#maybe we can unionize against my writer’s block | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

exploradora-writes · 3 years

Text

Fireside Love: An Arthur x Charlotte Fic (18+ Only)

Warnings: NSFW, wholesome smut

Summary: During a snowstorm, Arthur and Charlotte decide to use their time cooped up in their cabin wisely.

Word Count: 3,455

Notes: Thank you @the-halo-of-my-memory and @unpocowboys for helping me out with this fic. The both of you are very talented writers! I plan on writing more Charlotte and Arthur fics in the future. These two are one of my favorite comfort couples, so I wanted to make a spicy yet cozy fic about them. Warning: Tons of wholesome smut ahead...

This fic can also be found on my AO3 under exploradora_writes

The first frost flakes began to stick to the window, the kitchen gradually becoming colder as snowflakes began to fall from the pitch black sky outside.

Charlotte sighed, tossing another log into the stove, her stew stubbornly refusing to boil. She glanced at the woodpile, the three tiny logs lying there in an almost mocking sort of way.

The clouds blocked out much of the sunlight, but she knew it would be dark soon. She held onto the counter, trying her hardest not to think of the worst, but she couldn’t help it.

He could be lost, stranded with no direction, no food, no warmth.

She shook her head, coming to her senses. Arthur may view himself as nothing but muscle and absolutely no brain, but as his wife, she knew better. He had an excellent sense of direction and survival skills. Any minute he’d be through that door with a load of firewood, and maybe even an animal or two.

She asked if she could come. Two heads were better than one, she tried to reason.

“No, darlin’, as much as I’d love to go with you, I need you stayin’ home and watchin’ over the house, keepin’ it warm. Wouldn’t want any strangers takin’ residence while we’re gone, would we?”

More than one weary traveller, some more hostile than others, had taken up residence in their home on more than one occasion while the two of them were off on hunting trips. While she understood where Arthur was coming from, she couldn’t escape her fear of the worst. She’d already lost one of the men she loved dearly to the harsh conditions of nature, she couldn’t bear to lose another one.

Her motionless broth seemed to stare back up at her as it refused to boil. “You ain’t making this easy for me, broth.”

Talking to an inanimate substance? The snow really was making her stir crazy. Arthur had better hurry up before I start talking to the logs, she thought.

Figuring the broth was nowhere near boiling over, she took those three pathetic logs sitting on the woodpile and tossed them in the fireplace. She looked around for a match, lit it with a satisfying strike, and tossed it on the pile. The flames licked up the logs, but Charlotte knew it couldn’t last long. She lay back on a chair in the kitchen, staring into the flames of the fire. She smiled, her eyes following the flames as they danced along the logs, remembering all those years ago when her and Arthur danced around the campfire on their little outdoor honeymoon getaway. They drank and sang and made love their fair share of times by the roaring flames of the fire. Sure, it was no fancy trip in the big city, but it was simple and memorable.

Unfortunately, the fire before her sounded more of a purr as opposed to a roar. She let out another sigh, looking back at the empty woodpile, longing for her strong handsome woodsman to return.

As if on cue, she heard the door handle jiggle, as the man she had been longing to see emerged from the snowy darkness outside.

“Arthur!” She arose, practically pouncing on him. He moved his scarf away from his cherry red face, panting from the effort of carrying.. firewood. Loads of it. Charlotte sighed with relief at the sight, wrapping her arms around him. She didn’t care that he was like an icicle, nor that she would get wet from the snow that dusted his wooly blue coat. Her hands met his face, cold despite the large beard he sported. Her lips met his, her warm pink lips melting his icy blue ones.

“Charlotte,” he breathed. “Glad I made it in time. Bundle up and help me haul in some of this wood. I have a feelin’ this is only the beginin’ of this snow storm.”

She threw on a sweater, a coat, and a pair of boots. She opened the door to the dark depths of the winter night. The bitter cold nipped at her entire body despite being bundled up head to toe. She tried to imagine how good the fire would feel against her and her lover’s bodies once they were in the warmth of their little home.

Arthur had made quite the haul. Firewood, some supplies from the general store, and even a deer. She smiled, feeling her body warm up as she thought of how wonderful and lucky she was to have a man like him.

They fought against the wind back into the house. It took the strength of the two of them to even get the door closed. They both panted and fell against each other.

“Well, we best get cozy, darlin.’ We’re gonna be here awhile.” Arthur said, removing his snow covered clothes.

Charlotte returned to the kitchen, the pot of broth finally showing signs that it was preparing to boil. She threw another log on the stove for good measure.

Arthur came up behind her and kissed her cheek, his cold lips sending a shiver down her spine. “How’s everything comin’ along?”

She smiled as the both began to boil. “Rather nicely now that you’ve returned, cowboy.”

“Hmmm I figured I’d have the opposite effect. My coldness would ruin any hopes of ever makin’ a good meal.”

“Quite the contrary, Mr. Morgan.” She stirred in the ingredients: savory chicken, carrots, onions, and peas. “Because I think you’re so hot, you make pots boil. You made mine boil when you walked through that door.” She looked back at him, stirring the pot in lazy circles. “Cheeks still rosy from the cold?”

“Er, yeah,” he fumbled, “you could say that.”

She rubbed his face, running her fingers through his beard. “You hungry?”

His hands ran along her hips. “Starvin’..”

“We could eat in front of the fire if you’d like. It’d be a nice change, don’t you think?”

“Sure, sounds cozy.” He gave her hips one last squeeze before getting two bowls from the above cabinets. “Smells delicious.’”

“You talking about the soup or are you talking about me, dear?” She gave him a small smile.

“Can’t I be talking about both?” Like a magnetic attraction, his hands were back on her hips.

“Goodness you’re handsy tonight!” She giggled. “Alright, soup’s on.”

He gave her cheek a quick peck before serving himself a large bowl of soup. She unwrapped some bread she had been saving for tonight and placed it in each of their bowls. They brought their meals over to the fireplace, sitting in front of it.

Arthur took a sip, his body quickly warming up from the combination of the fire and the broth. He let out a satisfied groan. “This soup’s real good, sweetheart.”

“Well I’m glad you think so,” she beamed. “I always worry I’ll muck something up.”

“That’d be pretty hard for you to do, Char.” He smiled at her, motioning for her to sit closer to him. She obliged, cosying up to him and resting her head on his shoulder.

The sounds of the crackling fire and the slurping of soup filled the room. Arthur tipped his bowl back, finishing the rest of the broth. He let out a satisfied sigh and took Charlotte’s bowl as well, putting them next to the sink to be washed. He’ll clean up eventually, he thought. Right now all he wanted to do was warm up his wonderful wife.

He changed into his union suit, catching a glimpse outside the window. The snow came down with a vengeance. He grabbed a log from the pile and tossed it into the dying flames. The fire continued to dwindle.

“Goddamm it,” he muttered, bending over to grab the poker and stir the ashes around. He felt the familiar sensation of a hand giving his behind a light smack. He turned around, his wife looking around, a mischievous grin plastered on her face.

He arched an eyebrow. “Was that really necessary, darlin’?”

“Was what necessary?” She tried looking away, but try as she might, her lips continued to curl into a smile.

“You know damn well what I’m talkin’ about, missy. Your hand just loves smackin’ my ass, don’t it?”

“That is quite the accusation, Mr. Morgan!”

“I oughtta smack YOU on the ass.”

She smirked, tilting her head. “Well? What’s stopping you?”

He studied her for a second, then knelt down next to her. “Goddamn, have you always been this naughty?”

“Always have, always will be. It’s one of the reasons you married me, remember?” She lay back on the carpet. “Now get me a blanket, would you, darling? It’s freezing in here.”

He sighed, tossing her a few blankets. He tossed another log on the fire, then lay next to her. He wrapped his arms around her as she shivered against him. He scooted the two of them closer to the fire. “There, now that’s better.”

She nuzzled against his chest and yawned. “Arthur?”

“Hmm?” He looked down at her.

“How long do you think we’ll be in here? Waiting out this storm?”

He looked outside again, the snow showing no signs of stopping. “Awhile. Don’t know how long exactly, but we’ve survived much worse. ‘Sides, I stocked up on food and supplies, we’ll be fine.

She sighed, looking up at him and kissing his cheek. “Well, we’ve got plenty of time, what should we do to pass it?”

He chuckled. “Well, there’s always dominoes, and redecoratin’, and we can always be workin’ on our marriage.”

“Oh? And how exactly do you want to work on that?” She held his hand, circling his palm with her thumb.

“Well, when’s the last time we’ve had to ourselves like this? Seems like we’re always busy with housework, farmwork, all kinds of work. This is a good opportunity for us to just… be in each other’s presence.”

She hummed against his chest. “Sounds wonderful.”

The flames of the fire crackled, and Charlotte let out a small, breathy laugh.

“What’s so funny?” Arthur asked.

“Oh just remembering our little honeymoon.”

Arthur smiled as the memories came flooding back. “That little camping trip.”

“Yes! Remember, out on the lake?”

“How could I forget? We tipped the whole damn canoe over!” He laughed, rocking back and forth and waving his arms around dramatically, reenacting the fateful moment.

The two of them collapsed on the floor in a heap of giggles, cuddling up to each other to trap the warmth again as their laughter died down. Charlotte looked into the flames of the fire, a small smile on her face. “And the campfire,” she mused. “Illuminated the entire night sky. Millions of tiny stars, looking down at us.”

Arthur chuckled. “Yeah, I remember.Them crickets were noisy sons of bitches, weren’t they?”

“I think they thought the same thing about us, dear.” She ran her hands along his chest, gazing into his blue eyes that perfectly complimented his rosy cheeks.

“Darlin’, you were the one makin’ all the noise,” he said in a low tone.

She sighed, resting her head against his chest. “You’re right, you always were a good lover.”

He rubbed her back, gazing into the flames as well. “You know, we could alway reenact that night. If you’re up to it that is.”

She smirked, smooching his cheek. “I thought you’d never ask,” she whispered in his ear, giving it a small nip. He let a gasp escape his lips.

“Jesus, darlin’.” His lips met hers as he gracefully flipped her onto her back. “I was on top, remember?” He pinned her wrists to the soft, welcoming rug beneath them. It was her turn to let out a gasp. A bead of sweat dripped down her brow, the weight of her husband’s warm body causing blood to rush throughout her entire being.

She kissed his neck and moaned. “Are you sure I wasn’t the one on top?” She wrapped her legs around his torso and twisted her body around and caught him off guard. Arthur grunted, his wife now the one staring down at him.

He couldn’t help but chuckle. Who knew such a typically mild mannered woman could have the drive and spunk of a working girl? He felt himself growing stiff beneath her.

“No, darlin’, you’ve got it all wrong, remember? You were on top when we was by the lake, after we went skinny dippin’. I remember ‘cause the rocks were diggin’ into my back, but hell, it was worth is just to watch myself disappear inside of you over and over again.”

Warmth flooded her core as she began to grind against his leg. “Well, which was it, Arthur? Make up your mind before...before I..” She buried her face in the crook of his neck and moaned.

“Look at you…” he chuckled. “You gonna cum before I’m even inside you?”

She shook her head.

“Thought not. Goddamn, you must be soaked.” He held her against him and kissed her lips. He lay her back down against the soft texture of the rug, his hands exploring her body, as they had on that fateful night. “Now it’s all comin’ back to me. You were lyin’ there, the light of the fire dancin’ across your nude body…” His hands played with the straps of her nightgown before sliding them off, revealing her bare bosom. “Your breasts, milky white…” He planted kisses on them, his calloused fingers running across her pink buds.

She bit her lip to stifle a moan. “Yeah? Then what?”

He slid the nightgown further down her body. “Your stomach, soft and delicate” His voice had grown low and a bit hoarse.

Charlotte rubbed her thighs together, her breath shallow as she anticipated his next move.

Finally, he slid the nightgown completely off of her body, the cold air hitting her skin. She shivered, not from the air, but from the sensation of Arthur’s bearded face rubbing against the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. He kissed all the way up her thigh until he reached her core. He placed his fingers against it, and while a layer of cloth separated his touch from her body, she still left out a soft moan.

“Yes...yes…” he growled. “I’m rememberin’ now. How you tasted…” He looked up at her as he slid her panties down her legs. “Darlin’, it’s takin’ everythin’ in me not to devour you right now.”

“W-what’s stopping you?”

That comment again. God, she was a relentless tease.

He stared at her as he gave her pussy a long, teasingly slow lick. She let out a soft whimper at the sensation of his warm tongue against her intimacy. Her juices continued to flow, and he was right there to lap them up with his eager mouth.

Her taste was familiar to his tongue, sweet as summer honeysuckles. His beard rubbed the skin of her inner thighs, and she arched her back as his tongue continued to explore the familiar territory of her folds. His cock throbbed against the tight fabric of his union suit. He longed to be inside her, to hold her against him as their heartbeats began to sync.

He growled, fumbling with the buttons of his suit and he moved his head back and forth. He ran his hand along his entire length, finally letting it free from its previous confines.

His wife couldn’t help but glance down and moan at the sight of her husband pleasuring himself while he pleasured her. She bucked against his face, feeling herself reaching her peak.

His calloused thumb made lazy circles around her clit while his other thumb circled the head of his cock.

Charlotte bit her lip and whimpered, squirming against her husband’s face.

“That’s it, darlin’,” he growled, “cum for me. You can do it, I know you’re close. Fuck…” His cock leaked with precum.

She arched her back and moaned out his name, and while no one could feasibly hear them in the middle of the woods, right at that moment it felt like the entire world knew that Arthur Morgan was filling her with ecstasy as she reached her climax.

She panted, her body coated with a thin layer of sweat. “Oh...Oh, Arthur..”

He panted heavily as well, sliding beside her and kissing her, his face and beard still lingering with the taste and scent of her.

“Mmm that’s a good girl…” he whispered in her ear.

Her hands squeezed his glistening biceps, then trailed down to his chest and stomach. She played with his chest hair, a sly smirk on her face. “My big man loves to eat, hmm?” she teased, kissing his neck and nipping his earlobe.

“You’re damn right I do.” He let out a grunt, his cock twitching.

Charlotte kissed him and shimmied the rest of his suit down his body.

“Now we’ve just gotta stay close together so we don’t freeze to death,” she said, her hand gripping his length and stroking it. She kissed his lips, muffling the groan that escaped his mouth.

“Mmm I want us both facin’ the fire,” he whispered. “No more fightin’ to be on top.”

“Yes sir.” She obeyed, laying on her side facing the fire.

He slid her body against his, turning her face so he could kiss her. He lifted her leg, reaching a hand around to rub her pussy, still soaked from their previous interaction.

He slid inside of her with ease, both of them gasping practically the same breath. His cock inside of her was a familiar feeling that seemed to bring her more pleasure with each thrust.

His large hand clasped her smaller one, the both of them unable to take their eyes off of the other one. The fire continued to roar, and while the outside raged with icy wrathfulness, the inside of their little cabin was a hearth of comfort and pleasure.

“Darlin’, I…” he growled, twitching inside of her.

A familiar, floaty feeling began to rise in her stomach, and she let out a soft moan.

He brought their clasped hands down to her sensitive bundle of nerves. With his hand over hers, he guided her and pleased her, as an artist guides his brush across a canvas, and as an artist creates a passion filled work of art, so too were they.

She squirmed against him, barely able to contain herself as she moaned out broken pieces of his name.

“That’s it, goddamn that’s it…” he growled in her ear. “Cum with me, be a good girl and cum with me..”

The fire crackled and sparked and so did she, moaning as she came undone once more.

Arthur pulled out and groaned, spilling his seed on her stomach.

The two of them collapsed in a heap of sweat, the both of them panting and staring up at the ceiling, holding hands.

Finally, Arthur mustered up the strength to get up and retrieve a wet cloth to clean up his wife. He smirked as he cleaned her. “You were so good tonight.”

“So were you, dear.” She kissed him. “You always know exactly what I need.”

The fire began to fizzle out. Charlotte sighed and arose, retrieving a log from the pile and tossing it into the fireplace. The light of the flames illuminated every curve of her nude form. Arthur’s heart beat a bit faster at the sight.

He wished to God he could capture her in that same pose. He’d be sure to sketch a replica of it, hell, maybe have her model for him just so he had an excuse to see her naked again. Either way, the sight of her looking like a work of art made his heart soar. She definitely beat all the dirty cigarette cards he and the old gang members used to trade.

“Something on your mind, Arthur?”

He blinked a few times before chuckling. “Nothin’. Just thinkin’ about you and how lovely you look.”

She smiled and lay down beside him, kissing his forehead. “You’ve still got it, darling.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“I’m not kidding. You were wonderful tonight. It was almost identical to our honeymoon.”

He furrowed his brow and turned his head to look at her. “Almost?”

“Well, we weren’t under the stars!”

He looked out the window, the snow still coming down fast. “Darlin’, you’d better be thankin’ the lord we weren’t doin’ it outside. We’d be freezin’ our asses off in all that snow.”

She giggled, nuzzling against him and kissing his chest. “Well we may not have been making love under the stars, but you certainly made me see stars tonight, Mr. Morgan.”

He chuckled, pulling her against him and kissing her one more time before drifting off to sleep.

#arthur x charlotte #arthur morgan x charlotte balfour #charlotte balfour #arthur morgan #red dead redemption 2

23 notes · View notes

entishramblings · 4 years

Text

The Miscalculated Whittled Elk [Legolas X Reader]

A.N: So I’ve been having terrible writers block and you guys were totally right: I needed to change my scenery and switch up my topic. Hence why I decided to take a mini break from my fanfic and write this Drabble/Imagine/One Shot or whatever you want to call it.

Request: @queenofmankind - hi there! Can I request a Legolas X Fem Elf Reader where she’s in love with him and does something to initiate a courting between them but Legolas turned her down because he thought he was in love with Tauriel just to find out that it’s actually the reader he’s in love with? but she already left Greenwood because of heartbreak & may be planning to sail to the undying lands? Thank you!

Paring: Legolas X Fem Elf Reader

Summary: (Y/N) confesses her love to Legolas after BOTFA but his emotions and mind is clouded by recent events. Happy Ending :)

Word Count: 1,456

Warnings: rejection, fluff, cuteness

MASTERLIST

It was almost dusk; the sun was setting and the colors of the sky peaked through the leaves of the forest of Greenwood. The pink, orange, and purple ethereal light reflected off the water droplets that had collected among the branches from the day’s rain.

(Y/N), an member of the Mirkwood Guard, sat high in the branches of an old oak tree. She listened to the sound of nature as she whittled wood with her silver knife. The birds were singing and the gentle breeze that brushed through the air provided a space of tranquility. She gently pressed her blade against the dark spruce wood that she held nimbly in her hand. With impeccable accuracy she drug the sharp mental against it; a thin sliver pealed off and fell to the ground below her.

She continued the process until the spruce wood took the shape of an elk. She smiled softly at her work.

(Y/N)‘s childhood confidant, Prince Legolas, would be returning home from fighting a battle between five armies with his father and most of the Mirkwood guard. He had been gone for many moons and his absence revealed to her the feelings of her heart. She was always quite fond of him but over the years the platonic friendship began to alter into something deeper. She had made up her mind that she could not conceal her emotions any longer. She decided it was time to unveil her affection.

The elleth heard the loud blare of the Greenwood horn indicating the arrival of the kingdom’s fighting force.

(Y/N) felt her heart pound faster at the thought of seeing her friend again. She placed her knife back in her weapon’s belt and held the small elk in one hand. She easily swung down from the tree and took off in a sprint towards the castle.

She arrived slightly out of breath and full of adrenaline. She gazed at the beat up and bruised warriors warily walking through the gates. She had missed one hell of a fight. Her eyes eventually laid on the blue eyed Prince and a smile crossed her lips.

She pushed through the worn out elven warriors until she was face to face with her friend. He stopped moving and looked down at her, for he was quite a bit taller.

“Legolas! I am glad to see you well!”

His eyes seemed dull and his jaw was clenched. His face was one of utter disinterest and disappointment.

(Y/N) faltered. The battle must have been rough for he was not his usual joyful and content self. She thought maybe her gift would bring him some happiness.

As the two elves stood still in the mob of disgruntled warriors, (Y/N) lifted the whittled elk up towards her chest.

She glanced down at it before looking up once again into the blue pools of uncertainty and confusion.

She spoke with a pure and gentle tone, “I carved this for you.” Her delicate fingers began to fiddle with the small figure in nervousness. “It is made of spruce—like the dark wood we would play in when we were young.”

Legolas gazed intently at the intricate wooden carving in her hands. The design was elegant and simple but expertly done. His hands softly brushed against hers as he took the elk.

“(Y/N), it is beautiful.”

His lips parted when he realized what was intended by this gift.

“But, I cannot accept it.”

He saw a flicker of sadness in her eyes and the tips of her ears flushed pink. Her heart was filled with disappointment and embarrassment.

“Oh,” the feebly response escaped her lips quietly. If Legolas wasn’t an elf he would never had heard the soft sound.

The Prince felt guilt rise in his chest. He sighed, “I apologize (Y/N). Things are complicated right now with Tauriel and I do not think this is the best of times.”

Tauriel. The name echoed in her ears. She should have known. She should have picked up on the Prince’s longing gazes and shifting attitude.

(Y/N) shifted her gaze from him. “I understand,” she uttered quietly. She pushed past him, leaving the miscalculated affection and whittled elk in his hands.

She could feel the tension rising in her chest and the blood rushing through her ears. Self-consciousness and dread shuttered through her body as she quickened her pace. Oh what a fool she was. Her heart ached and regret settled in her soul.

(Y/N)’s pace quickened to a run as she made her way towards the stables. She couldn’t be in Greenwood any longer. She couldn’t see his sympathetic face everyday and be reminded of the rejection.

She mounted her white horse and urged the gentle beast from the stable. (Y/N) wiped a tear from her cheek as her horse‘s hooves pounded against the ground towards Rivendell. She could not live in this world having given her heart away and it being brushed aside. It was known that a ship was sailing to the The Undying Lands within the next moon cycle, for that would be her heaven. She left the leaves of Greenwood behind as her heart shattered into millions of pieces.

.......

Legolas was left in the horde of exhausted warriors in shock and regret. He hands grasped the wooden elk as elves bustled around him. (Y/N)’s small form had been enveloped in the chaos and she was lost from his sight.

He squeezed his eyes shut as his fingers grazed over the crevices of the spruce figure. He had used to be in love with (Y/N) but he had abandoned his desires centuries ago when she had shown no romantic interest in him. ‘Twas years later when Tauriel caught his sight. He had thought if he couldn’t pursue his deep affection for (Y/N) he would have to find love elsewhere. He cursed at himself and his ignorance. His words from minutes ago haunted him—what had he done? He would much rather give his heart to his first love than to Tauriel who had just been a distraction.

Legolas’s head turned in the direction that (Y/N) went. His blue eyes glanced down at the elk in his hands. Oh what a fool he was.

The blonde haired Prince took off after the elleth. He pushed through the crowd as he searched for a glimpse of her glimmering hair or a flash of her bright eyes. But alas, she had disappeared within those around her.

He quickly made his way to the outdoors and the Elven Prince let his eyelids flutter closed in regret. The scent of fresh rain and earthy dirt filled his nostrils as the sound of leaves brushing together filled his ears. Oh a food he was indeed.

His eyes flew open as he caught the echoes of hooves reverberating through his mind. His heart cried out in pain when he realized what that meant.

Legolas ran to the stables and mounted their fastest horse, Arod. He compelled the beast to dash after the elleth hastily. His heart pounded like the hooves of his dark brown steed as he caught sight of (Y/N)’s small frame. He pushed Arod to quicken his pace.

The Prince was gaining on (Y/N) and she knew it. He urged Arod to run ahead of her and halt in the middle of the path—forcing her to stop dead in her tracks.

He dismounted and stood await for her to do the same. He could see the hesitance in her body language and facial expression. Legolas’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked upon her with hopefully eyes.

(Y/N) sighed but slipped of her horse where she stood firmly.

The Prince rushed towards her and grasped her face in his hands. She felt his hot breath on her skin as he muttered a simple sentence, “Oh what a fool I’ve been.”

Legolas smashed his lips against hers. For a moment (Y/N)’s world froze in shock and confusion. But she soon sank her body against his. Their mouths moved in a gentle rhythm and she hungry pushed back. Their lips battled for dominance until they molded into one of union and closeness where they shared one singular breath. His hands wandered down to her waist as her’s tangled themselves in his soft blonde hair. Legolas felt a fire burn within his chest as he yanked her body closer to his—not that they could really get any closer. His teeth gently scraped against hers and he pulled on her bottom lip. She allowed his tongue entrance. She felt a slight blush creep up to her cheeks as she indulged in her passionate desire. The heat between them grew as their mouths moved together.

Oh what fools they both had been.

490 notes · View notes

girls-scenarios · 4 years

Text

With The Rain

Idol: Yoohyeon (Dreamcatcher)

Prompt: Hi! I'm so excited to see Dreamcatcher getting so many reactions and oneshots! They deserve so much love! No pressure, but if possible could I request a Yoohyeon scenario where: Yoohyeon and the fem Reader are both superheroes guarding different towns, and they send penpal notes to each other because they have a crush on each other. And one day Reader doesn't respond and Yoohyeon goes to her town to make sure she's okay and finds that her nemesis has finally captured her! Cue an angry rescue!

Writer: Admin Kiwi

A/N: Ugh I suck at titles. Also, this took me forever to write because I kind of forgot how to write an action sequence. And it’s LONG. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this scenario!

Warnings: Weapons (guns), fighting, violence but nothing too graphic, cursing.

♡ Tip Jar♡

Now, under normal circumstances, Yoohyeon wouldn’t have been worried over your silence. She would have just figured that you out saving your city again and that you’d write her back when you could. After all, being a super hero was a busy job that didn’t save a ton of time for writing letters, and you could take care of yourself if anything came up. There had been plenty of times when the two of you had taken short breaks from letter writing to fight some crime. But this time, it was different. This time you weren’t answering her texts either.

Yoohyeon bit her lip as she stared down at her phone, stalling in the long hallway leading to the kitchen. You hadn’t even read the messages she’d sent to you over the course of the past four days and that wasn’t like you. The nagging feeling of unease at the back of her brain was now turning into worry as she sent another text and sighed, running her hand through her hair. What could be happening to keep you away for this long?

“They’re probably fine,” Siyeon said from behind her, making her jump and spin around, letting out a groan.

“Tell me when you’re going to teleport behind me, please,” Yoohyeon grumbled at the older woman, shoving her phone down into her back pocket despite the growing anxiety in her chest. The familiar hallway walls, covered in photos of the team, suddenly felt closer together.

“That would ruin the surprise.” Siyeon shrugged, then raised her eyebrows. “Why are you so worried about (Y/N) anyway? They can handle themselves just fine.”

“I know that.” Yoohyeon sighed and rubbed her hands over her face. “But it’s not like them to just disappear on me, you know? I have this weird feeling....”

“Weirder than sending letters to each other like my grandparents?”

“We’re pen pals and it’s cute, Siyeon. And I’m being serious, I just feel uneasy. I can’t stop worrying about them. About us.”

The older woman seemed to consider this for a moment. “Well, we don’t have anything going on over here. Why don’t you go to their town and see what’s up? Maybe they need some help.”

“That wouldn’t be weird?”

“I mean, if you’re really worried and this isn’t like them, then it would probably make you feel better to go check on them, right? I bet they’re just sick. And if they are okay and they’re just ignoring you on purpose, then tell them off because that’s a dick thing to do.”

She was right. Yoohyeon couldn’t help being a bit nervous that maybe you were ghosting her and didn’t want to see her, but she knew that wasn’t something you would do. Maybe you were sick. So she took out her phone again and checked the time. “Alright. I’ll go over there. Make sure Jiu knows that I’m heading out. I should be home in an hour if nothing goes wrong.”

“And if you aren’t?”

“I’ll send you some sort of signal if I get into trouble.” She slipped past Siyeon and gave her a smile as she walked back to her room. “Thanks for the advice.”

Waving her hand, Siyeon smiled and shrugged again. “No problem,” she said, giving the younger woman a mock salute before disappearing into a cloud of smoke, probably on her way back to the kitchen.

In her room, Yoohyeon quickly grabbed her suit and stuffed it into her bag, along with the long distance Bluetooth earpiece that doubled as a tracker that Handong, the technical brain of the team, had given all of them for emergencies. Then, with a stop in the bathroom to make sure she looked acceptable, she was out the door on her way to your town, her heart beating heavy in her chest. Above her head, clouds began to gather, slowly blocking out the sun.

As soon as she arrived in your town, she knew something was wrong. The smell of smoke hung in the air and the streets were deserted. Even the usually busy town hall outside the union station was empty except for the workers, and she frowned, furrowing her brow as she slipped into the bathroom and pulled out her phone. With her heart beginning to pound in her chest, she checked the news for your town, cursing herself for not doing so earlier. The first thing that popped up was a warning for citizens to stay home, and her stomach fell.

The terrorist group known as the Earth Order has returned from hiding after breaking their leader Hornet from prison. This weekend, they stormed the city bank and took everyone inside hostage. Superhero (Y/N) arrived on the scene but has not been seen again since the incident. Law enforcement have warned citizens to stay inside as they are trying to negotiate and have been working with other local heroes, but the public has started to fear the worst.

Yoohyeon swore at herself under her breath and grabbed her suit, internally kicking herself. Of course it was Hornet! You’d told her that he’d been broken out of prison only days before you stopped responding. Why hadn’t she checked the news earlier? Because she was scared that you’d lost interest in her? Because she’d been distracted by her feelings for you? If only she’d known, she could have come earlier. She could have helped you. She could have stopped you from being hurt.

Fear mixed with rage as she slid her mask over her face, concealing her true identity. She wasn’t sure what was going on with the other heroes and law enforcement, but she had to get in there and help you, no matter what she did. As she stuffed her civilian clothes back into her bag, her phone rang and she glanced at the caller. Jiu.

“Something happened,” the older woman said as soon as Yoohyeon answered the phone. “What’s wrong.”

“How did you know?” Yoohyeon asked, slipping her bag over her shoulder as she prepared to leave.

“The weather doesn’t usually go from sunny to a downpour unless you have something to do with it.”

“Oh.” Sure enough, when she stepped out of the bathroom, rain was pouring from the now grey skies, pounding against the ground. Sheepishly, she rubbed the back of her neck. “Yep, that’s me. Sorry, I thought I had more control over my powers now.”

“It’s only when you get really upset. So I know something happened.”

“(Y/N) was captured by Hornet, their nemesis. They went into the bank building after them a few days ago and they haven’t been seen since.”

“That is bad,” Jiu said, and Yoohyeon could hear her leader typing on the other side of the line. “Do you want us to come as backup? I can get the rest of the girls suited up in no time.”

“No, not right now.” Yoohyeon narrowed her eyes and clenched her jaw. This was something she had to do. “I’ll send a panic alert through the tracker if I run into trouble. There are heroes here on the ground. I’ll think something up.”

“Well, if you’re sure. Good luck.”

“Thanks, Jiu.” Yoohyeon ended the call and slipped her phone into her bag, attached the Bluetooth to her ear, and turned on the tracker. With that, she stowed her bag in one of the lockers at the nearby bus station and took off through the rain, headed straight for the bank.

It didn’t take long for her to find it. She didn’t know the layout of your town all that well, but all she had to do was follow the smoke and, soon, the sound of sirens. Squad cars, firetrucks, and ambulances crowded and blocked the road as she reached the scene, and she immediately spotted the team of heroes you worked with gathered behind one of the trucks, speaking to local law enforcement. The bank doors were closed, but the windows were broken and smoking, and blackened, burnt-out cars cluttered the surrounding streets. Frowning, she stayed out of sight from the bank’s many windows, looking the tall building up and down from behind one of the cars. For the first time, she wished she had Siyeon’s power of teleportation. The place looked impenetrable.

After surveying the scene, she stayed low and approached the large truck, trying her best to stay out of sight. At the sound of her footsteps, one of your teammates turned around and gasped.

“Rain? What are you doing here?” At the sound of his voice the rest of the team turned around and she pressed a finger to her lips, joining them in their hiding spot.

“I’m here because I heard what happened to (Y/N).”

“Oh.” Another one of your teammates, Dazzler, twisted her hands, throwing a worried glance up at the building. “Were you worried too?”

“Of course, we’re close.” That was all they needed to know for now. “What’s the situation?”

“It’s not good.” Your team leader Miniaturist stepped up, shaking her head. “We arrived as backup as soon as communication from (Y/N) cut out inside the bank, but Hornet called in reinforcements and he knows we’re here. We can’t just run inside because we don’t know where his hostages are and we don’t need any more civilians getting hurt. Any time we get close, members of the terrorist group come pouring out. We’ve gone through so many, but they just keep coming. We have no idea how many people are inside.”

“That is a rough situation.” Yoohyeon crossed her arms, trying to think. “Does he know all of your powers?”

“Sort of. I was able to shrink myself down and slip in one of the first floor windows without anyone noticing, but they’ve locked and sealed the doors to the stairs so that I couldn’t climb in and unlock it, and I can’t just use the elevator. They’re using the bank cameras to track our every move.”

“I could short circuit the cameras,” added your other teammate Shocker, “but I can’t get close enough without getting shot at or attacked. They always see us coming.”

Hornet had really covered every one of his bases this time. Yoohyeon glanced around the team, then back at the building. Any rescue attempt would be risky at this point, but she had to get in there. They couldn’t let this go on any longer. Using Shocker was their best bet, but how could they get him close enough?

An idea hit her and she brought her hand up to her Bluetooth. “Shocker, do you think you’d have enough time to short circuit the cameras if we teleported you in close enough?”

“I can do it in seconds, but we don’t have anyone like that on our team.”

“I do.” She pressed the button and waited until Jiu’s voice cut through the static.

“Yoohyeon, what’s up?”

“Can you have Vanisher teleport to my location?”

“In her suit?”

“Yes please.”

“I’m on it.”

The Bluetooth cut out and Yoohyeon brought her hand down. “She should be here any minute.”

“Teleportation is exactly what we need,” Miniaturist said, perking up for the first time. “Once the cameras are down, they can only see us from the windows. There are plenty of blind spots in the back of the building. I’ll go through the back door and see if I can scope out the place. Once we have an idea of what we’re dealing with, we can send a team to the front of the building to distract Hornet. He doesn’t know you or Vanisher are here, and that gives us an advantage. You guys can go around the back and take him by surprise while we draw his backup away from you.”

“That sounds like a great idea.” A little poof of smoke revealed a grinning Siyeon and everyone jumped upon her arrival, spinning around to look at her.

“Woah, you really can teleport,” commented Shocker, holding his hand to his chest in shock, and she laughed.

“Of course I can! Now, who am I taking to stop the cameras?” She was as nonchalant as ever when faced with danger and Yoohyeon felt a bit better now that she was there. The situation felt a bit more familiar.

“It’s me,” Shocker said, raising his hand, and Siyeon grabbed him by his shoulders, still grinning.

“I’ll try to hold you still so that you don’t get sick. Just ready yourself, okay?” She didn’t give him enough time to resist, disappearing with him in her arms. After a moment, Yoohyeon heard electricity popping and then the fire of automatic guns. Dazzler’s face with white, but with a poof of smoke, Siyeon and Shocker appeared again behind the truck, unharmed.

“Oh thank goodness,” Dazzler said, putting a hand to her chest and letting out a sigh of relief, and Shocker gave her a thumbs up despite looking a bit sick.

“Cameras are all down. I accidentally turned out all their electricity for a minute too but it’s hard to control your power after your entire body is transported through space and time somehow.”

“That’s being dramatic,” Siyeon said, dusting off her suit and looking around. “What’s the plan now?”

“It’s my turn.” Miniaturist disappeared from her spot and Siyeon blinked.

“Wait, I thought they didn’t have a teleporter.”

“We don’t.” A faint voice came from the ground and both Siyeon and Yoohyeon looked down to see a tiny woman waving at them. “I’m going to run around the back and scope out the area. I’ll communicate with my team and have them rely information to you.” With that, Miniaturist jumped up to the top of the truck, leaving Siyeon and Yoohyeon to stare in surprise.

“Man, that’s one weird power. How did she do that?” Siyeon asked, and Dazzler grinned.

“Something about keeping the power she has at normal size when she’s miniature. Isn’t it cool?”

“It really is. It’s useful during times like this too.”

“Yep.” Shocker sat down, rubbing his hands together to recharge his powers. “Now we just sit here and wait.”

“She was able to get into the back stairwell.” Dazzler reported, “They’re holding the civilian hostages on the second floor with ten guards. There are terrorist goons on every floor and there’s someone with a gun at every window. The third floor is full of them, it seems like that’s where the reinforcements are. They’re using the back stairwell. She was able to get to each floor other than the sixth, because there’s a blockade there. She thinks that’s where Hornet and (Y/N) are.” Pulling her hand away from her ear, Dazzler peeked out to look at the building and sighed. “We’re way outnumbered. Even if these guys don’t have powers, they have weapons and there’s a lot of them.”

“We have a member who can control metal.” At Yoohyeon’s words, everyone turned to look at her and Dazzler raised her eyebrows.

“That would help. Could you get her here?”

“I can.” The words barely left Siyeon’s mouth before she disappeared into a cloud of smoke.

When she reappeared, it was with two women instead of one. “I brought our leader too. She controls fire and can make explosions.”

“Hi,” Jiu said, waving a hand as she stepped forward. “I’m Firefly, but you guys can call me Jiu.”

“And I’m Handong. You might also know me as Silver.” Handong waved her gloved hand as well, glancing around the team. “We got the rundown from Siyeon. When are we going in?”

Shocker smiled and waved back at them, even though he looked a bit queasy when he saw them teleport. “Whenever our leader gets back from scoping the place out.”

“I’m back.” The voice made them all jump, then Miniaturist’s sudden appearance made them jump again. She was slightly dusty and she frowned as she brushed off her suit.

“I thought they didn’t have a teleporter?” Jiu asked, and Miniaturist laughed.

“I don’t teleport, I get really tiny. Hence my name, Miniaturist.”

“That makes a lot of sense. I’m Firefly, nice to meet you. This beside me is Silver. We’re here to help. I control fire and she controls metal.”

“This is good.” Miniaturist crossed her arms. “Here’s what we’ll do. Silver, we need you here. Shocker, Dazzler, and I will charge in from the front as a distraction, but there are snipers in every window. We need your cover long enough for the others to wipe out the snipers. Vanisher, Rain, and Firefly will go around the back to wipe out the snipers and rescue the hostages, including (Y/N). Does that all sound good?” The team looked at each other and nodded, and Miniaturist put her hand into the middle of the circle. “Then let’s do this. For the hostages, and for (Y/N).”

Yoohyeon’s heart began to beat a bit faster as she put her hand into the circle and cheered with the rest of them. Miniaturist hadn’t been able to find you, were you really inside? Were you okay? Where could Hornet be hiding you? Were you...? She didn’t let herself finish the question, instead clenching her teeth together and holding onto Siyeon. She couldn’t let herself get upset before the mission even started.

“Now!” Miniaturist yelled, and a blast of blinding light from Dazzler signaled the charge. With that, Yoohyeon’s world went momentarily black.

When she came back, she was dizzy and standing in front of the back door. No matter how many times she teleported, she always ended up feeling strange. As she got her balance back, she watched Jiu try the doorknob.

“She must have unlocked it,” the oldest girl said as she swung the door open. “Let’s go.”

“Do we have a plan?” Siyeon asked as the three of them slipped inside, and Jiu scanned the ceiling.

“I do. I’m going to set of the smoke alarms and the sprinklers. That way Yoohyeon will never run out of water to manipulate and the terrorists will be confused. We need to hit the second floor with the hostages first after we shock them so we catch them by surprise and there’s less chance for people to get hurt.”

“That’s a good idea.” Yoohyeon stopped, tried another door, and nodded for the other girls to come over. “Here are the stairs. We should be able to find a smoke detector in here somewhere.” Outside, the sounds of fighting were loud, and she shuddered at the constant firing of the guns. She knew Handong was good, but they had never faced off against this many enemies before. She could only hope that the other woman could handle it.

“Here’s one! And on the third floor, great.” Jiu stopped and opened her palm. After a second, a fire popped to life above her skin and she held it up to the detector, stretching her arms to reach. At first, nothing happened. Then a piercing siren echoed throughout the building and sprinklers sputtered to life, drenching the floor in seconds.

“Shit, what the fuck was that?”

“I don’t know, but now the elevators won’t work!”

Inside the door that Yoohyeon guessed led to the room where the hostages were being held, she could hear confused yelling. Quickly, the three women moved behind the door and listened to the thud of booted feet rumbling towards the stairwell door.

As soon as the door opened and two men stepped out, Siyeon slammed the door behind them and Yoohyeon manipulated the water, turning the downpour into a whip and sending the two flying down the stairs. There was a crack when their heads landed, and the didn’t move again. Satisfied, the girls turned again to the door.

“Why did you slam the door?” Three more men walked through and Yoohyeon gave them the same treatment, using her water to ram them against the wall. They would be fine, but they wouldn’t wake up for a while.

“That’s five,” Jiu whispered, “five left.”

“Hey, what’s going on out there?” Another voice sounded from behind the door, and they looked at each other. Was this really going to be this easy?

“You goddamn fool! Don’t go through that door, there has to be someone out there!” The next fool foiled their hope for an easy take down. Hearing this, Yoohyeon turned her body to water and slipped underneath the door to look. Five more armed men stood inside, and the biggest one was blocking the rest of the men from the door, glaring at them with his weapon in his hands.

“But who? The whole team is-.”

“They must have called reinforcements. We have to warn Hornet.”

“Oh no you don’t!” Just as quick as she’d turned to water, she returned to her solid form, landing a solid kick against the man’s throat. He choked and went down, and the rest of the men raised their guns, only for them to melt in their hands, making them gasp and scream as it burnt their skin.

“Awe, is it too hot in here for you boys?” Jiu stood in the doorway, her hands and eyes aflame. “Why don’t I make it a bit hotter?” She aimed her arm at one of the big guns at the broken-out window and the goon in her way screamed and dove out of the way just in time to avoid the wave of fire that melted the gun and exploded some of the glass. “Oh, I see you have a survival instinct.”

A few of the men had made a run for the door, but Siyeon was quick and well trained. She kicked one of them, sending him tumbling back against the man running behind him, then jumped onto the back of another, wrapping her legs around his neck and sending him down. With a poof of smoke, she was gone and back again with rope, and soon, all the goons were sat in the corner, their hands and legs tied and their weapons melted or disintegrated.

The scared hostages, mostly bank workers, stared at them with wide eyes as they approached, as if they couldn’t believe they were really there.

“You came to save us?” One woman asked, and Jiu nodded, bending down with a soft smile to burn through the ropes binding them, setting them free.

“We came to save you. Come on, we’ll take you down the back stairs, but we have to be fast. Since the elevators are off, reinforcements might come down the stairs.

The hostages were weak after sitting bound on the floor for so long and most of them stumbled and fell, but with Siyeon’s help for the weakest ones, they were able to get every one of them to the ambulances waiting outside. Still, Yoohyeon couldn’t rest. She was anxious to get back inside.

As the three of them once again entered the stairwell, Jiu turned to Yoohyeon. “I know you want to go find (Y/N), so you should. Siyeon and I can handle the rest of them.”

“Are you sure?”

“We’re sure.” Siyeon patted her shoulder. “If you can’t get around the blockage, call me. And good luck.”

Setting her jaw, Yoohyeon nodded at her teammates, thankful that they understood. “Good luck.” With that, she turned and headed up the stairs, taking them two at a time in her rush. She could still hear gunfire, but she focused on her mission: she had to get to you and trust in the others to be able to handle the rest of the situation. So up she went, running as fast as she could to get to the top.

Just as she was about to round the last set of stairs to get to the blockade, an explosion from above rocked the building and she threw herself onto the floor, covering her head as rubble showered down around her. When the dust settled around her, she slowly stood up and crept up the rest of the stairs to the next landing, every sense on high alert. The air was still cloudy and she had to resist the urge to cough just in case someone was close by. Thankfully, the landing was still intact, but as she looked up at the next set of stairs, she realized what the explosion had been.

The bottom half of the stairs where the blockade had been had been reduced to rubble that cluttered the stairs below, leaving a gaping hole impossible to jump over. At least, for a regular person. Yoohyeon furrowed her eyebrow and looked up. The next landing was still intact was well, although obviously shaken and unsafe. Did this mean Hornet knew they were in the building? He had destroyed his one escape route outside the elevator. He was desperate.

Yoohyeon stepped back until she hit the wall and studied the gap. Going back now was no option. She’d have to jump it.

She closed her eyes and breathed slow and deep, feeling the water all around her and connecting it with her body. Then she readied herself to run in the small space, placing one foot in front of the other and outstretching her hands behind her. It was a technique she’d seen Jiu use, and even though she’d never tried with water before, it had to work.

When she opened her eyes, she started to run, going as fast as she possibly could. Then, at the very last moment as her foot hit the edge of the gap, she jumped and released a jet of water from her hands, propelling her up and forwards at high speed. Her feet landed on the remaining steps and she almost felt relief until the unstable concrete gave out beneath her and she threw herself forward, grabbing onto the corner of the landing to catch herself. The sharp end cut into her hand but she held on, getting her knees onto another more stable step before again throwing her body forward, landing mostly on the ledge. The rest of the stairs crumbled behind her and she gasped for air and carefully crawled forward, not looking back.

The ledge was full of growing cracks, but she spread out her body weight and moved slow and purposeful until she was on the last set of ten stairs, leading to the final floor. Somehow, they were still standing, but not for long. Still careful, Yoohyeon stood to her feet and took them two at a time once again, desperate to get onto solid flooring again. They held her weight and, as she reached the landing and, subsequently, the last doorway, she took a deep breath.

If you weren’t beyond this door....

No, she couldn’t think of that now. Instead of opening the door, she turned her body to water again and slipped silently underneath the door before slithering further into the room. The sprinklers were still going and the water on the floor helped disguise her form, as even in the water she still had a face. The last floor was severely damaged, desks and chairs mangled and holes through the walls. Sparks from broken lights fell into the water and the further through the labyrinth of hallways and offices on the last floor she went, the destruction got worse, until she reached a large meeting room with the door ripped to shreds.

Inside, she heard a voice and her heart stopped. It was you. You were alive.

“Just admit that you’re beaten. They’ve taken out most of your snipers, they took your hostages, and they’re beating the shit out of your guys on the ground. There’s no way you can win this.” Your voice was rough and raspy as you spat at the words, and she could hear chains clanking together and scraping against the floor.

“I think you’re forgetting something,” a man’s voice hissed in return, and anger boiled in Yoohyeon’s chest. Hornet. “I still have you. What do you think your teammates will do if I threaten to kill you?”

“You won’t get away with it. You won’t get away with any of this.”

Yoohyeon followed the sound of your voice, slowly pulling herself from the water so that she could see. In one corner of the meeting room, you were chained to a chair, your legs strapped to the legs and your arms chained so tight behind your back that your arms were streaked with red cuts. You were holding your head high despite the cuts and bruises on your face and the dark circles under your eyes, staring Hornet right in the eyes as he walked over to glare down at you. He was a lean man, not traditionally intimidating, but he towered over you and his eyes were wide, yellow, and crazy. The long fingernails he used to sting and paralyze dug into your skin as he grabbed your face, and Yoohyeon belated realized, to her horror, that you were hooked up to an IV at the back of your neck.

That was how he had captured you. He was continuously paralyzing you through the IV, using the same poison from his nails.

“You sure are brave today. How about I give you another round of electricity and see how brave you are then? With all this water around I can’t guarantee it won’t kill you.”

“But I can.” Yoohyeon stood to her full height, revealing herself as she slashed her hand through the air, sending blades of water to cut through the IV. At the sound of her voice you jerked your head back and Hornet dropped you to spin around, his wild eyes darting around the room until they landed on her.

“Y-Yoohyeon?”

“Who are you?” He demanded, and Yoohyeon glared, the water around her beginning to boil with the intensity of her anger.

“Your worst nightmare.” She pulled her arms back, then pushed them forward, sending a wave of boiling water straight into his core. He let out a cry of pain as he was thrown back into the wall, and she turned her attention to you, slashing at your restraints. The metal of your chain didn’t break as easily as the IV, and he was back on his feet before she could break through, his eyes flashing yellow.

“I won’t let you ruin this! Not after I came so far!” He was faster than she’d thought he would be, and she narrowly missed his charge, jumping to the side just in time to avoid his nails. As he slid to a stop and turned around, she turned her palms upward and pulled up before making a fist, turning the water around her into sharp frozen knives that she then threw towards him with all the force in her body.

They missed his skin but caught on his clothing and dragged him back up against the wall, digging deep into the cheap dry wood. Once again, she had bought herself time and she turned her attention back to you, sharpening her water blade this time through pure anger as she slashed and hacked against your chains.

Just as they fell away and you slumped forward, barely able to catch yourself after the affects of the poison, Hornet roared and broke free, once again charging at Yoohyeon. This time, she was ready, turning her entire body to water and letting him charge right through her before she spun around and grabbed him by the shoulders. Water flowed through her body and up from the ground in a boiling fountain, enveloping him as he screamed. He dragged his body forward and twisted back, trying to escape, but she stared him in the eye, twisted and flexed her fingers, and drew in a purposeful breath, watching with pleasure as the boiling water turned to ice, trapping him inside. Satisfied, she breathed out, freed her hands and pulled away, then immediately refroze the space her hands had made at his shoulders. From inside, he stared at her with his crazy eyes, mid-scream, unable to move but obviously furious.

With Hornet defeated, she turned and ran to your side, helping you sit back up and sucking in a breath when she saw your wounds up close. “Oh my god, (Y/N), are you okay? What did he do to you? I’ll get you down to the ambulance right away.”

Tears were running down your face as you looked up at her, your body shaking as you did your best to move. “You came for me,” you whispered, and she nodded, trying not to cry herself as she dropped to her knees and pulled you gently into her arms.

“I did. I couldn’t let anything happen to you.” She swallowed the lump in her throat, squeezing her eyes shut. “I’m so sorry I didn’t get here earlier.”

“It’s not your fault.” You let your forehead fall against her shoulder, your body exhausted. “I should have been stronger. I shouldn’t have let him draw me into this small room. He had the advantage.” A sob shuddered through your body. “I let everyone down. I let you down.”

“You didn’t let anyone down,” she assured you, “especially not me. We all came together to get you out of this. I’m just glad you’re alive. I-I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t save you.”

“I feel cold.” Your voice was brittle and she quickly scooped you into her arms and stood up, terror rushing through her veins. Your body was cold and your breathing uneven and labored, and your eyes slowly began to close.

“No,” she said, letting the tears flow from her eyes as she ran towards the elevators, using the water to raise her own temperature. She had come this far. She couldn’t lose you like this. “Hand in there, (Y/N). I’ll get you help. Please.” Her voice broke as she stopped in front of the elevator, desperately trying to force it open. Nothing would work and she stomped her foot in frustration, turning the water settled on the floor to steam. “I can’t lose you. I love you! Please don’t leave me.”

Slumping to the floor, she cradled you, sobbing as she pressed her forehead to yours. “Please, (Y/N), wake up.”

At that moment, her Bluetooth crackled to life and Jiu’s voice came through, loud and clear. “Yoohyeon, is everything okay on your side?”

Reluctantly, she pulled an arm away from you to touch her ear, unable to stop sobbing. “No, it’s (Y/N). I got here, but I might be too late. The stairs and destroyed and the elevator isn’t working, I can’t do anything-.”

“I’m sending Siyeon to your location now!” Jiu’s voice was stern. “Stay by their side and do everything you can. She’s coming to help you.”

“Help is coming, (Y/N),” she whispered, cradling you once again. “So please. Just hang in there a little longer.”

The world was a blur. Yoohyeon couldn’t control her powers, her body wavering and turning to and from water as the skies poured rain like the city had never seen. The ambulance and police lights all blended together and the sounds around her sounded far away and jumbled. The ambulance with you in it sped away and Miniaturist said something, but Yoohyeon couldn’t hear. She could just watch the lights get smaller and smaller as her body phased in and out, becoming one with the rain.

The dry white halls of the hospital were suffocating, yet Yoohyeon found herself walking through them with flowers in her hand, just like she had every day since she rescued you. How long had it been? Four days? Five? They all seemed to blend together now, even if Yoohyeon was doing better. She no longer turned into water without realizing it, but the rain hadn’t stopped.

Her feet stalled in front of your door and she glanced around before stepping inside and quietly closing the door behind her. Flowers, cards, and gifts cluttered the room now, and she added the new ones she’d brought to an old bouquet before approaching your bed.

Your color was better now, and you were no longer cold to the touch. Your limbs twitched and even moved, once. But you were still asleep.

“Hey (Y/N). I’m here again today. Are you feeling better?” She wasn’t expecting an answer. Still, she sighed at the silence and sat down in the chair beside your bed, reaching out to gently touch your arm. “You know, this room is full of gifts for you. Flowers, cards, teddy bears, chocolates.... Everyone is worried about you, and thankful that you risked so much to try and protect them. We all want you to wake up.” After a moment of silence, she took a breath and shook her head. “I need you to wake up. I really don’t know what I’ll do without you, (Y/N). I can hardly breathe without you here.”

The room stayed silent aside from the beeping of machines, and after sitting a while, she stood up with another sigh, her heart heavy. She wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take. You were usually so vibrant and strong. It was unsettling to see you like this.

“Well,” she said, “I’ll come and see you again tomorrow.” She lingered for another moment, just in case, before turning and walking towards the door. Just as her hand was about to turn the knob, the sheets on your bed shifted and she froze.

“Yoohyeon?” Your voice was hoarse and almost unfamiliar, but relief surged through her body anyway as she spun around to look. You were still laying down, but your head was turned towards her, and your eyes were open.

“(Y/N)?” She let out a half laugh, half sob as she ran over to your bed. “(Y/N), you’re awake!”

Your eyes were wide and confused as you looked up at her, then around the room, blinking slowly. “W-where am I?”

“You’re in the hospital. You collapsed at the bank and we rushed you here.” She took your hand, holding in her tears as she smiled and brushed your hair away from your face. “I’m so glad you’re awake.”

You opened your mouth as if you were about to say something, but the door opened and nurses ran in, followed by the doctor. “They’re awake, just like we heard! We need to check vital signs.”

They milled in and out and the silent room suddenly became alive with activity. Yoohyeon watched in awe until you squeezed her hand, pulling her attention back to you. “I’m scared,” you whispered, “can you stay with me?”

Squeezing your hand back, she nodded. “I’m not going anywhere.”

The next day, the halls didn’t seem nearly as suffocating as they had before, and Yoohyeon walked through with a smile, another bunch of flowers in hand. When she opened the door, you were awake to greet her, and once again relief and happiness surged through her as she closed the door behind her.

“Good morning. How are you feeling today?”

“A lot better. Still a bit queasy, but the doctors said I’d feel like that for a while. At least I can move all my limbs again. And I can eat. I was starving, quite literally.”

“That is good.” She walked over to fill the vase next to your bed with the new flowers, her smile never leaving her lips. “I brought you tulips today. Aren’t they pretty?”

“They are,” you agreed. “Thank you for coming. The nurses said you came by every day.”

“I did. I couldn’t just leave you alone here. Especially not when you being sick is my fault.”

You raised your eyebrows, your face falling a bit. “Your fault?”

Now her smile disappeared and she twisted her hands together, sitting in the chair beside your bed. “Yes, my fault. Your team needed backup. Had I checked on you sooner, you might not be in the hospital. Had I just checked the news, I would have known. But instead I was scared that you were ghosting me, or that you had gotten annoyed with me. Because of that, I let you suffer for longer.”

“Yoohyeon, you saved me,” you said, sounding confused. “I don’t blame you for any of this. There was no way you could have known that I was in trouble. And it was my own fault for going in without waiting for backup. I let my pride and determination get ahead of me and I ended up causing a lot of trouble for everyone else. I don’t blame you at all. Instead, I’m really thankful that you came to help me.”

“But I could have done it sooner.”

“Hey, listen to me.” You reached over to touch her arm, just like she’d done with you the day before, and she looked up at you. “The past is the past. All of us made mistakes. But everything turned out okay. I don’t blame you. And even if it was somehow your fault, I think you literally saving my life makes up for it. You were incredible in there.”

Your words made her feel a bit better and she nodded a bit, giving you a weak smile. “Do you remember what happened?”

“Honestly, the memories are a bit fuzzy,” you admitted. “But I remember when you burst in. I was trying to be tough, but I was terrified. Then you burst in and I finally felt some hope that I would get out of there. I remember that you froze Hornet. And I remember feeling really, really cold and not being able to move.”

“That was terrifying. I was just holding you and I couldn’t do anything.”

“It’s really foggy after that, but.... I remember you begging me to wake up and stay with you, and saying... that you, um, loved me.” As you spoke, your cheeks grew red and Yoohyeon felt herself flush, clearing her throat and glancing away. Of all things for you to remember!

“Oh.”

“Yeah.” After a moment of awkward silence, you spoke again, your voice tentative. “Did you mean it?”

“What?” She jerked up, looking back at you. You looked... hopeful, almost.

“Did you mean it when you said that you loved me, or were you just saying it in the heat of the moment?”

Well, she couldn’t lie to you now. Not after everything the two of you had gone through. Almost losing you was the scariest thing that had ever happened to her and when you were laying there in her arms, she’d regretted never telling you her feelings. So she took a deep breath and nodded, giving you a small smile. “I meant it. And I regretted not telling you sooner.”

“Sooner?”

“I’ve been in love with you for a long time, (Y/N).”

Your smile widened and you laughed, immediately brightening up as you reached for her hand instead. “Good. Because I’m in love with you too.”

“Really? This isn’t just because I saved you, right?”

“I mean, that’s part of it.” You squeezed her hand. “But I was drawn to you from the moment we met, and I only started to like you more after we got closer and became pen pals and met up all the time. Long story short, I’ve loved you for a long time too, Yoohyeon.”

“Wow.” This was real. She almost felt like fainting from relief and happiness, but she didn’t, grinning and scooting closer to you instead. Her heart felt like it was too big for her chest as it pounded and, for the first time, she felt butterflies in her stomach. You loved her too. You didn’t blame her. You were okay and you loved her too. The emotions were almost overwhelming, and she had to make a joke to keep herself from crying. Had she ever cried this much before? “I can’t believe it took you being taken hostage for us to confess.”

You laughed, once again looking like your usual self. Like the you she loved so much. “At least something good came out of it, I guess. You know, since you saved me, I should do something to pay you back.”

She flushed and quickly shook her head. “You don’t have to do that, I-.”

“No, I insist.” You smiled affectionately. “What about a kiss for my hero?”

She hadn’t been expecting that. Well, it was certainly a good offer. As embarrassed as she felt, Yoohyeon couldn’t stop herself from smiling like a fool as she leaned in closer to you, all the worry and anger she’d felt over the week washing away. Outside, the sun finally peeked out from behind the clouds.

“You know, I think I could get behind that.”

#femifics #dreamcatcher #yoohyeon #dreamcatcher scenarios #yoohyeon scenarios #girl group scenarios #kpop scenario #girl groups #kpop girl groups #t:superpowerau

82 notes · View notes

helshades · 5 years

Link

By Adam Nossiter

Dec. 2, 2018

GUÉRET, France — At the bare bottom of Florian Dou’s shopping cart at the discount supermarket, there was a packet of $6 sausages and not much else. It was the end of last week, and the end of last month. At that point, “my salary and my wife’s have been gone for 10 days,” he lamented.

How to survive those days between when the money runs out and when his paycheck arrives for his work as a warehouse handler has become a monthly challenge. The same is true for so many others in Guéret, a grim provincial town in south-central France. And it has made Mr. Dou angry.

So he used what money he had left and drove 250 miles to join the fiery protests on Saturday in Paris, where the police moved in with tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets.

“We knew they were sent in to get rid of us,” he said the day after, “and believe me, they were not into Mr. Nice Guy.” But he vows the protesters are not going anywhere.

The “Yellow Vest” protests he is a part of present an extraordinary venting of rage and resentment by ordinary working people, aimed at the mounting inequalities that have eroded their lives. The unrest began in response to rising gas taxes and has been building in intensity over the past three weeks, peaking on Saturday.

With little organization and relying mostly on social media, they have moved spontaneously from France’s poor rural regions over the last month to the banks of the Seine, where they have now become impossible to ignore.

On Sunday, President Emmanuel Macron toured the graffiti-scrawled monuments of the capital and the damage along some of the richest shopping streets in Europe. All around France, the protests left three dead and more than 260 wounded, with more than 400 arrested. Mr. Macron convened a crisis cabinet meeting, weighing whether to impose a state of emergency.

Mr. Macron has previously insisted that, unlike past French governments, he will not back down in the face of popular resistance to reforms like a loosening of labor laws. It’s a harder line than many other western European countries have taken.

The protesters ridicule him as a president of the rich and say he is trying to balance his budgets on their backs as he remains deaf to their concerns.

But if it was the shattered glass and burned cars along Rue de Rivoli or Boulevard Haussmann in Paris that finally got Mr. Macron’s attention, the movement — named for the roadside safety vests worn by demonstrators — has in fact welled up from silent towns like Guéret, an administrative center of 13,000 people, lost in the small valleys of central France.

Far from any big city, it sits in one of the poorest departments of France, where the public hospital is the biggest employer. The cafe in the main square is empty by midafternoon. The hulks of burned-out cars dot the moribund train station’s tiny parking lot, abandoned by citizens too poor to maintain them.

In places like these, a quiet fear gnaws at households: What happens when the money runs out around the 20th? What do I put in the refrigerator with nothing left in the account and the electricity bill to pay? Which meal should I skip today? How do I tell my wife again there is no going out this weekend?

The stories of Mr. Dou’s neighbors who also joined the protests were much like his own. Inside Laetitia Depourtoux’s freezer were hunks of frozen meat, a twice-a-year gift from her farmer-father, and the six-member family’s meat ration.

On these cold nights, Joel Decoux’s oven burned the wood he chopped himself because he can’t afford gas for heating.

It is not deep poverty, but ever-present unease in the small cities, towns and villages over what is becoming known as “the other France,” away from the glitzy Parisian boulevards that were the scene of rioting this weekend.

“We live with stress,” said Fabrice Girardin, 46, a former carpet-layer who now looks after other people’s pets to get by. “Every month, at the end of the month, we say, ‘Will there be enough to eat?’ ”

Since the acidic portrait of Guéret in novels by a famous native son, the anti-Semitic 20th-century writer Marcel Jouhandeau, the town is used to being mocked as the epitome of provincial backwardness.

The Yellow Vest protesters, the descendants of those who inspired Jouhandeau’s characters, can now be found waiting at the road blocks as you come into town — truck and school-bus drivers, nurses, out-of-work electricians, housewives, warehouse handlers, part-time civil servants and construction workers on disability aid.

On cold nights the oven of Joel Decoux, left, and his wife Roselyne, center, burned the wood he chopped himself because he can’t afford gas for heating.

Mr. Dou — who says his 9-year-old son has never been on vacation and his gross salary of 1,300 euros a month, about $1,475, “disappears immediately in the bills” — was among them. There is little left after high taxes and costly utilities such as electricity.

To protest, he and the other protesters wait at night in the middle of the roundabouts, in the rain and cold and mud under makeshift tarpaulin shelters and tents in the darkness of early morning. “The People’s Élysée” is scrawled on one, mocking Mr. Macron’s Élysée Palace, seat of the presidency. “Macron, he’s with the bosses, Macron, he’s against the people,” a singer intoned in a reggaelike jingle from the radio.

Mr. Dou said he had joined the movement from the beginning, and he was an assiduous presence over several days last week on the traffic circles at Guéret. He was there at 11 p.m. on a rainy Thursday, after putting in several hours that morning, and he was there the next day as well.

“We don’t even need the social networks anymore,” he said.

His motivation, he said, was to “recover the country’s priorities. The values of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity.” The gas tax “was what set it all off.”

Now, he felt that the Yellow Vest protesters really have the government on the run.

“They don’t know what to do. They’re really in a panic.”

Virtually every car that passes honks in sympathy. But the protesters know that their shouts grow faint over the long distance to real power in Paris, and that is what has propelled them to move their demonstrations there.

By Friday, Mr. Dou was preparing to make the drive in a shared car up to Paris: checking in with his comrades at the traffic circle and buying last-minute supplies — including solution to protect his eyes from tear gas.

Yoann Decoux, an out-of-work electrical lineman in his 30s who was presented by Guéret’s Yellow Vest protesters as their spokesman, had been arrested in Paris the week before.

“I’ve never been in political demonstrations before,” he said. “But we said, enough’s enough.”

“They don’t even know how we get by with our tiny little salaries,” he said. “But we are humans too, for God’s sake!” He was getting by with vegetables and help from his part-time farmer-father.

None of the Guéret protesters expressed allegiance to any politician: Most said politics disgusted them.

“They are all the same,” Mr. Dou said.

When Guéret’s mayor, Michel Vergnier, a veteran Socialist with decades of connections in Paris, went to see the protesters, they were not welcoming.

“There’s a rejection of politicians,” Mr. Vergnier said. “They are outside all political and union organizations.”

Inside Laetitia Depourtoux’s freezer were hunks of frozen meat, a twice-a-year gift from her farmer-father, and the six-member family’s meat ration.

It was the end of the month. To a man and woman the Yellow Vest protesters of Guéret said their accounts were tapped out.

“Right now, I’m at zero,” Mr. Girardin said. His wife had done the shopping with 40 euros the day before, a Wednesday. Now there was nothing left to get them through the weekend.

“You get to the end of the month, there’s nothing,” he said.

That is why Mr. Macron’s plans to raise the gasoline tax, modest an increment as it may seem, was the final straw for so many, the spark that finally set off a seething rage that has been building for years.

There was no gas in his car, said Mr. Girardin, a carpet-layer who quit a job with a stagnant 1,200-euro a month salary to strike out on his own. But he was no better off now.

“Once we’ve finished paying all of our bills, there’s no money left.”

Tonight’s meal: noodles, with maybe a little ground beef. “I’d like to be able to take my wife to the restaurant from time to time, but I can’t,” Mr. Girardin said. Weighed down by financial stress, she had gone into a depression. “She’s totally closed in on herself,” he said.

Up the road the next morning, Ms. Depourtoux, a night-shift nurse at the hospital, was up at 6:30 a.m. with her husband, Olivier, an optician, to see their three daughters off to school in the darkness. Their modest house at a country intersection at the edge of town was pleasant but not spacious.

Guéret is located in the Creuse, the second poorest department in France.

She gently mocked him because “there is never any gas in your car.” With four children and many bills, their money — 1,800 euros a month for her, 1,500 for him — was “very quickly gone,” Mr. Depourtoux said.

The bank refused to lend them any more money. Both had joined the Yellow Vests, and both had gone to Paris the preceding weekend to demonstrate. “As long as it continues, we are with it,” he said.

“We live, but we’ve got to be careful. We can’t go to the restaurant. All the little pleasures of life are gone,” Mr. Depourtoux said. His parents, after a lifetime of work, were reduced to penury: his father in a nursing home and his mother forced to accept meals from charity.

She fills the freezer with deep-discount frozen food from the hard discounter Lidl. They wait to get paid to fill up the car and to do the shopping.

“We just don’t make it to the end of the month,” said Elodie Marton, a mother of four who had joined the protesters at the demonstration outside town. “I’ve got 10 euros left,” she said, as a dozen others tried to get themselves warm around an iron-barrel fire.

“Luckily we’ve got some animals at the house” — chickens, ducks — “and we keep them for the end of the month,” she said. “It sounds brutal, but my priority is the children,” she said. “We’re fed up and we’re angry!’ shouted her husband, Thomas Schwint, a cement hauler on a temporary 1,200-euro contract.

To a man and woman the Guéret protesters expressed fury at the government, and determination to keep going.

“Their response has poisoned the situation even more,” Mr. Depourtoux said. “The citizens have asked for lower taxes, and they’re saying, ‘Ecology,’” he said in a reference to Mr. Macron’s speech of last week where he outlined France’s plans to transition from fossil-based fuels to renewable energy.

At the roundabout, Laurent Aufrere, a truck driver, was deciding which of that day’s meals to skip.

“If I stop rolling, I die. This is not nothing,” Mr. Aufrere said. “What’s happening right now is a citizen uprising.”

#france #politics #riots in france #du rififi en macronnie #emmanuel macron #neoliberalism #civil unrest #civil disobedience #vive la république

17 notes · View notes

umbrahighpriestofgiratina · 6 years

Text

Rude Awakening Chapter 7

Well. And I thought the last delay was bad. It's been over a year. The reason being that my motivation to do fic at all was kicked in the nether regions throughout the latter half of 2017, and come 2018 I had enough writer's block on this particular project to delay it further as I focused on others. For that, I apologize to everybody who was even remotely invested in this fic. That said, here it finally is. A slower chapter, but one that sets up for bigger things to come. Chapter 7: Love and War

The mage fired a blast of dark energy at Palkia, aiming for her head. Palkia casually deflected the blast with her staff, then opened a rift in space that sucked the mage in before closing. ~Are you sure the non-lethal method for these guys is gonna work?~ said Hoopa's voice in her head. ~Well it's not like we can wanton murder the locals,~ said Palkia back. One by one, she spatially warped every that came after her, until there were none left. Soon, her group and the Shepherds were the only living people left in the battlefield. The Shepherds themselves were rather worse for wear; the local healers were getting together to patch people up. Meanwhile, Palkia looked over to Robin, who was putting away his spelbooks and cleaning off his robes. A green-haired girl in pink approached him. Palkia sighed. -------------- Palkia paced in her tent. Nearby, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina were slumped over, exhausted. "Remind me of why we're on cleanup duty again, sis?" Giratina asked. "Again, the end is coming, and we need to stop it." "Shouldn't there be more to it than just... tagging along?" said Dialga. "Something could crop up at any moment. We need to be prepared." "We've been doing this for two years!" said Hoopa. "That's piecemeal for us, sure, but it's a decent while for the humans that make up, you know, ninety percent of this group?" "It's also peacemeal for the thing we're fighting. The dark dragon god that wants to, remember, be reborn through one of the leaders of this fucking group?" "Shouldn't we be taking care of that, then?" said Dialga. Palkia gulped. "I'm trying but..." "Let's just say things are getting complicated." ------------------ A couple weeks earlier, Palkia was looking for a good spot to sit down and eat, when she saw Robin approaching her. She perked up and moved to hand him some of the food she was carrying, only to notice he seemed rather nervous. "Something wrong?" she asked. "Can I ask you something?" said Robin. "Sure, what is it?" "It's about that Manakete girl we recruited a while back. Tiki." "Yeah, what about her?" "I think I... I... I'm in love with her." Palkia started. Several thoughts flooded her mind at once, but the first and foremost to emerge was: Robin x Tiki? Who even ships that? She immediately bit her tongue, going: Palkia you idiot these are real people you don't think things like that even though they are also technically fictional in your world and gah just give him advice already. "Is that so?" said Palkia, smirking and striking a pose. "Well well, I assume you need advice on wooing the lucky lady?" "Er, yes, I suppose. You two have a similar... energy, so to speak? I've already asked Gaius and he wasn't entirely sure what to do aside from offering her some candy. Which I did. Turns out she has a licorice allergy. We haven't spoken since." Palkia filed all those facts, especially the thing about Gaius, away for later before responding. "Well, uh... It's probably been long enough. Maybe just approach her casually, like in the mess hall, apologize, and work from there?" "I don't know, though, I'm... I'm still awfully embarrassed and she might still be mad..." "Knowing her, I doubt it. Just have some faith in yourself, alright? Or don't listen to me because I'm aro ace." "You're what?" "Er... Never mind. Just do it, buddy. I know you can." Robin shook his head, then nodded, and headed off. Immediately various thoughts started swimming through Palkia's head. Tiki is a demigod. The daughter of a previous incarnation of Naga. Robin has the blood of Grima, who they're trying to stop. The two of them together... Gaius. She had to find Gaius. She rushed off through a space portal as fast as she could. ----- Gaius was relaxing by himself, a bowl of candies before him as he slowly popped them into his mouth. This peaceful scene was interrupted by a rift in space appearing behind him and Palkia emerging, grabbing Gaius, and shaking him like a rag doll. "GaiusineedtoknowwhenandhowyoulearnedaboutRobinandTikipotentiallybeingathing!" "Gah! Slow down Spacey!" said Gaius. Palkia released Gaius from her grip and sat down. "Sorry..." "This isn't about the licorice, is it?" said Gaius. "No! I just... Need to know more about how this happened!" "Kind of a snoop, are you? I dunno, Tiki got curious about Bubbles, Bubbles got curious about Tiki, and the next thing I know he comes asking me for romantic advice! Honestly regarding Tiki I'm kind of jealous of her..." "Right. Why was she gravitating to him in particular?" "When I talked to Robin about it after the licoriche incident he said she gravitated to the "strange aura" he had. Weird dragon bullshit I tell you. "Strange... Aura... Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no." "Wait, wha-" Palkia had already vanished through another rift in space. Gaius shrugged and started picking up his candies. ----------------- "...And that's why we need to watch this relationship like a Staraptor and intervene if something's up," said Palkia. "Okay then," said Hoopa. "Why didya wait until now to tell us?" "I thought things would stay awkward after the licorice incident," said Palkia, "but then my advice worked! He talked to her and they kept talking and now they're kinda sorta dating?" "Well, that certainly backfired, sister," said Dialga. "I know..." said Palkia. "What do we do now?" "Simple!" said Giratina. "We set Tiki up with Wuzzles, give her a love potion from Hoopa's Stash, and presto! Problem solved." From outside the tent Wuzzles gave a growl of objection. "Do I even have a love potion?" said Hoopa. "Okay, that's not going to work." said Palkia. "I'll ask for Naga's advice on this. She's Tiki's mother, right? Surely she'll object and tell us what to do." "It's worth a shot," said Palkia. Dialga nodded, shifted to his monster rabbit form, and headed off. So did Panne, who was listening nearby. ------------ Despite the distance, Dialga arrived in short order, heading straight to Naga. "What is it, Dialga?" said Naga. "It's about your daughter, Tiki," said Dialga, reverting to his draconic form. "She's in love with the potential future vessel of Grima." "I understand," said Naga, "but there is little I can do." "Why not?" said Dialga. "Well, for one, it's not entirely accurate to say she's my daughter, more the daughter of a previous me," said Naga. "My responsibility toward her has long passed." "Yes, so?" said Dialga. "Second... She's seen so much to suffer for in her life. I like to let her be happy when she's awake and has the chance." "Hm," said Dialga "But her mingling with Grima's power... Could it be dangerous?" "For now Grima's potential lies within Robin and only Robin," said Naga. "It has no chance of passing on to Tiki." "And what of... Their offspring?" "That I cannot say. You are working to prevent Robin's manifestation as Grima, yes?" "But of course." Naga smiled gently. "Then nothing should come ill of this union." "If you say so..." said Dialga. He sighed. "It's been two years. That's nothing to you and me but a while to those humans. We haven't found a cure." "I have faith in you and your companions, my friend," said Naga. "...Friend?" said Dialga. "Of course," said Naga. "We've only known each other for a short while and yet you're the best company I've had in millenia." "Th... Thank you." said Dialga. "But I must be going." He shifted to his rabbit form and ran off as fast as he could, Naga waving him goodbye. ------------ "...So we do nothing?" said Palkia. "Nothing," said Dialga. "This stinks!" said Hoopa. "We've been doing nothing but watching and waiting since we figured out this place is scheduled for a shitshow! This world is doomed, aint it? We gotta do something to put a stop to that!" "We can't directly intervene, though!" said Palkia. "If we break out all our fancy tricks at once, the jig is up, and there's no telling if the locals will be with or against us!" "They're just humans and a few extras though," said Giratina. "We can deal with them eas-" "That's what we said about Cyrus!" said Palkia. There was stunned silence from Dialga and Giratina. Hoopa's eyes widened and he slowly started backing up. "I..." said Palkia. "I'm sorry, I just-" "Okay, that's enough." Panne suddenly barged into the tent, followed by Libra and Virion. "You four!" said Virion. "We've caught you in the act! Now you've got some explaining to d-" He was promptly interrupted with a scream as Wuzzles pounced on him. Giratina sighed and pulled Wuzzles off. "Bad boy! I told you, no eating the other Shepherds." Virion got up and dusted himself off, panting heavily. Libra continued for him. "Panne informed us of your conspiracies; we three have been suspicious of your activities for a while." "Just what is going on with you all?" said Panne. The group paused. Then, Palkia sighed. "Let me handle this, guys." She took a deep breath. "This is gonna be hard to believe but... We're gods. From another world. We came here for a good time, but things got hairy when we found out an evil god from your world's due to be resurrected. We're sorry." "Hah!" said Virion. "We knew as much, didn't we Libra and Panne?" "Indeed I did," said Libra. "Your divine presence was apparent from the start." "And with me discovering Quentin's true nature myself," said Panne, "All that remained was scrutinizing your motives. Which we've been trying to do for two long years." "I guess two years of me and Howard trying to throw you of didn't work..." said Hoopa.\ "At least the pranks were good," said Giratina. "So discard that charade of some dark god from our world you're trying to stop and tell us the truth!" "They are," said Libra. "Huh?" said Virion. "You've heard the rumblings about Grima, have you not? If they are on our side in that fight they could be valuable allies." "...Allies?" said Panne. "...So you'll help us?" said Dialga. "I will," said Libra. "Question is if my companions will." Panne looked between everyone and then snarled at Dialga. "Impersonating one of my kind is still a sore spot, but if you wish to do more help than harm, I will aid you." "...Well, I guess if they are I will too," said Virion. Palkia grinned. "An alliance it is." "Now what?" said Giratina. "We come up with a plan," said Libra. And they set to work, making charts and illustrations and discussing amongst themselves. ----------------------- Shortly after, Panne was standing outside, listening to the noises around her. A such, she soon heard Dialga approaching. "...You." "...Yes, it's me." "What do you want?" "I talked to Naga. Multiple times." "And?" "I want to bring your kind back." Panne sighed, then turned around to face Dialga. "Even if you truly are a deity from another world. You have a monumental task ahead of you." "I know. That's why I want your help." Panne paused. "...You truly wish to help someone such as me? And my kind?" "I do." The faintest hint of a smile crept onto Panne's lips. "I will say this. You are not taguel. But you are not manspawn either. And I can see you truly care. I will accept your help." A small smile crept onto Dialga's lips as well. ----------------------- Walhart had been defeated. After a ceremony to honor the lives lost - particularly that of the Feroxian Khan Basilio - a massive party among the Sheperds was held. Drinks, food, games, all were had, and even Wuzzles participated in the fun. Amidst the hullabaloo Palkia approached Tiki. "Yo?" "Oh, hello, Palkia!" said Tiki. "Hey," said Palkia. "How's it going?" "Good! I love parties! One of the few things that can keep me awake, haha..." "That's good. How are you and Robin doing?" "Oh! We're doing well!" She fidgeted noticeably. "I... I'm starting to think we're more than friends, though..." Palkia blinked. Right, that doesn't happen until S Support. Also I need to stop thinking in game terms. "Really? I can definitely see it." "H-Huh?" "Yeah, you're totally into each other. Like, super-into each other." "I don't know... I'm worried I'm projecting Marth onto him..." "Then don't. Value him as the person he is. And hey, I'm friends with him. He's a pretty great guy." "I just worry about what people will think sometimes..." "Don't. There's going to be people who want to stop your relationship. People who object. People who think it will end in disaster. Those people don't matter if you think you can have a healthy, supportive relationship with him." "...Alright. Thank you, Palkia." Tiki looked around. "He left the party to go do some paperwork... I ought to keep him company. She got up and left. Palkia sighed. "Good luck, Tiki. You and Robin both need it. And so will we." ***

#fire emblem #pokemon #rude awakening #fanfic #yangverse

4 notes · View notes

forsetti · 6 years

Text

On Defending Misogyny: Ross Douthat Edition

Ross Douthat’s latest nonsense in the New York Times is quite the pile of crap, even when compared to other piles of crap written by Douthat. Here is my take on the article (Douthat’s article in bold.) One lesson to be drawn from recent Western history might be this: Sometimes the extremists and radicals and weirdos see the world more clearly than the respectable and moderate and sane. All kinds of phenomena, starting as far back as the Iraq War and the crisis of the euro but accelerating in the age of populism, have made more sense in the light of analysis by reactionaries and radicals than as portrayed in the organs of establishment opinion. Not one single person with an ounce of credibility thinks that extremists and radicals and weirdos see the world clearly because SEEING THE WORLD CLEARLY IS ANTITHETICAL TO BEING AN EXTREMISTS, RADICAL, OR WEIRDO. The ONLY way Douthat's statement makes any sense is if he thinks people with enough common sense to know invading Iraq on bogus reasons with zero plan on what to do after the initial invasion was a fucking horrible idea, were extremist, radical, weirdo.

This is part of why there’s been so much recent agitation over universities and op-ed pages and other forums for debate. There’s a general understanding that the ideological mainstream isn’t adequate to the moment, but nobody can decide whether that means we need purges or pluralism, a spirit of curiosity and conversation or a furious war against whichever side you think is evil.

For those more curious than martial, one useful path through this thicket is to look at areas where extremists and eccentrics from very different worlds are talking about the same subject. Such overlap is no guarantee of wisdom, but it’s often a sign that there’s something interesting going on.

A classic Douthat move-lay out a completely bogus claim right out of the block and then construct a whole argument on top of it.

Which brings me to the sex robots. People having opinions about the Iraq war and the European Union logically leads us to sex robots because of course it fucking does.

Well, actually, first it brings me to the case of Robin Hanson, a George Mason economist, libertarian and noted brilliant weirdo. Commenting on the recent terrorist violence in Toronto, in which a self-identified “incel” — that is, involuntary celibate — man sought retribution against women and society for denying him the fornication he felt that he deserved, Hanson offered this provocation: If we are concerned about the just distribution of property and money, why do we assume that the desire for some sort of sexual redistribution is inherently ridiculous?

If you use “libertarian,” you don't get to follow it up with “brilliant.” Never....fucking ever. As crazy as that juxtaposition of terms is the casual acceptance by Douthat of what “incel” means is even more disturbing. The idea that women in society have to have sex with men is repulsive on every level. That someone gives voice to this notion and give it its own term is fucked up beyond reason. Sorry men, women are not here for you to have sex with. Here's a thought, if men want to have sex with women, then maybe, just maybe, they should behave in ways that women deem appropriate enough to where they will give up their bodies willingly to them. Anything short of this is misogyny at the least and rape a the most. After all, he wrote, “one might plausibly argue that those with much less access to sex suffer to a similar degree as those with low income, and might similarly hope to gain from organizing around this identity, to lobby for redistribution along this axis and to at least implicitly threaten violence if their demands are not met.” Let me de-fuckify this statement because it is a Ceasar's Word Salad of nonsense. “Men who don't get as much sex as they want, think they deserve, need to band together to find ways, even through violence, to get women to fuck them against their wills.”

This argument was not well received by people closer to the mainstream than Professor Hanson, to put it mildly. A representative response from Slate’s Jordan Weissmann, “Is Robin Hanson the Creepiest Economist in America?”, cited the post along with some previous creepy forays to dismiss Hanson as a misogynist weirdo not that far removed from the franker misogyny of toxic online males.

I can't understand why the “mainstream” would find the unionization of violent, horny men hell-bent on making women their sexual subjects offensive. But, see what Douthat has done. He has already constructed his argument where the mainstream is the ones who don't “see the world clearly.” Since the mainstream has been pigeon-holed as not seeing reality for what it really is, then it logically follows for Douthat that their view cannot be correct.

But Hanson’s post made me immediately think of a recent essay in The London Review of Books by Amia Srinivasan, “Does Anyone Have the Right To Sex?” Srinivasan, an Oxford philosophy professor, covered similar ground (starting with an earlier “incel” killer) but expanded the argument well beyond the realm of male chauvinists to consider groups with whom The London Review’s left-leaning and feminist readers would have more natural sympathy — the overweight and disabled, minority groups treated as unattractive by the majority, trans women unable to find partners and other victims, in her narrative, of a society that still makes us prisoners of patriarchal and also racist-sexist-homophobic rules of sexual desire.

There is a lot to unpack here. First, Douthat uses a philosopher, in order to bolster the credibility of his argument. As someone with two degrees in philosophy, I can tell you that there are a lot of batshit crazy people with philosophy degrees who throw out outlandish arguments for no other reason than to be controversial and get their shit published in order to placate the Publish or Perish Gods. Second, having sympathy for how a culture views and treats groups outside the accepted norms like “overweight,” “trans,” “disabled,”... who have a difficult time having sex for a host of reasons is, to quote Samuel L. Jackson in Pulp Fiction, “...ain't the same fucking ballpark. It ain't the same league. It ain't even the same fucking sport.” Third, Douthat, a devout Catholic who has carried water for the patriarchy, for misogynists, for homophobes...for years now doesn't get to pretend he is worried about the very structure he helped build.

Srinivasan ultimately answered her title question in the negative: “There is no entitlement to sex, and everyone is entitled to want what they want.” But her negative answer was a qualified one. While “no one has a right to be desired,” at the same time “who is desired and who isn’t is a political question,” which left-wing and feminist politics might help society answer differently someday. This wouldn’t instantiate a formal right to sex, exactly, but if the new order worked as its revolutionary architects intended, sex would be more justly distributed than it is today.

Not only did Douthat use a philosopher to bolster his argument, he completely misused their words in order to do so. Notice how he uses Srinivasan's comment, “who is desired and who isn't is a political question,” and dovetails his own comment “which left-wing and feminist politics might help society answer differently someday,” as if they were one and the same statement. Every culture has their own ideas of what is/isn't sexually desirable. It has nothing to do with “left-wing” or “feminist” politics. Some cultures sexually value heavier companions, those with smaller feet, those with longer necks, those with fairer skin... We can argue the rationality of all of these but none of them are based on leftist or feminist beliefs. In fact, left-leaning and feminists would argue the fuck against these arbitrary sexual values.

A number of the critics I saw engaging with Srinivasan’s essay tended to respond the way a normal center-left writer like Weissmann engaged with Hanson’s thought experiment — by commenting on its weirdness or ideological extremity rather than engaging fully with its substance. But to me, reading Hanson and Srinivasan together offers a good case study in how intellectual eccentrics — like socialists and populists in politics — can surface issues and problems that lurk beneath the surface of more mainstream debates.

By this I mean that as offensive or utopian the redistribution of sex might sound, the idea is entirely responsive to the logic of late-modern sexual life, and its pursuit would be entirely characteristic of a recurring pattern in liberal societies.

Shorter Douthat: “Smart people reacting honestly to the arguments of a libertarian nut job don't know what the fuck they are doing but I, a dyed-in-the-wool social conservative does because of some magical reason that is never explained.” If you think placating angry, resentful, horny men is the way to utopia, I'm pretty sure you are either stupid as fuck and/or just about the most intellectually dishonest person I've ever read.

First, because like other forms of neoliberal deregulation the sexual revolution created new winners and losers, new hierarchies to replace the old ones, privileging the beautiful and rich and socially adept in new ways and relegating others to new forms of loneliness and frustration. Douthat's use of “neoliberal” was done on purpose and as meaningless as the term itself. What Douthat really means by this statement is, “In the past, men could do whatever the fuck they wanted to women, whenever they wanted and women had to take it because that is the fucking way it was. Now men can't do this and they are having a sad about it so we need to blame the women and those who support them instead of the fuck wad misogynists who were morally wrong 50, 100, 200... years ago for their behaviors.”

Second, because in this new landscape, and amid other economic and technological transformations, the sexes seem to be struggling generally to relate to one another, with social and political chasms opening between them and not only marriage and family but also sexual activity itself in recent decline.

“The sexes seem to be struggling generally to relate to one another, with social and political chasms opening up between them.” Holy Both-Fucking-Siderism! NO!!! The “sexes” are not having a problem. MEN caught up in an archaic belief system are having a problem-a big fucking problem. Douthat doesn't get to lay the responsibility and consequences of men not adapting to women's rights on the doorstep of women.

Third, because the culture’s dominant message about sex is still essentially Hefnerian, despite certain revisions attempted by feminists since the heyday of the Playboy philosophy — a message that frequency and variety in sexual experience is as close to a summum bonum as the human condition has to offer, that the greatest possible diversity in sexual desires and tastes and identities should be not only accepted but cultivated, and that virginity and celibacy are at best strange and at worst pitiable states. And this master narrative, inevitably, makes both the new inequalities and the decline of actual relationships that much more difficult to bear …which in turn encourages people, as ever under modernity, to place their hope for escape from the costs of one revolution in a further one yet to come, be it political, social or technological, which will supply if not the promised utopia at least some form of redress for the many people that progress has obviously left behind.

There is an alternative, conservative response, of course — namely, that our widespread isolation and unhappiness and sterility might be dealt with by reviving or adapting older ideas about the virtues of monogamy and chastity and permanence and the special respect owed to the celibate.

So let me get this straight, the problem with sex in America is because of feminists and leftists but, “ the culture’s dominant message about sex is still essentially Hefnerian.”? I've never known a single feminist or leftist who was not only okay with the views and attitudes about sex espoused by Hugh Hefner but who used them as the basis of their sexual ethics. In fact, it has been the direct opposite. Douthat's view of feminism and left-leaning is comical and beyond conservative stereotyping.

But this is not the natural response for a society like ours. Instead we tend to look for fixes that seem to build on previous revolutions, rather than reverse them.

In the case of sexual liberation and its discontents, that’s unlikely to mean the kind of thoroughgoingly utopian reimagining of sexual desire that writers like Srinivasan think we should aspire toward, or anything quite so formal as the pro-redistribution political lobby of Hanson’s thought experiment.

By defacto argument, the sexual revolution was bad so men trying to come to terms with how to really treat women as equals would be a misguided approach to the problem. We need to go back in time to when women had limited rights and almost none with regard to their bodies, their sexuality, and start from there in order to build a more perfect union where men get to get laid when they want by whomever they want.

But I expect the logic of commerce and technology will be consciously harnessed, as already in pornography, to address the unhappiness of incels, be they angry and dangerous or simply depressed and despairing. The left’s increasing zeal to transform prostitution into legalized and regulated “sex work” will have this end implicitly in mind, the libertarian (and general male) fascination with virtual-reality porn and sex robotswill increase as those technologies improve — and at a certain point, without anyone formally debating the idea of a right to sex, right-thinking people will simply come to agree that some such right exists, and that it makes sense to look to some combination of changed laws, new technologies and evolved mores to fulfill it.

Whether sex workers and sex robots can actually deliver real fulfillment is another matter. But that they will eventually be asked to do it, in service to a redistributive goal that for now still seems creepy or misogynist or radical, feels pretty much inevitable.

So, for Douthat, the need to address and placate incels is important but we shouldn't do it with legalizing prostitution or other means. What Douthat is really saying is, “If men cannot dominate and be in control of women, then any sexual solution won't be acceptable. Not legalized prostitution. Not sex robots. Nothing short of actual, real women being subservient to men will do.”

At no point in this entire article by Douthat are men held responsible for their beliefs, for their actions. NOT ONE SINGLE FUCKING TIME! “Feminists” and “left-leaning” people are the real reason behind backward thinking, immoral. egotistical men for behaving the way they do towards women. GTFOH!

15 notes · View notes

patriotsnet · 3 years

Text

What Happens If The Republicans Win

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/what-happens-if-the-republicans-win/

What Happens If The Republicans Win

The Plausible Solution: Just Win More

What Happens If Republicans Hold The Senate?

Whether the public sees Democratic demands for these structural changes as overdue or overreaching, the key point is that they are currently exercises in futility. The only plausible road to winning their major policy goals is to win by winning. This means politics, not re-engineering. They need to find ways to take down their opponents, and then be smarter about using that power while they have it.

They certainly have issues to campaign on. In the few weeks, we have learned that some of Americas wealthiest people have paid only minimal or no federal income tax at all. Even as the Wall Street Journal editorial writers were responding to a Code Red emergency , the jaw-dropping nature of the reportfollowed by a New York Times piece about the impotence of the IRS to deal with the tax evasions of private equity royaltyconfirmed the folk wisdom of countless bars, diners, and union halls: the wealthy get away with murder.

Of course this is a whole lot easier said than done. A political climate where inflation, crime and immigration are dominant issues has the potential to override good economic news. And 2020 already showed what can happen when a relative handful of voices calling for defunding the police can drown out the broader usage of economic fairness.

Filed Under:

Republicans Will Almost Certainly Win Back The House In 2022

A byproduct of the surprisingly strong showing of downballot Republicans in 2020 is that even the smallest midterm wave will give them control of the House. An analysis from Larry Sabatos Crystal Ball projects that even without taking redistricting into account, Republicans are expected to flip nine seats in 2022 and enjoy roughly the same narrow but very real majority Democrats have now. And thanks to a dramatic underperformance by Democrats in 2020 state legislative races, redistricting of congressional districts will add to the high odds of a GOP House. The Cook Political Reports David Wasserman suggests Republicans might pick up the five seats they need for control of the House via redistricting decisions in just four states .

As my colleague Eric Levitz has pointed out, since World War II the presidents party has lost an average of 27 House seats in midterm elections. Last time Democrats controlled the White House, they lost 63 House seats in the first midterm. It wont be that bad in 2022, but suffice it to say that any remotely controversial legislation Biden hopes to enact in his first term better be on his desk by the end of 2022.

If Republicans do win the House in 2022, could they promptly lose it again in 2024? Of course they could, but the last time the House changed hands in a presidential election year was 1952.

More Tax Cuts For The Wealthy And Further Spending Cuts For Middle

Most legislation needs 60 votes in order to break a filibuster in the Senate, but a congressional budget resolution can establish parameters for subsequent legislation to be enacted through the reconciliation process, which only requires 51 votes to pass a measure. The budget resolution itself cannot be filibustered and also only requires 51 votes to pass the Senate. As a result, it is easier for the majority to pass a budget resolution and a reconciliation bill than most other legislation.

The current conservative economic and fiscal roadmap is the fiscal year 2015 budget put forward by former vice presidential nominee and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan . The Ryan budget would provide those with incomes of at least $1 million another $200,000 per year in tax cuts while cutting nondefense spending by $4.8 trillion. Roughly $3.3 trillion of those cuts, or nearly 70 percent, target programs that help low-income and middle-class families, such as Medicaidwhich provides health coverage for low- and moderate-income familiesand Pell Grants, which help students pay for college.

When given the opportunity, Senate Republicans voted for the various Ryan budgets in 2011, 2012, and again in 2013. Previous Senate Republican actions make it clear that the budget that would result from a Republican majority would most likely feature many of the same components as Rep. Ryans past budgets.

You May Like: Difference Between Republicans And Democrats

Eight Ways Things Would Be Different If Republicans Win The Senate

If Democrats lose the Senate in November, what happens?

Well, its just less than two weeks before Election Day, and the papers are all abuzz with news of Democratic defeat. This mornings Review-Journal features the results of a new AP-GfK poll, which says 55 percent of people believe a Republican takeover is the likely outcome of the November election. And number-crunching website FiveThirtyEight.com predicts that Republicans are 66 percent favorites to take the Senate.

Personally, Im not convinced, although Democrats have had some setbacks in recent weeks. But it did get me thinking about a few of the ways things would be different if the Republicans took over from majority Democrats.

1. Senate shifts from filibustering the presidents Democratic agenda to filibustering new majority leaders Republican agenda. Lets be honest, the Senate isnt exactly known for its smooth, efficient operations. George Washington was said to have opined that the Senate existed to cool legislation from the House, the way a saucer cooled a hot cup of tea. But more recently, the Senate has operated more like a cryogenic chamber, keeping legislation from both houses in a permanent deep-freeze. A change in leadership is most likely to shift whose legislation is getting blocked.

Weakening Of The Investigations Against Trump

If Democrats dont control the House or the Senate, they cant initiate investigations of Trump or some of his more controversial cabinet members, such as Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt.

More importantly, after the 2018 elections, the electoral process will recede as a constraint on the president and GOP in terms of the Russia investigation at least for a while.

We dont really know why Trump, despite his constant criticisms of the investigation, has not fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions or Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, or why he has not directly tried to stop the probe by special counsel Robert Mueller. Maybe Trump, despite his rhetoric, has some real respect for the rule of law. I think its more likely that Trump understands that firing Rosenstein or making a drastic move to stop the Mueller probe would increase both the chances of Democrats winning the House and/or Senate this year, and the odds that the resulting Democratic-led chamber would feel compelled to push to impeach Trump. But if the GOP emerges from 2017 and 2018 without losing control of the House or the Senate, I suspect that, with the next election two years away, the president will feel freer to take controversial steps to end the Russia probe. And I doubt Republicans on Capitol Hill would try to stop him.

Read Also: Trump Quote Republicans Dumb

A Division Of Power In Government Is Common In The Us With The Republicans And The Democrats Often Splitting Control Of The White House And Congress

Joe Biden may have been announced as President Elect but there are still some crucial decisions to be made on how America will be governed for the next four years. The presidential election appears to have been a pretty resounding win for the Democrats but the picture is less clear in the Senate, when both parties retain hope of having a majority when the Upper House reconvenes next year.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer released a statement after Bidens victory was called, saying: “A Democratic majority in the U.S. Senate would be the biggest difference maker to help President-elect Biden deliver for working families across the country.

Sen. Chuck Schumer: “There has been no evidence of any significant or widespread voter fraud. Joe Biden won this election fair and square. The margins of his victory are growing by the day.”

The Hill

All elections in Georgia, not just those for the Senate, require the winning candidate to pick up over 50% of the votes cast. This year neither of the states two Senate races had a majority winning so a run-off will be held on 5 January, with both the Democrats and the Republicans holding out hope of securing the vital seats needed to give them a majority in the Senate.

Why is control of the Senate so important?

Although President Elect Biden will be the head of the government, he would rather govern by concensus than executive order. Therefore most large-scale bills will need to pass Congress before they can be signed into law.

A Warning About Argentina

Oliver warned that if Democrats take the presidency and the Senate and retain control of the House of Representatives, it would cause a concentration in power that the Constitution was designed to prevent. He expects the presidency and Senate to go together in the election.

In the event of a concentration of power toward the left, he said the U.S. government will look more like Argentina than Switzerland. He also questioned why America’s fate would be any different than what happened to Argentina since it “embraced Peronist populism.”

You May Like: Are There More Registered Republicans Or Democrats

Democrats To Keep Control Of House; Battle For Senate Majority Ongoing

But assuming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., does maintain control of the Senate, a lot of progressive dreams go out the window. Democrats will be hard-pressed to shore up the voting system, for example. They won’t be able to pass HR 1, which would establish nationwide automatic voter registration, restrict partisan gerrymandering, grant former prisoners the right to vote and prohibit many voter suppression tactics. Nor will they be able to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore key parts of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down in 2013, which required states with histories of voter suppression to clear any voting changes with the federal government.

Without a Senate majority, Democrats also won’t be able to rebalance the judiciary. McConnell has stuffed the federal bench with Republican jurists who support the GOP’s narrow, self-serving definition of voting rights. This culminated in the week before the election with the confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, creating a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court that can be expected to uphold gerrymandering and protect Republican tactics of disenfranchisement. Biden had hoped to create a bipartisan commission to come up with strategies to rebalance the court but any such strategy is likely doomed by Republican opposition.

Without a Senate majority, Democrats also wont be able to rebalance the judiciary.

A Political Scientist Explains Why The Gop Is A Threat To American Democracy

What if Civil War broke out between Republicans and Democrats?

It sounds hyperbolic to say that American democracy is broken, but an honest glance at the country at our institutions and the broader political culture makes it hard to conclude otherwise.

As things stand, one of our two major political parties is committed to suppressing as many votes as possible, and the leader of that party, the president of the United States, has said outright that he wont accept the legitimacy of the election process if he doesnt win.

If, under those conditions, Trump either wins the election or loses and throws the country into a bitter, protracted fight over the results, it doesnt seem all that alarmist to suggest the US will have descended into what political scientists sometimes call a weak democracy or even competitive .

But I really dont want to be overly alarmist, so I reached out to Pippa Norris, a political scientist at Harvard University and one of the leading authorities on global democracy. I wanted to know her honest assessment of the state of American democracy, why she thinks the upcoming election is a true turning point for the country, and what the US will have to do moving forward to undo the damage done in the past several years.

A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Sean Illing

If American democracy was a patient, how would you describe its condition?

Pippa Norris

Id say the patient has not been well for a long time. The patient is obese and doesnt exercise.

Sean Illing

Pippa Norris

Also Check: Did Republicans Support The Civil Rights Act

Gold If Democrats Win The Election

If Democrats win the election and especially take both the presidency and Senate, Oliver expects the gold price to soar. He said if the pendulum swings all the way to the left, it means even more money printing than what has already been going on with a mixed government.

He noted that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are promising a $7 trillion spending problem. That doesn’t include the trillions in additional stimulus to deal with the pandemic, which he believes “will include bailouts of urban centers turned into war zones by Democrat mayors and governors) or reparations.”

Oliver also noted that Democrats want to fund their “mad spending” with taxes partially. Biden wants to increase income taxes, corporate taxes and taxes on capital. However, he said federal, state and local taxes are already so high that he believes higher taxes may not boost tax revenue much.

“In short, the economy must suffer , and the deficit will explode further,” he wrote. “The Federal Reserve will be forced either to monetize the spendings or watch as soaring interest rates cause the financial system to implode along with the state’s ability to finance itself. The credit bubble that has been growing since 1971 , will crash onto the rocks of progressive politics.”

What If The Republicans Win Everything Again

Total victory for the G.O.P. would mean Trump unleashed.

By David Leonhardt

Opinion Columnist

The end of Robert Muellers investigation. The loss of health insurance for several million people. New laws that make it harder to vote. More tax cuts for the rich. More damage to the environment. A Republican Party molded even more in the image of President Trump.

These are among the plausible consequences if the Republicans sweep the midterm elections and keep control of both the House and Senate. And dont fool yourself. That outcome, although not the most likely one, remains possible. The last couple of weeks of polling have shown how it could happen.

Voters who lean Republican including whites across the South could set aside their disappointment with Trump and vote for Republican congressional candidates. Voters who lean left including Latinos and younger adults could turn out in low numbers, as they usually do in midterm elections. The Republicans continuing efforts to suppress turnout could also swing a few close elections.

No matter what, Democrats will probably win the popular vote in the House elections, for the first time since 2012. Trump, after all, remains unpopular. But the combination of gerrymandering and the concentration of Democratic voters in major cities means that a popular-vote win wont automatically translate into a House majority.

You May Like: How Many Republicans Are In The Us House

Use Of The Congressional Review Act To Weaken Environmental Rules Jeopardizing Public Health

Under the Congressional Review Act, once the administration submits a major rule to Congress, Congress can pass a joint resolution disapproving of the administrations rule. If a joint resolution disapproving the rule is enacted, the rule would not go into effect and the administration would be prohibited from issuing a substantially similar rule in the future. The Congressional Review Act allows the Senate to expedite consideration of a joint resolution disapproving of a final administrative rule within 60 days, and this consideration is not subject to the filibuster.

What Is Happening To The Republicans

In becoming the party of Trump, the G.O.P. confronts the kind of existential crisis that has destroyed American parties in;the past.

Save this story for later.

Content

But, for all the anxiety among Republican leaders, Goldwater prevailed, securing the nomination at the Partys convention, in San Francisco. In his speech to the delegates, he made no pretense of his ideological intent. Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice, he said. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. Goldwaters crusade failed in November of 1964, when the incumbent, Lyndon Johnson, who had become President a year earlier, after Kennedys assassination, won in a landslide: four hundred and eighty-six to fifty-two votes in the Electoral College. Nevertheless, Goldwaters ascent was a harbinger of the future shape of the Republican Party. He represented an emerging nexus between white conservatives in the West and in the South, where five states voted for him over Johnson.

Shopping

agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which find a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions.

Don’t Miss: Why Do Republicans Want To Take Away Health Care

If California Governor Is Replaced With Republican Senate Could Swing To Gop

Human Rights and Global Wrongs

Theres a good chance that California a solidly blue state will get a right-wing Republican governor as a result of the September 14 recall election. If Gov. Gavin Newsom is recalled, the health, civil rights and future of Californians and people across the country will be profoundly threatened. It is also possible that Newsoms defeat could change the balance of power in the U.S. Senate, since the next California governor may be in a position to appoint a senator.

In defending his governorship, Newsom emphasizes that a GOP leader would likely roll back progressive reforms.

The recall is an attempt by national Republican and Trump supporters to force an election and grab power in California, Newsoms ballot statement in the Official Voter Information Guide says. The leaders of the Republican recall seek to repeal Californias clean air protections, roll back gun safety laws and take away health care from those who need it.

Newsom cited his efforts to fight racism and police violence in an interview with the San Diego Union-Tribune:

0 notes

hope-for-olicity · 7 years

Text

Fabulous Olicity Fanfic Friday - June 23rd, 2017

Happy Friday! So this is my attempt to both thank awesome fanfic writers for their amazing work and offer my recommendations to anyone who is interested. Here are the fantastic fanfic stories I read this week! They are posted in the order I read them. Oh and I’m wicked behind in my reading!! So if I tagged your post #can’t wait to read and you don’t see here, I will still read - I’m just REALLY behind - such a first world problem!

You Had Me at Hello by @tdgal1 - Oliver Queen and Felicity Smoak met at a Gala and had an instant attraction but Smoak Technologies and Queen Consolidated have to work together. Can they make that sexual chemistry work and still work together. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11075379

Somethings are Meant to Be by @pimsiepim - sequel to His Girl Wednesday which you REALLY NEED in your life. Set after Oliver returns to Star City after being missing for 3 years, it is shaping up to be just as awesome as His Girl Wednesday http://archiveofourown.org/works/7693105/chapters/17526601

Beyond the Spotlight multi-chapter by @arrow-through-my-writers-block - Bodyguard/Popstar AU. Felicity Smoak is music's hottest star. But when her fame and deeply hidden secrets breed threats to her life that cannot be ignored, she hires Oliver Queen. As her new head of security/pet bodyguard, their personalities clash. Can he protect her from the many unknown enemies from her past that hunt her, or will her intriguing complexities and his own developing feelings be a detriment to them both? http://archiveofourown.org/works/11067006/chapters/24679221

A Lost Bet and A Midlife Crisis by @herskirtsarentthatshort - Oliver loses a bet and has to face the consequences. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11220387

While You Were Sleeping multi-chapter by @lou-lou26 - Felicity Smoak, an IT expert at Queen Consolidated, has a little bit of a crush on her boss, Tommy Merlyn. The problem? He doesn't know she exists. After she saves his life, Felicity is mistaken for his fiancee as he lies in a coma. Suddenly thrown into the welcoming arms of the man's family - The Queens, Felicity soon finds herself falling in love with his brother, Oliver. But when Tommy awakens, Felicity also finds herself in the worst predicament of her life. http://archiveofourown.org/works/3286841/chapters/7172570

Girl of My Dreams multi-chapter by @tdgal1 and @c0bra5nak3 - Oliver Queen, CEO of Queen Consolidated, meets IT specialist Felicity Smoak. Playboy turns boyfriend as he dates and falls in love with this amazing woman. But everything is not perfect and the couple will find that they must face some obstacles together. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11066208/chapters/24677133

Signed Up for Love multi-chapter by @arrowgirl20 - After past traumatic relationships, both Oliver and Felicity are reluctant to date again. But after Oliver's sister and Felicity's best friend push them to sign up on an online dating site, they find that maybe they can both move on from their pasts and give love another shot. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11133207/chapters/24844758

There Was Always Something There multi-chapter by mindrambings - After having enough of Felicity's behavior, Malcolm sends his daughter to a London boarding school for some much needed structure. Years later, she finally returns home to Starling. She finds that some things are the same while some have changed. As she reacquaints herself with her hometown, one relationship stands out in particular: Oliver Queen. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11060544/chapters/24662730?view_adult=true

Never Truly Over by @cruzrogue - Adrian Chase has Tommy’s body revived by the Lazarus pit. Tommy is then brain washed and his blood lust for vengeance against criminals also conditioned that Felicity Smoak is the love of his life and that Oliver Queen is the enemy. Always ten steps ahead even dead is his final play against the Green Arrow. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11189592

It Could Have Turned Out Differently, I Suppose (But It Didn't) by @wherethereissmoak - Written for the Olicity Hiatus Fic-a-thon prompt "at odds." (and yes the title to this fic came from Jane Austen). Team Arrow and Flash are whammied by a meta-human that gives visions of how happy their lives, and the lives of their friends and families would be if only they had made different choices. He may have met his match when he encounters one Felicity Meghan Smoak. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11226783

Please Don't Leave Me by @felicityollies - Oliver can’t bear to see Felicity sell her soul to Helix, so he tries to stop her. (set in 5x19) http://archiveofourown.org/works/11034534/chapters/25087074

See Beneath multi-chapter by @someonesaidcake - Fantastic, hot story of Olicity meeting on a cruise but of course it's not all smooth sailing http://archiveofourown.org/works/8053801/chapters/21054992

Keep it Professional multi-chapter by @mogirl97 - Oliver is assigned to be Felicity's bodyguard http://archiveofourown.org/works/9243455/chapters/20960405

To Make You Feel My Love multi-chapter by @smkkbert - One year after the Gambit went down, the incredible happens: Oliver is found alive and brought back to Starling City. All he wants is getting back to Felicity and Madeleine. Though Felicity welcomes him back with her arms wide open, Oliver struggles to find his place in the family. It seems like his place – at least in Mae’s heart – is already taken. And it doesn’t help that it’s his best friend Tommy who seems to have taken it. A MUST READ. http://archiveofourown.org/works/10904208/chapters/24242493

Happy Not-Quite-Father's Day by @overwatchandarrow - Oliver and William's first Father's Day together. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11236113

A Day in the Life multi-chapter by @tdgal1 - Felicity Smoak is an MIT graduate and assistant to Oliver Queen. Suddenly she is his pretend girlfriend and in the spotlight. Oliver Queen needs a girlfriend to get rid of an obsessive former lover and to please his parents. Fluffy, funny, happiness! http://archiveofourown.org/works/9229205/chapters/20931281

Eye Contact by @some1foundme - Student/Teacher AU. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11036964/chapters/24861222

Till Your Last Breath multi-chapter by @walker-oliciter - The countdown plastered to one's skin showed how much time the other's soulmate had left to live. For Felicity Smoak, that meant she had 3 months to find and warn her soulmate before he would die. When she met him though, she got more than what she signed herself up for. Especially when his secret identity was revealed to her... Soulmate, Bratva AU mixed with Olicity Fic-A-Thon Prompts. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11171919/chapters/24938952

One Last Time by @wetsuiton - Prompt: Taste http://archiveofourown.org/works/11084547/chapters/24957036

Suspenders and Stripping to Power Ballads by @imusuallyobsessed - After the mayoral event, Oliver and Felicity finish what they started in the closet. And Oliver fulfills his promise to make her forget about Channing Tatum. Olicity Hiatus Fic-A-Thon week 3 prompt: taste. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11181036

We Are Home Now by @madhaj - This is my take of Oliver and Felicity dealing with the aftermath of Season 5 Finale. Everything until the finale happened. I make the assumption that William's mother died in Lian Yiu. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11183232/chapters/24967518

Taste by @some1foundme - Prompt #3 - Taste http://archiveofourown.org/works/11036964/chapters/24960354

When I'm With You - Withdrawal Symptoms multi-chapter by @sentence-fragments - Arrow AU - After finally becoming a couple, the worst possible thing you can imagine happens to Felicity Merlyn. Her other half is gone and she has to find a way to live without him. Or does she? This is Felicity's journey to finding herself after Oliver is gone and the decisions she has to make in her quest to find him. (part 2 of the 'When I'm With You'-series) http://archiveofourown.org/works/3205622/chapters/6972173

Last Night || Felicity Smoak by @themanbeneaththehood - Oliver's thoughts on Felicity http://themanbeneaththehood.tumblr.com/post/162011557647/last-night-felicity

Strangers in the Night: Through the Glass by @supersillyanddorky06 - AU. Strangers who meet young. http://archiveofourown.org/works/4493247/chapters/25141176

Secrets Don't Make Friends multi-chapter by @felicityollies - Felicity stumbles upon the lair after getting drunk at Verdant. She meets the Hood, but it doesn’t go as she expects. http://archiveofourown.org/works/10938729

The Taste of Tears by @dreamsofolicity - Oliver comes to Felicity a few days after the Undertaking. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11191491/chapters/24989814

Tastes Like Pure Joy multi-chapter by @wherethereissmoak - Felicity almost has her school paid off - and her last night as a live-donor at a vampire restaurant will settle her debt. But her encounter with client Oliver Queen was anything but the quick and easy feed either of them was expecting. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11163723

Redemption multi-chapter by @vaelisamaza Oliver returns for being with the League after five - this story gets better and better - you should be reading this! http://archiveofourown.org/works/9107518/chapters/22278866

Forever at Odds by @laurabelle2930 - Oliver a vampire joined into an arranged marriage with Felicity. The result of their union and the reason behind it means that to save her life he might have to break the very rules of his survival. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11251638

As Easy As Falling multi-chapter by @charlinert - Felicity has just received tragic news when she meets Oliver, I believe there is hope, highly recommend but you will cry but not every chapter! http://archiveofourown.org/works/8035363/chapters/22542341

The Donor multi-chapter by @spaztronautwriter - Felicity Smoak has always dreamed of being a mother and she isn't going to let a little thing like men stop her from making that dream come true. Having a baby by herself might just be biting off a little more than she can chew, but one way or the other it's about to change her whole life. LOVE THIS SO MUCH! http://archiveofourown.org/works/11099361

Home (post-5x23 fic) by @dust2dust34 - Felicity goes somewhere else when the bombs go off. http://archiveofourown.org/works/8226541/chapters/25160109

Clavado En Un Bar by truefandoms - You're too young to hate the world." http://archiveofourown.org/works/11254875

(A Taste of) a Different Side of You by @bokayjunkie - Felicity walks in to find Oliver doing something she would have never expected; cooking. Takes place in my lets get together (have our teams combined) world. This can be read as a stand alone story with only small references to the previous ones, but where's the fun in that. Olicity hiatus ficathon, this week's prompt: taste. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11187705

Aafreen (Alluring) by @crazycrystal10 - Police detective Felicity Smoak tries to make her husband, billionaire Oliver Queen understand the need for security. AU. Week's prompt : Taste http://archiveofourown.org/works/11191461

Summer Vacation: The Grand Tour by @dmichellewrites - Prompt 3 (again): Taste. Felicity returns the favor in her office. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11074743/chapters/24995298

Home multi-chapter by @adiwriting - Oliver and Felicity have been best friends since 1st grade. So when Oliver is found by some fishermen after he being lost at sea for 5 years, she’s ecstatic. The only problem is, the Oliver she lost, may not be the Oliver they found. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11259471/chapters/25174200

Blessings in Disguise by @gypsyfire1066 - Tumblr prompt- Taste http://archiveofourown.org/works/11194398

Never Enough by @olicitydaydream - Felicity was aware that she was being petty and childish but she was sick and tired of being constantly outdone by Oliver Queen http://archiveofourown.org/works/11194695

Sometimes, Love Isn't Enough multi-chapter by @arrowfan437 - A mark. In this world, it defines you. And who you are with your partner. Felicity's been searching all around for the one that'll bring meaning to her mark. And she found him. But after being around him for so long, she wonders why she was given the mark at all. http://archiveofourown.org/works/10789404/chapters/23932119

News-Report: Flames by @cruzrogue - Two huge fires not so far from Star City. Oliver unable to help physically it hits him hard. Felicity tries her best to calm him though she too is so devastated at the loss. Oliver writing in his journal. http://cruzrogue.tumblr.com/post/162093820879/news-report-flames

There's Nobody Here (Just Us Together): Happiness in 20 words or lessby @pennedbyv - Olicity prompt - http://archiveofourown.org/works/11197137/chapters/25004514

Eye Contact by @pennedbyv - Olicity Hiatus Fic-a-thon prompt eye contact http://archiveofourown.org/works/10996266/chapters/25004745

Sour Taste by @madhaj - Oliver, after a hard fight, feels a bad taste invade his mouth http://archiveofourown.org/works/11085039/chapters/24992694

Most Secrets Come with a Price: Taste by @diggo26 - Prompt taste -http://archiveofourown.org/works/11055969/chapters/25014141

Nothing Feels Like You: All I Want by @releaseurinhibitions - Set after 2x23 (including the alternative scene in the Queen Manor). Written for the olicity hiatus fic-a-thon | prompt: taste. http://archiveofourown.org/works/11018673/chapters/25017690

Bonds That Can't Be Broken multi-chapter by @wherethereissmoak - Felicity goes off her meds to enjoy one heat with a random stranger after her graduation before settling down to focus on her career. On the drunken night out in Vegas, she finds an Alpha and they have what she hopes is a one night stand. But the next morning, she wakes up with a bondmate bite and realizes she cannot remember many details of the night before. Oliver Queen knows that he bonded with a beautiful woman, but he has no idea who she was. The two try (and often fail) to move on with their life without hope of ever finding their mate, but does fate have other plans for them? And when they reunite, can they overcome all the forces of evil in their path to finally be together? http://archiveofourown.org/works/11067591/chapters/24680781

Pieces of Always multi-chapter by @so-caffeinated and @dust2dust34 - Life continues after Forever is Composed of Nows. Ongoing non-linear collection of family moments for the Queens. http://archiveofourown.org/works/8220479/chapters/18840356

Killer Frost Smoak multi-chapter by @tdgal1 - Felicity is with Barry during the particle accelerator and becomes Killer Frost. How does she handle this and does she tell Oliver? http://archiveofourown.org/works/8654356/chapters/19846777

Return to Me multi-chapter by @diggo26 - What would you do if you woke up tomorrow with the last 5 years of your memories gone? After an unfortunate accident, Oliver Queen must figure out his place in a life he has no memory of whilst his wife, Felicity, does everything she can to support him. With emotions, secrets and relationships pushed to the limits; will love and friendship be enough to turn back the hands of time?http://archiveofourown.org/works/10536999/chapters/23265480

// @almondblossomme // @emmaamelia95 // @mel-loves-all // @oliverfel4 // @green-arrows-of-karamel // @coal000 // @miriam1779 // @memcjo // @captainolicitysbedroom // @tdgal1 // @spaztronautwriter // @lalawo1 // @quiveringbunny // @quant-um-fizzx // @thebookjumper // @vaelisamaza // @myhauntedblacksoul // @lovelycssefan // @laurabelle2930 // @wrongshipper //

#FabulousOlicityFanficFriday #olicity fanfiction #fic recs

149 notes · View notes

livingwithashipname-blog · 7 years

Text

Ermanda's Inner Sanctum: Scorpion 3.18 "Don't Burst My Bubble"

This is another solid episode for February sweeps! We have a good wrap on some arcs and get more development on continuous ones. This episode also has great team feels like those from episode 3.12 Ice Ca-Cabes! I am going to address the consequences of choice with the most prominent moments of this episode. I have talked about this in previous reviews with a ship or one character, but the theme is so apparent for everyone! Let's go there!!!

Sylvester

Sly loses the election. Boo! However, the results are not surprising after the release of Patel's social media mudslinging ad. Major shifts occur when veterans of the armed forces are pulled into any political sphere. But his pursuits introduce him to new people that would have never realized his political potential, his bravery, and his genius. While Sly may not be Alderman of W. Altadenia, I hope this election cycle encourages him to do more in his community beyond filing the Warlock's Chest as a building protected under the historic zoning commission!

The Consequences of Choices

Relationships are hard. This is why those committed must continuously work to sustain them. People change along with situations. The choices we make in love, whether platonic or romantic, determine the course of our relationships with others and our lives as individuals. This is true of the ships in this episode, Taige and Callie. Both of these relationships have their challenges - Paige and Tim's transition to long-distance and Cabe and Allie's age gap. But in the end, the individuals who make up these pairings decide to end their unions because of choices surrounding occupation. Happy and Walter realize that they are capable of beating the odds when his comes their EQ. The choices they make in all manner of friendship prove to serve them well.

Cabe

Cabe has been alone for 20 years, so he is initially apprehensive and rusty when it comes to asking Allie out on a date. Additionally, they are campaign rivals. Despite Cabe's concerns over their age difference, they choose to make it work and accept one another as they are. Yet, Allie's choices as campaign manager for the opposition place a strain on their relationship. Allie has made it known that she works with Patel for the money even though he's not a great boss, but she performs some really great gestures for Sylvester to have a real shot in the Alderman election. However, her good deeds are squashed when she chooses to follow Patel's orders and uploads a smear ad of Sylvester that negatively impacts his image. Cabe is shocked that she would upload something so falsified! Allie could have declined, but she chooses her job anyways. This pushes him to do the same and end things with Allie. Cabe is loyal to the geniuses and Paige who are his surrogate children and he doesn't want to contradict the lessons they learn from him as a father figure. It's unfortunate for Cabe because it has been so long, but I have hope that he will find someone better.

Paige

Paige has a somber conversation with Tim at the top of the episode. No specifics are given in that moment, but we can deduce by Paige's behavior that things are not good between them. She reveals at the end of the episode that she and Tim break up because they realize things would not continue to work between them long-term, especially with Tim's 8-month service extension job offer. This result is not surprising from a character perspective. Toby once alluded to this possibility in 3.11 Wreck the Halls. He said that men like Tim are not desk workers; they thrive in leadership roles. Granted, we have not heard much about Tim since his departure, but it seems as if he found himself in a place he calls home and one of them would have to make a job sacrifice in the future that would end in a win-lose situation. Plus, we are left to assume that the split is amicable given that Paige says it's a decision upon which they both agree. There's not enough dialogue from canon to suggest otherwise. Yet, this choice leaves Paige in a heartbreakingly familiar place. The father of her child, Drew, chose to chase after his baseball career instead of handling his responsibilities as a father. He abandoned Ralph and her. Even though Tim doesn't do the same in this situation, Paige has encountered two romantic situations where occupation is a relationship stumbling block. And it hurts to deal with the fact that who she is and where she is at this point in her life with Ralph doesn't align with the lives of these men. When is someone going to choose her? She has faced this with Drew, Tim, Veronica, and Walter. But the members of Team Scorpion always look out for one another. And with Walter improving his friendship skills, Paige can find support in her heartbreak.

It is also important to note that Walter and Paige have become victims of the same lesson/construct (choosing something else over love). This point also factors into The Waige Flip. In season 2, Walter succumbs to fear and chooses team efficiency over love. Even when he realizes his mistake, his choices in rectification work against him and he hurts Paige, further pushing her to Tim. In season 3, Paige chooses to stick with the logical choice at the time, but also ignores her hesitations. Even though Walter and Paige have expressed love for one another in various ways throughout this series, desire is not enough to make anything romantic happen between them. Both of them have to make the decision to commit when the opportunity arises!

Side note: Isn't it interesting that Cabe and Paige, the two who experience breakups this episode, share a dance with one another during the dance party? 😉😉

Happy

Happy is finally on par with everyone else and has a friend outside the cyclone! Granted, we don’t know if Paige has a number of friends either, but it is safe to assume that she has acquaintances at least (parents from Ralph’s school, servers from waitressing days, babysitters). Anyways, Happy (Sprocketace77) has worked with SparkplugADAptor522 for two month and knows very little about her. She asks questions but doesn't get any answers. Once Happy's chat with her goes uncharacteristically silent, she hacks the site and retrieves her name and address. Happy's choice to check on Ada, despite Toby's concerns, saves Ada's life. Throughout the rescue, Happy takes control, finds a way to calm Ada during the process even though this is not her strong suit, and bonds with her struggles at Toby and Paige’s insistence and encouragement even though she doubts her ability. (Sound familiar?! 😉) Unfortunately, Ada's condition prevents any possibility for her to attend Happy's wedding even with an invite, but the whole experience proves to Happy that she is able to create and cultivate friendships with normals. I hope that she will get another opportunity to include Ada in her life through VR (maybe the wedding)!!! As Marissa (aka. @whatthehellisaquintis) said Monday night, it’s always a great feeling to bond with internet friends!

Walter

HOLY CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT!!! Walter is on the fast track to EQ improvement. This episode gives us his progress in spades! He doesn't prod when he sees Paige in distress or when she lies to him. He takes the hint from Happy and allows her to take the lead in Ada's rescue. He identifies Happy's task to keep Ada calm with conversation as another means of emotional support in contrast to giving space (which promotes efficiency). He recognizes good friendship techniques when Happy encourages Ada during the meat locker's sterilization process and when she waits at her computer for Ada to login to the chat room. He fixes Paige's chair and gives her a VR headset so that her chats with Tim make her feel closer to him. When he learns of their split, he provides Paige with emotional support in her moment of sorrow. Paige is definitely aware of his progress, acknowledges it, and thanks him for his efforts. In terms of Waige potential, this is a positive for Walter. This is what Paige once appreciated from Tim that she couldn’t get from Walter last year. And it adds more to The Waige Flip of season 3. But I have to admit that Walter using an advice column in a magazine you would find in your local supermarket is hilarious! That’s so dumb and yet so smart at the same time! It's dumb that he considers the information as a refutable source of behavioral advice as Toby mentions to him, but it's smart when you look at the information as that which appeals to normals. If he wants to have a better friendship with a normal, it would be good to use a source of information that normals utilize in their daily lives. Furthermore, his progress is even more impressive when you consider that he chooses to better himself by his own volition BEFORE the Taige breakup. He doesn't seek Paige or Toby's advice like he usually does. He does his own research in preparation so he doesn't commit an atrocity! I appreciate the writers for this because his motivations to be sincere and supportive shouldn't stem from an opportunity he once lost. They should occur regardless of circumstance. He is doing better than Happy in this venture!!! Walter's progress deserves a standing ovation!

Drabbles...

Omgness guys!!! We get some form of confirmation that Toby and Happy live together!!! My babies are domesticated! 😍💚😍💚😍💚😍💚😍💚😍

Ralph is growing up guys! He is concerned that his legs look skinny in shorts and this is why he doesn't want to go on a beach field trip. Aww!!!

It looks like Toby has picked up tuxedoes with that cake. I didn't get a good look at them so I wonder if these are choices or they are the actual suits the guys will wear at the wedding. All in all, the Quintis wedding planning is so exciting! Toby is leading the charge for his big wedding! I love the flip of traditional gender roles!

The auto-biotic isolator looked really nice!!

Ada: You must be Walter. Happy said he was a whackadoodle. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Walter: I might consider calling her "Snappy" because she keeps snapping at us. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

Ada is so impressive! The way she stacked her furniture to use the mattress in that manner was amazing!!

W (to Toby): You’re not the only shrink in the world. 😂😂😂

Did anyone take notice to how Toby speaks to Ada in this episode?! He speaks in a tender tone like he usually does with Happy. It's kind of adorable considering he identified Ada as another Happy Quinn!

Loved that Paige's waitressing experience contributed in the rescue! 🙌🏾🙌🏾👍🏾

Cousin Buzzy's hat... 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Ada got to feel the sun on her face because of Happy Quinn and Team Scorpion! 🙌🏾🙌🏾👏🏾👏🏾💛💛💛

Gotta point this out... Happy takes her comm out of her ear and gives it to Ada's dad. He puts it in his ear. After he's done, he hands the comm back to Happy and she places it back into her ear. Eww!!!! 😳😳😳 Where was Sly in that moment?! Lol!

Ada must have some strong lungs because I can't hold my breath for a minute! Haven't trained myself to do that! Kudos to her! 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

It was so nice to see all the geniuses show so much concern on their faces waiting for Ada to emerge from the honey!! Emotional progress ftw!!! 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾

Btw, what does Andolo's family restaurant now use to refrigerate their food items since Ada is there for 4 days? I hope the restaurant doesn't get a visit from a food safety inspector anytime soon! 😂😂

I need Walter to create a Scorpion-esque miracle and find a donor for Ada! She is another guest character that needs to return!!

Happy and Walter are friendship goals! 💛💛💛🙌🏾🙌🏾

#ermanda's inner sanctum #cbs scorpion #s03e18 #don't burst my bubble #scorpion cbs #episode review #team scorpion #livingwithashipname

25 notes · View notes

trancowboy · 7 years

Note

Hey, Charlie can you rec me some of your favorite Stucky fics?

Sure thing, pal.

(This accidentally turned out kinda long and it’s only some of my favorites, but it’s not my fault Stucky writers are amazing.)

I’ll build a fort for you by ElStark - @atticuos [4.9k, Gen]

Building a fort is their way of taking care of each other, since Sarah showed them how to build one.

-*-

[“No one took me of course, they all know who I am… ‘Sarah’s sickly one,’” he smiled, small and bitter. “’Can’t take you, too small, too weak, too sick, too much of a hassle.’” He shrugged, “I know they’re right, seems all I’m good for is being a burd-”

“Don’t you say it, Rogers.” Bucky spat through his teeth, “or I swear on all that’s holy imma kick your ass until you take it all back.”

Steve clenched his jaw and looked away.

“It’s not true.” Bucky insisted, “al’right? It’s utter bullshit. What do you think it’d be like for your ma? Huh? Me?”

Steve turned to look at him straight in the eye, and Bucky barely caught the hitch in his breath; Steve looked so old and tired. “Easier.” Said Steve simply.]

The Right Time by wearing_tearing [16.4k, Teen]

“So let me see if I got this right,” Bucky says, gaze focused on Steve. “You want to fake date me.”

“No,” Steve shakes his head, and then corrects him, “I want us to pretend to be engaged.”

The Wedding of Bucky Barnes by stephrc79 [67.8k, Teen]

This is the story of how an instagramming, trolling, pain in the ass got married to an equally annoying, artistic, bossy, stubborn blond oaf.

Or, you know, how one James Buchanan Barnes, Instagram Extraordinaire, married Captain America himself, one Steven Grant Rogers.

Stop interrupting my grinding (series) by rohkeutta [12.2k, Mature]

90-years-old smooth af fella flirting with a 100% Done wrong number sassmaster, with copious amounts of swearing and way too many Beyoncé jokes. Shrunkyclunks 4 lyfe etc.

A.ka the Bitch series, or Sassholes.

The Pursuit of Happiness by notoska [11.4k, Teen]

Bucky eats another spoonful of oatmeal and sets down the bowl. Then he drops his whole body into the beat. All his joints loose, just swaying and throwing himself to the pulse from the speakers.

…okay.

“How— how are you feeling?”

Bucky stills his upper body. Knees bouncing easy, head bobbing. He holds Steve’s eyes. Is that— a nod? Or—?

Probably a nod. Continue like this is normal, “You seem like you’re feeling a lot more— energetic? That’s good.”

Steve nods and finds himself idiotically matching Bucky and nodding to the beat. He jolts to still his head.

“Okay, well.”

The song has been strangely mellow for a while and suddenly the beat drops in, hard and twice as fast. Bucky drops with it, slamming his head back and forth to the throbbing sound. Too fast, hair a tangled blur.

Steve stares. Speechless. He wills himself not flee the room with every ounce of conviction he has and soaks in the most exquisite embarrassment he has ever known.

- - - - - - -

In which Bucky finds himself through breakdancing and Steve can. not. deal. with. it.

Steve gets a lap dance at the end. I think that is maybe all you need to know?

Leg Day by Slenderlock [12.1k, Explicit]

“So talk to him,” Sam says.

“I can’t,” Bucky groans. “I can’t, Sam, I. He just.” He fluffs his hair up and stares at Sam, distraught. “I want him to bench press me.”

“Okay, so it’s serious,” Sam interprets. “Got it.“

(Or: The one where Sam is Bucky’s long-suffering roommate, Bucky is a hot mess of a millennial, and Hot Steve spends far too much time on the Lat Pull-Down machine.)

Catfish by L1av [28.4k, Explicit]

Catfish /ˈkatˌfiSH/ - A catfish is someone who pretends to be someone they’re not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances.

Steve Rogers is a famous movie star, known for his role as Captain America. Bucky Barnes is a bored law student who drinks too much wine. Bucky gets on match.com to boost his confidence. What he doesn’t expect is a guy using Steve Rogers’ pictures on a dating profile. Bucky decides to mess with the guy. After all, what idiot uses Steve Rogers’ pictures on a dating site?

Not like it’s really him, right? Bucky may need more wine.

My Dear by vulcansmirk [29.9k, Explicit]

The Soldier stares down at the floor, breathing hard through his nose.

“And you still wanna fix me,” he says.

Steve shakes his head. “There’s nothing to fix, Buck. I just want to bring you home.”

The Avengers Hate Club by notebooksandlaptops [52.4k, Teen]

Bucky Barnes is 99% certain that if he hears one more Avengers song, it could be fatal.

He’s also 99% certain that the stranger with the bright smile and blonde hair he met at the cafe walked out of his dreams.

Starting an Avengers hate club with a man who buys you cake to combat your mental break down at hearing a stupid song one too many times seems like a fine idea, what could go wrong? It’s not like either of them knows the Avengers….or that either one of them is in the band….right?

The one where Bucky falls hopelessly for Steve and starts an Avengers hate club with the lead singer of the Avengers.

Captain Fantastic and the Pineapple King by buckyfuckybarnes [30.6k, Teen]

Shit.She hadn’t noticed him yet. Maybe he could turn and leave without them noticing – Sam would understand. Sam was the most empathetic person he knew. He wouldn’t scold Steve for coming home spice-less to avoid an awkward encounter with an ex. Surely.They drew closerFuckPlease don’t notice me, please don’t notice me, please don’t notice me…“Steve?”Fuck.In which Steve is saved from his ex in a grocery store, Bucky Barnes is Way Too Chill about absolutely everything, and Sam has had enough of all of these goddamn pineapples in his fucking house.Or: The five times Steve received a pineapple (and one Piña Colada) and the one time he didn’t

Is It Pretend If I Already Want You? by OhCaptainMyCaptain [85.2k, Explicit]

Based on prompt: Pretend Boyfriends AU where one of their families is always wondering why they’re never in a relationship, so the other offers to pretend to be their boyfriend for some family event”

Basic Steps to Getting Yourself In a Pickle With Both Your Family and The Guy You’ve Secretly Crushed On For Five Years (A Guide):

STEP 1: After being perpetually single and constantly making up excuses to your family, give in and lie about having a boyfriend.STEP 2: Agree to bring said boyfriend to the family cottage for a week so he can be your date to your parents’ wedding anniversary party.STEP 3: Panic.STEP 4: Say ‘yes’ when your best friend and closet crush - who you’re convinced isn’t interested in you that way in the least - offers to be your pretend boyfriend.STEP 5: Try your best not to fall in love with them during the trip.STEP 6: Fail miserably.

Up All Night to get Lucky by K_R_Closson [10k, Teen]

Clint’s going away on a mission and needs someone to watch his dog. Steve happened to be nearby and now he and Bucky are in charge of Lucky. It’ll be a miracle if the dog and their relationship makes it through the week.

Keep Making Trouble ‘Till You Find What You Love by Rena [41.7k, Mature]

“We should date,” Bucky blurts out, inspiration suddenly striking.

That gets him Steve’s attention, at least. “Excuse me?” he asks.

“No no no, hear me out,” Bucky says. “You wanna get back at them, right? Imagine the following: We date, fall madly in love, then have the most horrendous breakup in history and make them deal with that. They’ll feel terrible because they set us up, and we get to eat free ice cream and see their faces when we eventually tell them we pulled one over them,” Bucky finishes with a smug grin.

“That’s a terrible plan,” Steve says.

Effects of Obliteration by geneticallydead [25.5k, Explicit]

“I watched a documentary on the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima a while ago. In the blast radius, sometimes a… a person blocked the bleaching effect of the radiation. So the person was vaporized, but a shadow was left behind, on a bridge or a wall – their shape, their outline, when they were completely gone,“ Steve said. "It’s called a nuclear shadow.”

“If you’re implying the Soldier is like a nuclear shadow, then that is seriously fucking dark, man,” Sam said dryly.

Before the fall of the Soviet Union, the Winter Soldier was sent to the American arm of Hydra - only there was a malfunction in the cryo-unit that meant it couldn’t be opened, and it was left, powered but abandoned, in an underground base.

25 years later, the Avengers find it.

Steve’s List by bell_yay [14.7k, Mature]

Steve prefers to keep some things to himself.

just say you do by biblionerd07 [173.1k, Teen]

Steve just wanted a job. He wasn’t expecting a marriage proposal. And he certainly wasn’t expecting to accept.

Itsy Bitsy Yoga by wearing_tearing [59k, Teen]

Bucky teaches a Parent & Toddler Yoga class. Steve and his two year old son are his students.

One Caress by fuck_me_barnes [26.1k, Explicit]

Steve's rarely been touched in a way that didn't equate to some kind of hurt. The cold metal of a stethoscope against his frail chest or the sting of a needle drawing yet another blood sample, when he was a sickly child. The bone-shattering punches thrown by the neighborhood bullies on the playground, or by his own father at home, drunk and wild. His mother, weak and clutching at him as she grew more incoherent with the drugs as the cancer ate away at her insides. Touch was something he shied away from, something he told himself he just didn't want.

Except...he did. He just didn't know how.

Until he finds a flyer for a local "affection and intimacy services" program.

In which Steve learns how to become comfortable with touch, and there is one very good dog, and a slow-burn romance.

Thirty-Eight Days and Counting by thecommodore_squid [40.2k, Mature]

It didn’t escape him that Steve shared his assumed last name. “Are you gonna be my cousin?” Bucky asked dully.

Steve frowned. “Husband, actually,” he said easily, holding up his left hand to show a typical golden band.

Bucky scowled and closed the door.

AKAAn AU in which Bucky is put in the witness protection program and Steve is the agent hired to protect him/pretend to be his husband.

You and a Test of Will by thepinupchemist [72.4k, Explicit]

Bucky Barnes suffered from depression before he joined the army, and when he came back, he suffered tenfold. Steve Rogers painted his nightmares and didn't talk about how he lost his leg. Natasha believed it was possible -- just maybe -- that broken people could help heal one another.

Snickerdoodles Are the Way to Steve’s Heart by HMSLusitania [15.8k, Teen]

Steve can't help but be a little annoyed when Natasha signs him up for a cooking class - a couple's cooking class. At least, he's annoyed until he meets the instructor, who might just be the most attractive man Steve has ever laid eyes on.

Featuring chef!Bucky, bitterly single Steve, and their meddling friends.

(are you aware) the state i’m in by grandeur [27.8k, Mature]

Bucky's newspaper keeps going missing.

Put It on Repeat, It Stays the Same by giselleslash [20.2k, Explicit]

Steve and Bucky have a one night stand that turns into a friends with benefits situation. A weekend snowed in at Bucky’s apartment brings to light how much that really doesn’t suit either one of them.

perfectly right wrong number by melonbutterfly [31.9k, Teen]

It all starts because Steve is too dumb to handle his smartphone.

A wrong number AU in which Bucky Barnes doesn't enter Steve's life (meaning: Bucky wasn't born until the eighties, but Steve is still Captain America) until Steve accidentally dials the wrong number. Wherein there is a lot of texting, some advice via Natasha and Darcy, a bit of pining, and a first date in an amusement park. Oh, and on top of being a disabled veteran, Bucky is a professional catwalker. Literally.

#stucky #stevebucky #buckysteve #fic rec #otp: till the end of the line #anonymous #answered #i have 300+ stucky fics in my bookmarks #picking my favorites is hard

109 notes · View notes

anthropophagusthebeast · 4 years

Text

i don’t know what i want to write but i feel like i should. as soon as i started, i became distracted, beginning several different activities and abandoning them all with equal swiftness. having to be “in the mood” to write is such bullshit. i wish i could just sit down and start writing, instead of waiting for whatever my chemical problem is to snap back the other way so that i can artificially enjoy and therefore believe in what i’m doing. and then of course there is the matter of whether i’m not writing because i don’t want to, i don’t want to talk about what i have to talk about. maybe i don’t want things to change or get better. i don’t know if it’s because i have begun ketamine treatments, or if it’s a coincidence, but i startled myself the other day by wondering what i want life to be like when i’m better. obviously i don’t want to be in pain, or thinking about suicide every day. obviously i blame my depression for my inability, or unwillingness, to make something of my life. i blame it for not writing, or taking care of myself, or finding a career, or cleaning my room, or learning to do new things, or just trying harder, at anything. i have standards that i hold myself to; i think that a “real person” would wake up early with either the force of will or the innate desire to meditate and exercise, the positivity and focus to take care of outstanding chores without getting derailed for hours or days by fuckups and depressive crashes, a real person would have the organization and concentration to write for a few hours and draw for a few hours and play music for at least half an hour, a real person would stop finding passing but immediate satisfaction in food or shopping or masturbation or sleep, and would save up their energy for a sustained effort whose eventual resolution would bring truly great satisfaction. a person whose life is not defined by depression would be able to create goals that were not just the opposite of something bad, such a person would be able to Want things and, with the ability to picture them, pursue them. they could desire something other than pain relief. and while some of these things might sound like goals, i think the truth is that they are just judgments. i hate myself for not being able to do more than one or two things in a day, for having things like laundry consume almost an entire day, the rest of which is spent in nauseating despair over the fact that i fucked it up somehow. realistically, i don’t think most people, even “successful” people, divide every day into perfectly prioritized activities that consistently advance 5 or 10 of their life goals. i don’t honestly think that that level of perpetual motion and military execution is the normal result of normal mental health. i also don’t think most people are as lazy and paralyzed with fear, shame, disgust, and sadness as i am, though. while i thought about this, i realized that i don’t really know what i want. it’s hard to imagine. maybe this isn’t something that i HAVE to plan out, but i’ve become so afraid of continuing to waste my own time, and i do believe that there is value in trying to visualize what you want to happen, to at least have a sense of what might make you feel good, as opposed to just waiting for things to happen to you. a few years ago i began to realize that i couldn’t picture anything i really wanted. i barely even have sexual fantasies, even though i consider myself a fairly sexed up person. i can’t picture anything i would do if i were rich, that i don’t already do when i find a little money, other than stop working and probably avoid life more. i can vaguely picture living in a nicer apartment, but not in a lot of detail. it all just seems so ridiculous because the idea of having and do things i want i just unreal, just not in my life experience. i think maybe that would be step one, maybe if i started to feel better then i would gain the ability to imagine things that excite me, that i want. maybe that’s how i would start to feel driven. that’s what i would really like i think. i used to imagine that i was a driven person, but really i just had a lot of youthful energy and pent up frustrations. i definitely know what kind of person i would like to be, but i don’t know if that’s exactly the same as living a life that i feel good about. i don’t want to just keep judging myself meaninglessly by constantly imagining some form of perfection that doesn’t actually have anything to do with who i am. but that’s the whole point of this: it’s hard to imagine life without my problems. it’s hard to imagine not being a person who becomes extremely enraged and desperate when things go even slightly wrong. it has become my entire identity, it was from a very early age. the body, the endocrine system, determines so much of what your soul is like. i don’t necessarily see myself becoming a peaceful hippie or a vibrant cheerleader or some kind. but if i had it within myself to find a purpose, to feel that there is definitely a point to what i am doing, then i could enjoy being so firey and sardonic and everything all the time. the most important, powerful part of my depression is feeling that i cannot even imagine finding a purpose for myself. if i were able to come up with a reason i believed in to wake up and do things, even in a haze of rage or revulsion still, then i wouldn’t feel so much like my life is in serious danger from myself. i want to feel driven, driven to some end.

i have been totally astounded by my own apparent unwillingness to write this screenplay, which i truly think is such a great idea, and which i think has at least a snowball’s chance in hell of becoming real. so often i just feel nothing when i think of it, a suspicious fog shields it from my view, and i waste entire days that i designated for writing. (which is basically every day) without feeling the whole shape of it, it is so obvious to me that i’m afraid of it, that my mental illness doesn’t want me to finish it. i don’t have explicit thoughts about it, like that i don’t deserve to be a writer, or that the concept is stupid or the writing is bad, i am not plagued by fears that it is a waste of time or that people will hate it. actually, i don’t even have writer’s block, even if i don’t know every single thing i want to write, i know enough that i always have something i could be working on with it. but at least some of those things are probably behind the xray-proof shielding that has popped up around it, preventing me from feeling the slightest thing toward it except on the rarest days. i know that there are some mysterious things that i need to work out to make it really compelling, less gestural, less like a storage unit for a couple of ideas and set pieces. i’m afraid one of these things is my mother. my mother is the whole motivation for this, the things that happened to my mother and the things she did to me. but i have been so unwilling to address the fate of the mother’s possession of the girl. there’s this vague idea that the mother’s spirit begins to take over half the girl’s body, the vague idea that the mother wants revenge on the cult leader, or even revenge on her daughter. but is there a resolution coming, a union of anyone’s forces? the mother was an insidious abuser because she found her daughter disgusting, according to the way she was raised by her own mother. this makes the mother seem rather like an evil spirit, one not really connected to the idea of internalized misogyny, who might not understand that it is important to destroy the cult which perpetuates a similar crime against its members. the relationship between the mother and daughter needs to become, ultimately, more absolute, more archetypically meaningful. i don’t think i want to write a corny, sentimental resolution involving love and forgiveness. maybe there’s something to the idea about psychic surgery, which i felt like i had really just pulled out of my ass. the girl is getting sick, she is losing control of some of herself, some of herself seems to rot--the cult uses psychic surgery to remove “psychic organs”, parasitic structures that manifest inside the bodies of women who deny their own fundamental purposes. the girl experiences something similar, but she sees through the cult’s army-building mind control bullshit. she knows that the organ is her mother. she’s pregnant with her own mother. so at first she’s fighting both the cult and her mother. then she uses the paranormal intrusion of her mother as a weapon against the cult, the way we all use our pain if we are successful in addressing it--we don’t pretend that it is this nothing, this impurity, like all cults want us to. maybe i’m having a breakthrough. maybe i will be able to write next week, to finish it by the end of te year like i wanted to. i can imagine that being exciting.

0 notes

worldhackernews-blog · 6 years

Text

Phone Phishing Level Ups: Smart Slaves to Digital Wizardry

New Post has been published on https://worldhackernews.com/phone-phishing-level-ups-smart-slaves-to-digital-wizardry/

Phone Phishing Level Ups: Smart Slaves to Digital Wizardry

The human race has developed an unfathomable affinity towards technology and consequently is convinced that we have become smart enough to no longer be susceptible to the scams and highly innovative cyber attacks; however what escapes our notice is that unfortunately, overindulgence in anything has its own repercussions. When you fall prey to an obsolete telephone-based phishing scam, inferences that get drawn are – we are becoming smart slaves to the digital wizardry. Scam artists are paving unprecedented ways for technological complications.

Matt Haughey, the creator of ‘Weblog MetaFilter’ and a writer at Slack has given an account of how he received a call from an 800-number which bore a resemblance to the number his credit union uses. Bearing in mind the rarity of the calls he receives from his credit union, he picked up the last one of three successive calls he got. On the other end of the call, a female was explaining to him that the credit union had blocked two phony-looking charges in Ohio that was made to his ATM card. She continued the conversation as she read him the last four digits of the card that belonged to him and needless to say, it checked out.

Haughey returned that he is going to need a replacement card urgently as he has a travel planned to California. Instantly, the voice on the other end said that he could keep his card and any future charges that weren’t made in either Oregon or California would simply be blocked by the credit union.

The piece of information- that bank just called to inform him about the freezing of his card and then spontaneously launched into another accent and said that he could keep it open for his upcoming trip, wasn’t bought by Haughey and he happened to sense something that was off. He pacified his concern by assuring himself that it was a favor that the caller subjected him to.

Battling the voices of suspicion, Matt hesitatingly co-operated as the caller verified his home address and mother’s maiden name, intention projected here was to send a new card once the California trip is over.

Once the details were provided and cross-checked, the caller asked Matt to verify the 3 digit security code and as he had given out this code earlier while paying for things using his card, he let his guard of caution down.

She proceeded and asked for the PIN of his current card, she backed the act up in the name of applying the same PIN to the new card. The question got Haughey alarmed and he asked her to repeat what she just said. With the question being repeated, the PIN, though skeptically, was provided.

After hanging up, Haughey was entirely convinced with the legitimacy of the transaction. However, the part where the PIN was asked for kept him at unease.

Referencing an interview Matt had with KrebsOnSecurity, he said “I balked at challenging her because everything lined up,” He added, “But when I hung up the phone and told a friend about it, he was like, ‘Oh man, you just got scammed, there’s no way that’s real.’”

With amplified concerns and a forehead bearing the lines of distress, Haughey approached his credit union to ensure his travel arrangements were aligned. He narrated the terrific incident to a bank employee who, just by the look on his face subscribed to the views of his friend.

His account was reviewed and two fraudulent charges totaling $3,400 stared right into his face, but Ohio was not in this cyber-crime scene. Over $2,900 was spent at a Kroger near Atlanta and $500 was withdrawn from an ATM located in the same area using a counterfeit debit card.

Putting into perspective the fake professionalism and the realism of it all, Haughey said, “People I’ve talked to about this say there’s no way they’d fall for that, but when someone from a trustworthy number calls, says they’re from your small town bank, and sounds incredibly professional, you’d fall for it, too,”

Narrow escape

Founder of Panic Inc., Cabel Sasser gave a recent account of how he nearly fall prey to a telephonic scam which was attempted from a number similar to the one at the back of his Wells Fargo card.

“I answered, and a Fraud Department agent said my ATM card has just been used at a Target in Minnesota, was I on vacation?” a traumatized Sasser tweeted.

Sasser’s tweet didn’t carry any record of his corporate debit card being subjected to two fraudulent instances. On disputing the charge he was mailed a replacement card by his bank.

Recalling in an interview with KrebsOnSecurity, Sasser said “I used the new card at maybe four places and immediately another fraud charge popped up for like $20,000 in custom bathtubs,” He added, “The morning this scam call came in I was spending time trying to figure out who might have lost our card data and was already in that frame of mind when I got the call about fraud on my card.”

And the card-replacement drama was set into momentum, the caller asked, “Is the card in your possession?” It was. The caller then enquired about the CVV, a three-digit code printed on the back side of his card.

Once the CVV was verified, the agent offered to expedite a replacement. Sasser recalled. “First he had to read some disclosures. Then he asked me to key in a new PIN. I picked a random PIN and entered it. Verified it again. Then he asked me to key in my current PIN.”

Following this, what dawned on Sasser was that wouldn’t an actual representative from Wells Fargo’s fraud division already have access to his current PIN?

The caller feigned authenticity by ensuring him that it’s just to confirm the change and he can’t see what he is entering.

Sasser’s counter had the fact that they are the bank, they have his PIN, and they can see what he enters. To which caller retorted, “Only the IVR [interactive voice response] system can see it,” Reaching the climax, the caller reiterated Sasser’s Social Security number and attempted for a re-confirmation.

Though the number was correct, authenticity was still struggling to be felt. Sasser decided to hang up and call back and he told the same to the agent. When he dialed the number printed on the back of his ATM card which was the source of the call he got, the person on the other end said there had been no such fraud detected on his account.

“I was just four key presses away from having all my cash drained by someone at an ATM,” Sasser told the interviewer. On visiting the local branch of his bank, his fears were confirmed, “The Wells person was super surprised that I bailed out when I did and said most people are 100 percent taken by this scam,” Sasser said.

Mortal, computer or a fusion?

“Vishing”- is a method which uses a combination of human and automated voice. Although, the scammer was an actual person in the aforementioned case, vishing attempts are also equally prevalent. The August case of “Curt” as reported by KrebsOnSecurity is a defining example of “vishing”.

Referenced from Curt’s writings, “I’m both a TD customer and Rogers’s phone subscriber and just experienced what I consider a very convincing and/or elaborate social engineering/vishing attempt,”

“At 7:46pm I received a call from (647-475-1636) purporting to be from Credit Alert (alertservice.ca) on behalf of TD Canada Trust offering me a free 30-day trial for a credit monitoring service.”

Reportedly, the caller introduced herself by the name of ‘Jen Hansen’, and proceeded with what Curt labeled as “over-the-top courtesy.”

“It sounded like a very well-scripted Customer Service call, where they seem to be trying so hard to please that it seems disingenuous,” Curt recollected. “But honestly it still sounded very much like a real person, not like a text to speech voice which sounds robotic. This sounded VERY natural.”

The caller then brought it to Curt’s notice that TD Bank was offering a free credit monitoring service for a month, and that he is allowed to cancel at any time. He was told that all he has to do is t0 confirm his home mailing address in order to apply.

The women on the line went on explaining the package and as she was glorifying the parts of the package that included free antivirus and anti-keylogging software, Curt interrupted and enquired about the weather at her place, a off-beat question that got her (robot) baffled and after a couple of apologies she transferred the call to another line, the question was outright ignored on this new line as well and the person kept on explaining the offered service.

After completely throwing the robots off-script using his technical reasoning, Curt hung up and immediately contacted TD Bank and was assured that he dodged a bullet as no one had called him from the Bank.

Preventive front

To guard themselves against phone phishing, users are advised to not disclose any sensitive information pertaining to their identity and banks to an unsolicited phone call. Similar to email scams, phone phishing also has an element of haste and urgency play a crucial part as the haste blocks our potential cognitive thought process and keeps us from adding the things up which works as a perfect catalyst for users to go slow on defense.

If any such call gets you troubled and you find yourself in a zone of financial worry, do not reach for help via the number offered by the caller that got you worried in the first place, rather contact the bank via the number given at the backside of your card. Don’t hesitate while hanging up calls that turn into an inquisition in a matter of seconds; deliberate attempts to probe into your personal space are to be sensed by being a bit more alert in these times than you ever have been.

Source link

0 notes