#the people in the tags of the baseball post that are like it wasnt about if it was obvious.

[egberts]

some people on this website genuinely need to be told that not everything is an opportunity to try and sound smarter than somebody else

#these are obviously from baseball #the people in the tags of the baseball post that are like it wasnt about if it was obvious. #its the amount of baseball idioms. half of those you could say and the average person would know its vaguely a baseball term #but they probably couldn't sit there and name the entire list off the top of their head #*these are obviously from baseball goes in between the area with the missing quote #why. does. tumblr. do that!!!!

[rosasamuels]

THE CHARACTER STATISTICS

FULL NAME — rosalind florence samuels

NICKNAME — rosa, rosie sometimes

D.O.B. — august 6th, 1999

LINK TO THEIR PINTEREST BOARD OR TAG ON YOUR BLOG — board | tag

STAR SIGN / MOON & RISING — leo sun, gemini moon, pisces rising

MBTI — istp - the virtuoso

MORAL ALIGNMENT — chaotic good

MARITAL STATUS & SEXUALITY — single & bisexual

LANGUAGES — english and . incredibly basic french n spanish tho she wants to become fluent

TALENTS / HOBBIES — singing, guitar, debating, baking, knitting tbh, gymnastics, soccer, tennis, baseball

TOP 5 MUSICIANS — florence and the machine, fleetwood mac, backstreet boys/nsync/one direction i kno thts 3 bt >_> any boy bands she jst loves......., halsey, amy shark

FAVOURITE BOOK — she was obsessed w everything twilight including the books tbh, the narnia series too, likes a lot of poetry now esp richard siken

FAVOURITE FILM & TV SHOW — she’s still obsessed w the twilight movies. now tht her n lana live together they have 1000 marathons its a lot., eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, little miss sunshine, tangled, mulan / new girl, parks and rec, grey’s anatomy, the foster’s....... jst either rly straight to the point sit coms or gut punch drama soapy shows

FAVOURITE VIDEO GAME — she never rly got into video games but she 100% has 90% of the just dance dance’s memorized

WHAT DID THEY DO THIS PAST SUMMER? — just hung out in lovell with friends, kinda got up to chaos/trouble which isnt too out of her character cuz she can easily get dragged into things but some events did Change her. fr the better? stay tuned to find out.................

WHERE HAVE THEY TRAVELLED? — nowhere special, jst a few places in the states i think

DO THEY TAKE ANY PRESCRIPTIONS? — no

DO THEY HAVE ANY DIAGNOSIS’S? — she saw a therapist a few times after her sister passed that explained she had some trauma related to her death but that’s about it

FICTIONAL CHARACTER THEY ARE MOST LIKE? — hmmm.......... i think for sure cristina yang (grey’s anatomy), noora (skam), spencer hastings (pretty little liars), n marianne sheridan a wee bit (normal people)

ARE THEY EMPLOYED? WHERE DO THEY WORK? — no she’s just focusing on being a student currently tbh

WERE THEY POPULAR IN HIGH SCHOOL? — no she didn’t rly like a lot of ppl n wasnt exactly warm to anyone tht wasnt her friend LKSHGLHLGKDHSD

DO THEY DO DRUGS? — like . barely at all she hasnt tried much either it jst makes her nervous

DRINK? — yes

SMOKE CIGARETTES? — she’s tried it but not regularly by any means.........

SMOKE WEED? — yes

WHERE WERE THEY BORN? WHERE DID THEY GROW UP? — rochester, new york then pretty much immediately moved to connecticut n grew up there

DO THEY PLAN TO GO TO GRAD SCHOOL? — yes!

WHAT ARE THEIR PLANS POST-GRADUATION? — she wants to become a gender studies professor

PARENTS NAMES — i knew their dad was john and i had to check james’ task for this cuz we never even rly . discussed their moms name bt carol sounds abt right

DO THEY HAVE SIBLINGS? NAMES & AGES? — yes tatiana (23 when deceased), viktor (24), mili (22)

DO THEY HAVE PETS? TYPES & NAMES? — no :/

ARE THEY RELIGIOUS? WHAT IS THEIR RELIGION IF SO? — christian tho she’s . not rly a bible thumper or anything

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE THEY SLEPT WITH? — 6 i think..... that feels right.

WHAT VEHICLE DO THEY DRIVE? IF THEY DON’T DRIVE, HOW DO THEY TRAVEL AROUND TOWN? — she doesn’t have a license n pretty exclusively relied on her siblings to drive her around when she was younger bt now tht she has more gal pals she asks them for rides if she needs them titters

DESCRIBE THEIR FASHION — sweaters and mom jeans a lot.............. lots and lots of overalls, she does like fun patterns/designs, lots of funky colours on her sweaters, has abt 3 pairs of the same striped pants in 3 diff colours, if she does wear a t-shirt it’s probably a band tee or something oversized and flowy, has a lot of bracelets she likes to wear cuz of sentimental value, if she’s in pj’s they’re 100% some sort of childish matching set frankly

DO THEY PREFER TO BE BEHIND THE CAMERA OR IN FRONT OF IT? — behind

DO THEY BELIEVE ANY OF THE STORIES ABOUT RADCLIFFE? WHICH ONES? — not overly, she’s kinda taught herself not to believe i any Out There stories after growing up with viktor who made freaking rosa out with made up stories one of his fave pass times when they were kids LKSHDGKLHSDLGKHSDG

DO THEY THINK THE MOTHMAN IS HOT? — no, sorry buddy

A QUOTE THAT DESCRIBES THEM —  “Sometimes I come to hate people because they can’t see where I am. I’ve gone empty, completely empty and all they see is the visual form; my arms and legs, my face, my height and posture, the sounds that come from my throat.”

A SONG THAT THEY WOULD RELATE TO — god must be doing cocaine - charlotte lawrence

#ruhqtask #ruhqtask001 #hope theres no mistakes in this >_>

[justastormie]

rules: answer the questions in a new post and tag 10 blogs!

tagged by: @thiswaycomessomethingwicked

a - age: 29 and having a crisis about it

b - birthplace: Springfield IL

c - current time: 17.54

d - drink you last had: masala tea 

e - easiest person to talk to: @volchiitsaa and @hearthburn no question.  I never have to worry about being too weird or just Too Much. 

f - favourite song: Atm I've been singing a lot of the Hamilton soundtrack. 

g - grossest memory: I work in ems. Noone wants to hear the answer.

h - horror yes or horror no: Hells to the yeah. My main groove is gothic horror. Soft spot for Hammer movies. 

i - in love: many, many kinds of love

j - jealous of people: lord yes. 

l - love at first sight or should i walk by again: Not in the traditional sense? But I think that like. There are moments in life when after a lot of interaction you finally like...see someone properly. Who they are, all of them (that another person can comprehend anyway) for the very first time. When you properly see them and in that moment I believe you can fall in love. 

m - middle name: two of em

n - number of siblings: 1

o - one wish: too be less of a neurotic mess

p - person you last called: mom

q - question you’re always asked: So like. What's  it like seeing a dead person?????  Boring and full of paperwork. 

r - reading anything right now: Curse of the Narrows, about the Halifax explosion. Saw a thing on here actually,  never heard of it so I found a couple books. Also a book about the minor league baseball system.  Gotta make even my love of sports nerdy.

s - song you last sang: not throwing away my shot. While pretending it was a napoleon song cause I'm basic

t - time you woke up: 10

u - underwear colour: underwear is a papist conspiracy 

w - when was the last time you really laughed: Last night, watching jacksepticeye getting the beejezus scared out of him 

x - x-rays: uh last one was for my wrist to make sure it wasnt broke. It wasnt i just had a cyst.

y - your favourite food: family recipe spagetti for a dish, italian-American for a cuisine. Fuck me up with pasta.

z - zodiac sign: the snake I think. Hiss hiss. 

#meme #stormie speaks

[inawickedlittletown]

Walking The Wire (106/?)

Summary: Tony Stark always knew about Peter Parker. He didn’t know that Peter was going to get superpowers and become Spider-Man, but he always knew about Peter because Peter was his son.

This will span from pre-Iron Man up through the rest of the MCU (eventually including Infinity War) and will be for the most part canon compliant except where I’ve taken some liberties and interpreted canon a certain way.

Pairings: Pepper/Tony, Tony/Steve (endgame), Tony/Mary (past)

A/N: If you want me to tag you when I post new chapters let me know. This fic is also on AO3

I used Collider’s MCU timeline to stay canon and the title of this fic is an Imagine Dragons song that is just so fitting for Peter and Tony

@findmeinthestarss

Masterpost

Chapter One Hundred Five

It turned out that having Michelle know he was Spider-Man and acknowledging that she did was a good thing. Michelle was just all that much better about covering for Peter. Just the other day when they’d gone on a small class trip and Peter had spotted a mugging happening, it was Michelle that had distracted everyone long enough for Peter to get away unnoticed and then again when he rejoined them.

The only thing about Michelle was that unlike Ned, she actually seemed concerned about what Peter got up to. She worried. It was weird especially when she pretended that she didn’t in person and then sent him long rambling texts about how he wasn’t being careful and how close he came to getting injured or hurting others.

It was all on par with how much coverage Spider-Man had started to get from the media which Peter didn’t particularly like. At first it had seemed cool to be mentioned on the news all the time and to have articles about Spider-Man popping up everywhere. His favorite were the YouTube videos since those were usually fun to watch mostly because they weren’t all made by anyone truly professional. But after a while, even those got old. It got annoying. Tony definitely disliked it.

“I just don’t like how interested everyone seems to be in finding out your identity,” his dad said while they were tinkering in the workshop. “It’s none of their business.”

Peter liked listening to him rant. It was kind of hilarious especially when one considered Tony’s own media presence basically his entirely life.

“And it’s not like we’ve announced that you’re an Avenger or anything but some reason they just seem to associate you with us.”

That’s when Steve spoke up. “That’s because they see you out and about with him all the time as Iron Man and Iron Man is an Avenger.”

“That isn’t the point,” Tony said.

“And also, Peter’s the only hero that’s popped up that has a hidden identity. Gives everyone a mystery to want to solve.”

Tony muttered some more and Peter tried not to laugh. He could tell that Steve was amused too.

Since all that stuff with The Vulture, Tony still did tend to show up when Peter needed help. He was better about letting Peter be involved in things especially when they didn’t involve alien tech. They had stopped some weird guy with what seemed to be some sort of power -- Tony said he was probably an inhuman -- just the other day from destroying a big portion of Greenwich Village. The guy hadn’t been doing it on purpose it turned out it. It was just that his powers were so unstable. Peter had been glad to have Tony there because he didn’t a single person could have handled everything that instance entailed. Even Vision had made an appearance for that. In the end they had subdued the guy and Tony had handed him over to a the new Shield.

“But also, it’s not just the identity thing,” Tony kept on, “it’s that there’s varying degrees of coverage. He’s good for the city. He’s a vigilante. He’s an Avenger. He’s not. It’s ridiculous. At least no one seems to have put together that I built your suit. Or at least no one’s written an article about it yet. And can you imagine if anyone found out I had a son? Because then they would definitely start questioning whether you were the one under the mask and then my parenting would come into question.”

It was no surprise to Peter that Ned loved it. He had a whole collection on articles written about him and he would send Peter the more outrageous ones and Peter would pass those on to Steve because Steve loved reading them too. May seemed to agree with Tony on the whole matter. But then, May also tended to try and get Peter to quit being Spider-Man altogether whenever she saw him and it wasn’t something that was ever likely to stop. She liked to bring up questions about school and girlfriends and college and how Spider-Man wouldn’t be an ideal addition to any of those as her way of asking him to stop.

As he stepped out of Midtown one afternoon, Peter was surprised when he spotted Tony complete with a baseball cap, sunglasses, a grin, and a thermal cup that probably contained coffee, leaning against a sleek black car that at least proved to be his least flashy. Still, no matter how hard he was trying, he looked out of place and people were noticing him.

Michelle who had walked out with him spotted Tony with no problem and when Peter glanced at her he could practically see her thinking. Her left eyebrow rose and she stared him down.

“Is Tony Stark actually picking you up right now?”

Peter shook his head. “Nope. It’s all in your imagination. You’re hallucinating.”

Michelle laughed -- cackled more like and Peter grinned back at her as she nudged him and rolled her eyes. Ned appeared then, busy with his backpack as he walked, and only managing to not run into anyone because anyone in his path dodged him.

“Hey, what’s going on?”

“Your boy here is being picked up by Tony Stark. Fancy that. I bet Flash will be jealous.”

“Which is why I’m going to go before anyone else notices,” Peter said and rushed away. When he looked back Michelle waved and Ned grinned at him and gave him thumbs up.

“Hey,” Peter said when he was close enough.

“Hi, kiddo,” his dad said, “I was in the area so I figured I’d come by and get you. I was also sort of craving this apple crostini this one restaurant has so we’re going to have to make a stop for that. Up for it?”

Peter rolled his eyes but nodded. “Sure.”

They got into the car and when Peter looked out the window he realized that a few people were watching them. Someone must have caught onto Tony being there. Not that it really mattered since everyone knew that Peter had a Stark Internship. Of course, no intern could have ever expected for Tony Stark himself to show up to pick them up from school. He was definitely going to hear about it.

The restaurant Tony took them to was a hole in the wall that no one would have ever noticed and yet it was busy. A well known secret. Nevertheless, they were seated at a discrete table towards the back without much wait which told Peter that Tony had called ahead.

“Why are we really here?” Peter asked.

“I told you -- apple crostini. Also, remind me to order one to go because Steve would kill us if we don’t bring him one back. We used to come here sometimes back in the day.”

“Oh,” Peter said.

His dad never really talked about how he and Steve had come to be and Peter didn’t really have any questions or want to know details, but he loved when Tony slipped in something that hinted at a past memory. It made him realize how normal it all was in some ways. Sometimes, it was still shocking to think about Iron Man and Captain America in a romantic relationship or to consider that they were getting married until he thought about them as Tony and Steve -- his dad and his dad’s fiance.

“Truth is, I wanted to catch up with you,” Tony said. “Things have been a bit crazy lately. Haven’t really spent much time with you on our own. Steve or someone else is usually around.”

Peter hadn’t -- no, he’d noticed, it was just that he hadn’t minded. He’d never expected to have Tony to himself all the time and had felt lucky when he did even if then it had been broken up to a few hours here and there and now he was living in the tower and had access to Tony all the time and it didn’t really matter that there were other people around.   

“We can start with, who was the girl?”

Peter rolled his eyes. “Who, Michelle? I’ve told you about her. She’s the one that figured out I’m Spider-Man all on her own.”

“MJ. You said someone named MJ did.”

“Michelle Jones. She likes to be called MJ. Anyway, that was her.”

Tony nodded. The waitress approached then and Tony ordered the apple crostinis and remembered to order the one to go as well without Peter needing to remind him.

“So she’s super smart and observant,” Tony said.

“Yup. Definitely knew it was you waiting for me. Actually, I think a few people figured it out.”

Tony shrugged with a grin. “And they can all wonder about what your internship entails once more.”

Tony started asking about how things were going in school next and Peter filled him in even though he was sure he’d mentioned some of it to him in passing over the last few weeks.

The apple crostini turned out to be amazing. He was in the middle of telling Tony about what they’d started working on in physics when it arrived and after one bite of the crunchy and flaky crust with the warm apple filling and the ice cream and Peter was in heaven.

“I told you so,” Tony said.

“This is the best thing ever,” Peter said.

It was nice to have some time on his own with Tony. Tony told him all about how the board members were driving him and Pepper crazy because they didn’t like that Tony’s concern wasn’t all about profit when it came to the prosthetic division even when it came to custom projects.

“It’s like they don’t understand how good the PR is although that obviously isn’t why we’re doing it.”

“But it’s your company,” Peter said.

“Pepper and I own more than half of the shares of the company, sure, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to deal with the board of directors. It’s the side of business that I don’t particularly like. Pepper is awesome at it. It’s all stuff you’ll have to learn about if you want to take over the company one day--”

“Um, what?” Peter said and almost choked on a piece of apple.

Tony chuckled. “Won’t be for a while and it’s up to you if you want it. It’s not an obligation, you know. You could find your own Pepper Potts and have someone else run it if you prefer. I rather you do what you want than what you think I want you to do so--”

Peter had sort of forgotten about how Tony had broken the news to him what felt like ages ago even though it hadn’t even been a full year yet. He’d forgotten how Tony told him that he would inherit everything as if that had been the right way to let him know that Tony was his father. Since then, Peter hadn’t really thought about it or the reality of what it actually meant which meant that it was overwhelming information to take in.

“I -- that’s--”

“What, did you forget that I’m Tony Stark? You’re my heir, kid, to this whole crazy company and whatever else I’ve accumulated.”

“But what if -- what if you and Steve have kids?” Peter asked.

It wasn’t something he’d considered before that moment, but wasn’t that what people did after they got married? They went and had kids. Peter was aware that Tony and Steve were both men but there were ways around that -- surrogacy or adoption or other weirder things. It was possible. Peter didn’t know if -- well, he didn’t know if he’d be thrilled about it if they did have kids. He felt weird even just thinking about it.

“Not really something we’ve discussed,” Tony said and he seemed to notice that Peter seemed uncomfortable. “And even if we did decide to have kids it wouldn’t be for a long while, Pete.”

“Oh,” Peter said. But they could still have some even if Peter was fully grown when they did--

Tony grabbed his hand. Tony’s hand was warm and familiar and Peter allowed himself to calm down. “Peter, you’re my kid. I -- I love you, kid. Not something that will ever change. I’ll always be here for you no matter what. Even if Steve and I adopt a hundred kids. You’re still always going to be my son and you’re the most important person in my life.”

Peter hadn’t expected Tony to say that. Those three words. Tony had said them before, he was sure, but Peter couldn’t actually remember. He certainly hadn’t expected them in the moment.

“I don’t think even Steve will want to adopt that many kids,” Peter said.

“If he even wants to,” Tony said with a shrug. “I’m not saying I wouldn’t be opposed to another kid -- it’s just I’d be fine with just you.”

“Oh,” Peter said. “But you didn’t get to raise me. Not really. Don’t you want that -- the whole baby thing?” Peter didn’t really understand why people were so keen on babies. He knew they were cute but they also cried and made messes and couldn’t really do anything and he actually -- he couldn’t see Tony or even Steve dealing with a baby well.

“That doesn’t matter. Clearly, it doesn’t. You’re still my kid, Peter, and as has been established you clearly need me a lot too no matter what your age is.”

Peter nodded. “I kind of do,” Peter said and then because he couldn’t say anything else, “I, um, I love you too, dad.”

He thought that Tony’s eyes got a bit misty at that and Peter realized that he’d never actually said it out loud before. But it was true. It had been true for a while. Peter loved Tony. He loved his dad and everything that he was and did for Peter. He was one of the best people he knew and Peter would forever be glad that he knew who his father was and that it was someone as amazing as Tony Stark.

Chapter One Hundred Seven

#peter and tony #peter and tony fic #mcuwriting #mcu fic #iron dad #iron dad and spider son #stony #stony fic #marvel

[rorjor]

@ishcarhaba replied to your post: me every time i think about osomatsu meta:

👀👀👀

OKAY, IT WAS ACTUALLY UR TAG ABOUT OSO KNOWING ICHI BEST THAT THREW MADE ME START GOING OVER ALL THIS (its not gonna stick to just that tho)

bc of course my FIRST thought at anything along those lines is always going to be WHAT ABOUT JYUSHI

i know its probably a tired topic of conversation to always be pulling out the esper nyanko episode BUT completely unprompted he brings ichi to dekapan to get a medicine to let ichi talk to his cats because ichi doesnt have any friends and he knows hes lonely, despite ichis insistence otherwise!!! 

ALSO during this ichi says ‘you can’t even talk to people normally yourself’ to which jyushi replies ‘YOU’RE ONE TO TALK ;D’ and like that’s totally about ichis thing about pretending to be scary so no one tries to talk to him/him totally freaking the fuck out every time he tries to have normal interactions with anyone that arent his brother, and thats like, super early on in the season when everyone else totally believes that ichi actually IS just a scary violent dude

when the other brothers are busy discussing how to make cash off of this talking cat, jyushi makes sure to bring it to ichi, bc he made this happen for him after all, and when ichi gets embarrassed and drives esper nyanko off, JYUSHI SPENDS THE ENTIRE TIME LOOKING FOR HIM BECAUSE HE KNOWS ICHI REALLY DOES FEEL BAD AND WANTS HIM BACK

now. osomatsu. even though everyone says he’s the boring brother bc he’s the standard one, he’s just like? his intentions and motivations are always slightly mysterious to me!!!

he’s absolutely HUGELY a selfish dude, but he also really loves his little brothers a lot? (and of course we see why those two facts about him combined can actually be a bit of a problem in ep 24)

in the esper nyanko episode... at the very beginning when ichi doesn’t want to talk to the cat, oso, along with todo and choro, absolutely believe ichi at face value when he starts talking about how he doesnt need any friends..... i wonder if when esper nyanko says what ichi ACTUALLY thinks is the exact moment that oso really started to be able to figure ichi out.... (yknow, actually, even though it took him a lot longer to fully figure it out, i think totty might have picked it up from there too! choro i kind of feel like is only just starting to understand since ep 3 of s2... BUT THATS FOR A DIFFERENT TIME)

near the end of the ep where oso, choro, and totty have been looking for esper nyanko too, oso teasingly calls ichi out on driving esper nyanko away by being mean.... and then asks ichi if he wants to give up on finding the cat... despite the fact that it was just made obvious that ichi has massive issues saying what he actually wants to say

choro and totty seem to take this at face value and get mad and disappointed at ichi for being so cruel, but.... oso seems unbothered and says that if thats how he REALLY FEELS they wont look anymore, and then immediately gets ready to leave when ichi says yes....

THATS SO MYSTERIOUS TO ME. until i think about two things. oso COULD be trying to force ichi out of his comfort zone so that he can learn to say what he actually wants.... but then why is he so cool with it when ichi doesnt bite? and that leads me to thinking about ichi/esper nyanko saying ‘i don’t need any friends....... because i have you guys’

this combined with what we know from episode 24 leads me to think that oso.... DOES want to encourage and help his little brothers, of course he does.... but if they grow as people TOO much he’ll be left alone, so them failing to become better is absolutely fine with him too

BUT ANYWAY, i realllly need to rewatch everything to remember fully, BUT THE RACE EPISODE! thats where ichimatsu says that he wants to be complimented! jyushimatsu wasnt around for that part bc he was at the baseball game, but osomatsu was there! did osomatsu do things like ruffle ichis hair and praise him before that? or did it start after? jyushi tends to be the one to notice ichi (s2 e3 when he notices that ichi isnt coming to pachinko for example), but does he praise him at all??

anyway in conclusion maaaaaybe jyushi and oso BOTH know him best, but oso sometimes tries to use the tough love approach + wouldnt it be funnier if i DIDNT do that so it’s often less noticable

or maybe jyushi still knows him best and oso is a very very close second

thanks for coming to my ted talk

#ishcarhaba #riley real talk #oso meta

[drugstore-soulboy]

tagged by @qorillas ☺️ thnx so much aaaa💕💕💕

answer 30 questions + tag 10 people you’d like to know better

-nicknames: i dont really have any tbh! im v open to them tho

-star sign: virgo✌️

-gender: nonbinary ! tends to masc side

-MBTI type: intp! though like im a bit uncomfortable w calling myself an introvert, cos im just like. have a lot of social anxiety but i like being like around people like extroverts? idk.

-height: just barely 5′6″ and v proud of it i wish i was three inches taller

-time: 11:15pm

-birthday: september 11th. comes w the pro that most people dont forget it lol.

-favorite bands: i kinda jump around a lot but the pretty solid ones would be pink spiders, fall out boy, bear hands, fidlar, modern baseball, front bottoms,  mother mother, wavves, and idk yall might not of heard of em but gorillaz? there a pretty sick group ig,,

-favorite solo artists: uuuhm i dont think i specifically listen to too many solo artists? uhm, jake bugg might be one of the only ones ive actually like tried to follow?

-song stuck in my head: ‘its a good day’ i really dont know why?? i tihnk i heard it in a commercial earlier

-last movie I watched: uuuuh baby driver i think!! its really good i seen it twice now big recommendation!

-last show I watched: im watching great food truck race rn its like specifically the south this season though and im, kinda not feeling it

-other blogs: i just got my main that i want to keep like irl ppl that know that one from finding this one yknow,,, but anyone feel free to ask/message for it off anon

-when I created my blog: uuuuh shit, may 23… i decided i was both clogging my main too much and too nervous to talk abt some of the gorillaz stuff candidly w the irl ppl on my main so! also i finally though of a gorillaz url i like well enough that wasnt already taken so lol

-what I post about: i dont have a lot of original content but lmao i made a song sorter im adding to here and their and ive made some aroace icons

-last thing I googled: ……….ooh jeez, “johnny garlic the plant closed” bc we were joking abt guy fieri and how johnny garlics near us is always closed and wanted to know if it was closed-closed and like for how long and dude fieri doesnt even own johnny garlics any more

-following: 1065

-followers: just on this one 42 combined 341 :P

-favorite color: blue and orange!

-average hours of sleep: uuuh probably like 7 ? but i like getting 9 bc im that ho

-lucky number: 32

-instruments: nothing,,  i  im thinkin abt trying guitar rn though bc i got my sisters old one and might as well put it to use right?

-what I’m wearing: orange/blue converse high tops, green shorts, grey tank, primary color/grey flannel and wow this #look is a mess

-how many blankets i sleep with: so many uh 3 is the minimum 5 is like great and then add more in the winter

-dream jobs: whatmakesyouhahaha.mp3 idk. im technically a theatre arts major and intended on doing some technical aspect of that, but im really thinking thats not. how im goin to go,, i tihnk i just like manger-ing things bc its a lot of order? i want to like actually do things for people? and im looking at some environmental shit but thats so far from anything ive like actively done even though i always had an interest in it so i dont even know where that would go so… yea lol it sucks

-dream trip: i dont really have anything really ive never been to into travel, rn though id love to go to disney paris, and maybe just a whole small europe trip bc i want to see were my brother lives in germany

-favourite food: saaandwiches, reubens, phillycheese steaks, burgers, various melts, like just fuck me up

-nationality: white american,,, like im literally just those assorted white memes

tagging:  @empireantsss @fabulouslittlefox @king-faust @re-hashh @gorillazwave @drugstoresoulgirl @stuart-dents-pot @etremely annnd if you wann do this consider yourself tagged by me!!  

#answers #oo thanks so much !! #its cool to have rillaz mutuals in cali too tbh haha #if i tagged you and u dont like being tagged in these things lmk and i wont do it again! #dfghjkl this took so long to type up tho lol i dont know how to takl abt myself lol #im such a boring bitch lmao

[professorllayton]

rules: answer these 85 things and tag 20 people

i was tagged by @unups !! thank u ily !! also im gonna tag @hevlasxa, @spikenards, @lieutenantriza, @coolkumquat , @sh-loominaty and whoever else wants to bc 20 ppl r not coming to mind rn jghghdkf

THE LAST:

1. drink: koolaid

2. phone call: its been so long i literally cant rmbr

3. text message: its a Good Post, Brent

4. song you listened to: white teeth teens by lorde

5. time you cried: like??? 20 minutes ago ghgjfhjgf

6. dated someone twice: nope

7. kissed someone and regretted it: nah

8. been cheated on: nope !!

9. lost someone special: not yet but like . someone i love is dying so :’(

10. been depressed: Yeah . .. . ...................................ppp

11. gotten drunk and thrown up: no thank gO D

THREE FAVORITE COLORS:

12. orange!!!

13. purple

14. peachy pinks

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. made new friends: yes!!!

16. fallen out of love: no

17. laughed until you cried: yeah like every day

18. found out someone was talking about you: no???

19. met someone who changed you: mmm i think?? it mightve been last year tho

20. found out who your friends are: idk what . .this means.. . 

21. kissed someone on your Facebook list: yea

GENERAL:

22. how many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: all of them bc i dont use facebook and . i dont add internet friends on there

23. do you have any pets: no!!! but im moving in like 2 months and i might!!! get a dog!!!!!!!! fuck!!!

24. do you want to change your name: not really

25. what did you do for your last birthday: nothing that i rmbr??

26. what time do you wake up: like 8-10 usually 

27. what were you doing at midnight last night: sleeping ppppf

28. name something you can’t wait for: more spiderman movies

29. when was the last time you saw your mom: she is sitting like 2 feet from me

31. what are you listening to right now: a gansey playlist

32. have you ever talked to a person named tom: nope

33. something that is getting on your nerves: being sick

34. most visited website: tumblr... kill me

35. hair color: dark blonde

36. long or short hair: like . jaw length

37. do you have a crush on someone: yes ;) but im not gonna spill

38. what do you like about yourself: uhh!!!!!!! that i love things a lot??? idk man 

39. piercings: nope!! gonna get my ears pierced soon tho probably

40. blood type: i genuinely do not have this information on hand i have no idea

41. nickname: em or emmalou

42. relationship status: single 

43. zodiac: capricorn

45. favourite tv show: atla probs

46. tattoos: none but im gonna get a matching bee on my knee w my sister on my 17th bday1!!!!!! worm!!!

47. right or left handed: right

48. surgery: once i had to get a tumor removed but thats it

50. sport: i wasnt on like . any teams or anything but i used to play baseball all the fecking time

51. vacation: i wanna go back to pencilville someday!!!!! i miss it LOADS

52. pair of trainers: what in the genuine fuck r trainers

MORE GENERAL:

53. eating: a donut

54. drinking: tea

55. I’m about to: draw maybe

56. waiting for: more spiderman movies

57. want: more spiderman movies

58. get married: i want to!!

59. career: professional spiderman movies watcher

WHICH IS BETTER:

60. hugs or kisses: why not both.gif

61. lips or eyes: eyes

62. shorter or taller: either really 

63. older or younger: um!! at the age i am currently like . neither. preferably the same age

64. nice arms or nice stomach: i dont care really ppppp

65. hook up or relationship: relationship.. . 

66. troublemaker or hesitant: in between maybe?? ? 

HAVE YOU EVER:

67. kissed a stranger: nope!!

68. drank hard liquor: um!!! maybe???? is a margarita hard liquor. .  i have no idea 

69. lost glasses/contact lenses: i dont wear either bc i have perfect eyesight :’’) so nope

70. turned someone down: yes!! fuck u he called me a sasquatch 

71. sex on the first date: nopee

72. broken someone’s heart: maybe??

73. had your heart broken: ye

74. been arrested: nope

75. cried when someone died: yes

76. fallen for a friend: Every Friend? ?  

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

77. yourself: for certain things but not in general rip

78. miracles: i guess?

79. love at first sight: no

80. santa claus: weeps. . 

81. kiss on the first date: uh.. i mean.. if u liked the person well enough 

82. angels: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm idk

OTHER:

83. current best friend’s name: sara ;’’’’)

84. eye color: blue

85. favorite movie: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) directed by Jon Watts

#this took so long . .... . . bye #thanks for tagging me!!!! :'') #blabs #also?? u dont have to do this if u dont wanna #long post

[allofbeercom]

The day I went hunting for the Ku Klux Klan | Dave Eggers

Following Trumps win, one KKK chapter announced plans for a victory parade in North Carolina. But where was it going to be, and who might turn up? Dave Eggers joined the protestors playing cat-and-mouse with white supremacists

No one knew much, but the crowd was growing. We were at the rest stop off Highway 29 between Eden and Pelham, where North Carolina meets Virginia, and everyone was looking for the Ku Klux Klan. It was 8.40am.

The day after the election of Donald Trump, the Loyal White Knights of Pelham, a chapter of the KKK with a suitably unhinged website, had announced that they would be holding a victory parade on 3 December. In the weeks since, there had been no word on the Knights website or anywhere else about when or where the parade would be.

But the initial declaration was perhaps the most dramatic manifestation of what we might call the New Emboldening a coast-to-coast rise in everyday American racism and bigotry spurred by the rhetoric and election of a billionaire who had taken swipes at certain Mexican-Americans and all Mexicans, certain women and all women, certain Muslim-Americans and all Muslims, all African Americans and all immigrants.

In the month after the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center had tracked more than 900 incidents targeting non-whites. A Muslim college student in Ann Arbor had been told, by a young white man, to remove her hijab or he would light her on fire. At a Utah high school, two Mexican-American sisters were told by their white classmates, You get a free trip back to Mexico. You should be happy.

The idea of a Klan rally in this kind of atmosphere was potentially explosive. The KKK had demonstrated a year earlier, in Columbia, South Carolina, and the results had been ugly. Three hundred Klan members had been there. The New Black Panthers had countered with 400 of their own members. In all, there were 2,000 protesters. There were cops in body armour. Ripped Confederate flags. A grandmother with a bloody nose. A Klan member, trying to flee in his vehicle, ran into a lamppost.

This 3 December parade, then, coming after Trumps election and during this New Emboldening, had the potential to be far worse. The promise that the parade was coming was a blight on the soul of the nation; the vast majority of the country, whether they supported Trump or not, dreaded it. There is no more wretched and horrifying segment of the American people or history than the Klan, who in their darkest years had lynched black men and women and had terrorised anyone who wasnt white or Christian. At their height, in 1924, the Klans membership was 4 million. In 2016, estimates put their strength at no more than 8,000.

Two masked Ku Klux Klansmen giving an interview on a rural backroad near Pelham, North Carolina on the night of 2 December. Photograph: Jay Reeves/AP

But Trump, like a snake charmer, had coaxed the rise of the alt-right, who embodied the spirit of the Klan, but in different robes and with better social media. And because the depth of Trumps support so much of it invisible to polls and data had shocked much of the nation, there existed the possibility that the Klan, too, would emerge with far greater numbers than anyone thought possible.

But for a month, no one knew where the rally would take place. Activists marked it on their calendars but had no clue where to go, other than Pelham, North Carolina a tiny town of 3,592 souls, with no central business district through which to parade. The night before, Id driven around Pelham and found nowhere a potential parade might happen. Guessing the Klan might be gathering at the home of Amanda and Christopher Barker, the only Knights listed on their website, I drove past the home listed as their address. It was a humble clapboard house in nearby Eden. There were no cars parked outside, no sign of an assembling of regional racists.

Then, late on the night of 2 December, an article appeared on the website of the Times-News of Burlington, North Carolina. A reporter there, Natalie Janicello, spoke with a Loyal White Knights representative who called himself the chapters exalted cyclops. He confirmed that the Klan would indeed parade. Probably at 9am, he said, and in the vicinity of Pelham.

So here we were, at the rest stop, waiting for word. The sky was grey and the temperature hovered at 40F. Cars continued to arrive, and their passengers disembarked to use the facilities. Most were young and dressed in black boots, pants, hoodies and sunglasses. A few were wearing bandanas to cover their faces. These were black-bloc activists some anarchist, some communist, some apolitical in general more willing to engage in confrontation and property damage (thus the efforts to anonymise themselves). There were six of them. Then 10. Then 20. Thirty. They made up the largest group of the assembling activists, but there were also members of the International Workers of the World (IWW), a few people with Black Lives Matter signs, and a smattering of unaffiliateds men and women, most of them under 30, standing in the cold, waiting for word of when and where. But 9am was fast approaching and there was no update.

I befriended a trio of activists who seemed to have the most up-to-date information. Megan Squire, a red-haired professor of computing sciences at nearby Elon University, was earnest and funny and determined to confront the Klan. She was with her husband, Tony Crider, a professor of physics, who, in Ray-Bans and a leather jacket, was a bit more detached and sceptical (for reasons that would become clear later). With them was Sugelema Lynch, a bright-eyed second-grade teacher from nearby Alamance County.

Im more of a tag-along, she said. She was wearing a lime-green scarf and teal-coloured sneakers, and had an enormous camera around her neck. I just want to get a couple cool photos and tell my kids, Look what I did this weekend! She had moved from California five years earlier, when shed married a man who grew up nearby. She was still getting used to this once-Confederate state, whose Latino population had grown from 76,000 in 1990 to 800,000 in 2016.

When I first moved here, she said, living in the Burlington area, you just felt the tension. As a Hispanic woman, just walking around felt awkward. She is one of two Latino teachers at her elementary school, where most of the students are the children of Latino immigrants. Its not really a surprise to hear about the Klan here. Things dont ever just go away. But Im not offended just looking at the Confederate flag. I grew up watching The Dukes of Hazzard, too.

Megan was periodically checking in with the IWW and black-bloc groups, and returned with news. OK, she said. The rumour now is that the Klan is organising itself, planning to go to Danville via Highway 29. Everyones trying to find someone who might have a car shitty enough to block the highway.

Black bloc protesters some anarchist, some communist, some apolitical who formed a large part of the turnout against the KKK march. Photograph: Carol Guzy/Photoshot/Avalon

Danville was a city of 43,000, just over the Virginia border. It had been on the list of possible sites for the Klan march.As we waited, Tony told a story of a recent Trump-fuelled incident on the Elon campus. The day after the election, he had arrived at his classroom to find the words Bye bye Latinos. Hasta la Vista written in large letters on his whiteboard. There had been recent activity in the area by another neo-white supremacist group called Actbac (Alamance County Taking Back Alamance County), and Tony thought this might have something to do with them. Deciding to make it a teachable moment, he took a picture of the board and posted it on his Facebook account.

When his first class arrived that morning, he left the words up. He asked the students to write down their thoughts on the election and drop them in a bin, so each students opinion would remain anonymous. (He planned to read them aloud a week later, when they had some distance.) He taught the class as planned, then went back to his office, closed the door, and cried.

Meanwhile, his photo had been shared with a student reporter at Elon, who tweeted it. That tweet was retweeted 2,000 times, and by the next day, it had been reported in the Daily Mail and the Associated Press. It was referenced all over the world.

Then we found out it was a hoax, Tony said. It turned out that a Latino student at Elon had written it. The student considered it satire.

Now the assembled protesters gathered around Greg Williams, an organiser from the IWW. With long dark hair and a beard, he was calm and in control. He introduced the protesters to four men and women wearing bright green baseball caps. They were from the National Lawyers Guild, he said if anyone got arrested, they would be available. He provided one of their phone numbers. It had a San Francisco area code. The activists passed around a black marker and wrote it on their arms.

Anyone with a smartphone that can be opened with your fingerprints should disable that function, Megan said. If youre arrested, she explained, police cant make you give up your password, but they can compel you to use your fingerprint. The heads of the assembled protesters bent downward as they busily made adjustments to their phones.

Finally, Williams instructed the protesters to think about your positionality. White protesters should, he said, try to keep at least two of them (white protesters) between the Klan and any protesters of colour. Speak for yourself, a black protester said, and there were laughs. The bottom line, Williams said, is look after each other.

A parking attendant had been making her way through, marking tires. The police would soon have reason to move the group, so everyone got in their cars and caravanned to the Pelham Community Center just across the highway. A sign out front promised a visit from Santa Claus later that week.

Behind the community centre was a dirt road with a narrow stretch of grass running alongside it. The area was flanked by a high wire fence on one side and a dense forest on another. Everyone parked their cars, got out and waited. The protesters milled and talked and looked at each others placards. RAPIST PRESIDENT read one. NO HATE IN OUR STATE read another. A white man in shorts held a sign declaring that The Worst Thing to Ever Come Out of a Vagina Was a WHITE MAN. Another white man demonstrating every protests struggle to keep focus had a sign pushing for a $15 minimum wage.

Word was that the parade would happen at 11am. Now the black bloc got serious. Baseball bats were removed from car trunks. Masks were adjusted. One man wore a leather jacket covered with silver studs. Another put on a motorcycle helmet. The scene began to have the look of troops assembling before battle.

More members of the media appeared. There were about a dozen small video crews and an equal number of journalists walking around with notebooks and tape recorders. They roamed among the assembled and waiting protesters, and, with nothing else to do, pretty much every journalist and photographer interviewed and photographed pretty much every protester. A trio of young activists with hand-drawn signs were photographed at least 10 times in precisely the same pose. Sugelema took a picture, too. What the hell, she said.

An SUV with tinted windows arrived. Two men emerged wearing identical outfits fleece jackets, khaki pants, sunglasses and hats. Security contractors with a group called ESG, they were there to protect a TV newscaster, an older gentleman, well-tanned, who emerged from the SUV with a cameraman in tow. His security detail followed.

Two young men removed two crates from their car trunk, one full of bottled water, the other Red Bull, and distributed them. The mood was upbeat. The current joke, Megan said, is that were just a bunch of goth kids playing Pokmon Go.

With an hour to kill before the Klan parade, there was general anxiety that some faction of the protesters would start a drum circle. The anarchists dont like drum circles, Megan noted. Sugelema pointed to a man with a red drum at his feet. Two other men were carrying cymbals. Another man with an elaborate moustache appeared with a saxophone. A few days before, at the Standing Rock protests, Sioux tribal leaders had asked the white people, arriving in great numbers and in festive spirit, not to treat the protests like Burning Man.

Megan checked in with Natalie Janicello, the reporter who had the trust of the Loyal White Knights. Janicello happened to have been a student of Megans at Elon University. She conveyed the latest: the Loyal White Knights had pushed their parade back to 3pm. The theory circulated that the Klan had been scared off by the size of the counter-protest, and had postponed their rally to gather a comparable volume of paraders of their own. One woman with hair dyed blue carried around a sign, newly made, that said Big Bad KKK: 2 Scared 2 March.

Protesters in Danville after the theory circulated that the Klan had been scared off and had postponed their rally. Photograph: Carol Guzy/Photoshot/Avalon

Sugelema and I went to get snacks. At the local mini-mart, where the staff and customers were all black, there was no awareness at all of the parade and counter-rally happening down the road. Next door, three young African American men were offering car washes. It was business as usual. We drove through Danville, quiet as a tomb.

They used to make socks here, Sugelema noted. A wide river, the Dan, cut through the town, and there were abandoned factories decomposing alongside its grey water. Around this part of North Carolina, there had been textile factories specialising in hosiery. In 1951, two local manufacturers, the Riverside Cotton Mill and Schoolfield, merged and became the largest single-unit textile mill in the world. But the plant closed in 2006. Now the city looked like the kind of place that might see its red-brick warehouses turned into lofts, and its riverside factories transformed by non-profits. But this kind of revival had yet to arrive in Danville.

Sugelemas parents were migrant farmworkers from Mexico. We moved every couple months, she said, following harvests up and down the Pacific coast. They picked apples in Washington and Oregon, melon and strawberries in Californias central valley. Thats where she was born, between harvests, and was given an unprecedented name.

Its Estonian. In the hospital, my mom didnt know what to name me, so the nurse suggested Sugelema, making her name at birth Sugelema Guadalupe Gonzalez probably the only person with that name the world has ever known. As an adult, Sugelema had looked up the meaning of her first name. According to the internet, in Estonian her name means itchy.

Of the 17 students in her classroom this year, 14 are from immigrant families, most of them from Mexico. Since Trumps election, some of the families were worried, fearing that he would follow through on promises to deport millions of people, but Sugelema had not rushed to judgment. Growing up, her parents had admired another Republican, Ronald Reagan. With the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Reagan had granted amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants, including many seasonal agricultural workers like her parents. It was Reagan who allowed us stay in the US, she said.

Her parents found a small town in Oregon and settled down. Sugelema and her older brother were sent to a public school where most of the kids were white. Later, her brother joined the marines and became a successful IT specialist, with most of his contracts coming from the US military. He now lives in San Diego, where Sugelemas mother is comfortably retired. Sugelema went to college and is the mother of five. Her oldest son is on the local football team.

The American dream is not perfect, but it is real. Sugelemas parents arrived in the 1970s from Mexico with nothing. They worked the fields, and now their daughter is a teacher and an indie-rock singer-songwriter. This I learned on the drive. Later, Sugelema showed me one of the music videos she had made with her husband. The song was called All Things Considered, and the video has the manic energy and lurid colours of 1980s MTV. In it, Sugelema wears Tweety Bird pyjamas as a cast of costumed partygoers dances around her. Megan is dressed in lederhosen; Tony wears the mask of a devil. In the centre of the frame, Sugelema sings, not quite awake and not quite asleep.

We returned from the convenience store to find that the protesters had decided to have an impromptu march down the dirt road. The Caswell County sheriff had blocked off one entrance, so we went around to the other, parked, and arrived in time to see the march in full swing. The photographers dutifully took pictures and the videographers filmed. In every way it had the look of a real protest, and any close-cropped photo would imply a rousing demonstration in favour of equality and diversity.

But there was no Klan and there were no spectators. It was about 60 activists marching for about 100ft on a road in the woods. After a few minutes, the group stopped marching and went back to waiting. It was not quite noon.

Soon there was news. Apparently there was a group of white supremacists demonstrating in nearby Danville. Sugelema and I had just come back from there, and had seen nothing of the kind. I think we should head out there! Williams roared, and the crowd cheered. Someone started drumming. The saxophonist played a ditty as everyone ran to their cars. Saxman, youre my hero, someone yelled.

We followed the 30 cars back on to Highway 29. There was one catch: no one had an address. There had been some mention of the centre of town. Someone else had heard the word Sutherlin. Megan sleuthed that this might be the Sutherlin home in downtown Danville. During the waning days of the civil war, when Union troops had overrun and burned Richmond to the ground, the home of Major WT Sutherin in Danville had become the last capital of the Confederacy. For a week at least 3-10 April 1865. It was now a museum.

There was no Klan and there were no spectators anti-KKK protesters march outside Danville, Virginia. Photograph: MWAA/ZDS/WENN.com

We raced into Danville and were the first to find the building. It was a grand, red-stone home in the Italian villa style, on a hilltop, with a wide lawn and a stone obelisk on which were engraved the words Guarding Our Future by Preserving Our Past. The property occupied an entire city block, and would have been a fitting site for any demonstration. But there was no one there. No white supremacists. No one at all.

We drove through Danville and soon found the ESG Security SUV in a parking lot on the edge of Danvilles downtown. Theyd found something. The white-haired newscaster stood outside, flanked by his private security guards, talking to a tall man with a wild grey beard. He wore a black leather cowboy hat and a denim jacket bearing at least 10 Confederate flag patches. There were two trucks nearby. One bore the Virginia license plate CNFEDRT.

The bearded mans was named George Randall. He and the two women with him were bewildered, like Custer caught in an ambush. Were not part of the Klan, Randall said. They were part of a group called the Virginia Flaggers, whose motto was Heritage, not hate. Periodically they held rallies to preserve Southern heritage and fly the Southern flag. He said he hadnt heard anything about a Klan rally, and hated getting confused with the Klan. This kind of mix-up, he said, was the fault of the media. And the young people. And the liberals. He monologued for a time, at one point complaining about a woman hed seen on the internet defecating on a picture of Trump. While he was speaking two more cars, carrying activists and journalists, pulled into the parking lot. Randall looked alarmed.

We better get out of here, said one of the women in the CNFEDRT truck. Randall jumped in and they took off.

Back at the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, a handful of black-bloc activists stood on the corner. Passing motorists, most of them African American, gawked and pointed. Thought experiment: what would the reaction have been in a reciprocal situation? If 30 or so young black people, most of them men, showed up in a small predominantly white town, wearing masks and carrying baseball bats, what might happen?

Megans phone dinged. The activists were headed back to the rest stop where we had started the day almost five hours earlier. Sugelema and I left Danville and got on the highway. When we got to the rest stop, the 30 cars were leaving. They were going back to the Danville Museum. Theyd heard that a different Confederate group was about to demonstrate. We tried to convince them that we had just come from Danville and that nothing was happening there, but it was too late. They were gone. We followed. It was a lot like high school, where dozens of cars roamed the same few suburban miles, looking for a party, stopping at the mini-mart, getting a Slurpee, exchanging specious information and driving off only to repeat the whole process half an hour later.

We arrived at the museum to find a few disappointed black-bloc members. No Klan, no Confederates, no neo-Confederates. Megan and Tony arrived with news. Tony had seen some police cars a few blocks away, parked near a playground. He thought it might be the protest, or at least a protest. We raced to the park, but there were no Klansmen there, no black bloc. Instead, about 25 Danville residents, most of them African American, had assembled before a video camera, in rows, as if posing for a school picture. Put down the guns! they all said in unison. The gathering had nothing to do with white supremacists or Trump. It was about ending a recent cycle of violence in Danville.

David L Wilson, who split his time between selling life insurance and working at a tyre-manufacturing plant, explained. Weve had a lot of shootings in our city. Weve had 14 murders recently. Even last night, a young lady here had a gunshots outside of her house. He took the arm of an older man next to him; he had tired eyes. This was the idea of this man, Gerald Holmes, Wilson said. Holmes had organised a movement called 434 Lives Matter, named for the local area code.

We have to change the mindset of the people, Wilson said. We cant do it from a top-down position. We cant do it just with the police. If we dont change the mindset of the people in the community, and change the way theyre dealing with each other in terms of conflict resolution, were going to continue to see this robbing and shooting and killing.

The members of 434 Lives Matter planned to go canvassing that day, door to door, in the neighbourhoods affected by the violence. For a moment, what the rest of us had been doing all day seemed hopelessly irrelevant. A mass of interlopers, many of whom were in costume, were chasing the Klan like it was some urban scavenger hunt. Meanwhile, the actual residents of the town were trying to figure out why their young men were shooting each other.

Sometimes they do things out of their character, Wilson said. But theyre doing what they think they have to do in order to survive. Theyre trying to do what they can to make ends meet, to take care of their families. Our main thing is listening now. We have to listen to what peoples hurts are.

We left the park. Megans phone went off again. The protesters were marching in downtown Danville. Apparently they were tired of waiting for the Klan. We raced to Main Street and found them. It was happening. And their numbers had grown there were now about 100 people marching. There were more locals. There were parents with their children. It was loud and it was real. No hate! No Fear! The KKKs not welcome here! they chanted. Leading the march were the black bloc, their baseball bats dragging on the pavement. Minutes before, I had felt like whatever the anti-KKK activists were doing had no tangible meaning, but now, seeing it happen, it seemed vital and necessary. The last vestiges of the Ku Klux Klan must be met with this kind of demonstration of resistance.

Trailing the marchers were three Danville police cars, their lights spinning brightly. They had sanctioned the march and were ensuring that it had the run of the road. All of which was remarkable. The police had allowed the protest on incredibly short notice, and were OK with dozens of black-clad protesters marching down their street with bats. It was a model of accommodation and restraint.

But because it was a Saturday, and because the stretch of road they marched was not a busy pedestrian thoroughfare, and because the march had been organized in the last half-hour, there were only a few people to watch it. A beautician peeked out the window of her shop, but otherwise the witnesses to the march were entirely members of the media.

After a few blocks, the protesters gathered in a parking lot. Williams spoke first. We shut shit down! he said, and the crowd repeated it: We shut shit down! they roared. The mood was ebullient. We shut shit down, they roared again and again, their baseball bats hammering the pavement. Then, in the call-and-response style he had used earlier, Williams added a coda.

One more good piece of news before you go, he said.

One more good piece of news before you go, the crowd repeated.

We just heard from folks, he said.

We just heard from folks, the crowd repeated.

Who are watching the Twitter account, he said.

Who are watching the Twitter account, the crowd repeated.

Of the official spokesperson, he said.

Of the official spokesperson, the crowd repeated.

Of the Loyal White Knights, he said.

Of the Loyal White Knights, the crowd repeated.

Who says they fucking cancelled their march.

One more good piece of news before you go, he said. We just heard from folks who are watching the Twitter account of the official spokesperson of the Loyal White Knights who says they fucking cancelled their march.

The crowd erupted. Megan was ecstatic. The Klan, she and the activists had deduced, had been scared off by the strength of the counter-protests. Maybe the Loyal White Knights were really only two people Amanda and Chris Barker. And maybe they had been trying to gather enough people all day to make their parade worthwhile, and had failed. It seemed like a suitably pathetic end to a hateful but powerless cabal. There was still the alt-right, and David Duke was running for office again, but at least the KKK, or this head of the serpent, was dead.

Since the Loyal White Knights announcement of the rally, there had been much debate about what to do. There was a school of thought that said paying the Klan any attention at all was only encouraging them. There were those elsewhere in North Carolina, from Greensboro to Raleigh to Charlotte who preferred to hold counter-rallies, focusing on inclusion and featuring speakers and songs, far away from any confrontation. But the people in Danville believed it would be a terrible thing, in 2016, if a Klan rally happened, and happened uncontested. Slightly better would be a Klan rally that was vociferously confronted. Best of all, though, would be a Klan rally cancelled in the face of opposition. And this is what had just happened. And even though this was a modest counter-protest in a modest city, it mattered just as Birmingham had mattered in 1963, and Ferguson had mattered in 2014. Maybe it mattered more because it was Danville, the last home of the Confederacy.

Terrell Simmons was feeling good. A tall African American man wearing combat boots and a red bandana, he had led some of the post-march chants. The Klan dont have the people, so they dont have the power! he had yelled. The establishment dont have the people, so they dont have the power! He was a high school test-prep teacher from Mobile, Alabama, and had driven 12 hours to confront the Klan. Now he was basking in the victory and planning what would come next. Were going to have a lot of cohesion between the groups that have been divided, he said. Were going to see that we cant build this country without one another. A lot of the things that have held us up in the past are going to go away. Reality is going to set in that without actually meeting the needs of the poor people, the sick people, this nation is doomed to fail.

He walked away smiling, joining the black bloc, whose members were taking off their masks and disbanding. Soon there were only a few people left on Main Street. Tony and Sugelema were looking for a place to get a beer. Shit, Megan said. In the parking lot, now nearly empty, she was reading her phone. Natalie Janicello had just posted a tweet. ITS HAPPENING, she wrote. KKK just came through Roxboro. Battle flags and shouting WHITE POWER.

Natalie A. Janicello (@natalie_allison)

IT’S HAPPENING. KKK just came through Roxboro. Battle flags & shouting “WHITE POWER!” pic.twitter.com/rcjHbmUUiR

December 3, 2016

While the anti-Klan protesters marched through Danville, the Klan had paraded through a different town, 45 minutes away. Janicello had embedded film of it into her Twitter feed.

In the video, about 20 vehicles speed through an intersection. Some of the cars have Confederate flags flapping from their windows. Some cars are unadorned just gray sedans driving down the street. No spectators are visible. None of the drivers are visible. A woman in one of the cars yells White power from a window. Then its over.

Megan was despondent. Not just because the Klan had trolled the protesters and had pulled off their parade. But there was the matter of her former student, Natalie Janicello, who must have known about the location of the parade, and had opted not to tell any of the protesters or members of the media. She was the only media member, and maybe the only person, who saw it.

The next day brought one last twist. A Klan member named Richard Dillon, who had made the trip from Indiana, was in the hospital with multiple stab wounds to the chest. Two other Klansmen, Chris Barker and William Ernest Hagen of California, were charged with the crime. Apparently, in the early morning before the planned parade, the Klan had assembled at the Barkers house. Drinks were drunk. Dillon had hassled Hagen about a Klan rally Hagen had put on in Orange County, where the Klansmen had been beaten up by counter-protesters. Hagen didnt much appreciate that, so he stabbed Dillon repeatedly, while Barker blocked the door. Bleeding profusely, Dillon managed to escape, drove to Danville, went to the hospital and told the doctors on duty what had happened.

Police arrested Barker and Hagen that morning. So they didnt get to see the parade, either.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/the-day-i-went-hunting-for-the-ku-klux-klan-dave-eggers/

[anyhao-archived]

ok so technically i wasnt tagged by @fishpun they just mentioned me in their post but i dont care this is one of the only tags that doesnt have too many stupid questions. theres a lot more i was tagged in but this is the only one i wanna do. 

so there. :^)

1: Are you named after someone? kinda... my grandma was called marie, and mairin just happens to be the gaelic version lol

2: When was the last time you cried? 

✖ i cried last month

✖ i cried last week

✖ i cried yesterday

✔ im crying right now

no but rly u dont understand how EASY it is for me to cry im like always on the brink of tears and i see a cute commercial? bam, crying. watching a tv show and someones confessing? yep im crying. day dream too much about something that never happens? u betcha im crying

3: Do you like your handwriting? no its awful its ok if i use pencil but i prefer to use pen 10x more lol

4:What is your favorite lunch meat? turkey thats easy

5: Do you have kids? nope

6: If you were another person, would you be friends with you? i would think so. my self esteem is not so low to say no. sometimes i actually wonder why people dont want to be friends with me. i dont think im that bad am i

7: Do you use sarcasm? occasionally but not all that often

8: Do you still have your tonsils? honestly ive got no clue

9: Would you bungee jump? yes!!!! i also want to sky dive and paraglide and do all that shit

10: What is your favorite kind of cereal? cocoa crispies, frosted flakes, fruit loops, lucky charms. you know, the basic favorites of a 6 year old.

11: Do you untie your shoes when you take them off? no i just use my other foot to get them off

12: Do you think you’re a strong person? it depends on what sense

13: What is your favorite ice cream flavor? mint chocolate chip (amy what the hell our ice cream flavors are compatible!) but when im Really feeling it ive gotta go with ben and jerrys chocolate fudge brownie. yum

14: What is the first thing you notice about people? if were being honest then if i think theyre attractive or not, and also if they give off a weird vibe. then if im past that its probably their lips i.e. smile and talking

15: Red or pink? pink

16: What is the least favorite physical thing you like about yourself? you know a couple years ago i would say my weight but damn it if my acne isnt bothering the shit out of my lately

17: What color pants and shoes are you wearing now? im wearing dog themed pajamas pants and black slippers with blue and purple paw prints on them sdksfdlsfr im rly cute obviously....

18: What was the last thing you ate? uh i had some garlic bread lol

19: What are you listening to right now? at this very moment nothing but thats just bc my song stopped playing so im actually listening to dreamcatcher’s chase me its so good

20: If you were a crayon, what color would you be? something light green/blue/purple ish. 

21: Favorite smell? ive never really thought about it but i guess i like the smell of my mom baking cookies during holidays and the smell of gas

22: Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? people actually talk to each other on the phone? according to my call history it was my dad

23: Favorite sport to watch? baseball, soccer, ice skating

24: Hair color? dark blond w/ my original brown roots showing

25: Eye color? green

26: Do you wear contacts? no i hate them i only wear my glasses on special occasion

27: Favorite food to eat? would it be too cliche to say ice cream? realistically though probably pasta since theres so many pasta dishes i enjoy

28: Scary movies or comedy? comedy im a huge scaredy cat you cant take me anywhere where theres jumpscares

29: Last movie you watched? i watched the fundamentals of caring yesterday it was nice

30: What color of shirt are you wearing? its a grey tank top with the worlds las vegas on it lol

31: Summer or winter? i hate both

32: Hugs or kisses? hugs!!

33: What book are you currently reading? you rly think im reading something for fun ?? lol how about my college calculus textbook does that count

34: Who do you miss right now? i miss my old self like.. idk. i also tend to find myself missing my ex even though its been years. also 2 be just as gay as them i miss u amy @fishpun

35: What is on your mouse pad? ???? what is that

36: What is the last TV program you watched? lemony snicket’s series of unfortunate events, or the office. i cant tell my sense of time is messy

37: What is the best sound? when there is no sound

38: Rolling Stones or The Beatles? the beatles

39: What is the furthest you have ever traveled? i was in toronto for 2 days does that count as outside the country? lol

40: Do you have a special talent? not particularly? maybe that present making stuff. 

41: Where were you born? st louis aka same city as i live in

42: People you expect to participate in this survey? no one cus im 2 lazy 2 tag <-- well said amy me too

#tag memes #amy how is it that so many of our answers are the same/similar #????????? #what is the truth

[finillatte]

11 Question Tag

tagged by: @milo-gin​ (thank you so much for tagging me!)

Rules:

1. post the rules

2. answer the questions given to you by the tagger

3. write 11 questions of your own

4. tag 11 people

1. What’s your opinion on past lives?

i think its a cool and interesting concept but i dont really believe in it. But i still like to read stories about it tho.

2. If you had to move to a desserted island who would you take, and what items would you bring, you can only bring 2 people and 5 items?

hmmmmmmmm i would bring yoongi and dowoon bcs i love them and i should at least meet them once before i die. another reason is bcs their famous so their manager would probably find them and rescue us YAY. id bring my phone, charger, a wifi hotspot, a lifetime supply of food, and a pillow neck. dont judge me.

3. What are you currently listening to?

man in a movie by day6. ITS REALLY GOOD EVERYONE SHOULD STAN DAY6 RIGHT NOW WHY ARE THEY SO UNDERRATED??????????????

4. Do you know BTS?

i only know international kpop sensational sunshine rainbow traditional transfer usb hub shrimp

5. What’s the craziest dream you’ve ever had?

i dreamed that i had a boyfriend (ikr wild) but actually hes not JUST my boyfriend, hes also my close friend’s boyfriend. so we were in a polyamory relationship i guess. he was really sweet too i would have fell in love if it wasnt a dream but i woke up disappointed

6. If you could be a person for one day who would you exchange lives with?

OMG the possibilities!!!!!!!!!!!!! is it bad that the first thing i thought was bts and day6. i mean i dont want to switch with them because itd be too crazy and i honestly dont think i can handle it but probably exchange with their manager or stylist lmao so i can see how cute they are irl

7. How’s life going on your end?

im dreading vacation is ending soon and uni will soon begin im not sure if im ready to go through all the stress again:”)

8. If you were president for a year, what would you change about your country?

WELL first off all lets destroy corruption, improve the infrastructure because man the condition is so terrible. and also i want to install a subway so ppl would switch to public transport. and education!!!!!!!!!! for everyone!!!!!!!!! and healthcare too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

9. There’s a zombie apocalypse, what’s your weapon of choice?

bow and arrow has always been my fav weapon but to be real its probably too unconventional and i’ll probably miss anything i try to shoot sooooo im going with a good old baseball bat because its a good tool that wont backfire on me and u wont need any ammo

10. If you could have any ability/superpower what would it be?

definitely time control. it would give much more time to do my assignments since im a huge procrastinator and also i could go back and fix my mistakes

11. What’s your ideal fashion style, and tell me what’s keeping you from wearing it now?

its always changing but lately im into loose clothes. it just look so comfortable. the reason why im not wearing it because when i do try to wear it i look like a homeless potato

Questions:

1. Who is your kpop husband or wife? 2. What is your biggest dream? 3. would you rather to go around the world with your enemy or go to jail with your significant other? 4. Craziest thing you’ve ever done? 5. Do you read? if so can you give me some recs 6. and music recs too please? 7. what is the last thing you googled? explain 8. most embarrasing thing that happened to you? 9. what would you do if you swapped gender for a day? 10. what is your hogwarts house? 11. tell me the secret to happiness please

I tag: @hggbssf @wtfday6 @why-cody @j-hseokseok @fragilejaebum @memefont @minttrash @pompudei @wompeii @bluesrg @toast-lord-of-toastville​

#personal #tagged #also its really ok if you dont want to do it i dont mind