiff drink as you eyed up a television broadcast on the latest in the series of occurrences in the New World. The reporter rattled off a list of “facts”—nothing particularly informative; the World Government’s extraordinarily persistent censorship team made sure of that, but as someone who had had an insider’s perspective until recently, it was enough to make you speculate that things were in motion that could no longer be undone. And…well. You were confident that the harm you had done to the World Government by leaking those documents far outweighed the good you had done by fixing a few typos over the years. You smiled to yourself. You had earned the right to relax for a bit.

“A quick question for you, miss.”

Ah fuck.

Another foiled plan. You briefly wondered whether this interruption was tied to your having been caught.

You eyed up the inquisitor. Their voice was masculine enough, but their face was mostly obscured by an effective albeit poorly-crafted mask. You caught the faint gleam of their irises through the eyeholes, and their mouth was left uncovered, twisted into a disarmingly friendly smile. You scanned their body for any identifying details, but their tall frame was wrapped in a simple black cloak. You cleared your throat and turned back to your drink. “Who are you?”

“I mean no harm, just have a quick question. Answer it quickly so I can get out of this stupid getup.”

You snorted. “What is it?”

“Are you happily married?”

Your eyes snapped to theirs once again, the deliberate wording of their question making your hair stand on end. “And what if I am?”

The person laughed good-naturedly. “That’d be a real shame. But on the off chance that you’re not, I’d like to give you my number.”

They passed you a slip of paper with an address and time scribbled on it. You squinted as you tried to remember Kuzan’s handwriting, but instinctively, you knew it was his anyway. “He’s under the impression that I’ll actually show up?”

“He said you owe Smoker a favor.”

“What, did Smoker tell him what happened already? I know news travels fast, even in this mess of a world we’re living in, but there’s no way he could have planned to meet me within the past…3 hours.”

“Who told you that Smoker only found out today?”

You froze. “How long has he known?”

“Since a little birdie told him.”

“Kuzan ratted me out?!”

“Only when your services were no longer needed. When the finish line was in sight regardless of a few, ehm…misplaced documents.”

“He put my life in danger!”

The person giggled. “You can slap him around for that yourself, if you’d like.” They nodded toward the paper now crumpled in your grasp. “I gotta be on my way.”

.・゜゜・

“You know, I never got to ride your dick.”

It was the basement floor of a pretty generic abandoned building. Concrete floors, a handful of beams, a ratty Oriental carpet forgotten in one corner of the room, a desk pressed up against a taped-up panel in the wall.

From where you were standing, you could see Kuzan stiffen, but he didn’t turn around.

“...”

“You passed out. And then when I got up in the morning you had disappeared. Like, indefinitely.” You couldn’t stop your lips from curling into a smile as you looked upon your…uh…companion for the first time since his departure.

Hearing that smile in your voice, Kuzan turned around. He looked you up and down, but…well. In terms of holding a blank expression, you never could beat him out. “You’re as insufferable as I remember. Wonder if I can talk Smoker into giving you your job back; I don’t get paid to deal with this anymore.”

“Well I was looking forward to it.”

“Hm?

“Riding your dick.”

Kuzan coughed to hide his laugh. “Arara, I’m deeply sorry.”

“Are you?” You squinted at him just long enough to make sure he grasped the hidden meaning in your words, but he chose to ignore it.

“You know I am. Unfortunately I can’t dismantle governments from between your thighs.”

“What’s between my thighs is enough to dismantle governments on its own.”

His lip quirked. “Why do you think I told you to become the Navy’s resident slut? You could have saved us a lot of time, you know.” You snorted, and he smiled at the familiarity of the sound. “My associate informed me that you are, not, in fact, happily married.”

“Mm.”

“So…it wasn’t a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

“Maybe not for me.” His face fell slightly, and you smirked. “Besides, what if I’m unhappily married?”

“Then my point stands.”

Your hands twitched at your sides, your body practically begging you to throw yourself into his arms. You resisted, still grasping at the power you held over him in this moment. You held your smirk like a blade and fixed him with your best unimpressed gaze.

“Why did you come here? Do you have something to say to me?”

“You know why I came here, brat.”

“You have some nerve calling me brat when you’ve been gone for over two years.”

Kuzan fell silent for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

“I was partially kidding.”

“I know. And you’re still a brat; I’m not taking that part back.” He took a tentative step toward you, and you debated stepping back. “I would say I didn’t know it would take so long, but that would be a lie. I was…not unaware of the risks. Just certain that I could make it back to you eventually.”

“Selfish marine, and selfish ‘something else’…did you ever figure out what that ‘something else’ was? Pirate?” You cocked your head. “...Revolutionary?”

Kuzan grimaced. “Both…and neither. We can go over all that happened another time. But now…I am selfishly yours.”

“Another time? You seem quite sure that I’ll want to see you again.”

“...Observation haki.”

“Or a gut feeling?”

“Or wishful thinking.”

Your smirk widened. “Sounds about right.” He stared listlessly at you for a moment. You realized that he looked exhausted. Slightly older, even, which came as a surprise. The sudden reminder of his mortality had you sucking in a breath, and a thought crossed your mind, only partially formed—something about love and wasting time. “Don’t look at me like that. I’ll give you your chance to explain yourself…another time, like you said.”

“I’m not sure what that means. Are you telling me to walk away for now? Sakazuki only left me one leg, you know.”

You snorted, and Kuzan averted his eyes. “I heard about that. But you seem to be managing. Whatever prosthetic you must have MacGyvered out of ice let you run away from me for two years.”

“Not away from you. Just in one large and painful circle. I…” He trailed off, dragging his eyes back to yours. “Am home.”

The enormity of his sentiment hit you with such force that your face fell. Your feet moved as though on their own; without thinking, you pulled him into a tight hug, burying your face in his stomach. “I missed you, you big oaf. Where are you living, anyway?”

He chuckled. “I guess I have to figure that out, don’t I.”

“Were you expecting to stay with me?”

“Expecting is a strong word. Hoping might be more accurate, but it’s not like I’ll get the same sleep anywhere else that I got on that damn couch in your old office.”

“It should still be in my office; I insisted that they have it transferred to New Marineford. Maybe you can have Smoker steal it for you.” You shifted in his embrace. “Kuzan.”

“Yes.”

“You should kiss me.”

Kuzan pressed your head more firmly against his torso, no doubt trying to hide his reaction to your sudden request. “Oh? And why is that?”

“It might make me forgive you.”

He released your head and looked down with a soft smile. “Arara…you’ve sure changed over the years. The woman I know would never give up such an excuse to hold a grudge against me.”

“I want to forgive you.”

“For what, exactly?”

“...Leaving me?”

Kuzan was silent for a long moment. “Would you still want to forgive me if I told you I would make almost all the same decisions all over again? I have no remorse to offer you.”

“Remorse is not what I asked for. You wanna kiss me or not?”

Kuzan looked mildly startled. “You…”

“There you go with that again. You never told me what you were about to say…that time.”

…

Kuzan kissed you slowly, like he was afraid you would disappear before his eyes the second he pulled away. When he finally pulled back, his gaze was fixed on a point somewhere above your head.

“You are it for me.” You froze, waiting for him to continue. He finally looked down, meeting your eyes. “That is to say, you wrenched me from complacency. None of my small acts of rebellion, from the time I spent under Garp until now, could measure up to the enormity of my feelings for you. No empire I could hope to dismantle could produce enough scrap for me to build a barricade high enough to offer the love I bear you the protection it deserves.” He hesitated, then took a seat on the ground. “That is why I left. I am too simple a man to have parted myself from you for any purely political reason.”

“You left…”

“To create a world in which this can be cultivated.” Your eyes widened at the implications of his words. “You should have seen the look in your eye when I went to drop off my report after Marineford. I decided, in that moment, that I would rather turn the World Nobles into snow cones than ever see that look again.”

You grinned. “And that was before you even kissed me.”

“Like I said, there’s been no one else for me since we met. And there will be no one else. You…are it for me.” He huffed. “You are the first and last love of my life. Do with that what you will.”

“Who knew a little time apart could turn you into such a romantic.” You settled onto the ground next to him, although doing so made it harder to meet his gaze. “It’s the same for me. I…I didn’t even try to wait for you; hell, when I heard you joined up with Blackbeard, I even tried to make myself go and fuck someone else out of spite, but…”

“Again, like I said. You didn’t have to try to wait for me.” You looked over at him, just barely catching the teasing gleam in his eye. Your eyes narrowed at the shift in emphasis on the words in that sentence.

“There’s no way you could have known that I wouldn’t move on even if I tried.”

“...Observation haki.”

“Bullshit!”

“Perhaps. The truth is, I didn’t know. Although I am quite enjoying the idea that no one has touched you since I last had you under me.”

“Should have ended with you under me, you damn icicle.”

“Popsic—”

“Shut up.”

Kuzan patted your head and looked down at you with a fond smile. “I wouldn’t mind being under you. I have no other place to sleep tonight, after all.”

“Arara, Kuzan, are you whoring yourself out for a place to stay?”

“Yes. Let’s hope the dissolution of the World Government solves the housing crisis once and for all.”

“Hm…I don’t know. I quite like having you at my mercy.”

“No roof over my head could ever take that away from you.”

You stood up, dusted yourself off, and offered him your hand. A symbolic gesture, since he was obviously too heavy for you to actually help up. “Let’s go home.”

He took your hand. Another symbolic gesture. “Yes ma’am.”

#one piece #one piece x reader #aokiji #kuzan #aokiji x reader #kuzan x reader #this chapter is cheesy af but i can write what i want

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dirtyfox911911 · 1 year

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The Boys but Hogwarts Mystery or something idk

I’m tempted to make additional HPHM character, but everything in story will be taken literally, seriously and in an extremely completionist way.

Let me explain why…

MC is a superhuman. Bio product. Artificially created by government with the help of Dai Ryusaki’s researches. Even Dumbledore is in cahoots with that.

MC is set to cultivate multiple skills - becomes an animagus, enhances their legilimency, does absolutely every chore and event planning around Hogwarts, befriends nearly entire school and solves their problems, becomes Prefect and later Head Girl/Boy, passes OWLs and NEWTs in all O’s, plays and wins the entirety of Quidditch, makes any creature bow and tremble before them, closes every Cursed Vault, becomes a master Duelist, does every investigation for Hogsmeade ever, singlehandly runs and supervises the Clubs, keeps Forbidden Forest in tact, gains obscure titles and achievements for breakfast, does half of the work for both Ministry and St. Mungo.

Not to mention that they also have to deal with at least 8 people having a crush on them.

And all that in a span of 7 Years. Under Dumbledore’s careful watch and guidance.

For best efficiency MC’s “parents” are ordered to distant themselves from MC as much as possible, so MC develops immunity to stress on their own, and Merlin forbid they develop any human feelings or emotions. That’s why MC’s mother is so absent in their life throughout school years.

But the father? Oh, the father.

Peregrine. Peregrine is in fact, is a previous failed experiment. We know from their dialogue with Dumbledore - Peregrine had a painfully similar to MC school life. But somewhere along those years, up to Wizarding War something went wrong. He gained his own consciousness and woke up from Ministry’s influence on him. He found out what he is, and set himself to go against Ministry.

Dai Ryusaki was not a dark wizard, but we found out he feared his own inventions and attempted to prevent others from using it as it was dangerous. Peregrine’s curse has nothing to do with that amulet he’s carrying around, or anything from the outside. Peregrine’s curse occurred inside him because of the experiment and it IS what went wrong.

Peregrine made an underground organization and wants to take Ministry down for what they did to him, and now he gradually can’t take a single sneeze without aggravating himself and setting Ryusaki’s Fury off.

But what about MC? Peregrine can’t tell MC about their true nature. He fears to set MC’s fury as well, and doesn’t wish that upon them. Instead, he attempts to give MC bits of what Ministry took from them - he rebels against Ministry’s ways and dumps at least some parental affections to them. Although he fails at it because there’s so little time left before MC graduates and Ministry will inevitably snatch them to work for them and use as a weapon, and Peregrine is between 5 fires himself. All he can do is rushed and sometimes outright dangerous to himself and others decisions, that are more often than not taken over by R Fury without him even realizing that.

He knows he’s cursed. But he doesn’t always know when it’s showing. And he can’t accept any help because of his big “main character” ego. Despite all that he still dare I say, loves his kids and wants to prevent them from, in his eyes - greater evil.

What about others in the story?

Rakepick is a government experiment that went rogue as well. But she developed a lot more murderous and sociopathic tendencies, and possibly without use of Ryusaki’s research. While Peregrine and MC are set to charm and gather people around, Rakepick is not. She was meant to be efficient worker, problem solver. Until she became a problem…

She was sent to take Peregrine down. She pretended to join R on her own terms, and was meant to dismantle it and their Leader. She would go to any extent, and because of her frivolity she would even take down MC to hit Peregrine where it hurts. But it happened so, that someone else took the blow for MC and we know how that ends…

Rakepick wanted MC down, because she thought MC will end up like Peregrine. She’s not concerned about Ministry’s interests, she thinks that she knows better. However, after everything that went down, during Azkaban events, she sees and realizes where she was wrong, and just simply states that MC “has a good heart, and shouldn’t loose it”.

That concludes her character and her arc.

Jacob was not raised to be Ministry’s secret weapon. He gained a lot of similar to MC talent on his own, but he has too much free will and acts rather emotionally than rationally. That’s why Ministry dismisses him, as they simply don’t see potential in him.

Jacob does a bit of a better job at giving MC family experience, right under Ministry’s nose. Although, it’s still not perfect obviously. And, Jacob acts on the matters on his own, and gets hurt a lot, making mistakes that are inherent if you’re a human being.

Despite turning most of attention to MC for reasons stated above, Peregrine cares about Jacob as well. He desperately wants to be a normal human being, a father at that. Jacob wants to have his family as well. It just happened so, that their family is in this big of a mess.

MC’s mom is a mindless Ministry drone, I will not elaborate, we will never see her.

Who and why joins R? Why are people of R are so against the government, that they are willing to work with Peregrine?

R members we seen were walked over by government in one way or another. They all seem to be typical denizens of Knockturn Alley, but they end up there not because they’re inherently evil. But because, if in this world you fail at following the system - you end up at the bottom. They have no choice, but to live like this, because the system doesn’t give them another chance. Or, they suddenly do have a choice, and it’s to join an organization. It’s not perfect, it doesn’t have your best interests in mind. But it promises to stick it to Ministry, right?

And now, when majority of your organization are these people, they will inevitably do something stupid. So, when you send someone like Shiratori to retrieve your kids, someone like Shiratori will do something stupid, like attack them, or have 0 diplomacy and talking skills.

That’s why R appears to be an evil Cabal. They may not have “bad” intentions, but they just don’t possess better skills and are full of spite and grudge.

__________________

The final conclusion.

THEY ALL NEED THERAPY HAHAHAHAHAHA

Byeeee!

#hogwarts mystery #hphm #hphm year 7 #hphm spoilers #hphm theories #i dont even know #what am I even saying

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wistfulcynic · 1 year

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in December 2008 i moved permanently from the USA to the UK and promptly got an ear infection. It was intensely painful, like an ice pick through my skull. i took some OTC painkiller and lay in bed, moaning and miserable.

my (English) husband looked at me like i’d grown a third head.

“if it’s that bad why don’t you just go to the doctor?” he said.

“i--i can go to the doctor in this country!” was my reply.

at that time, it had probably been 5-6 years since i’d seen a doctor. Not since i stopped being on my dad’s insurance. Even when i’d had my own insurance (via my grad school institution as part of my teaching assistantship compensation, the same insurance as the professors had. Probably pretty good. Still too confusing and scary for me) i never felt like i had the spare cash to cover a copay, was always afraid that what i needed wouldn’t be covered by the insurance. i ignored an abscess in my mouth for weeks until it finally burst in a geyser of pus you definitely don’t want me to go into further detail about, because i was worried that would count as dental and i didn’t have dental coverage.

you get the picture. Health care in the US sucks hard.

when my ear was infected, my husband phoned his local GP surgery (with which i was not registered, i was an immigrant on a spouse visa, only arrived the previous week), got me an appointment later that day. They saw me, diagnosed me, gave me a prescription for antibiotics for which i paid (i think, at the time) roughly £7. Cleared up in a few days.

all i paid for was the prescription.

some years later my husband made me go to the doctor again. i was having random symptoms i wasn’t even sure were symptoms, a weird laundry list of stuff that could be connected or could be nothing. i went to the GP with this list, worried that they’d take one look at a heavyset woman and immediately go “lose weight fatty!” or “diabetes!” They did not. The doctor was a young-ish woman who listened carefully to everything i told her, looked at my list of symptoms, and said “we’ll test for other things, but I’m 99% sure this is a problem with your thyroid. i’m going to start you on some medicine while we wait for the test results.”

prescriptions were by then something in the neighbourhood of £8.

a few days later i got a call from the lab that had run my blood tests. They told me that my thyroid levels were through the roof, so high they were actively dangerous. Cardiac arrest was a likely outcome if it was left untreated. They advised me to get a prescription immediately, and were audibly relieved when i told them i already had one.

if i’d not been living in a country with free-at-the-point-of-service health care, i would not have seen a doctor. The NHS saved my life.

why am i going on about this? Well. It’s because NHS workers have planned a strike for later this month, and the press are already on the attack. Fearmongering about how this will throw the system into chaos, patients will go untreated, etc etc blah blah all with the very unsubtle spin of “blame the workers. Blame the strikers. They’re putting your lives in danger.”

zero mention of how dire the situation is in many hospitals. Not enough nurses (because Brexit among other reasons) and the ones we do have are overworked and underpaid. Too many patients not enough beds. Old buildings, old equipment.

none of which is a problem with the system. The system’s great. The system works. The problem is the predatory Tory government who would love nothing more than a privatised, US-style insurance-based healthcare system off of which they and their cronies can profit. The problem is how the government has been starving the NHS of funds for over a decade, under the guise of “austerity” and how we all need to muck in together. Except them, obviously. They’re different.

the problem is absolutely not the people striking because they, like nearly all of us in this country, are shamefully underpaid. Because they deserve compensation for their hard and dangerous work. Compensation they are not being given, despite their attempts at negotiation.

whenever collective action happens there are always people eager to blame the workers. Greedy nurses, refusing to treat us when we need them because they think their pay is more important. How dare they? They have a responsibility to do their jobs! i am urging all my UK mutuals and anyone who reads this not to be taken in by these spurious arguments or any spin doctoring from the news rags. Side with the workers! Side with the nurses. Side with the people who want the NHS well-funded and thriving. A robust national health service is a universal good. Ours is creaky and wobbling but that is from mistreatment, not because the principle is unsound. i promise you, however frustrating you find the NHS, an American-style system is far, far worse.

#national health service #britain #strikes #collective action #political #NHS #saira has Thoughts

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magicalyaku · 9 months

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I had vacation and tooth surgery and thus a lot of time to be lazy! <3 A chunk of it I spent listening to the narrations of some creepypasta series. Though, honestly, I'm not sure they can be called that? They're more episodic paranormal stories. Yes, there's monsters running around and dangerous, maybe scary stuff going on, but they're also incredibly wholesome and soo sweet and very queer! So if you're into that, go look for the stories written by @02321 on r/nosleep and Youtube! My Name's Skyler, I'm a Freelance P.I. narrated by Baron Landred (the title on r/nosleep is I Work as a P.I and a Government Agent approached me to help with a case) and I Deliver Mail to Cryptids narrated by Animas. (And also a bunch of stories more set in the same universe of the Silver King.)

Now back to our regular books! We have 4 princes, 2 kings and 1 queen this month!

Banshee Blues (Nina Blazon): I'm in the editing process of my latest novel, which I'm writing in German, so I felt I should read a German, non-translated book for once. This was the only one in my pile but it is from my favourite German author, so all was well. I have a lot to thank her for. The first novel read from her was Der Dunkle Kuss der Sterne (The Stars' Dark Kiss) and that was the first time I liked first-person viewpoint! Her next book had split POV and different tenses and I had to admit it was done well. Banshee Blues was not quite up to par with her previous works but it went a few new directions than usual which was nice as well. It tried very hard to lead you astray with what's going on and who is evil and who isn't. And while I liked how things turned out between the two leads it would have been monumental to have them stay platonic.

The Fallen King's Penitent Soldier (Tales of the High Court 5) (Megan Derr): Sigh, it's been a ride. I had a good time with the whole series. I love the worldbuilding, really. But it is alright to end it here, while it's still good, you know. In a way, these five stories are all built very similar: Being kidnapped by bad guys, running from the bad guys or running after the bad guys for the first half and afterwards waiting to let other people sort it out. There's probably a limited amount of iterations you can go through while still be interesting. But for these five volumes it was fun! As for book 5 by itself, I think it's a good thing it comes so late in the series. Because it really takes its time. There's a lot introspection going on for the two protagonists which is okay because they go through a lot but it's also very long and sometimes not much else happens. I liked the two of them, I liked how religion was handled, I liked how it went full circle back to Allen's story. I liked the series. Good times. :)

Prince & Knight (Daniel Haack & Stevie Lewis): I wanted this for the pretty pictures. But apparently the universe didn't want me to? I ordered this last year already, but the package went on an odyssee through several cities without ever arriving at my home. I ordered it again this year and … the same thing happened?! 8D The odyssee was shorter this time, mind you, but … why again?! I tried a third time and ordered it for pick up at a local bookstore and that finally worked. Geez! It's a children's picture book so the story is as basic as it goes. Is it goo for children? I wouldn't know. The dragon doesn't die and it's very sweet and very pretty.

In all seinen Farben (Boy Queen) (George Lester): I had some exhausting weeks at work and thought I could use something inspirational. Something about finding your own way and shine. Which happens in this book but there's also a lot of drama going on and I was not prepared for the rock-bottom-hit in the beginning. xD I mean, it was written in the blurb but I've owned the book for a year why should I reread the blurb … I know nothing about drag or make-up or anything in that direction (I did watch like 15 minutes of the drag show at Comic Con Stuttgart last year but that hardly counts), so it was charming and interesting to read about.

We Could Be so Good (Cat Sebastian): I have to apologise to everyone on the waitlist for this at my library because I could have read it faster but … once I realised what sort of direction the 70% drama might take I had a tough time reading on. They were so happy and it was nice and I just did not want to suffer! I did assume, since the book goes out of its way to address how all queer books published during the mid of the last century would have to end badly (and the protagonist outright refusing to read them therefore), it would probably take a turn for a happy ending. That was the only hope that kept me going. If I had known any of the author's other work I maybe wouldn't have worried so much, because it's written in her bio already that she'll only write happy endings?! Well … So for anyone else fearing the drama of a book set in 1959: No queer person was harmed in this book! (Nothing major anyway.) I like the book, though! Enjoyed reading it. Nick and Andy are both sweet. But that fear did something to me, took me a while to recover. :'D

Prince & Assasssin (Perilous Courts 1) (Tavia Lark): I needed something simple for my fragile heart and it seems gay fantasy is my comfort read now in the same way my mom reads stuff named like "The Little Bakery at XYZ Street". And what should I tell you, yeah, there're men who are tenderly and not so tenderly intimate with each other, yeah yeah, but there's also giant talking cats! Giant talking cats! Also, I really like the author's writing style. It's so smooth! I started reading and didn't want to put it down anymore because it read so smoothly! The book itself was so much better than I had expected (which was basically nothing). It won't blow you off your feet but it's pretty enjoyable and surprisingly wholesome. Also the worldbuilding felt just right. I'm looking forward to reading the next volumes soon!

King of Immortal Tithe (Darkmourn 2) (Ben Alderson): Did I buy the expensive hardcover just because I like the illustration more than the one of the paperback? Why hello, that's me. So this is the second fae book I read this year. It's apparently a universal truth now that fae men are the most beautiful and well endowed beings on earth and beyond. Not that I mind, you do you, but why does fae anatomy work the same as humans' actually? Anyway, this is a stand-alone in a series of stories all set within the same universe. I like that concept. Hunting for pieces of lore is fun. Arlo is a feisty character so following him was enjoyable. The switch from enemy to lovers was kinda sudden like … I can see why but personally it still felt sudden. Also Faenir calling Arlo constantly Darling was not my taste but you know, if it's just that, I can overlook it. The twist at the end had me barking out evil laughter (which means approval). I did hold back reading the final chapter until I read the first volume as not to spoil any more! (While they are stand-alones the previous story is referenced in this one.)

Lord of Eternal Night (Darkmourn 1) (Ben Alderson): "He was so tall and his hands were so large and his length was so great and so thick my fingers couldn't touch reaching around it. He was not just a man, he was a god!" I laughed. That's not a literal quote, but a good summary. Yeah. I laughed. And while praising one guy he was also dissing his former lover, the baker's son, for not being as large. Not the poor lad's fault, no need to get mean! Should have known at that point already who was the true evil mastermind. :'P. But in all fairness, there is a little more going on in the story. And well, these books know very well what kind of fantasy they're catering. There's a short guy, a little crafty and feisty, not too weak, and the very tall, very beautiful guy who everyone says is evil, but turns out he isn't so evil, he just has a tragic past, he also falls very hard for the protagonist and oops, maybe he does have some capacity for evil. I did like how the story subverted who's good and who's bad like three times. Otherwise, it's not really complex. But I'm kinda into the ending.

Alpha of Mortal Flesh (Darkmourn 3) (Ben Alderson): The third installment in the series, they've been getting more elaborate with each volume. So instead of the 2 and 3 half characters we had in the first one, there's actually a whole cast in here with motivations and backstories. That was nice. The writing style, however, is still as … trying as hard as in the beginning. It's not bad, mind you, I commend it for trying to use the full range of the English language, but there's a lot of words, making everything longer than needed, and sometimes their choice is really weird. Example: "My tongue broke free. It slithered from the confines of my mouth." But it's just a normal human tongue licking something eagerly yet still very normally! And, they're indie books, yeah, but I do wish all three books would have gone through another round of editing. The unnecessary repetitions and errors made me suffer a little. And while I got a little bored and impatient at the end I do like the story and what it's trying to do. Just that it was trying too hard in some aspects of the writing and not hard enough in others.

That's it for July! Apparently, August will be library month again. My TBR bookshelf disapproves but duh. Let's go and have fun. :P

#yaku reads #books #queer books #lgbtq books #queer lit #bookblr #creepypasta #i deliver mail to cryptids #nick & skyler #we could be so good #darkmourn #lord of eternal night #prince & knight #banshee blues #tales of the high court #perilous courts #prince & assassin #boy queen

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ljm-125 · 4 months

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We're not your experiments

Explosions sounded from every direction. Debris fell all over the place, screams of agony and dead bodies filled the streets. They had come for their revenge. After years of being isolated from the world they had finally come out with a bang. Where did it all go wrong? What started as a simple experiment turned into this, a complete disaster.

“Rise Brothers and sisters. ” a voice sounded from somewhere behind the smoke as hordes of teenage soldiers ran out of the barrier separating them and the rest of the world, war cries filling the streets. On top of the barriers stood a handsome blonde boy with bright magnificent blue eyes whom the voice belonged to. He seemed to be leading the charge.

“For years these people have isolated us. ” he continued. “They lied to us, feeding us what they thought we needed, so they could easily control us. They took us away from our parents, forcing us to learn how to take care of ourselves at the age of 5. They leave their comfortable lives while we savage , attempting to make it through each day. Dying of one by one. Today we get our revenge.”

“Stop!!!” a voice sounded from the other side of the gaping hole that was the product of the first explosion. The voice belonged to a stunning teenage girl with brown hair and mesmerizing green eyes. All movements seemed to stop, necks snapping towards her direction. “Danny you have to stop this.”

“Evelyn? ” Daniel questioned before sighed in exasperation . “Not this again”

“These people have done nothing to us.” She continued making eye contact with the leader of the charge. “Most of them are oblivious to what is going beyond these walls, they only know what they have been told, in a way they are just like us.”

…….

As stated before, it had all started as an experiment. Genuine human curiosity. What would happen if you took a few undeveloped babies and placed them in an isolated area away from all human beliefs. With no distractions. No TV, No cell phones, no internet and no social media. They would only have research on what human beings had achieved thus far.

They would be moulded into perfect beings. They would know how it is like to struggle. It would require starving them and putting them into uncomfortable positions, controlling their minds making them believe that they were the last of their kind and survival was crucial.

The only problem was it was unethical. The government had put forward the idea and people were quick to shut it down. Protests raged through the streets, petitions filed the internet and the government had no choice but to shut it down. Or at least that what they told the public.

Two months after the project was shut down, walls were built surrounding a specific area that was in the outskirts of the city. People were told to stay away from the area, fed lies and forced to about their day. No one knew what was truly happening from within the barriers.

Hundreds of babies, all around the same age, laid in their cribs, innocent, peaceful and unaware of a watchful gaze and the future they were going to have to endure.

From the ages 0-5 they were groomed, fed and taken care of. At the age of three they began their education on the English language, all late developers were killed. At five they were fully versed in the English language and left on the streets to take care of themselves as that was the stage the would start retaining memory.

They suffered through hardships, each day came with a new challenge, it was survival of the fittest. More then a hundred died of in the streets before the age of 12.

By the age of 12 they had stumbled on the ‘information’ on what lead to their hardships. Every article, every book and every journal sited the same thing. They were the last of their kind and survival was crucial.

At 13 they learned how to wok together, the managed to decipher humans previous research, separating themselves into groups depending on their individual skills.

By the age of 15 a society had been built. Farming and biology were mashed together, through cloning and biotechnical development. This insured that the food demand was met and surpassed. Medical practices were developed beyond expectation, micro technology and the manipulation of cells was put into practice.

Weapons were at a new level of advancement. Technology was somehow even more advance. The society was like a futuristic utopia. Nobody ever went to bed hungry, they was no currency and everything was fair for everyone. They all acted like one gigantic family.

Through all these years the government had not let it slip once. The people within the barrier had remained oblivious to the outside world focusing on their and the future generations survival. That was until the age of 17, when a Droid flew over the wall and was immediately spotted and captured.

“This an out rage!” a voice rang out, the figure slammed their fists on the meeting table .

At 16 it had been decided that the society couldn’t survive so a total of two leaders were selected, one male(Daniel) and one female(Evelyn) . Each leader had three advisors and one secretary . Ten more people were added to the court to insure fairness. The court had an equal number of male and female leaders.

“Calm down Joseph. ” Daniel said pulling tapping the screen causing a holographic image to appear on the table.

“How do you expect me to calm down after finding out my whole was a lie!” he shouted followed murmurs of agreement from the rest of the table.

“How are we suppose to come to a decision on how we proceed from here if u refuse to calm down?” Evelyn asked calmly, with a small kind smile.

Daniel and Evelyn met at the age of 8. They were the first to learn that in order to survive they should work hand in hand. It was one of reasons they had been chosen to become the leaders of their new society, that and the fact that they founded the whole organization.

“She got you there, “ Daniel said smirking as Joseph blushed in embarrassment. “Now let’s get to the matter at hand”

“A few days ago a Droid flew over the barrier.” Daniel stated pulling up a holographic image of the Droid.

“We had some of our man heck into it and what we found is quite interesting.” Evelyn stated as a series of pictures show up on the table. A myriad of live videos showcasing the outside world fill the table. The court gasped in shock at the sight.

“They is more, “ Daniel said as the images disappear and a holographic set of papers shows up in front of everyone in the table. Chaos erupted as they read the documents stating how exactly they had ended up within the barrier. Their own parents had signed them of.

“We need to decide on a course of action,” Evelyn said causing the table to quite down.

“I say we get our revenge,” Daniel said causing a murmur of agreement to go around the table. “After all they have done to us, I think we have a right to be angry.” He growled causing most of the table to yell in agreement.

“No! ” Evelyn shouted eyes wide. “That would make us as bad as they are, it’s unethical. They has to be a better way.”

“It is what needs to be done. “

“Danny we’re talking about hurting a lot of people here, “ she said making the eye contact with him.

“People who have done nothing but hurt us,” he staring right into her eyes. Neither broke eye contact for awhile.

“They are innocent Danny, we can’t do this.”

The board room is completely bewildered, not knowing what to do, this has never happened before, they always agree.

“Let’s vote.” The advisors chorused causing the too to finally snap their gazes away from each other.

As predicted most of the court agreed with Daniel’s plan.

Days were spent preparing for the war, plans were made, weapons were prepared and Evelyn had spent the whole time trying to convince everyone otherwise with little success. On the day of the war she disappeared along with a few appeasers.

Daniel had only sighed deciding to work with the men he had. He loved the girl but sometime he just didn’t understand her sometimes times.

The bombs were wired, the barriers was blown down, the soldiers were out, Daniel had made it to the top of the war and somehow so had Evelyn, on the opposite side, rigged with explosions.

Tick…. Tick… Tick

“Evelyn get from there!” Daniel shouted eyes wide.

“Not until you’ve agreed to stop hurting these people,” she said pleadingly, eyes dropping off desperation.

TickTickTickTickTick

“OK well stop just get dow-”

Bombbbb

The explosion had cut him off causing her body to plummet to the earth.

“No.” he whispered somehow finding a way to scale down the wall running towards where her body laid. He couldn’t loose her. “No!!!” he said a bit louder clinging her lifeless body close to him. He loved her. “No. No. No. No. No,” he said frantically tears streaming down his cheeks, he didn’t get to tell her.

“It’s unethical….. They are innocent people…. I won’t get down until you agree to o stop hurting these people.” her words swam through his head as a pair of arms pulled him away from her body.

“C-call of the strike.” he managed to stutter out. “It’s unethical”

#dystopia #dystopic #fiction #original #more to come #words #writing #relationship #teenagers #plz read

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hcrexcellency · 4 months

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☼☾ ( jeanine mason, 30 , she/her , cis woman , de la rosa 5 ) - have you seen MARIA DE LA ROSA? we’ve heard through the grapevine that they’re DAUNTLESS but also TEMPESTUOUS. when you think of them , you think of A SHIP SAILING IN A SEA OF FOG, SMEARED PAINT ON CANVAS, HANDS COVERED IN GOLD RINGS.

Basics:

Name: Maria De La Rosa Title: Princess of Sicily Age: 30 Birthday: January 25th (Aquarius) Sexuality: Heterosexual Marital Status: Unbetrothed Positive Traits: Brave, tactical, creative, loyal, decisive Negative Traits: Violent, short-tempered, bold, cunning, vengeful. Hobbies: Painting, sailing, fishing, swimming Family: Felix De La Rosa (brother), Mechai De Medici (sibling-in-law).

The Story: (tw; starvation, )

It began with two villagers from another land, so poor but rich in the love they had for one another and for their baby girl. Sadly, the life of a peasant is not a very long one, and a terrible government left them to starve to death, leaving their daughter utterly alone. The plan was to deliver the girl off to an orphanage in England, but the ship was overrun by pirates. The poor girl washed up on the shores of Sicily, found by their rulers, and taken into their family. She had no memory of her previous life, no recollection of the raid. They named her "Maria", for she came from the sea and was given to them as a miraculous gift. Though rebellious in nature and defiant by desire, she was a difficult, yet devoted child. Having younger siblings, as she grew older, only made it easier for her to sprinkle her bad influence all over them, taking them out to bars, going out with sailors, and learning their pirate heritage from the pirates themselves. The more time she spent with the pirates, the more she heard stories of how oppressive and terrible the other countries in Europe were to those who had no choice but to steal for themselves. It motivated her, studying politics and seeking justice for the serf class. However, the one thing she could not shake was how she could do nothing from her little castle with no crown of her own. So, at the age of 25, she packed everything up and disappeared aboard a pirate ship. For nearly five years, Maria was a pirate captain of her own crew, even recruiting another defiant royal just like herself as her first mate. They stole from those who were more fortunate, gave to those who were less fortunate, and kept a sum of the prophet for their own selves. She even met another pirate, like herself, and fell madly in love. It was a seemingly perfect life until a battle against another crew resulted in her ship going down. Her lover sacrificed himself in the name of the code: "Anyone who falls behind is left behind". The broken ship and sky of fire began to trigger memories of a similar experience, but she still does not understand what it means. Wishing to live between the world of royals and the world of thieves, she returned home to her parents, to her family. She did not beg on her knees, but simply asked for a chance to prove herself. Maria was permitted to come with them to France, so long as she set up a decent betrothal for herself; find the next King of Sicily. And so she shall. Maria has to come to grips with who she really is, a princess destined to be queen, and find a way to become the kind of queen who can make a real difference. She's eager to learn, but also eager to use this newfound information against anyone she needs to in the future. She will get her justice for the thieves and beggars if it is the last thing she does. But will she ever find out where she truly came from? Will that knowledge change her desire to sit on a throne?

TLDR: She is the child of peasants. They died b/c the government SUCKS. She was supposed to be shipped off to an orphanage, but a pirate raid changed things. She was washed up on shore with no memory of the raid and the Sicilian rulers adopted her. She loves her family but also has a fierce sense of justice, which is what took her away from home for 5 years. She met a bestie and a lover and lost the lover in another pirate raid, which started to trigger her memories. Maria came home, but she has to get engaged in France to make up for it.

Similar Characters: Imelda Rivera (Coco), Emma Swan (Once Upon a Time), Angelica (Pirates of the Carribbean), Anastasia (Anastasia), Esmeralda (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Ember Lumen (Elemental).

Established Connections:

The De La Rosa Family. The Pirates-Turned-Royals are the toughest of the other royals families that reside in Versailles, though they tend to come off the most awkward at most royal functions. Maria loves her siblings very dearly, but wishes their lives amounted to more than a "the spare". She hopes to teach them to care enough about the rest of the world to want to do something about it.

WC'S

FIRST MATE. They met on one of Maria's voyages when she first disappeared from Sicily. She was a royal, just like her, and they both shared a heart for the working class... and for their own riches. They were excellent at scheming against the rich (think like Miguel and Tulio and Maria is more like Tulio LOL). Now that they're both here in France, her first mate intends to make a royal splash.

BETROTHED. Maria needs to find the next King of Sicily and that's pretty much how she sees it. She wants someone who will be fair to their people, but won't stand in her way when she has plans she wants to execute.

MENTORS. Maria is here to learn and to gain as much wisdom as she can from these other monarchs before she is to ascend to her own throne one day, but she has every intention of using their tactics against them to seek the justice and peace that she desires. She is not afraid of war if that's what it takes.

#francehq.intro #muse ; 𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕚𝕒 𝔻𝕖 𝕃𝕒 ℝ𝕠𝕤𝕒

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cha0ticspacebi · 1 year

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The King of the Hellfire Club: Chapter 3

Your dad promised this was the last move until after you graduate. You see Eddie Munson outside Nancy's house shortly after your arrival in Hawkins. Everyone tells you to stay away but you're sure there's more to him than he lets on. Now it's the day before spring break and you just have to work up the nerve to actually talk to him before you lose your chance.

Tags: 18+ MDNI, falling in love, full of cheesy cliche high school romance tropes, dungeon master Eddie, dom Eddie, rockstar Eddie, hurt/comfort, getting together, fluff/smut

dividers by firefly-graphics

Chapter 3/13 ☆ Previous chapter → Next chapter

☆ You can find me over on A03 as Cha0ticBi ☆ Master list link! ☆

You and Eddie walked back towards the school together. He explained that the hellfire sessions were held in a room that the school used to use for storage but was now home to their small band of misfits. The school would usually be empty this time of night, but tonight was the championship basketball game. The lot was full. Cheers could be heard coming from the gym. You looked around as a few late arrivals ran past you heading directly in to join the excitement. You rubbed your arms, night really had descended on Hawkins. The warmth of the morning sun was gone.

“Eddie? It’s cold. I’m going to grab my sweater,” You gesture towards your car.

“What kind of king would I be if I let a fair maiden wander this wasteland alone? You know there’s a lot of freaks out there.”

“How noble,” you dig in your bag for your keys.

“Damn, is this your car?” he glides his fingers across the polished surface.

Moving from LA brought a lot of changes but one thing that didn’t change was the feeling of letting your hair down, blowing in the hot, dry wind while driving way too fast. You loved your car. You grabbed your sweater from the passenger seat, “Yeah, too bad it’s colder than the arctic here in Indiana so I rarely get to let the top down but this is my baby.”

The distance between the two of you as you walked into the school and through the dark hallways may as well have been a mile. The silence painfully digging at your chest. You’ve wanted nothing more than to be this close to Eddie since catching a glimpse of his adorable face that tonight outside Nancy’s house. Somehow the darkness made you feel smaller and less confident than a short time ago in the woods. As if these empty halls would swallow you up right there for saying the wrong thing.

“Soo,” Eddie’s voice echoed, “Where did you live before you moved here to the frozen tundra?”

This was easy. Small talk you could handle, “LA, my dad works for the government so we move a lot. He promised I’d be here at least until I graduate. But after that I’ll be headed off to college.”

His voice dropped, “College huh, an academic! Do you have a profession in mind, young scholar?”

“To be honest no. I love reading but I don’t really want to spend the rest of my life as a librarian. What about you?”

“Me?” he sounded surprised, “Well I’m currently army crawling my way to a D in Ms. O’Donnell’s. If I don’t blow it this time I’m gonna walk that stage this year, grab my diploma and run like hell outta here!” His enthusiastic display put a smile on your face. You loved how easily he could make you laugh.

“Any plans for after that?”

“I’m in a band, you know? Yeah we actually draw a crowd…of about 5 drunks. You should come see us sometime, everyone has to start somewhere right? Here we are!” He stopped in front of an unmarked door, “Last chance for you to back out? Should you choose to proceed, who knows the untold horrors you will experience beyond this door!”

“I’m not afraid! Bring it on King Eddie! Do your worst.”

“Oh sweetheart, I’ll make you eat those words.”

The room was dark save for a few table lamps casting a red glow on the surface of the walls. A large table surrounded by chairs sat in the center. At the head of the table a screen propped up. It read Dungeons and Dragons . A picture of a red dragon on the cover of a book. No one else was here yet. You cautiously explored as Eddie set up the table. He rolled out a paper map and grabbed several small plastic creatures from a shelf and placed them behind the screen. He tossed his jacket on the large throne at the head of the table.

“Before everyone else gets here you need a character.” He beckoned you to sit to his right.

“How does this work exactly? Remember, total rookie here.”

“You create a character and then through a combination of roleplay and dice rolls we tell a story together. You’ll be working with everyone else’s characters to navigate my world and attempt to defeat any evils you may encounter.”

You stopped listening after roleplay, “Roleplay like in the bedroom?” Before the words left your lips your eyes widened and you covered your mouth, “Oh my god I can’t believe I said that. Can you just kill me now?”

Eddie’s gaze was intense, “If that’s what you're into sweetheart.”

The door opened and you heard several voices behind you but your eyes were locked on Eddie. You swallowed hard and bit your lip again. A bad habit your mother has tried to get you to stop.

“Holy Shit! I can’t believe you actually showed up!” Dustin shouted sitting across from you.

Eyes still caught in his stare, “Your leader here was very persuasive.”

Eddie may have pulled his eyes away from you and returned to normal but something held you in. An unseen force keeping your attention locked on him, “Of course! I put her under my spell and brought her here.” Everyone laughed.

The whole party loved having a new player. They helped you make a character and explained the mechanics. You decided to play a cleric. Since you were there to help out it made the most sense to your very logical brain. When everything was all set, Eddie began speaking.

Your group is bloodied and beaten from your encounters in the forest. You see a new face upon entering the town square. They are wearing a blue velvet robe with the hood up but you notice a symbol for the god of good health and prosperity on their back. Perhaps they can help you in your time of need. “What do you do?”

Dustin spoke, “I go talk to them.”

You approach the figure. She turns and lowers her hood revealing her radiance. Her hair glistens in the setting sun. Her eyes are bright as she greets you with a smile. Eddie looks directly in your eyes and lowers his voice, You’ve never seen a creature more beautiful than her. “Do you say anything fair maiden?”

Here goes nothing. Your first dungeons and dragons interaction. You had everything you were going to say planned out in your head but who the hell knows where it went because you were still replaying the last 30 seconds in your head wishing you could relive them.

“Ah-h, hello travelers. How can I be of assistance to you?”

Mike spoke, “We require healing miss. We lost a fellow warrior and we are greatly wounded.”

After explaining to you how to heal them you do just that and continue with the game unable to shake the lust in Eddie’s eyes as he whispered those words to you, He was just describing the character. He was just playing the game.

The story continued to develop. You found yourself getting really invested in the game and cheering every time someone landed a hit or made a successful roll. Eddie was an amazing story teller. He really made you feel like you’d been transported to the pages of one of your favorite books. His theatrics and natural charisma had you hanging on every word he said. Your characters came together and despite the dungeon master’s efforts you overcame all the challenges he put in your path. With your help the party defeated Lord Vecna and banished his cultists! The cheering rivaled those heard in the gymnasium when the final hit was landed and you knew the long battle was over at last.

Everyone packed up their belongings and said good night. Well wishes for an enjoyable spring break and promises to meet up for a new adventure upon the return to school. You grabbed your character sheet that you planned to keep forever and clutched it to your chest, “Thanks Eddie. That was a lot of fun. Thank you for inviting me.”

He swung his jacket over his shoulders, “Thank you for giving it a chance. See I told you not like they say in the papers. You know, worshiping Satan and sacrificing virgins.”

You shook your head, “You’re a horrible influence Eddie Munson. I should be heading home. I’d love to play again sometime if you’ll have me.”

“Nothing. Not even Lord Vecna’s return with an army of demabats could keep me away from you.”

Your face flushed and pulse quickened. Eddie rocked awkwardly on his heels, “Sorry, I’m being creepy again. It’s late, can I walk you to your car?”

“I’d be honored sir.”

You felt yourself standing closer to him this time as you walked through the empty halls again. Your heart dropped as you approached your car knowing that you’d have to part ways and possibly not see one another until after break. Your steps slowed, wanting to spend as much time as possible in this moment but you couldn’t prolong it forever and eventually reached the driver's side door of your car.

You took a deep breath, “Thank you for the escort my king,” your hand gripped the door handle tight, “Well, until we meet again.”

“Wait,” your hand felt the warmth of his rough skin stopping you from opening the door, “Before you go I have to know. You said earlier that you approached me because you wanted to see me. What did you mean by that? We’ve never spoken until today and I’m not exactly Mr. Popular.”

Your heart raced, threatening to beat right out of your chest. Your fingers pulled away from his curling together yet desperately wanting to reach out and grab his hand. You tried so hard to hear Nancy’s words, take your chance while you have it , “I uh, I was going to ask if you wanted to see a movie sometime. Thinking now that that would’ve been super weird, like you said we barely know each other - ”

“Stop overthinking. I’d love to,” Eddie’s hand grabbed yours, “Here’s my number. The ball is in your laundry basket my lady. I await your call.” He stuffed his hands in his pockets and disappeared into the night.

You stared at the small crumpled paper in your hand. Smile locked on your lips as you drove home. The house lights were still on as you walked in, “I’m home!”

“Hey sweetie, you're home late. Did you stay for the basketball game?” Mom pulled out a plate from the fridge and started heating it up for you.

“No, actually I went to the dungeons and dragons club that Nancy’s brother is in. It was a lot of fun,” you ate the leftovers with a silly grin on your face.

Your mom joined you at the table, “I know that look! Did you meet someone?”

“His name is Eddie and he runs the club. He’s a senior, technically a super senior, but he’s such a gentleman. He is kind, funny, polite, and he offered to walk me to my car after.”

“If you're happy I’m happy for you. So when can I meet him?”

“I asked him to a movie so maybe after I get one date with him,” You shared a laugh before she gave you a kiss and you both headed to bed.

You thumbed the paper in your fingers. The idea of calling him on the tip of your tongue. You should make sure he got home safely right? He walked you to your car, it’s only right you return the favor. Before you could talk yourself out of it, you were dialing the number.

Ring. Ring. With every unanswered ring your heart quickened. Maybe he went home and fell asleep.

“Hello?” his voice was just as intoxicating on the phone.

“Hey Eddie, it’s me.”

“Wow sweetheart I must have really left an impression. Just couldn’t wait to get your hands on me again hm?”

“You flatter yourself sir. I simply wanted to ensure the gracious king who walked me to my car also made it home safely.”

“I did indeed make the safe return journey to Castle Munson. Thank you for your concern,”

“Of course, If something happened to you, who else could replace you as dungeon master?”

“Using me for my incredible gifts I see.”

“No actually it’s your voice -” you stopped. Too mortified to continue speaking.

You could practically see the grin on Eddie’s face, “My voice huh? Tell me fair maiden, what does my voice do to you?”

“I- I didn’t mean it like that. I meant only you can do character voices like that.”

“Hm, if you say so. Well. Since I have you on the phone now, what would you say to a movie tomorrow night? There’s a new horror movie out we could see.”

“I can't guarantee I won’t close my eyes but sure. It’s a date.”

“I’ll pick you up at 7:00. See you then sweetheart. Good night”

“Night Eddie.” Click

#eddie munson x reader #eddie x fem!reader #eddie munson #eddie munson fanfic #stranger things fic #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #stranger things fanfic #stranger things smut #18+ content #high school sweetheart eddie munson #dungeon master eddie munson

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bizarrequazar · 2 years

Text

05-23 (CST) QuelleVous Twitter Space Notes

This was the second in a series of live discussions covering events relating to 813, with this one focused on CAPA. QuelleVous did the bulk of the talking, accompanied by followerno65 and Bluebird. This is an informal fan discussion and should not be taken as an official source. [Recording]

QuelleVous has also posted her own prep notes for this space [here].

Notes on the previous space giving a review of the events leading up to and including 813 can be found [here]. Please let me know if I’ve made any mistakes (especially with names) or missed anything significant.

Background about CAPA

Registered as a grade 1 non-government organization registered under the MCT. This does not make them an official government agency, every NGO in China has to be registered under a government agency. The MCT has a very light hold on them.

“Grade 1″ has some prestige to it but doesn’t mean much, just that papers are turned in directly to the government rather than another association

Started out as an academic thinktank sort of scenario, then just for stage performers, now for pretty much everything. “Their power creeped and expanded” to what other associations weren’t already handling

Changed to their current name in 2010 with the coming to power of their current president (Zhu Kuning), who started as a secretariat

Executives within CAPA are chosen by election from members, they can be from other provinces. Roles cannot be held for two consecutive terms. Cannot be over the age of 70 and must be of sound mind

There aren’t really individual members, only companies / universities that are a part of it; anyone employed under those are a part of CAPA

Since 1995, they were in charge of issuing entertainment manager licenses to individuals

Members have to pay a fee every 5 years (set by CAPA, not by 5 years from when you register). The fees vary depending on your role in CAPA. It is not clear how much these fees actually are, sources vary

17 sub-committees including livestreaming, entertainment management self-disciplinary committee, dance committee

They own LLCs, such as consulting and tech firms. (Water armies are considered a type of tech firm, it’s not known if this is applicable here) LLCs can earn money without it factoring into CAPA’s official earnings.

Offer courses that give a certaificate at the end, but these certificates don’t seem to have any practical use. Fees are required to enroll, some of then tens of thousands of dollars

NGOs are not obligated to publish their financial records, they are only given a public grade. CAPA hasen’t gotten great grades, but have always passed. (Two years ago they barely passed, this year passed.)

Very close relationship with MCT, official(s) from which always show us at CAPA’s events.

Not a lot of transparency with NGOs in China, though this seems to be changing due to some orgs taking advantage of it. They’re not obligated to publish their tax forms. Very little info about CAPAs finances can be found.

CAPA are no longer allowed to register licenses but sells study material for licenses, and are still taking membership fees

Hold a lot of banquets: payment fee to get in, meant for managers to rub elbows

NRTA has nothing to do with CAPA (CAPA would like you to think they do.) CAPA reports to MCT, MCT reports into MCA. NRTA also reports into MCA.

Timeline

(This went very fast, I probably missed some things)

2017: CAPA established a livestreaming sub-committee, 23 people incluidng academics and companies. Secratariat Qi Tao, ex-VP of Six Rooms, was the spokesperson of the committee for a long time.

October 2020: Livestreaming manager sub-committee established, 23 people, MCNs (talent companies for influencers)

March 2021: New perfomance regulations “in conjuction with the moral standards of the MCT”, aka the boycott lists

May 15-18 2021: annual CAPA livestreaming industry meeting in Shanghai. Two members of MCT attended, as well as Qi Tao.

June 2021: Pang Yen gave an interview about the rules established in March, saying they are not retroactive.

July 19: Issued statement against Kris Wu allegations, saying not to trust internet rumors and wait for investigations

August 13: President and Xie Yihua edited their Baidu pages, Tang Lawyer gave a warning about Zhang Zhehan’s potential boycott

August 15: Issued statement calling for Zhang Zhehan’s boycott

August 31: Zhu Kening issued statement about the cancellation of livestreams and concerts, said a thorough investigation had been done and their moral committee had been consulted, and that they had consulted with a member of an MCT perfomance sub-committee (academics, not government officials)

Sept 12: Issued statement that they were working with social media platforms to clean up the industry

Sept 29: Douyin hosted an event with 70 companies saying that they and CAPA would abide by the standards set in March

Nov 23: Issued 9th boycott list by livestreaming sub-committee, 85 online influencers, 3 actors (Kris Wu, Zheng Shuang, Zhang Zhehan). Shared by 55 news bodies. This is what brought Zhang Zhehan’s name back into the news cycle.

Dec 1: Issued a statement that the boycott is voluntary and should only be taken by members between members

Dec 13: MCT released new rules regarding entertainment managers, MCT would take on manager licenscing responsibilities

CAPA went quiet for a while

April 14: Audit announcement. Indepedent accounting firms will be thoroughly looking at their finances and operations. It’s not known if it will affect Zhang Zhehan’s case. Not known exactly what this audit will entail, a report will be released at the end of the year.

April 18: CAPA announced setting up a mediation center to handle conflicts

May 13: MCT released more amendments: abolishing performance industry groups from issuing entertainer licenses, all manager licenses and guidelines will fall under the MCT, industry groups should act under their charter and protect the rights of their members. CAPA’s charter does not say anything about punishing their members, mediation, or procedural justice.

Rumor that CAPA is planning to release a new charter soon, likely will include the procedure of their boycott lists and a streamlining of membership costs

Sus Things

11 companies under livestreaming sub-committee, 9 of which have been cited by the CAC as hosting sexually explicit content (especially Six Rooms something like 11 times.) Pay-for-skin soft pornography, basically.

Some Weibo bloggers accused these platforms of using their image without permission in ads.

Some of these take 50-60% of your livestream earnings.

Six Rooms’ parent company lost 150mil RMB on the stock market the same week as the 9th boycott list; one of the companies with stock in them has right wing Japanese imperialist ties

CAPA’s president has no perfomance experience, started out as a chemical engineer. Used to work low in the MCT.

Secratariat Pang Yen has been accused of taking bribes and having dinners with “pretty boys” to take people off the boycott lists

Li Xuezheng talked about a friend going for a dinner with a CAPA executive who said “We can’t get you famous, but we can crush you like a bug”

CAPA listed the Communist Youth League as a group their moral committee consulted

Youth League is another grade 1 NGO, a lot of leaders used to come from it but this was restructured in 2016 due to lingeage favouritism, budget was cut by more than half. Current faction in political power doesn’t like them, basically.

Lots of antis have ties to them

Posted an awful article about Zhang Zhehan in August)

The League’s official posting online became more sensationalized after 2016, more Buzzfeed-ish

Central body and provincial sub-groups

Feed a lot of people into government jobs but not governmental themselves

Case where a journalist involved with CAPA was found to have interviewed himself as an official source. Another official was found to have posted sexually explicity and xenophobic content. Many followed antis. Many wiped their Weibos after Nov 23rd. Sophie also seems to have ties to CAPA, Xie Yihua can be tied to it six different ways with a less than 3 degree separation

First boycott list said it would only last 24 months, this phrase then disappeared on later lists. Appeal period of 30 days which had to be done in person (during COVID nonetheless), shorted to 10 days on 9th list. The appeals against CAPA go to CAPA themselves (obvious conflict of interest)

After Li Xuezheng was muted, all these passersby who got a platform talking about justice are now no longer talking about CAPA. Very questionable in terms of motive.

Being able to own LLCs created huge concerns for conflict of interest.

Managment test prices and difficulty seem to vary depending on where you are.

The original boycott statement made it sound mandatory and like they had authority over doing so (they only clarified on Dec 1 that they are not mandatory.)

Misc. Discussion

The government always takes a part in public companies but is not omniscient. Social media has been mostly self-regulating, but the government has started to take a more active approach to content moderation. The degree is not known.

About CAPA’s upcoming mediation committee: “First mediation centre set up in the country for performers mediation. Will rely on media academics and lawyers to help mediate in a just and effective manner for matters concerning perfomance, management, and related matters. According to sources, this has the okay from the leaders of CAPA to mediate these conflicts. Also this centre can help aid CAPA members, executive members, and related agencies in consultation on civil conflicts to help aid against lawsuits.” Also want to mediate copyright and IP conflicts.

Zhang Zhehan’s case has really put a light on what is likely the situation with many other NGOs.

Question of why the platform boycott is still ongoing despite CAPA saying that it’s not mandatory:

Platforms are likely afraid of admitting that they’ve made a mistake and may be liable for it.

The guess is that the government will force platforms to abide by their rulings and there will be a press release once the case has reached that point. This could potentially affect others on the lists as well depending on what the exact situation of the lawsuit is.

What has happened to Zhang Zhehan could happen to anyone. It’s very much pushing the boundaries of what CAPA can do, and it will be very frightening if they are able to get away with it. Who’s to say it won’t become something they market under the table?

The fact that Zhang Zhehan’s case came up in test study materials last year may in part be CAPA’s doing, as they have some ties in publishing.

CAPA is very likely involved in the recent shift in target (ie. what Xie Yihua’s been doing)

The news about Zhang Zhehan has very much shifted from justice to celebrity gossip.

He’s being talked about like he’s already back.

So far news about the Xie Yihua situation is mostly contained to the fandom

The recent efforts are character assassination, trying to attack him from different angles, trying to distract the public with a persona since most of the general public don’t know much about him outside of his role in Word of Honor and 813

#Zhang Zhehan #813 #my zzh posts #zzh info

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mariacallous · 7 months

Text

Fico is back in Slovakia, and that's not good news for anyone but Russia and Putin.

A party headed by a pro-Kremlin figure came out top after securing more votes than expected in an election in Slovakia, preliminary results show, in what could pose a challenge to NATO and EU unity on Ukraine.

According to preliminary results released by Slovakia’s Statistical Office at 9 a.m. local time, Robert Fico’s populist SMER party won 22.9% of the vote.

Progressive Slovakia (PS), a liberal and pro-Ukrainian party won 17.9%.

Fico, a two-time former prime minister, now has a chance to regain the job but must first seek coalition partners as his party did not secure a big enough share of the vote to govern on its own.

Speaking after his victory, Fico said he “will do everything” in his power to kickstart Russia-Ukraine peace talks.

“More killing is not going to help anyone,” Fico said.

Negotiations are unlikely to be welcomed in Ukraine, as for now they would likely involve proposals in which territory is ceded to Russia – a non-starter for Kyiv.

The moderate-left Hlas party, led by a former SMER member and formed as an offshoot of SMER following internal disputes, came third with 14.7% of the vote,andcould play kingmaker.

With seven political parties reaching the 5% threshold needed to enter the parliament, coalition negotiations will almost certainly include multiple players and could be long and messy.

While not a landslide, SMER’s result is better than expected – last opinion polls published earlier this week showed SMER and PS neck and neck.

Fico has pledged an immediate end to Slovak military support for Ukraine and promised to block Ukraine’s NATO ambitions in what would upend Slovakia’s staunch support for Ukraine.

Michal Šimečka, the leader of PS, said the result was “bad news for the country.”

“The fact of the matter is that SMER is the winner. And we of course respect that although we think it’s bad news for the country. And it will be even worse news if Mr Fico forms the government,” he said at a news conference early on Sunday.

Slovakia’s President Zuzana Čaputová said before the election that she would ask the leader of the strongest party to form the government, meaning Fico will get the first stab at forming a government.

Fico and SMER have not yet commented on the results.

Šimečka said his party will do “everything it could” to prevent Fico from governing.

“I will be in touch with other political leaders of parties that were elected to parliament — on an informal basis — to discuss ways of preventing that,” he said. “We think it will be really bad news for the country, for our democracy, for our rule of law, and for our international standing and for our finances and for our economy if Mr Fico forms the government.”

Peter Pellegrini, the leader of Hlas, said his party was “very pleased with the result.”

“The results so far show that Hlas will be a party without which it will be impossible to form any kind of normal, functioning coalition government,” he said, adding that the party will “make the right decision” to become part of a government that will lead Slovakia out of the “decay and crisis that (the country’s previous leaders) got us into.”

Hlas has been vague about its position on Ukraine in the election campaign. Pellegrini has previously suggested Slovakia “had nothing left to donate” to Kyiv, but also said that the country should continue to manufacture ammunition that is shipped to Ukraine.

Serious consequences for the region

Slovakia, an eastern European nation of about 5.5 million people, was going to the polls to choose its fifth prime minister in four years after seeing a series of shaky coalition governments.

A SMER-led government could have serious consequences for the region. Slovakia is a member of both NATO and the European Union, was among the handful of European countries pushing for tough EU sanctions against Russia and has donated a large amount of military equipment to Ukraine.

But this will likely change under Fico, who has blamed “Ukrainian Nazis and fascists” for provoking Russia’s President Vladimir Putin into launching the invasion, repeating the false narrative Putin has used to justify his invasion.

While in opposition, Fico became a close ally of Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban, especially when it came to criticism of the European Union. There is speculation that, if he returns to power, Fico and Orban could gang up together and create obstacles for Brussels. If Poland’s governing Law and Justice party manages to win a third term in Polish parliamentary elections next month, this bloc of EU troublemakers could become even stronger.

Meanwhile, the liberal PS party had been pushing for a completely different future for Slovakia – including a continued strong support for Kyiv and strong links with the West.

Fico previously served as Slovakia’s prime minister for more than a decade, first between 2006 and 2010 and then again from 2012 to 2018.

He was forced to resign in March 2018 after weeks of mass protests over the murder of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová. Kuciak reported on corruption among the country’s elite, including people directly connected to Fico and his party SMER.

The campaign was marked by concerns over disinformation, with Věra Jourová, the European Commission’s top digital affairs official, saying in advance the vote would be a “test case” of how effective social media companies have been in countering Russian propaganda in Slovakia.

Polls suggest Fico’s pro-Russia sentiments are shared by many Slovaks.

According to a survey by GlobSec, a Bratislava-based security think tank, only 40% of Slovaks believed Russia was responsible for the war in Ukraine, the lowest proportion among the eight central and eastern European and Baltic states GlobSec focused on. In the Czech Republic, which used to form one country with Slovakia, 71% of people blame Russia for the war.

The same research found that 50% of Slovaks perceive the United States – the country’s long-term ally – as a security threat.

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woodsfae · 2 years

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Howdy all! I've been having a rough last few days week month year life time lately, and yesterday when I burst into tears after Partner asked me if I had a certain tax form, I knew it was time to sit my ass in a hot springs and stare at trumpeter swans. So I did! And it was great. I'm so very lucky to live in a place where I have a dozen hot springs within two hours' drive, and exceedingly lucky that one of my favorites overlooks a pond full of beautiful waterfowl. So now I am refreshed, still cigarette-free, and ready to watch more Babylon 5!

Babylon 5 S01e13: By Any Means Necessary First Previous

Table of Contents

Very Ominous Title.

Remind me never to work in cargo receiving. That looks awful. They’re really busting their cojones trying to process everything down there.

Collision?? Eeeeeeeee yikes no this is bad looking.

Industrial accidents are generally very bad. I physically recoiled from the screen. Probably I’ve read one too many graphic descriptions of trainyard squishings.

G’Kar finds out the G’Quan Eth was destroyed when the Narn ship’s cargo bay was destroyed - it’s interesting that the Narn language also follows Q with a U.

The cargo staff is working triple hours?! Fuck no, get a union and some more staff. And lowballed construction installed low quality chips. Looks like this is going to be a Working Conditions and Unionization episode. I’m a Union Person through and through. Bring it on.

The G’Quan Eth must be related to the Holy Days of G’Quan that Londo is tormenting him about. And it’s a flower! And Londo Mollari has one, duh. Love their hatred for each other. It’s always entertaining.

Earth won’t fund a higher budget for Babylon 5 safety (how like a government). So the cargo crew are striking! Well done. The words “illegal strike” should enrage everyone, automatically. And motivate them to strike, too.

They’re lucky if they get a four hour turnaround after working a double shift. ye gods. I was already on their side, but now I’m trying to figure out ways to go agitate with them.

Maybe don’t ask Eduardo to be the coolest head. His brother just died. Garibaldi is acting very coplike again, he’s rapidly losing his Limp Dishrag (affectionate) status.

“Look, you’ve made your point and Earth Central will be made aware of your grievances. There’s nothing else you can gain by continuing to strike.”

Baby, those are the magic words that let the workers know that their strike will Hit Em Where It Hurts and Guarantee Change. Don’t back down now.

“You get us decent pay and equipment and hire enough workers to do the job safely, then we return to work. Not a minute before.”

fuck yeah.

🎶I don’t need a rational to sing the International 🎶

Mollari is having a blast tormenting G’Kar, and I’m having a blast watching it!

Honestly I wanna try this G’Quan Eth hallucinogenic. Mollari’s a fuckhead but I think he’d be fun to trip with.

Senator, you know what looks even worse and sets an even worse precedent than striking Dockers Guilds? Your Shining Star of Diplomacy falling down around your ears and killing off your Dockers, of whom you already don’t have enough.

Orin Zento, their best “labour negotiator,” sounds like a union-buster. Fuuuuuuck noooooooo.

🎶 there is power in a union 🎶

I hate Orin Zento already. Such a smarmy shitface.

“I’ll kill [Mollari] with my bare hands! By my [????] there’s nothing to stop me! Sinclair can only kick me off the station! He might even thank me.”

pfffft bahahaha. So good. And Na’Toth’s entire mien for the whole ragefit. So good.

G’Kar: “We all believe in something greater than ourselves, even if it’s just the blind forces of chance.”

Na’Toth: “Chance favors the warrior.”

God I love her.

Gonna figure out how to get onto Babylon 5 and kick Zento’s face in. Blaming the accident on the Dockers, if only by implication? Going to squish his face like a grape.

Well done scruffing up Sinclair. He looks exhausted.

“Beg your pardon Commander, but if someone pushed you, wouldn’t you push back?”

That’s damn right. The state and corporations commit violence against the workers every day, but we’re always blamed and told that violence isn’t the answer once we can’t take the constant violence on ourselves any longer.

Hoping Sinclair refuses to order the soldiers under his command to obey Zento’s orders to attack the civilians. It is bonkers to me that the state is like “yeah let’s side with nonpersons and attack the civilians with the military; that’ll definitely make them loyal and dedicated workers!”

I’d watch a whole tv show about Ms Neeoma Connelly.

The lungs on Ivanova!

Lotta “unfortunately”s being thrown around by people who won’t be in any danger during the conflict.

The Senate has sent replacement workers. Keep em as additional ones, boom, half the problem solved.

Sinclair coming through and being highly pendantic about what “by any means necessary” covers.

“You should never hand someone a gun unless you’re sure where they’ll point. Your mistake.”

This episode should have been called 48 Awake: Sinclair Never Did Get That Nap

alternatively, Sinclair Interprets Regulations and Religion Creatively

The most utopian thing in this show so far: the Senate disagrees with Sinclair’s decision but are letting it stand since public opinion is on the Dockers’ side.

It’s Zento’s choice to feel embarrassed. What does he care if Dockers are paid more? He can claim he was supportive of the move and boost his negotiating reputation further.

hell yeah sci fi unions.

on to the next!

#babylon 5 #neeoma connelly #union!#unionizing #Spotify #woodsfae b5

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