#it’s him using the his favor to dismantle a system or trying to help those less seen by said system

[marsconer]

can we stop looking at everything percy and annabeth do through the percabeth lenses ? it’s starting to be detrimental to both of their characters.

#percy jackson and the olympians #percy jackson spoilers #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #annabeth chase #percy and annabeth #percabeth #anti ? #i really don’t want to tag this as anti bc it’s really not #anti percabeth #only because the pjo fandom had rabbies over those two #him giving up immortality wasn’t for her it’s so much bigger than that #it’s the theme of the whole series #it’s him using the his favor to dismantle a system or trying to help those less seen by said system #it was for every unclaimed kid #every child of a minor god #every forgotten tribute paid in blood #it wasn’t for annabeth #he loved her #but not everything he ever did was / is because of that love #the last episode it’s chimera was not because he loved her it’s just because that’s the kind of person he is #he doesn’t love her yet #he loves grover as his best friend #and he cares for her #and she is her own person #and she doesn’t love him yet #she may know she could #she might even be developing a crush on him #but what she did last episode was because of what thalia did for her

[missdrarrydawn]

------------ Occupy My Heart ------------

Draco Malfoy x fem!Reader

warning: implied smut, brief mentions of drinking

~~~

written for the lovely @leydileyla who offered me this absolute gem of a prompt that I simply couldn't pass up

hope you enjoy hon :DD

~~~

You were really starting to feel the buzz of the Butterbeers a few hours into the Interhouse party that was thrown for all the returning eighth years. You're such a horrible lightweight, Butterbeer is just vaguely alcoholic, if at all. It warmed you up and left a pleasant tingle in its wake. Just enough to let the music and lights around you blur and blend, to ripple against your skin and soothe. The smell of the ale cookies served at various tables scattered around the one conjoined common room for all the Houses now wafted through the thick, cloying air, between meandering bodies of various dancing students, all the scents making your head spin from where you were sitting at the little makeshift bar.

The party's been wilding on way past curfew but no teachers arrived to interrupt you yet so it was fair game. Everything felt so liquid and pleasant, the atmosphere sticking to your slick skin, the warmth and haze prickling at the back of your neck.

Gods you needed a shower. Perhaps you might sneak away to have a quick one? The party showed no signs of slowing down and you were drained.

As you pushed away from the bar, colors still swimming before your eyes from all the sparkle and decorative banners strung up everywhere, you felt a shiver run down your spine.

You felt eyes on you.

Turning about to find the possible culprit, you registered a flash of platinum blonde hair in a darkened corner and the piercing glow of silver eyes lingering on you.

Draco.

A chuckle rumbled from your chest as you allowed yourself a moment to revel in his gaze before melding into the throng of people, sliding between them, trying to remember whether your dorm was the door on the left or the right upstairs. It wouldn't do to barge into someone else's dormroom.

As you made your way along you still felt pins and needles in your back, as if someone was keeping pace with you. Goodness, that was incredibly paranoid, wasn't it? You vowed to yourself to never drink Butterbeer again. Even slightly tipsy you were a disaster.

Finally you got through everyone and into the quieter part of the room, where all the dorms were. There were only a few people milling about there, stumbling off to their rooms with whoever they pulled or to retch or simply pass out.

The beat of the music was muffled here, no longer a steady, beating ebb flowing through your skull, now more resembling a foggy memory. It was easier to think, to breathe. You've never been much of a party animal, but this one was important. It celebrated unity and the war being over, it celebrated those who lived and fought. It mattered to attend. After Hogwarts rebuilt and reopened, the first thing that changed was the system of the four houses, headmistress McGonagall had dismantled it entirely after witnessing how horrific segregation could be.

Everyone was thrown in one mixing pot, which had been strange at first, but throwing a party like this really helped scrub out the imaginary lines in the sand everyone had drawn between themselves.

Speaking of scrubbing, you finally arrived to your dorm and basically collapsed through the door in your quest for a shower. Where was the bathroom door again? Ah right, over there, of course.

You slipped through, the bright Lumos having you squint for a second while your eyes adjusted from the dim haze of downstairs to the sparkling clean of tile.

Right. You closed the door behind you and began to undress, your clothes peeling away from the sweat plastered all over you from all the vigorous dancing you'd done.

As you kicked off your shoes and set your bare feet on the cold floor, a distinct icy chill ran up your legs and through the rest of you, shivering away the brittle buzz you'd worked up, cooling you down.

Once your clothes were a discarded pile on the floor, you stepped into the shower and pulled the fogged glass door shut, fiddling with the taps before a spray of warm water finally hit your face and shoulders.

What a relief.

You began to scrub and lather yourself up, cleaning off the night with the water sluicing down your skin, your mind starting to wander as you relaxed into the moment more. Warm showers were a treasure.

Draco was staring at you back there. For a brief second you made eye contact before you left. Did that mean something? You felt silly for wanting to know but that boy has occupied the vacant spaces of your heart for far too long now, and you couldn't help but hope that his intense, focused gaze meant something more.

As you began washing your hair, a knock on the door startled you out of your skin. You almost poured shampoo into your eyes for heaven's sake!

"Um—occupied?" you yelled out, hoping to be heard over the gush of water. If someone needed the bathroom urgently then they could come in to use it, it's not as if anyone would see you in your birthday suit, but if it wasn't urgent then they could find another one.

"Ahh, Y/N, it's—uh, it's me! I was just wondering if you were okay?" a familiar voice from the other side of the door spoke up.

You knew that voice. It was so familiar. Who—

You felt every bit of you freeze as your brain spat out the answer for you.

Draco. It was Draco.

Checking up on you.

What should you do now? Your heart began hammering away quicker, this was hardly the time or place to flirt or attempt seduction and—

Well. As you considered the statement that just flittered through your mind you found it not entirely true.

You were naked after all, naked and wet. What more perfect scenario for seduction did there exist?

"I'm okay Draco, um—you can come in?" you yelled back, lips stretching into a smile. Technically he shouldn't be here at all, seeing as these were girls quarters and all, but if he's been invited it shouldn't be too much of an issue. If he accepted, that was.

There was silence for a few beats, the moment dragging on, you almost thought you'd scared him off, but then—

The soft, distinct click of the door being opened and shut.

Bingo.

Now, how exactly would you do this? You supposed you could ask him to get you a towel when you were done, and let him have a glimpse.

Merlin it sounded corny as all fuck, but you were prepared to do what it takes.

Until then though, you supposed you should talk about anything, keep the atmosphere up.

You could just barely make out his tall, foggy outline through the sliding glass of the shower, and you watched him move to sit down on the toilet seat.

Wait a second—if you could partly see him, did that mean he could partly see you too?

That was even more perfect.

"Hi Draco, you like the party?" you threw out the question casually, hoping to lessen the strangeness of the situation. You and him were friends, well, acquaintances more so, so it's not as if you've never spoken berore, but still. This was way different from any interaction youve had prior. "Thank you for checking up on me."

"Ahh ahem—no problem Y/N, you seemed a little tipsy back there so I uh—I thought you might—Well yea." he stumbled through his words, hardly even finishing the sentence properly.

That was—quite uncharacteristic of Draco Malfoy. He was always the one with the silver tongue, the sharp remark, had a comment to spare for anything, and to hear him stutter and hiccup his way through speaking as if he were a nervous school girl talking to her crush was very new and strange.

You'd be lying if you said it wasn't endearing as all hell though.

You could have a lot of fun with this.

"I see I see. I did build a bit of a buzz but nowhere near as bad as some of the other characters around this place. I mean, did you see Zabini strip his shirt off and then dance on the tables? Goodness." you simply continued along, as if this were a casual conversation and you weren't naked and washing out your hair.

"Haha, yeah, yes, Blaise will have one hell of a hangover tomorrow." Draco chuckled, though it sounded breathy and rough, somehow.

You were almost done now.

"Parvati will too, say, could you brew a vial of that potion of yours, for hangovers, for her? She's my roommate and I loathe to hear her whining tomorrow. You're the best at it, after all." You let your voice linger above the spray.

This time, Draco audibly spluttered and you saw a flurry of blurred movement, which eased a laugh past your lips.

"Um—yea, of—of course. I can do that. Um, Y/N isn't this—I don't know, a little strange?"

He sounded so thoroughly flustered, which really got you hoping. The stares, checking up on you, doing you favors, getting flustered by the situation, hm.

Hm.

It was worth a shot anyhow, right?

Time for a new plan.

Another chuckle rattled through your ribs. This was insane.

You grabbed the handle of the door and slid it open just enough to lean your head through. You could finally get a good look at him. He was sitting on the toilet seet, his entire face splotched and flushed all down his neck, wringing his hands and bouncing his leg.

When he heard you slide the door open he turned his head abruptly and you heard his breath hitch as he got a look at your face and shoulder sticking out, his eyes sliding from your eyes to your lips, lower still, to your neck and collarbones and—then he remembered himself and turned away abruptly.

"I'm sorry! Oh Merlin, are you—are you done? Do you uh—need a towel or—?" He began to ramble all in one breath and you just continued smiling fondly at his turned back.

"Oh Draco, won't you come in here with me already?"

You held out your hand and patiently waited. You could imagine this would be quite a fallout.

Draco stood completely still when the words left your mouth. One minute, two minutes, three—

The water drying on your skin while more sprayed down had gooseflesh rising all over you. Still, you waited.

"Um—what?" Draco whimpered eventually, voice giving out on him at the end there.

"You heard me." you assurred him.

The hum of running water was the only sound bouncing off the walls again, the very faintest echo of music from downstairs lilting through the closed door.

Draco turned to face you again, he looked wrecked. Eyes wide and dark, his pupils basically swallowing the silver irises, hair disheveled, breath coming in gentle pants.

"You want—?" he mumbled, his voice betraying his own hope and eagerness.

"Yes. For a while." your own smile widened, and for a second a pang of anxiety struck you as you realized he was about to see you naked, but it all dissipated into pooling heat and want as you watched him slowly reach for the first button of his mint green button up shirt and slide it loose. His wide eyes never left yours and you watched the slight tremor in his fingertips as he freed every button, one by one, until his shirt opened and slid off his shoulders, fluttering to the floor.

God he's delicious. All lean, well defined Seeker's physique, the pale marble of his skin an endless expanse. You let your eyes wander, drink in the sight, slide across his chest and lower, over his taut abdomen, hanging up on the waistband of his pants. An outline pushed against the seams there, your mouth watering at the visible bulge.

"Me too." he mumbled, as if you needed any more proof or reassurance of his desire, his hand slowly reaching for his zipper now.

Oh what a lovely party it's been indeed and it was about to get so much better.

~~~

Fin.

#x reader fic #hp fanfic #draco malfoy x fem!reader #party #getting tipsy #showers #implied smut #brief mentions of drinking #tipsy!reader #protective!draco #humour #seduction #getting together #long post

[intheticklecloset]

Deku’s Interrogation (My Hero Academia)

Primary Universe

Yaaaas! I loved writing this prompt so much! I decided to take that “capture the flag” idea and turn it into a “rescue the hostage” training exercise for the class. I also decided to have Kaminari be the ler because I’ve written a lot of ler Bakugou torturing poor Deku! 😂 I think the change was refreshing and fun! Enjoy!

~

In all of his hero training at U.A., Deku had never been cast to play a villain before. He didn’t know why, now that he thought about it. Selecting classmates to play villains seemed to be random each time; the fact that he’d gone so many rounds without being cast himself was actually a pretty impressive statistic. Had Mr. Aizawa done that on purpose? Or maybe All Might had something to do with it?

No, he decided, walking slowly and alertly through the empty streets of the fake city they were training in. It was just the luck of the draw that he’d never had to play a bad guy before. But today was different. Today they were doing rescue training, and he and six others had been cast to play the villains. His job was to keep any heroes from getting close enough to their base to rescue their captive, Mr. Aizawa. With his speed and raw power, he seemed the perfect choice to make sure no one even got close enough to the building, let alone inside it.

Up ahead, he heard a soft sound followed by a whispered curse. Instantly his mind was shuffling through potential threats. Which one of his classmates was nearby? He could only rule out those who were on his team as fellow villains; it could be anyone hiding around that corner up ahead.

Deciding the element of surprise would be best, Deku surged forward, leaping up onto the side of one structure to use as a springboard to attack whoever was hiding, but his opponent seemed to have suspected he’d do this and had already bailed from where they’d been just as Deku came hurtling toward the spot they’d vacated.

When he stood up, Deku found himself face-to-face with Kaminari.

“Aw, crap,” Denki muttered, putting on an angry face for the sake of their training. “Of course it had to be you.”

“Thought you could sneak up on me?” Deku asked, trying to stay in character.

“If I hadn’t tripped over that rock, I would have.”

“Too bad for you.”

Kaminari threw his hands in the air, violent sparks of electricity shooting out from his hands and flying toward Deku at record speed. But thanks to One For All, the “villain” was able to jet away quickly enough to avoid damage, then hurtle back toward Denki and grab his arms, twisting them behind him.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he said in what he hoped was a growling voice.

“Oh yeah?” Kami whipped his head back hard enough to smack into Deku’s forehead, making him shout in pain and stumble back in the seconds before he found himself shoved against a wall, soft electric currents shooting through his pinned wrists. “Now, if you so much as blink at me the wrong way, I’ll fry you so hard you’ll go up in smoke.”

Wow, he’s really into this, Deku thought.

“I’m only going to ask this once,” the electric hero continued. “Where is Mr. Aizawa?”

Deku grunted, but he knew better than to make any sudden movements. “Like I’d tell you.”

All of a sudden, Denki got a look in his eyes that sent a shiver down Deku’s spine. The blonde eyed him for a moment, then glanced at his wrists – still buzzing with a soft current – and chuckled lowly. “Heh. Aren’t you a little too ticklish to be playing a villain, Midoriya?”

Deku’s eyes widened. “Y-You…you wouldn’t. Not in the middle of training.”

Kaminari’s answering smirk was positively evil. “Try me.”

Deku tried to break out of Kami’s hold, but the instant he moved – as promised – his friend intensified the current running down his arms, making them freeze up in a painful electric shock. While he cried out and was distracted, Denki grabbed onto his hips and started kneading. “Tell me where he is.”

“NOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!” Deku burst into laughter, shooting his arms down to grab at Kami’s wrists desperately. “NOHOHOHOHO NO NO, YOU CAHAHAHAHAHAN’T DO THIHIS!!”

“Says who?” Denki challenged, pushing him right back up against the wall. “The rules say the heroes are to find and rescue the hostage by any means necessary. Well, I intend to do both, even if it means tickling you to pieces to get the information I need.”

“STAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAP!! KAMINAHAHAHARI!!”

“Better talk, villain.” Denki’s smirk became more playful now. “Or I’ll use my quirk to really tickle it out of you.”

Everything in Deku wanted to beg Kaminari to let him go, but in order to fulfill his role as a villain, he knew he couldn’t give up the information without a fight. So, despite his singing nerves, he spat out a half-growled, “DOHOHOHOHO YOUR WOHOHOHORST!!”

“As you wish.”

“AAIIEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!” Deku shrieked with hysterics when Kami ignited his sparks just enough to send extra intense ticklish shockwaves through his system. His legs quickly gave out beneath him from the assault. “NAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA STAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAP!!”

“Tell me where Aizawa is!” Denki demanded, grinning as he followed Deku to the ground and pinned him there. “Tell me, or I’ll tickle you to death!”

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!” Deku desperately shoved at Kami’s shoulders, but in response the blonde merely laughed and straddled him, still focused on his hips. “I-I’LL NEHEHEVER TAHAHAHAHAHALK!!” He regretted his words even as he said them, but he had to stay in character! “I CAHAHAHAHAHAHAN TAHAHAHAHAKE IT!!”

“You can?” Kaminari beamed. “Great! Then you won’t mind if I just tickle and tickle and tickle and—”

“NOHOHOHOHOHOHO!! STAHAHAHAHAHAHAP TAHAHAHALKING!!” Deku pleaded, the teasing messing with him more than he could stand. Resisting tickle torture was one thing, but teasing as well?!

“Stop talking? I thought you said you could take this?” Denki knew full well what he was doing, and under normal circumstances perhaps he would have felt a little bad about it, but right now he had a job to do. He was getting that location out of Deku if it was the last thing he did. “Oh, I see. You can take the tickling; it’s the teasing you don’t like!”

“KAMI--!!”

“Well, I mean, I did say you were a little too ticklish to be a villain. And here we are, me completely dominating this fight, all because you’re just so insanely sensitive! Why did the villains think to put you on guard duty when just one little tickle would render you helpless like this?”

“I’M NOHOHOHOHOT HEHEHEHEHEHELPLESS!!” Deku screeched, kicking his legs and trying to pry Denki’s fingers from his hips. But anytime he got close enough to make contact, the sparks emanating from the hero would force him back again.

“No? Go ahead, then. Get out of this if you can, villain.”

He was trying. So, so desperately he was digging his heels into the pavement, twisting and writhing to try and get Kami’s weight off of him, shoving at any part of his body he could reach. None of it was working. Denki knew his death spot was his hips and he was just staying there and Deku was losing his mind laughing and the electric shocks were only making it worse—

“PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE!!” Deku couldn’t help it anymore; if he didn’t do something he was going to go insane. Laughter-induced tears streamed down his cheeks. “STAHAHAHAHAP, PLEASE, KAHAHAHAHAHAMINARI!!”

“Where’s Mr. Aizawa?” Denki demanded, slipping back into his role as a relentless hero now that he saw how desperate he’d made his friend. “Talk, villain!”

“I CAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAN’T!!” Deku screamed, tossing his head back with renewed hysterics when Denki intensified his ticklish shockwaves.

“The more you resist, the more I tickle,” Kaminari said in a low, threatening tone. “Talk.”

Now Deku was well and truly losing his mind. He knew there was no getting out of this physically; he was far too weakened by the tickling and his thoughts were turning to mush with every second that went by that his torturer didn’t let up on his death spot. He could barely breathe. His laughter was beyond out of control – it was wild. There was only one thing he could do to get this to stop, and while he hated giving in so easily, he had no choice.

“OKAYOKAYOKAHAHAHAHAHAHY I’LL TAHAHAHAHAHAHALK JUST PLEASE STOP TIHIHIHIHICKLING MEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE!!”

Denki stopped, grinning victoriously, but at that moment the buzzer sounded and Present Mic’s voice blasted through the speakers. “The heroes have dismantled the villain’s defenses and rescued the hostage! This battle is over! Heroes win!”

For a moment, Kaminari could only blink in astonishment. His friends had rescued Mr. Aizawa while he was out here tickling Deku into submission? What good had that done anyone? He was such a moron. “Aw, man,” he mumbled, climbing off of his friend. “I didn’t even get to do anything.”

“A-Are you…kidding me?” Deku gasped incredulously, looking up at him through teary-eyed vision. “I w-was the villains’…primary defense! Y-You completely disarmed me, and while…while I was distracted the other h-heroes got in to rescue the hostage. You just won for…your whole team, Kaminari!”

Denki was silent for a moment. Then a megawatt grin spread across his features and he pumped a fist in the air. “All right! I did it!” He turned his smile to Deku, who still lay gasping for breath, and he hesitated. “Oh, uh…are you okay, Midoriya? Sorry if I went a little crazy, I just…” He knelt down beside his friend. “I had to play my role, you know?”

Deku groaned. “And since I couldn’t just give up the information you needed without a fight, I got tickled nearly to death. This doesn’t seem fair.”

“Well…I did say I’d hold you to letting me try out my new tickle-shocks on you.” Kaminari chuckled. “So you kind of had this coming anyway.”

After a long moment, Deku giggled tiredly. “Yeah, okay, I guess that makes me feel a little better.” He held out his hand, and Kaminari helped him to his feet. “Do me a favor though – next time you feel like tickling me, please do not use those tickle-shocks on my hips. That was unbearable.”

“Hey, I had to get the information I needed!” Denki replied with a laugh, walking with his friend away from the scene of the crime. “But it did seem a little intense. I won’t use them there again without warning you first; how does that sound?” He couldn’t very well promise to never do that again – it had been too much fun!

Deku considered for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. And hey, Kaminari?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks. I didn’t like playing a villain anyway.”

#fanfiction #tickle fic #boku no hero #my hero academia #bnha #mha #denki #kaminari #izuku #midoriya #deku #training #interrogation #tickling #ticklish #tickle

[re-diesirae]

14. Leon

He'd never liked old-fashioned houses, and this one certainly made him uncomfortable. He checked each room with his gun raised, but nothing human or non-human seemed to lurk in the corridors of the place. He did notice the signs of struggle, and despite the absence of corpses, he could tell that the inhabitants of the manor were most likely dead. As they walked, he noticed how Claire rumbled curiously through the papers that laid scattered over the place. She seemed to have caught interest in a file she had found lying on a desk. He had never taken Claire for a bookworm, but she certainly was.

He knew Claire was a smart woman and a good fighter, too; but her inclination had always been to the brain side rather than muscle, the reason why she'd chosen her current job rather than following her brother's steps. Claire went to college and graduated a little after the incidents of Raccoon. He knew that. She had mentioned once in a phone call, but their conversations rarely focused on mundane things.

It's easy to forget conventional questions if each time we bump into each other, it seems like the world is about to end.

When Claire told him that she had graduated from biology and taken a virology specialty, he couldn't help but see the irony in there. However, he did notice Claire's enthusiasm as she explained her reasons and, somehow, he thought it suited her. She was someone born to help the world, after all. Now, with the possibility of a new virus, he could understand why she was so interested in finding out what sort of research had been taking place there.

He, too, wanted to know. If there were any potential threats out there, he'd do anything to prevent it. He'd never allow a third tragedy after Raccoon and Tall Oaks if he could help it; but, for the time being, his main objective would be dismantling whatever thing was jamming his signal. He wanted to contact Hunnigan as soon as possible.

When they reached the tower, he'd immediately started to work on the antenna. He noticed that Claire paced around the room until she finally settled in front of one of the computers and began typing into it.

Smart and lethal. Guess I see why men would feel intimidated if they could pass the first filter. He thought and chuckled at the image of threatening Chris scaring off any of his sister's potential love interests. A sudden thought crossed his mind. How would Chris have reacted if he had tried to court Claire?

The thought made him grin, and in the middle of his thoughts, his mobile made a soft beeping sound, letting him know the signal was back. Now he just needed to get a hold of Hunningan.

"I think I got it."I have the signal back. I'll try to contact Hunningan."

"That's great news…!"

"What about you? Did you find anything?"

"No, and yes. I managed to hack into the security system, but the servers aren't linked, so I have no access to research data from here. I did get a nice blueprint of the facility, though. Just look at this, the main research area is right underneath us, which is not surprising at all. I also checked the security protocols, and from that, I can say they were doing in vivo assays, and I found something alarming and unexpected."

"How come?"

"They have a viral repository in here. It is curious because, with the T-virus, C-virus, and all those new strains that Umbrella had been spreading, most bioterrorists had dropped the use of traditional pathogenic weapons."

"By traditional you mean…?"

"Regular viral agents: influenza, Nipah Virus, chickenpox, ebola… Ring a bell? They have a bacteria stock, too; Anthrax, Tuberculosis, MRSA," she said, scrolling down the screen, " Basically Level 3 and 4 pathogens. Just what the hell were they doing here?"

" If you don't know, neither do I. Can you get the information from here?"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I am a virologist, not a hacker. The information should have a back up in the central server, but I am not skilled enough to break through their encryption to get it. We would need a vicious hacker for that, and the only one I know is somewhere in Hughesville."

"So, in other words, if we want that data, we'll need to go down there."

"Very sharp, Kennedy."

"Well, I guess we should bring some company down there," Leon commented,pulling his mobile to his ear. "Hunnigan… I need a favor."

"Thank goodness. It's so good to hear from you, Leon."

"Yeah, something was interfering with my signal, but I took care of it. Hunnigan, can you patch me up with Chris Redfield from B.S.A.A?"

" Of course. His team was supposed to head your way to help you, but they got delayed by a sudden bioterrorist attack. Just give me a moment…"

Leon waited in the line for a moment. He saw Claire's questioning look, and he replied with a small wave of his hand. Suddenly, there was a soft ecstatic sound, and Chris's agitated grumbles resounded in his ear.

"Leon?"

"Chris, good to know that B.O.W didn't kill you."

"As if. I am glad to hear from you. Is Claire there?"

Straight to the point, as usual.

Leon turned to Claire and had to drown a laugh when he saw the woman roll her eyes and mutter something that sounded like: overprotective and old enough.

"Yeah, she's with me. She's a little beaten up, but overall she's fine, and she doesn't seem to enjoy your overprotectiveness..."

"Tell her I'm her brother, and I am in the right to do so." Chris grumbled, "Leon, we're heading your way, but the trip will take some time. We have to cross the continent to reach you.".

Cross the continent, so they were somewhere in Europe.

"Yeah, I guess that shouldn't be a problem. I think we are in a safe place until dawn," Leon said, looking around the tower. The walls had reinforced metal, and the door was lockable from the inside, so it was mostly safe.

"Dawn? What is that supposed to mean?"

"Long story short. There's a high chance of a new virus development in this place. The new B.O.W.s are tough and very violent, but the movement seems restricted to nighttime. I'll explain in more detail when you get here. Claire believes there might be important information in this facility. However, the information seems to be in the underground research center, which, in my experience, must be filled with more B.O.W.s. I don't think Claire and I can handle them on our own."

"Of course, you don't! Don't you even dare to go down there until we arrive, understood? If those things are as bad as you say, make sure to stay in a safe place."

"I know, don't worry. "

"We'll talk soon, then. I gotta go."

"All right. Do you want me to hug Claire for you?"

"Don't dare, Kennedy. Keep those charms off from my sister..."

"I'll try..."

Leon cut off the call before Chris could say something about the last statement and snorted. He had to admit it was fun to tease him. He turned to Claire, and she shrugged, but he saw the small smile on her lips.

"I already locked the door, also…" She said as she began typing on the computer again, and Leon noticed that one of the screens was now showing security cameras images of the house. " I activated the CCTV and the security system around the main house and the corridors surrounding this tower area. If our dear nocturne friend decides to pay a visit, he'll have a nice welcoming party."

And there it was again. Claire Redfield would never cease to amaze him.

"Thought you said you weren't a hacker."

"I am not, but I might have learned a trick or two when it comes to security systems. I did save your butt back then in Willpharma research center, remember?"

"Another of many other things I owe you."

"I dragged you down to this mess. I guess you can consider most of it paid," Claire sighed, " Considering that I will drag you all down into another one soon."

Claire's look traveled to the 3D blueprint that was glowing on the screen. He noticed how she bit her lower lip with a worried frown as she traced her finger around the different rooms.

"If it can prevent another outbreak, I'll gladly follow you to hell, Claire, and so would Chris or any of your friends."

"I know...it's just, what if the information isn't worthy?"

"If there's something I've come to learn with my years of services is that no information is ever worthless. It might not be useful at first, but sooner or later, it becomes relevant. Believe me, Claire, finding out what this place was for is necessary."

Claire let out a tortured sigh and returned to the computer. He could see her shoulder tensed up as she muttered something to herself.

"So...virology, huh? Sounds a little, ehm…"

"Go ahead and say it, but it isn't as boring as most people would think. I've come to understand a lot of things about B.O.W's, and... I've always been the family's nerd." she added the last part with a playful wink, "Besides, it's helped a lot with TerraSave's work."

"You're truly devoted to that organization."

"I don't think I am devoted to TerraSave. I am devoted to the people in need. TerraSave is….it's just a means to reach them."

"I doubt you studied all that just to sit behind that desk."

"I used to be more into fieldwork, and of course, I still prefer that, but I've been more indoors the past few months."

"Not only signing papers, but I am also sure. "

"Right, maybe someday I'll tell you."

"Can't tell me now?"

"I could, but where's the fun in that?"

Leon frowned but ended up cracking a smile. He saw her browse into a long list on the screen; most elements were written in code using numbers and letters in combination with a different color; he had no idea of what they were supposed to mean, but Claire seemed to understand it.

"So...what exactly are we watching?" Leon asked, resting his hand on the table and leaning a little closer to see better what showed on the screen. He could almost feel his face grazing Claire's cheek.

"Well, it seems the security system kept a small datalog of biohazards in here. It's not very detailed, but it might give us an idea of what we'll find down there. This file here is the list of viral subjects kept in their repository. The number corresponds to strain number, followed by the short name and then the color signals hazard category," she explained, pointing at the screen, " green is level one, blue is level two, yellow is level three, and red is level four. White names must mean they're unlisted."

Leon watched at the screen, noticing that most names were in the red.

"There's also the mutant viruses: the T-virus, G-virus, T-Veronica, T-Abyss, C-Virus, T-Phobos, Uroboros….they pretty much have a sample of every virus developed by Umbrella. Also, they seem to keep bacterial samples and parasites, too. God, this place is a time bomb. If any of these things were to fall into the wrong hands or got released by accident, it would be a disaster. I mean, B.O.W's can get killed, but these pathogens are invisible killers. Just what kind of Frankenstein were they trying to create using this?"

"That's what we'll have to find out. Anything else of our interest?"

"Yeah, there is a list of B.O.W's kept in here. Most of them are small old friends: hunters, creepers, lickers…, but there are these numbers over here. They have no data information, so I can only speculate and say those are the poor unfortunate souls used as guinea pigs for their test with whatever thing they were trying to create."

"That information sure is useful. "

"It is. Leon, can I borrow your phone?"

Leon was perplexed by the sudden request, but he pulled out the device and gave it to her. The redhead connected it to the computer and began typing; a few minutes later, she returned the device and pulled away from the machine.

"I put the map into it and also the datalog. We should send it to Chris, too. That should come in handy."

Like I said, smart, he thought of taking the command resending the data to Chris.

"Not bad. Ever considered entering the secret service? I could use a partner like you, Ms. Redfield." he said, putting the device back into his pocket.

"I am not an agent material, Mr. Kennedy. " Claire replied with a smile.

"I wouldn't be so sure. I think you would be a great partner, and I'm a picky one."

"Then I should be honored, Leon."

Leon chuckled. He pulled out another chair and sat by her side. The place was warmer than the one they had stayed at last night, but it was still a little chilly, so when Claire had intended to return his jacket, he had politely rejected it.

"Don't blame me if you catch a cold." she had laughed.

" I wouldn't have to. I am sure you would show up in my apartment to nurse me back to health if that was the case."

"I wouldn't steal that opportunity from your sweetheart, Leon. Besides, I am too busy to do that."

"I am sure you'd make the time for me. We are good friends, after all."

"Good friends that haven't seen each other in centuries..." she chuckled.

"We are here now, so I doubt that's a problem."

"We barely know each other outside from saving the world and surviving an apocalypse?"

"That can be fixed, Claire. It's a matter of talking."

"With biscuits and tea...preferably." Claire laughed.

"Can't say that wouldn't be nice, but I accept any other alternatives as well." he smiled in the same playful manner.

"I am surprised that you're still single. You're such a flirt," Claire chuckled, punching his arm affectionately, "You were already a flirt back then, but I guess the years made you worse."

"So, I was flirting?"

"You still are a flirt." she laughed, "But I kind of like that from you anyway."

"From me, huh?" he repeated thoughtfully, and for a moment, he thought he'd seen a dim shade of blush across the woman's face, but when he watched again, she was as pale as she usually was.

"Ah, don't mind me. I'm saying random stuff. I tend to do that when my mind isn't busy with something. Guess I'll flip over these files again."

Claire pulled out the folders she'd picked earlier and began rumbling through its contents. Leon wasn't much into that sort of thing, but he pulled himself closer to take a were nasty looking pictures of ill people. Some of them were probably very old, judging by the yellowish color on the material, but some others were particularly recent. One of the pictures caught his attention, a grotesque creature with its torso all covered with bulbous pores.

"I know that one…" he said, pointing at it, " I fought a couple of them in Tall Oaks and Lanshiang."

"Lepotitsa," Claire read, "I superspreader, huh? Nasty thing, it must have given you lots of trouble."

"You have no idea."

"Let's see. It's a full mutation of the C-virus, intended to disperse an airborne form of the virus around its immediate area. It can transform surrounding subjects into zombies spontaneously. Well, it does sound like an inconvenience. Huh, project supervisor, C. Radames," Claire read, "Dr. Radames, huh? So she was into this."

"Friend of yours?"

"No, but I met her once or twice. She was a genetics prodigy. I heard about her from my contacts at the university and saw her in a couple of lectures. Unfortunately, she went missing in 2009. I guess this might explain what happened. C-virus, huh..." Claire passed the page, and her expression darkened, "I know this one. They were in Sushestvovanie, so they were called Revenants…"

Leon watched Claire's bitter look. He could understand that watching these creatures also brought him unpleasant memories. He put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a friendly squeeze, to which she replied with a soft pat on it.

She closed the folder with a sigh and put it rubbed her temples, and he could see that her head was probably bothering her again. He was not a medic, but he didn't think concussions did not last that long.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, my head it's bothering me again, but it isn't that bad. I am just glad that we don't need to run away today."

Leon was glad, too. He was used to the continuous hunt and get hunted cycle with B.O.W's, but it didn't mean he wouldn't get tired. Especially when they were new types. He moved close to Claire and pulled her closer, allowing her head to rest on his shoulder. An innocent gesture. Surprisingly, she didn't pull away, and she seemed to welcome it warmly.

"How many women have had the chance to use your shoulder as a pillow?" she muttered softly.

"I lost count…" he snorted, "I'm just kidding. You're probably the first and the only one I'd lend my shoulder to."

"I am pretty sure that's a lie, but it is still kind of sweet."

"Why would it be a lie?"

"Because you are a gentleman. I am sure you would lend it to any lady in distress."

"Well, maybe only those whom I like," he admitted, but contrary to popular belief, he wasn't much of a lady's man, and there were only a few women he cared for deeply. Claire was one of them. Despite their little interaction after the incidents in Raccoon and Harvardville, Claire was an important part of his life that would always stay by his side: the lovely woman who stormed to him in a city filled with zombies, looking for her brother. The rest of the list was a short one, and naturally, it included Ada. The Asian woman might be hard to read, but she had helped him on many occasions, and he considered her some kind of ally; then there was Hunnigan, who had become his partner in most of the missions, and of course, there was Sherry. He had had contact with other women in his years of service, but they didn't leave a mark on him as these ladies did.

"So….that means you like me." Claire snorted.

"I do," he replied sincerely.

He liked her, yes, but now that he had said it, he wondered what sort of "like" he meant. He liked her in the way that he enjoyed her company. He liked her in the way that he wanted to keep her safe; he liked her for who she was. It wasn't a physical attraction as it happened with Ada, but something more psychic. Claire was pretty, but even if she hadn't been, he still would have felt attracted to her, so no, it wasn't physical. The more he happened to learn, the more he found her attractive.

"Well, to tell the truth, I didn't expect such a bold answer," Claire admitted, and this time, he was sure her cheeks had grown pink.

"I didn't expect it either…. It just came out."

"Well, I suppose I should have known. We are friends after all, of course, you'll say that."

Was it friendship behind his answer? He was beginning to doubt himself. He would lie if he said he had never had some sort of feelings for the younger Redfield. After all the mess they had gone through, he had developed a small infatuation with her. She was the young girl with an auburn ponytail that fought bravely despite her fears. When the two of them had chosen to take separate paths, he had pushed those thoughts away, but maybe they had never left.

"Maybe...maybe not," he said thoughtfully.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I like you."

"You already said that.."

"Yes…" Leon replied absently, "Claire, have you ever wondered why we didn't end up together?"

"We had different ideas...you wanted to fight, and I had had enough fighting. We chose different roads, you said it yourself, and those roads took us into different places."

"That…"

That's not what I meant, he thought, but now, the question made him embarrassed. Had he wondered why they had never taken their relationship into something more serious?

Claire and Leon had always gotten along well. They had automatically clicked for the very first moment they had met in Raccoon, which had helped to keep them alive. Of course, at the time, he had been young, and he had caught interest in Ada. Something that Claire disagreed with his reasoning.

"That might be it."

"To be honest, you probably see Chris more than I do." she giggled.

"Not as much as you think, but we often bump with each other when our missions happen to overlap. The last few times weren't that nice..."

"I guess that's pretty much the only way you can get a hold of him. I learned the hard way. No use chasing after him: I can only wait patiently until our paths cross. Applies to you, too."

"To me? I am not as hard to find as Chris."

"No, but you're not easy to grab either."

"Then what about you?"

"Me? If any of you call me, I can promise you. I'll be there. Whether it is 3 am or in another continent, but if it's later, I might take a while to get there. Agg..."

Claire pinched the bridge of her nose and let out an annoyed groan.

"I hope Chris brings painkillers. I'd rather be painless when we get down there. "

"Maybe you should let us handle this."

"No way, I need to see it myself. It's just a stupid headache. It won't kill me."

"Then...sleep a little. Maybe the pain will be gone when you wake up."

He felt her nod, and a few minutes later, he caught on her steady breathing as she had slipped into sleep. Leon sighed. There was nothing more he could do but watch over his companion until the sun or the rescue team arrived.

NOTE: if you guys want to come and chat about the fic, or just about CLEON in general. Feel free to drop by the discord and say hi! JOIN SERVER

#my fanfiction #my fanfic writing #Cleon #Resident Evil #leon x claire #claire redfield #claire x leon #leon s kennedy

[iconfusionwastaken]

🎭 Technoblade reborn as Billiam AU 🎭

This AU is part of the DSMP Reborn as the “villain” AU multiverse, the link shows the masterpost which explains the AUs & has the index for more AUs that I posted.

If an AU has no link attached, it's coming soon.

If I need to add any CWs please tell me.

--------------------

For whatever reason, Billiam, no, Technoblade remembers his past life at a young age & does not want to get possessd by an evil egg & be 1 of many heartless captalist nobles thank you very much.

(Well it's ambiguous in the novel(s) if Billiam was ever posessed by the Egg/did everything of his own free will or a mixture of the 2, it's also ambiguous if the Egg had anything to do w/ Billiam being evil or not but his point still stands).

His 1st action is to is to treat everyone he comes across well & earn the approval of those around him since he doesn't want to get executed for being an evil capitalist cultist. 

He also has to arm himself to defend against evil capitalists nobles that could take advantage of him.

Yeah Techno's gonna have to relearn how to fight since Billiam's body probably doesn't have the same muscle memory as his old 1 did.

Training Arc pog!

Since Techno's very young when he gains his memories it make things a bit easier for him gaining a good reputation, but he's also got disagreeing parents to deal w/ very early on.

(If Technoblade happens to get his uncaring parents killed after deeming himself ready to take over what they control, why would anybody snitch?)

Fast foward to the future, Technoblade changed his name to Technoblade since he isn't calling himself Billiam anytime soon, & is well liked for how well he treats everyone (who isn't an evil capitalist) regardless of how below his social standing they are. The people under him have it well compared to other places & people come to his land for a better life.

Techno also listens to the people's struggles which adds onto his already great reputation.

Hubert is Technoblade's personal servant, well, best rival & friend w/ a paycheck is more accurate to their relationship. They often duel eachother & train together.

The karaoke kid Billiam canonically abducts is instead legally adopted by Hubert & the kid's name is Moon. Technoblade is his cool uncle who also makes sure they know how to fight just in case. (He/they Moon is my headcanon).

Anybody who tries to assassinate them will get curbstompted.

Moon isn't a servant, they're literally a minor & Hubert's gonna be the 1 inheriting Technoblade's stuff.

They've prepared a cover story for Hubert taking Techno's stuff if the time comes, they're ready to dye his hair, use magic to change his eye color, & trained Hubert in how to do nobility.

Magic will also be used to make it look like Hubert & his persona 'Dream' are certaintly different people.

Technoblade at some point orders a search for the Egg, he's vauge enough that he doesn't sound suspicious & plays it off as research & things he's heard making him cautious & concerned for his people.

He's quick to get soul fire to burn down the Egg when it's finally discovered. He also makes sure people will always know about the danger of it & how to defend against it since it's literally real.

Also, Technoblade his whole life since gaining his memories at least has been fighting tooth & nail to rise up the ranks of nobility so as to someday gain the favor of the sovereign & their heir(s) due to how invaluable that'd be.

What Technoblade controls may legally & based on appearance alone be similar to everywhere else under the other nobles' rule, the place & people are just more willing to help the community out & keep others out of poverty, but if you look closer, over time the power of people in Techno's land has been more equally spread amongst the adults.

At some point in time 1 may think that Technoblade's nobility is just a title & he only has power because of how well liked by the people he is.

If they try to make a fuss, Techno will just bring up that legally he has power over the people who love him & plenty of money so it isn't much of a problem (despite it not being a matter of legallity & instead folkway now).

Techno has a lot of money, but so does everyone legally under him, his place is thriving. (Not that you need money in his land, if you plan to go somewhere capitalist, there's plenty of money for you to grab to make it easier for you).

He's also subtly been making everyone aware of an alternative life that isn't under capitalism, he's been subtly spreading books & such across the land that teaches about the cons of capitalism, the way the government works & it's flaws, & an alternative way to live, anarchy.

Techno doesn't want this to get traced back to his people since he doesn't want anybody hurt for the cause of dismantling a flawed system that exploits people. It'd also hurt his attempts to gain the sovereign & heir(s) favor

Not everyone in nobility is his enemy, Lyaria, Oliver, & Sebastian are nobles he knocked some sense & they are now following his footsteps in making their land like his. Drew P. is a commoner who's also Sebastian's fiance.

Karl is somebody who appeared 1 day according to everybody & was glad to join Technoblade cause. He has unknown but useful connections.

They all work togeather to gain the sovereign & their heir's/s' favor.

More uncles & an aunt for Moon! :D He loves them.

It's clear as day that Karl, Sebastian & Drew wanna marry eachother but for some reason when bringing it up Karl always convinces the 2 they shouldn't date due to reasons.

IDK who the sovereign & their heir(s) would be, I just know that when Technoblade & co. becomes well aquainted w/ them, he'll slowly convince them that anarchy is the way to go.

Maybe he won't be able to fully convince them during his life time, but he's gonna get the ball rolling & make sure it stays rolling.

While this AU has it's serious moments I think this story in Technoblade fashion would focus more on comedy & how amazing & chaotic Techno is.

#Long Post #Dream SMP AU #DSMP AU #Reborn as a villain au #Technoblade #Sir Billiam #TFTSMP AU #Tales From The SMP AU

[iturbide]

I think I remember seeing somewhere that Edwlgard was the smartest of the three lords for a) wanting to tear down the Crest system and b) taking out TWSITD, and to that I say: the ends do not justify the mand because holy F uck man this route is hHHHHH-

HA

HAHAHA

HA HA

yeah no sorry I do not buy that Edelgard is the smartest of the Lords.  Not by a long shot.  She does the stupidest thing possible in the stupidest way possible -- throwing her own personal forces into the conquest of Fodlan, substantially weakening her armies in the process of these hard fights and effectively leaving the now subjugated nation as easy pickings for the Twisted.  If she expects that she’s going to have forces from the Kingdom and Alliance to bolster her weakened forces, let’s not forget that she subjugated those nations: they’re not going to fight out of loyalty to her, and I wouldn’t be surprised if forced drafts lead to mass desertions.  I honestly think it’s outrageous to think she managed to take out the Twisted at all, considering how little forethought she seemed to put into the long game (and the fact that it’s just a footnote in end cards instead of actually showing how she did it is highly suspect to me personally).

[[MORE]]

Also, who in their right mind thinks that Edelgard is the ONLY one that wants to tear down the Crest system?  It might not be Dimitri’s top stated priority, but he very clearly wants system reform, and the system is based on Crests.  Changing the system requires dismantling the Crest bias -- and not only that, he himself and more than a few of his childhood friends have been negatively impacted by that bias (Sylvain and Ingrid in particular, but it’s not hard to see how Mercedes has been harmed by it), so he knows intimately how harmful it is.  The only reason Claude doesn’t have Crests on his top priority list is because the Alliance doesn’t operate the same way the Empire and the Kingdom do, and their reliance on Crests is different -- on top of that, the Eastern Church is considered the weakest branch with the least authority in its embedded region.  The system might be uncomfortable in the Alliance, but it doesn’t have the same stranglehold on governmental operations.

Also, who takes down the Twisted?  Black Eagles end cards make only the briefest mentions of it, but we never see her do the thing: the game literally ends after she murders Rhea.  Meanwhile, Claude not only infiltrates the Twisted home base and forces them to destroy it, he also helps murder Nemesis, who even Seiros couldn’t kill.  And this is a man who was completely in the dark about them, unlike Edelgard, who’s been intimately aware of them and their operations for most of her life: Claude takes the new information that Hubert’s note provides, generates a cautious plan, and then completely uproots them.  That’s incredibly badass and I feel goes to show just how effective he is as a tactician (and while Silver Snow goes the same route, don’t forget that Seteth is there, and he had first-hand experience with them -- Claude is flying blind, so his success is notable. 

Also, just taking a step back to get a broad view of Edelgard’s plan and the long-term consequences shows how unfeasible it really is.  Besides how ill-advised it was to take her own forces to war with only Twisted ‘support’ against the Church, the Alliance, and the Kingdom, her entire plan seemed to rely on bolstering her numbers through conquest, since she doesn’t hesitate to send her own people through the meat grinder known as war and would likely be hurting for soldiers and support when the whole campaign is done.  Beyond unrest in her own nation after five years of war they never asked for and that has likely left the Empire in a rough spot, conquered peoples generally aren’t all that willing to line up and fight for the people who subjugated them: she will likely be dealing with rebellions and unrest for years if not decades to come from that move alone, both within the Empire’s original borders and without in the territories she claimed by the sword.  Not only that, she kills the King of Faerghus, effectively making him a martyr for the Kingdom loyalists; add onto that the cryptic and completely unexplained line from one of his talks with Rhea before the Tailtean battle -- something about how ‘the Blaiddyd bloodline lives on’ -- and either he has a child on the way himself or possibly young relative with a Crest who’s been sent off into hiding.  So that’s probably gonna come back to bite her if that kid starts rallying Kingdom forces. 

And then there’s Almyra.  Whether you kill Claude or not (and let’s be real, Edelgard probably would prefer to kill him and it’s only Byleth that can potentially stay her hand), Almyra’s probably going to become a major threat in the not so distant future.  Spare him and he goes home, but his father is still king and could easily mount an invasion whenever he so desired; kill him and now the Almyrans have a blood vendetta because she murdered their prince.  Add to that the fact that Hilda very likely died in the battle, meaning the Gonerils have lost family to the Empire’s invasion and aren’t terribly likely to play nice, and they might even be willing to ally with the Almyrans and let them in through the Locket, perhaps even rallying scattered Alliance resistances and rebellions to swell the Almyran forces as they go.  On top of that, there’s even the fact that the Twisted city is literally in Goneril territory: even if Almyra took their sweet time preparing for an invasion force, what’s to stop the Twisted from reaching out to Holst -- the man who has been leading Fodlan’s whole defense against Almyra -- and trying to draw him to their side with the promise of revenge against Edelgard?  They make frequent use of pawns, so there’s nothing stopping them from finding a new one even before Edelgard turns on them (since she very unwisely telegraphed her intent at Arianrhod when she took out Cornelia: the fortress’ destruction was meant as a warning, but the Twisted group isn’t the type to sit idle either). 

Beyond all that, let’s not forget exactly how Edelgard intended to do away with the Crest system: tear it down completely.  But she had no plan in place for what to replace it with, which is painfully obvious from her A support with Ferdinand where she hadn’t considered the option of public schooling as a place to foster growth.  Her plan is literally ‘I want to make a world where merit is rewarded,’ but she has no plan for how to do that, and what counts as merit is a vague and intangible thing...until it’s taken in the context of her wider words and actions.  She praises Miklan as a man who could have been a great asset to the world had the Crest system not undermined him -- and remember, this is a man who tried to kill his younger brother and eventually rebelled against his family by taking charge of a bandit group that murdered and pillaged its way through the Kingdom.  Is the Crest system fair?  No, not in the least -- but the system didn’t make Miklan commit assault and murder: he made that choice for himself.  Edelgard seems to value combat prowess and potential military application far more than anything else -- even in her supports with Linhardt she berates him as wasting his talent by doing things for his own personal enjoyment, rather than to further magic theory -- so her ‘meritocracy’ is likely going to favor scientists working on combat magic and technology...and soldiers: obedient and unquestioningly loyal.  Which, in all likelihood, she’ll need given the environment she cultivates for herself in CF.

So no, I don’t think that Edelgard is the smartest lord.  I think she’s the most stubborn and bullheaded of them, instead.

#answered #anonymous #fire emblem: three houses #fe:3h spoilers #headcanon #look there's a lot in here and it's edelgard critical to the extreme #please read at your own risk if you support edelgard #but frankly what she does and how she does it is so poorly planned #it's verging on outright stupidity #but she refuses to believe that she could be wrong or tha there could be other options #and it's one of the things i dislike most about her character #how she actively resists change #that doesn't foster any kind of good results #edelcourse

[mahnati]

So now that I’ve finished the three main routes of Three Houses and my life can sorta go back to normal, I decided to write my opinions on the three lords. There will be spoilers, so... be warned.

Edelgard: Edelgard answered a long time question that nobody had, which was “if Mad King Ashnard and Arvis had a one night stand, what would their baby look like?”. She has the same ideals as Arvis, wanting an equal society and wanting to unify an entire continent in order to achieve that, while trying to achieve this dream by implementing Ashnard’s blunt methods, by conquering other countries, with only who she deemed to be strong and capable being worth of holding positions of power. Like Arvis, she decided to ally with a not so great cult who she is not a fan of, but can provide her with the power she needed to start the war. Like Ashnard, she also despises the current hierarchy and wants to create a world where only the strong thrive.

I love Edelgard. The story makes her spend time enough with her for us to sympathize with her motivations and does a good job in showing why she is the way she is when the events of the story takes place. She’s confident, charismatic, highly driven by her goals and has a gorgeous, GORGEOUS design, especially post-timeskip. Her relationship with Byleth also feels the most genuine out of the three lords, with Byleth being the reason why she becomes softer in her own route, after all, it is implied that she still harbors feelings for them regardless of the route that the player takes.

I also think that Edelgard is full of shit and cannot for the life of me see her an anti-hero. Yes, her motivations are sympathetic and she suffered a lot, but it is hard to defend someone who started a war against an entire in continent in order to impose your ideals on different societies. Part of me wonders how much Edelgard wanted this unification because she wanted to unify humanity against the Children of the Goddess or… simply because she wanted to restore the Adrestian Empire to its former glory, to get back at those “traitors from the Kingdom”. Her epilogue stating that Faerghus and the Church of Seiros were soon forgotten by the masses, implying that she erased both the Kingdom and the Church’s history from history books, which… yikes. I don’t see that as just nor noble. I also think that the story did a terrible job at showing her relationship against the Agarthans. Some people say that they were blackmailing her, but considering how Edelgard’s character was heavily influenced by Arvis, who did ally with the Loptr Church out of arrogance, thinking he could dispose of them when necessary… it just makes me think that Edelgard, the girl who was tortured by the same people who she is allying herself with in order to take down people who didn’t have anything directly to do with her tragic past, it feels super dumb from her part.

I wish Crimson Flower treated her right. Edelgard deserved better than a rushed, half-assed route. She could have been my favorite FE villain, but alas, that title still goes to Lyon. She’s still in my top three though.

Dimitri: I never expected to like this guy this much. I started with Blue Lions because that was the house with Ashe and Mercedes, but my heart was taken by this princely, damaged boy. As far as design goes, Dimitri was the one who left me the least impressed (yes, even his post-timeskip, I was still drooling over Edelgard). Unlike Edelgard and Claude, Dimitri doesn’t seem to have grand plans for Fodlán, preferring to focus on his revenge against the people responsible for the Tragedy of Duscur. This makes his route seem less focused on lore and the world at large, instead preferring to show the rebuilt of his decaying Kingdom. I feel like his story felt more personal and more about him than the other routes and honestly, I usually prefer character-driven stories, so I felt the Blue Lions route more engaging than the other routes. Dimitri is a tragic character, whose strong compassion for the oppressed at one point drives him to brutality and he needs the help of his friends (especially Byleth) to bring him back to the light. There is something about excessive compassion being treated as a flaw that fascinates me, so Dimitri hits a sweet spot for me. I think they could have handled his recovery a little bit better, but I just let that one slide.

I do think that Dimitri blaming baby Edelgard for the tragedy of Duscur to be hilarious though. Imagine thinking that a thirteen y/o girl is to blame for the massacre of hundreds of people. I know that anger can lead us to have irrational thoughts, but come on, it’s just funny. I also have issues with Dimitri saying that his fight is in benefit of the common people, yet he barely involves them or hears them when it came to making decisions. I still think that he is right in calling out on Edel’s bullshit, on how the world she wants to build that only favors the strong.

Dimitri also feels like the most realistic lord out there, in which he is not some 17 y/o with a master plan to dismantle a millennia y/o system and continued to follow with that plan for 5 years until their comatose teacher woke up and helped them with their plans and I admire that about him too and performed incrementalist reforms.

Claude: Claude is fascinating to me in that he is the smartest lord of the bunch, but his goals are so naive that I’m left with mixed feelings. Really, Claude? Your plan to ending prejudice is by uniting Fodlán as one nation and, once you achieve that, you can destroy the protected border between Fodlán and Almyra? Sure, making the interactions between two nations can ease some of the prejudices that both people have toward each other, but I doubt that this will end racism. His supports with Cyril tries to show that he has a blind spot for the suffering of people who were less fortunate than him back in his home country, but that’s not really brought up in the main story.

His route is weird, as it puts a lot of emphasis in lore and explaining what is up with the secret cult that has been pulling the strings from behind the scenes, but out of the three routes (excluding SS), his feels less like his story and more like a series of events in which he is there. I’ve seen people say that Verdant Wind is the most lighthearted route, but I think this has to do with the fact that Claude seems oddly detached from it. Things happen and he tries to turn them into his advantage, which is fine, it is in character and certainly paints him in a better light than a certain red lord, but it didn’t make me care about his story all that much. I think it’s interesting how he and Edelgard are not so different in the aspect of them wanting to conquer all of Fodlán in order to achieve their ideals, but I think Claude feels more sympathetic simply because he is not the aggressor in this case.

As far as character goes, I like characters who have a sunny and friendly disposition, but can be cold and calculating if needed. I like how he has troubles trusting people and letting get close to him, since he was always seen as an outsider no matter where he lived. Unfortunately, this also means that his relationship with Byleth doesn’t feel as genuine as the other two lords, at least pre-timeskip. And by genuine, I mean it’s hard to believe that his interest in Byleth was anything other than using them and the Sword of the Creator for his own goals, while Edelgard and Dimitri at least feel like they are more interested in them as a person and not as a tool. Their relationship gets better though.

When it comes to design, I think they managed to portray his easygoing, friendly personality well, with his pre-timeskip sporting a more wild hair and post-timeskip showing a more mature and serious side in his combed hairstyle. Also he’s just really hot, ok? Wow.

#fire emblem three houses #fe3h #long post

[mobius-prime]

204. Sonic the Hedgehog #136

The Tommy Trilogy (Part Two): The Infiltrator

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Jason Jensen

It's been at least a few days since Sonic rescued Tommy, and in that time, he's invited Tommy to live with him, his parents, and Tails in their house. One morning, the house awakens without Sonic, as he was out overnight on a mission for the king. As Bernie serves everyone some food, Sonic walks in, completely exhausted from his mission. He scarfs down a plate of chili dogs and eggs (his favorite breakfast, apparently) and heads back to his room, with his parents disappointed in his rudeness by not saying thank you. Tails heads out to classes, as he's still attending school, and Tommy refuses any food, instead seeming much more interested in Sonic.

Jules glances around as he tries to make Bernie feel better, only to notice that Tommy has also excused himself without a word. Man, so much rudeness going around the Hedgehog residence today! Tommy quietly enters Sonic's room, where Sonic has passed out on his bed without even taking his shoes off, and his expression changes. The fingers on his hand peel back to reveal twin metal drills, and they whir to life, coming closer and closer to Sonic's unconscious head… and then Jules bursts in, having realized what was happening. Yeah, didn't think Tommy was actually alive and well, did you?

Oh, that's… that's bad. Sonic spins up and cuts through the Tommy robot's midsection, obliterating it before it can try to murder anybody else, and picks up his father's body in a panic. He and his mother rush Jules to Uncle Chuck, certain that he can repair him - after all, what might be a fatal wound on an organic being is just a matter of repair on a robot, right? Chuck examines Jules' body, but then to Sonic and Bernie's horror, sadly proclaims that even if he could fix Jules' body, the spark of life that made him a living person is gone - that Sonic's father is… dead.

…but ah, come on, we don't really believe that, do we? It was on the cover, for goodness' sake! No big emotional moment like this would just be spoiled on the cover if it was going to stick! Sonic, therefore, refuses to believe his uncle and rushes out, heading straight for the nearby Lake of Rings. Someone is there on guard duty - apparently, the royal family has someone watching the lake at all times to catch and collect the rings that emerge each day - but today he misses his catch, as Sonic flashes past in the blink of an eye to catch the ring, immediately turning back around to take it back to Chuck's lab.

Aaaaand it works! Seriously, apparently that's all it takes to bring a dead person back to life. If rings can heal someone so miraculously, then why aren't they being used for everything in this universe?! Even a straight-up Chaos Emerald can't do that! Ah, whatever, Jules isn't dead, so everything is fine. The next day, Chuck is dismantling the Tommy robot while he and Sonic chat, and finds a chip in his systems imprinted with the name of the factory that he was produced at - Robodyne Systems in New Megaopolis. This is enough to convince Sonic that Tommy must in fact still be alive after all, and that he has to go save him again but for real this time! Seriously, how many times is Tommy going to be dead but not actually before we finally pick one or the other? He's like Schrödinger's Turtle at this point.

Mobius 25 Years Later: Girl Talk

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Steven Butler Colors: Jason Jensen

Yes, the title does in fact foreshadow how bad this story is gonna be. Right off the bat we find out that Julie-Su's household has a literal servant, a koala named Abby. Abby is perhaps one of the most uncomfortable characters ever introduced in the comic, as she's this like… vaguely racist caricature that somewhat resembles the "mammy" stereotype of black female slaves in America's history. Seriously, it's so bad, all she does is crankily putter around the house cooking and cleaning and serving food to others while complaining whenever anyone sets foot in "her kitchen," while everyone around her just kind of shakes their head and laughs at her attitude and lets her take care of things around the house. I mean… why does this house even need a maid in the first place? These two literally have one kid and apparently Julie-Su doesn't even have a job outside the home. What does she do all day if Abby is taking care of things?

Anyway, Sally calls Julie-Su to talk about their families' upcoming dinner date, by which I mean they basically just mid-40's mom at each other about how their kids are such picky eaters, and their husbands are so unreasonable and bad at getting along. The most interesting thing we even learn is the timeline of when and how Sonic became king.

Sally goes on about how her and Sonic's two kids aren't really interested in being royalty, when their conversation is interrupted by Lien-Da's call. There's literally an entire page where they kind of bumble around while Julie-Su tries to make sure everyone is okay with a three-way call, during which we learn that apparently Lien-Da is the freaking representative of the echidna government to the Kingdom of Acorn. What the actual hell? How did Lien-Da of all people end up with this job?! Everyone keeps going on and on about how untrustworthy she is, and yet she's trusted to be the liaison between two entire governments, including the one she openly opposed and attacked multiple times in the past?! Nothing in this world makes any sense at all!

We get some more riveting dialogue once Lara-Su enters the room, about how apparently Manik, who is ten years old, has a major crush on her. Lara-Su is mortified, the adults are amused, and we the readers have by now died of boredom. It takes us this long for everyone to finally manage to mention something about the actual plot - you know, that whole thing about how the world might be ending? Of course, they don't know what's going on, so all we get is more vague speculation about the weather, AKA stuff we've already covered more than once before now and so has no real bearing on the storyline.

So, given how much the last issue seemed to be building up towards Lien-Da having some dastardly plan involving Julie-Su and Knuckles based on the tiny snippet of info she got from Rutan, you'd think this is the moment where she invites herself along, right? It's a chance to get inside the Guardian's own house, poke around, and get herself involved in whatever suspicious thing they're trying to discuss in private, right? But naaaahhhh, she just says that she can't make it and signs right off! What then, pray tell, was the point of all this? This arc literally has more plot holes than the rest of the comic combined! Absolutely nothing was accomplished here! Any good writer will tell you that you should never include a scene in your writing that doesn't further the plot in some way. Even a simple scene of two characters hanging out at an amusement park, completely unconnected with whatever else is going on in their lives, can be spun in a way that gives us more insight into their personalities, their relationship with one another, their outlooks on life and the thoughts that they find themselves entertaining when not directly confronted with whatever the conflict of the story is. And yet, this story does none of those things. It's literally just a bunch of dull characters yakking at each other about grown-up stuff while reiterating things we've already heard from others. Literally the only thing in this issue that ever comes up again is Manik's crush on Lara-Su, but I can tell you right now that that also has no bearing on the larger plot of the story, meaning we didn't even need to hear it in the first place! Argh, this is the most frustrating and boring thing I've ever had the displeasure of reading in this comic! The characters are flat and uninteresting, the writing is bland, and the parts of the plot that actually do have the potential to be interesting are skipped over in favor of dull family drama! Why, Ken Penders? Why? WHY?!

Patience

Writer: Romy Chacon Pencils: Ron Lim Colors: Jensen

Oh, finally, something interesting! Though granted, anything would be more interesting than what we just read. Knuckles has found himself stationed in Downunda on orders from the king, but after realizing that he's a mere twenty miles away from where Angel Island will travel, he makes his way to a high peak at sunset, determined to finally climb his way back onto the island and retake it from Eggman's forces. Interestingly, his dialogue seems to imply that the island orbits the planet once a year, which is something that I mentioned before the other information we've been given about the island hadn't included. Nice to finally have an answer on that one! Knuckles is somewhat conflicted, as the king has asked him in the past to have patience and not be rash, that he'll muster the forces to retake Angel Island as soon as he can, but they can't risk anything until then. However, the temptation is still strong, as this may be Knuckles' only chance to get back aboard the island now that he can no longer glide without his Chaos powers.

Honestly, that's a good reason to want to get back aboard. Eggman tends to bring horrific devastation wherever he goes, and Angel Island was never prepared for an invasion on the scale he'd bring. Hell, at the beginning of the last era, we saw the Brotherhood actively reject Sally's request to help the Kingdom of Acorn in the war, and now the citizens of the island are paying the price for that hubris. The last time we saw Lara-Le, she was pregnant, and well, when we left the island it was also in a very unstable state politically as the government was under fire from both the Dark Legion and the dingoes. I'm not surprised that it got taken over, but it's a tragedy that it did all the same. Knuckles waits eagerly as the island gets closer, but the voice of the king echoes in his mind once again, warning him away. The island finally comes close enough to the peak, and Knuckles reaches out… and brushes his fingertips against it, letting it gently float away without grabbing hold. He acknowledges it's one of the hardest things he's ever done, but he decides to trust the king for now, and turns away, letting the island continue its journey uninterrupted. And a good thing, too - as we see that a whole legion of swatbots was waiting in camouflage in some bushes next to the island's edge, ready to blast Knuckles into oblivion the moment he came over the edge. Looks like patience did pay off after all, huh buddy? Honestly, given Knuckles' famously brash and impatient personality, I love this story just for the sense of character development it has, showing that over the past year Knuckles has grown a bit, become more mature. It's certainly better than the previous story portrayed him.

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 136 #writer: romy chacon #writer: ken penders #pencils: art mawhinney #pencils: steven butler #pencils: ron lim #colors: jason jensen

[adeliriouswanderer]

American Fascism, Racism, and the Trump Cult

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything on policy or politics. Quarantine has left me with what seems like an infinite amount of time to reflect on our countries current state of affairs—and as cliché as this sounds, it feels as if we are living in dark times indeed.

Since our current regime began in 2016, all of the progressive policies of the Obama era have been eradicated by an egotistical fascist. Far-right and white supremacist ideologies are being pushed as the new normal by those who fear that their position of power is being threatened by minorities and anyone left of center. A center that is very quickly skewing farther and farther right on the political spectrum. Folks who hold these far-right ideologies have historically been threatened by people of color, folks who identify as LGBTQIA, feminists, women’s rights champions, and others who voice opinions that are different than the rights self-absorbed narrative. Especially when these folks attempt to find seats at the decision-making table.

Our current regime fears these opinions so much that they attempt to silence anyone who speaks out against their clearly fascist policies and statements by convincing their base that our voices and opinions are being incited by “fake news” or as Trump loves to call it, the “lamestream media”. This regime has convinced it’s cult-like followers that any media coverage that does not stroke the ego of the POTUS or any coverage that speaks out against his archaic, and often false views/statements, are untrue accusations and that he is being unfairly targeted. Trump continuously lies to his base and the American people, and when he is called out on his lies, both he and his base scream fake news. The POTUS has convinced his base that democrats are sheep to the media who are trying their best to undermine all of the “great” work he is doing for Americans. Despite Trump not keeping his promises to his base, they still follow him with what feels like a Jim Jones cult mindset.  Take this video where trump easily brainwashes his followers into ignoring how his he is lining his and other billionaires pockets by attempting to convince his base, who largely consist of poor/working-class white folks, that they are the “elite”:  

They see no wrong in Trump's behavior. How is that Trump has convinced millions of people to blindly follow his every whim? You see, as badly as it pains me to state this, Trump is not the cause of these deeply rooted, bigoted, ideologies. They have been around since the founding of America. Like a festering cancer that sometimes quietly goes into remission, but is still there, waiting for the body to become weakened so that it can make a reappearance. Folks have long held onto their bigoted ways, Trump simply gave a platform where these ideologies could be voiced and he emboldened those who held them to speak out louder than ever. After having a president in office that championed for the rights of minorities, the right was fearful of being forgotten and worried that their ideologies would be silenced. This fear ultimately led right-wing voters to vote for and blindly follow anyone spoke out in favor of their bigoted beliefs. And trump happened to be the loudest and most aggressive at the time. The right touted his down to earthiness and non-political way of speaking. Trump is praised for “telling it like it is” because for a while, at the turn of the century, white folks seemed partly scared to fully voice what they really thought about anyone who wasn’t white and straight. That’s not the case anymore.

I find it appalling that in 2020, I can scroll through the comment section on any article related to race and find a plethora of comments written by white right-wings and conservatives insinuating that there is no race problem in America. They state racism does not exist; they unquestionably believe that there is a level playing field between white folks and people of color, and that white privilege does not exist.  Much like Social Darwinist, these folks believe that people of color and folks experiencing poverty are inherently responsible for their less than status in society. That they’re lazy and unwilling to pull themselves up by the bootstraps because it’s more convenient for them to live off of the government-- like the infamously stereotypical welfare queen, a term coined in 1974, by George Bliss of the Chicago Tribune in his articles about Linda Taylor.

These folks fail to realize that people of color and people experiencing poverty are a result of systematic and institutional racism designed to enslave people of color and keep them from sitting at the decision-making table. Further, they don’t understand how poverty rolls off the back of parents and onto children—how hard it is for children to break intergenerational cycles. Take Kaitlin Bennet, the infamous gun girl of Kent State. She hosts a youtube channel where her main “goal” is to “expose the corruption and demoralization” of the “liberal left.” In this following clip, Kaitlin states that there is no racism in America because she is surrounded by people of color on a daily basis, as if their very existence is somehow justification as to why racism doesn’t exist. She states that some lives are inherently more valuable than others and that those who are experiencing homelessness should get a job. When Kaitlin realized she had couldn’t win a baseless argument against two obviously educated college students, she had to resort to personal attacks against James's sexuality. She’s edited out the word racist or racism from her videos because apparently those words demonetize her youtube videos and she loses money for including those words. 

Let’s break down one of the systems that these folks so eagerly deny and blindly ignore-- the prison industrial complex. In the 80s, Reagan turned the metaphorical “war on drugs” into an actual initiative that was put forth by a seemingly racist governmental body whose aim was to create a caste system to ensure people of color would never rise out of poverty. While Raegan solidified these new forms of discrimination against people of color, it was Nixon who set the stage for the systematic incarceration of black and brown people through his Southern Strategy. As civil rights activists worked to dismantle the Jim Crow laws of the south, Nixon and other politicians began to create a strategy that would ensure votes from whites who aligned with both the conservative republican party and the left-leaning democratic party.

The “Southern Strategy” was ultimately a political movement that aimed to garner votes from white Americans from both sides of the political spectrum by antagonizing racialized fears in the white populace. The campaign painted an image that portrayed people of color as deserving of being poor and uneducated-- it pathologized them as criminals and deserving of their second-class place in society because they simply could not rise above their uncivilized ways. Michelle Alexander states:

The racialized nature of this imagery became a crucial resource for conservatives, who succeeded in using law and order rhetoric in their effort to mobilize the resentment of white working-class voters, many of whom felt threatened by the sudden progress of African Americans.

This campaign ultimately led to Reagan’s 1982 War on Drugs, and his later establishment of mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which were enacted through his Anti-Drug Abuse Act of1986. After Raegan’s enactment of AABA, the numbers of incarcerated black and Hispanic men skyrocketed creating an overpopulated prison system that led the way for privatization. Republicans laid the foundation for mass incarceration of people of color, and democrats solidified the systemic discrimination and oppression that would soon follow a person who was formerly incarcerated throughout their life.

The Clinton (D) administration enacted laws banning drug offenders and felons from receiving public assistance in the form of financial aid or food stamps, denying them the ability to public housing, and stripping them of their right to vote. These combined laws on part of both democrats and republicans led to the creation of a caste system that created a populace of second-class citizens, who were stripped of their most basic rights—this group was disproportionately made up of people of color. Less than 5% of the world's population, has nearly 25% of the world's incarcerated population. Black people make up about 13 percent of the U.S population and 31 percent of those incarcerated for drug use—Latinos make up an additional 18 percent of the total U.S population and account for 20 percent of those incarcerated for drug use. It is important to note that crime is equally distributed between all races, but the impact of policies of the 1980s and 1990s has been anything but evenly distributed-- black men are eight times more likely to be incarcerated than white men and nearly a third of young black men are under criminal justice system control.

These laws have persisted throughout the last three decades and allow for a system that systematically discriminates against an entire sub-group of individuals. When formerly incarcerated people are released from prison they have very little support from institutions designed to provide help to the most vulnerable populations in the U.S. They typically can not get into public housing and private landlords can legally turn them away citing their criminal history as a reason. Formerly incarcerated persons cannot receive federal financial aid to further their education-- and if they do manage to pay for school, most jobs will not even look at their resume, much less hire them because of their felon status. Further, formerly incarcerated persons cannot receive public assistance benefits such as food stamps. A lack of social support leaves these individuals at a high risk of reoffending just so they can survive in the outside world, which ultimately locks them into a brutal cycle of flowing in and out of the prison industrial complex.

It seemed like during the Obama era, there was hope; a hope that our country could heal from our divisive history of viewing anyone other than white straight cis men who are most valued, followed by white straight cis women, as something other than less than. Because, let’s be honest, many folks along all lines of the political spectrum have never fully respected the opinions and lives of people of color, LGBTQIA folks, immigrants, etc. We have been and still are, just tolerated. That’s why Obama was a breath of fresh air. He attempted, and sometimes succeeded, in eradicating archaic policies like the militaries don’t ask don’t tell policy, championed for the rights of minorities and immigrants through bills like DACA, attempted to ensure those who were poor had access to health care. President Obama launched the My Brother’s Keeper initiative on February 27, 2014, to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color and ensure that all young people could reach their full potential. These were just a few of the many ways Obama worked to level the playing field for those who were not born into the western version of the genetic lottery. 

What is it going to take to heal our country and end these systems of violence against black and brown people? When are we going to step up and not give media attention and not vote in folks who are so clearly bigoted to positions where they can continue to marginalize already vulnerable populations? When will this hate for those viewed as other, less than, die out? Is this our new reality for the unforeseeable future? The biggest question of all is: when will the right figure out that Trump doesn’t have any of their best interest in mind? When will they realize that he’s sitting on one of his many gold toilets and shitting on America?

I want to live in a country where equity is at the forefront of our minds; where people strive to ensure all of their neighbors have equal opportunity regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or class. We must continue to use our voices to speak up for the oppressed and vulnerable, and VOTE for folks who believe in an equal and just society. Will 2020 usher in voices into the political sphere that are representative of folks from all walks of life, or will it be the same bullshit we’ve had for nearly 244 years since America was founded? 

[fmsdraws]

Metal in the Underground AU: General Info

... So, I’ve had this AU in my mind for about two years now, and I felt the urge to post about it now that I have made a new sprite for it’s Frisk. And since I don’t really plan to make a sprite comic about it, I figured I’d dump the ideas I had here. So you’ll find the information below the cut. 

What’s this AU about? Well, it revolves around a simple question....

What if Frisk was a robot?

That’s right, Metal in the Underground takes a different to most AUs by merely changing the protagonist, and letting the rest of the characters untouched. However, due to the now apparent artificial nature or Frisk, the characters have different reactions, and the way the story unfolds is somewhat different from Undertale’s.

The info you’ll find here is...

-General Backstory -Frisk bio -Changes in the story  -Changes in mechanics

But, I’m sure you’re wondering...

Why is Frisk a robot?

In the year 211X, technology has advanced in a considerable manner, so much so that household robots, and robots in general, are a commonality in this world. Frisk was one of these household units, who lived with a loving family, until their useful life eventually ran its course, and were shipped back to their manufacturer to be dismantled, and their parts reused for future models.

However, a group of scientists was looking for a robot to work with that they could modify for a project they were tasked to do. Since Frisk was the most recent one to arrive, and the one in the best state, they were picked.

What is this “project”?

Several humans had fallen into Mt. Ebott throughout the years, because of this, many protests had arisen from the town living nearby. The gobverment decided to dispatch a team of scientists to develop a robot that was capable enough to at least find whatever happened. Just enough so that the press would stop bothering, anyways. But they also put the team in a tight budget, hence the use of discarded robots.

What was done to Frisk?

When Frisk was brought to the lab, they managed to upgrade them rather well, they got rid of their memories but kept their experiences untouched due to an oversight (they’d know how to deal with something, they just don’t know why), they upgraded their battery life for obvious reasons. They also made their movements more fluid than the standard for their line, making them able to climb out if push came to shove. 

However, they made some rather... questionable choices. Namely, the removal of Frisk’s voice capabilities in favor of a system that would allow the scientists to speak through them should the robot find one of the humans. 

The robot didn’t have memories, anyway. It wouldn’t be able to deal with conflictive situations on their own, right?

How did they end up Underground?

Use your imagination. 

In reality, the robot was told to climb down the hole into the mountain instead of, I don’t know, making them go down safely via ropes or something. The robot lost communication with the scientists as soon as they entered due to the barrier, the wall they were hanging from collapsed, and they promptly fell into the underground.

Thankfully, they landed on a bed of flowers, somewhat cushioning the damage. But still leaving the poor robot stunned for a good while...

What is Frisk like?

(Note: the eyes do not represent a chara possesion, it is just the color that was set to by their previous owners, and the scientists liked it a lot.)

Name: Frisk (ooc nickname: Mitu) Height: 5′5

Having household been their job in their past “life”, and having retained those experiences, Frisk has a tendency to cling onto people they deem as friendly, and prefer to keep whatever indoors space they’re in tidy and clean. Their lineage of robots also has some special features that in Frisk have remained unchanged. Said features are...

-Alarm clock -Bluetooth sound stereo (hence their headphone-like ears) -Snapshot ability -They can also be patted on the head to get an instant smile from them, which also serves to turn off their alarm.

In general, their line searches affection from their owners. MitU however cannot really connect with monsters due to the fact that they’re, well, monsters. They have a hard time recognizing monsters as people, since they don’t match with their facial scan systems. They can recognize some similarities, such as toriel looking like a goat, but someone like sans they’re lost in even figuring out what he is. 

They’re also somewhat aquaphobic, since they aren’t waterproof. So areas like waterfall are horrendous to go through for them. They can also remain operative even after taking somewhat concerning damage, and even repair themselves provided they’re given the tools (they are not).

All in all, MitU is a kind robot when it comes to humans, they are loyal as a puppy and such. But when it comes to monsters, their morale can be ... bent, depending on their actions during either Genocide or Pacifist routes. (Note: while a genocide route is just about as likely as a pacifist route, a theoretical genocide route is not canon to the AU.)

What changes from the original Undertale story?

For starters, Chara is not present in the story. This is due to the lack of a SOUL on Frisk’s part, meaning they cannot understand certain monsters (Froggits, for example), and they have to guide themselves based on visual aid. They also provide some flavor text themselves. The lack of a SOUL also means that they cannot interact with SAVE files at all, but don’t worry, Flowey the Flower comes to the Rescue!

Mainly for personal amusement, Flowey wants to help Frisk get as far into the underground as possible, and see how they tackle the sheninegans that the underground is filled with. Often times, he’ll give them advice after reloading for anything up ahead. Frisk cannot remember reloads, anyway...

This doesn’t mean that flowey becomes an active partner, he only pops up from time to time to give Frisk advice.

Since Frisk is strictly mute, and has not been taught sign language, they can hardly communicate with Monsters. They try to get their ideas across as clear as possible via pointing and acting, but no one really knows what they’re trying to say. they’re trying their best pls don’t pick on them ;-; As a result, some monsters have different behaviours towards them. 

For instance, Toriel (who is well aware of Frisk being a robot) decides to take the robot with her while she buys her groceries in fear that the robot might not have the best reaction to an encounter. She cooks snail pie, since Frisk can’t have CB pie. They can still take a slice with them for later use, though. 

I envisioned that Toriel has no real reason to stop MitU from leaving, they don’t have a SOUL, anyways, so their death would not mean anything in the long run.

In Snowdin, Frisk tries to play along with Papyrus’ sheninegans to sans’ request. And they succeed for the most part. Sans has seen enough anime to be aware of the fact MitU is a robot, but Papyrus still 100% thinks they’re a human.... Up until he figures it out by himself.

Waterfall goes generally the same, save for the fact that after Frisk falls from the bridge, they’re yet again knocked out cold, and Undyne comes to the dump to... pick them up and bring them to Alphys lab to repair them.

You see, Alphys, like her Undertale counterpart, looks over MitU ever since they step in Snowdin Forest. And she could tell that after the fall they took, they wouldn’t be able to get up. So she called up Undyne to explain the situation, and thus, saved Frisk from eventually being dragged away by the water.

When Frisk is returned back to life, Alphys explains that she rescued them herself, and that there is little to no time to waste. She has to return them to the surface! She also mentions that she modified MitU a bit to suit Hotland’s very unforgiving conditions, plus added a jetpack that comes out of their back. 

MitU also gets to meet Mettaton himself, and they naively agree to do shows with him despite the risk that said shows entail.

And, honestly? Those were basically all the real changes that there are in the main run. Omega Flowey does flow differently due to Frisk lacking a SOUL, but the beats are the same. The Dates don’t vary that much, neither the amalgamates.

In the true pacifist Asriel fight, MitU is able to fully utilize their ACTing skills that they had gained all those years ago with their old family to calm Asriel down. However, in the end, they are destroyed by the final blast that Asriel shoots as his last attack. 

And it is their death that reminds Asriel of the pain he had gone through when Chara passed away while trying to make their plan go through. So he’s quick to undo his wrongs, bring Frisk back, break the barrier, return the souls, and leave to never be seen again. 

Frisk then gets to live with the monsters in the surface from then on. While their scientists do try to take the robot back, to check what they recorded Toriel’s deadly glare guarantees that Frisk shall clean their new home and have fun while doing so for a long while...

What changes in terms of mechanics? (no pun intended)

Frisk has a battery life, as explained earlier, so they need to recharge at several points in the story. It’s indicated via the heart in their chest, which may I add, is also their on/off switch. Their battery drains in turn of how much exploration you make. Note that MitU can and will run out of power in the overworld and in the midst of a fight if you’re not careful.

The UI is different as well, this was basically a mock up I made a year ago, but it gets the idea across. Their HP is replaced with a damage meter, which the more it grows, the more glitches appear on the UI and on the screen. The battery should be obvious enough.

And Frisk can also climb up some walls provided they’re colored properly, which can lead to some goodies, or allow them to solve puzzles.

And that would be all of the info I had made. What do you guys think? While I do love the concept of this AU, there was just no driving force to work on anything like a comic for me, plus, I currently work on my other AUs, so my time is already tight as is. 

If anyone has any more questions they’d like answered, I’ll be sure to answer them.

As an addendum: I must ask that people do not RP Mitu!Frisk, steal the few art pieces done for this post, or steal this AU in any shape or form without permission. 

If anyone desires to RP interactions with MitU, I RP them in the Omega Timeline server, along with other characters. It is a highly reccomendable server in my book for any UT fan that likes to RP.

I will also ask that people don’t make a AU wiki entry on this AU, as I may do that myself provided the time is right. 

#undertale #undertale au #metal in the underground #frisk #chara #toriel #sans #papyrus #undyne #alphys #asgore

[benjaycaptain]

“Ben has a harem fic” ... pls elaborate that sounds amazing

NOT AS AMAZING AS YOU THINK

cause maybe you think me being me = ben having a harem means orgy timessss BUT YOU ARE WRONG

lemme badly paint the scene for my wip lmao here we go:

au where literally every single kingdom/person who has a crown has a harem as a form of status symbol thing. harems also kinda equal sexy beings a royal can call to their bed and have at their beck and call. not always, but it’s known and accepted. enter ben. he hates this tradition. he finds it hypocritical of people to see being basically toys for the crown as a high status thing and that those chosen should feel extremely honored for it while also keeping their place below the crown and being silent, pretty things; arm candy and nothing more.

so. ben being the little shit he is devises a plan. if y’all wanna make me partake in this terrible tradition, he thinks but not says because saying it aloud will reveal his master plan, i’ll dismantle everything and show y’all how ugly y’all are. so he goes to the isle of the lost. and just chills there. enter this handsome young dude who saunters up to ben in order to pick his pocket. just as ben planned. because ben knows any pickpocket worth their salt would inspect their score thoroughly. and said pickpocket would learn that ben is in fact the future high king of auradon. and said pickpocket would then take ben to whatever gang leader has the most weight on the island.

which happens. because ben is smart. but also because ben is spiteful and wants to destroy auradon’s reality.

so jay brings ben back to mal and uma [mal because she’s jay’s leader and uma because he picked ben’s pocket on her turf]. and there he sizes them up while they try to size him up. and he tells them straight up that he wants the kids off the island. but he needs their help to do it. uma is wary but wants to hear his plan. so ben explains.

he will take a handful of the second gen as his harem. since it’s choice and his harem, his decision would be HAVE to be accepted; other royals and officials can’t do shit to stop him. meaning that he could bring kids over to auradon without any hurdles. but that’s only part of the plan. he needs whoever will agree to be his harem to be on their best behavior. because if they can sell the image of model citizens, ben can use that to bring the rest of the kids over. 

mal is like fuck that noise why should me or my crew be your sex slaves. and ben is like. no. definitely not. if you all agree, i’ll draw up contracts and there will be no fuckery happening. so everyone is intrigued. but ben says he’ll give them a week to think about it. he’ll then return with the contracts for their review. he just needs to know their names. so they tell him. mal, evie, jay, carlos. uma, harry, gil.

uma asks him if gil being who he is will be a problem. ben says not at all and it might even be more effective. uma is impressed.

ben leaves. the islanders discuss the pros and cons. a week later, ben returns and gives them their contracts. uma being uma goes over them. they are damn near perfect, and all in their favor. by all rights, they would have power over ben, not the other way around. this seals the deal. they all sign.

and so their journey to dismantle terrible systems begins.

fic will feature:

ben being super duper adamant about not being inappropriate with the group but also obliviously seducing them all

so many balls and royal functions where some or all of the islanders have to be ben’s dates

core romances with ben being jay, evie, and gil

uma and harry too, but they’re mostly into each other more

mal and carlos are only doing this for the other island kids

evie dealing with people whispering behind her back because, even tho she’s an islander, it is extremely unseemly for a royal to be in a harem

islander tension in that jay used to be uma’s squad before mal stole him

adam/beast being a colossal dick in that he actually puts his hands on ben and keeps a sickly belle away from her son because he doesn’t approve of the harem choice

audrey teaching the group how to “fight” in auradon’s style

so slowburn that readers might get blue balls to match the group’s

ben breaking down in tears due to [spoilers]

so yeah. IT’S A DUMB POLITICAL DRAMA AND SLOWBURN. lots of segments have been written. but this fic isn’t high on my list so whoops.

#shippy speaks #or once again rambles lmao #i just liked the idea of a dangerously politically savvy ben sticking it to all the snobs #and i liked the idea of him obliviously seducing the others when he promised not to be inappropriate lmao #but yeah this isn't something that's high on the list so who knows when or if it gets finished #Anonymous

[friendlylocalwhumper]

lux in prison, part two

this is the second part of the lux in prison drabble pair. content warning: referenced/implied noncon (nothing graphic, all vaguely implied)

The cell door’s pulled open, and Rollins doesn’t look up from his book as he listens to Lux’s cuffs being removed, and the door closing again.

He doesn’t look up until the C.O. has walked away. He frowns and closes his book, leaning forward, when he sees the state of his cellmate. Bags under his eyes (worse than when he was first brought here), looking unsteady on his feet.

“Kid.”

Lux looks from Rollins, to the top bunk, and back to the other prisoner. Some mix of shame and fear and frustration is clear in him.

“You want my bunk?”

Rollins only gets a nod in response, so he stands, and Lux passes him, slowly - with a whimper, reaching out for the top bunk, his legs give out just before he makes it to the thin mattress on the bottom. The older man catches him, heaving him up with arms around his torso and setting him on the bunk, ignoring his sound of pain. He then turns to face the cell door, standing between it and Lux to shield him from any other inmates’ prying eyes.

“Keep it together, kid,” He mutters, arms crossed where he leans against the bunks. “Can’t let anyone see you like this in here.”

“‘m n-not trying to -”

“Toughen up a little, huh? Or you’ll end up somebody else’s punk too. Just take it easy, act normal tomorrow. Don’t piss off the wrong guys and get shoved into a C.O. again.”

Lux is breathing unevenly, behind Rollins.

“You gonna cry? Keep it quiet if you…” The older prisoner listens to Lux’s breaths getting quicker and shorter. Fuck. He looks back to see Lux hunched over, fingers twisted in his shirt.

“Hey. Kid. Come on.” Rollins sits down next to him, even though it’d be a questionable gesture to outside eyes. He turns to sit sideways and face Lux, focused more on blocking the view with his back and shoulders than he is on looking totally apathetic towards his cellmate.

Lux can’t seem to catch his breath, and it’s only getting worse. Some kind of fit, a nervous breakdown - not a good idea. “Kid -”

“D-don’t - don’t - ca-all me that, pl-, please,” Lux gasps out, one leg folded beneath him.

“Fine. Fortier, right?”

“L-Lux.”

“Last names. Get with the program. Alright, Fortier - whatever you’re doing right now, you cut it the hell out. Get breathing right, or just pass out, but you don’t lose your calm like this, no matter what happens to you. Are you hearin’ me?” Rollins puts a hand on Lux’s shoulder, holding him more to get his point across than to comfort.

“Don’t t-touch, touch me.”

“You don’t get what you want,” The other prisoner answers - harshly, by Lux’s standards, but with dangerous patience, by his cellmate’s. “What, does this happen to you outside of this place too? You freak out and people baby you? That’s fine out there, but in here it’ll get you hurt. It could get you killed.”

Lux glances up, tears in his eyes, still hyperventilating. Rollins’ gray eyes watch him with that hand still on his shoulder. The message is clear. I’m sorry, kid, but you don’t get to be weak.

“I - I - I can c-calm, calm down, if, mmh-” Lux takes a few rapid, ragged breaths, speaking quietly. “If you d-don’t call me kid, kid again, and if you - get your hand off me - right now.”

Rollins obliges, and stands back up in his previous position leaning against the bunks. He watches the space outside the cell, and listens to Lux’s breathing get muffled by his thin pillow, gradually evening out. Rollins doesn’t move from his watch to get up on his bunk until Lux is asleep.

Rollins is pissed for his cellmate, when he starts paying attention to the C.O. that brought him back to their cell after a night in the SHU. Lux tries to mind his own business - doesn’t stare at anyone or anything, doesn’t hide away, doesn’t bother anybody - but that C.O. keeps an eye on him.

The kid’s got more and more things about him that show how he’s faring. He’s pale and thin, and part of that’s just the way he was when he got here, but it’s definitely not getting any better. He has a black eye, which he’ll explain as bumping into a wall or some shit if asked about it, no doubt. He’s gotten more wary and quiet and tough, in little ways - not backing down when stared at, waiting and listening to what’s happening instead of backing away or trying to explain himself. Those shoulders stay set, fingers almost twitching with the urge to come up and hold something off but his arms stay at his sides, his expression stays neutral for longer and longer.

Sometimes, when Lux returns to their cell, he’s got a limp. Sometimes he breathes shallowly and minds his ribs, sometimes he leans against the wall and stays standing instead of sitting down on his bunk. Sometimes he grimaces when Rollins talks like he’s got a headache, or like he hates the idea of listening to one more person. He doesn’t protest being called kid anymore.

The next time that guard is leading a tense Lux away from everyone else, acting casual, Rollins has to force himself to look back at his hand of cards in a game of poker for a cig. Fortier’s got to take his licks and come out the other side in one piece, if he can. That’s just how it works here. He’ll get the hang of it eventually. He’ll toughen up.

If there’s one thing that helps Lux stay focused in here, it’s the schedule. Wake up at 6:30am, morning routine, leisure time, breakfast, leisure time, roll call, and on and on. No matter what happens - if he’s glared at, threatened, mocked, shoved, led away from the others by a guard, he at least knows it can’t last too long. An hour and a half at the most.

He’s gotten used to being a favorite of a couple C.O.s, and while he’s being hurt, he can make himself think about what he’ll do during the next slotted leisure time. Read a book, maybe. Depends on how bad the pain is, whether he’s feeling up for sitting up on his bunk.

This time, the rough-voiced C.O. is the one taking Lux to the break room, locking the door. No one else is on break. They know when to steer clear, the guards have a system - plausible deniability, more guards on patrol and less taking breaks - it’s simple and efficient, and chilling that they all know and don’t care.

Higgins, is this C.O.’s name - Higgins has got Lux shoved into the wall, but not pressed close like others have been, before this place. There are fingers twisted in his hair to keep his face pressed to the wall, and there’s a hand on the link to his cuffed wrists, but it’s almost distant. Just a resource to be used.

The door clicks open, and Higgins forgets to care, because he’s got no reason to be on edge. He simply forgets that he locked the door. It’s just another guard, anyway.

“Higgins.”

Lux’s face twists in pain when the grip on his curls tightens, but he doesn’t make a sound.

“What time is it, inmate?” The C.O. ignores his coworker.

“It’s leisure time,” Lux answers. He knows the schedule.

“It’s leisure time. You supposed to be out of your cell at leisure time, if you’re not engaged in work during this period, inmate?”

Lux shakes his head against the wall with a grimace. “No, sir.”

The other C.O.’s waiting. Higgins isn’t in a hurry. He pulls on Lux’s hair so his head is tipped back, neck bared.

“Higgins,” The other C.O. says, not quite insistently. There’s a hint of boredom to his tone. “Captain needs you in the warden’s office.”

“The warden’s…”  The guard lets go of Lux’s hair and cuffs in favor of keeping him pinned to the wall by one shoulder. The prisoner takes a few short breaths, trying very hard not to earn more attention. The hand leaves his shoulder, and Lux stays up against the wall until Higgins has walked away. “You got this inmate covered, take him back to his cell?” There’s a grunt of agreement, and then Higgins leaves the room.

When Lux turns and sees the other C.O., he doesn’t recognize the slicked back black hair, the goatee, the dark, disinterested eyes. Instead of ordering Lux to come over, the guard crosses the room. Lux’s eyes flick to the leg that’s making him limp, the left one. It makes him look away to the floor and breathe out slowly. Reminds him of Anders.

Anders doesn’t know Lux is here. No one does. He hears no talk of visitors or phone calls or rights, here.

The C.O. says nothing, just takes Lux by the upper arm and leads him back to the door to get brought back to his cell. The guard smells of oil and metal, like he’s got a side job as a mechanic, or like he’s been polishing and dismantling firearms. If Lux isn’t hurt or shoved around, he expects at least to be mocked, to be called things. But the tanned man guiding him with a firm grip says nothing. Probably bored.

Lux isn’t curled in on himself or jumpy, particularly, for the walk. Outside of this place, he’s paranoid, jumpy; in this place, he’s got just enough awareness, enough energy for his eyes to flick to nearby inmates, to flick away before staring too long - he looks at cell doors in passing, paying attention to whether they’re opened or closed, and where the nearest guards are, what they’re saying if he can hear them. He’s led back to his cell, the door clanging open, his cuffs clinking as they’re unlocked. The C.O. leaves without Lux turning around; he goes to his bunk and sits, rubbing at his wrists.

Leisure time is almost over. Lux lies back with a quiet huff of air, shifting to try to find a less uncomfortable spot on the thin plasticky mattress. He stares up at the underside of the top bunk to think. He thinks about very little, here - not much to worry about once he’s in his cell. Every day is exactly the same. He’ll be in danger, and he’ll hurt. He’ll be hungry after avoiding food from stress, and he’ll be tired from staying awake to avoid nightmares. It won’t change. This is his life, now. Lux doesn’t have a feeling about that, he just goes about his day on the schedule, takes what comes his way, and waits for the next day.

#whump #drabble #afraid #referenced or implied noncon #mine #lux #stuttering #panic attack #sarah tings #past trauma #cops #lux in prison #rape tw #police brutality tw

[beinglibertarian]

My Argument With The Marxist Intellectuals (Part 1)

This article was spurred by a video I watched promoting the ideas of Karl Marx. The YouTube channel, The School of Life, had a video that shifted the conversation of Marx’s ideas. This prompted me to counter this portrayal of Marx.

I am not speaking to those who think that in practice Karl Marx’s ideas will work. We all know that they have been utterly disastrous. Instead, I am speaking to those who see him as a guide that helps point out the faults in capitalism.

Marx wrote more against capitalism then he wrote in favor of communism, which is the political affiliation that he had as a young man. Marx was not popular in his day and the people of his time were intelligent enough to realize that his ideas did not work.

Today, some believe that his work was the foundation for some of the most important movements in recent history. Unfortunately the movements, Cuba, China, USSR, Venezuela, etc. are all shams. Capitalism, at the time of Marx, was a very young idea. Nevertheless, he identified a number of problems with capitalism, which I am here to analyze.

Workers in a Capitalist Economy Feel Alienated

One of Marx’s gripes with capitalism was the assumption that the modern worker felt alienated. Marx argued that the worker wanted to see themselves in their work and that capitalism made that impossible. However, this is a narrow-minded scope of the economy. For example, I drive a truck and I may see my job as meaningless, but without me making deliveries companies cannot get sugar, pallets, labels, beer, candy, and more. I help provide southern Idaho, northern Utah, and many more places with food, drink, supplies and more. Marx also noted that this alienation made the worker hate their job. For this, I will discuss something that my dad has always told me, “I hate my job. I have hated every job I have had because that’s what it is: a job. However, I love the stuff I get to do because of my job.” My dad hunts, fishes, travels, owns snowmachines (that is a snowmobile for all you non-Alaskans), a house in Mexico, and more. A Job is a means to an end.

The problem is that communists think that everyone has a special place and that no one should be cast out. This basically means that everyone has a right to your property if they need it no matter the reason for them needing it, including any self-inflicted reason. I would argue that everyone’s special place is a term that makes a commie’s skin crawl; specialization. The fact that we are able to specialize in a specific product allows us to generate far more products quicker and at a cheaper price. The real sense of contribution is being proud of what you do, taking pride in your work, and being educated in your field to the point that you become indispensable to the company.

Capitalists Get Richer, While the Workers Gets Poorer

Next big issue that Marx had with capitalism was the fact that workers get paid little and “capitalists” get rich. One thing to note first is that we are all “capitalists.” The idea that Marx was trying to get across was that these business owners shrink wages in order to increase their profits. This is a very basic and childish view of an economy. Owners also have an incentive to increase benefits to workers. As I am typing this, I am sitting in the waiting room of a company who just sent their staff, and families, to Disney Land as a gift to their workers. Still, If this was an issue then the mistreated worker has the availability to go work for someone else. If for whatever reason, they can not find a job that pays them what they want, then the harsh reality is that they simply cannot produce enough to justify that wage. So many want to yell about the minimum wage and how these people cannot support themselves, but only 3.3% of the workforce makes minimum wage.

Owners take on so much risk, and therefore they reap the largest reward. The owners have start-up costs, operational costs, along with other costs, such as hiring specialists to help them decide where the best direction for the company to go. Some commies want to shout about shareholders having influence over a company, and that may sound reasonable on the surface. However, if you invest in a company and finance the debt of a business, then yes, you should have a say in the direction of the company.

Nevertheless, I am sure that some of the Marxists are still yelling that the capitalist’s profit is theft from the workers. Somehow the owners of businesses are stealing the labor from the workers, but this is just crazy. This would constitute force and slavery, but this is certainly not the case. Think about the hiring process for a job. The worker files an application, then they sit through a few interviews. During these interviews the worker’s experience and education are reviewed, the job duties are discussed, the wage is discussed, and the benefits are discussed. What many do not realize is that this is the area for bargaining. Plus there is another quick highlight in there; wage. That means that the worker is being compensated for their time. They are trading hours for dollars at that point, and therefore no force has been enacted. People typically increase their age by moving from company to company after seemingly reaching the ceiling at one company.

At this point, the Marxist has probably shifted the argument to the idea that the theft comes from the capitalist paying the worker one price for his labor, then selling it to another person for a higher price. So the issue here is that under a contractual agreement the owner offered a worker to perform a task for a specified compensation. At that point, the owner has paid the worker for what they have done. This means that the owner owns the result of the worker’s labor because he paid the worker for it. If I hire you to build me a dresser, and then I pay you for it, if I turn around a sell it for a higher price do I owe you money? No. It is basic property rights.

I urge you Marxists to get together and create a completely worker-owned company and carry out your ideas. I mean I am sure that at least thirty of you could pull it off. That is the great thing about living in a capitalist economy, you can freely choose to collectively assemble and do just that.

Still, the argument might continue to profit equals exploitation, but this is ridiculous. Rather, it’s now come to grasping at straws. Profit equals capital, which is the element of an economy that helps create a booming business. For all of you thirty or so Marxists that are going to open a collectively assembled business, you are going to need capital. That capital may come from saving or from borrowing – but you will need capital – which can only morally be collected through a capitalistic, free-market system.

Join me for the next article where we will dismantle more of the points laid out in this video.

The post My Argument With The Marxist Intellectuals (Part 1) appeared first on Being Libertarian.

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[ghostmartyr]

SnK 106 Thoughts

PATION

What a mess.

In Yu Yu Hakusho, the antagonist of one arc is a man who used to have the protagonist’s job. He’s described as a character who sees things in black and white. When he’s confronted with the grey of the world, he snaps and ends up with a lot of new voices in his head. One of the descriptions of him and his journey is that such a pure soul, once touched by corruption, is destined to turn entirely dark.

The individual describing this finds it enthralling.

Eren’s friends appear a touch more against it.

I’m really tempted to just say, “and then Eren ruined everything,” and stop typing, because every time I try to form deeper thoughts, it feels like that summary would save everyone a lot of time. Mostly me. It’s also more amusing than addressing exactly how he’s ruined everything, because yikes.

As a deep appreciator of the themes I believe this series holds most dear, I like this chapter.

As a deep appreciator of Eren pre-timeskip... ahaha tfw Armin is an audience surrogate. Geez.

This is a sad chapter. Yes, that gets its own sentence. It will possibly get its own sentence multiple times, because it is the most accurate statement I can make about what’s going on in this awful world.

I think I said once or twice (a month) that my problem with the Marley chapters is that there was no hope for the stars of it. The Warriors, even if they were to succeed, are pawns in a system that doesn’t care about anything but bleeding them dry of every use it can before it cannibalizes them. Month after month, we saw good people growing up in an evil world that would corrupt even the best of their intentions.

That is a depressing setting to spend a year in. Everything about it makes you start seeing nothing but trains in each glimmer of hope down the pit. Part of why I wanted to get back to Paradis so badly, besides cast preference, was that Paradis still has the concept of hope.

Yeah, it’s a concept that is largely built on sacrificing many, many lives, but when they think that they’re dying to leave a better world behind, where less of them are eaten alive, they’re not wrong. Their view of the world is horribly incomplete, and deliberately so until they dismantle the worst of their government, but the lies that build the foundation of their world are not self-perpetuating.

People on Paradis can move forward, and make the decision to try to blow up the brick wall they run straight into. In Marley, those brick walls have been arranged as a rat maze for Eldians to run.

Now we’re back with people trying to change the world for the better. And the odds are bleak. The first conversation Hange and Yelena has lays it out nicely: Paradis is not built for the kind of war waiting on their doorstep.

The wonder in Yelena’s eyes at these professional titan slayers is a beautiful sight to behold. No other group on the planet has fought these monsters so successfully, and other countries are still a few technology upgrades away from being able to say the same.

Human v human combat on a large scale, though? That is the one thing they’ve never really dealt with. They’ve lived in fear of it at times, when their walls started feeling like the cage they were, but it’s not a thing they’ve concentrated on.

Compare that to literally the entire rest of the world.

Paradis fights giants.

But like. Non-figurative ones.

This applies that same fundamental to a very different environment, and it’s no surprise that the enormity of that ask has led to some sad places. There’s a reason not everyone joins the Survey Corps. There’s a reason, before RAB show up, people wonder why they even need the Survey Corps.

Fighting impossible odds is a fruitless endeavor, from many perspectives. The will to keep with it is hard to harness. A lot of the people we have still fighting have been given some very rough shoves into it.

Wanting better for a world that doesn’t think it needs to change is challenging. It’s been challenging from the beginning, but with the setting expansion, we’re back to fighting giants.

What this chapter illustrates fantastically is which members of our cast are still dreamers. From the start, the Scouts have been full of crazy outcasts who shoot for the moon. Even Erwin, the guy thought to be the most rational of them, starts out as a starry-eyed kid. These people don’t just believe in eventual victory; they believe in the world that victory can create.

There’s an entire ocean out there. Volcanoes. Glaciers. Armin makes this point really, really easy.

There are trains. Zeppelins. You can fly through the air without 3DMG. Guns that fires multiple shots are commonplace. Ports. More foods than you could ever imagine.

You can see so many soldiers light up this chapter. For a year, they’ve known about the outside world. They’ve known they’re hated. They’ve known this is a serious fucking problem and oh no.

Then they hear about what else is out there, and it’s like they’re all little kids reading illegal library books. Yelena looks at Titans and the Scouts with awe. Hange is thrilled by every new word Onyankopon and Yelena share. Sasha experiences seafood. Nicolo’s first understanding of the demons of Paradis as people comes from experiencing Sasha. Armin and Mikasa can talk about the Marley soldiers they’ve come to know with a smile.

Enter the Eren of it all.

His name is Eeyore now.

In the beginning there was darkness. Eren, he of ferocity and indignation, brought a spark to everyone he met. Before Trost, he inspires an entire squad to ditch their original reasons for joining the army and follow the insane dreamers. He brings Mikasa a reason to fight. Just by being a good friend, he helps his country find its true ruler. After the serum bowl, he has no trouble believing that Armin, his best friend, is worth every bit as much and more as Erwin.

He vows to become humanity’s hope. Again and again, he confronts challenges no one’s ready for, and he removes the question of his ability in favor of always taking the next step forward. Do or do not, there is no try, and he always chooses to do.

They’re surrounded by all sides. Walls have been replaced by ocean. There are enemies out there. They aren’t ready for them. They need to be ready.

Eren’s only moment of hope this chapter is when Zeke’s plan is proposed. The plan to scare the world into leaving them alone long enough to live. Eren talks about a destructive force smashing everything underfoot, and his eyes light up.

It isn’t a seashell. It isn’t a train. It isn’t lobster tail. It’s power.

When Yelena’s boat comes in, he’s angry. They can’t do anything. They’re helpless. He wants to be able to do something before they’re all wiped out.

Zeke brings him that.

Everywhere in this damn chapter, Eren’s eventual isolation on Marley is illuminated. He’s kept marching forward, just like they all have, but unlike the rest of them, he does it without faith.

“If we don’t fight... we can’t win.”

“If we win... we live.”

Mikasa’s side comes first. Eren doesn’t bother reaching that point.

I don’t know that Eren knows what living means anymore. For Mikasa, it’s her family. For Connie, it’s his friends. Plenty of characters have things or people that light up their world, and they dream of the day when they’ll be able to enjoy that light without danger encroaching.

Eren’s powers start out as a symbol of hope. It’s appropriate, then, that he’s lost his. Fight, fight, fight, but what for?

Heck, even his decision to hide Historia’s possibly significance originally came from a human place. A day or so after watching Armin die, he can’t do anything but reject the possibility of sacrificing another friend.

A year later, Eren doesn’t even flinch when he discusses that motivation. “I will admit that it was a thoughtless decision.”

(Sidebar:

Am I seeing things, or does Eren look a lot like Frieda there? I mean yes, the hair length, but the way the framing is done, his bangs are cut off, letting it match up more closely to Frieda’s style, and their pupil/iris style has always been similar. I ask rhetorically because Eren has Frieda’s memories, and on the topic of Historia, that feels very relevant. Please be intentional and not an optical illusion.

Let Eren be Historia’s big sister 2k18. He has at least two voices in his head who adore their baby sisters, give me this.)

Historia might not be Armin-Mikasa tier of friendship, but she doesn’t need to be (and hell, she’s the one witness to him begging for death; I’d call that a bonding experience (...actually, based on where things were left on Historia’s side, Eren is her best friend, and wow is that not a good spot to be in (go find Connie, Historia; he’s down a bestie))). Eren loves his friends. That is perhaps on a top three list of important Eren traits. Trost is basically a giant introduction arc, and a primary point is Eren’s rock-solid faith in Armin, his bestie.

Eren loves his damn friends. It was not a thoughtless decision to hide the risk to Historia; it was him being at the end of his tolerance for anything coming even close to hurting one of his people. It was a bad decision, and everyone should be very annoyed with him for not letting it enter the think tank for a whole year, because hey, maybe we don’t want to turn the reigning monarch into a titan, but experimenting with blood magic might be useful just a little don’t you think kind of.

Dumb decisions do not equal baseless ones. Eren being comfortable writing off his concern is a very bloody red flag.

At one point, the threat to Historia mattered to him (which, again: Eren, they were not going to turn the reigning monarch into a fucking titan on a whim).

At one point, working together with his friends as a team mattered to him.

At one point, the ocean could bring a light to his eyes.

Now, everyone around him is on board with chasing freedom. He isn’t chasing it with them. He’s chasing the win. What comes after that, who knows, but he can’t find out until he wins. That’s what matters. His buddies can talk all they want about making friends and life being better, he’ll be busy practicing his aim.

Eren.

You and Reiner need therapy.

Seek. Help. Stop murdering children and go find Mikasa and ask for a hug, because she’s probably the only one who might go for that at the moment and you need one. Well, maybe your brother might too. You know, that guy who will spend the last year of his life receiving death threats from Levi every single day.

This is a very nicely constructed chapter, and for once it makes me happy that Armin likes playing narrator. ...Even if I think I’m supposed to care that he’s addressing his narration to someone. And I don’t. I really don’t. Please don’t ask me to.

But yeah, coming back to Armin, who gives birth to Eren’s dream, at the obvious death of it, is a great format. Eren was right during serum bowl. Armin’s never lost sight of the ocean. Armin has always dropped into moodiness fast, but he doesn’t get lost in it. He’s sensitive, but nowhere close to fragile.

He’s as lost as everyone is with this, so he does the sensible thing: he goes to someone who must have known what it’s like to bear a burden like this. Annie can’t talk back, but Armin knows her experiences well enough to go to her anyway.

When Annie’s a giant, looking down at the tiny ants of the Survey Corps, she spares his life. She kills plenty of people (funny how insignificant that feels nowadays...), but Annie, in an impossible situation, finds room to let her heart stop her from destroying everything.

Armin destroys everything. He doesn’t see a face and pause. He walks, and buildings fall, and people die.

I think Armin’s always seen something of a kindred spirit in Annie. She’s a fighter, but she’s also a thinker. Most of the things she says have an ocean of depth to them, and I think that Armin is someone who appreciates that. Now that he knows what it’s like to kill huge numbers, feeling like he has to, it’s no surprise that he’s reaching out to her.

Especially since his best friend is unrecognizable right now.

I hope it won’t stick, but... the assault on Marley was horrific, and even if the same choice would have been reached regardless, Eren’s actions guaranteed devastation. Armin’s Paradis’ most destructive weapon right now. His best friend abandoning them turns him into a mass murderer.

That is not a small thing. And part of why it hurts so much is that Armin thought he understood his best friend better than anyone. He’s known Eren for years. He’s previously been a staunch shipper of Mikasa and Eren, but he still puts his understanding of their guy over hers. Before this.

Eren’s not who he used to be. No one is, but Eren’s trials have broken him into something his friends don’t trust, and don’t know how to trust.

“I wonder if... just maybe... there could have been a different path. I keep on coming back to that.”

There’s good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for. What they’ve got to worry about is how much of that good their fight will destroy before the end.

This is a sad chapter.

#Shingeki no Kyojin #SnK 106 #Eren Yeager #shingeki no spoilers #SnK spoilers #tl;dr #chapter post

[robininthelabyrinth]

Fic: Nocturne (26/30) - Ao3 Link

Fandom: Final Fantasy XV Pairings: Mostly Gen

Summary: In which Cor Leonis loses his temper, accidentally acquires a kid, and tries to single-handedly dismantle the Lucian immigration system – and that’s before he and his lawyers find out about this Prophecy business. If the Astrals think Cor’s going to let his kid’s best friend die without a fight, they’ve gotten the wrong cheetah ‘taur.

(a young adult novel set in @kickingshoes’ ‘taur AU)

—————————————————————————————— ——————————————————————————————

Sylvia staggers out of the cave, shading her eyes against the light of the winter sun - her fur covered in pieces of rock and dust, her hooves slipping a little on the slick volcanic rock underneath.

She looks up.

Niflheim airships fill the sky, their banners unfurled and flapping in the breeze.

It's a more familiar sight than Sylvia would like to admit. She's pretended for years that Tenebrae was an equal power to Niflheim, or at least that Niflheim was nothing more a distant overlord when her powers of self-delusion failed her: Tenebrae was hers, to rule and to care for, and she thought that she could preserve their quality of life that way. To be sure, Niflheim came often, and she received them with grace and dignity, as a monarch to an emperor.

It was a lie, of course.

Niflheim showed her that lie when they pulled the leash tight at last, spurred on by Chancellor Izunia's quest to destroy the line of Lucis and the Oracle.

They came into her country and attacked her in her own home, and all the stories she'd spun to herself – that they wouldn't dare pay her such an affront lest the people rise up in defense of their Oracle – dissolved into the mist they always were, ground down under the heels of Niflheim's MT soldiers, who cared nothing for whether anyone would rise up and would never permit it to happen anyway, no matter how high the cost.

And so Sylvia sees the Niflheim ships in the air, and she remembers the day they came to Tenebrae with their armies of mechanical monsters, wielding sword and gun and flame, and she stares at them blankly, unmoving, even as the bellies of the ships open up and their payload of bombs begins to fall.

"Watch out!" someone calls, and then Sylvia is falling very ignominiously onto her side as someone barrels into her, knocking her over a ridge just as a bomb hits the place where she was just standing.

She coughs and wipes the dust upended by the explosion out of her eyes, and sees –

"Counsel Scientia?! What are you doing here?!"

"I'm an ibex," Scientia says briskly. "When we saw the bombing start, we came up here, quick as we could, and I can climb mountains faster than all the rest. Good thing, too, what with you standing around gawking like an idiot."

Sylvia opens her mouth to say something cutting in return – she is absolutely intolerable, this Scientia – and then abruptly realizes the terrible truth. "You just saved my life."

"Think nothing of it," Scientia says, blinking a little owlishly from behind her glasses – she clearly hadn't thought about it either, and seems equally horrified by the idea of a life debt between them. "I'm sure you'll have ample opportunity to repay the favor soon enough, as I am entirely without any martial abilities whatsoever."

"You – you can't fight? At all?"

"I'm a lawyer," Scientia says, sounding aggravated. "Jokes about my ability to eviscerate someone using only my sharp tongue aside, the closest I've ever gotten to murder is when I consider bludgeoning co-counsel with their own overstuffed binders."

"Then why are you even here?!" Sylvia demands.

Scientia looks at her like she's stupid – a not uncommon look on her face, and likely the reason that Sylvia developed such an immediate antipathy upon meeting her in person – and says, "Because of Luna, of course. You hardly think I'd let a few magitek soldiers stand in my way if she was in danger, would you?"

Sylvia recalls the massed army at the base of the mountain, but then her own instincts hit her with the force of one of Niflheim's bombs and she starts struggling back up to her hooves. "Lunafreya – Ravus – they were in the cave – it was collapsing – did they make it out?"

"No," Scientia says, looking around. "I don't see them. Did you see if they were merely stuck, or if there was some more space in there for them go?"

"What sort of question is that?"

"A useful one. Stop panicking and think."

Sylvia forces herself to remember those last few moments inside, hazy and confused – leaping to the side to only just avoid a falling rock, Ravus charging forward at full speed, Luna falling backwards, her eyes going wide as her hooves slipped and she began to slide –

"There was a tunnel, further in," she says, opening her eyes – she hadn't realized she'd shut them. "They all fell down the tunnel: Lunafreya, and Ravus, and Prince Noctis."

"Good."

"Good?!"

"They're probably alive then, aren't they?" Scientia points out. She's as calm as ever, the cold fish. Nothing ever moves her. It drives Sylvia up the wall. "Better than the alternative."

"You realize they're alone in there," Sylvia points out. "Facing who-knows-what."

"I'm well aware of that," Scientia snaps. Honestly snaps, which is something of a surprise; Sylvia is accustomed to the other woman being utterly unflappable. "But Luna is fifteen and well-trained, and Prince Ravus is now seventeen and presumably equally well-trained. They are quite capable of escaping this alive. We will simply have to hope for the best, because there's nothing else to do about it."

Sylvia studies her for a moment, taken aback by Scientia’s highly uncharacteristic vehemence. "You really do care quite deeply about Lunafreya."

It's not that she didn't know it, really, but it hadn't ever really seemed that important in comparison to her own need to get her suddenly too-adult, suddenly distant baby back.

"Of course I do," Scientia says stiffly. "Neither of us are particularly effusive individuals, you and I, but it would be a mistake to think that my reticence is due to a lack of emotion rather than a desire not to interfere with your reunion, however many mistakes you seem determined to make."

"Mistakes!" Sylvia exclaims, her sympathy evaporating. "What mistakes –"

"Ladies!" Cor shouts. "Maybe now is not the time!"

They turn downhill in his direction, both of them scowling and ready to shout at him for his interference, and then they see the MT armies from the bottom of the hill charging up at them.

"Oh dear," Scientia says. "Sylvia, that opportunity to return the favor appears to have arrived."

Sylvia summons her Trident into her hands, secretly relieved that it comes as swiftly as always despite her gift of it to Prince Noctis.

"That may indeed be the case," she says, stepping in front of Scientia. She might not like the 'taur, but she will certainly protect her.

Besides, even putting aside her duty as the Oracle to defend the lives of innocent ‘taurs, there is always the fact that Scientia, having known Lunafreya these past five years, might actually have some insight into her daughter – or, for instance, into the background of that lovely jackrabbit that showed up at the last minute and insisted on joining the back-up army on the grounds that her girlfriend was going ahead with the royal party.

Given Luna's earlier mention and the extremely low chance that Aulea has abruptly developed a taste for barely-turned-eighteen-year-olds, Sylvia suspects she knows who the relevant girlfriend in question is.

"Say,” she says, “earlier, when you were listing off characteristics to ensure the survival of the children, you mentioned that both Luna and Ravus are well-trained. Wouldn't it be more correct to also mention Noctis?"

"Noctis is trained," Scientia says. "The addition of the phrase 'well' may be less than entirely appropriate, given his overwhelming inclination towards sloth."

"Sadly, as much as I adore him, I'm forced to agree," Aulea interjects, coming up from behind them. She's holding a gun very confidently. "Come this way, Regis and I found a ridge that will give us the high ground without losing visibility. If we can get a break through the fighting, we'll signal the Niflheim ships and try to see if we can get a ceasefire – it appears that the MTs have started attacking both sides."

Sylvia glances up. It takes her a second to see clearly, but she confirms that there is fighting aboard the Niflheim ships, the largely 'taur pilots and crew fighting with the on-board MT troops that appear to have turned on them.

Given the stories Sylvia has heard – and Regis has confirmed – regarding how MTs are formed, it suddenly makes sense why the Accursed teamed up with Niflheim. It wasn't just to spread the Starscourge, but to do so in the most efficient way possible. And now it appears that Niflheim, falling for his promises of power, quite literally built him an army.

They probably should have thought of that before betraying him, Sylvia thinks spitefully, before reminding herself that the interests of her people – and peace – come first, and therefore that she should pray that the ceasefire is successful rather than for the ruin of the yet-loyal soldiers of Niflheim.

It just might take a while before she really believes that. The memory of her violated house remains very near to her hearts.

"Aren't you concerned, then?" Sylvia asks Aulea, gesturing for Scientia to go first and covering her tail as she hops easily up the mountain. "About Noctis, I mean? If he's not well-trained?"

"Well," Aulea says wryly. "I mostly comfort myself by reminding myself that Noctis can summon Astrals now. That helps a remarkable amount."

"What do you mean, your summoning powers don't work?" Ravus demands, glaring at Noctis as if that's going to change the answer.

Luna glares at him. “Ravus, this isn’t helping,” she says shortly. “And if it matters, I can’t seem to use my abilities, either.”

Ravus immediately goes concerned. “You can’t? Are you well, does it –”

“I’m fine,” she hisses. “Noctis, how are you doing?”

“I’m okay, other than my magic being cut off,” Noctis says, very carefully not interjecting himself into the argument. He’s staring firmly at a blank wall, actually. They must be making a terrible scene. “I can’t even summon a basic sword right now.”

“Maybe it has something to do with this place,” Luna suggests. “Or some trap that Ardyn set up.”

The fact that the place where they have fallen is clearly not the further extension of a cavern suggests the latter, in fact. Luna's not sure how Ardyn intended to get them to fall backwards through a wall into that particular hole in the ground, but slick volcanic rock had quickly given way to the even slicker slide of sheer metals and plastics, and they'd slid all the way down some sort of ventilation shaft until they'd reached the bottom where – luckily – the gigantic fan with its shear-like arms wasn't working.

Couldn't be working, in fact: it was rusted solid, half-eaten away, and covered in dust.

But it'd been easy enough to duck through the fan and then for Ravus to kick his way through the opening on the other side, and they were able to exit the shaft through the narrow doorway shaped like a thin vertical rectangle rather than the more traditional square. It's a good thing none of them have particularly sizeable hindquarters or they would’ve had trouble fitting through.

Beyond the doorway was what was immediately recognizable, at least to Luna, as some sort of laboratory, even if there wasn't any equipment in the hallway they were standing in - linoleum tiles, blank-washed walls, dull yet perfectly even lighting suggesting the use of a local generator, a certain sense of sterility that makes her expect to see people in white coats or possible hazmat suits wandering around.

The only thing that's strange about it is how much dust there is. Dust, and cracks, and even intrepid but very strange-looking plants making their way through the walls, somehow, even this far down into a volcano.

This place, Luna concludes, is very old – and long abandoned.

"Even if it is a trap, we should go and find Ifrit," Noctis says.

"And what makes you think he'll be here?" Ravus asks scornfully. "Given that the boar-god is dead and –"

"A lab makes sense," Noctis interrupts. His back is unusually straight and he looks Ravus in the eyes. There’s something reminiscent of his father in the way he looks now, older than his ten years, and the way that Ravus falls silent in the face of that gaze. "Given that the remaining copy of Ifrit’s memory is supposed to be located in deep storage. This is as deep as it gets without going into the ocean. We need to find the computer banks."

"Because you think the Astrals are actually computer programs," Ravus says, rallying once more. It's clear from his tone that he thinks that Noctis' shocking discovery – which caused even most adults Luna knew to decide to put the implications aside and not think too hard about them – is not even worthy of consideration. "Right. The literal gods that we worship. Of course; how could I forget?"

Ravus clearly never believes anyone about anything, so perhaps it's reasonable that he also doubts Noctis about this.

Reasonable, but still infuriating.

Is it just Ravus, or are all seventeen-year-old boys this obnoxious?

"Ravus," Luna says tightly. "Noctis discovered that fact from – no, you know what? Never mind. You won’t believe me anyway, so why don’t you just shut up? Noctis and I will go exploring. You can stay here if you like."

"I'm not staying back here while you go into danger," Ravus snaps.

"Suit yourself," Luna says icily. "Come along, Noctis. Where to first?"

"Oh, boy, this is going to be so much fun," Noctis mumbles, his back returning to its habitual slouch as the aura of force he had for a few seconds there fades away. He doesn't appear to be very sincere, which isn't entirely in keeping with his usual approach to adventure - though Luna supposes it makes sense, given how much he dislikes intra-family fighting. "Okay, let's try going to the left first."

They check through the window of each door they pass by, but it's almost all the same – desks mostly rotted away, lab equipment of some arcane variety, mostly dials and measuring equipment insofar as Luna recognizes it, and where there are computers, they are clearly inoperable.

"Everything here is ancient," Noctis marvels. "It's like one of those horror video games, where at any turn something might jump out and –"

"Noctis," Luna says. "Not helpful."

Even if she'd been maybe-kinda-sorta thinking the same thing.

Iggy likes horror games, he feels that they have more 'depth' than other video games, and the game play is rather mesmerizing...especially when Luna's doing homework in the same room...

"The maps on the walls indicate that we're heading deeper into the facility," Ravus says. "Rather than doing the intelligent thing and heading out."

"Given how everything is rusting away to dust, you're being awfully presumptuous in assuming there even is a way out," Luna says archly. "Maybe if we go to those doors, the only thing we'll find will be the skeletons of the people who tried desperately and unsuccessfully to escape before the end."

"Lunafreya," Ravus says. "That is not helpful."

Noctis shoots her a thumbs up from behind Ravus' back.

Luna hides a smirk and takes a step over to the next window, intending on a brief scan before moving on – they stopped bothering with any in-depth sort of review fairly early on – and then she sees it and freezes.

The other two continue walking for another taurlength, then realize they're leaving her behind.

"Luna?" Ravus asks. "Did you find something?"

"Are they skeletons?" Noctis asks interestedly.

"No," Luna says. "Worse."

She pushes open the door and walks inside to better inspect the item that caught her interest.

"Is that what caught your attention?" Ravus says, standing by the door to hold it open as Noctis peers in over his back. "Really, Lunafreya? It's an item of furniture."

"Yes," Luna says solemnly, inspecting it with no little sense of wonder. "It is."

"What is it, though?" Noctis asks. "It's like a chair, just way too small. You can barely fit your hindquarters into it – you can't, actually. If you put your hindquarters in it, your forelegs would need to be standing up; if you put your forepaws in it, your hindquarters would be on the floor...some sort of medical assistive device, maybe? Like when people break their hindleg and need to wheel around?"

"No, Noctis," Luna says. "Your first guess was right: this is a chair."

"Why, exactly, are we devoting time to an inadequately made chair?" Ravus asks.

"It's perfectly adequate," Luna says. "If the person sitting in it doesn't have hindquarters."

"Doesn't have – what are you talking about –"

"Oh!" Noctis exclaims, interrupting Ravus. His eyes are wide. "Luna, you can't mean – a chair for humans?"

"It would explain how old everything is," Luna points out. "A human laboratory, from the days of Solheim, left abandoned after the Great Astral War –"

"They would have abandoned it when Ifrit was laid to rest here," Ravus says. His face is a little pale. "That explains why all the doors are so narrow - a human is about the same length as they are width around, so there's no consideration of someone trying to go through the door sideways or having large hind-quarters. Luna – the historical relevance of such a discovery – not to mention what diseases might be here, locked away in these walls like a tomb –"

"I'm a healer, remember?"

"One who can’t use her powers right now," Ravus points out. "And even if you could, you can't heal everything, or else –"

He cuts himself off, but Luna knows what he was going to say.

Or else you would have healed me by now.

"I am trying my hardest, you know," she says resentfully. "It's not that easy –"

"I know you are," he says, holding up a hand. "Nothing else ever crossed my mind, not for a second."

Luna considers his face, which seems sincere, and decides that she'll be appeased, just this once. After all, he's her brother and he's scared, she knows that. "Well, anyway," she says, shaking her head and heading back to the door. "I don't think there's anything more to – oh, Ramuh! There's a map in here!"

"So?" Noctis says, blinking at her. "There's been a map every half-hallway."

"This one's labelled – no, don't come in! Someone needs to hold the door in case it locks automatically."

Ravus has already come inside, but Noctis catches the door. "I've got it," he says. "Is there a computer bank?"

"It's not labelled," Ravus says with a frown.

"Yes, it is," Luna says. "See those raised bumps? That's the language for the blind."

"Wouldn't it have changed over the years?"

"Probably," Luna says, crestfallen. "But it's worth a try."

She runs her fingers over the words. They're not quite in any language she recognizes – though if she thinks of them as letters, instead of words, and thinks of her lessons in pre-Solheim dialects (thank you, Mr. Tenebrius, for all those boring ancient pottery lectures! Something Luna never thought she'd ever say!) – and then she has it.

"This one!" she points. "It says 'back'-something – or, uh, possibly hide-something, maybe tail, it's not always that easy to tell – anyway, I think it means that it's the computer room because the next word is 'server' – or maybe waiter – but assuming it's 'server' as in 'computer server', then that's what we're looking for."

"It's several floors down," Ravus says with a frown. "Isn't that a bad idea in a horror movie, going down?"

Luna hides a grin. Now even Ravus is doing it.

“At least we’re not splitting up,” Noctis points out.

Ravus makes a face.

Thus agreed, they march down the corridor to the stairwell – they don’t even bother checking the dusty elevator banks, which everyone unanimously agrees is an obvious death trap – and head down to the sublevels.

“Is it just me, or are we getting warmer?” Noctis asks. "Like - literally warmer, not metaphorically."

“It’s not just you,” Luna agrees, wiping some sweat off her brow. “Maybe that’s a good sign?”

“Or simply a sign that we’re heading down a volcano,” Ravus says gloomily.

He’s not necessarily wrong.

The computer room, when they find it, is absolutely massive – and, unlike the majority of lab, unmistakably alive.

“Okay,” Noctis says after a moment of staring at the rows and rows and rows of gigantic black-metal machines, each glowing with dozens of pinpricks of red light, the whole room humming with power, “now I’m officially creeped.”

“At least we found…something?” Luna offers. She’s creeped, too.

“Well, we should go inside – ouch!”

“Noctis!”

“I’m okay,” Noctis says, sticking his fingers into his mouth. “The doorway just gave me an electric shock when I tried to go through it.”

Luna turns her attention to the doorway, frowning. She reaches out and tries to put her hand through the door, feeling a little foolish as she does, and feeling decidedly less foolish when her hand hits some sort of invisible barrier that promptly gives her a sharp shock when she tries to go further in. “Ouch!”

“Maybe we should consult the warning signs,” Ravus says dryly; he’s come up from behind Luna without her noticing and is standing right next to her. He nods at the wall, which has a sign with a number of unrecognizable designs on it.

And at least one very recognizable design that apparently no one bothered to change in all the centuries since Solheim: a small circle with three fans going out to form an invisible outer circle.

“Radiation warning,” Luna says, shivering. “That’s why there’s a shield, I guess?”

“It feels almost like magic,” Noctis offers, frowning at the deceptively open door. “The wall, I mean. It feels like – well, it feels like when the Kingsglaive make their walls. A bit. Or like the Wall. Except a lot more hostile, somehow?”

“We should get out of here,” Ravus says. He seems upset, all of a sudden. “Let’s go.”

“I mean, I guess –”

There’s a sound from down the hallway.

They all look at each other.

“Follow the sound?” Noctis suggests, looking doubtful.

“I don’t see what our alternative is,” Luna says. “Except maybe running away in terror, which sounds more and more appealing every second.”

“Let’s go see what it is,” Ravus says, and marches off.

Luna has no idea what’s gotten into him that's suddenly made him so ready for action, but she hurries up into a trot and catches up to him, with Noctis loping along at her side.

The hallway is long and lit by the same dull generator-powered light as the rest of the facility, but even so Luna can tell that the door at the very end of the hallway contains a much brighter red light – so bright, in fact, that they can see the glow all around the windowless door.

It also gets noticeably hotter as they move closer to that room.

“Do you think this might be where Ifrit is?” Noctis asks. “He is the god of fire. Was the god of fire? What tense do you use for a dead god?”

“Is,” Luna says. “Shiva uses ‘is’, even though her original incarnated body is still lying dead in Ghorovas Rift.”

“Are you still in contact with Gentiana?” Ravus asks, side-eying her a little.

Luna flushes. “Only sometimes,” she says primly. “And we don’t talk about her being Shiva.”

Gentiana’s rule, but one that Luna’s more than happy to follow. Every once in a while she remembers that she’s gossiping about her relationship developments (the Crowe v. Cindy debate! Crowe eventually finding a new girlfriend back on Galahd, thereby solving that problem! Cindy inviting Luna for a midnight ride and Luna stressing out for hours if it was a date or not! The sheer excitement of finding out that yes, in fact, it was a date! Finally ‘tauring up and asking Cindy to be her girlfriend! Agreeing that they're going to stick to kissing for now until Luna feels more ready!) with an actual goddess and she gets weirded out by it all, but she refuses to give it up. Gentiana is too good a confidant, and anyway, Gentiana seems to enjoy it just as much.

Still weird to think about, which is why Luna firmly doesn’t whenever possible.

“Should we go inside?” Noctis asks, gnawing at his lower lip and staring at the door with the red light and the heat.

“I don’t think we have a choice at this point,” Luna says, but she doesn’t move. None of them do; they just stand there and stare at the door.

After a few seconds, Noctis audibly gulps and takes a step forward, reaching for the door.

“Wait!” Ravus exclaims. He reaches into his jacket pocket and pulls out one of his gloves. “Use this – the door handle might be hot.”

“Thanks. Good idea.” Noctis takes one glove and uses it to gingerly wrap around the door handle, then he pulls it open.

There’s an unexpected pull, as if of wind, and they all stumble straight into the room, even Noctis, and the door swings ominously shut behind them. It’s a vast room, filled with computer stations and laboratory equipment, and at the end of the room there is a giant set of thick metal doors with the radiation symbol painted on them.

And sitting before them all, there he is: Ifrit, the Infernian, in all of his towering glory.

The boar-god isn’t as large as some of the other Astrals have been when they manifested, but he still towers over the three of them, a dozen feet tall and nearly as long, a massive presence that dominates the room even as he reclines in an equally massive throne surrounded by flame.

“Oh,” Luna says, trying not to gulp. She’s faced Astrals before, but they don’t normally have an expression of such blank indifference on their face. Still, she’s the Oracle, and speaking to the Astrals is her duty. She steps forward. “Infernian,” she calls. “We have come, Oracle and Chosen King –” To be, she mentally adds. “– and we seek an audience with you.”

“You entered my domain,” he says, and his face suddenly twitches to the side, twisting into a terrible snarl of rage before returning to its uninterested expression. “You are invaders – you are here to steal -”

Steal?

“We’re not here to steal anything,” Luna says quickly. “We’re –”

“You cannot have them,” Ifrit says, his booming voice easily overriding hers. “No one may have them. The forbidden weapons were locked away and banned, and no living being may access them.”

“Weapons?” Ravus asks. "What weapons?"

“No one may have them,” Ifrit says again. He’s not speaking to them, Luna realizes; he’s reciting some long-ago speech, set like a hound to watch for intruders without discrimination – reduced, perhaps, to the unthinking computer program he was once long ago. What a terrible fate for a living creature, no matter how mechanical their origin. “You have come to steal them, and for this you will die.”

“No,” Luna says. “You don’t understand, we’re here to seek the Covenant –”

Ravus tackles her to the floor just in time for the burst of flame to explode over her head.

“Noctis!” she shouts, but Noctis has also taken cover behind one of the computer stations in the room.

“I’m okay!” he shouts back. “Luna – these forbidden weapons he's talking about – do you think he means the nukes? The ones that nearly destroyed the world? They’re here?”

“That would explain the radiation symbol,” Luna says, scooting herself back behind one of the other computer stations, Ravus scrambling to join her. That’s absolutely horrifying – she’d always thought they were gone, somehow – and she really hopes Noctis is wrong, but she thinks he’s probably right.

She peers around the side of the station. Ifrit is still sitting there, but his face keeps changing: initially calm and indifferent, then metamorphosing into terrible rage for a split second, then returning to the original state.

Rage…

That reminds her. Titan, too, had been struggling with rage – here, though, there is no struggle. Ifrit is consumed by rage, but cannot control himself, the rage breaking free at random intervals even without any impetus.

“He’s been corrupted with the Starscourge,” Luna calls, even as Noctis scrambles from one computer station to another as Ifrit throws flame at the one he had been at before. “Much worse than Titan was. He won’t listen to us – I don’t think he even can anymore.”

“We still have to get that Covenant,” Noctis calls back. His face is white. “The MTs outside...”

An army. And Lucis had brought its own army, too, and with Luna and Ravus and Noctis missing, their parents would almost certainly order an attack.

There would be battle, and with battle – death. So much death.

And all for nothing, if they do not succeed here.

“We have to get it,” she agrees, and stands up.

“What are you doing?” Ravus demands.

“What I need to,” she says, and grabs one of the weird human chairs and throws it right at Ifrit.

After all, there are many different ways of defeating an Astral to obtain the mark of their Covenant – and one of those ways is the obvious.

“Oh for the love of – here, use this at the very least,” Ravus says, pushing a long knife into her hand. He has another in his own; he must have smuggled them in his jacket. “I’ll keep an eye on Noctis; he’s hopeless.”

Noctis has started throwing whatever he can get his hands on – usually broken computer parts – at Ifrit, and missing half the time.

“You’re – letting me do this on my own?” Luna asks, a little stupidly.

“I should’ve listened to you,” Ravus tells her. “About – everything. I should’ve given you that respect. And part of that respect is knowing that if my baby sister can wipe the floor with me in the middle of a temper tantrum, Ifrit won’t know what hit him.”

Amazing, really, how Ravus can be simultaneously so incredibly awesome but also annoying at the same time.

Must be a brother thing.

“Go save Noctis from his own laziness,” Luna says, beaming at Ravus. “I’m on Ifrit.”

She rounds the other side of the computer station – Ifrit is snarling at Noctis, who finally managed to score a direct hit, pegging the Astral in the head with a spare microscope – and charges into Ifrit’s blind spot, slashing with the knife and then leaping away just in time, his burst of flame very nearly singeing her small tuft of a tail.

Ravus goes in from the other side as Ifrit turns to her, slashing down low and aiming for his forelegs, and Ifrit’s seated position interferes with his attempt to dodge. Ravus falls back at once. “Now, Noctis!”

Noctis jumps up from behind the computer station and heaves something large and metallic over his head.

It hits Ifrit dead in the chest, causing the Astral to rear backwards, shake his head, and then – worryingly – rise up from his throne.

“This is going to go badly very quickly,” Luna shouts. “We can’t get his Covenant until he’s defeated – we can’t talk to him as long as he’s corrupted by the Starscourge, and my healing abilities aren’t working!”

“We need to get to his memory!” Noctis shouts back.

“What does that mean?” Ravus asks, grabbing Noctis and pulling him out of the (quite literal) line of fire.

“The computer banks! They’re the only other thing in this whole complex that’s still active, and he’s an AI, remember? If we purge his memory and restart, we might be able to talk to a non-corrupted version of him!”

“But we can’t enter the computer banks!” Luna points out, then notices that Ravus has gone still. “Ravus, duck!”

He dodges, just barely missing the missile of flame Ifrit sends out with a wave of his hand.

“You can’t lose attention like that,” Luna scolds, ducking behind a computer station. "We're in the middle of a fight, you know, it's dangerous to -"

“I can do it,” Ravus says.

“No, you can’t, that’s what I’m saying –”

“No, the computer banks,” he says, crouching down behind the same station as her, with Noctis at his side. “I can enter them.”

“What?” Noctis and Luna chorus together.

“I tried it, earlier,” Ravus says. “I could put my hand through, where neither of you could, but when I did, my veins turned…black.”

Noctis looks confused, but Luna gets it immediately. “The Starscourge.”

“I’m infected,” Ravus confirms. “That room – I think it’s infected, too, somehow. That’s why it would let me in, but not you: you’re too pure.” He swallows. "I can go and restart the system."

"But if your hand turned black, then whatever's in that room is aggravating the Starscourge already in your system," Luna protests. "And without my abilities to heal you – and who knows where Mom is –"

"I know," Ravus says. "It's okay. I'll do it anyway." He smiles shakily. "We're at war, right? For the future?"

Luna hugs him. "You come back right away," she says fiercely in his ear. "Right away, and we'll find our way out of this place, and we'll heal you. You got that? Don't you dare die on me."

He just hugs her back. "Keep an eye on Noctis, will you?"

"I can –" Noctis starts, but then Ravus hands him the knife and it looks like it hits Noctis all at once, the fact that they might die here. "Oh."

"Good luck," Ravus says, and then he's gone.

"Noctis, we've got to keep Ifrit distracted so he doesn't notice what Ravus is doing," Luna says. She can't think about the fact that her brother - her brother, who she's finally made up with, who she adores and forgives and wants back at her side already - is going off into such terrible danger. She can't, or else she's going to get fried - and she'd really rather not be fried 'taur. "That's our job, you and me. Okay?"

Noctis nods. "Got it."

"Let's go!"

#final fantasy xv #ffxv #lunafreya nox fleuret #ravus nox fleuret #noctis lucis caelum #sylva nox fleuret #apollonia scientia #cor leonis #aulea lucis caelum #my fic #nocturne

[patriotsnet]

Did Any Republicans Vote For The Aca

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/did-any-republicans-vote-for-the-aca/

Did Any Republicans Vote For The Aca

Changes Required By The Affordable Care Act After 90 Days

20 Republicans Vote Against GOP Healthcare Bill | MTP Daily | MSNBC

Some small businesses qualified for tax credits of up to 35% of premiums.

Five billion dollars were allocated for individuals who could not qualify for insurance. These funds allowed them to buy insurance from the government instead.

A temporary reinsurance program was established to reimburse participating employment-based plans for a portion of the cost of providing health insurance coverage to early retirees. ;

The Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan was designed to make health insurance available to those that have been denied coverage by private insurance companies because of a pre-existing condition. See more in the Forbes Report: Obamacares High-Risk Pool Spending Doubles Government Estimates.

eHealth publishes a list of FAQs, which includes a following timeline for the enactment of key changes. Bear in mind that some of these components changed during the ACAs implementation. ;

The 8 Republicans Who Voted Against Trump’s Anti

Eight House Republicans on Wednesday joined Democrats to vote in favor of a resolution decrying the Trump administration’s push to have the courts invalidate ObamaCare.

The measure passed in a 240-186 vote.

The group of eight GOP lawmakers, largely made up of;centrist Republicans, opted to support the nonbinding measure led by freshman Rep. Colin Allred rebuking the Department of Justices recent announcement that it backs a district courts ruling deeming the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional.

Here are the;Republicans who crossed the aisle to vote against Trump.

Frederick Stephen UptonEquilibrium/ Sustainability Presented by NextEra Energy West Coast wildfires drive East Coast air quality alerts OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Western wildfires prompt evacuations in California, Oregon| House passes bill requiring EPA to regulate ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water | Granholm announces new building energy codesHouse passes bill requiring EPA to regulate ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking waterMORE

Upton, who previously served as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, explained his vote by citing the lack of an alternative to former President Obamas landmark health care legislation.

Pulling the safety net out from under our fellow Americans by repealing Obamacare without a replacement plan ready to go on day one would be cruel and irresponsible,” he said in a statement to The Hill.

How Many Republicans Voted For Obamacare

The Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, received no Republican votes in either the Senate or the House of Representatives when it was passed in 2009. In the Senate, the bill was passed with a total of 60 votes, or 58 Democratic Party votes and 2 Independent Party votes. The House passed the legislation with 219 Democratic votes.

The Affordable Care Act received 39 votes against it in the Senate, all from Republicans. One senator abstained from voting. In the House, the ACA received 212 votes against it, with 34 coming from the Democratic Party and 178 from the Republican Party. There were enough votes for the ACA in the Senate to prevent an attempt to filibuster the bill, while the House vote required a simple majority.

The ACA originated in the Senate, though both the House and Senate were working on versions of a health care bill at the same time. Democrats in the House of Representatives were initially unhappy with the ACA, as they had expected some ability to negotiate additional changes before its passage. Since Republicans in the Senate were threatening to filibuster any bill they did not fully support, and Democrats no longer had enough seats to override the filibuster, no changes could be made. Since any changes to the legislation by the House would require it to be re-evaluated in the Senate, the original version was passed in 2009 on condition that it would be amended by a subsequent bill.

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Rep Pete Stauber Of Minnesota

The freshman flipped a longtime Democratic seat;in northeast Minnesota that Trump had carried by 16 points in 2016. Its a largely white, working-class district, where Trumps populist appeal resonated. The former Duluth police officer ran a campaign ad last year about his son Issac, who has Down syndrome, and he talked about the importance of insurance companies covering pre-existing conditions. Democrats are not targeting this seat in 2020. Inside Elections rates the race Likely Republican.

Attempts To Change Or Repeal

Read Ballotpedia’s fact check »

The Affordable Care Act was subject to a number of lawsuits challenging some of its provisions, such as the individual mandate and the requirement to cover contraception. Four of these lawsuits were heard by the United States Supreme Court, resulting in changes to the law and how it was enforced. In addition, since the law’s enactment, lawmakers in Congress have introduced and considered legislation to modify or repeal parts or all of the Affordable Care Act. Finally, between 2010 and 2012, voters in eight states considered ballot measures related to the law. This section summarizes the lawsuits, legislation, and state ballot measures that attempted to change, repeal, or impact enforcement of parts of the law.

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Rep Brian Fitzpatrick Of Pennsylvania

Fitzpatrick, who;also voted against the 2017 GOP effort to repeal much of the health care law, is a top target for Democrats in 2020. He is one of three remaining Republican lawmakers running for re-election in a district that backed Hillary Clinton in 2016.

Fitzpatrick, who often touts his role in the Problem Solvers Caucus, was re-elected to a second term;last fall by 3 points. Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates his 2020 race Tilts Republican.

Mccain Votes No Dealing Potential Death Blow To Republican Health Care Efforts

After casting a “no” vote, McCain left the Capitol and declined to talk with reporters. Cliff Owen/APhide caption

toggle caption

After casting a “no” vote, McCain left the Capitol and declined to talk with reporters.

In a moment of unexpected high drama, Republicans were stymied once again in their effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act and they have John McCain to thank for it.

In the early morning hours Friday, the senator showed why he earned the nickname “Maverick” over his long tenure.

McCain, who was diagnosed with brain cancer and returned to Washington to advance the health care bill, turned around and bucked his party’s leadership and President Trump by joining two moderate Republicans, two independents and every Democrat in voting against the so-called “skinny repeal” of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Associated Press via

McCain’s office released a statement from the senator on his reasoning:

McCain continued, calling on lawmakers to “return to the correct way of legislating and send the bill back to committee, hold hearings, receive input from both sides of aisle, heed the recommendations of nation’s governors, and produce a bill that finally delivers affordable health care for the American people.”

The Senate voted 51-49 against the legislation aimed at dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

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Top Trump Aide Says Ethics Filings Discourage Potential Government Employees

Something seemed afoot before the vote. It was delayed. McCain was seen huddling with Democrats. Vice President Pence, who had come to the Capitol expecting to be the tiebreaking vote, personally and unsuccessfully lobbied McCain on the floor to try to win his vote.

With McCain’s vote apparently gone, Republicans were seen trying to persuade Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski to vote for the bill to no avail. She eventually also voted no along with Maine’s Susan Collins.

Rep Denver Riggleman Of Virginia

Growing Numbers Of Republicans Are Willing To Vote For Impeachment | TODAY

The Virginia freshman, a member of the hard-line Freedom Caucus, explained his vote partly as one to protect pre-existing conditions, which he said hit close to home for me and I campaigned on continuing healthcare coverage for those affected.

The healthcare system is broken and Obamacare is a major part of the problem, but we should proceed with caution as we try and fix it. This resolution certainly doesnt help solve the problem, but hopefully will allow us to have a productive discussion on healthcare, he said in an emailed statement.

Trump carried Rigglemans 5th District seat;by 11 points in 2016. Riggleman defeated Democrat Leslie Cockburn by 7 points last fall in a race that got some national attention. Democrats are not targeting him in 2020. Inside Elections rates his race Solid Republican.

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Vulnerable Gop Senators Vote To Protect Affordable Care Act From Trump Lawsuit

Six Republican senators, five of whom are up for re-election in 2020, sided with Democrats on Thursday in a procedural vote to block the Trump administration from supporting a lawsuit that would dismantle the Affordable Care Act.

Why it matters: The final vote on the motion was 51-43, failing to reach the necessary 60-vote threshold to pass. But the move by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer forced several vulnerable GOP senators to go on the record on whether they support the lawsuit, which could strip protections from pre-existing conditions for millions of Americans.

The state of play: Sens. Susan Collins , Joni Ernst , Cory Gardner , Martha McSally and Dan Sullivan all voted with Democrats and are facing close re-election fights. Sen. Lisa Murkowski also voted in favor.

Sens. Steve Daines , Thom Tillis and David Perdue are facing tough re-election races, but voted against the motion.

Flashback: All six GOP senators who supported Thursday’s bill voted for the 2017 tax bill that set the latest Supreme Court challenge to the Affordable Care Act in motion.

Of note: Four of the Republicans to break rank were women nearly half of the nine female GOP senators in Congress.

While Murkowski is not up for re-election until 2022, she opposed President Trump on quickly confirming a Supreme Court judge to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and has publicly opposed the Trump administration on several occasions.

House Republicans Vote To Sue Obama

Republicans in Washington insist they aren’t planning to impeach President Obama any time soonbut did just get one step closer to suing him.

Just before lawmakers go home for the five-week August recess, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted Wednesday evening to authorize Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to file a lawsuit on behalf of the House of Representatives against the president for delaying implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

The vote was 225-201, with every Democrat voting against the lawsuit as well as five conservative Republicans who felt the suit didn’t go far enough and preferred impeachment.

The lawsuit itself is expected to fail once it reaches the inside of a courtroom, but the politics of the impending lawsuit raged Wednesday and will continue to in the months leading up to the November midterm elections.

The partisan battle andand the talking pointsover the lawsuit was on full display during the debate on the House floor before the vote. Democrats variously called the lawsuit a “political stunt,” a “gimmick,” and a “sorry spectacle of legislative malpractice” intended to appease the conservative base of the Republican Party before the midterm elections in November.

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Who Voted For Affordable Care Act

Question: Who voted for Affordable Care Act?

Answer: The Affordable Care Act was signed into law by President Obama;on March 23, 2010. ;Before becoming the law, there were 219 House of Representatives that voted in favor of the Affordable Care Act. ; Below is a complete list of House of Representatives that voted in favor of Affordable Care Act: ;There was not a single Republican representative that was in favor of the Affordable Care Act.

AR

Obamacare Repeal Fails: Three Gop Senators Rebel In 49

WASHINGTON Obamacare stays. For now.

Senate Republicans failed to pass a pared-down Obamacare repeal bill early Friday on a vote of 49-51 that saw three of their own dramatically break ranks.

Three Republican senators John McCain, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and all Democrats voted against the bill, dealing a stinging defeat to Republicans and President Donald Trump who made repeal of Obamacare a cornerstone their campaigns.

The late-night debate capped the GOP’s months-long effort to fulfill a seven-year promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!

Donald J. Trump

The Senate has tried to pass multiple versions of repeal: repeal and replace, a straight repeal and Friday’s bare-bones repeal, but none garnered the support of 50 Republicans.

An emotional Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said after the 1:40 a.m. vote went down that Republicans remained committed to repealing the Obama-era health law.

Read Also: How Many Senate Seats Republicans Picked Up

Changes Required By The Affordable Care Act In 2011

A provision goes into effect to protect patients choice of doctors. Specifics include allowing plan members to pick any participating primary care provider, prohibiting insurers from requiring prior authorization before a woman sees an obstetrician/gynecologist , and ensuring access to emergency care.

Young adults can stay on their parents insurance until age 26, even if they are not full-time students. This extension applies to all new plans.

All new health insurance policies must cover preventive care and pay a portion of all preventive care visits.

A provision goes into effect that eliminates lifetime limits on coverage for members.

Annual limits or maximum payouts by a health insurance company are now restricted by the ACA.

The ACA prohibits rescission when a claim is filed, except in the case of fraud or misrepresentation by the consumer.

Insurance companies must now provide a process for customers to make an appeal if there is a problem with their coverage. ;

NOTE: In January,;2011:;eHealth publishes 11 guides on the top;child-only health insurance coverage;that examined differences in implementation in numerous states.

A Final Vote Isn’t The Whole Story It’s Like Researching Your Ancestry And Going No Further Back Than Your Mother And Father

The day after she was one of three;Republican;senators to vote against;her party’s proposal to repeal chunks of the Affordable Care Act, Susan Collins of Maine posted a press release that said:;”Democrats made a big mistake when they passed the ACA without a single Republican vote. I don’t want to see Republicans make the same mistake.”

It was a nice nod in the direction of bipartisanship. But it also perpetuates a deceptive narrative, repeated often by Republicans,;that they were completely excluded from the process that resulted in Obamacare. While it is true that no Republican voted for the final bill, it is blatantly untrue that it contains no GOP;DNA. In fact, to make such an assertion is like researching your ancestry and going no further back than your mother and father.;

Not only were Republican senators deeply involved in the process up until its conclusion, but it’s a cinch that the ACA;might have become law months earlier if;the Democrats, hoping for a bipartisan bill, hadn’t spent enormous time and effort wooing GOP senators only to find themselves gulled by false promises of cooperation. And unlike Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s semi-secret proceedings that involved only a handful of trusted colleagues, Obamacare, until the very end of the process, was open to public scrutiny.

More:Spare America a do-over on health care. Seize the bipartisan moment.

POLICING THE USA: A look at;race, justice, media

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Requirements For Health Plans And Insurers

See also: Health insurance policy cancellations since Obamacare

Coverage

The Affordable Care Act prohibited individual market insurers from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions. This policy is known as guaranteed issue. Guaranteed issue regulations had already existed for insurers selling employer-sponsored health plans, and the ACA extended this rule to the individual market as well.

The law also required insurers to allow young adults to stay on their parents’ health insurance plans until age 26. Insurers were also required to allow people in the individual market to renew their health plans each year unless they did not pay their premiums.

Benefits

The ACA required individual and small group health plans that were offered both on and off the exchanges to cover services that fall into 10 broad benefits categories, called essential health benefits:

Ambulatory patient services

Rehabilitative and habilitative services and devices

Prescription drugs

Mental health and substance use disorder services, including behavioral health treatment

Laboratory services

Preventive and wellness services and chronic disease management

Pediatric services, including oral and vision care

Premiums

The ACA placed restrictions on the way individual and small group insurers set a plan’s premiumThe amount a consumer is required to pay for a health insurance plan. Premiums are usually paid monthly, quarterly or annually.:

Medical loss ratio

Stabilization programs

Some Vulnerable Republicans Side With Democrats In Schumer’s Show Vote To Protect Obamacare

Here Are The Republicans Who Voted AGAINST Certifying Electoral College Votes

A half-dozen Republican senators voted with their colleagues from across the aisle in an attempt by Democrats to block the Justice Department’s legal efforts to strike down the Affordable Care Act amid a pandemic.

The case will soon be heard by the Supreme Court.

Despite the bipartisan support and a 51-43 vote, the motion failed. Sixty votes were required to pass the measure offered by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

The six GOP senators who voted for the legislation were some of the upper chamber’s most moderateand vulnerablemembers: Susan Collins , Joni Ernst , Cory Gardner , Martha McSally , Lisa Murkowski , Dan Sullivan . Murkowski is the only one not up for re-election.

Schumer forced the vote to compel endangered Republicans to go on the record about the GOP-backed effort to dismantle the Obama-era health care law. He decried their support as hypocritical based on their previous opposition.

“We knew that some of them would squirm, but when you flip your vote a few weeks before the election, the American people see right through it,” the New York Democrat told reporters. “These senators are worse off today, no matter how they voted, because they flip-flopped.”

Schumer explained that the six had supported previous efforts to end Obamacare.

Other GOP senators who are considered at-risk, including John Cornyn , Steve Daines , Lindsey Graham , Mike Lee , Kelly Loeffler , David Perdue and Thom Tillis , voted with their party and against the measure.

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