#letters from the road

[theworldofotps]

Letter From The Road (Slight NSFW)

WWE Superstar: Drew McIntyre Word Count: 387 ~A series in which I write letters from superstars to their partner or friend back home while they’re touring.~ (Historical A.U Letter)

Requested by @madhatterbri I hope you enjoy this lovely! @new-zealand-chic Thanks for your help with some ideas love x _________ Tag list: @omg-im-such-a-masochist @melissahausen​ @new-zealand-chic​ @writtingrose @99hook @madhatterbri @sjwrites22 @sassymox @mrsacklesevansmgk @xladyxfatex @adamcolesbaybay @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch @demonqueen29 @itsicantbelievethis666 @lilred91 @rebellious-desires @claymorexpunisher @letsgivethisonemoreshot @ava-valerie @shortyiceheart @serpantscorpio8497 @thatpanpal @thatnerdwriter @wrestlersownmyheart @vebner37 @seeingstarks​ @whenimakeitshine1234 @legit9thlunaticwarrior @blaquekitty @ironshamelessyouth @unoficialy-married-to-ace-austin @ripleyswhore @moonrosekk @xbreezymeadowsx @alyyaana  @elevennbloom @melblacc @alliwant456  @mcreignsera @auburnwrites​ @aews-four-pillars If you wanna be added to the list lemme know. ~ Drew Tag list:

@eddie-kingstons-wifey @akiko-tanaka @cherrytheeredheadmamaclaymore @maryjaneleaholland26 @slutfortheeclaymore _______ My Sweet love, I’m seeking to confirm you are well and taking care since I’ve been away these last three months. Every moment not spent in your company seems to drag longer than the last, I know not when this battle will end. Nor when we’ll see each other again but I know the moment we’re united once more will be filled with rejoicing.

Despite the harsh conditions my men are well and continuing to fight the enemy to ensure the safety of the kingdom. Each man is willing to lay their life down for the crown, I however am not the average man. Where my loyalty once laid with the crown it is solely that I am laying my life down for you, and you alone.

I know it may seem foolish a Scottish warrior and a nobleman’s daughter, but I can’t help the feelings I’ve developed along this path that our friendship has emerged. Lass, despite the two vast differences in our worlds I couldn’t find myself writing another a letter such as I’m writing to you. I can’t help but think of our last night together before I left. Despite it being the first time we were intimate with each other I replay the moments in my head while waiting for the next course of action here.

I can’t wait until we’re together again and I can show you just how your body deserves to be praised. My hands sliding over the silky softness of your skin, placing hot kisses against each inch that you allow. I can practically hear your quiet moans and whimpers now as I would drag my tongue over your sweet nectar devouring you like a man starved. Before stretching your tightness with a finger, maybe three. Just enough to prepare you to take every inch of me. Just thinking about you allowing me the honor of filling and stretching that sweetness is enough to bring me to my knees.

Although we may have to hide our moments together rest assure that when we finally do find ourselves alone. That I will be making you release every moan, whimper and scream you have captured inside. I want to see you trembling as you embrace the mind-numbing pleasure, I plan on bringing you.                                                                      Until we’re together again.                                       Your Scotsman D. Mac

#wwe #drew mcintyre #letters from the road #historical au #drew mcintyre x reader

[thelaurenshippen]

#polls #yes these are all true #in order: #I hold my pen between my middle and ring finger #and yes it has caused both fingers to curve in weirdly #I had scarlet fever when I was 23 #benedict arnold's wife? peggy shippen #so yeah #(I'm descended directly from her sister sarah #hence related to benedict by marriage but his children by blood) #two cross country road trips #two coastal road trips #several 12-14 hour drives #I have a typewriter now! and send my friends letters! #when I was 16-20ish #I used my older sister's old learner's permit to get into 18+ or 21+ concert venues in the city #I only used it to drink at one of those shows ONCE #mostly I just wanted to see music #the last CD I burned for someone was in 2019 don't look at me #I ran into a family from my very small hometown several thousand miles away #small world and all that

[fictionadventurer]

How can I be known to history as a charming and witty correspondent if I don't write any letters??? This is a problem!!

#random thought of the day #a trip to the bigger-on-the-inside used bookstore netted me a book filled with letters between presidents and their wives #which neatly marries last summer's interest in epistolary books with this summer's obsession #i've only barely started and am already lamenting the lost art of letter writing #there's a charming bubbly one from a courtship-era abigail adams #a surprisingly sweet love letter from john tyler to his soon-to-be first wife #a witty start to a letter by grant where he teases julia for how long women take to answer letters #between this and the julia sand letters and 84 charing cross road i am in distress #because i have no avenue to send charming letters to people

[tkbrokkoli]

they've arrived!!!!! by @pummedraws

[Begin ID: Three close up photographs of a hand holding two keychains, depicting Harry du Bois and Kim Kitsuragi from Disco Elysium in a chibi like style. A disco ball encircles Harry's and Kim's head like a halo.

On one side of they keychain they are wearing their normal in-game clothes. On the other side, the disco ball is rainbow colored and Harry wears black sunglasses and Kim wears a black jacket.

The person holding the keychains is wearing red fingerless driving gloves. In picture one the keychains are still in their plastic package, in picture two and three they are on car keys. End ID.]

#fandom related #disco elysium #i quickly took the pics right after i tore the letter open so the protective foil is still on the keychains which is why they might look #a little dull! #also i hope my gloves aren't overkill but. kim c: #i might put harry in my house key and leave kim on the car key. i know i know it's do not separate but i already have so many key chains on #my car keys and they jingle w every bump in the road and since i keep my car keys in my pants they jingle w every step as well #and i dont wanna bother ky colleagues at work by jingling too much #*on *my #quickly ~ posted from my mobile phone ~ bc im rly tired and im gonna go to bed now #ty sm @ pummedraws :D

[emiliawildolsen]

Things I saw last spring

#new mexico #land of enchantment #love letters from my favorites folder #georgia o'keeffe #road trip #white sands #ghost ranch #anchor #the three brujas

[collegeoflore]

ramza told me today that gale would start growing weed on his balcony just for when xar visits him in waterdeep and i’m extremely obsessed with this idea now

#they think his homemade hot sauce is nice but they’re not wowed. he needs smth that will Wow them. he has to be the best possible host #it takes him exactly 30 seconds of thinking to come up with his plan bc after all he knows if there’s one thing xar likes #it’s weed. #he always has that good waterdhavian kush waiting for them when they arrive but he can do better. he knows he can. #he’s exchanging letters with halsin he’s sampling 15 different strains to decide what to grow he’s going wild #(he has forgotten xarrai will happily smoke dirt weed mixed with tobacco they do not care at all. LOL) #(they make a show of being impressed tho. to make him happy. and tbf his many months of labor do produce some decent weed) #(i’m rly mad the dispo down the road from me closes at 7.) #漫言 #oc. xarrai

[yepthatsacowalright]

Reading a New Yorker article that describes the ceremony of a woman entering into a 12th Century German convent as following “the format of a funeral rite: the women were, in essence, being buried alive, in service to the Lord.” One monk claimed that they “communicated with the outside world through a single aperture, which, when not in use, was blocked with stones.”

Who’s gonna join me in my new aspiration to symbolically bury myself alive, using only a hole in the wall to interact with the world like a gothic mouse?

#bonus points if we live in a building shaped like a giant coffin #gothicmousecore #i thought about responding to that letter from the man down the road but now ​i’ve got a headache agnes get the wall hole rock

[the-busy-ghost]

“Ok so the other bookshelf hasn’t arrived yet but why don’t I start organising my books, it will be a fun activity and useful!”

What nobody tells you about said fun activity is that you have to make Choices about how to organise and it’s all very confusing

#I run into this problem EVERY DAMN TIME and I still hate it #I like my history books arranged a certain way so that tends to fuck up the Dewey Decimal or any other system I attempt to impose #Ok so for example what to do with primary historical sources like chronicles and collections of letters #Do I put them with the mediaeval literature section (some of which also functions as a primary historical source- i.e. the Brus) #Or do I put them with my history books (ordered by time period and country) #Or do I put them in their own tiny little category of their own- an extremely confusing and apparently irrational category #Or biographies of authors of which I only have two or three #Do I put them with my other history books or next to the literary works they wrote or on their own little section again #But since I only own maybe three it would be a weird little section just Aphra Behn James Herriot and Robert Henryson by themselves #And then what on earth do I do with C.S. Lewis' Allegory of Love #It's technically literary criticism but I don't own many books in that vein #Never mind the question of whether I should separate novels poetry and plays even if it breaks up an author's output #I don't really want to have to look for Violet Jacob or Oscar Wilde in two or three different places #And then sometimes a book doesn't fall into either of those three categories- should split Nan Shepherd's novels from the Living Mountain? #And what if it's a 'Collected Works' by an author which contains a bunch of non-fiction historical essays as well as a novel? #And don't even get me started on what I'm supposed to do with the Road to Wigan Pier #And then THEN we come to Wodehouse #Do I put Leave it to Psmith with the other Psmith books or in the midst of the Blandings books? #I want all the Psmith series together but what if some hypothetical person new to Wodehouse wandered in #And wanted to start either series at random- would they be confused at the introduction of Blandings too early? #Wouldn't they miss out on some of the best bits that come with knowing Blandings BEFORE Psmith? #I don't know who this hypothetical person is by the way #Nobody's wandering into my house and browsing my bookshelves except me so I don't know who I'm curating this for #I suppose in the back of my mind I always thought I would have kids who would one day be pulling randomly at the family bookshelves #And so that's why I've saved some of the fiction books but I'm not likely to have or even want children so what is the point #I'm not even the kind of person who regularly rereads my childhood favourites but somehow I can't bring myself to throw the kids' books out #It's an immense waste of space and a bit pretentious to have lots of books that nobody else will ever read #Honestly I'd have been happier running a public library or a bookshop I think or even having a flatmate to share books with #Ah well if this is a problem at least it's quite a nice one to have; first world problems only this evening I'll count my blessings #Earth & Stone

[sweetdreamsjeff]

From the archives of the official Jeff Buckley community

circa 2005

#jeff buckley #merchandise #letter from Mary #circa 2005 #2005 #official jeff buckley community #way back when #jeff buckley merchandise #road recovery #gene bowen #Jeff Buckley Road House #Musicians' Assistance Program #MAP #Buddy Arnold

[united-under-skyfall]

growing up in a small town is like. i want to get as far away from here as humanly possible and never look back. i've been sorted into homeroom classes with at least seven of the same kids from kindergarten through graduation and i don't know that we've ever talked longer than five minutes but i'd probably die for them. this would be a nice place to live for the rest of my life, i think. you know everyone in town by their family name even if you don't actually know any of them personally. i'm tired. everyone i know is tired. i hate it here. i never want to leave. we have nothing to do here and the boredom gouges tracks in my brain. i am personally offended by anyone not from here who says there's nothing to do here. everyone here knows too much about me. i know too much about everyone here. how does it feel to start from a blank slate? i would never know. there is a quiet, hidden sort of rage that everyone plants in their gardens. the lemonade at the market tastes like five-year-old laughter, the library smells like paper and the hot chocolate they used to make for events in the basement. the local history room hadn't changed since they installed it because there's nothing else to add, nothing else to know. i am tired. they're developing things and too much is changing too quickly and this has been the same unchanging neighborhood for fifty fucking years and now it's utterly unrecognizable from the place i knew barely a decade ago. i am never sure how much this change is a good thing, how much is too much. it feels like someone is peeling back my wallpaper skin when i'm not looking, painting different shades over what i thought should be there. i'm not the only person in this place but it feels strangely like they should have asked for my permission first, like i am part of its foundation, or maybe it's part of mine. (do we ask the bricks what they want the wall to look like, too?) we all share layers of the same memories that are slowly shifting and eroding, and you can see it everywhere you look, viscerally, physically. i think it is impossible to escape this place unless you are willing to bleed, and make bleed. it would be so, so easy to just disappear. the air feels fresher here than anywhere else, simply because it is the baseline my body has learned and my lungs have loved. i am so very, very tired. i think it's this place. i think i like it. i don't know. i don't know how to be anything else. i learned from brick and mortar, from pavement, from parks; buildings that served my mother as a child, graves no one visits anymore, trees older than my family line; everything sags, the colors washed out. they are tired, too.

#idk man. just. i was talking with a coworker today—an old classmate's mom—and she asked if i knew chris smith #and i said which chris smith there's two and she said the bald one and i said well yeah and she said his wife just died #and his wife was a twin who went to school with my mom. and of course my mom knew her because twins were kind of A Thing #in their grade. and i didn't realize this co-worker even knew who my mom was. and her husband is a teacher and three other kids #in our grade had fathers who taught the same subject as him also working at our school and i think about that a lot actually #half my friends chose their colleges based solely on how far away from home they are. and they were not aiming for proximity. #every day i drive along the same roads my schoolbus took and everyday the view looks a little less like it should #i alternate between never wanting to leave this place and wishing i never knew it existed in the first place #and i was thinking back on a lot of old conversations about this and. i'm just really in my feels about small towns rn man #and the incredibly complicated relationships both with it and with everyone and everything in it that are inherent to them #ramble #dead letter office got it i think #small towns #growing up

[fictionadventurer]

Reading Helene Hanff's descriptions of 1970s decor to my brother like it's a horror story.

Department stores sell nylon shag bathroom carpeting

"Somehow it gets worse with each word."

I bought my tearose-pink bathroom carpeting

"Ooh. Ouch."

after my friend Richard cut it to fit the floor, he had enough left over to cover the toilet tank

"Augh! No! Make it stop!"

#lol #helene hanff #i reread 84 charing cross road and needed more by her #and my library has #letter from new york #which is a collection of her monthly talks about new york life for the bbc #they're charming #and it's fun to see american things described to a british audience that finds it exotic #but i'm shocked at how much of a period piece it is #things have changed a lot in the last fifty years #and this particular bit only adds to my thesis that the '70s offered almost nothing of value to the culture #there was some decent music and a couple of sitcoms and that'a about it #fashion and interior design makes one wonder how they managed to make things eye-searingly gaudy while sticking mostly to neutrals #books

[gooneybirddelectus]

#jeff buckley #mary guibert #gene bowen #jeff buckley merchandise #merch #merchandise #letter from Mary regarding merchandise #MAP #jeff buckley road house #fund-raiser #memorabilia

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

May 9, 2022

Heather Cox Richardson

Weeks of speculation that Russian president Vladimir Putin would use the May 9 Victory Day celebration to announce he was escalating his war on Ukraine were incorrect. The celebration went off—subdued this year—and Putin delivered a speech, but it simply covered his usual topics. During the day, hackers broke into Russian televisions with the message: “The blood of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of murdered children is on your hands…. TV and the authorities are lying. No to war.” Instead, the powerful speech of the occasion came from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, filmed outside walking down Khreshchatyk Street, the main street in Kyiv, where normally there would be a Victory Day parade. Zelensky claimed Ukrainian ownership of victory against the Nazis in World War II, then turned to the story of the present. Ukrainians are fighting, he said, “[f]or our freedom. For our independence. So that the victory of our ancestors was not in vain. They fought for freedom for us and won. We are fighting for freedom for our children, and therefore we will win…. And very soon there will be two Victory Days in Ukraine. And someone will not even have one left. We won then, we will win now, too! And Khreshchatyk [Street] will see the parade of victory—the victory of Ukraine.” At home, a big story broke over the weekend, reminding us that the ties of the Republican Party to Russians and the effect of those ties on Ukraine reach back not just to former president Trump, but at least to the 2008 presidential campaign of Arizona senator John McCain. Late Saturday night, political strategist Steve Schmidt, who worked on a number of Republican political campaigns including McCain’s when he ran for president in 2008, began to spill what he knows about that 2008 campaign. Initially, this accounting took the form of Twitter threads, but on Sunday, Schmidt put the highlights into a post on a Substack publication called The Warning. The post’s title distinguished the author from those journalists and members of the Trump administration who held back key information about the dangerous behavior in Trump’s White House in order to include it in their books. The post was titled: “No Books. No Money. Just the Truth.” Schmidt left the Republican Party in 2018, tweeting that by then it was “fully the party of Trump. It is corrupt, indecent and immoral. With the exception of a few governors…it is filled with feckless cowards who disgrace and dishonor the legacies of the party's greatest leaders.... Today the GOP has become a danger to our democracy and our values.” Schmidt helped to start The Lincoln Project, designed to sink Trump Republicans through attack ads and fundraising, in late 2019. The apparent trigger for Schmidt’s accounting was goading from McCain’s daughter Meghan McCain, a sometime media personality who, after years of slighting Schmidt, recently called him a pedophile, which seems to have been a reference to the fact that a colleague with whom Schmidt started The Lincoln Project was accused of online sexual harassment of men and boys. Schmidt resigned over the scandal. Schmidt was fiercely loyal to Senator McCain and had stayed silent for years over accusations that he was the person who had chosen then–Alaska governor Sarah Palin as McCain’s vice presidential candidate, lending legitimacy to her brand of uninformed fire-breathing radicalism, and about his knowledge of McCain’s alleged affair with a lobbyist. In his tweetstorm, Schmidt set the record straight, attributing the choice of Palin to McCain’s campaign director and McCain himself, and acknowledging that the New York Times had been correct in the reporting of McCain’s relationship with the lobbyist, despite the campaign’s angry denial. More, though, Schmidt’s point was to warn Americans that the mythmaking that turns ordinary people into political heroes makes us unwilling to face reality about their behavior and, crucially, makes the media unwilling to tell us the truth about it. As journalist Sarah Jones wrote in PoliticusUSA, Schmidt’s “broader point is how we, as Americans, don’t like to be told the truth and how our media so loves mythology that they work to deliver lies to us instead of holding the powerful accountable.” Schmidt’s biggest reminder, though, was that the director of the 2008 McCain campaign was Richard (Rick) Davis, a founding partner of Davis Manafort, the political consulting firm formed in 1996. By 2003, the men were representing pro-Russia Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Yanukovych; in July 2004, U.S. journalist Paul Klebnikov was murdered in Moscow for exposing Russian government corruption; and in June 2005, Manafort proposed that he would work for Putin’s government in former Soviet republics, Europe, and the United States by influencing politics, business dealings, and news coverage. From 2004 to 2014, Manafort worked for Yanukovych and his party, trying to make what the U.S. State Department called a party of “mobsters and oligarchs” look legitimate. In 2016, Manafort went on to lead Donald Trump’s campaign, and the ties between him, the campaign, and Russia are well known. Less well known is that in 2008, Manafort’s partner Rick Davis ran Republican candidate John McCain’s presidential campaign. Schmidt writes that McCain turned a blind eye to the dealings of Davis and Manafort, apparently because he was distracted by the fallout when the story of his personal life hit the newspapers. Davis and Manafort were making millions by advancing Putin’s interests in Ukraine and eastern Europe, working for Yanukovych and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Schmidt notes that “McCain spent his 70th birthday with Oleg Deripaska and Rick Davis on a Russian yacht at anchor in Montenegro.” “There were two factions in the campaign,” Schmidt tweeted, “a pro-democracy faction and…a pro Russia faction,” led by Davis, who—like Manafort—had a residence in Trump Tower. It was Davis who was in charge of vetting Palin. McCain was well known for promising to stand up to Putin, and Palin’s claim that she could counter the growing power of Russia in part because “[t]hey’re our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska” became a long-running joke (the comment about seeing Russia from her house came from a Saturday Night Live skit). But a terrific piece in The Nation by Mark Ames and Ari Berman in October 2008 noted: “He may talk tough about Russia, but John McCain’s political advisors have advanced Putin’s imperial ambitions.” The authors detailed Davis’s work to bring the Balkan country of Montenegro under Putin’s control and concluded that either McCain “was utterly clueless while his top advisers and political allies ran around the former Soviet domain promoting the Kremlin’s interests for cash, or he was aware of it and didn’t care.” Trump’s campaign and presidency, along with Putin���s deadly assault on Ukraine, puts into a new light the fact that McCain’s campaign manager was Paul Manafort’s business partner all the way back in 2008.

—

Notes:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-strategist-quits-apos-corrupt-135557288.html

https://www.thedailybeast.com/putin-sounded-like-a-loser-in-his-victory-day-speech

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/president-zelenskyy-soon-there-will-be-two-victory-days-in-ukraine-139595845968

The WarningNo Books. No Money. Just the Truth.This is a story about lying. Public lying. It is a story about Senator John McCain’s lying, and the damage it has done to many people, including me. It is also a story about my lying because, ultimately, John McCain’s lie became mine. Over time, that lie has become heavier as I have been abused by the family of the man I worked for…Read morea day ago · 1,181 likes · 355 comments · Steve Schmidt

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/05/09/russia-tv-hack-victory-day-ukraine-war/

https://www.politicususa.com/2022/05/09/steve-schmidts-warning-delivers-kill-shot-to-john-mccains-myth.html

https://apnews.com/article/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/25/AR2008062502858_2.html

https://www.gawker.com/5048485/picture-this-john-mccain-visits-criminals-yacht

Steve Schmidt @SteveSchmidtSESI had no interest whatsoever in running a Presidential Campaign in 2008. One of my closest friends was running John McCain’s campaign and John Weaver was the chief strategist. There were two factions in the campaign. There was a pro-democracy faction and there was

10,107 Retweets34,407 Likes

May 8th 2022

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sarah-palin-russia-house/

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/mccains-kremlin-ties/

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[from comments]

ted keyes

Folks, if you haven’t already read Tim Snyder’s book, “The Road to Unfreedom” you should do that now. Two other important and informative books on much of the grift and graft explained in this letter are in “Mr. Putin” and “There is Nothing for you Here” by Dr. Fiona Hill.

These historians explain how Putin’s Regime has been unlawfully stealing cash out of Russian industries controlled by handpicked Oligarchs, and export it to launderers abroad so as to hide it, before bringing it back “clean”. Political payoffs legal and illegal are part of the laundromat that has been financing anti democracy efforts by facilitating the process. In this way some of our leaders have enabled the war crimes perpetrated by Putin. And it has to stop!

Part of that process is exporting Embezzled Russian money into legitimate banking via questionable Cypress banks (thanks Wilbur Ross) then into business like commercial real estate (London, NYC, Floria) and manufacturing, but the dark part is the lobby industry, campaign donations (PACS/NRA/Christian Right PACS), “consulting fees” and illegality (bribes and/or promises to invest in bogus projects in Senators home states…like an old Aluminum plant in Kentucky, etc, etc). The KGB and Russian Mafia have worked hand in hand for longer than most of us have been alive. They are the all stars of all kinds of schemes and political payoffs. Disinformation, division, destabilization, annexation is the Russian/Putin playbook.

Davis, Manafort, and Stone must be the dirtiest rotten scoundrels of our time. Give a Libertarian Republican a chance to make money, and they will always through any loyalty to country, ethics, morality out the window! These guys don’t care about democracy, truth, nor the rule of law. It’s about gettin that money, that’s all.

#Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #Corrupt GOP #Criminal GOP #John McCain #Russia #Putin's war #Volodymyr Zelensky #War in Ukraine #Tim Snyder #The Road to Unfreedom

[snowshinobi]

if you're a Demon Slayer enjoyer who's working on your cranky road behavior, I can confirm that repeating "drive like Senjuro" to yourself whenever someone cuts you off DOES help

#Senjuro would drive safely. which doesn't always mean following road rules to the letter #go with the flow of traffic (aka if you're innthe fast lane then keep up). slow down when in doubt. #and most of all!! give the aggressive folks pleeenty of room. do not lose your cool when someone blocks you from getting in a lane #you don't wanna drive near someone that concerned about keeping their ''spot'' anyway. it's the road bro. just a means to an end #Senjuro would not care about ppl being stupid on the road. he'd let them in/let them pass/slow down and wait for the next opening #Sen would do exactly what you're supposed to do. be reliable and safe and calm #so .. so will i. ugh. #driving #cars #Senjuro #snowswords #snowfire #rengoku senjuro #demon slayer

[painted-bees]

A quick, sloppy little comic about Magritte

[Image Description: It's a vertical comic strip of 14 panels arranged one under the other. The style is realistic, done with sketchy lines in a dark burgundy. It is not colored or shaded and there is no background. The comic features the interactions of a couple, Magritte (also called Margie) and Rafael (also called Raf). Magritte is a young woman, she is wearing a baggy armhole tank top with a tight fitting black top underneath, shorts and boots. She has a messy bun and a small messenger bag slung over her left shoulder. Rafael is her partner, wearing baggy pants, sneakers, fingerless gloves, V-neck t-shirt and an open button-up jacket with a hoodie and the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His hair has short side with long top bangs and a short goatee.

 (First panel): There's only Magritte visible from the waist up. Off screen, Raf says to someone else: “Magritte has our tickets.” Magritte is excited, looking straight forward. Her left hand in on her bag's strap, her right hand rummaging inside her bag. Magritte says: "Yeah! Even made sure to put them in my wallet so that I wouldn't- uh..."

 (Second panel): She is beginning to look concerned, now with her face turned to her back, both left hand holding the lip to open the bag wider and her right hand still rummaging inside. Magritte says: "wouldn't forget.... Hang on, it's not on it's usual pocket. Haha." The last is a nervous laughter.

 (Third panel): Magritte is kneeling on the ground. Rafael is standing to the side and behind her, only his feet visible. Magritte looks frantic, searching inside her bag. Her right arm is forearm deep digging in her bag. Magritte says: "It's definitely here-! It's the one thing I never forget 'cus I never take it out of my bag!" Rafael says, firmly: "Margie, when you took it out to put the tickets in, did you put the wallet back in the bag?" The letters are bolded, with the word "back" underlined for emphasis. Magritte says: "Give me some credit, there's no way I'm that stupid." The last three words are underlined for emphasis.

 (Fourth panel):  The scene has changed and now Magritte and Rafael are in a car. We see them from the passenger's side. Rafael is driving, looking straight ahead at the road. Magritte is hunched forward, hugging herself with the left hand. Her right hand is holding her head. She is looking out the passenger window, avoiding Raf.

 (Fifth panel):  Rafael turns slightly to look at Magritte.

 (Sixth panel):  The point of view is now a side profile view from the drivers side. Rafael has his left arm leaning on the open window, his right hand on the wheel. Magritte is hunched over facing the passenger window. Rafael says: "I'm not mad at you, if that's what you're worried about." Magritte says: "I can literally feel your disappointment."

 (Seventh panel): Back to the passengers side, Rafael is looking at the road. Magritte is frustrated, no longer leaning her head against her right hand and instead her hand is palm upwards. Rafael says: "Well, yes. It is a disappointing situation, but-" Magritte interrupts: "You'd think I'd be able to do the one thing I was asked to do-! That I'd at least learn from the last billion times I forgot shit. Rafael says, quieter: “that's not where I was going with this...”

(Eighth panel):  Magritte has her right hand holding her face with the palm on her cheek, left hand placing the tips of her fingers on her left temple and eye brows. She is frustrated and angry. Magritte says: "It's not like I've got anything more important rattling around in my brain.  But, for some reason, if it's not my music, or like.... food or something, then it's just not a priority. I can't make myself care enough to make it a priority!"

(Ninth panel): She now has both hands in front of her, elbows bent, finger extended in a vague hand gesture as if there was something in front of her. Magritte says: "I'm an adult in my 20s and I still manage my responsibilities like a child. I'd be more dependable if I could just stop and think for a second, but I'd probably forget to even breathe if it weren't for the..."

 (Tenth panel): Her frustrated expression turned to confusion. Her hands are still in the air in the same position as before. Magritte says:"... why are we parked?" Her noticing this stopped her rant.

(Eleventh panel): Magritte straightens up and faces the window entirely, left hand crossed over her body to lean on the car door. Rafael, off screen: "Margie." Magritte says: "Oh." Magritte's inner thoughts are written around her. "He stopped the car to scold me. No, not ‘scold’. Don't be a child about this. He's disappointed and just needs to make sure you understand so you can do better next ti-"

 (Twelfth panel): Magritte is still looking out the window, but now with a shocked expression. Rafael reached with his right hand, and its now resting gently on her upper back. Rafael interrupts her inner monologue with "I need you to stop repeating the shit your parents and teachers and such yelled at you growing up. They were wrong, and nothing you just said makes sense."

 (Thirteenth panel):  The perspective switches back to the driver's side profile. Rafael says: "A poor memory isn't synonymous with poor priorities. Nor does it speak to a lack of maturity. The priority was there, we just have to build a better habit of checking things before we leave the apartment. Both of us. It's gonna take time. You afford everyone else a ton of patience, all the time. Can you please afford some for yourself? The situation sucks, we were both looking forward to this. But it's not the end of the world. We didn't forget things on purpose. So let's take it easy and try to end the day on a good note. Alright?" Magritte says: "Okay... c-can we um...."

 (Fourteenth panel): Magritte has turned to face Rafael and her eyes are filled with tears and they're running down her cheeks.  Rafael looks startled, lifting his arm off Magritte's back. Magritte says: "Can we get some ice cream on the way back?" Rafael says: "O-of course!" End of description.]

This description was written and provided by Hiwi.

#sketch #comic #Hi-Note #magritte #rafael

[aurumacadicus]

In before I start seeing people bitching about rainbow capitalism MY favorite rainbow capitalism story is about Subaru. Yes the Japanese car company.

In the nineties, they were struggling. They were competing with a dozen other companies targeting the main demographic at the time: white men ages 18-35, especially after a failed luxury car launch with a new ad agency. “What we need is to focus on niche demographics,” they decided, and then focused on people who enjoyed the outdoors. The Subaru was excellent at driving on dirt roads that many other vehicles couldn’t at the time, so it was perfect for all those off-road campers; they started making all-wheel drive standard in all their cars to help with that. And the people who wanted cars to go do outdoor stuff? Lesbians.

Okay. Of course it wasn’t only lesbians buying Subarus. They’re on the list with educators, health-care professionals, and IT people. But the point is, this Japanese car company interviewed this strange demographic (single, female head of household) and realized one important factor: They were lesbians. They liked to be able to use the cars to go do outdoorsy stuff, and they liked that they could use the cars to haul stuff rather than a big truck or van. Subaru had a choice to make then. They had four other demographics they could market to, after all--the educators, the health-care professionals, IT professionals, and straight outdoorsy couples. Their company didn’t hinge on this one “problematic” demographic.

And they decided “fuck it,” and marketed to lesbians anyway. This included offering benefits to American gay and lesbian employees for their domestic partners, so it didn’t look like a cash grab. (This was not a problem. They already offered those in Canada.)

Yes, there was some backlash. They got letters from a grassroots group accusing them of promoting homosexuality, and every letter said they’d no longer be buying from Subaru. “You didn’t buy from us before, either,” Subaru realized, and ignored them. It helped that the team really cared about the plan, and that they had many straight allies to back them up. There was also some initial backlash when Subaru hired women to play a lesbian couple in the commercial, but they quickly found that lesbians preferred more subtlety; “XENA LVR” on a license plate, or bumper stickers with the names of popular LGBTQ+ destinations, or taglines of “Get out. Stay out.” that could be used for the outdoors--or the closet.

Subaru said “We see you. We support you.” They sponsored Pride parades and partnered with Rainbow Card and hired Martina Navratilova as spokeswoman. They put their money where their mouth is and went into it whole hog. In a time where companies did not want to take our money, Subaru said, “Why not? They’re people who drive.” And that was groundbreaking.

#lgbtqa #queer history