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yannaryartside · 4 months

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Sydney Adamu; Donna's antithesis

THE BIG PARALLEL: THE QUEEN OF THE KITCHEN

Donna's introduction to the audience is in her kitchen, where she is the leader, the center of the action; all orders come from her, and the dynamic in the family is created primarily by her. She has assigned (indirectly or so) the roles of all the family members that keep the family working in the way it does. She is the queen, the leader—a role she was given by nature.

And what is Sydney's job in the kitchen? The CDC, even when she was a sous, she was already taking the responsibilities of the CDC. She is their queen, their leader in their kitchen—a role she was given by choice.

The writers had given Sydney every opportunity to be Donna so they could show us how much of Donna she is not. Here are my favorite examples of it.

Donna brings guilt, and Sydney brings grace.

Donna created her daughter's nickname after a mistake she made as a kid (probably when Nat was nervous and afraid to fail her), messing up a recipe.

Sydney gave grace to Tina when she messed up the recipe for the mashed potatoes. Sydney could have used that opportunity to get back at Tina for making her look bad in front of Carmy and all the other stuff. Sydney decided to be the bigger person; God, Sydney was not trying to make Tina own or like her. She just decided that is not what she is. She acknowledged that Tina was trying something new and wanted to be available in case Tina needed help. Sydney gave Tina clear expectations, recognized the task's difficulty, and offered help. Later, she was graceful when a mistake was made, and gave positive reinforcement when the job was well done. We learned then that Tinas was terribly afraid of being displaced or not good enough. Sydney is giving Tina all the things Donna should have given Nat.

Another exmaple of this is when Richie and Sydney are shopping for caulk. She just buys the right one; she doesn't rub it in his face or call him stupid or careless. In all their conversation, Sydney tried to understand more, not put more fire into the pile. Richie recognizes that, and I think this is when he starts to respect her, even a little.

Donna brings chaos, Sydney brings order.

Both women have the role of being the center (heart) of the kitchen. Only Donna can touch the food in her kitchen, while Sydney delegates the kitchen tasks to the restaurant employees.

Donna gives the absence of self, and Sydney brings purpose.

To please their mother, try to win her love, or just survive the household dynamics, the Berzatto siblings had to adopt behaviors/personalities that were not natural to them. Mickey was at least 18 when his father left; he took the provider position by helping her mom run the restaurant. He also took care of his siblings. He was his ultimate ally in helping the family feel like a family, particularly by always being capable of "dialing a room" to make everyone feel entertained, appreciated, have fun, and be a family. For all these reasons, he was Donna's favorite, and the other two siblings were neglected because of it. Neither Nat of Carmy felt really like she was there for them; she probably didn't encourage Carmy to draw or Nat in anything. Nat and Carmy grew up believing their talents/nature were useless because they didn't please their mom. Neither of them recognizes the things they are good at outside the kitchen: Nat diminishes her husband's compliments on her hard work, and Carmy ignores compliments on his drawings.

Sydney, on the other hand, can encourage Marcus to follow his passion for baking. She supports Tina in her culinary journey to the point of her becoming the third person in charge. She asked Nat to be the project manager because, in the few interactions she had with her, she perceived (or it was intuition) Nat's attention to detail, caring nature, and responsibility. In the climax of the second season, she trusts Richie to do the calling of the orders when she has no reason to believe he can, and he solidifies his purpose. Sydney "nurtured" everybody's natural talents and trusted them to walk independently. That is what a good parent or leader does. It is such a brilliant subtext. Important to note she doesn't do that with Carmy, because Carmy is her equal, her partner-to-be.

Other ones:

There is also to mention the fact that Sydney was a professional driver, and Donna tried to crash a car in her own house. Talking about metaphors.

Also, Sydney doesn't indulge in any of the toxic behaviors that the Berzattos learned from Donna, neither Carmy nor Richie's bullshit nor the rest of the staff. Little by little, she fought fire with water, and she won, maybe because she is more like a river than a drop. She had a purpose on her own, an identity, a past that she kept to herself, and a desire to move forward. People started to respect her the more they relied on her and the more she didn't give in to the toxic traits that were ruling them before. They saw the good and followed it.

Sydney may not rely on toxic dynamics to lead her kitchen, but she will not let others take advantage of her. She did not pick on Carmy's slack last season for him but despite him. She doesn't believe that is what she is supposed to do, not only as her employee but friend and possible romantic interest. She calls the bad behaviors/tendencies by it's name. And communicates she won't have it, while also saying she belives in him.

I think most of the audience (besides the ones in this fandom) really doesn't understand how extraordinary Sydney is. If she wasn't as well-written as she is, with defects and fears, people would think that she is the "saint woman/magic woman" archetype, making everything previously broken work in her presence. I also think it is because she is a woman, and women are expected to bring magic and be fixers and helpers. There is also the fact that she is a black woman, and everything that comes with that, but I cannot comment on that, so I am not going to. Just saying she is one of the most amazing role models I have seen, decorated with the price of also being one of the most complex female characters on screen. She is not perfect as a person and has not reached her whole potential, and she wants it. I respect and admire her so much. Even when Carmy seems to have a longer path of healing ahead, I want Sydney to win the most, not just heal. I want to know more about her, her intimate desires, and why is her heart broken. Long gone are the days when women lived on screen to make everybody around them better and happier. All the things she is extraordinary for, the ones I talked about, are not just reasons why Carmy had admired her or fallen for her. She is, for me, a champion preparing for live-defining battles. We know who she is, and we get to discover what else she could be, to grow in her self-confidence, her purpose, and what brings pleasure to her soul. She is considered now the show's co-protagonist.

And I hope in s3 we are in for a journey. She made all the difference. Thank you for reading.

#sydcarmy #sydney adamu #sydney adamu meta #the bear meta #the bear #carmy berzatto #natalie berzatto #donna berzatto #tina the bear #marcus the bear #richie jerimovich #Sydeny adamu is my champion

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communistkenobi · 6 months

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I wonder about american right wing rhetorical strategies now that Alex Jones has been made an example of. Like will they change at all? A lot of it had to do with him openly insulting the judges and lawyers and getting sanctioned like half a dozen times because none of his legal team followed the rules, committing the big no-no of disrespecting the sanctity of legal process, so the immediate lesson there is to just be more sophisticated and responsive to legal norms while spouting fascist conspiracy theories. I wonder about the position he’d be in now if he didn’t accuse the judge of working for the pedophile deep state multiple times and had normal lawyers who did their job correctly. Obviously the damages has to pay has to do with how horrifically he treated the sandy hook families, that’s a huge part of it - another thing he and his legal team did was consistently deny they did anything wrong and openly argue that sandy hook was a hoax to the judge and the jury, expressing zero remorse and maintaining the position that the victims of the sandy hook shooting were paid state actors. but after listening to coverage of the case, I can’t really help concluding that he would not be getting fucked into financial oblivion this hard if he refrained from calling the lawyers and judges ambulance chasing vampires who molest children. So I think actually the larger lesson here is to not believe the things you sell your audience - Jones’ biggest weakness was that he appeared to actually believe the bullshit he was selling to people on infowars, given his behaviour in depositions and in the court room. Like the hilarious thing is that Jones actually did the principled thing and stood by his beliefs in the face of devastating loss and punishment, which cost him a billion dollars. The reason Paul Joseph Watson didn’t really face any punishment despite being one of the more senior employees in the company was that he was one of the few people at infowars telling Jones to cool it with the sandy hook shit. he also cooperated with the lawyers, not spouting any insane right wing conspiracy theories in his deposition and openly admitting that he didn’t like what Jones was saying. And PJW is an obvious piece of shit, he’s complicit in all of it, but he’s smart enough to know you don’t accuse lawyers of being deep state actors under oath lol. Pundits will do well to take note of this and make sure they don’t get high off their own supply

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brambleghastblast · 27 days

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i think a depressing truth of the internet ill always hate is that negativity is what leads to success

negativity, in forms of content creation, leads to comments of people arguing or saying "but i like that thing". comments lead to the algorithms of social media boosting said piece of comic. algorithm favoring your stuff leads to more views. views get you money

often times, i think most youtubers and tiktokers and people on twitter and whatnot actually force themselves to be negative out of necessity. because its the quickest and easiest way to get a post out there. and its really become a norm in social media thats made the internet suffocatingly bad lately

like.. take pokemon for example, youtubers and tiktokers and twitter users such talking about pokemon will complain to no end about graphics, taking the worst possible screenshots they can get or setting up elaborate glitches so they can take a picture, put it next to another game with the prettiest picture they can get, and then go "WOW CAN U BELIEVE GAMEFREAK MAKES STUFF LIKE THIS" which then starts arguments and spreads like a wildfire because people are pointing out "wow you really took the worst picture you could huh" but then random people desperate to argue go "UHHH GAMEFREAKS NOT GONNA MARRY U DUDE LOL" blah blah blah

or take some specific youtubers for instance, like videogamedunkey is a critic who usually lies about video games he dislikes, makes up stuff or complains about really little stuff, or tries to get glitches to happen to pretend the whole games like that. a reallyyy scummy youtuber but thats literally what he has to do to make money and that sucks! or like... alpharad whos kind of just an obnoxious jerk all the time and thats how he gets his attention because being a jerk gets you comments and comments get you views etc etc

the youtube channel gamexplain got exposed for not paying employees and fell off HARD.. but they made a full recovery and comeback. they used to post informative nintendo and other games news, but lately theyve just been posting negative memes or complaining about really little things or posting negative news with a clickbait title. like.. nintendos doing some reconstruction at their headquarters. so gamexplain posts this

its... just reconstruction. but the big letters, the sad mario, it looks Worrying and causes clicks and comments. its literally just reconstruction. but oh wow with a thumbnail like this they can fearmonger and milk it

it stinks too because generally positive youtubers are... Rare. most positive youtubers fall really hard and barely get any views compared to the big bad youtubers out there, cause theres not a ton to comment on without negativity. and thats so.. sad. (bumping a youtuber i love a lot here; nekolacey is a really great and positive pokemon youtuber and i love her videos!!! but her videos dont really get a lot of views compared to other channels which i find so sad. shes awesome!!)

i think the only generally positive gaming youtuber i know of who actually had a big following was chuggaaconroy, and he was making videos on youtube for MANY MANYYY years to even just get 1 million subscribers.

and then he got cancelled because of... uh... a chatlog from 2009. and... uh...... some out of context discord messages from some youtuber whos been known to falsely accuse autistic people to get allegations on them. and.... apparently some randos named antdude and missfushigaming made up allegations to get some clout but they got proved false... uhh... and also chuggaaconroy went to therapy, apologized a ton, asked everyone to please not harass the accusers, and has been deeply working for years to work on himself because he did have a geniune falling out with masaeanela over him not following set boundaries.

but.... yeahhhh its. uh. when you point out "wow did anything bad happen beyond a falling out with masaeanela" you're kind of just quickly hushed by a bunch of random people and to accept it and quit. they can't afford for that positivity to change the way things are, they need negativity to thrive.

its.. the internet trying its hardest to push down one positive creator who made it so they can hype up a dozen negative ones.

i think the internet has always awarded negativity but it was never really bad. like.. many youtubers back in the day would make top 10s, listing something like "zelda bosses" or "gen 4 pokemon". these were great because they got to gush about something they like, BUT they'd get comments and arguments because of things like "well i would've put ths boss over that boss" or "why isnt crobat on this list!". it worked great because they got clout from comments, but they weren't being actively negative

or, talking about an internet show i LOVE, death battle! this is a fun show where they take two fictional characters and make them fight! and they research to see who wins and have really great animation!

it thrived because not only is it super good, but it causes arguments. most viewers dont care about the real reasoning and numbers, they just want their prefered character to win. so if there preference loses, even if its right, they will get mad and argue, causing comments which cause views which causes success.

unfortunately, the positive ways to get comments just... hardly last. its sad but in the modern internet, being mad and angry is literally how you succeed. its near impossible to make it online if you arent angry or doing stuff to upset people.

it sucks. so much.

and it sucks even more because people trying to make a living on the internet Have to be negative. thats how they make a living. they literally have to complain to make money and survive and it sucks!! so much!!!!!!!!!

i think overall success on the internet always depended on causing arguments and negativity, but its really become suffocating in recent time. everyone tries so hard to be mad they've geniunely become mad. positivity is rare and out of style, negativity is what everyone wants. its.... so....... miserable honestly

#youtube #youtube channel #twitter #tiktok #pokemon #pokemon scarlet and violet #gamexplain #nintendo #chuggaaconroy #therunawayguys #death battle

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bitacrytic · 1 year

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Your most wild kinnporsche ( the series) tinfoil theory??

If you're familiar with my blog, it will not surprise you to hear me say this. But my wild tinfoil theory is that...

Anakinn Theerapanyakul is the villain of the story

Hear me out.

The show never outrightly stated it, but based on the narrative and the dialogue, we were all led to believe that unlike Vegas, Kinn has a conscience. Unlike Vegas, Kinn follows the rules. Unlike Vegas, Kinn is a relatively better person.

But is he though?

Point number one -

When the show starts, we see Kinn shoot a man in the chest to prove a point. Let that sink in. We are introduced to Kinn as a cold-blooded killer. But before we can compute that, he's making googly eyes at our precious whore and suddenly, it shifts to the back of our minds that he JUST KILLED SOMEONE TO PROVE A POINT.

Now you might say that it's a mafia show. They all kill people. Yeah. They do. But I didn't see Don pick up a gun and unload it in Kinn's employee's chest, did I? I saw Kinn do it.

If this was a thriller mystery, that would be a clue for us to hang on to.

Then there was the issue of him shooting Tawan. Once again, you might say, "But Tawan betrayed him". To that, I say, "and?" They were in a relationship. They were probably as in love as Kinn and Porsche. Judging from what Kinn has done to Porsche (punishing him, throwing him to Vegas, letting him go with when he knew Vegas was behind everything) we know Kinn would do the same to Porache. Yeah, Vegas used that against the couple, but it was warranted. Kinn is in love with Porsche, but Kinn is very very very very calculated enough to put his feelings aside and fuck Porsche up if he ever believes Porsche has betrayed him. The only reason he let Porsche go was because he knew Porsche was following Vegas blindly and they would catch up to Vegas eventually. He was pushing Porsche like a parent would when they let the child hold a hot kettle, knowing that it won't actually kill the child. But the burn would lead to future traumatised obedience.

This leads into my next point.

Point number two -

Kinn always seemed so emotional when it came Porsche. He ran to Porsche even when his father said no. Took off his tracker and all. He couldn't use his guards because Korn had given Porshe a week off. But he wanted to get to Porsche.

He didn't go there to be romantic. He went there to bully Porsche to come back. He only did it softly because Pete HAD GIVEN HIM A CHEAT CODE. Without that cheat code of niceness, Kinn would have forced Porsche back. He would have gotten in an altercation with Porsche and by the time the guards found them, he would be dragging Porsche right back. He wasn't being emotional. He was calculating.

Another example of calculating was when he asked Porsche to leave him in the forest. He cried, right? He looked broken, right? We are supposed to believe that he truly wanted Porsche to go, right? But what did he NOT say to Porsche? He didn't tell Porsche about Porsche's family home or the fact he'd sent those thugs to dupe Uncle Thee and get all their money.

When Porsche resisted and asked why Kinn wanted him to go, Kinn didn't mention the one thing that could have guaranteed that Porsche never looked back. No, he kept that quiet. Why? Because he was manipulating Porsche. He was letting Porsche go, knowing that Porsche had kissed him in the river and Porsche was already developing feelings for him.

We've seen so many movies when someone is asking their partner to go. When the partner refuses, they start saying mean things. Unforgiveable things. Things that would push their partner so faraway that a reunion is impossible. What did Kinn do instead? He positioned himself as a hero. "I like it when you're happy."

Come on!!! If someone said that you, would you really leave? Be honest!!!

We were led to believe that Kinn was emotional around Porsche, but Kinn was very calculating.

(I should also point out that Kinn's manipulation of Porsche doesn't negate the fact that he was in love with Porsche. Was he in love? Yes. Was he a manipulative piece of shit? HELL YES!)

Point number three -

Let's not forget him using his father as a shield whenever he does something evil. "My dad made me do it", "I'd rather beba singer", "My dad asked me to ruin your life." This man spent the entirety of ep06 gaslighting the audience and Porsche into thinking he was just a happy go lucky baby locked in the body of an unwilling mafia man.

I'm not not going to mention the fact that he knew how to take the cuffs off but refused to do so until it served his purpose. That was an obvious enough move that even Porsche noticed it so I won't be overanalysing it. But everything else?

80% of the people who had been frustrated with the way Kinn was treating Porsche suddenly joined his camp, in that episode. Heck, Porsche joined his camp too. That was the beginning of Porsche not having a backbone. If you'll remember, before ep6, Porsche didn't wait for Kinn. Kinn asked him to leave, Porsche went out with Vegas. Kinn got mad at him, Porsche went home. Kinn showed up, Porsche put him in his place.

But after witnessing kinn in ep6, suddenly, Porsche was letting kinn walk over him, calling him loose... twice. Sending him away to Vegas like he was nothing. Kinn's episode6 arc worked so well that Porsche lost his ability to stand up for himself.

And from this point on, the excuse of "my dad made me do it" became a reoccurring song. Because when he fucked up, he used his dad as an excuse. Never mind the fact that there were periods when he disobeyed. Which is so funny. He blames his father for major things like the kidnapping and the house and the killing. But he's somehow able to move in Porsche without his father's say so????

He spent one... LITERALLY ONE DAY... as Porsche's live-in boyfriend, before he was running back to the main family and proudly introducing himself as Kinn, the leader of the main family. Please, that man loved what he could do as mafia. But because his manipulation of Porsche wasn't complete, he had to play house and pretend that Chay, who he'd just met, was somehow more important to him than Tankhun and Kim.

🧐🧐🧐🧐

Please.

On the surface, it seems like Kinn might not have an independent bone in his body. On the surface, he looks like a powerless drone doomed to obey a father that he just "loves so so much".

But when I put on my tinfoil hat, I can clearly see, that Kinn is really the mastermind behind all this. Because he gets to be just as reckless as Vegas and just as calculating as his father. But he gets to be seen as a victim because he is an expert at throwing stones and hiding his hands.

#kinnporsche #kinn is the villain #don't @ me

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convenientalias · 1 month

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Please Watch Circle: Two Worlds Connected (Another Manifesto)

After convincing some ppl to watch White Christmas, I am filled with hubris and thus have returned to try to convince y'all to watch another kdrama thriller. This times it's Circle: Two Worlds Connected (2017). It's sci-fi, it's whumpy, it's got a dual timeline going on, and it's got a great cast. It's also one of the first kdramas I ever watched--I started it back in 2017, lost access to the site I was streaming it from, and 3 years later, when I became actually competent at finding kdramas, I remembered to go find it again! I've now watched it... four times? five times? anyway it's a good show so let's dive in.

The Premise

Every episode of Circle has two parts to it.

The first part: In 2017, a college student named Kim Woo-jin is having family problems. His paranoid twin brother is convinced aliens exist and are killing ppl. Woo-jin met an alien once when he was a kid, but he's been repressing this and ignoring the implications ever since bc of related trauma. Then Woo-jin's twin goes missing, and Woo-jin goes haywire trying to track him down.

The second part: In 2037, society has become a little dystopian, particularly in a closed-off island city called "Smart Earth". "Smart Earth" is supposed to be a place without crime, but when a murder takes place, Detective Kim Joon-hyuk, an outsider, worms his way in to investigate. Secretly he's more interested in investigating Smart Earth itself... and trying to find his long lost brother.

HM I WONDER IF THERE'S A REASON THESE CHARACTERS BOTH HAVE KIM AS A SURNAME. PROBABLY JUST A COINCIDENCE I WOULDNT KNOW. IM SURE THESE TWO MYSTERIES HAVE NO RELATION TO EACH OTHER AT ALL.

The Characters

Kim Woo-jin:

Yes that is Yeo Jin-goo (I feel like most of my followers have watched Beyond Evil, but if you haven't, maybe you know him from Hotel del Luna or The Crowned Clown, idk, he's great). And yes, he is incredibly stressed and will be for pretty much the entire show.

I feel like the main selling point of the first half of this show, apart from the mystery itself, really is just "do you want to see Yeo Jin-goo be so, so tired and act in progressively more insane and risky ways over the course of twelve episodes".

He is a very good brother. He also is in a dynamic duo with a girl who may or may not be an alien. More on that below.

Kim Bum-gyun

He's paranoid and he's not always the best brother. But he's trying to be better and also. He may be (at least partly) right.

Han Jung-yeon

"Hey look at me I'm a normal college student and definitely not an alien. Despite the fact that I do kind of look identical to that alien you met like fifteen years ago."

"Regardless that was not me bc I am normal. Let's become a detective duo!"

Kim Joon-hyuk

Played by Kim Kang-woo! I feel like he's a bit less known than Yeo Jin-goo but I still love him. Very versatile actor. In this he's being your typical unruly cop but with Many Secrets. Going into much more detail than that would unfortunately give spoilers but I like seeing him piss Lee Ho-soo off.

Lee Ho-soo

Nicknamed "Pierrot" by Kim Joon-hyuk for the way he's ~always smiling~, Lee Ho-soo is Smart Earth's ideal peacekeeping employee. He thoroughly believes in their dystopian mood regulating technology and closed off society and no, he does not want to learn any deep dark secrets, thank you very much!!! Leave him alone!!!! (Yeah, he's going to go through all kinds of emotional breakdowns lols.) My favorite character on my first watch-through; later I began to stan Woo-jin more but it's a close thing.

So, so, so...

Is It Shippy?

Honestly, kind of depends on what you're looking for. The most obvious ships would be Kim Woo-jin/Han Jung-yeon, a ship that is very teased but never becomes canon, and Lee Ho-soo/Kim Joon-hyuk, a classic bickering-but-gradually-coming-to-understand-each-other type of duo. There are other shippy routes you could take... my friend for example ships two of Woo-jin's professors. I personally think certain reveals could lend themself to a [REDACTED] [REDACTED] shipping dynamic, which is all too rare, but since I redacted that part you will never know what I mean by that.

Is there shippy fanfic out there? NO BECAUSE THERE ARE A TOTAL OF FOUR FANFICS FOR THIS SHOW ON AO3 AND I CANT FIND ANY ELSEWHERE EITHER. yes three of those are shippy. YES I WANT MORE PLEASE.

More General Thoughts

Circle is a little melodramatic and messy, but it is also very clever. Even after the basic worldbuilding becomes clear, you probably won't be able to guess all the answers to the mysteries until mm. Episode eleven of twelve? I mean I'm sure there are people out there much better at guessing than me but. I didn't.

I also think it's more fun to watch this show (at least the first time) with a bunch of different theories in your mind as to what happened during the time skip. I had at least three running concurrently. No, none of them were correct. I never said I was good at guessing I only said I had fun.

Not EVERY loose thread gets tied up by the end. But things do get mostly resolved. And there's a lot of angst and suspense along the way!

Here are a few more pictures to convey the vibe:

I can also offer you a minimal number (two) of goofy gifsets.

Closing thoughts:

If you've watched Circle, pls come talk to me sometime. If you haven't watched Circle, I recommend giving it a try! I can tell you that anecdotally ppl who I've forced to watch White Christmas and Circle both like Circle better (except me, I like White Christmas better but also I am to be fair obsessed with both).

And for now, I have successfully exorcised my Circle feels for the day. Probably. I hope. (I may be back.)

#circle two worlds connected #kdramas

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pinkfoxsodas · 6 months

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Warning Saw X Spoilers of John Kramer Take

I will admit I am bias because I’m still angry about what happened to my fave character Adam, but I can’t help point out the flaws of Jigsaw’s own hypocrisy. However, just because I’m going explain why I think John is kind of a hypocrite, doesn’t mean I hate the character; in fact I think he’s the most interesting villain of the series. I just can’t stop thinking about this because I’ve had this opinion on John Kramer for a long time. I think John is a selfish and bitter person because of his situation that he even convinced himself that his actions are justified.

In Saw X, when John was tricked into thinking his cancer was gone, he was drawing one of his latest traps in his sketchbook. But decided to throw it away in the trash because he no longer wants to continue his work. If John truly believed he was doing the right thing, why not continue setting traps now that he no longer has to worry about dying? It proved that John was bitter of his own situation that he was going to die and all these people he believed that were wasting their lives, will never have to experience limited life. It made me think of the timer he gives his victims, like 3 minutes to live and he has 3 months.

And what about the people who have no choice but to be props for someone else’s test? John specifically targets people to test and is willing to sacrifice others for that one specific person. Test subjects like Lawrence, Jeff, William etc. A person’s life hangs on balance of someone’s else’s choice. Amanda had to kill a guy to get the key out to save herself, while he didn’t get the chance to fight for his own life. William had to choose which of his employees he had to spare while killing the others. Lawrence had to kill Adam a stranger to save his family who by the way were also props to Zepp’s test. I’ll come back to Diana later. And the people used as props for Jeff’s test were people that Jeff felt were responsible for the death of his son or let his son’s killer walk free. It was like John never saw them as people. He’s always on about respecting life, but how can he when he uses people as objects for another person’s test? And some of those people didn’t do anything wrong but be related or work for the person that John is testing. Like Joyce Dangen, she didn’t know that Bobby lied and yet when he loses his game she’s the one who has to suffer and die. And John can argue all he wants that the reason those people died was because of the subject failed their test, but that’s not true. John was the one who put them in those traps and kept them immobilized. He used them as tools for that one specific person he was testing. People he believed that deserved to be tested or to be turned into one of his followers. John wanted Lawrence to survive, because he needed someone like Lawrence skills for his tests.

John also has a black and white view of the world. He does not see grey, meaning he doesn’t really try to understand why a person makes the wrong choices in life. But he’s very quick to judge a person’s character just from first impressions, like Adam for example who he deemed angry and pathetic. The whole game was made for Lawrence and Adam was just added there and we don’t have much information on him like Lawrence. And he has a bias on people who have drug addictions. When Amanda tried to reason why Gabriela did what she did because of addiction, Jigsaw immediately shut her down. Yes what Gabriela did was wrong, but she wasn’t as messed up as Cecilia who did it for money and has no problem killing people.John had just said that everyone has free will, but how would he know if he never experienced addiction? Amanda understood because she was just like Gabriela. But it could also be because he still held a grudge against Cecil who was responsible for his wife’s miscarriage because he wanted to steal drugs.

Now the subject to children. I was glad to see that John had humanity to see that Carlos was just an innocent child who didn’t deserve to be put in a life and death situation. But it brings back the hypocrisy when we see Diana, Daniel and Corbett who again are used as props for their parent’s test. Yes they were saved, but they were traumatized through their ordeals and will mostly suffer from ptsd. And Daniel lost his dad and Corbett is now an orphan. And Diana only survived because Allison was able to get out of their restraints and Detective Tapp was able to rescue them on time. If none of that happened, Zepp most likely would have killed them because John told him if he did, Zepp would be given an antidote to survive his poisoning. John I don’t know if he would have given Zepp the antidote if he had killed the Gordon family, because he might have been disgusted by the death of a child. But Zepp followed the rules of his game and John would have just blamed Lawrence for their deaths instead or wouldn’t have cared because again they were just props. Never accepting that he was responsible for kid a dying and would have blamed either Zepp or Lawrence.

I would have said more but this rant is too long and I just wanted to get this off my chest. I do love Saw and I enjoy the characters, but I will bring up their flaws when I’m talking to friends about Jigsaw! And since Saw X made me sympathetic towards John it also reminded how unfair he was towards his victims.

#saw 2004 #saw #saw franchise #john kramer #jigsaw #amanda young #saw x #saw x spoilers #saw x (2023)#sawposting #saw movies #lawrence gordon #adam faulkner stanheight #mark hoffman #jeff denlon #cecelia pederson

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gacha-incels · 2 months

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Do you think that there is a possibility of Hypergryph splitting from Yostar for global publishing of Arknights and moving it to Gryphline instead? The traditional Chinese server got moved from Long Chen to Gryphline recently, and the new ambience synesthesia concert merch is on the Gryphline store rather than yostar’s. It may just be wishful thinking as yostar and hypergryph both own large shares of each other, but if there is a planned split from yostar would it potentially be a reason why Hypergryph hasn’t made a statement condemning Yostar Korea’s actions? Is there any precedent for publisher changes for a sort of legal clause preventing them from hurting each others’ image prior to the split being announced?

Gryphline is situated in Singapore, having what I guess you could call a “proxy” company for global business in Singapore is something a lot of companies in China have done for a while, increasingly within the past couple of years, for a multitude of reasons. Last time I checked Mihoyo had “Cognosphere” in Singapore, and when you buy gachabux in that game on servers outside China I believe your bill is from Cognosphere. The slave labor fast fashion site Shein has been operating under the Singapore-registered “Roadget Business” which some have speculated makes it easier to list in the USA. Yostar has HQ in Hong Kong which used to be the proxy location but according to this FT article-“Traditionally, Hong Kong was the choice for many such companies, said Kia Meng Loh, a senior partner at Dentons Rodyk. But with Beijing “flexing its muscles” in the semi-autonomous rival finance hub, Singapore is the obvious next choice, he said.” Hypergryph has multiple games coming out in the near future, I believe a regular (non-gacha) 3D anime mobile game and a 3D Arknights spinoff that will have a weapon gacha, and I think another game that’s TBD? They could be rearranging their internal structure due to this expansion if they’ve switched around their Chinese server already, but I’m unsure if this means they will completely split with Yostar who I believe publishes the US, Japanese and Korean servers.

Admittedly I can’t say I’m super well versed with this type of business and therefore it’s harder to really predict what they will do in the future, but I’ve been watching the situation since AK KR posted that notice to see what happens. I don’t have anything against the game itself, if it comes out that somehow their hands are completely tied in the situation or something I’ll post about that as well but I’m not holding my breath. In terms of my read on the situation, I think a huge message has ready been sent to the fans as to whom the company deems most profitable to listen to, regardless of any future handwringing over the situation. I would think between a woman posting extremely basic feminist thoughts on her personal twitter (equal pay etc) and enjoying the woman’s day google doodle years ago, and the Arknights KR/Yostar employee liking extremely violent fanart on the official twitter account and hanging out on extremist, misogynistic chat boards, that the employee would be seen as more of a problem and should have been the one disciplined. In reality, not only was the woman punished by having her work deleted but the official KR account posted that diatribe calling basic feminism a “dividing force” or whatever. This action and the following statement are absolutely not neutral, especially during a time a which violent misogyny has been increasingly ripping through South Korea as a whole but also gacha games specifically. In terms of PR I do think this is something Hypergryph could address, if HG doesn’t want to rock the boat with Yostar so to speak because of some upcoming split, it seems Yostar has already rocked the boat quite a bit with this action to begin with…

in terms of a main developer punishing the publisher, one example I can think of is Fate/Grand Order’s DelightWorks (after the sakura wars fuckup FGO is developed by “Lasengle” now, but when this happened it was DW) changing an in-game reward that FGO’s Korean publisher Netmarble gave out. In terms of them splitting as well, I’m still looking into it 👍 If anyone knows anything else feel free to reply or send me stuff and I’ll post it, sometimes I feel if I wait too long to reply to messages it comes across as rude lol so I’m not getting lost in like thesis tier research

#Arknights #yostar #hypergryph #feminist ideological verification

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a-world-of-whimsy-5 · 1 year

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Hello! Fluff request with Mairon x reader and "nope, puppy dog eyes aren’t going to work this time!" and "thanks to you, i know what it means to love again." Thank youuuuuuu

"Breakfast"

Pairing: Modern Mairon x Reader (Human | Second person POV)

Themes: Soft | Fluffy

Warnings: Kissing

Word count: 900

Summary: A request to stay for five more minutes ends up with a surprise.

Minors DNI | 18+

Rules and taglist here.

Mairon chuckled and shook his head. "You're going to make me late, precious."

You clung to him, not allowing him to leave the bed. The room was cold even with heating, and Mairon was so warm. His blood always ran a little warmer than most, and you felt it especially now. His body felt like a small furnace when you snuggled into him and rested your head against his shoulder.

"Five more minutes," you whined and held on tighter. Mairon had been putting in longer hours at the office as of late and was hardly at home. You wanted to make the most of his time with you. "Please."

Mairon gently disentangled himself and rose, smiling when you huffed and whined in defeat.

"I need to get to work." Mairon leaned in and took your face into his hands. He pressed his lips to yours, sighing helplessly when your mouth opened under his. "I need to set an example since I'm the boss."

You whined again. This time, you followed it up with a round of sad, whimpering noises. You tilted your head, and your eyes grew wide and softened. Mairon laughed again. This little trick of yours would have worked another time, but not now. He had to go in before the others and review critical documents. These would be signed by him and another company for future business.

"Nope, puppy dog eyes aren't going to work this time!" He cried, and went to get ready.

You crossed your arms over your chest and pouted. "Will you have breakfast at least?"

"I don't have time," Mairon called out from the bathroom. "I'll just have coffee and order in after I go to the office."

The shower turned on, and he started to sing. It was all mumbles and fudged lines but sweet to listen to. Your pout turned into a smile when you rose out of bed. You looked at the old clock Mairon found at a garage sale. He restored it and placed it on a chest of drawers. The time was six-thirty, and he would not get out of the shower anytime soon. That gave you time to make him breakfast and pack something for lunch.

By the time Mairon walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, he was dressed in a neatly pressed suit. His fired gold hair had been pulled into a thick bun, and gold glinted on his wrists.

"You shouldn't have, precious," he said when he came to a set table. "I was going to order in."

You responded with a careless wave of the hand. "Yes. And knowing you, you will forget to order in and turn into mister grumpy pants by the time lunch rolls around. Your employees should not have to deal with you when you're hangry. Not when there's such an important meeting today."

Mairon shook his head and grinned. You were right. He grew surly over everything if he did not eat. And he had a habit of forgetting to eat whenever he was busy with work. It touched him that you remembered such things and were so good to him.

Mairon had experienced that only once before. It was with someone else and in another life. The memories of that life were vague now. They faded a little with each passing year. Mairon believed it would never happen again. After a string of relationships that had ended badly, he had all but given up hope. Then you came along, and he felt a cautious sense of optimism take root. When days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and years, and he found you were all that he had dreamed of and more, cautious optimism gave way to unfettered confidence.

"Thank you, precious," he said gratefully. He pulled out a chair for you and sat down after you did. Mairon glanced at you while you ate. You had been very patient with him, even when he worked long hours in the office and was hardly around. You never complained, not even when he canceled date nights and special events because of work. Mairon didn't want to make it a habit. He decided to make it up to you. He looked around, and his gaze rested on the mounted key rack. A set of keys on the last hook gave him an idea.

"Precious," he said and returned to his meal, an omelet with lots of chopped green chilies, just how he liked it. "I have an idea."

You gave him a measured look. "What idea is that?"

"Once this merger is finished, I'll have a few weeks free. How about I take you to my dad's cabin? You don't have to worry about anything. I'll take care of it all."

The cabin was more than just a cabin. It was beautifully made and was surrounded by forests. There was even a lake nearby, with pretty little spots for picnics. And to go there, even for a weekend, would be lovely.

"Do you mean it?" you asked, trying not to get your hopes up. "No last-minute reports, no office calls, no emergency meetings?"

"None," Mairon promised. And he was a man who made good on his promises. "And this is the least I could do. Thanks to you, I know what it means to love again."

Tags: @edensrose @cilil @asianbutnotjapanese @fictionfordays @floraroselaughter

#Mairon #Mairon soft #Mairon x reader #X reader #Reader insert #The silm #the silmarillion #The ainur #The maiar #Modern mairon #Fanfiction #Writeblr #💫a world of whimsy writes

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brineffxiv · 1 year

Text

Garlemald is made of crushing despair. That is all.

While out looking for survivors with Alisaie and Alphinaud we discover a girl in a green dress running away from us. I follow her.

She is Licinia, and she and a few others are sheltered here at Victor's Spoils. They don't know what happened, or how they have remained untempered. She details what sounds to me like a mass tempering, happening all at once, set off with a great roar.

We set about building a fire for them as a show of good faith.

...I sense Licinia does not trust us. To be honest, I don't entirely blame her. We are representatives of a foreign power with which her country has been at war her entire life. And she was apparently under the impression that we "savages" were the ones that did this to them up until Alphinaud informed her otherwise. Wouldn't be surprised if she still thought that and was just keeping her mouth shut around the armed enemy combatants. Safer that way.

Garlemald has radios. The radio has been playing the same song since The Incident: presumably the people at the station were either tempered or killed. This man believes that Varis is still alive and speaks to them through their radios. I feel sad for him.

While stubbornly guarding the door and whoever is still inside the house, Licinia informs me of another group of survivors across the frozen lake. They have ceruleum, and she asks that I brave the wilds between here and there and make a deal with them for some of it.

Alisaie catches up with me. Privately, I worry that the group has sent Alphinaud off on his own errand and are now making their escape. It's not safe for them out here.

The Tappers are former employees of the ceruleum plant in the middle of the lake. The all belong to the title caste "aan" which represents the lowest rung of Garlean society. As such, they aren't especially friendly with the "purebloods" across the lake and weren't inclined to help them. But they will happily deal with us, and want to make a deal with our contingent for food in exchange for ceruleum. Their paymasters are long gone, but all that remain here are those that see their best option as staying here and continuing to work at the plant.

They gift us a barrel of ceruleum, and let slip that Licinia has a sister who was very ill. Sounds suspiciously like that's who's still inside the house.

While Alisaie and I were gone it seems these fools got it into their heads to attack Alphinaud, who, while he is injured, soundly beat their asses.

Seems they don't trust that we're here to help. Again, I don't necessarily blame them, even if I rather wish they hadn't expressed their doubts in this particular manner...

You stupid bigot.

Licinia and her very ill sister have fled us, out into the freezing Garlean wilderness. Seems the group have been planning the sisters' escape since we arrived.

Alisaie and I start out to search for them while Alphinaud tends his own and his attackers' wounds.

Oh no.

...They are already dead and cold by the time I find them.

A rather extreme example of how bigotry harms even the aggressors.

The tempered cannot save themselves. And even for the untempered, this is a brutal, inhospitable land. We have the power to bring aid to them; it would be wrong not to use it. We're just going to have to be more aware of... cultural sensitivities.

Albeit... That doesn't help Licinia and her sister.

We bury the two of them back at Victor's Spoils.

We take their radio with us; Alphinaud wants to get to the bottom of this story about hearing Varis' voice through it.

#ffxiv liveblog #rhesh'a tag #alisaie leveilleur #alphinaud leveilleur #fantasy racism

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vibingandsimping · 6 months

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ooooh can I have a bg3 match up? I love these!! I'm 27 straight/ demisexual woman, 5 ft, freckles, waist length dirty blonde hair and green eyes. I'm v feminine, I like wearing my cute sweaters and jeans, and my boots. I like honest people, kind people, people who can stand up for themselves and others. I cannot stand Liars or cheats. Like....the kind of people who will step on someone or something, causing them strife just to get ahead themselves. Like Jeff Bezos for example. Can't stand people like that, greedy and unjust to their employees. Treat others with respect, until they SHOW you that you shouldn't. In which case eff em. I'll go out of my way for the ones I care about, don't get me wrong I'll help someone if I can but if I don't have the time or resources then I'm sorry, you can't pour from an empty cup. But if I care for you, I will be at your doorstep at 3 am if you tell me you need me. I try to be optimistic, but not to the point of being totally delulu that there aren't bad people or things in the world although I do believe there's good in everyone for the most part. Even if it's just a little. In a partner I definitely prefer someone a little more in control, I'm definitely most submissive in a relationship- domestically speaking. As far as sex goes...it really doesn't. I was taken advantage of by a close friend so I'm slow to trust. Another bit of info, I play DND (not bg3- never played) as a tiefling rogue chaotic good alignment

I am also 5’0, dirty blonde with freckles and a demisexual.

I think you’d pair with Halsin!

I believe Halsin would give you a stability in your life. He is a man of justice and consent. He’d follow along with your heroic nature and adore you for it. While he is a man of needs he’d never push anything unto you. It is all of your free will. If you ever feel comfortable with it, he’d be more than happy. As long as that’s what you truly desired.

You slouched by the campfire with elbows atop your knees. The day drew long and tiresome with battle after battle and conflict after conflict. First thing you did returning to camp was tear your armor off and into something more comfortable. Possibly reminiscent of shrugging the weight you carried off your shoulders. You cared about your companions- you truly did. It just became too much to look after all their wellbeing’s while also trying to tie up their loose ends. Who would be there to tie up your loose ends? Who would assist you with your own issues? You huffed in frustration as you used a stick to poke the campfire. The presence of Halsin hadn’t even been acknowledged til his hand cupped your shoulder. You nearly screamed as the object you previously held flew to the side. The elf bore an apologetic grin down at you. Clearly, he hadn’t any visible intention of scaring you. He takes a seat next to you as your heart calms. “Apologies, my heart. I noticed you were upset. What troubles you?” You frowned and shrugged. The last thing you wanted to do was make anyone feel guilty. Halsin wanted to help you but he knew you drew boundaries. He clasped a hand over yours (nearly dwarfing it) and spoke with a sincerity that made your heart ache. “I cannot push you to speak your mind. I want you to know i’ll always be here for you. As you always are with me.” Tears brimmed and you nodded with a lip drawn between your teeth. Even if you didn’t want to talk now- it truly did mean something that he extended the offer. You suddenly felt less alone in these struggles.

#my asks #anon asks #matchups #my writing #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #baldurs gate iii #baldurs gate 3 x reader #baldur’s gate 3 x reader #bg3 x reader #baldur’s gate 3 #halsin #bg3 halsin #halsin x reader #halsin x tav #baldur’s gate 3 halsin

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ofwraithsandwords · 1 year

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I saw one of your asks on Alucard orders and how he bends things to what he wants within orders. Would this at all be remedied with more specific orders from his master or just have set perameters for emergency situations. Like just incapacitating humans via hypnosis if they are an informed/involved party (soldiers in rio for example). Have one where he’s always supposed to intervene with threats that come near the manor.

I know this more so the writings faults but if that would work to be more specific. It kinda makes integra and her father look very incompetent/poor leaders. Giving out the same order of search and destroy that always has the same messy result isn’t smart. Then again all of human employees did die so that might speak to the quality of their training at hellsing.

Maybe I’m making mountain out of mole hole because hirano never really specified how the seals/orders work, they are never really challenged in any meaningful way in story.

You're right there, Anon. You bring up some very important points that I think aren't talked about that frequently, if at all.

We have seen plenty of examples from the anime of how downright incompetent Alucard is and how Integra seems to fail at truly reigning him in, even giving into his antics or letting him rile her up against her better judgement. Whether or not Alucard has ulterior motives or is truly just flying by the seat of his pants when he goes out of his way to defy or challenge Integra's authority, that's up for debate. This sort of goes into my headcanon on how Integra's father has influenced her conduct with her subordinates and her position as director, but that's another subject entirely.

Anyway, as far as "threats that come near the manor" go...he already blew that one. Alucard was sitting on his nonexistent ass the whole time the Valentine brothers were making chop suey of Integra's men. He was minding his own business at a time where it was literally his business to get up and do something. What a jackass.

But as far as specific orders or set parameters go, it seems like Hirano just...didn't give a rat's ass, honestly. He set out to create a gratuitously violent, over-the-top, campy and, lesbi-honest, really homoerotic manga, and that's what we got. The plot for Hellsing Ultimate is about as structurally sound as a Nature Valley granola bar. In my opinion? It would make sense for Integra to give Alucard some set parameters, but I gotta ask: what parameters did she give him where he can still sit on his ass during a terrorist attack, kill a whole SWAT team in a different country, and apparently turn people who he dubs "worthy" into vampires? She might as well let him do whatever he wants and afterwards say, "Alucard, eat a Snickers."

I can see how setting certain parameters can help guide him to make better (or less expensive/legally damning) decisions. But I imagine that there would have to be a lot of set parameters in place. I can just imagine there being a whole file cabinet dedicated to specific orders and parameters just for Alucard. They'd have to put it in his basement. Something to read, I suppose.

I believe that the only thing the seals actually do (if they actually do anything at all) is make it so he must listen to direct orders and cannot kill/harm a member of the Hellsing bloodline, at least not directly. Otherwise, it seems like he has no problem not following orders down to the letter.

#hellsing #alucard #alucard & following orders #alucard hcs #hellsing headcanons

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chickensarentcheap · 8 months

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All of them! No seriously whichever ones you want

Who offers their jacket when the other is cold?

Who giggles uncontrollably when the other playfully picks them up?

Who compliments the other in front of everyone?

Who is more likely to tell the other a pun and what is the other’s reaction to the pun?

When one of them has a bad day, what does the other do to help cheer them up?

If they got to pick what one another wears for a day, what would one another wear?“

Who introduces their partner to their family first? How does it go?

In a coffee shop AU, who would be the coffee shop employee and who would be the customer?

When they sit side by side, do they touch one another? For example, does one person has their arm around the other, do they sit holding hands, or linked arms, ECT.

What is a small thing that one another does to make their partner happy?

What would they do to celebrate their one year anniversary?

When did they know that loved each other, and when did they first tell each other that they loved one another?

Who likes to give the other hugs from behind followed by a kiss?

Who would make a playlist for the other person? What would be featured on the playlist?

Who would bring their partner on a romantic date under the stars?

Thank you!!

Tyler. For sure. And he doesn't even really offer or wait for her to say she's cold, he'll notice and just take his coat/hoodie off and wrap it around her.

Esme. And he does it all the time. She weighs next to nothing to him and he'll throw over his shoulder and slap her ass too lol

They both would do something like that I think :)

That's a tough one. I think Tyler would try to be the punny one and she loves herself a good pun. So she'd roll her eyes at first and then laugh

Tyler will bring Esme favourite things she likes. A cup of tea, her favourite flavour cupcakes, a bowl of ice cream. And some time alone. He'll take the kids out so she gets a nap or some peace and quiet. Esme would give him a lot of affection. It's her love language and he's come to expect it and enjoy it

Tyler would pick a pair of yoga pants for her and a top that doesn't even reach her navel. No bra. He's a man of simple tastes and needs. Esme would pick for him a pair of well fitting jeans, white t-shirt, backwards ball cap

Tyler has no family really, and Esme kept him and what he does for a living from her family for quite a while. He isn't well liked. They believe he basically 'stole' her and keeps her away from them on purpose.

Tyler would be the customer. She'd be the cute little barista that puts a smiley face (and eventually her phone number) on the side of his cup

They always have to touching it seems. On the couch their arms and the sides of their thighs always touch, he always places a foot against hers under the kitchen table. Sometimes she'll (while on the couch or sitting on the beach) wraps both arms around one of his and lean into him.

Tyler always has her tea made for her when she first wakes up. Always. And she will leave him little love notes all over the house or just come into the gym and bring him water. Just little "I'm thinking of you" things.

I think they'd go away if they had the financial means. If not, dinner out, a night at a hotel :)

Esme knew very early that she loved him. She told him on the bridge (in the main series) when she thought he was going to die that she was in love with him. In the small three shot, she told him while he was in a coma. Tyler waited a bit longer. In the main series she was pregnant with Millie and they were sitting on the couch watching tv and she was running her hands over her belly and he just blurted it out.

Tyler does that a lot with her. Usually a kiss on the top of the head.

Esme would make him one. Lots of classic rock! AC/DC, Zeppelin, CCR, Skynyrd just to name a few.

Tyler. He has his moments ;)

@youflickedtooharddamnit @munstysmind @secretaryunpaid and anyone else who follows :D

#Tyler and Esme series

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natedogx15 · 11 months

Text

Miraculous Descendent Chapter 38: After School Job

Previous Chapter

In the middle of the day, standing out front of the hotel run by Nate's father is Miss Bustier's class. In front of them are Samuel, Miss Bustier, Nate, and Marinette, next to a table with a raffle machine full of tickets next to them.

"Welcome to Le Grand Paris, students. My name is Samuel Dupain, brother of Mayor Tom Dupain and owner of the hotel. I'm also the father of this young man that I'm sure you're all acquainted with." Samuel tells the class in a kind and enthusiastic tone while rubbing Nate's hair.

"Dad." Nate groans in frustration as he pushes his dad's hand off, much to the amusement of his peers.

"Hahaha, sorry, Son. It's part of a parent's job description." Samuel laughs before looking towards the students.

"Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Dupain, we're able to have our work experience field trip today at the Grand Paris luxury hotel. Each of you will get hands-on experience with one of the many jobs here at the hotel. What jobs do you have prepared for them, Mr. Dupain?" Miss Bustier asks.

"Well, we have a doorman position, pool boy, cleaner, garbage man, and my personal favorite, the gopher position open for students. Of course, there are more than those that the students will have to do." Samuel explains to the students before motioning toward the raffle machine.

"You'll each be drawing a raffle. Whatever job it says will be the job you'll start with. Every hour or two, we'll have you swap positions with another student so everyone can find a job they might enjoy here." Samuel explains.

"Now, who would like to go first?" Samuel asks the student body.

"Oh, me, I'll go first." Kim excitedly says while waving his hand.

"Alright then, come up and draw one," Samuel tells him while grabbing the raffle machine's lever and spinning it to mix the folded notes inside up.

Kim rushes over, and Samuel stops spinning it to let him pick a card. When Kim unfolds the card, he sees the word doorman on it.

"Oh, perfect, we still haven't found a replacement doorman," Samuel says with a grin, and Kim leaves.

The rest of the class follows Kim's example and grabs their jobs from the machine.

Alix, Ivan, and Sabrina got maid duty and will be helping them clean the guests' rooms.

Nate, Chloe, and Adrien all got front desk duty and would be helping guests to their rooms.

Rose, Nino, and Max have kitchen duty and would learn from the chefs while helping the waiters pass out the food.

Juleka, Mylène, and Nathaniel have pool duty. They'll be helping clean the pool while ensuring people are being safe.

That leaves Alya helping sort out the garbage with the recycling while Marinette is the one to get the gopher job.

"And remember, while this trip was completely voluntary and doesn't affect you in any way school-wise, you're still expected to be on good behavior while helping here. With that said, I also want you to try and have some fun here during your time." Samuel tells everyone before letting them enter the hotel lobby and then leave for their jobs.

As she's leaving, Alya looks incredibly frustrated.

"I can't believe my first job will be working in a trash can. I was hoping to spend time with Mom while here." She groans.

Marinette, on the other hand, looks at her card in confusion.

"Excuse me, Samuel," Marinette calls for her uncle's attention.

"Yes, Marinette," Samuel says, giving her his full attention.

"What's a gopher?" Marinette asks him.

"Oh, a gopher is an employee who goes for anything a customer needs. Some customers here are so busy that they can't go out and get items themselves, so they employ people to do it for them. Your job will be to get those objects they request from around the hotel or near the area." Samuel explains to her.

"Okay, so all I have to do is buy their groceries for them?" Marinette asks for clarification.

"Exactly." Samuel nods.

The two's conversation ends when they hear Kim scream in panic. The two, plus Nate, Adrien, and Chloe turn toward the door to see what the commotion is about.

There they see a tall man with light skin, greenish-light blue eyes covered with dark eyeshadow and eyeliner, wild black hair with purple tips, and a black mustache that isn't connected in the middle but connects to his full black beard.

The man is wearing a sparkly black jacket that gives the impression of the night sky with yellow accents and yellow epaulets over a dark blue V-neck undershirt, black and yellow vertical striped pants, lacy black finger-less gloves, black heeled white sole black boots, and a string necklace with beads and two golden feathers surrounding the upper skull of a bird's head.

Next to the man is a slender, dark-skinned woman with pinkish-purple hair in a pixie cut, light brown eyes, and pink lipstick on her lips.

The woman is wearing a black leather jacket with a silver buckle and zipper over a white V-neck short-sleeve shirt, black pants, and black shoes. Around her neck is a gold chain necklace with a green skull pendant. In her hand is a clipboard.

However, the most shocking thing, and what likely scared Kim, is what the man is holding. In the man's head is a black leash holding a spike-collared crocodile.

Next to the group is a large amount of luggage on a cart that Kim's struggling to push in.

Nate, Chloe, Marinette, and Adrien gape at the person in the lobby while Samuel looks shocked at the crocodile before shaking it off and walking over to the man.

"Welcome to Le Grand Paris, sir. Do you have a reservation?" Samuel asks in a professional tone.

"Jagged Stone has a reservation set up already." The woman answers for the man in an equally professional tone.

Samuel looks toward the three students at the front desk, and Nate immediately types into the computer before giving his father a thumbs up when he sees the reservation.

"I see. We'll take your bags to your room then. Is there any other way I can serve you today?" Samuel asks the man.

"Fang better get a real bathtub, not a tiny water hole like the one in that hotel across the street." The man tells him in a heavy American accent.

Samuel looks toward the woman, then the crocodile, then the woman again in uncertainty. She takes pity on the man and points to the crocodile. With a grateful nod, Samuel turns back toward Jagged Stone.

"No need to worry, Mr. Stone. We have everything your crocodile will need when it comes to the bathrooms. But first, I must ask if your crocodile will cause trouble for anyone at the hotel while you stay here." Samuel tells him, and Jagged Stone waves him off.

"Don't worry, mate. Fang'll be nice while here." Jagged tells him in a slightly offhanded tone.

His dismissive attitude causes Samuel to look towards the man's assistant worriedly.

"Don't worry. Fang is well-trained enough not to cause many problems while Jagged Stone stays here. The worst may be what happens inside Jagged's hotel room." She explains.

Samuel nods but does give a warning look.

"Well, as long as you don't cause too much trouble while here, I suppose it's fine." Samuel nods before looking toward the three teens at the front desk.

However, Nate has already grabbed the room key and heads toward the group.

"Here you go, you're room is on the top floor in the most luxurious suite," Nate tells them while handing the woman the key.

The two adults look at the teen in confusion, probably wondering why someone not even out of high school is working in a high-brand hotel before Samuel cuts in.

"We currently have a work experience field trip going on for students during their break from school. A whole class decided to work in the hotel today." Samuel explains before putting his hands on Nate's shoulders.

"And this one would be my son. So, he has to work here anyway since I have him help around if he wants an allowance." Samuel grins while Nate's expression remains calm.

However, his eyes soon narrow when he sees someone peek out from behind Jagged Stone's luggage cart.

The person peeking out is a young man with light skin, blue eyes, and medium-length combed blond hair with pink tips. They're wearing a white V-neck T-shirt with ripped sleeves and the black outline of Jagged Stone's face, dark blue ripped jeans with a brown belt, black heel boots with skulls on the ankles, black laced fingerless gloves, and a silver necklace with matching skull pendant.

The man has a smirk and a camera in his hands as he peeks out and stares at Jagged Stone.

However, none of the adults noticed, focused on their conversation. When Jagged hears Samuel's words, he grins.

"Rock on. Send the kids to my room, and I'll give them a couple of autographs." Jagged Stone tells him.

"I'll let them know when it's time to switch jobs." Samuel nods with a smile.

At this point, Nate isn't the only one to see the man. As the man tries to sneak off to the side, Fang takes notice of his presence and happily follows after the man while Jagged is distracted.

"Dad." Nate tries to warn his father as he watches the man dive behind a desk, not noticing the crocodile following him.

Unfortunately, Samuel isn't paying attention.

"Great, Penny and I'll be relaxing in our suite then. The plane ride here drove me crazy." Jagged groans in annoyance.

"Well, I'm sure you'll- Samuel starts before Nate elbows his father in the gut.

Samuel glares at his son in anger and says.

"Nathanial, what the heck was that-" He's cut off again when he looks to where Nate is pointing and sees Fang heading towards the desk where the man is hiding.

At the same time, the man peeks above the desk to take a picture when Fang walks next to him and lets out a playful growl, causing the man to turn and see him.

"Ahh, ahh, ahh!" The man screams as he unstably jumps backward from Fang into the middle of the lobby.

Everyone in the room looks at the man. When Jagged Stone and Penny see him, they gain annoyed looks.

"Oh, no. Not him again." Jagged sighs in annoyance.

Seeing his covers blown, the man smiles and waves at Jagged Stone excitedly.

"Do you remember me, Mr. Stone? It's Vincent Aza, your biggest fan. Just one photo so I can show everyone we're best buds, please." Vincent begs while excitedly waving his arm and crossing his fingers at the words best buds.

"I know exactly who you are. You're the man who's been to all of my last thirty-six shows. And we ain't friends." Jagged Stone tells him in annoyance as Penny glares at him.

However, Vincent doesn't listen and gets close to Jagged Stone wrapping an arm around his shoulder before lifting his camera to get a good shot of them.

"There! Look into the lens!" Vincent excitedly shouts as he's about to take the picture while Jagged Stone looks uncomfortable.

However, Penny intercepts by covering the lens of Vincent's camera when he snaps the picture and quickly follows up by ripping it out of his hand.

"Didn't you hear Mr. Stone? You still don't seem to understand, do you?" Penny angrily shouts at him before grabbing Vincent's arm and putting it behind his back to forcefully lead him out of the hotel lobby.

"No photos!" Penny shouts at the man as she tosses him out.

Vincent turns onto his back fast enough to see Penny throw his camera and catches it barely before it hits the ground.

"Good reflexes, but if I see you around Jagged Stone again, you won't get your camera back! This is your last warning!" Penny snaps at him before going inside, leaving behind a seething Vincent.

His anger doesn't go unnoticed, however. Gabriel senses his anger and quickly transforms before heading to his secret base. The base's glass window opens, and Hawkmoth creates another butterfly.

"A nice amount of brewing anger and frustration from a devoted fan. The perfect chance to make a powerful Akuma to take down Ladybug and Cat Noir. We'll see how they handle a more mature host." Hawkmoth says as he releases the butterfly.

Unfortunately, the group isn't aware of the coming danger and doesn't pay much attention to the man after Penny throws him out. They only move on with their day. Jagged Stone and Penny go to their suite while everyone else stays in the hotel lobby.

"So, I'm going to take a guess and say Mr. Stone is an American rockstar," Samuel tells the teens standing around him while he's in front of the hotel's front desk.

"An American rock star. Try the American rockstar!" Chloe shouts at him, emphasizing 'the' in her second sentence.

"He's sold millions of albums and is seen as one of the world's best rockstars. He's super rich too." Chloe tells Samuel with an excited expression on her face.

"And he said we could get his autograph by heading to his suite. This is awesome." Chloe fangirls excitedly.

"Okay, I did not expect to see this today." Nate quietly mutters so only Adrien, who's right next to him, can hear.

Adrien smiles awkwardly as he watches Chloe fangirl. However, Samuel quickly gets everyone back on track by clapping his hands while saying.

"Alright, that's enough. We all have to get back to work. Nate, be sure to help your classmates if they're confused about how to handle any of the guests' requests. Kim, please return to your post at the doors, and don't let that man from earlier back in. Marinette, why don't you go to Mr. Stone's suite and see if he needs anything while getting situated." Samuel begins ordering the students around.

Everyone does as they're told, with Kim heading back out of the hotel and Marinette heading towards the elevators while the other three stay behind the front desk with other employees. Once Marinette gets to Jagged Stone's room and knocks on the door, Penny meets her.

"Oh, are you here for the autograph?" Penny asks her, recognizing the girl from in the lobby.

"Um, yes, no, I'm here to see if you need anything since I'm a gopher right now. But I wouldn't mind an autograph." Marinette tells her.

"Oh, perfect. Mr. Stone needs a new pair of shades for tonight's gig. Red, white, and blue with two large Eiffel Towers on them. Can you see if you can get that for him?" Penny immediately requests.

Marinette blinks before gaining an uncertain look when the design registers with her, and she imagines it.

"I'll try, but I don't know if they make glasses like that," Marinette tells her, and Penny sighs.

"Just try to find something as close to the design if you can't find anything," Penny tells her.

Marinette nods before leaving and heading out of the hotel to see what she can find.

"Maybe I can find something from one of the shops around the Eiffel Tower," Marinette mutters in front of the hotel before heading towards the Eiffel Tower.

When she arrives, she sees a vendor selling sunglasses, trying to catch tourists' attention. Unfortunately, there aren't as many tourists as there used to be in Paris due to Hawkmoth and the Akumas. So, business is more demanding than it used to be. It's not that tourism has completely stopped. People still come to Paris in droves, but it's not as much as before.

Marinette quickly runs toward the vendor with a notepad with Jagged's sunglasses description written down. She grabs one of the sunglasses and looks at it before looking at her notes and sighing in disappointment. She then does this with a few more people and shops before sitting on a bench in exhaustion and frustration as she's unable to find anything remotely resembling Jagged Stone's design.

"This is impossible. I can't find anything resembling what Jagged Stone is after." Marinette groans in annoyance.

"Then why don't you try making them?" Tikki suggests from inside the bag she's been hiding in.

Marinette looks down at Tikki in shock before facepalming.

"Of course. I should have tried doing that from the start." Marinette mutters before quickly buying a pair of glasses and running back towards the hotel.

While running back towards the hotel, she passes by an angry Vincent as he's muttering.

"Why won't he let me take a picture with him? I've done everything to prove how much I'm his fan. I've been to all his concerts, bought all his merchandise, and even sent his crocodile gifts. So, why can't he see that we're best friends?" Vincent shouts in frustration.

Unknown to him, the butterfly Gabriel created is flying above him toward his camera. Once it lands, Hawkmoth's words enter Vincent's mind with the butterfly outline in front of his face.

"Pixelator, I am Hawkmoth. I am here to offer the chance to immortalize your relationship with your hero. All I ask in return is that you claim the Miraculous for me from the ones who will get in your way." Hawkmoth explains to him.

Vincent gains an evil smirk and says.

"Yes, Hawkmoth."

Black smoke covers Vincent, and when it disappears, it reveals Vincent's new form.

Like Fashionista, Vincent's appearance remains mostly the same but with new clothes. He's now wearing a full-body black and blue jumpsuit with a matching helmet with a camera lens eye, and the top left area is uncovered to show his grown-out pink hair that's combed to the side. On Pixelator's chest is a pixel art camera lens design.

"Time to capture my moment." Pixelator laughs before he confidently walks in the direction of the hotel.

Marinette runs through the hotel lobby towards her room and sits at her workstation. She sets the sunglasses she bought down and stares at them intently as she tries to visualize a design that matches what Jagged Stone wants. After a few minutes, the perfect idea comes to mind, and she begins her work. It takes her a while, but she finishes the glasses with a happy expression.

The sunglasses now have Eiffel Towers where the lenses would be. It's colored blue on the right, white in the middle, and red on the left.

"These are perfect. Jagged Stone will love them," Marinette says as she admires her handiwork.

She stands up and heads toward Jagged Stone's suite, unaware of the danger arriving at the hotel.

Next Chapter

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ukrfeminism · 1 year

Text

5 minute read

November 26 2022, The Sunday Times

When Sophie, a female firefighter, walked past male colleagues, they would taunt her about her weight by imitating the sound of a truck reversing.

Then there was the time at the London Fire Brigade (LFB), when her helmet was filled with urine, and the moment she found herself zipped inside a body bag as part of a practical joke.

The experiences contributed to Sophie (not her real name) being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Looking back, she compares her time at work to being in an abusive relationship.

Her anecdotes, along with dozens of other examples of racism, bullying and misogyny, will form part of a damning 88-page investigation published tomorrow, which will reveal the “toxic culture” in the country’s largest fire service.

Details include a black employee finding a noose above his locker, while a Muslim firefighter had a terrorism hotline sticker placed near his belongings. When the man returned from the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, colleagues asked how his “al-Qaeda training” had gone. At some stations, semen was smeared on women’s tunics.

For Nazir Afzal, the former chief crown prosecutor in the Rochdale grooming gang case, who was asked to conduct the LFB independent review, the stories he heard over many months were “stomach-turning”. Although Afzal emphasised that “our review is rooted in deep respect for the work of LFB staff”, he concluded that the brigade was institutionally misogynistic and racist.

Afzal and his team conducted 250 interviews with former and current staff as well as a dozen focus groups. More than 100 written submissions were received and surveys completed by 1,672 employees.

The report, titled the Independent Cultural Review of London Fire Brigade and obtained by The Sunday Times, was commissioned following the death of Jaden Francois-Esprit, a trainee at Wembley fire station who took his own life aged 21 in August 2020.

An inquest last year heard that Francois-Esprit believed he was being bullied at work because of his ethnicity, with claims that he was teased about the Caribbean food he brought in for lunch. He had made 16 requests to be transferred to another station.

Delivering her conclusion in February 2021, Mary Hassell, the coroner, said that Francois-Esprit had not been bullied. He did, however, have a “vivid interior life at odds with the world around him”, she told St Pancras coroner’s court in London, and his deteriorating mental health had gone undetected.

Although LFB already had “sophisticated” mental health services it could do more, Hassell said in her conclusion. Ordering a prevention of future deaths report, she wrote: “In my opinion, there is a risk that future deaths will occur unless action is taken.”

It was after the inquest that the brigade’s commissioner, Andy Roe, opened an independent investigation.

In a statement released tonight the brigade said it was taking immediate action after the recommendations made in the report. Roe said: “Today is a very sobering day. There is no place for discrimination, harassment and bullying in the brigade and from today it will be completely clear to all staff what behaviour isn’t acceptable and what the consequences will be. I am deeply sorry for the harm that has been caused.”

Roe said he would be “fully accountable for improving our culture” and said he would accept all of the recommendations in the review.

The figures provided for Afzal’s report backed up Hassell’s fears. In the past five years, six members of the brigade’s staff had taken their own lives, data revealed. It also gave “harrowing examples” of those who attempted suicide.

“Unless a toxic culture that allows bullying and abuse to be normalised is tackled then I fear that, like Jaden, other firefighters will tragically take their lives,” Afzal concluded.

His comments came after many pages of testimony from those who had worked in the brigade.

One woman writes: “It’s now reached a point with me that I tell my female friends not to let male firefighters in the house. Why? Because I know what they do. They go through women’s drawers looking for underwear and sex toys. Then they will spend hours bragging about the dildo they found and they will refer to the women as sluts. We hear it all the time and I’m sick of it.”

A Muslim staff member said he was “routinely bullied” because of his faith, with bacon and sausages put in his coat.

In WhatsApp messages shared with Afzal’s team, members of the brigade mocked the death of the black basketball player Kobe Bryant, who was killed in a helicopter crash with his daughter in 2020. Time and time again, racial and misogynistic abuse was passed off as “banter” at the brigade.

The report adds to the scandals that have engulfed the emergency services in recent years. Wayne Couzens, a Metropolitan Police officer, was jailed almost a year ago for the rape and murder of 33-year-old Sarah Everard.

The LFB was also accused of “serious shortcomings” and systemic failures” in its response to the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, in which 72 died.

As part of the Afzal report, Dany Cotton, head of the brigade at the time of the Grenfell blaze, was interviewed. She describes being told on more than one occasion that London was not ready for a female commissioner. She began a campaign to stop the use of the word fireman, called #Firefightingsexism and received death threats.

“Many people wanted me to fail and several said it to my face,” she tells the review, adding that one of her biggest battles was with “internal terrorists”, appearing to refer to the brigade.

Yet she is declining to talk publicly in support of the independent report, in part to avoid yet more abuse. Cotton is one of many women in the LFB who shared their experiences.

The report’s authors write: “This ranged from being groped during training exercises and kicked and punched, to having their uniforms urinated on and men keeping diaries of when they suspected women were on a period and telling them they ‘didn’t want to be around women who were bleeding’.”

One female employee said: “The threshold for bullying is so high, you would have to gouge someone’s eyes out to get sacked. Everything else is seen as banter.”

Sophie often thinks back to an evening out with colleagues when the DJ played a song which began with a shout out for “Sophie the station cleaner”.

That night she was having only soft drinks but they tasted sweet — spiked with spirits — so she kept throwing them away when no one was looking.

When she went to the lavatory she overheard her male colleagues conspiring to get her drunk, with a bet on to see who could get her back to the station to have sex. She saw that as conspiracy to rape.

But as awful as that seemed at the time, it was not quite as bad as the humiliating day in the mess when her colleague bent down in front of everyone and sniffed her crotch. He said she must be having her period as she smelt like his dog’s bottom: “all blood and shit”.

No one intervened, no line manager stepped in, Sophie says. In fact they usually laughed too. And some of those men are now senior figures in the brigade, she says.

Last year, the brigade attended more than 100,000 call-outs. There are 102 fire stations, which are home to 412 watches — the teams that operate in shifts around the clock.

More than 4,500 of the 5,000 staff are firefighters, but only 425 are women and just over 500 are from ethnic minorities, a tiny proportion in such a diverse city.

At their best, the report finds, London firefighters work closely, look out for each other and share a keen sense of pride and purpose. “The work is frequently dangerous, so their closeness is based on a need for firefighters to be able to completely rely on each other and trust colleagues with their life,” the review says.

It may take some comfort from the finding that the “demonstrable bigotry” found in fire stations does not extend to the public.

When it comes to saving lives, apparently, firefighters do not discriminate. “It’s like someone pulls a switch,” one black firefighter tells Afzal. “They change when they’re on the fire ground. It’s like they remember why they’re firefighters.”

It seems to Afzal that the brigade’s culture is “pickled in aspic”, a throwback to the last century “where offensive banter — particularly that characterised by extreme sexism — was apparent.” Some watches seem to operate almost “outside the law”, Afzal adds.

“There were fights and I nearly had my legs broken,” one watch manager says in the report. “I’ve been urinated on, headbutted, had cold water poured over me. It was horrendous.”

The measures put in place by the brigade to make improvements — initiatives such as the “Togetherness Strategy” and the “Safe To Speak” programme — are ineffective, the investigation concludes.

The report describes a “mental health time bomb”, with a significant number of firefighters who are vulnerable and appear to lack support. “We need to rescue ourselves as well as rescue others,” one union said.

The brigade’s human resources data analytics are “lacking sophistication”, according to the report, but disclose that increased numbers of staff are leaving the service since Grenfell. There is also increased absence related to anxiety, stress or depression and more than 250 Grenfell-related referrals to in-house counselling and trauma services.

One black firefighter, Gareth Dawes, 40, who contributes to the report, experienced a long history of microaggressions — “the nice racism that comes behind a smile” — before eventually helping to create what he termed a “progressive space” at his fire station where racist, sexist and homophobic language and behaviour would not be tolerated.

After the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the hands of a police officer and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, Dawes had gone to be part of the “cultural change” team at brigade headquarters — but he was left feeling unsupported and isolated.

He alleges he was told that the brigade wanted to prioritise women over black people because “for black people it is just about belonging”. Dawes saw this remark as insulting. His work was downgraded and he felt bullied and pushed out. He eventually resigned.

“We all know as black people that as soon as you raise your head above the parapet your career is done,” he said. He believes the brigade is in a state of denial about its problems.

Sophie, the female firefighter, is also hoping for change. After leaving work, the abuse would continue online, she says. When someone posted a picture of her online, a commenter asked “who’s that f***ing fat pig?”. She received obscene phone calls and messages containing extreme pornography.

Although she says she is not vindictive, she hopes tomorrow’s report will ruin the reputation of the brigade so it can be rebuilt from scratch.

Afzal says many stories he has heard “reinforce the perception that I had about the excellent service they [the LFB] provide”. “During this review, we saw many examples of bravery and dedication to public service,” he writes. Yet he also says his investigation “alerted me to significant concerns”.

“We found dangerous levels of ingrained prejudice against women and the barriers faced by people of colour spoke for themselves,” he adds.

The report makes a series of recommendations, including zero tolerance for workplace bullying, and a review of past complaints and mechanisms to make it safer to report bullying, racism, misogyny and homophobia.

There should also be a cultural audit of all fire stations to assess their risk to firefighters, developing a robust way of measuring brigade culture, ensuring secure facilities for women in stations and recruiting more Londoners, Afzal says.

In future, a “culture dashboard” for the LFB should be set up, using a traffic light system to highlight the worst-offending stations when it comes to “toxic behaviours”.

Reacting to the report last night, the brigade said that from now on anyone accused of discrimination, harassment and bullying will be suspended following a risk assessment and while an investigation takes place. If the accusation is upheld, they will be dismissed. An external complaints service to report bad behaviour has also been introduced, with leaders now undertaking inclusivity training. A mental health hub has also been launched.

Roe said: “This report highlights many issues within the brigade, and it also highlights examples of completely unacceptable behaviour from some of our staff when dealing with the public. These staff jeopardise not just the trust placed in us, but the safety of those who now might be dissuaded from requesting our help.”

He added: “We will challenge poor behaviour and do everything required to rebuild trust with our people and the communities we are here to serve. We will root out the people, systems and behaviours that discriminate against others and let the rest of us down. I know that change can take time, but change starts today.”

The family of Francois-Esprit also believe there is still much work to be done at the brigade. Speaking to The Guardian this summer, his mother Linda said: “We want organisational change in Jaden’s honour so no other employee experiences the trauma which led a healthy vibrant passionate young man at the prime of his life to experience a mental health crisis and untimely death.”

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