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dreamteamfanblog · 3 years

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Obligatory I haven't kept up with Season Three at all and everything I talk about is pre Tommy dying, pre Niki joining the syndicate, pre Red Banquet, pre Los Navadas, pre Wilbur Revival, and pre Tommy/Ranboo marriage. To the point where I don't actually know functionally anything about any of the events I just mentioned except that they are the names of things that have gone down that y'all may know about so you can figure out when I stopped watching and what the most recent events at the time were. Pretty much everything I bring up in any of my posts will be primarily based in season one or season two discourse/events and I cannot promise anything is accounted for past the season two finale.

SO ONTO THE ACTUAL POST.

Hey why is it that the Techno Apologists never latch onto any examples of L'manburg actually being fucked up?

Like, it's always whining about how Techno was Betrayed when Pogtopia did literally exactly what they had been openly planning to do since the beginning, or about how The Butcher Army was supposedly so Mean and Bad for trying to execute Techno, or about how....idk man, L'manburg being awful solely because they were involved in so much conflict?

Which I mean not only are all of these arguments very weirdly untrue.

They're also super hypocritical.

Like it's so consistently argued that Techno didn't betray Pogtopia since he made his intentions clear from the start, but that also debunks their point that Techno was betrayed on account of the fact that Pogtopia made their intentions clear from the start too. People cheered and loudly passionately agreed and supported Techno's "And those that treat me with injustice — that use me, that hunt me down, that hurt my friends — I shall repay that injustice a thousand times over!" thing and yet this adamant support of such brutal retribution during a conflict in which Techno himself had landed the first blow....actively contradicts the narrative that the Butcher Army are bad and evil and had no right to do what they did? I mean Techno literally canonically both hunted Quackity down and hurt his friends and the case that Techno was used at all is only about as strong as the case that he used the others so either both of em' were or neither were, and in either case, there's no leg to stand on when Techno apologists happily support Techno destroying an entire nation including the lives and homes of people who had nothing to do with The Butcher Army yet also scoff at the very idea that executing a war criminal for murder and terrorism against them could possibly be anything other than horrifically evil and corrupt! Not to mention that again, "L'manburg are filled with such Violent Troublemakers who cause so much Chaos and Conflict", is a really weird and hypocritical thing to claim when you're defending mister Blood For The Blood God over here who literally jumped in the second he heard the word Revolution because he was just that fucking ready to fight then canonically took the lives of multiple members of L'manburg and blew up their whole city while explicitly talking about his desire for Chaos in a "Dog Eat Dog World"????

Like not only is it pretty easy to argue all these points on a "that's like factually incorrect?" basis alone but even completely refusing to touch that angle, literally nothing L'manburg did that's brought up by Techno Apologists as a gotcha can stand as an actual argument in his favour because every single fucking bit of it is stuff that Techno himself holds as part of his Oh So Righteous Ideology and it really doesn't work to say "Retribution is bad, but Retribution For Retribution! THAT I can get behind!" or "Conflict is bad, except when the bloodshed is For The Blood God of course" or "Pogtopia still Used and Betrayed him even though they were upfront from the start and the alliance was a mutual agreement initiated by Techno actually but Techno didn't use or betray anyone, he was upfront from the start and the alliance was a mutual agreement, how could he have betrayed them?"

Which is actually Painful lately because THERE ARE ACTUAL POINTS YA'LL COULD BE MAKING THAT AREN'T COMPLETELY FALSE OR HYPOCRITICAL ACTUALLY!

I don't support c!Techno by any means, in large part because I don't think he believes what he says and even if he did he hurts the people in his attempts to 'help'. But i'd like to point out very easy arguments to make in favour of the ideology and stance many Techno apologists seem keen on arguing he has.

For example, what about the L'manburg election? Two of the parties committed voter fraud which actively put the liberty/freedom of the people at risk. There was literally One decent party who's entire reason for joining was literally "Hey that's really fucked up that you just tried to ensure your own governmental power through unfair means at the expense of the people's agency?" with a side point of "Also while we're at it maybe you shouldn't ban a whole group of people from your country entirely all because like Two people who happen to be part of that group hurt you, that's kinda messed up too" and then there was a fourth party who literally Opened their campaign by swinging at other people and manically declaring their power. In the end the guys who literally tried to rig the election and honestly should have been banned outright from running because of the blatant act of corruption still won popular vote and in a desperate attempt to mediate how Bad of a decision the people had made there the one halfway decent candidate pooled votes with the only dude who didn't commit voter fraud but then the people still suffered because the coalition was quickly completely overpowered by the more corrupt/violent party and literally no amount of attempts to make things better through begging him to listen or going behind his back to free people who'd been unfairly imprisoned or anything else along those lines could change the fact that "I'm the president here, not you~". This situation was really fucked up. Behind door number one we've got the Hamilton Cosplay Tyrants who keep talking about the Glory Days or the War Effort or whatever and won't let anyone who doesn't have a similar enough accent to them into the country. Door number two are the Baked Goods Tyrants who are using this election to promote their cookies and stick it to the candidates dad that he's cooler than him or whatever, they literally hack the voter count and are Known for dragging other people into petty conflict (and not like "fighting your oppressors is so unnecessary" anti-l'manburg bad take levels of supposed "petty conflict", i mean like, actual petty conflict, case in point the damn pet wars). Then with door number three there's the Alcoholism-Is-Cool Tyrant man who at least didn't fudge any votes but also has never not been drunk and literally hunted the other candidates for sport when he first showed up so I mean in what world is this guy a stable candidate for anything at all, much less for a position of authority over people as influential as president. Now, behind door number four, there's actually a...pretty decent option? The entire reason he joined to begin with is because he was absolutely enraged by the corrupt bs the others were pulling with their little "run a single party election" stunt. The other party's spread blatantly false quotes supposedly from him to make him look bad. The other parties go out of their way to burn down his builds. He's honestly relatively cordial in comparison but still hits hard during debates, mainly because he's got some points. "There's good in everyone", i've been told he'd insisted, trying his best to talk to one of the other candidates and get to know him only to be shut down entirely. There were three AWFUL candidates and one honestly good one. And yet the way the system was set up meant there was pretty much no chance of winning. Meant the people were screwed no matter what. The people trying to commit ballot fraud and slandering the competition were the ones who set the terms of the election, two complete randos who didn't bother signing up initially showed up drunk or trying to prove something to their dad and also just all around being Awful and they were still allowed to enter. Which all kinda fucked Quackity over, actually. And then he was forced to either let Wilbur have full control knowing how corrupt and manipulative he was or pool votes with the violent drunk and maybe swerve their shared administration into something good. The entire setup from the word go completely fucked over Quackity and that

completely fucked over the innocent people of L'manburg. And even going into their shared administration, Quackity was so powerless! Schlatt did horrible corrupt things to everyone and Quackity was there at every juncture trying his absolute best to mediate that. But there was so little he could do from his position that he had to resort to very non legal methods like breaking Niki out of jail behind Schlatt's back, standing in the blast radius while he tried to convince Schlatt not to go through with Tubbo's execution because they can't just take the shot with him standing in the line of fire trying to talk them out of it surely, and even eventually firing an arrow into Schlatt and being the only person to canonically have the guts to not only walk out of Manburg of their own free will openly spiting Schlatt, but the only person who had the guts to purposefully take a life from him as well. And. Well. THIS IS ALL A HUGE FUCKING ISSUE. There was no good reason someone corrupt had to win that election, there was even a decent candidate running! And genuinely for no other reason than because the alternatives were Really Fucked Up as well! Then the fact that Quackity, even as vice president, had so little say in anything that he wasn't even legally allowed to protect good people from wrongful imprisonment or stop Schlatt from tearing down priceless monuments that meant a LOT to people? That's so much worse. Corrupt people designing the system specifically to facilitate their corruption and lend an unreasonable amount of power to a select few people to the extent where the goddamn vice president, another member of the government, can't do anything legally to stop the president from doing horrific things. That's bad. That is actually really bad. And even beyond the bullshit of the election and how little Quackity could do about any of this despite literally doing everything he was supposed to and was legally capable of doing, there's the added layer of how little agency the people of L'manburg had in all of this! Schlatt's main political rivals were immediately exiled- and not even for the corruption scandal, literally just because they were Schlatt's political rivals- and he literally threw his dissenters in jail not to mention executing a kid and tearing down important history. I mean, he had an approval rate of Literally Nobody and was actively hurting/oppressing his people. And there seemed to be literally no impeachment process at all in place and when the people he was meant to lead unanimously took up arms against him THEY were criticized and labeled as villainous usurpers as the vague ideal of ~Legality~ was placed as more important than actual real life people. trying to live without a dictator hanging constantly over them! Schlatt's technical legal position is regularly cited as a mark against the Pogtopia revolution, because apparently Schlatt's right to sit upon a blood coated throne drinking his life away ruling a ghost town where nobody felt they could safely live was somehow more important than the rights of every single person who lived in and loved that nation to stay alive and feel secure in their own homes! In this case the government did fail. In this case corrupt people set up a corrupt system that boosted other corrupt people with no reasonable way for any single good politician to negate nor any way for the people themselves to change this. Not without going outside of the law and being deemed immoral for impeding on the rule of their rightful leader. This IS a situation in which the government systematically hurt and failed the people in ways that were near impossible to change or escape. THIS IS L'MANBURG HAVING A CORRUPT GOVERNMENT.

Look no further than mister Dreamwastaken for more examples of governmental corruption! I mean, sure, Dream never technically held an office, but his lack of title does nothing to change his position as the ruler of the Smp. Dream is the one who names and dethrones kings, Dream is the one who chooses which nations to legitimize and which to destroy, Dream is the decider of the laws of this land and he can add or remove them as he pleases down to exerting his permission to break even the most sacred laws of the server such as killing within the holy lands. It doesn't matter if Dream had a specific title, he was, by definition, Government. Government is "the governing body of a nation, state, or community", a governing body is the person/people with authority to conduct the policy, actions, and affairs of a state, organization, or people. Dream. Was. Government. Corrupt government! From the very beginning of the server exerting his supreme god given control over people who didn't want it! Lying, cheating, stealing, killing, forcing his will onto others, hurting the people constantly. Dream was an honest to god tyrant, even moreso than any other villain on the server had ever been! And if you look back at every other awful thing that happened in the series it links back almost without fail to him. To his control. I mean need I remind everyone that one of the primary reasons Schlatt wasn't forcefully overthrown sooner was because Dream was standing in support of his rule? Need I remind everyone that the entire reason L'manburg ever had to exist anyway was because unionizing and protesting and standing as a united front was the only way the people of the server could hope to escape Dream's unwanted and oppressive government? Dream stood behind the actions of damn near every terrible government official we ever saw as well with the one exception being maybe Badboyhalo. Dream was government and he was extremely corrupt. Like. BLATANTLY so.

And god, i'm still shocked by how little I saw Techno apologists talk about the fucking exile. I mean dear god. That was the accumulation of like Every shitty government problem in the whole server. I mean first off enter Dream being unreasonable and Awful again, obviously, I mean Tommy burned a few blocks, who cares, it was fixed in like five seconds and George didn't even care that much. But Dream used his position as, y'know, the governing body of the Smp, to blow it out of proportion and demand Tommy be unfairly and disproportionately punished. Not only did Dream's governing position enable him to do this, he took advantage of George's and Tommy's own positions as a means to twist the narrative in his favour. Dream blatantly exploited his government position, George's government position, Tommy's government position, and then worst of all Tubbo's. Quackity and Fundy desperately urged Tubbo not to go through with the exile, Ranboo swiftly snapped to Tommy's defense and called out that this whole thing was completely unfair, Tommy himself was completely dismayed and insisted this wasn't right. And it wasn't! Anyone could see that, this whole situation was a blatant abuse of government power in like ten different ways from Dream and the only thing to do was to shut him down! It would be a betrayal to everything they stood for, to their personal relationships, to the duty they had to protect innocent people, to general morality and basic principles, to go through with the exile, and the majority of people felt this very strongly. Wanted to protect Tommy and themselves from Dream's governmental abuse. But Tubbo did it anyway. This was the decision of two people and two people alone. Dreamwastaken and Tubbounderscore. But their opinions were the only ones that mattered, because they're the leaders. They're the heads of government. And if they spoke the command, to see that Tommyinnit were out of their territories where he would be tortured and abused for months? Then so be it. Then their word is law. Fundy and Quackity were struck with complete horror, they screamed, they pushed, they were in complete and utter disarray, and there was nothing they could do as long as Tubbo held to his decision because as we established back during Schlatt's reign, not even a good politician desperate for things to be better holds a candle to the decision of the president, and there's nothing that can be done, because he's president and they're not. Within much of the fandom Quackity and Fundy were criticized for "disrespecting" Tubbo's choice. Because what right did they have to speak out against the choice of the president? Tubbo was in charge, and it was their job to shut up and facilitate his decisions. That was an implication I saw often at the time. That because Tubbo was president, because of his title, his governmental position, his opinion was inherently more important and was absolutely not subject to scrutiny from those 'below' him. That the anger and hurt and fear of Quackity and Fundy, of real people, for their livelihoods and their safety and their friend, were less important than Tubbo's decision. This placement of Tubbo as 'above' the others and the implication that they are obligated to bite their tongues for the sake of 'respect' towards their president and his authority? It was complete and total bullshit. And I fully expected the Techno apologists to come out of the woodwork to affirm this! I fully expected to be able to agree with the Techno apologists for once, maybe not on every level, but at the very least on the level that this situation oozed governmental abuse from every pore and the idea that real people who felt hurt and scared and betrayed and angry because of Tubbo and Dream's little political nightmare were somehow out of line in their intense feelings because Tubbo's word is law and they need to show some respect to their government? I thought immediately that there was NO way in HELL this wouldn't be picked up immediately by the anti government Techno apologists!

But the thing is. It wasn't.

None of these were.

Techno apologists rarely acknowledge any of these actual examples of the government being really fucked up in favour of exhaustingly see through and hypocritical non examples to justify Techno's anti-government stance.

And, well, I highly suspect the reason for this is exactly the reason I can't support the perspective of c!Techno to begin with despite how I just went on my own rant about government corruption.

And that reason is because Techno, and by association the people who argue for his world view, don't actually care.

I mean, let me ask you a question. Just really, truly, honestly. In all of these examples of real honest to god government corruption issues from Wilbur to Schlatt to Dream.....who were the victims?

The people.

The people of L'manburg.

Tubbo, Niki, Fundy, Tommyinnit, Quackity. I mean they Kinda played parts in Some of these issues but usually under direst distress/manipulation from Wilbur or Schlatt or Dream.

The people who suffered, the people who's lives were effected, the people who were disproportionally hurt by all of the real governmental issues on the server are the people of L'manburg. The people who suffered under Schlatt's leadership, the child executed unfairly, the woman thrown in prison, the one politician who fought to make things right but was overpowered at every step, the people who lost their homes, the people who lost their friends, the other child exiled and abused for months for no good reason, the two who begged and pleaded and did everything to stop it only to be left powerless to protect him, even the young president himself cornered into this decision by fear and trauma and threats from somebody intent on exploiting the governmental dynamics to hurt people. Those are the fucking victims!

And nobody defending a Techno perspective can afford to acknowledge a situation in which the people of L'manburg are the victims!

It's a question nobody seems to know how to answer, really. The argument is made and even taken for granted as true that Techno things governments are corrupt and oppressive, he did what he did to protect the people this oppression would hurt. But who exactly are these people Techno protected? Where are these livelihoods defended? These lives saved? These homes maintained? These happy people Techno saved from the oppressive government?

The truth is that they're not real.

And the only people Techno ever managed to hurt were the victims he claims to be defending from the corruption of governments.

Now, the sources of corruption were Wilbur, Schlatt, Dream, and their policies. The way the elections were set up, the unfair power dynamic established by the corrupt first two presidents of the nation, and the control/abuse Dream exerted from his own governmental position. So naturally anybody who wants to actually tackle government corruption in the Smp needs to take care of them first and foremost. Get Wilbur and Schlatt out of power at least, get rid of Dream period, and then start reforming and limiting governmental controls. If not completely dismantling the government at least establishing things within L'manburg like actually effective checks and balances within the governmental body, setting up an impeachment process, putting harder vigilance onto what a president can or can't do, upheaving and adding more restrictions/rules/protections within the election system, etc. Outside of L'manburg would be trickier, however it likely wouldn't be too difficult to at least significantly alter/water-down the roles of Eret or George or whoever the king is at this point, again, if not entirely abolishing the role. The Badlands are a weird situation and honestly especially with the whole egg thing they'd for sure still be an Issue and a lot harder to reform but I mean to be fair their whole schtick is literally just being a corrupt government and trying to take as much land as possible and rule the world so what you wanna do there is use the same force you used with Wilbur, Schlatt, and Dream to disband The Badlands.

"Woah Woah Woah, you talk about that like it's so easy, that wouldn't be possib-"

yes it would be.

Schlatt died of alcohol poisoning before we could even touch him, Wilbur threw himself onto a sword with gusto, and Dream for all his bravado literally did not put up any fight once people got off their asses for two seconds to take care of him, okay? And again, The Badlands are a more worrying situation with The Egg and the amount of land they own and Sam's jurisdiction over the prison and all, but I mean from what i've heard via word of mouth pretty much everyone's canonically sick of their shit and are fairing pretty well thus far all things considered.

"Okay, fine, Beating People Up is easy enough, but what about the real work of government reforms?!? All these people are so Greedy and Powerhungry they'd neve-"

That's the whole thing, though, isn't it? They're NOT. Quackity spent literally the first two seasons at least as an active part of the government and he did fuck all for himself, he spent the whole time trying to stop Wilbur's corruption after finding out about his voter fraud or trying to stop Schlatt's corruption from hurting people or trying to stop Dream's corruption or trying to make sure his friends aren't abused/killed/jailed for no good reason or trying to keep their homes from being blown up again and the only reason he even got involved in politics at all was literally specifically because Wilbur was trying to run a one party election and SOMEONE had to put their foot down there, Quackity's always been very about Power To The People and preserving the rights/history of the people generally and has a history of stepping back into a less commanding role when he's secure in the knowledge that he doesn't Need to be taking charge or everyone might suffer/die/lose-their-homes-again. Tommy outright refused to be president when he was given the chance and has really consistently moreso cheered for the people he loves when they land in some sort of office rather than persuing leadership himself, and while he's been very willing to take up a leadership role when it's needed and people are in danger/in need of someone to step up and rally them, Tommy would really rather just listen to his music discs and spend time with his friends and pull a few relatively harmless pranks here and there and make big ugly (/lh/pos) cobble towers that he's so proud of anyway and doesn't seem to get why everyone else exasperatedly roll their eyes at them because he just thinks they're so neat! Tubbo is much the same, he took on a leadership position when it didn't seem there was any other choice but to do so but he's been content to play support for the most part other than that and really truly just wants to live a peaceful life with his bees and his best friend. Fundy and Niki actively chased the presidency at one point, of course, and I used their campaign as an example of corrupt bs as well, but honestly they were just dumb rebellious teens who didn't seem to get the weight of the election and just kinda like handed out pastries then lost miserably, so I mean, more than forgivable on their part, really, and for the large majority of L'manburg's history they followed in everyone else's pattern of stepping in when people need to be protected but otherwise just trying to live happy peaceful normal lives. This little group spent the large majority of their time in L'manburg just trying to defend themselves and their homes and each other from corruption and oppression so that maybe just maybe they could finally get to rest knowing that nobody's in any danger. If the danger went away, so would their need to step in. Quackity would go do some dumb (/lh/pos) bit where he puts on a ridiculous skin and sings even more ridiculous songs, Niki would be baking cookies and sharing them with her best buddy Fundy and anyone else who wanted to drop by, Tubbo and Tommy would be in a field somewhere watching the bees and listening to Mellohi while they giggle to themselves waiting for someone to find the big goofy posters they put up everywhere as a prank. That's who they were for the large majority of their arcs throughout L'manburg's existence. On the other side of things neither George nor Eret really care too deeply about the crown either. George only ever wanted a crown after he lost it, not because of the power, but because he was hurt by Dream's lack of regard for him. Eret on the other hand has a precedent of putting aside his crown for the wellbeing of other people and has long since resolved himself to be better than the person he used to be. None of them would be opposed to heavy reformation or even absolution of government powers. The entire reason L'manburg even exists is because of the fear and trauma and pain that came from the oppressive government force that is Dream and the people's desire to cling together for a chance at personal

freedom, with the threats gone they don't need to hold on quite so hard. These were never powerhungry monsters, these were victims of oppression and abuse and violence that spent their entire lives trying to defend themselves and their homes so they could just be happy and free.

These are the measures Techno SHOULD have taken! These are the people he SHOULD have been protecting! If he stands by his ideology that governments are oppressive and hurt people and if he truly did want to protect people from that oppression then why DIDN'T he?!?

Why didn't his morals and principals and desire to take down oppressors kick in during the festival when he was ordered by a tyrant to kill a child and did it instead of standing up and protecting the victims of tyranny?!? Why didn't he take Wilbur down when he realized how full of greed envy Wilbur was and that he planned to hurt people?!? Why did he, multiple times, work with Dream, the epitome of government oppression on the server?!? Why is it that the only people Techno consistently targets are the VICTIMS of the actual governmental oppression that Techno largely ignores?!?

And THAT is exactly why you don't see Techno apologists going on and on about how unfair the election was because of Wilbur or how the presidency in L'manburg was set up to where despite people trying desperately to push back Schlatt could not be opposed legally or how Dream is literally the most horrifically oppressive tyrant who is a prime example of how governments can be extremely corrupt. You never see Techno apologists going on about any of these ACTUAL issues because when you talk about Wilbur and Schlatt and Dream a bit too in detail a little bit of focus ends up on who exactly their victims were and there doesn't seem to be a good explanation regarding Techno's extreme actions only extending to victims of governmental abuse often in only minor roles of power if even that out of necessity to protect against the real oppressors. Why Techno's extreme actions frequently involved working alongside these actual oppressive forces against a group of people who literally want to be left alone and are only part of/live under a government like the one they do because they're in constant danger and this is the only way to maybe protect yourself and others against someone like Dream.

Tommy, Tubbo, Quackity, Fundy, and Niki shouldn't have been Techno's enemies. They shouldn't have been his targets! THEY hate oppressive government just as much as he does! They don't want anything to do with this bullshit anymore than he does! The side you see Techno Apologists claim he's on is literally THEIR SIDE. If he truly believes what he says and wants to fight tyranny then these are his allies! These are the victims he's so invested in looking out for! And yet these are the people he's slaughtering and bombing and aiding in the oppression of!

Techno apologism, by its very nature, requires you to see these citizens of L'manburg as oppressive. Requires you to see at least Tommy and Quackity as powergrabbing foolish tyrants who care more about the government then people. I heavily suspect this is the primary reason most Techno apologists aren't keen on looking at actual examples of this government corruption Techno talks so much about.

I mean, if you bring up the election in too much detail as an example, stressful little details like Wilbur's voter fraud and the fact that Quackity's entire motive for ever running for an office was to prevent government corruption. Which is a sticky scenario because Techno helps Wilbur in the end and seriously hurt Quackity in specific a Lot throughout this arc. Techno apologism relies a biiitttt too much at speeding by Wilbur real quick and hoping nobody points out that Wilbur wasn't motivated by a desire to get rid of governments but rather by a sense of envy and entitlement that if he can't have it noone can as well as relying on the ability to swiftly and decisively assert Quackity's motives as powergrabbing from the election onwards. Examining the corruption in the election itself throws that off. A Lot. When you have to look head on at Wilbur's corruption the fact that his "If I can't have it noone can" thing was a corrupt government official hurting the people out of envy and pride, and Wilbur's main source of contention being Quackity very quickly comes into focus as everyone suddenly remembers that hey, wasn't Quackity the only one who didn't commit fraud, and didn't he run in the first place to fight government corruption? And then Techno's role in all of this looks significantly odder and less in line with the claims that he's heroically opposing corruption. Furthermore examining the power dynamics of the tyranny within Schlatt's reign, you see a president with too much power enabled by Wilbur's shotty election system and Dream's vocal support, something outwardly opposed by the people beneath them; Tommy, Tubbo, Niki, Fundy, Quackity, who are all hurt by this abuse of government power more than anybody else is. Similarly the exile decision. Examining Dream as a tyrant is in of itself a sore spot on account of Techno's fairly frequent alliances with him. But even worse is what happens when you acknowledge the extent of Tubbo's power as president and the idea that his decision is inherently more important than the feeling of his people who he hurt, which is a good point towards the corruption of the government, but intensely highlights Fundy and Quackity's responses as valid or even correct, something that Techno apologists really can't do for obvious reasons.

Techno's perspective and actually defending it relies heavily on the villainization of victims and the understatement of real sources of corruption. It's a trade off, it seems. There are many points that can be made to form a very strong case against the government dynamics on the smp, something that would do wonders in strengthening the Techno Apologist claim that Government Bad, Anarchy Right, however this comes at the tradeoff of making it clear that the oppressive government forces come from people like Dream or Wilbur and not people like Quackity or Tommy who are the victims of said oppressive government, something that you REALLY cannot afford to imply if you're trying to argue that Techno was right and was working from a desire to prevent oppression when he worked with Dream and Wilbur to hurt Quackity and Tommy. I doubt this is intentional obviously because who the fuck takes a stance in discourse that they Know For A Fact Is False, lol, but if you believe Techno's right then you also have to believe the people of L'manburg are power hungry or tyrannical which means doing these mental gymnastics often without realizing it.

So we see these debates stick to examples like The Butcher Army, things that are significantly flimsier but also aren't liable to literally cripple their claim if examined too closely.

But the truth continues to be that Techno has irreparably hurt and traumatized the victims of the very kind of governmental abuse that it's so often claimed he's protecting people from. When he should have been fighting people like Dream, Wilbur, and Schlatt, and helping the people of L'manburg recover and reform their community, he instead attacked and destroyed and killed these people, often fighting alongside real tyrants in doing so.

I mean, hell, if Techno really was super against oppressive governments and wanted to fight/destroy them and help the victims? He and Quackity would be best friends. Quackity stood up against Wilbur's corruption at every turn and was the first person to do so, and if Techno actually fought corruption half as much as he claims to, he would have been right there with Quack rather than colluding with Wilbur to destroy innocent people's land. During the festival execution Quackity was trying his absolute best to put a stop to it and even stood in the blast radius while doing so, if Techno had cared half as much as he claims he does about tyranny then he wouldn't have taken the fucking shot, not with Quackity in the line of fire, not at Tubbo to begin with. Quackity realized that they needed to shake Dream off once and for all or they'd never truly be free from abuse of power from those above them, and if Techno really truly had a vested interest in freeing victims from governments that hurt them then he would have been right there at Quackity's side throughout season two. And yet not once, through the two seasons I watched of screentime with them, not once was there a moment in which they were working towards the same thing. At the festival, Techno had the chance to run or refuse or realign his shot to take out Schlatt instead and very likely would have made it out alright, meanwhile Quackity was actively putting his life at risk by standing where he was and making the attempts he was to make Schlatt see reason even though Quackity was pretty much unarmed, had a rocket pointed near him, and his entire life was in L'manburg, it was Quackity who had more to lose and Techno who had the chance to run, and yet it was Quackity alone who stood against the orders of a tyrant and voiced that this shouldn't be happening, and it was Techno who took not only Quackity's life but the life of a child as well when he took the shot anyway. As soon as he'd joined Pogtopia, Quackity was opposing Wilbur, standing besides Tommy in the button room and putting his own life on the line as well while they tried desperately to convince Wilbur not to ruin innocent people's lives, and yet Techno not only never put himself at risk to stop Wilbur, he actively collaborated with Wilbur, with a corrupt politician, as he planned to selfishly steal the happiness of the people just because he lost his own power. That's not even to speak of Doomsday, in which Techno, with actual corrupt politicians all around him, aimed weapons of mass destruction towards their victims, towards Quackity and everyone he loved. And of course, Techno wasn't there to help fight Dream, the L'manburg cabinet even suspected he may help, he's meant to be against tyranny after all, but of course, Techno wasn't there, and in fact allied himself with Dream yet again throughout the season. If Techno ACTUALLY followed through with his supposed principals, the people of L'manburg would have loved him, especially Quackity, who is very much similar to what Techno claims to be (someone who's fierce in his defense against corruption and who will fight almost without fail for victims of oppression and against harmful systems even if he's not always particularly palatable and nice and malleable in his regard towards tyrants), and the fact that they specifically have been played against each other at literally every single turn to the point where Techno, after having associated himself with helping fuckers like Schlatt, Wilbur, or Dream for so long, joined them on Quackity's list of people who've treated him with injustice, hunted him down, hurt his friends, and needs to be repaid- oh huh sounds familiar. Like Quackity is in a lot of ways what Techno would be if his ideology actually lined up with the heroic freedom fighter against tyranny ideology that's subscribed to him way too often despite the fact that he's either so weirdly out of touch he completely misread ALL the dynamics on this server or he genuinely honest to god doesn't actually believe in or care about his whole I Fight The

Immorality Of Government Corruption thing.

Hell, beyond literally Quackity actually, just look to Puffy for the actually honest and good aligned alternatives for people who say they want to fiercely fight against corruption and actually do it.

Idk man, it's just weird to me. I didn't even plan the ending of this post like at all, the premise was just supposed to be pointing out the actual government corruption and asking why Techno Apologists weren't on that but then the whole 'okay but if you pay attention to all that then techno's literally been targeting the victims of the corruption he claims to hate instead of helping them fight it' realization hit and I was like, Yep, His Whole Anti Government Ideology Still Doesn't Check Out.

#dream smp #dream smp discourse

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dollsonmain · 3 years

Text

I am having a bad time, so if I sound extra stupid that’s why....

I struggled to get Stripes’s hair onto straws. Shimmerlocks nylon is so slippery. I didn’t have that problem with Dolltress’s precurled nylon even after straightening it.

I am so miserable in general right now that every, little fumble is too much and I had to fight to not start crying on the spot.

Pissed at myself again because I didn’t take good before photos of Nightmare Moon so no one but me knows how absolutely caked in paint she was.

It’s all hidden by her hair and the angle of her wings. That whole side of her body had thick paint all over it including her wing (and her hair...), but I fudged the before photo, so THIS after

is useless. I can’t even show off. That just looks like a played-with toy that I pulled out of the toybox.

I’m struggling with monetizing my hobby (shocker), not only because it’s not at all a high-demand kind of thing but because it’s forced me to look at what I do a little differently.

I have to actually ask myself “Is this worth my time?” now.

The little plushes are a no. They’re better than they were, yeah, but they’re still in poor condition and all of the time I’ve put into get them to that state isn’t going to increase their resale value enough to justify it.

Same with Nightmare Moon, here. I want to touch up all of her scratched paint (might be fun to add some glow powder!) but it’s not worth my time monetarily. Unless I went full custom but then that would be MORE work with equal or less return.

I am grumpy about this.

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andavs · 4 years

Note

Trope mash-up: Marriage of Convenience + Curses

The obvious option here is marriage breaking the curse, right? But what’s the curse? Who’s cursed? I’m going to go with Stiles, because Derek’s been through enough. Not that Stiles hasn’t seen some shit too, but at least his family didn’t burn to death.

A curse of…a dark heart. Incorporating some canon in here. Stiles has a dark heart.

I don’t know what exactly it does, but maybe it kind of twists him a bit. Like it twists his love, which kind of makes sense because he’s got that borderline obsessive, protective, possessive love in canon anyway. The dude practically growled at Isaac just for also being Scott’s friend, and don’t even get me started on the way he acted once he and Lydia were actually dating. “Dating.” It was barely dating, I don’t think it counts at all.

So Stiles is a little dark and twisted, severely pessimistic, he’s a little too pragmatic about the people who aren’t his “people” but not in a sadistic way. Nothing that would be too concerning within the rules of canon (because let’s face it, canon excuses a lot of really concerning things and acts like they’re normal).

Should we include werewolves? Yeah, why not. We’ve already got curses, we might as well.

My first instinct here is to say royalty and arranged marriages to prevent a war, but I’ve also done that a fair amount lately. (I can’t be blamed, Derek would just look so great in a crown.)

And I don’t want it to be a convenient marriage specifically to break the curse. That should be a great surprise that makes everyone emotional and ends in kisses.

So a convenient marriage could be for…money? Status? A lie?

Oh! A convenient marriage to get out of an arranged marriage! Way back before Derek was born, there was some obscure pack agreement made with another pack in like…New Jersey. I don’t know. Some place that sucks. I don’t think it was even intentional on the Hale’s part, but somehow Talia’s firstborn son got promised to this pack on his…21st birthday. But he was on the run for that particular birthday, and a number of birthdays after that, so this New Jersey pack could never actually pin him down.

Until things calm down a little, he actually stays in Beacon Hills for longer than three months at a time, and word spreads through the werewolf community that there’s this Hale in California who can fully shift into a wolf. In this fic, this is very rare and a Big Deal, so this New Jersey pack really wants to track him down now.

They roll into town and Stiles is immediately on the defensive. Derek doesn’t trust them either, but he has a lot more respect for werewolf tradition and pack alliances, so he goes through the motions of welcoming them, and introducing them to Scott and the McCall pack, and Stiles is just following them around, suspicious and fuming. He doesn’t let them out of his sight for a second. He’s even got his dad and a select few deputies keeping an eye on them so it isn’t too obvious. (It’s totally and completely too obvious.)

It takes a couple days before this New Jersey pack realizes that Derek has no idea why they’re there. He doesn’t outright ask because that seems rude, but they aren’t asking for anything, he doesn’t know what to offer, and he just keeps giving them historical tours of the town to kill time.

“We’ve come to bring you into our pack,” this New Jersey alpha finally says, and Stiles elbows his way between them to indignantly protest before Derek can even react.

Because Stiles, with this dark heart curse and kind of twisted love, loves Derek. He just doesn’t really know it yet, but he does know that now that Derek’s in town, he’s not going anywhere. He’s been claimed. He’s spoken for. He’s got a pack, even if he isn’t actually in the McCall pack and is kind of an emissary in his own right, and Stiles isn’t letting him leave! For the safety of everyone!

(Sidenote: Kind of love the idea of Derek and Stiles being joint-emissaries. Derek knows all of the legends and myths and monsters and advises from that angle, while Stiles does all of the magic stuff and maybe a touch of warfare, because he reads a lot of books on strategy and tactics and has very drunkenly rambled about Clausewitz and Jomini in the context of a werewolf scuffle.)

So this pack claims Derek, and Stiles immediately hits the books to find an out. There isn’t really much they can do about it, because Talia promised her son, and as Derek’s alpha, that still stands. And technically Derek’s an omega because he never actually joined the McCall pack, and there’s actually a clause that prevents the promised son from quickly joining another alpha to get out of this. But there is a vaguely written bit about marriage that Stiles can twist into a loophole that’s just big enough to fit a fully shifted werewolf through.

(Just go with it, we’re playing by Hallmark rules.)

“You can’t have him, we’re married,” he straight up lies to the New Jersey alpha, and then scurries off to start forging the right papers.

They fudge the date, but from that moment on, they are legally married, and suddenly Stiles feels…lighter? Not all of his possessiveness and obsession disappears, but he’s just like…normal. He’s feeling great, and his anxiety is a little better, and before he knows it, he hasn’t checked the GPS tracker he’s got on Scott’s phone in like three days? And he’s okay with that?

And for reasons, this New Jersey pack has someone in it that can see auras. Or something. She could see the darkness in Stiles and now she sees that it’s lightened, so she asks him about it. She’s never seen a heart that dark that didn’t completely consume its host. Stiles shrugs, makes some quip about just being awesome that she can tell is a lie, and he hits the books again. And surprise! There’s something about true love like…bringing light or something. It will be something beautiful and poetic, trust me.

Now he’s not all sunshine and daisies after this, because he’s still Stiles, so he’s still a bit obsessive and possessive, he’s still a pessimist and a little too pragmatic about those who aren’t his people. But it’s more of a manageable level, and Derek doesn’t hesitate to call him out if those traits start to get a little dark, and he can rein that in.

And with Derek fully claimed and married, the New Jersey pack has no choice but to fuck right back off to New Jersey and leave Derek and Stiles to their marital bickering bliss as they fall further and further in love! Also kisses!

#rhysiana

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blankdblank · 5 years

Text

Anaticula Pt 46

Pt 1 - Pt 2 - Pt 3 - Pt 4 - Pt 5 - Pt 6 - Pt 7 - Pt 8 - Pt 9 - Pt 10 - Pt 11 - Pt 12 - Pt 13 - Pt 14 - Pt 15 - Pt 16 - Pt 17 - Pt 18 - Pt 19 - Pt 20 - Pt 21 - Pt 21b - Pt 22 - Pt 23 - Pt 24 - Pt 25 - Pt 26 - Pt 27 - Pt 28 - Pt 29 - Pt 30 - Pt 31 - Pt 33 - Pt 34 - Pt 35 - Pt 36 - Pt 37 - Pt 38 - Pt 39 - Pt 40 - Pt 41 - Pt 42 - Pt 43 - Pt 44 - Pt 45 -

Within the hour as promised Arthur was home and was greeted by you and his children after Minerva had overseen your transport there by portkey for an approved week off with an extension of invitation to Hermione and Harry as well. With a wide grin he eyed the meal and treats you all had whipped up for him, under the aid of his cane he lowered into his chair and shared he had indeed been given a vacation. Quite the lengthy one but mainly due to the fact he claimed he had no clue who had healed him and with the aid of one of your mints he found in your jacket the truth serum was believed to have taken effect.

At his warning you expected to find a tale of how Sirius Black had broken in attacking Auror members, but all across the front page was news of The Rosenfeld Case that had fallen apart after questions about the Veritaserum used being tainted. The only mention close to Arthur’s dilemma was Broderick Bode was strangled to death by a Devil's Snare while in St Mungo's. It seemed Fudge was more afraid of showing any weakness of the Ministry at all after your slew of revenge titles making it a fireable offence to even mention the Black Family.

Though it seems habits are hard to break as across the front page as you’d warned the Order weeks ago, 10 Death Eaters had been broken out of Azkaban, including your aunt Bellatrix and uncle Rudolphus.

‘We have confirmed that 10 high-security prisoners in the early hours of yesterday evening did escape. And of course, the Muggle prime minister has been alerted to the danger. We strongly suspect that the breakout was engineered by a man with personal experience in escaping from Azkaban notorious mass murderer Sirius Black cousin of escapee Bellatrix Lestrange.’

Behind you Hermione stated, “Dumbledore warned Fudge this could happen.”

Ron glanced at you seeing you stand up, your sharp exhale at trying to remain calm not hiding the soft flames coating your hands burning the paper you were crumpling in your fist while sparks rippled across your knuckles. “He's gonna get us all killed just because he can't face the truth.”

Seamus stood trying to speak to you only for you to say you were going to the toilet and would be back, curiously at Neville and the twins hurrying after you he continued to stroll over to Harry just outside the Great Hall, “Harry. I wanted to apologize. Now even me Mum says the Prophet's version of things don't add up. So, what I'm really trying to say is that I believe you.”

Harry nodded and said, “No kidding.”

Harry’s eyes followed your turn down the hall with the trio after you that Seamus turned to asking, “Which toilet is she using? She’s passed them already.”

Harry passed him his copy of the papers and Ron said, “Probably the one we won’t hear her scream in.”

Seamus’ mouth fell open, “Death Eaters?”

Dean looked over his shoulder, “Even I’ve heard about Bellatrix Lestrange and I’m muggle born. Jaqi’s related to her?”

Ron, “Ya see Mate, she’s technically related to two third of the school if you look at her family tree, one of the Sacred 28, oldest in the Wizarding world, plus up till her Dad the lot of them went off pureblood values, so no shocker there’s a score of bad apples in the bunch.”

Hermione, “That’s why Fudge and Umbridge don’t trust her.”

Harry, “And why she’s considered a blood traitor.”

Dean, “Is she going to be ok?”

Ron, “Well, Bellatrix was mental before they locked her away, no telling what she’ll be up to now, or if like the lot of them will come after Jaqi and her Dad, he was a part of how she got captured according to Mum.”

Seamus, “Oh, so, best give her some time then?”

Hermione, “She should be back soon, just tired I think. Hasn’t been sleeping much, and I doubt she will be when Umbridge tries to bring her in for nightly teas again like after Mr Weasley was attacked.”

Seamus smirked as Dean said, “Maybe we can help with that. Make sure she’s too distracted to distract Jaqi.” Dean turned and called out, “Hey Lee,” Lee Jordan turned and they strolled off, “Still got watch on those Nifflers?” Lee grinned wider joining them over to a corner to begin plotting as the others sighed and went to the table.

Shaking in your wavering breaths you lowered onto the floor of the empty third corridor room Fluffy was once held in, curling your legs in tucked in front of you. Your hands rose to support your head as you sniffled under your curtain of flame covered black curls. Around you the trio settled gently patting your legs and back as you calmed mumbling, “I’m just so tired.”

Sitting up you brushed your hair back out of your face and wiped your cheeks looking at Neville, “When he came back she was bound to get out. We knew that. You warned them, they warned Fudge, who clearly didn’t listen.”

You sniffled again, “Why don’t we kill our confirmed psychotic mass murderers like the States do.”

Neville the twins chuckled and said, “But prison breaks are all the rage you know.”

Forcing a flicker of a smile you said, “Even with Occlumency I still can’t stop the dreams. It just never stops.”

Neville, “Maybe Snape can give you some of that Dreamless Draught.”

“And what if another attack happens and I can’t get there in time?”

Neville nodded, “Well, one good thing, my parent’s’ll have to move in now, Nellie definitely. Might even take a leave.”

Fred, “Plus now, can’t be long till the cats out of the bag.”

You nodded, “No doubt he’ll have to admit there’s more at play than my Dad with some vengeance.”

Neville smirked, “Unless he tries to spin it that they’re working with Dumbledore to overthrow Fudge.” All of you laughed at that, including Neville.

“Oh I would pay to have him print that angle just to see it blow up in his face.” Once again you stood feeling much calmer now and joined them down to the Great Hall for something to eat with a plan for you to get a nap in through DA and the break after lunch while the twins took over for you today.

Across a bench in the corner you curled up in your fox form and drifted off to sleep in a protective bubble the twins formed around you just to be safe. More explosive charms made good use of the bubble and when you were woken to groggily head down to lunch though in his lagging behind Harry approached Neville, who was looking up at the photo of the original Order.

“Neville?”

“Fourteen years ago Death Eaters named Bellatrix and Rudolphus Lestrange used the Cruciatus Curse on my parents. Tortured them for information ...but they never gave in. I'm quite proud to be their son. But I'm not sure I'm ready for everyone to know just yet. They might not have remembered being pregnant with me, or my being born, but that’s not their fault, and they’re still here, for me to learn from. And now we have Nellie too, I just, I don’t want them to get hurt again.”

“We're gonna make them proud, Neville. That's a promise.”

Neville nodded and patted Harry on the shoulder, “I’m certain your parents are proud too. Sirius and Regulus are, Remus too, even though you terrify Molly a bit with all we get sucked into.”

Harry nodded and let out an awkward chuckle, “Ya, managed to stumble through so far.”

Neville shrugged, “No better than they did. They were just a few years older than we are now.”

Harry smirked, “Let’s just not start having babies just yet.”

Neville chuckled, “Yes, lets.” Following Harry with a smirk, “Though they would be adorable.” Making Harry chuckle.

Catching up to the group sheepishly Harry approached Ginny’s side asking, “So, when we get to Hogsmeade where did you want to go first?”

A soft blush spreading across her cheeks as she remembered the note Harry had passed her after two days of being unable to speak to her when he’d finally realized his feelings were more than just that for his best friend’s kid sister. Of course she jumped at the chance for a date with him and broke his silence with a goodnight peck on his lips before darting off to her dorm at curfew the night before. Their day was soon planned out along with a stolen moment when you and Harry would meet up with a journalist from the Quibbler to answer a great deal of questions for a full exclusive of the teens being targeted by the Ministry.

…

All it took was a week and the issue exploded lifting the popularity of the Quibbler over night. And along with it in nine days time brought on a full weeks detention from Umbridge when she learned of it. Though with her deduction of points Professors Sprout, Flitwick, Trelawney all took to awarding other students in your houses to help make up for the difference for varying reasons through the day to do so without raising her suspicions.

Proclamation 27 came down, and with it brought on the banned Quibbler being disguised and smuggled into the school anyways as it seemed to be the only publication out of Fudge’s grasp since the break out. Under accusations of giving false statements the one last glimmer of freedom was snatched away, banned from Hogsmeade you both were set back even more. Though upon hearing word that you were banned the shops there updated their mail ordering catalogs, just for Hogwarts use for you and the others banned form the town for their supporting your claims to keep up their business and show their support in some small way with a promise of discrete delivery no matter the sizes of the orders.

…

No matter the fractions of hope more darkness seemed to seep into the school growing eerily quieter each day, as if you were on the cusp of something and the school was readying itself. Upon threat of punishment for her parents in the Ministry Marietta Edgecombe copied the list of members for Dumbledore’s Army and handed it over. In a hurry after having done so to warn the others she was only met by the sight of charmed howlers ordering each member to the Headmaster’s Office.

All together you strolled cautiously through the halls sitting empty at the order for the other students to head to their dorms straight after dinner, even if they had classes that were now rescheduled. At the number of you it became clear you had been outed and no doubt all in hushed conversation readied to be given the boot from the school.

Up the spiral staircase you filed into the office finding Dumbledore strolling away from his Pensieve he had been emptying into jars he sent off to who knows where saying to the students, “It appears we seem to be at an impasse students.” His head nodded as he added to the sound of Umbridge’s nearing giggle at something Fudge was saying, “Hold firm we can ride this out.”

His eyes flinched from you then back to Umbridge entering surrounded by Kingsley and another Auror on his right named Dawlish.

Umbridge smirked at Dumbledore passing Fudge the copied list, “Been watching them for weeks. And see, ‘Dumbledore's Army’...proof of what I've been telling you right from the beginning, Cornelius.”

Fudge, “All your fear-mongering about You-Know-Who never fooled us for a minute. We saw your lies for what they were: A smokescreen for your bid to seize control of the Ministry.”

Dumbledore’s head tilted slightly, “Naturally.”

Harry, “No, Professor. He had nothing to do with it. It was me.”

Dumbledore patted his shoulder and nudged him back to your side clearing the path between him and the Aurors, “Most noble of you, Harry, to shield me, but as has been pointed out the parchment clearly says "Dumbledore's Army," not "Potter's." I instructed Harry to form this organization. And I, and I alone, am responsible for its activities.”

Fudge, “Dispatch an owl to the Daily Prophet. If we hurry, we should still make the morning edition. Dawlish, Shacklebolt, you will escort Dumbledore to Azkaban to await trial for conspiracy and sedition.”

Cutting off your groups’ attempts to speak Dumbledore proper his hands on his hips, “I thought we might hit this little snag. You seem to be laboring under the delusion that I'm going to... What was the phrase? Come quietly. Well, I can tell you this: I have no intention of going to Azkaban.”

Fudge, “Enough of this. Take him.”

In their move to draw their wands Fawkes took off and lit on fire soaring over Dumbledore’s head allowing him the chance to clap his hands on his tail feathers to aparate in an untraceable way off to your home.

The burst of flames from the escape sending the Aurors and Minister to the ground with Umbridge. In their rise Kingsley stated, “Well, you may not like him, Minister...but you can't deny...Dumbledore has got style.”

Turning to look you all over Umbridge smirked saying, “Ah, yes, just in time for detention.” A cursed pack of books in her hand while desks appeared in the office while Fudge raced off back to his office to send off the story of Dumbledore being on the run.

…

On their feet while Umbridge stepped out into the hall to read a letter freshly arrived through the fireplace Ron said, “Harry. You did everything you could. No one could win against that old hag.”

Hermione, “Even Dumbledore didn't see this coming. Harry, if it's anyone's fault, it's ours. Yeah, we talked you into it.”

Harry, “Yeah, but I agreed. I tried so hard to help, and all it's done is make things worse. Anyway, that doesn't matter anymore. Because I don't want to play anymore. All it does is make you care too much. And the more you care, the more you have to lose. So maybe it's just better to...”

Ron, “To what?”

You replied for him, “To go it alone.” Harry nodded as you looked at the door still keeping you inside, “But no,” his brows inched up, “That’s just what they want. For us to be alone. Alone we’re less of a threat.”

Fred crouched by the desk of a young boy stated, “Your hand's gonna be fine, Michael.” Seeing him stroking the scars there from the cursed book etching the moral of the turbulent and mentally jarring tale you all had to live through in what seemed to have been years within the hour time limit.

George, “Yeah. It's not as bad as it seems. See?”

Fred, “It's fading already.”

They both said, “You can hardly see ours anymore, and the pain stops after a while.”

The door opened and with a wide grin Umbridge read off, “Educational Decree Number Twenty-Eight passed by Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge making Dolores Umbridge Headmistress of Hogwarts School.” Her eyes shifting over you all, “This will be the headline across the Prophet by sunrise, and now, some long overdue humble pie. As I told you once before, Mr. Potter children deserve to be punished.”

Harry, “So what, you’re going to expel us?”

She shook her head, “Not all of you.” Her eyes narrowing as they fell on you, “Just the head of the Hydra. The source of the poison corrupting this school. The one whose arrival here has stirred up more mischief and delinquency than any other student in the history of the school.” In taking a step closer to you she extended a letter to you, “Miss Black, you are hereby expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You will collect your belongings and be escorted from the premises.”

In your glance at Dawlish and Kingsley you said, “I wonder, have you ever considered you might be wrong?” Her lips parted and you shook your head, “Just curious, if, I was telling the truth. I wonder what depths you would sink to in hopes of protecting yourself from them.” Her eyes narrowed at you as you said, “One flaw in your plan is, you can knock me down and try to darken my name, but I’m still going to save you.” The students behind you shifted on their feet wondering why you would protect her as you stepped closer to her making her extend her useless wand at you, “For one reason alone, to see your face, yours and Fudge’s, when you see that I’m right, and you left the door wide open for him to stroll right back in.”

In their silence Fred stated, “You know, George...I've always felt our futures lay outside the world of academic achievement.”

George, “Fred, I've been thinking exactly the same thing.”

“All right, Professor! Here you go.”

They both stated with smirks behind you, “Ready when you are.” All shifting into Phoenixes to soar out the open balcony door to aparate off home while Wildfire Whiz-bangs soared off through the halls chasing her out of the office the teens hurriedly followed, seeing the minefield of charms leading up to her pink kitten decorated office surrounded by a portable swamp charm. In a zap your things were sent home while Cedric took the position of head of the group at your previously laid plans in case she had ever expelled you to keep the others safe and prepared for anything.

Straight through the door of your bedroom you had all aparated to you shifted and strolled though the halls and down the steps to find Albus speaking with your father, Regulus and Remus who all stood when they saw you. Albus, “I had hoped you would get more time in the school.”

You shook your head and George answered, “Impatient little woman that one.”

Sirius hurried over and hugged you three tightly, “They’ll change their minds. Sooner rather than later, can’t be long now.”

Regulus nodded as you were freed, “Either way no doubt you can still have your lessons mailed home, just to keep up.”

You three nodded and Remus eyed you all, “Best you try to sleep. We can have a family meeting with Molly and Arthur over breakfast.”

Turning around you strolled up to your room again where you all settled into sharing your bed to sit up discussing your plans for what to do to keep busy out of school. That conversation didn’t last long as only a few minutes after you had lounged back against your pillows Idris began to hum and you all drifted off to sleep.

Upon news of your expulsion a full out war was called on Umbridge to make her regret ever entering the school. Even against her tries to form an Inquisitorial Squad of Slytherins to bully and spy on the others innumerable pranks, tricks and incidents befell the new Headmaster. In your absence Peeves led the others in the war guiding them on the best times and hiding spots of her paths he had already memorized after spying on her for so long. From bursting out of blackboards, pushing over statues, toppling neatly stacked piles of parchment into fires to blowing raspberries every time she spoke Peeves held a busy day but enjoyed every moment of it feeling a great lack of luster in the school after you four had left.

A try for a Minister order to banish Peeves was tried and failed miserably as he was manifested by the school and first students themselves in their repressed delinquency at molding into the rigorous school list from being at home constantly. And to add insult to injury the school sealed up the Headmaster’s office out of her access even from the balcony leaving her to rule over the school from her own tiny powder pink office causing her to throw an amusing right little tantrum.

Professors who hated her before adored the chance for a bit of revenge, her orders to sweep the school for any traps you had left for her was met with an outright aloof sigh that none of them had the ‘authority’ to do so only reminding her of her magical block in each time she felt the urge to hex one of them. Favors, house points and sweets for those objecting against Umbridge were gifted from the Professors as a sort of enforcement to remain steadfast against her. Flitwick especially loving to pass out Sugar Mice upon his favored students casting several advanced charms to obscure her way while he treasured the swamp you had left he saved a small portion of upon an Auror’s arrival to aid in its reversal.

A shared dream of Rookwood sharing news of the Department of Mysteries and the Hall of Prophecies, in which you knew an item he hoped to lure Harry into taking for himself, came with a hope he was keeping up his Occlumency lessons A letter to Harry shared you knew what he had seen and understood it followed by your hope that he would continue his lessons with Snape in hope of protecting himself in your distance from him. Questions of course were the response. Directed to Sirius and Remus as to how his father truly was after seeing that at least to Snape he was arrogant and cruel seemingly without reason. One single sneak of a glance into Snape’s pensieve and that was the only thing on his mind, learning the truth about the man he resembled so closely.

Next clearly came a question as to why Snape was targeted by them. Sharing his concerns however only seemed to worsen his worries at having to wait while heading off to his bed to get away from Hermione who struggled to accept Harry’s sneaking through Snape’s memories and his lenience with his lessons knowing how hard you try on yours.

Astronomy class however at midnight grew to quite a commotion as on the first of December Hagrid’s hut was approached by five Aurors, all of whom stunned to find, upon your warning, the hut empty without any trace of Hagrid.

***

Morning after expulsion had you three jolting from sleep at Molly’s shout of, “Expelled?!”

Grumbling in your pile of covers and limbs you shifted free of the covers and hurried to brush your teeth and head down for the breakfast K was making to celebrate your first meal home again. Arthur smiled at you three saying, “I am certain this will be over soon enough, and then it can easily be overturned.”

To which Albus agreed, a curious glance from Molly had her asking, “Any more dreams?”

You shook your head, “No, though I had a question, how do I know Rookwood?”

Regulus, “Augustus Rookwood?” You nodded, “He was a spy in the Ministry.”

“Which department?”

Arthur, “The only one that matters most likely to him, Department of Mysteries.”

Molly, “Odd feeling about him?”

You shook your head then glanced at Regulus, “Only that he might not be so useful before long.”

Regulus nodded, “He did write to me. Hoping to avoid that end.”

Albus asked aloud, “How could he possibly be useful?”

You shrugged and said, “Not a clue, but soon we can find out. Even something trivial for the time being.”

Regulus added cream to his mug and stirred it with his finger saying, “He is quite adept with maps, we could keep him occupied if Riddle suddenly gets finicky around him.”

“Shouldn’t be hard.”

Fred, “They all in that mansion, hidden away?”

Regulus nodded, “Yup. Best they stay there too. Even if they could cross the borders of our lands I doubt for the few moments until they are ejected would be pleasant.”

Sirius sighed, “I am not overly fond of the notion of Bella being loose, however, I suspect her focus will be more on Riddle than anything else.”

You nodded and raised your own mug, “Ya, got that. Narcissa said she’d try to remind her of that. To keep her busy. Might free up Peter a bit.”

At his name your father subtly flinched at the lingering bite in your tone you’d yet to lose in saying his name away from him. A timid trust was now between you and as your key informant with the greatest trust and a direct channel to Riddle had him in a safe place for now aiding you both greatly as the painful past had to be overseen for his motives in his choice at the impossible decision of watching Riddle’s attacks on your mother to keep you hidden. Sirius inhaled then asked as aloofly as he could muster, “How is Peter?”

“Getting used to his new hand, apparently Riddle rarely is without him. Had to write me in the toilet, burned a mental pulse of what he hoped to write me in a slip of paper.”

George, “He’s getting better at it.”

Fred, “Last one was terribly jumbled, had to pop in to copy it straight form his mind.”

Remus, “And they aren’t expecting you back anytime soon?”

You shook your head and Regulus answered, “No, best to keep a wide berth. Mainly slipped notes and letters for now. Even Riddle’s testy on getting her around the escapees.”

Molly lowered her mug then asked you, “This ghoul blood you mentioned, is that what’s making him so focused on you?”

Regulus shook his head, “Not yet.” You looked to him, “No, apparently Riddle was more obsessed with Jewels than the Potters back then. Never let up on her. Used to spend hours tracing back the family tree, even looked up the Evans’.” In a glance at Sirius with his jaw clenched Regulus added reluctantly, “She’s family. One thing she’s got over Bella on him, blood.” To help ease Sirius some more he added, “Veela does help too. Might have a stronger pull, ghouls to flock to them when they can find one.”

The mail broke through your conversation and you all dug into it sharing bits and pieces until you three lit up at having the final copies of your ownership documents in your hands for the shop of your dreams you had decided to go drop in on today with Arthur and Sirius as the others went off to work and Albus went back up to his room.

Comfortably dressed Fred, George, you, Sirius and Arthur strolled through the streets up to the grin inducing purple corner building. Up the steps you trotted to the door your relative opened with a wide grin. Inside the usually scarcely filled sales floors scattered with random patches of furniture seemed to welcome you with a flicker of the lights and while George accepted the keys your relative collected his trunks in a mokeskin pouch and beamed all the way out the door to hurry off to catch his train to his retirement.

All together you strolled through ensuring the closed sign was up for you to start laying the enchantments on the building casting hidden draconic runes along the walls and outer foundations. Each floor you strolled through marking chalk outlines on the floor for certain sections for your wares and explored the four story building.

A shuffle of floating furniture lingering behind was arranged to accommodate the displays. Tiny flags on sticks hovered above the sections for another run through stroll through each to mentally map it out before you copied it all down on paper and packed it all away in a trunk on each floor left for selling and you all took the stroll to head down the street to the enchanted paint shop.

Nipping at your lips you eyed the selections of colors to match the sketches you had already decided on months prior in your journal packed with all the plans. Beaming behind you your fathers watched you hand over the list of what you needed with a few additions for tiny accents or signs in shimmering or color changing paint, even one with disappearing paint for a sign that is more of a mirage depending on where you stand.

The wide spread of paint floated around you on the stroll back to the building seemingly shivering the dust off its outer bricks and shingles in your return. The brown signage above the door now bearing the lettering you had chosen for it soon to be added to with the moving sculpture in a few days. Back through the door you each took a section on the first floor and with the windows open freeing the sound of the radio in the middle of the floor playing through your painting spree on the self dusted walls, shelves and borders adding to the visual separations of sections. Outside more and more people strolled by eyeing the posters you had set up listing your opening in the near future stirring up a buzz through the streets.

From floor to floor you painted and then moved onto the floating signs you had already cut out in the summer months, in which you had already constructed the final touches to the displays. True you didn’t have a full four story shop’s worth of goods yet but what you had for the first two with a small selection for the future third floor that could surely grant you a cushion to complete the rest.

Leaving it for a few hours to let it dry you were off to a diner nearby. Around you the keeps from the other shops on lunch as well along with a few random customers all stole chances to pass by or scoot closer to your table asking about the new shop after having shared a uniform comment that it was madness to have expelled you three.

Pt 47

#Umbridge #Order of the Phoenix

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redvelvetreel · 5 years

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Red Velvet Reel 11.2: Amorfino

Pairing: [Married] Spicyhoney (Underfell Papyrus x Underswap Papyrus)

Summary: Edge explains the PregHUD to Stretch, complete with a demonstration of it’s most annoying, well-meaning feature.

Characters: Stretch (Underswap Papyrus) & Edge (Underfell Papyrus)

Contains: Mpreg/Skelepreg! Mood swings! Lots of pseudo-magic-science fudging and videogame logistics! So many headcanons!

Rating: Teen and up! (I guess?)

Note: This is the PregHUD, the default menu of all Souling related things, from Edge’s perspective! C: Stretch’s HUD is a little different, hehe!

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What was this thing?!

This display was unlike anything he had ever seen before! For whatever reason, this one didn’t need to be locked on any one particular target to be used- it was just sort of this pop-up in front of Edge. Kinda like a stat menu, although Stretch didn’t think other people could usually see those. He could see Edge’s, sometimes, but that was only because their souls were literally linked. Was this the same thing or not?

Stretch carefully picked his husband up, depositing him on his feet in the middle of the room. This was way too exciting to sit down for! Edge could be cute later.

“This is so cool!” He made a circuit around his nonplussed husband, looking at the menu from all angles, “Why can I see it? Can anyone else see it?”

“Of course not!” Edge looked almost scandalized, “No one else is ever going to see this!”

“Yeah, okay,” Stretch nodded agreeably, squatting down so he was eye level with the Souling. That was a minor curiosity, he wasn’t willing to push for it.

Even through the thick fabric of Edge’s sweater, he could clearly see the bright, white glow. He lifted up the hem of his husband’s top, noting the Souling’s glow was the same underneath the fabric, too.

“Huh.” He let his hands drop as Edge batted them away, “I wonder why they’re glowing through the clothes-“ Oh! Duh! It was locked onto Pancake! He shot up so quickly Edge startled and nearly clocked him in the face, “HUDs are closest to a BATTLE setting, so it makes sense their soul would react the same way! Souls don’t typically glow in battle, but then again, we tend to have a physical form when we engage in battles! It all makes so much sense.”

Stretch rested his chin on Edge’s shoulder as he pulled his husband into a backwards hug, patting the ectomagic with a smile, “You’re a bright kid, huh? Taken a real shining to-“

“Enough!” Edge pushed him away by his face with an irritated huff, “Do you want to know how this thing works or not?!”

“Yes please! .... light of my life.” Stretch pressed a kiss to the side of his husband’s head, looking at the screen obediently... as he rested his chin on Edge’s shoulder, again. And pulled Pancake into another hug. “I’m listening. How do you use it?”

Rolling his eyes almost audibly, Edge pointed to the screen, “This is the main screen.”

It was like a mixture of an HUD with phone technology in an intangible, manipulatable rectangle. There was a big bar in the middle and over a quarter of it was filled in white. On one end was a picture of an upside down heart, and on the other was a percentage. It wasn’t labeled, but... that was obviously Pancake’s load bar.

“That’s Pancake’s-“

“Uh, why are our names in these tabs?” Seemed kind of silly to attach that information to the load bar. As though they, or the Souling, needed any reminders.

“They’re shortcuts to Pancake,” Edge literally waved his question off, “But the squares around it are more important!”

A shortcut to Pancake (whatever that meant) seemed plenty important, but what did he know? Around the load bar we’re a variety of boxes with small icons in them, some of which were gray and appeared locked.

“So, this first one is a general notes program-“

“Wait, so you click them and you can access different... programs?” He felt Edge nod, even as Stretch poked at a locked square. “And these are ones we can only access once were in the right quarter?”

“Yes, but you would know that if you stopped interrupting me!” Edge punctuated his annoyance by suddenly jostling his shoulder, which ow, point taken. Stretch rubbed at his chin quietly.

“So, that’s Notes, to remember everything important: dates, milestones, gifts, events, etc. That’s Information, which has manuals and explanations about monster pregnancy, including symptoms for non-pregnant partners.” Stretch pointedly avoided that look sent his way. “This is Family Health, which is like a CHECK for all of us and some extra information too. And that last one is Souling Theme.”

Edge pointed at each little square in turn, pausing on the first square at the bottom. It featured a little white heart surrounded by slices of all the base magic colors in a cool little heptagon. All the icons to the right of it were still locked gray. What was up with that? “And I don’t know what this one is. It unlocked itself recently, but it’s weird. It might be like a minigame? Oh, and I don’t understand the Souling Theme either. It just has a list of everyone we know. You can write things next to their names, but I don’t know why.”

“Oh, that’s probably for the Baby Band.” Stretch waved his hand, “That’s not until the last quarter, though, so we don’t need to worry about until later. Let’s ask Undyne about the heptagon though.”

“What? Baby band? Heptagon?” Edge looked confused and a little concerned, which was not good and the opposite of what he had been trying to do. That was supposed to be reassuring! Time for a topic change.

“This all seems unusually straightforward...” Stretch squinted at it, as though that made things any clearer. Monsters loved puzzles and complicating their lives. “You just click and it opens up the tools? What’s the catch? Aren’t there any puzzles anywhere?”

“Yes! These!” Edge started swearing something unintelligible, angrily jabbing at the first square. “Goals!”

Stretch rubbed his husband’s shoulders soothingly, watching a new, much more colorful screen pop up. It looked like a bunch of paper, with a nearby pencil poised and ready to write. Before he finished taking in the rest of it, some kind of mascot danced onto the middle of the screen.

“Hey, it’s the egg! Right? The one from the Dating HUD?” Stretch hadn’t even realized it had been missing! Weird, since he had started checking it daily while he waited for his husband to wake up from his little naps. “It got legs! And a little hat!”

“Yes, and it changes what kind of legs it has every! Time!” Edge glared at it for a few more seconds, before reluctantly tapping on it. A little dialogue box popped up below it.

「HELLO, PAPYRUS “EDGE”!」

“I am not your friend!” Edge snarled, tapping at it again, more aggressively than before, “I don’t owe you any explanations!”

「ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR DAILY CHALLENGE?」

“No!” Edge tapped on it again anyway, moving restlessly as the egg danced into a corner, starting to pull something out of its hat. “Don’t laugh- it’s not funny!”

Stretch angled his face so his smile was pressed against Edge’s shoulder instead, trying very hard not to laugh. His husband seemed to be having a difficult time not smiling himself.

「HERE’S YOUR PUZZLE!」

It was a word scramble, a lot like the Minor Mixup Stretch used to do as a kid.

「 RNDKI smeo LIKM!」

Edge made a sound between a groan and a growl, counting out the letters before starting to type his answer into the space below.

「QMCJH rldn KHJL?」

Huh? Stretch frowned as the egg started dancing sadly in the corner. Stretch felt sorry for it when if finally fell down. (And a little irritated at it for making Edge so obviously annoyed, of course.)

「TRY AGAIN!」

“I hate these,” Edge seethed, crossing his arms as he glared at the screen, “There’s never a pattern! How are you supposed to solve this without a pattern?! At least a hint!”

“That’s...” What was the best way of phrasing this? “I think it might be a word scramble, Babe.” Stretch pointed to the first string of letters, “Have you tried plugging the letters they gave you in a different order to make new words?”

“Like león- I mean, lion... kim- skim...?” Edge looked adorably confused, “There aren’t enough vowels!”

“How about word by word, then?” Stretch put his hand over the last two words, gently nudging his husband’s shoulder, “What word does「 RNDKI」look like?”

“I don’t know-“ Edge sighed impatiently, “Kindr, dinkr- oh!” He positively lit up as he tapped the right order into the keyboard, “Drink? Is it drink?”

“Yeah!” Stretch cheered, clapping his husband on the back, “Good job! The next should be a little easier-”

“How dare you make fun of me?!” Edge elbowed him in the chest, and Stretch staggered back with a gasp. That was gratitude for you. “The stupid egg never said it was a word scramble! It just said it was a puzzle- and word scrambles are difficult! I don’t care what Red says, crosswords are a lot easier than this thing- and you’re wrong if you think that too!”

“I never said anything about it not being hard or anything,” Stretch rubbed at his chest ruefully, but completely ignoring rational self-preservation, went back to leaning on Edge’s shoulder. “Just that I think the solution might be more apparent if you look at it like a word-by-word scramble. I didn’t mean to imply anything- I think crosswords and word scrambles use different skills and understanding, and can be very difficult in different ways.”

“Hm.” Edge looked at him suspiciously over his shoulder, before turning back to the screen with a frown. He grabbed his husband’s hand, repositioning the fingers over the final word, “So you think the next word is... some?”

“Try plugging it in.” Shrugging, he watched Edge type it in and get the font to change color.

“Hm...” Edge still looked far from convinced, but typed ‘milk’ into the last space anyway.

「 DRINK some MILK!」

#spicyhoney #underfell papyrus #underswap papyrus #skelepreg #fanfic #redvelvetreel

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yobaba30 · 4 years

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CLEVELAND -- Of all the regions in all the states in all the country, Jim Jordan got dragged into ours. There was no good reason to punish Greater Cleveland by making the person who’s now the second most contemptible human being in the entire U.S. government part of the region’s delegation to Congress. Worse yet, the betrayal was bipartisan.

When Ohio’s political and legislative leaders were drawing new congressional boundaries prior to the 2012 election, Democrats wanted a district that would protect U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge. Republicans wanted districts that would elect the maximum number of GOP congressmen. And some people from both parties wanted a district that would likely lead to the defeat of longtime Cleveland Rep. Dennis Kucinich.

They all got what they wanted.

But to make it work required drawing a hideously gerrymandered district for the southwest Ohio congressman, one that meanders some 200 miles from near Dayton north into Lorain County near Cleveland.

And now it’s fitting that Republicans have given this seven-term sycophant a starring role in the televised House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearings against President Donald Trump. The assignment comes as Jordan is being credibly accused by some of knowingly turning a blind eye to sexual abuse by a team doctor when Jordan was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University from 1987 to 1994.

At least five people – four of them former wrestlers and one of them a longtime friend – have said Jordan had to have known former OSU team doctor Richard Strauss was on a sexual rampage that would include -- according to OSU -- 1,429 sexual assaults and 47 rapes of student patients during Strauss’ time at the school (1978 to 1998) prior to his suicide in 2005.

That makes Jordan an ideal candidate to lead the defense of a malignant president who has bragged about physically abusing women and who has been accused by two dozen women of sexual assault or misconduct.

Jordan was appointed to the Intelligence Committee the same day, Nov. 8, that NBC reported on a lawsuit filed early this month in which a former wrestling referee alleges Strauss masturbated in front of him in the shower following an OSU wrestling match in 1994.

When the referee told Jordan what happened, he alleges that Jordan blew him off with, “Yeah, that’s Strauss.”

As the allegations pile up, Jordan’s denials remain unchanged. He dismissed the latest one as “ridiculous.”

People have every right to believe Jordan’s angry dismissals. Common sense suggests they’d probably be better off believing five men who have no reason to lie.

When Jordan slithers out from under his rock each morning, dons a shirt and tie - sans the jacket, lest he be mistaken for Joe McCarthy - his life’s work is to besmirch everything America stands for in service of Donald Trump.

If it takes undermining yet another principle of democracy by condoning attacks on men and women who have devoted their lives in honorable service to this country, Jordan is always ready and willing.

If it takes changing the Trump defense strategy on an almost daily basis because facts keep getting in the way, Jordan is the ideal bootlicker. Trump’s support is all that seems to matter to the man former House Speaker John Boehner regularly referred to as "a legislative terrorist” – along with a whole bunch of other descriptions unfit for print.

Why would Jordan so readily ruin what little was left of his reputation? One theory holds he hopes to inherit Trump’s base for a presidential run of his own in 2024. The swamp will be a crowded place in four years, overrun with loathsome folks angling to continue the dastardly business of shredding the Constitution.

Michael Gerson’s credentials to analyze Jordan are impeccable. He is an evangelical Christian, lifelong Republican and onetime chief speechwriter to former President George W. Bush.

In his Washington Post column of Nov. 14, Gerson showed his keen understanding of Jordan, describing him as “the Truly Trumpian Man – guided by bigotry, seized by conspiracy theories, dismissive of facts and truth, indifferent to ethics, contemptuous of institutional norms and ruthlessly dedicated to the success of a demagogue.”

Gerson applied the identical description to Stephen Miller, the White House resident white supremacist.

Everything about Jordan reeks of a man willing to cast aside common decency and fairness in service of a corrupt and cruel president.

He may be the most unfit man to ever represent part of Greater Cleveland in Congress.

Brent Larkin was The Plain Dealer’s editorial director from 1991 until his retirement in 2009.

#brent-larkin #jim-jordan #ohio-state-university-wrestling #richard-strauss #osu-sex-abuse-scandal

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justalittlelitnerd · 5 years

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99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne

“A guy like that is strong in a way that’s deeper than muscle and bones, because he wears his softness on the outside. I think I met my ideal man when I was eight, and no one else has ever measured up.”

Title/Author/Publisher/Year Published: 99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne | Published by William Morrow in 2019

Time it took to read: 1 day

Plot Summary: Darcy Barrett has traveled the world. She has spent her entire life on the move, no, on the run. From her overbearing twin brother. From responsibility. From her many failures. But mostly she’s been running from the most perfect man in the world, Tom Valeska. She met him when they were 8 and no man has stood a chance. But Tom is her brothers. 99 percent. When Darcy and her brother inherit their grandmother’s cottage with the sole stipulation that they fix it up and sell it Darcy finds Tom back in her life. And for once she doesn’t want to run away. Which sure is partly because she can’t find her passport (she swears her brother stole it). But Darcy also decides that 1 percent of Tom Valeska isn’t enough anymore. She will make him 99 percent hers.

Who would I recommend this to: Lovers of romance and The Hating Game and unique characters.

Similar Books: Christina Lauren’s Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating comes to mind simply because of the history and the friends to lover trope. I really loved this book so if anyone has suggestions let me know!

What I loved: Darcy. Her boldness. Her fearlessness. Her insecurity. Her complexity and her desires and just how deeply she feels for everything, but in particular how strongly she loves Tom. Tom. His strength. His protectiveness. His love for the Barnetts and his desire to be a part of their family and his fear that they will leave him. Patty. Because who doesn’t love a big strong man with a tiny dog?

What I disliked: Tom leaving for so long just when things were getting good. Darcy and her brother being assholes fighting over Tom like he’s a toy.

Quotes:

I’m still holding my hard stare with the alpha and I get a ping of triumph in my gut when he looks away first. I’m the alpha now. “We must go to the same barber, because you’re looking real pretty, too. Now, order something or get out.” The boss boy is not used to this from a woman and to his surprise he likes it. He chews gum in an openmouthed way, his avid eyes on my face. “What time do you get off work?” I imagine a Ken doll left out in the sun too long, and I step on that soft tan head like it’s a cigarette. “Not for a million years.”

Patty is a shiny shorthaired black and tan Chihuahua, with a big apple dome head. She’s got a judgmental narrowing to her eyes. I don’t take it personally anymore, but sheesh, this dog looks at you like you’re a steaming turd. It’s just her face. She remembers me. What an honor to be stamped permanently in her tiny walnut brain. I pick her up and kiss her cheeks. “What are you doing here so late, Tom Valeska, world’s most perfect man?” Sometimes it’s a relief to hide your most honest thoughts right out in plain view.

I can never decide if Tom’s hair is the color of caramel fudge or chocolate. Either way, yum. The texture is like a romance novel that’s fallen into the bath, then dried: vaguely sexual crinkle waves with the occasional curled edge and dog-ear. I want to jam my hand in it and make a gentle fist.

As his eye fixes onto my boot, the streetlight creates a black blade under his cheekbone. I’d click my camera right now. Now, as he looks at my legs and his lashes create a dark crescent shadow. Now, when those eyes cut to mine and there’s a spark of light in them, and another thought about me in his head. Then he looks away.

Get it together, Darcy. It’s not his fault he was born with your favorite kind of bones. He’s a sweet shy solid-gold human. Someone’s fiancé. You’re a teenage dirtbag. Leave him alone.

I look at the two empty coffee cups and feel the weight of his goodness and I want to tell him the truth in return. The thought of how a million people must abuse his kindness—myself included—makes me crazy. I want to walk two steps in front of him, wherever he goes, bulldozing the world a little flatter for him.

He smells like he always has: a blown-out birthday candle, sharp and smoky. It’s that smell in your nostrils when closing your eyes and making an impossible wish, and your mouth is watering for something sweet.

“Being messed with by Darcy Barrett? It sounds like she’s joking with me, but it feels like she’s telling the truth. And I never know which is right.”

If he keeps pressing me, I’m going to tell him what the problem is: Primarily, that I want to unzip his pants. Second problem, I’m the worst fucking person to be having these thoughts about an almost-married man. Third: I’m so jealous of Megan I’m going to rev the engine of a combine harvester and convert her into a bag of bloody grain. But these have always been my problems.

I dodge sideways toward the back door—I need air. I need sky and stars and cold; I need to sit on the rings of Saturn dangling my boots into the black universe to be alone, but he steps easily around me, and now I’m the one leaning on the sink. “Are you okay?” I want to grab him by the shoulders and check for physical damage. I’ll crack open his chest to check how bad his heart looks.

I somehow walk to the front door on my trembling legs and the cool evening air floods in. I will find the nearest ocean and walk in, all the way down to Atlantis, and inquire about real estate.

“I am throwing myself at her feet. Every minute of every day. She just doesn’t notice.” His hand cups the back of my head and my entire world is his muscles and the smell of his T-shirt. The wax-sweet smell of birthday candles and wishes and ugh, it’s going to hurt when he lets me go.

My stomach falls down an elevator shaft. Those words, spoken aloud in his voice, crackle through my synapses, and right now, I’ve never been more alive. I am heartbeat and full lungs. If you were mine. What a glorious thought to cross his mind; I never imagined it would. “What else would you do?” I’ve got that husky voice he likes. The animal in him is honest with me. “Everything. If you were mine, I’d do everything.” Our gold bubble locks shut, and a little universe fills it. The possibilities are infinite.

I have now found something I like better than sugar, and I’m an instant addict. Worse, a junkie. I’ve subsisted on his one-second glances my whole life, and now I’ve got his mouth on mine? I know what I’d do to keep him. He should feel afraid. The first touch of his tongue loosens my knees and I’m grateful that he’s holding me up. I shudder a breath out. He inhales it, changes our angle, exhales it back to me. Air is better from his lungs. Life is better with his kiss. The word mine is now something I need to make him understand.

“No one else is kissing you anymore,” he tells me in a conversational hush, not breaking our contact. “Your mouth is mine.” The thought is more than he can bear; now we’re twisting each other’s clothes and the kiss is like a conversation with no words—louder and louder, talking over each other: Listen to me. No, you listen to me.

Tom is sharing this secret part of himself; I’m bitten, spread, gripped, and I have never been wanted this intensely. He will kill and live and die for me. It’s big, what he’s feeling. All I know is, I’m his now. I put a hand on the back of his neck as he presses a kiss to my shoulder.

“Hey,” Tom says, and when I look up at him my heart unfurls. There’s no better word for it. It’s like a time-lapse photo of a rose opening whenever I think about how he is mine.

#99 percent mine #sally thorne #the hating game #books #book blog #book quotes #booklady #booklr #quotes #tom valeska #friends to lovers #romance #fiction #if you were mine #darcy barrett

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junker-town · 5 years

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The Tour de France’s weirdest tradition is a high-speed, candy-chucking parade

A day in the caravane, the Tour’s dumb, dangerous, and beloved parade of sponsors.

Quentin is yelling out the window of his Haribo Croco-plastered Isuzu, Victor dos-d’âne! Victor dos-d’âne!

A dos-d’âne is a donkey’s back, which is what the French call speed bumps. Victor is a young man strapped to the roof of the Isuzu. Quentin is driving, and he just realized he’s going faster than he meant.

He takes the dos-d’âne and yells back to Victor, Ça va, poulet? A poulet is a chicken, and French youths use the word like Americans might call someone their dog. Victor is ça va, so we keep speeding along and taking part in perhaps the Tour de France’s weirdest tradition.

Ryan Siu

The caravane is one of the biggest pieces of the Tour, and it’s completely invisible to anyone not watching the race in France. Every day, two hours before the riders start each stage, a parade of Tour sponsors goes out in branded floats in a line that can stretch 15 kilometers as it rolls down a more than 200-kilometer course.

As much as I’d like to think I’m above naked commercialism, the caravane is fascinating. I saw it firsthand for the first time in 2014 and called it moronic, dangerous fun. The Tour claims that roughly 50 percent of the people who pack the side of the road each day do so for the caravane, which chucks out free goodies — like candy, and hats, and key chains, and sausage — to a voracious mass of French people.

I reached out to Haribo to ride with in part because they’re the stars. According to Quentin — a 25-year-old studying in Brussels who is driving for Haribo for a second year — the candy company is by far the most popular set of floats in the caravane, followed by Cochonou, a mass producer of saucisson sausage snacks. Quentin says that because Haribo is so big, the job pays well for a summer gig. He likes the team of Haribo employees, too, and getting to be a part of the Tour de France in some way. He’s a triathlete and a cycling fan.

Ryan Siu

I’m distracting him, though. His radio crackles with chatter from Haribo cars farther ahead, relaying road hazards, or instructions from the caravane’s commissaires. There’s an untold number of things to look out for while driving — speedbumps, chicanes, and stopped vehicles. There’s also a strict schedule to adhere to. The Tour wants the caravane to be done at least two hours before riders are due to arrive at the finish.

But the biggest concern is people — highly excitable, erratic, and fragile people. The Tour restricts caravane vehicles to a max speed of 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour, and tries to keep an average of 30 kph to minimize the chances that anything goes wrong on the road. There have been bad accidents in the past. In 2000, a 12-year-old boy was hit by a caravane vehicle and died. In 2002, it was a 7-year-old.

But in practice, those restrictions have to be fudged a little if the vehicles are going to keep time.

Around 1 p.m. — roughly three hours into our journey on Stage 4 to Nancy, and two-and-a-half hours before the finish — we take a nature break. Caravane cars try to restrict themselves to one stop, maximum, and only by necessity. Peeing isn’t written into the itinerary. If you have to go, you pull off to the side of the road and find whichever nearby bush or piece of fencing that you like the least.

Ryan Siu

Quentin tells me we absolutely won’t wait more than five minutes, and we absolutely didn’t. We zipped up, hopped back in our Croco-car, and began the dodgiest portion of our journey, hitting the gas to find our place within the rest of the Haribo crew. Other sponsored vehicles would move to the right side of the road when there was space so we could zoom past, but the coordination wasn’t easy, especially while navigating turns and paying mind to the narrow shoulders packed with fans yelling Les bonbons! Les bonbons!

A policeman on a motorbike pulls up on our front wheels to help us chase. We accelerate to 80, 90, 100 … up to 120 kph, and Quentin sees I’m looking at the speedometer and says “well, it’s sometimes OK if the police are with you.” Still he gives Victor a ça va, poulet? and Victor is still strapped to the roof and ça va.

Quentin hasn’t seen an incident in the caravane involving Haribo, and he won’t speak for other brands. There are a few disconcerting moments on our trip, though — a mother yanking back her boy by the collar as he lunges for something in the road, adults lunging and jumping back instinctively when they hear honking.

Louis Bien

“I think this is totally stupid,” Quentin says as a man steps into the road with his dog on a leash. “Sometimes people are holding on to the dogs better than the kids.”

To drive the caravane, you need to be willing to submit yourself to a moment’s sobriety test — Quentin says he was breathalyzed four times last year. Everyone taking part is given safety training. Vehicles shut off their music and stop tossing if they’re in the process of overtaking, and they’ll never throw across lanes of traffic.

The biggest danger is freebies landing in the road, so the chuckers are told to either throw their goods at the ground on an angle so that they slide to the curb, or far over the heads of fans if there’s a space behind them. The second method makes people do a funny little hop to try and catch their freebie, and almost feels like teasing on the part of the sponsors.

The roadside passion for all this free stuff and so much hokiness is mostly un-ironic. Kids and adults hold upturned open umbrellas to give the people on top of the floats a place to aim. Some hold signs with targets on them. People get upset if a float doesn’t throw candy. I saw a woman who appeared to be in her 50s stamp her foot as we passed by without giving her candy. Quentin won’t keep the windows rolled down, he says, so that I won’t hear the obscenities people yell at the cars.

Bear in mind that only a few of the Tour’s sponsors are offering anything fun, in the traditional sense. They include Génération Pêche, a resource for information on fishing regulations, and a campaign to raise awareness against Hepatitis C using the hashtag #DuBruitContrelHépatiteC. That means #NoiseAgainstHepatitisC, and it’s pasted on a truck that’s hauling a giant fake megaphone behind it.

I ask Quentin to ask the veterans among the crew what the weirdest sponsor in the caravane has been. Didier, who has worked the last seven Tours, says that the workers’ union Force Ouvrière used to throw out condoms to the crowd that said “FO will protect you.”

The caravane’s favorite fans are the very young and very old. We see both in large groups. When the caravane has a heads up that a non-profit organization or a school has put a group of kids next to the road, the candy-chuckers will gather armfuls of the fun-size bags and shower them.

The worst fans interfere with the cars. Quentin says that on hot days, some fans will pelt the caravane with water balloons, which may seem like a favor to the people on top of the vehicles, but in reality makes riding in the open air frigid and miserable. Mountain stages are especially tricky to drive. The roads are narrower and more winding, and the fans tend to be young drunk men. Once, Didier says, his vehicle had to stop in the Pyrenees, and he was boarded by hooligans who tried to break into the candy reserves in the trunk.

Today is calmer, 213.5 kilometers, all nearly paper flat. It’s one of the least eventful days in an otherwise action-filled first week of the Tour, but it’s special for Quentin. He’s from the area of Nancy, and he has coordinated friends and family to stand along the course 15 kilometers from the finish. He lets the rest of the Haribo crew know about an hour before that he wants to break decorum a bit, and he gets the OK.

Louis Bien

As we roll up to the meeting point, Quentin rolls down his window, sees the first of his people, and lets out primal holler while honking his horn. He yells Ayy Papa! Ayy Papa!, which means “Ayy Papa! Ayy Papa!” and may not have actually been addressed to his dad.

The stunt was a bit off-script, but it felt natural in the organized chaos that the Tour de France cultivates. Just like the Tour itself, the caravane is an awe-inspiring pain in the ass. And like the Tour, everyone who has a part is proud of it.

Quentin rolls up his window after the drive-by, muting the sound outdoors. He’s looking forward to the mountain stages where the driving is more interesting. He remembers going over the Col d’Aspin in the Pyrenees last year, nearly 5,000 feet above sea level. “We were above the clouds. They were tapping on the car, and it was crazy.”

Then he remembers Victor, and rolls his window back down. He yells Ça va, poulet? and Victor is ça va.

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forever-forgotten-angel · 6 years

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Back to the Basics (Part 3)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 (Final Part)

Warning: This is a Thomas Sanders/Virgil Sanders romantic fic so if you don’t like that then please skip over this story and have a wonderful day!

Summary: Basically just some mutual pining between my favorite sunshine boy and emo side with some fluff thrown in for flavor. Featuring Thomas attempting to court a selectively oblivious Virgil and the other sides being ‘helpful’ to said courting process.

I’m back again, to my own surprise! I usually never get things done this quickly. Not much to say except I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Virgil tries not to think too much about Thomas' first real date.

He had been an utter mess. Anxiety over what to wear, where to go, how to act, what if he got stood up (like anyone would ever stand Thomas up, you'd have to be completely brainless) all swirled within Virgil's already troubled mind.

He and Princey had never butted heads more, and that was saying something. The romantic side was furious with him for making Thomas doubt his love. He was fairly certain the creative side already had wedding invites made up and everything. Over the years, he's occasionally wondered if Roman has wedding invites for all of Thomas' relationship and what he does with them when it's over. He's never had the nerve to ask. Princey could get rather touchy over Thomas' failed loves.

Even his friendship (he used the term loosely, it was certainly the closest thing he had at the time) with Morality was strained as the side was forced (not for the first or the last time) to choose between him and the prince.

He'd mostly tried to stay away. Morality, though a bit (unintentionally Virgil is sure) condescending, is the only side that's consistently nice to him so he didn't want to cause him extra stress. Besides, Creativity would only use it to cause more drama. Best to let the father figure stick with the prince, at least for now.

Not to mention he didn't want to bring down the cheerful side's excitement and optimism. He was very enthusiastic about this new type of love for Thomas.

On the bright side, he'd managed to form a tentative bond with Logic who is staying far away from all the romance. They didn't really talk or anything, but Logic had taken to allowing Virgil to sit in his room to avoid Roman bugging him, and he'd even let Virgil help him on a few of his large puzzles. It was rather calming to the anxious side and he really appreciated especially at such a hectic time for him. He hoped Logic knew that.

Still, there was one thing that no amount of calming could help. The new feeling the clawed at Virgil's chest and made him feel extra uneasy. Virgil's a smart trait, so it doesn't take him too long to identify the feeling though he wants to deny it.

Jealousy.

He should have expected this of course. It was a no-brainer that he would be envious of anyone who got to spend time alone with Thomas, most especially in a romantic way. At the same time though, he could feel the nervous excitement coursing through Thomas and...well how could Virgil be mad at something that was making the person he loved happy?

It was a rough internal conflict between his desire for Thomas to be happy and his own selfish dream to be the one that makes him happy. Needless to say, it was not helping his anxiety whatsoever.

Virgil turns on his loudest music and tries to ignore the feelings coming from Thomas, staying just alert enough so he'd know if Thomas was in any danger.

The date goes well, though Virgil isn't sure exactly how he feels about that. Morality gives him a fresh batch of cookies that afternoon and says he's proud of how Virgil backed off during Thomas' date. Under Morality's fond gaze he guiltily nibbled on a warm cookie, the sweet taste soured by him thinking just how undeserving he is of the father figure's pride. He knew the only reason he backed off was because his heart hurt at Thomas with someone else, but he could never tell the moral side, or anyone else for that matter, the truth. So he accepted the pride, sharing the cookies with the parental side.

The relationship doesn't last very long. It ends amicably enough, though Thomas is still sad when it's over. Virgil hates seeing his host sad...but there's a part of him deep down that feels relief that he's single again. he tries with all his might to get rid of it but it won't go away. He's happy at Thomas' pain, it's something he never thought would, or even could possibly happen.

Virgil hates himself even more than usual.

It's been a fairly normal day in the mindscape (well normal for them at least, he doubted they were ever normal by everyone else's standards) and it was rounding on dinner time and Virgil was heading downstairs. Patton did not take kindly to anyone being late to dinner (apparently dinner is famILY time).

It had been about a week since the failed (though wonderful) movie night and Virgil has barely slept since. He almost wanted to go up and ask Thomas if he could lay with him, even just for a few minutes. Honestly, knowing the kindness of his host, he'd probably say he was fine with it, but that didn't stop him from being anxious. Because what if Thomas was just saying that because he pitied Virgil but he really thought it was creepy and then he secretly started to resent Virgil and then he wouldn't ever want to spend time with Virgil and then-

Virgil's spiral of thoughts was cut off by the sight of the subject of said thoughts rustling around in the kitchen. "What are you up to?" Thomas whirled around with a look of surprise.

"What are you doing here?" The host asked back, with a breathy, nervous laugh. Virgil raised an eyebrow. "Here? In the mindscape? Where I live? Hmmmm....let me think." He put a mock thoughtful look on his face. Thomas rolled his eyes and gave Virgil a good natured shove with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm cooking." The YouTuber looked around at the already messy kitchen. "I'm going to cook." He corrected with a sheepish grin. "Well I suppose if you start a fire here you can just put it out with a thought so no one will get hurt. Good thinking." He compliments. Thomas looks like he wants to say something, then sighs. "Thanks Virge." Virgil nods in acknowledgement.

"I'm surprised Patton let you in, he's usually pretty territorial over dinner time." Thomas shrugs at his comment. "He's out with Emile on a double date with Roman and Logan." The host informs, though suspiciously, he doesn't meet Virgil's eyes which narrow in response to this. "Are you hiding something from me Sanders?" Virgil's voice drops and octave and has a slight growl to it. Thomas looks at him and surprise and shakes his head emphatically. "Nope. Not trying to hide anything from you Virge." Virgil was still suspicious, but it didn't seem like Thomas was lying to him.

But that didn't mean he wasn't angling the truth.

Virgil stared at Thomas for another minute before deciding to let it go...for now. "Sorry." Thomas gives him a beautiful smile. "No worries Virgil." Thomas gives him a hug from the side that doesn't last nearly as long as he would like it to.

He turns to head put of the room before hesitating. He turns back to Thomas. “Do you want some help?” He asks, not particularly interested in cooking but always interested in spending extra time with Thomas. He feels irritatingly and unnecessarily nervous over Thomas’ answer. As Thomas turns to answer him he knocks a bag over spilling flour all over the floor. “That…..might be a good idea.”

About two hours later, the two had something resembling the pictures in the cookbook made and the mess in the kitchen cleaned up. They sat at the table (well Thomas did, Virgil sat on the table in front of Thomas since Patton wasn’t here to stop him) and began to eat.

Conversation flowed surprisingly easily between the two, shifting from upcoming events in Thomas’ life, to the videos that were in the planning stage, to cartoons, to the others. Thomas had also been asking Virgil some personal questions, which confused the trait a bit. He answered them anyway, but couldn’t help the suspicion growing in his stomach. He tried to squish it down. He always made such a big deal out of everything. Thomas was just making conversation.

They finished their food and had just sat talking for a while when Thomas suddenly shot up. “Oh, I almost forgot.” The host goes over to the freezer and gets out two bowls of ice cream and a bunch of toppings including candies, chocolate fudge, caramel, and spray whipped cream. “Dessert!” Virgil can’t help but smile at the bright exclamation as he takes his bowl and grabs the chocolate fudge.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit much?” Thomas asks as Virgil drowns his ice cream in chocolaty goodness. He shakes his head instantly. “Never enough chocolate.” He informs the host solemnly. Thomas chuckles at him as he shakes up the whipped cream. “Okay, Virgil. But when you have a stomach ache later, I’m not going to feel bad for you.” Virgil very maturely sticks his tongue out at the host who promptly spray it with the whipped cream in his hand.

Except the bottle freaks out and whipped cream gets all over his face and neck. His eyes had automatically closed as he registered the incoming attack and he keeps them tightly shut as he takes a deep breath. “What. Have. You. Done?” He asks, using his ‘scary voice’ as Princey likes to call it.

Thomas does not look scared. He looks like he’s trying very hard not to laugh.

“Nooooooothing.” The YouTuber replies, hiding the spray bottle behind his back, letting a few giggles escape as he does so. Virgil gives him the best intimidating glare he can muster while covered in whipped cream. More giggles are the only response he gets and damn it he can feel the his lips pulling up into a smile at the sound. Why does Thomas have to be so adorable?

“After all I have done for you, this is what I get in return.” Virgil’s can’t maintain his scary voice as his smile grows bigger entirely against his will. “Come on Virge, it’s not so bad.” Virgil froze as Thomas’ left hand came up to cup his cheek. “It’s just a little sugar.” Thomas insists, warm brown eyes looking directly into Virgil’s and setting off all kinds of alarms in the anxious side’s head.

Thomas drags his fingertips across Virgil skin as he pulls his hand back leaving his face scorching with heat where their skin had been connected. Thomas brings his fingers up to his lips and licks off the sugary cream that had remained on them.

Virgil is pretty sure he hears sirens blaring in his head and a loud voice that sounds vaguely like Roman’s screaming “YOU ARE ONE HUNDRED PERCENT TOO GAY RIGHT NOW! GET OUT OF HERE!”

He jumps to his feet, knocking over his chair as he does so. “You know what; I probably will get a stomach ache if I eat that. I should go.” Thomas frowns instantly, clearly upset. Virgil’s heart twinges at the sight. “I was just kidding Virgil, I’m sorry.” Thomas gets up and runs some water on a nearby dishtowel before holding it out to Virgil with an apologetic smile masking hurt that Virgil can still see and it hurts him so much.

But one look at those smiling lips, still stained with a little cream, and he knows he’ll do something he regrets if he stays he much longer. He takes the towel, trying to ignore how his fingers brush against Thomas’. “It’s not that Thomas I just…I haven’t been sleeping well and I’m feeling really tired is all.” He didn’t want to tell Thomas about his sleeping issue but it seemed like the best option right now. The last thing he wanted was for the host to think Virgil didn’t want to spend time with him. He shudders at the idea of going back to the times where he rarely got to interact with Thomas outside of the videos.

“Oh, alright. Is there anything I can do to help?” And isn’t that a loaded question? There are so many things he wants to say. Love me. Come lay with me. Just give me a hug. But he forces his mouth to give the answer he truly doesn’t want to. “No, I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.” Thomas raises an eyebrow with an already worried look. “That’s rich coming from you.” Virgil rolls his eyes as casually as he can. “Haham very funny. Goodnight Thomas.” He hastens to leave before he can do or say anything he won’t be able to take back.

“Night Virge! Sweet dreams!” Thomas’ lovely voice echoes after him as he drags the towel over his still hot face.

Thomas stands watching after Virgil for a while before turning to slowly clean up the mess on the table.

He’s not sure exactly why Virgil had freaked out so much but can’t help the sinking in his heart. Everything had been going so well, or at least he thought so. So close, but yet so very far. Furthermore, Virgil had actually admitted to having trouble sleeping so that was another thing he was going to have to worry about, not that he wasn’t already worried.

He finishes cleaning up in the mindpalace kitchen (yes he knows he could probably do it with just a thought but it kept him busy while he was thinking), and after some internal debate, he decides to check in on Virgil before he heads back up to the real world, hoping to find the anxious side actually sleeping.

He walks quietly through the mindscape until he arrives at the door he knows leads to Virgil’s bedroom. As silently as possible, he opens it just a crack. He is relieved to see the side actually appears to be sleeping, but his relief quickly disappears as his ears register the distressed noises coming from the bed in front of him.

Virgil’s body is fidgeting on the bed and he looks so far from the peaceful rest Thomas had seen him in during their movie night. He is glued to the spot, watching upset as his anxiety suffers, unsure of what to do. “Thomas.” He hears his name and his focus sharpens, wondering if Virgil has woken up but he is still deep in his fretful sleep. “Thomas.” He hears his name again, Virgil’s tone clearly frightened.

Unable to watch anymore, and hoping he doesn’t mess things up even further he enters the room and sits down on the edge of the bed. He reaches a hand out to cup Virgil’s cheek much like he had earlier. “It’s okay Virge. I’m right here, you’re safe.” He speaks softly to the sleeping side. Virgil’s distress doesn’t seem to edge off at all, and at another frantic call of his name, Thomas feels helpless and frustrate. Then he thinks of something.

“I’ve always aimed to protect you…”

He tries again. “It’s okay Virge. I’m right here. I’m safe. You’re keeping me safe. Just like you always do. Like you always have. Even when I was too blind to realize it. I’m safe Virgil. I’m safe.” To Thomas’ immense relief, Virgil seems to calm down a bit, his face automatically leaning into Thomas’ hand causing the YouTuber to smile brightly.

He sat at Virgil’s side for a while, whispering words of comfort. He wanted to stay all night, but he was afraid of what Virgil’s reaction would be if he did. The night had already ended rather strangely. He takes a risk and presses a feather light kiss to the anxious trait’s forehead before heading back out of the room, shutting the door with a soft click behind him.

He rises up back into his corporal form, lying on his bed in his day clothes. He thinks back on the evening as he changes and gets ready for bed. While it had been quite fun cooking with Virgil (though that hadn’t exactly been his original plan and it was probably slightly less romantic than cooking for him), and the dinner itself was quite nice, with him even getting to learn a bit more about the person he was pursuing a relationship with, it hadn’t been completely ideal as Thomas would have wanted. But he is not convinced that all hope is lost quite yet. Maybe he should just go back to his original idea.

After all, you can’t go wrong with a little good old fashioned flirting, can you?

#sanders sides #thomas sanders #thomas/virgil #thvi #fic

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nainz717-blog · 5 years

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11/11 GIF Review: Suno Chanda

REWRITING THIS FOR THE SECOND TIME. Hi Guys! Long time no see, literally forgot the password to the forum some time ago and just really didn't have a reason to post anything. But I promised a friend and here I am. And since forum gave me a hard time, decided to open a tumblr and post it here! Lets see if this works!! Creds to Mina Birdie for helping me with layout questions!

When Abhi broke Pragya's fast during Karwa-chauth:

So the "OMG YES" Naina loved it. She was all about this! I have been wanting to see possessive, "she's mine" Abhi since Drunk Abhigya at Puliyah's engagment way back in 2014 when they were chotay motay bachay! You know, when he ridiculed her at every point in time? When he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her? When he had tried to minimize her rituals, including their first karwachauth and couldn't see beyond the materialistic things he thought he wanted. When he took forever in realizing theres more to her than just "Chashmish?" YEARS Later, we're seeing that same Abhi run around frantically trying to find a pot to fill water with so that he can make it in time for Pragz to see him first right after the chaand comes out so that he can break her fast and they can be bounded together religiously for saath janam.

HECK YEAH.

That really happened. HOW EPIC. The guy who didn't believe in God, the guy who thought rituals were a joke, the guy who didn't think these things could ever create an everbinding relationship is now HANGING ON DESPERATELY at all of these rituals for a chance to have any remaining bits of a relationship with Pragz. Y TO THE ES. Whether that be when he feels estatic after he accidentally fills her parting with sindoor, when he gets sad seeing Pragz buy an mangalsutra in Kings name at the jewelry shop, when he doesn't break Tanu's fast, when he doesn't put an mangalsutra on Tanu in front even as a show. He does another head bump cause Daasi had said bumping your head twice is auspicious! He's become as SANSKAARI as PRAGZ-BABY!!!

But then I realized alls not well:

Here comes the catch. SO in his mind, he fully thinks without a doubt that Pragya is married to King and has been for the last seven years. And even if he thinks there are residual feelings Pragz may have for him, she seems content with King and was fasting for him. And remember, this is the girl that was with Abhi through thick and thin and never gave up on him regardless of any poor choices and decisions he made....and yet after her surviving through the revenge part of the marriage, tolerating tanu as the constant third wheel in their relationship, being kidnapped countless times just for being Abhi's wife, losing a sister in the middle of this, having to re-develop feelings in Abhi's heart when he lost his memory and she was politely "kicked out" of the house, being doubted upon her intentions during many phases in the marriage...and yet she stuck by him rock solid. And yet after everything, she was still kicked out by Abhi in less than one minute and was never searched for for seven years. Can you imagine her going through that pregnancy alone? Where did she go after leaving his house? How did she manage to find shelter? When did she find out she was pregnant? Was her delivery normal or did she deliver early out of stress?

Do you see what I mean? She's gone through A LOT of struggles because of him but when she needed him most...he wasn't there. So for him to be possessive after seven years of not being there for her and wanting to have every right for the night when he thinks King took good care of her (and Im guessing he did for Pragz and Kiara to admire him so much)...its like, do you really have any right to be possessive? Yes, sure because I'm a hardcore Abhigya shipper, yes you do. But really, does a guy who kicked out his EXTREMELY understanding wife seven years ago and married her biggest enemy get to have any rights on her seven years later? Um...you can answer that for me.

When Aliyah and King show up on screen together:

Okay I get it, she's evil and he's pretty much a saint right now, why ship them and make his life miserable? But GUYS. Hear me out. At the end of the day, I think Aliyah is redeemable versus Tanu. Yes she hates Pragya, but there have been many moments in the show where you realize she cares about the Mehra family, in particular Abhi. She does get hurt when she sees them physically hurt. She has blasted Tanu in the past for dangerous tricks shes had up her sleeve. And it does kinda make me sad that seven years later, Aalu is still hung up on PURAB FOR WHO KNOWS WHAT REASON? Let him go babe, even the face has changed now (Arjit to Vin). Like come on writers, why can't we have Aalu move on when it comes to Purab and bring in a love angle for her? Because the Aalu-Purab-Disha-Bulbul triangle is static as it can be!

And here's why King would be great for her. Meet Aliyah, a girl who loves Abhi her bhai but dislikes Pragya. Meet King, a guy who admires Pragya fully but isn't a particular fan of Abhi. He's like the Raghav from Mina's fics He's the PERFECT balance for her! See, I dont want to see Aalu die at the end. I hope she does get redeemed and can be shown accepting Abhigya, because I don't want Abhi to lose another family member in the process of Abhigya uniting. Which for all of you who ship King and Pragya, I get it BUT IT AIN'T HAPPENING. And I would much rather see King as a supportive best friend 'til the end then a psychotic lover who now also hates Pragz. Because I really love the King-Pragz dosti so lets not ruin it. Lets find Aalu someone who give the wittiest replies to her sarcastic dialogues, who will not tolerate her cunning plans, who can put up with her negativity and someone who admires Pragya so that Aalu can start seeing the other edge of the sword.

Plus, Shikha and Mishal might look smoking on screen I'm ALL FOR THIS SHIP.

What Purab has been doing this fall season:

Not sure if its because Vin has been busy personally? But someones gotta give him something to do. He's becoming another wax statue in the back like Tau-ji and I'm already upset Raj became one, lets not let Purab become the third in line. Theres so much potential for him. Lets show him a different story line? Lets show how him and Disha are not getting along about something. Lets show him wanting to catch up on seven years with Pragya di. Lets show him trying to show Abhi what a TERRIBLE decision it is to keep Tanu in the house, regardless of whether he gets Pragz in the end or not. Writer-ji? Please kuch karein.

When kicking out Tanu from the house and his life is not the first option:

Maaf kiya Abhi threw Pragz out. Maaf kiya he didn't try finding her for seven years. Maaf kiya he pretended he didn't love her in front of his family all these years. My problem forever and always with Abhi has been, and this is more of a writer issue, that he can never be shown single. If he doesn't have Pragz with him, in some way or another he has Tanu by him.

Now disclaimer: I have no real issues with Leena being on the show all these four years. At some point in time I realized Tanu would be part of this show til the end and I'm not saying remove her from the show. I get from Tanu's point of view, that she's a desperate soul-less creature who doesn't see that there is no chance she's ending up with Abhi. For her, she's gonna keep trying in one way or another regardless of how many times she fails. But wait..why would she stop trying when Abhi does give her a chance every single time? Not that I'm Tanu, but if I wanna keep trying for the impossible and it does become possible for short periods of time MANY TIMES, um yes I'm going to keep trying! Problem isn't with Tanu? Problem is with Abhi. He GIVES her a chance. He knows she purposely created misunderstandings between him and Pragya constantly throughout the past, he knows shes capable of hurting people in order to obtain him, he knows she's tried failing the brakes and murdering Pragz in order to get our out of her way, he knows she's evil. And yet, when Pragz was kicked out, for some reason or another, he had "NO CHOICE" but to marry Tanu. Are you even serious.

The choice is not to marry anyone. Marry a turtle but don't marry her. Marry a poster of Madhuri Dixit but don't marry her. Marry your first cousin but don't marry her. Marry your clingy Meethu but don't marry her. Marry PURAB BUT DONT MARRY HER.

Or you know. Dont marry at all. That IS AN OPTION, Abhi. Staying single is a solid option, you know. And lets say Pragz is happily married with King for the past seven years and theres no chance of getting back together with her at least in this janam.

You'll just passively live your life with Tanu because Pragz isn't available? And how are you going to win her back with a horrible wife at the side? KICK HER OUT!! THAT IS ALWAYS THE WAY TO GO!

When Pragz shows sass and attitude post-leap:

I have full on been enjoying the Abhigya scenes. Every single one of them!! And while i do have some complaints with Abhi post-leap (okay many complaints), you do get to see the happiness that lights within him when she's around. In filmy terms, Abhi has everything- glam, lifestyle, respect, paisa, gaari, ghar, maal waal , ghar baar....but he doesn't have anyone who loves him for Abhishek Mehra. She's the girl in all these years that didn't give a fudge that he was Abhi the Rockstar, looked past every single flaw that he presented to her, and loved him for the child-like Abhishek Mehra thats buried within him. And for him, getting that kind of love...is rare. She wasn't in it for the money, she was in it for him. And you can see that even amongst the whole family, when she's not around, he's lonely. So I definitely feel for him and like that he's finally getting his Fuggi doses...he just need to make a few obvious decisions and then I'm sold on him.

But Pragz has been FIRE! She's not the same Pragz from seven years ago. This Pragz gives sassy replies. This Pragz shows anger and is not afraid to vocalize it. This Pragz isn't afraid to remind Abhi of the biggest mistake of throwing her out. This Pragz is no longer interested in EXPRESSING her love for him! Yes, of course, we know she's still totally latoo-fied by him. And sighhh. What can I say? The heart wants what it wants. But she's almost accepted that they're not going to end up together, for their own sakes and Kiara's sakes. And she's almost content with whatever little they have now. THIS IS DIFFERENT PRAGZ!! She's no longer running behind Abhi trying to gain his love. Its almost the other way around! She's the "girl that got away" and he's trying to win back anything he can with her! HOW FREAKING AWESOME. I love this dynamic where she's no longer running after him and its him trying to win her back.

The only complaint I have with Pragz-is not telling King who Abhi and Kiara are. Would make her life simpler. I do not advocate telling Abhi about Kiara though. Not when we all know he's capable of making the worst decisions and allows creatures like Tanu to swarm around him and create dangerous settings at all points in time. Yes, no thank you please. I would also prioritize my kid over telling the passive father just for the sakes of him knowing.

Okay lastly, can we take a minute to appreciate this:

THIS GIRL IS GETTING YOUNGER AND YOUNGER BY THE DAY!!!! DREAM GIRL IN EVERY ESSENCE! I know we like to point out days when the outfits are not par excellence. But then lets also appreciate the days when Tripti has gone beyond expectations! Everything about this is love!!! Also love how Srit's been incorporating some "raised eyebrows" and "suppressed smiles" and "biting lips" as new flirty connotations. LOVE LOVE.

Until next time, Cheers! -Naina

#kumkumbhagya pragyamehra pragyaarora abhishekmehra kkb abhigya

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coochiequeens · 2 years

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With my hair piled inside a baseball cap, dark sunglasses on and a face mask pulled up to my eyes, I was satisfied I could not be identified.My heart was going ten to the dozen as I prepared to undertake the most daring mission yet: pursuing the illegal activity that has now become a regular part of my life.I tried to position myself to avoid the angle of the CCTV cameras I had clocked and quickly got to work.

After two minutes I was done. Someone spotted me and hurled abuse but, thankfully, they didn't attempt to intervene.

Heading home I felt exhilarated, empowered . . . and proud.

Despite breaking the law, I know I'm not a bad person and I'm definitely not a criminal mastermind or a thug who robs or hurts people. I'm a respectable middle-class, mature woman who spends her spare time 'stickering'.

I'm part of a growing band of women staging our own quiet protests up and down the country, against the erasure of our rights and the threats to our safety.

An example of this threat to safety was made public last week by Emma Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne.

Addressing the House of Lords during a debate on single-sex wards in hospitals, Baroness Nicholson alleged that she knew of a woman who was raped by a transgender patient on a female ward at an NHS hospital.

She stated that, initially, the hospital informed police that the rape could not have happened since there was 'no male' on the ward. It was only a year later, says Baroness Nicholson, that the hospital admitted the offence had taken place.

Legally, rape can only be committed by a penis. Yet between 2012 and 2018, 436 individuals who were prosecuted for rape in England and Wales were recorded as women. Certain single-sex spaces should be protected by law under the Equality Act. But, in practice, it doesn't always happen, with organisations from the NHS (on wards) to M&S (in changing rooms) allowing people to self-identify.

Earlier this month, on International Women's Day no less, the shadow Equalities Minister Annaliese Dodds struggled to define the words 'woman' and 'female' in an interview on Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

Dodds' hedging and fudging prompted JK Rowling to respond on Twitter with a reference to her most villainous creation: 'Apparently, under a Labour government, today will become We Who Must Not Be Named Day.' And that's precisely why I do my stickering.

'Stickering' is exactly what it sounds like. It's placing stickers in public places where you hope people will see them, register your protest and, perhaps, want to learn more.

The practice hit the news earlier this year when it emerged that Jennifer Swayne, a women's rights campaigner, was arrested and held in a police cell for putting up stickers and posters in Newport, Gwent.

Her phone has been seized and she is being investigated on suspicion of causing criminal damage and 'displaying threatening or abusive writing likely to cause harm or distress'.

In other words, committing an alleged 'hate crime'.

The story terrified me because some of the stickers Jennifer placed are the same as the ones that I use.

Hers included the messages 'Woman = Adult, Human Female' and 'Are you happy for your 13-year-old daughter to shower next to an adult man? Yes or no'.

Jennifer has been accused of transphobia but insists her protests are not anti-trans, but pro-women. Like me, she is passionate about safeguarding women's rights to single-sex spaces.

More alarming still, while Jennifer was being questioned the police obtained a warrant to search her home. During the search, more protest material was seized along with an academic book about trans-gendering children.

'It was like the Stasi,' she said. And that's exactly why I cannot put my name to this feature. As much as I'd love to out myself as a proud 'sticker sister', it simply wouldn't be safe for me to do so.

Flyposting (placing a sticker or poster on something without the permission of the property owner) is a criminal act. In today's climate, the nature of the stickers I use would be considered transphobic and I'd effectively be 'cancelled'.

I hope to soon write a book (about an entirely unrelated topic) and I know that no publisher would touch me if I was revealed to be a so-called 'TERF' which stands for 'trans-exclusionary radical feminist'.

If the police seized my phone, they'd find WhatsApp messages from other women about our stickering missions. I have similar books to Jennifer on my bookshelves at home.

As a journalist I've written about all manner of deeply personal things, from my love life to my finances, but this is something I can't put my name to. Quite simply I'd be toast.

In a nutshell I believe that you cannot change biological sex and it is imperative that we respect single-sex spaces in areas where women may be considered more vulnerable, such as toilets, changing facilities, hospital wards, prisons and centres for women who are the victims of domestic or sexual violence.

That means that I don't believe that trans women (those born biological males, the overwhelming majority of whom remain full male-bodied) should be granted access.

I am categorically not transphobic. I don't dislike trans people or wish them any harm, I just think that keeping women and girls safe is important. I also believe that those born biological males — such as the American swimmer Lia Thomas who is currently smashing records — should not be allowed to compete in women's sport.

A simple glance at the women standing next to Thomas, who towers above them on the podium, shows clearly the physical disadvantages they have.

Sport should be fair, and there's nothing fair about women being forced to compete against individuals they could never possibly beat.

The sickening Sarah Everard murder remains firmly etched on all our minds. At the time, women all over the country took to social media to detail the harassment they suffered or the times they'd felt unsafe in the presence of a man.

I've been flashed three times, I've had my breasts groped on a train and had a violent, pornographic story written about me and posted to my place of work.

Women will always be at risk from dangerous predators and that's a big part of why single-sex spaces exist in the first place.

I believe that allowing biological males access to those spaces is a terrible idea. Yet saying this could get me arrested.

My interest in this topic was piqued after the Karen White scandal. White was a transgender woman prisoner (still an intact male having had no surgery or hormone treatment), who had manipulated her way into a women's prison and assaulted four of the female prisoners.

I once encountered what was clearly a man in a women's lavatory at an airport. The person was a whole foot taller than me, built like a rugby player and eyeballed me, daring me to make a challenge. Too scared to, I simply slunk away. Feeling angrier and angrier, I realised that I had to do something, however small.

I started to do some research and joined two women's campaigning groups that felt like they were a good fit for me. Groups where women's sex-based rights are paramount.

Gaining access was no mean feat. One required me to be vetted and I was only granted full access when I had satisfied the leaders that I wasn't an infiltrator.

The other only accepts personal recommendations and luckily, I have a like-minded friend who proposed me. It sounds extreme, but we know that trans activists work to 'dox' (expose online) feminists they consider transphobic.

Members of both groups include teachers, nurses, other journalists, academics, stay-at-home mums and retired grandmothers. We discuss stories in the news relating to our cause… and we sticker like demons. In the past I've written to MPs and I've signed petitions, but this was something I could do whenever I felt like it.

I visited the Adult Human Female Store (run by fellow activist Kellie-Jay Keen) and purchased £50 worth of stickers in all sizes from the huge range on offer.

My favourites are the ones that state the simple and stark dictionary definition of 'woman' as 'adult human female'. No arguing with that. I also bought ones saying 'single-sex facility' and 'women will not submit'.

Before stickering in public, I started by placing a few around my home, on windows and fridges and doors and then removed them a couple of days later. I wanted to make sure they could be easily lifted and wouldn't damage anyone's property. Suitably reassured, I headed out.

I started with lamp posts and post boxes. Next I moved to public toilets at train stations, in pubs and restaurants where I would put 'single-sex space, women only' stickers on mirrors and loo doors. I've stickered the windows of two shops: Lush and the Body Shop.

I also place them on seat trays on trains and on the backs of cinema seats. Last year, I pretended I was interested in joining several gyms local to me just so I could gain access to the changing rooms and sticker there. If my stickers make women feel like there are others out there who have their backs then I'm pleased.

We proudly take photos of our stickering and post them in our groups online.

'Two petrol pumps, six supermarket trollies, one gym and three ladies' loos,' wrote one fellow protestor (a 60-something accountant) this week about her own tally.

We support those who are facing challenging situations at work (particularly those in the teaching and health professions) who are expected to attend regular workshops and refrain from using gender-specific language.

We write notes of support to women who are being unfairly targeted for their beliefs and send them flowers and gifts.

Back to my most daring stickering mission, which I undertook last October. It was at the time that Professor Kathleen Stock was being hounded out of her job at Sussex University. A gender critical feminist, she was accused of being transphobic.

One of her supposed crimes is to believe that single-sex spaces need to be protected.

The tunnel that led from the train station to the university had become littered with stickers calling for her dismissal and labelling her a bigot. I wanted to redress the balance. And so, dressed in my disguise, I travelled miles out of my way to place my stickers.

Someone (a student I assumed) called me a 'f*****g terf' but did not approach me. Like some sort of sticker ninja, I reckon I posted around 60 in two minutes.

One of my friends once pointed out that the suffragettes started with quiet protests and then built up to acts of terrorism, and asked whether I was afraid things would go the same way in my groups.

Absolutely not. We all have jobs and families that we do not want to lose. We want to protect our rights and help one another along the way.

You only have to look around at how many threads there are around gender identity and the safeguarding of women on Mumsnet to know just how mainstream the issue has become.

Last year, it came to light that a victim of sexual abuse and rape was forced to leave her group therapy sessions when a trans woman, 'with no obvious female attributes', had been granted access to it.

It's stories such as these that make me realise that I am prepared to keep stickering and risk the consequences. I know all the other women in my group are too.

Grace York is a pseudonym

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