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anantaru · 2 years ago

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— telling him “i'm glad i didn‘t break up with you that one time”

including scaramouche, diluc, alhaitham, kaveh x gn! reader

꒰ genre ꒱ — fluff, a little sad (kaveh's part), we‘re so evil

— scaramouche

feathery, fluffy clouds breezily dotted the expanding sapphire blue sky as the incandescent radiant rays of eternal warmth— like fireballs, drifted across the sizzling nation of pristine wisdom.

scaramouche mellowly declined his head into your supple lap while you were indulging your trusted presence on a secluded area a bit away from sumeru city— his hair was deep tinged and glinted eminently, dark indigo locks that were lucently aglow from the smoldering sun riveting your frames.

you can still remember it vividly, the spellbound rays tottering down on your body as you nimbly closed your eyes for a second while carelessly scurrying your hand over his silky hair. It was rather comforting to him and you were aware that your boyfriend must've been immoderately drained from his taxing work load.

and by any means whatsoever, within the strong comfort of the fateful consolatory spot, a— you could say, brilliant yet a shade evil idea transited into the deepest edges of your psyche.

you pretended to listen to whatever scaramouche had to proudly talk about as your hand carried on to gladsomely delve further around his scalp, jovially motioning aimless symbols on his head.

his eyes wander shut at the closeness of you when he idly shifted the conversation into another topic, "this is fine." he speaks mousy— his breathing was fluttery and bounteous with love, yet although his voice was not lined out of lustrous silk, it did not trickle in an even consistent tone, you had treasured it nonetheless and his voice was your glaring favorite. "this— this feels fine."

that was it, the perfect timing, you suppress a devilish grin and got ready for your disguised scheme coming into wicked play, "it really is." you tried to respond in a false articulated stainless voice, "—and i'm so happy i didn't break up with you that one time."

bordering on a comical sight right under where your boyfriend was presently marveling on your lap, scaramouche had now instantly bolted up to meet your eyes in a part spread sight— but now something changed, an expression akin to filtered shock and discontent. "what?"

in all respects, he was done with his spoken words, because what made you want to break up with him in the first place? what instance in your past togetherness had been enforcing those negative, cruel emotions in you that you even thought about it?

it was a hurting, clear thought— additionally pestering him and it was more horrific than anything else pressuring his goddamn mind.

"what, what?" you silently ask beneath the lines of your regulated breathing, scaramouche never looked so lost before and you tightly bristled your lips together in an pursue to not blast your evil cover.

"what did you mean by that?" if he had to choose, scaramouche would rather have someone repeatedly run him over with a carriage than be in this clashing conversation, "you wanted to break up with me?"

to your appreciable surprise, he did not let his inner rage come to broad daylight, rather was he willing to figure out what has been going on that made you think that. Now, with the concern being all written across his pretty features, you felt as if you should come clean before he actually gets a heart attack from your wrongful play.

"tell me what i did, i will fix it—" the compression in his emotions had inflated as you snappily got a hold of his squishy cheeks, instantly cupping his face, "i'm so sorry, i'm messing with you." though you ended up awkwardly laughing with a sorrowful grin as to lighten up the damaged mood, scaramouche's mouthing took a turn— slightly dazed but also fed up, the penetrating gaze of him, previously a tone lower but now plumb with a diverting split on his lips.

"you.." the little mewl exposed more than a simple intrigue, "you will regret this." with an eye on him you leaned forward to kiss your boyfriend but scaramouche was one step ahead. He speedily took both of your wrists in his palm and dropped you on your back— making you lose stability of your body.

"oh, what's gotten into you?" he asks— innocently enough for you to believe it at first before he was puncturing specific places on your stomach, fronting matter to pinch and tickle the skin, "ah!" you cry out, whining at the burn, "i'm sorry i'm sorry!"

"don't do that anymore." scaramouche kept you on edge— exactly where he wanted you to be, "or i'll give you a taste of your own medicine."

— diluc

inside the limits of your prevailing ventures, you so happen to find yourself nonchalantly strolling over to your boyfriends tavern— the angels share, where he was, at this time, in the midst of closing the bar after another successful night.

in related manner was it a regular practice you'd follow closely, it being to do your utmost greatest to spend as much time as possible with your primarily preoccupied partner— granted that it was centrally you both walking home and then falling asleep shortly afterwards in your shared bed, though that alone made it worth it to you.

diluc found himself greatly engaged in properly cleaning up the bar counter and putting away a bottle of unused dandelion wine as you ardently knocked on the door with your signature thumps— so he knows it's you, before letting yourself pass through.

pristinely, diluc did not have to look up to see that it was you entering the bar— for one, as mentioned prior, was it the initial bangs on the large door the both of you had originally turned a habit as a humorous joke, as well as the recognized spreading presence of you being more than enough for him to figure it out.

he composes himself as his warm eyes then, without an ounce of wavering, flicker without delay to wholly greet you with his comforting calm manner, "you're early." he reminds you, thinking out loud, each new articulation of his being thoroughly tempted out in an urged chatter— it's noticeable, how unmistakable worn out he was.

"i told you i'd come visit before you're closing the tavern." you listlessly slant back on the barstool to take a convenient seat and you lively smile at him while diluc carried on to clean a couple of the utensils that had become irksome obstacles yet shyly quelling a spiking sneer in him, unreservedly molding himself into your homely aura, "i'm glad then."

in passing, you idly watched him for a brief while until diluc unexpectedly turned to you again, catching you off guard, "oh, i have something for you." he surprisingly hummed along each new syllable and you find yourself admiring the view in front of you, his face generously shading red, "i saw them and had to take it with me."

you recollect your focus on him when diluc spoke in a charming way that sent a beguiling spike through your pounding heart before you noticed something large in his hand; a bouquet of your most beloved flowers.

his posture stiffened a little— most likely because of a miniature impale of nervousness scurrying through his flaming veins, because what if you end up not liking the well scented, thoughtful gift?

though you had loved it, of course— even more than that and as he was eyeing your reaction up close, sensing how your widened eyes coursed brilliantly as you accepted the flowers in your hands, you gaze at him in a darting loving way, tightly squeezing the bouquet in your right arm to be able to give him a hug and express your utmost gratitude to him— for him, because he simply was the best in your eyes, the most attentive boyfriend to have ever existed.

"I do hope you fancy it." his rippling skin felt comforted back in your cosy cuddle with his large hand being closely pressed on your lower back as he made you turn on him closer. "i love it."

"— and I'm so grateful i didn't break up with you that one time."

well, just hold up a second? what.

"...umm, thanks." he earned yet another eruption of laughter from you though you had roughly closed it sunkenly in you, so diluc wouldn't figure out you're actually not being serious right now, at all.

diluc— though now greatly overwhelmed but rather leaning into a more confused state of mind in terms of your sudden exclaim, manages to huff out a low sigh while bringing his attention back to you, slowly drawing himself away from your close embrace.

for a fleeting spell, you both looked into each other's eyes boundlessly astounded and bowled over— stated in a more frequent type of way; it was in actuality diluc who was looking wholly rendered at loss of words when you tried your dearest to keep your wicked giggles in check.

but then, he talks again, although pumped full with overthrowing worry in his once glowing eyes, "I'm not certain on how to appropriately tackle this conversation." he mumbles while virtually thinking out loud, "can you perhaps tell me what i did wrong so i can get better— get better for you?"

quite frankly, you couldn't take it anymore and soon your whole body was filled with great misdeed, he may not have a clue right now but in total truth you were only trying to get a glimpse of a somewhat saddened reaction out of your boyfriend— which now, might've been a little evil, though, after all, you couldn't really pass up on that perfect presented opportunity.

"you did nothing." you squeal in panic, gently placing the flowers on the bar counter to keep your attention on him, "i'm sorry i was messing with you."

you pretty much fell into his arms and diluc instantly had hugged you right back— though still in shock, his eyes growing in the size of saucers. You lied close into his shoulder and tried to lift the mood with a humane touch of your hands on his back.

"you menace." diluc reveals an adorable sigh as his chest heaved up and down, the shock still lingering deep but a smile minimally lifted at his lips when he turned to hearteningly pant out a shaky heave into your arms. "you absolute menace."

— alhaitham

"and that’s correct." alhaitham kindly affirms towards the region of your direction while being patiently sat before your pretty eyes, fixedly gulping down the nascent saliva in his mouth to enunciate his following words, "—now to the next question."

undoubtably and much to your sweet pleasure, your boyfriend alhaitham took his current, new acquired position, awfully serious!

on the whole, he was an excellent tutor— strikingly perfect for your upcoming exam which had caused you a countless amount of sleepless nights, while he was aware of your struggles, he had put it upon himself to aid you as much as he was able to.

bizarrely to you, he was a bit too serious and stern, bound and determined while forgetting to keep it natural. Yet alhaitham understands and recognizes your strengths, turning it attainable to solicit 100% of your greatest strong point, presenting you with your highest amount of concentration to study.

"how does this look?" you ask, rather confident in your mannerism as you firmly shoved the fully scribbled paper into his close direction. He looks at it with hawk eyes and crinkles his brows a little— that being an usual trait whenever he found himself in large engrossment.

"incorrect but i didn't expect you to figure it out anyways."

unfortunately to you, alhaitham had a— let's say, interesting habit of spelling out his words before actually thinking his sentences through enough, or maybe he modestly didn't give a damn about how he was perceived or presented to the audience, didn't matter to him if the person he was talking to is a stranger or his significant other, you.

one quiet, internal thought ultimately, without sweet decorations, turned into two hellish thoughts and you had yourself wonder if you were even capable to pay him back just a little bit, in your usual, evil fashion.

"that's rude!" you falsely squeal out, fearing he may have a clue on your new doings right away as you dramatically drew your hand above your heart to act out a pain in your chest.

"you asked — i answered." you could clearly see he didn't think his wording was incorrect or maybe a minuscule portion grating, so you decided to sprinkle a little sass on him, "you're right and i'd be lost without you." your eyes innocently trail to his face, "i'm so grateful you're helping me study."

you were on the verge of exploding, really, the tempting laugh was overfilling your insides but you pushed through, ending your sentence at last, "— but i'm even more grateful to myself that i didn't break up with you that one time."

alhaitham quirks a brow but did not face you right away, did you want to argue with him? or were you trying to be funny again? because speaking from past lived occasions, he wasn't new to you pulling one of those particular intrigues at him.

well, then again, what if it wasn't a tasteless, blundering joke? what if, you were serious this time, honestly would he even blame you? after all, alhaitham knew himself better than anyone else did.

"so, a break up?" he leans back into his chair before crossing his arms around his body, slowly eyeing you from your eyes, to your collarbones and back again. "mhm." you agree with a hum, although both of you being sat, he was easily towering over you with his stance alone, only making you fuse further into yourself.

"and when?" in fact, he will not let this die down, he will manage to get everything he required out of you while barely leaving you to gasp for air.

you wonder if he had already figured it out (he did), your eyes skimming over the entire table to bring your heedfulness somewhere else. "umm, i don't know!" the comedic side of it all was extremely whimsical to your boyfriend— and his plan to lure you into where he wanted you to seem to succeed as well.

"look at me." that damned voice change, nothing that you cannot withstand, nothing but that precise grab his gravelly tone color had on you.

right there, you met his doubtless, assertive eyes, unshaken in his own views. alhaitham unhurriedly leans forward into the table while holding eye contact with you, you're watching him, waiting for chaos to unfold or him laughing at how silly it was for you to even try to fool him.

"maybe next time you get lucky." he quickly wipes his tongue over his mouth, "do you know that you're really bad at acting? it's rather comical watching you try."

heavily exhaling the stored air in your strained lungs, you, wholly fed up with him, rolled your eyes at your oh so confident boyfriend who just didn't know when to keep his mouth sealed tight, "oh shut up!"

— kaveh

love and enchantment, a formidable devotion for another, highly arising out of real personal ties and notable attraction.

for kaveh, those meanings were everything and all, the totality all at once.

beyond a trace of a single doubt, it was unmistakable visible on just how much immeasurable energy and serious effort your boyfriend put into having your blossoming relationship as uplifting, easing and heart warming as possible.

you're his absorbing soulmate and his riveting gratitude and love for you— which he most definitely conveys through those honeyed, dreamy smiles on his plump lips, were sticking out a mile.

from all accessible appearances, one might as well pick up on the nurturing connection that is shared by you lovebirds and how kaveh would always come up with newfound actions to have it shown to everyone in many different varieties.

tonight, it was outside of sumeru city— on top of a idyllic meadow, with the boundless sky being set ablaze by the setting sun right above you, soon to follow was the pale, ashen crescent turned moon, vividly luminous like a silvery claw and fuck, that glittering glow in your eyes as you watched from afar, kaveh wasn't sure if he could fall in love with you even deeper than he already was.

"this is so pretty." the fresh feeling of your body thoughtlessly sloping back into the consoling ground locked out each and every paining worry from your gladdening thoughts.

"i knew you'd like it, i just knew—." kaveh keeps himself from embarrassingly tumbling over his own spoken words, his nails now clawing into his palms and leaving marks— it might've been the nervousness, he fears, although you both had been together for a good while he can catch himself quite frequently becoming shy in his mannerism.

but his phraseology meant nothing, his passing wordage, blank.

there could be sure up to a million and one descriptions to intently describe this current moment happening yet nothing would ever explain it how he saw it, how he perceived you.

aside from that, you also breathed fresh life into his somewhat monotone one, with your sneaky intrigues keeping him on edge the whole time.

"this was a good idea." you're revealing a soft glare to him, a hidden one that from the outside, appeared to be angelic and endearing, though from the inside— salted away an evil plan that was camouflaging your entire mind for the whole day.

call it stowed up curiosity or simple boredom of your person, but you cannot keep yourself from passing up on it, longing to witness kaveh leaving his protective, calming bubble for once in a while.

sure, obviously, he could get mad at you, aggravated or purely stare at you through dead, saddened eyes, but then you'd always be there to make it up to him, in your own charming ways.

kaveh plushly lays on the warm ground before idly securing one of his hands under his head, uncaringly bolstering himself up, "this reminds me of something." you suddenly claim in the direction of your lover so he can hear you, no matter what, "of what?"

in the general run of things you couldn't help yourself but smile at how quick kaveh could get fascinated or absorbed on a random topic you unhurriedly throw into his course of line— no care in the world on what it was, but if you don't tell him and keep the desired answers away, he'd regularly think about it, day on day, until you do end up saying it out loud— which you then, do. "ah, it's nothing!"

"— i'm just glad i didn't break up with you that one time, you know?"

.. silence ..

"..."

"kaveh?"

"..."

you might enquire some sort of exclaim or wonder now, did he pass out or? no silly, of course not! it did feel like he was about to suffer from a large heart attack though.

"b-break up?" he soundlessly mutters, panic, immense panic, if he can afford to say anything coherent at all but he was as still as a mouse, indistinct, until ..

"as in, breaking up? a BREAK up?!"

"oh it's nothing." you hushedly wave your hand in front of his anxious face, without concern leaving yourself to fall back and carry on to glimpse up at the moonlight sky.

"what do you mean n o t h i n g?"

"this is tERRIBLE." - "utterly TERRIBLE." deficient panic pitifully munched on your boyfriends entire being, deeply festering itself into the pitched shadows of his now darkened heart.

"wait please stop." your words did not hit him, it's like he turned himself on autopilot, his eyes large as he looked into the distance, muttering something underneath his pebbly pants which you couldn't decipher what he was babbling over. "it's a joke, please look at me."

no because maybe you did go too far and after encircling your arms around kaveh's body you held him close to you, so the repeated knocks of your heart could be sensed by him.

"i'm sorry i will never do this again." you are met with his— now glassy laced, scarlet eyes, not once does he speak anymore, because quite frankly, for a second he was scared to his very core, in a frenzy, because life without you, is no life at all, no substantial vitality.

but then, a tone of him, irregular and broken, "don't do this." - "again."

you mildly wipe the warm tears off his face and lovingly keep a couple kisses on his forehead— left cheek, right cheek, his cute nose and ultimately finished your sweet attention on his soft lips— that always tasted like roses and felt so tender on top of yours, easily crawling yourself into his lap.

"i'm sorry, i love you and i'd never break up with you, ever."

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cinnamongorll · 1 year ago

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a fragile line - chapter 7

read on ao3! (111k words) | previous chapter | next chapter | masterlist

Pairing: Joel Miller x Female OC

Tags: extreme slow burn, age gap, older man/younger woman, protective joel, jealous joel, hurt/comfort, pov third person, mutual pining, angst, sexual tension, friends to lovers, canon-typical violence, feral joel, parental abuse.

Fic synopsis: three years ago, Juliet escaped her father's religious survivor camp, ending up in the Boston QZ. Juliet created a life for herself in Boston, desperate to forget the trauma of her upbringing. One day, Juliet arrives home to find a mysterious letter which forces her to return to her home town. Juliet can't travel the harsh post-apocalyptic landscape alone, so she enlists the help of the grumpy and, at times, frightening man she works alongside: Joel Miller.

Word count: 2.6k

Chapter 7: 'Slipped'

Juliet had forgotten what it felt like to walk in the forest, under a blanket of trees so thick that daylight could only be found creeping through the gaps in their branches. She closed her eyes when the light hit her, caressing her face and warming her skin in a soft, dewy glow. Joel walked a few steps ahead of her, twigs crunching under his muddy boots as he marched up the continuous incline of the worn path they followed.

Days had passed since their run in with the clickers in the Boston museum. It had taken them a whole other day to get out of the city after they came across a large hoard of infected stumbling through the streets, there must have been at least a hundred of them. Joel decided they would seek shelter in an old doctor's office for the night while they planned an alternate route out. So they sat, under the orange glow of Joel’s oil lamp and ate their rations on the dusty floor littered with old newspapers.

After their ‘meal’, Joel cleaned and changed the bandage of Juliet’s shoulder wounds, muttering something about not wanting to miss out on her promise of supplies if she died of an infection. Juliet sat in complete silence while Joel wiped a cloth drenched in whiskey over her shoulder, soaking up the blood pooled around the exit wounds. The whiskey smelled like him. His movements were clinical but careful, his touch tender as he rebandaged her shoulder. It was strange to see his rough hands, marked with calluses and scars, engaged in an act of such gentleness.

His performance was not to be mistaken for kindness, of course. Joel was very clear, with the speed in which he moved away from her after he had finished, that he was only protecting a worthwhile investment.

Joel’s coldness remained after days of travelling together, his scowl never letting up. He communicated with Juliet almost entirely with nods, grunts or gestures with his hands. Which was demonstrated when he turned to meet Juliet’s eyes and signalled to pause in the clearing between a few trees. Juliet looked up at the space between the branches and noticed that the sun was nearing the middle of the sky, almost mid-day, it appeared Joel was stopping for a quick ‘lunch’. Food was scarce, they had combined their separate stashes the previous night and found that there were only enough bite size pieces of jerky to last another day. Juliet was not overly worried by their draining supply though, as Joel informed her last night that they were headed towards some friends of his who would provide them with food and ammo for the rest of their journey.

Juliet had stiffened at the mention of Joel’s friends, although that was not the word he had used. Joel referred to them as his partners, meaning people he frequently smuggled with, Juliet assumed. She was uncomfortable with the thought of other people trespassing on the budding camaraderie she was developing with Joel.

Juliet worried that he would change his mind, join another group, and leave her to cross the country alone. She didn’t like to be dependent on others, usually wearing her solitude and independence as a badge of honour, but Juliet couldn’t deny that she needed Joel for this journey.

She didn’t know the route, she didn’t know the best roads to avoid major cities or how to hide from groups of infected - that wasn’t her main concern when she made the same journey only three years prior.

Being a young woman living in a post-apocalyptic world was a death sentence, she needed someone to watch her back whether she liked it or not. Juliet knew all about the kinds of sick men who lurked around every dark corner of America’s deserted landscape. A shudder ran through her at the thought.

Joel stood next to her, his backpack on the ground next to his feet, his back pressed against the trunk of the tree they both stood under. Juliet copied his movements as he tore a bit of jerky with his teeth and swallowed. The jerky was tough, it tasted like burnt rubber, smelled like it too. Juliet didn’t care, she was so hungry she devoured it in seconds. She took a swig of her water, cleared her throat, then decided to test Joel’s capacity for conversation.

“So, how long till we reach these ‘friends’ of yours?” she asked in the most nonchalant tone she could muster, staring down at her feet to enhance her act.

Although her eyes were pointed downward, she could feel the burning weight of Joel’s stare simmering on the side of her face. She didn’t dare lift her head as she waited for him to respond.

“About five hours if we keep the pace up,” he answered as he crumpled the paper his jerky was stored in and stashed it back in the pocket of his backpack. Then he swung it over his shoulder and adjusted the strap.

Juliet nodded as she did the same. “Cool,” she replied, deciding to leave the conversation there for now. Juliet was becoming more familiar with the timescale of Joel’s irritation.

They continued their hike, Juliet matching Joel’s speed as much as she could. Her thighs were screaming in pain but it was nothing compared to the ache of her shoulder.

She was worried the wound was becoming infected, the pain shouldn’t be increasing as the days went by, should it?

Joel had stitched the exit wounds closed the night she was shot, when she was thankfully heavily unconscious. However, his supplies, found in the decrepit ruins of the store, were obviously not as sanitary as they should have been and Juliet was becoming more and more anxious of her continuous waves of dizziness and hot flashes.

An infection was the worst case scenario. Antibiotics were like gold dust in today’s world and she no longer lived in the QZ where she could bribe or blackmail the medic workers for a few pills. No, in the outside world, infection meant almost certain death. Alarm pounded through her. Her death would mean Ethan would never be saved. Her death would mean Joel would never receive the remaining supplies he needed to reach his brother.

The burden of Juliet’s survival was overwhelming.

Juliet knew the best medicine for this situation was denial, so she burrowed the possibility of her impending death in a tight corner in the back of her mind and focused on Joel’s back as they made their way through the forest.

…………………………………………………………

They were about fifteen minutes out from Joel’s ‘friends’ place, their steps slowing as they neared their destination. Juliet was becoming increasingly anxious, she didn’t know anything about these people, didn’t know their intentions. To make matters worse, the pain in her shoulder had started to flash down her arm to her fingers. Juliet was sweating profusely and struggled to hide her panting from Joel’s questioning stares.

“What are their names?” Juliet asked, her voice a low croak.

Joel shot her a quick glance, his eyebrows furrowed at her dishevelled appearance. “Bill and Frank,” he replied.

“How did you meet them?” she pried, desperate to take her mind off the pain ricocheting around her body.

“Long story,” he said after a pause.

“Right,” Juliet whispered, it was futile trying to use Joel as a distraction.

They stayed silent again until they finally approached a tall metal fence expanding the perimeter of a massive property. Juliet could make out a row of large houses lining both sides of a street covered with fallen leaves. What was this place?

Joel’s already stiff body language had turned glacial as he approached the fence and typed in a quick four digit code. The door to the fence made a sharp buzzing noise before the lock popped open. Juliet glanced up at Joel, attempting to gauge his reaction and waiting to follow his lead but he stood entirely still, the now familiar veil of Joel’s survival instincts falling over his features.

Something was off.

Joel looked down at Juliet and caught her already staring up at him. He blinked and turned away, facing towards the small town, then he nodded and walked forward, holding the gate open for Juliet to pass through. His eyes said trust me as she passed. So she did.

They walked at a slow pace along the street. Juliet twitched to pull out her gun but she trusted that Joel knew what he was doing. She was confused, though. She knew that only two men were living here but it still felt too quiet. The stillness in the air was a crushing pressure that wrapped around the both of them. Joel kept walking until he abruptly stopped in front of a beautifully preserved two story house, the paint looked fairly new, the blend of blues and white creating a soft contrast against the dark brown of the door and window sills. It was magnificent, she was amazed that someone had put so much time and effort into maintaining its beauty. That was why she was so surprised when she noticed the overgrown garden and the dead plants lining the entryway onto the property. Why would someone put so much care into the maintenance of the house but forget to water the plants?

Juliet was startled from her thoughts when Joel slipped his gun from his back pocket and clicked the safety off. The usually quiet sound echoed around them in the silent street. Juliet looked to Joel with questions in her eyes which he answered with a low “Stay here” then he started to stride down the path to the front door. Juliet’s mouth dropped open slightly, astounded that Joel would ask her to wait behind. She rolled her eyes, took her gun out and followed after him.

They met at the front door, Joel let out a quiet but weighted sigh when he turned to find her standing next to him, then he reached out and turned the handle to the front door. They both raised their guns as they stepped through the doorway, Joel immediately moving forward to sweep the bottom floor as Juliet waited by the entryway to the dining room. There was a folded piece of paper lying on the dark wood of the extravagant dining table, along with two sets of cutlery and decaying bits of food left in ceramic bowls. Juliet froze, her mind travelling back to only days ago when she found a similar piece of paper lying on her own dining table. She swallowed and called for Joel.

He rounded the corner immediately, his eyes wide and jaw tense when he saw the paper Juliet pointed to. As he walked closer to it, Juliet noticed car keys sitting beside it on the table. Joel picked them up before opening the letter. Juliet was unsure what to do while Joel read the words written on the yellowing paper, she wanted to give him privacy but she was also desperate to know what had happened and what this would mean for their situation. She jumped when Joel suddenly dropped the paper on the table, pocketed the car keys and marched out the front door, letting it slam behind him. Juliet flinched at the sound.

She stepped forward and set her gun on the table, then tentatively picked up the letter, anxious to read the words which had caused such a reaction in Joel. She understood, though, when she read the first few sentences and knew that his friends were dead.

What confused her was the mention of a woman’s name she hadn’t heard Joel mention before: Tess. Juliet swallowed when she realised the implication of Bill’s words.

‘I leave you all of my weapons and equipment. Use them to keep Tess safe.’

She must have been close to Joel, close enough to both have a friendship with these men. Juliet couldn’t remember any mention of a Tess in the Boston QZ or a mention of Joel even having a partner. How long were they together for?

Juliet released a long, slow breath before she slumped into the dining chair at the head of the table. She thought about going after Joel but she didn’t know him well enough to comfort him or to predict his reaction to finding out that his friends had died. Juliet decided the safest thing to do, to avoid Joel’s potential wrath, was to sit quietly and rest her eyes. She was exhausted from the hike and the pulsating pain entirely covering the side of her body where the bullet wound resided. It was only seconds after she had closed her eyes when she felt a black numbness crash over her mind.

………………………………………………..

The feel of a burning hot hand pressed against her forehead woke her up, the world was foggy and Juliet’s eyes struggled to focus.

“Fuck, you’re burnin’ up,” a voice cursed. Nausea gripped her now, a gag rising in her throat as the hands that belonged to the rough voice tipped her forward, slid his arms under her and lifted her into the air. She was floating for only a second before she was placed on a cushioned surface that felt so comfortable Juliet wanted to drift off again.

“Hey ” the voice barked, a hand now tapping her cheek. “Stay awake.”

Juliet wanted to follow his instructions, she really did, but she was just so tired and so cold and the hand that touched her cheek was so warm. She pressed her face against it, a moan slipping from her lips. Instantly the hand pulled back and a low groan rang out in the blackness behind her eyelids.

“Shit,” the voice said. “I’ll be back in a second, don’t you dare fall asleep again.”

“Okay,” Juliet whispered as she urged the darkness to descend upon her again.

………………………………………………

She woke to solid arms lifting her body up in a seated position, careful to avoid her injured shoulder. Juliet opened her eyes with a sudden wince, where was her t-shirt? She was on a couch in only her bra, the wound on her shoulder now leaking blood and other fluids onto the strap.

“What? -” Juliet muttered and her head rolled to the side before it was caught by a rough hand.

“Shh” a sharp voice cut her off. “Open your mouth, now,” it commanded.

Juliet blinked a few times, her eyesight finally focusing, and the blurry form crouched in front of her became clearer.

Joel.

One hand cradled the back of Juliet’s head as the other held a large white pill against her mouth, urging her to part her lips. Joel’s face was so close, his pupils so dilated that his eyes looked almost entirely black. Juliet licked her lips then allowed them to fall open. Joel instantly dropped the pill on her tongue then reached for a glass of water which he helped her take a sip of before he gently held her mouth closed as she swallowed the tablet.

Juliet gasped as it slid down her throat, her eyes falling closed, and this time, Joel let them. His grip was firm but careful as he helped her lie flat on the couch again before he let go and moved to sit on the coffee table beside her.

Juliet’s eyelids fluttered open and her head rolled to the side as she watched Joel wipe a hand over his face and sigh. Her mind was so fuzzy, she couldn’t tell where they were or what time it was, but one thought pressed against her consciousness, keeping her awake…

“Joel?” she breathed, her voice a whisper.

“Who’s Tess?”

#joel miller x female oc #joel miller x reader #joel miller x original character #joel miller x oc #joel miller hbo #joel miller fanfic #joel miller angst #ao3 fanfic #joel miller #joel miller fic #Spotify #pedro pascal

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rustingcat · 1 year ago

Text

Season

Nature can't be controlled. Kara did try on several occasions, but time and the passing of the seasons can't be stopped. She tried that as well.

The babies' growth was nearly complete, and Kara felt like no time had passed while also feeling like it's been ages. Everything was ready for them, and now with a new room available for them in the house, they even made sure that the new home office doubled as a play room if needed. Of course there was the reason for the addition, the reason being Kara officially moving into Lena's room, their room.

Their new relationship status sure changed some things, she could wake up next to Lena each morning, kiss her whenever she liked, not feel guilty appreciating her – an act she did not even realise she was doing until she stopped – and just got to be open with her, fully open with her, in ways she couldn't before. But then on many fronts nothing had changed at all, their talks, dates, movie nights, their day to day life felt oddly the same, as if they were part way there and just needed the last little shove, which was probably true if Kara was honest with herself.

There were no major life threatening enemies, no major scandal, no political turmoil – all good things of course, but as the editor-in-chief of a major news company, Kara was bored. She was leaning against the office balcony hoping for something interesting to happen when her special alert went off.

The pods!

Kara was so excited about it that she managed to drop her phone twice while trying to unlock it. Opening the special app they made for the matrix, she saw the notification letting her know that pod number two was ready to be opened.

"Nia! You're gonna be a mum!" Kara may have run slightly faster than humanly possible to get to Nia's desk.

"Um, I know?" She replied in a confused tone.

"No, like right now!" Kara emphasised.

"Oh! Shit let's go!" Nia jumped to her feet, collecting things into her bag in a quick succession.

"Want a lift?"

"Yes, get me there as fast as you can! Oh wait, I need the baby bag."

"Brainy left it in the lab 5 days ago."

"God, I love this man. Okay, take me to my baby Kara!"

"Ahhh! Let's go!" She was practically jumping with pure glee.

Kara really tried to make Nia's flight as comfortable as possible, but she may have gone a bit faster than intended out of sheer excitement. Nia didn't seem to mind.

The pod was indeed flashing green, both Lena and Brainy were already typing away on the console.

"How…?"

"Teleporter," Lena answered before Kara could even ask.

"Anything we can do?" Nia asked in a plea.

"Kara, get the baby cart and beds, Nia, blankets." Lena quickly took control of the situation. "Brainy, how are we doing on starts?"

"First Apgar seems to be clean. Blood work is perfect and shots administered and I see no negative reactions. She's perfect."

"Alright, get ready for the drain."

Kara nodded, taking a quick x-ray look at the pipes to see they are properly connected before taking her place. They prepared for that in advance, practicing the events several times just in case. They even made sure the room temperature would be slightly higher than normal so it wouldn't contrast too much from the temperature in the pod. The water got drained slowly, revealing a tiny little light green skinned baby with a shaggy brown patch of hair. Kara collected the infant with the soft towel to drain away the remaining liquid and moved her to the blanket Lena had prepared in advance.

Kara passed the baby to her new mother who was already crying before she even held her. Brainy was not faring better, drying away his own tears on his sleeve as he stood behind his wife and admired his new daughter.

Kara shared a look with Lena. They smiled at each other, both relieved everything went alright, and just very thrilled for their friends. Friends who probably deserved a moment alone.

"I'm gonna make some calls to start your maternity leave," Kara announced as she headed to the door.

"I'll call the national city hospital to register her." Lena lifted her own phone from across the lab door." Just before I go, does she have a name yet?" Lena asked still in a professional tone just as she approached the door.

Nia and Brainy shared a joyful look.

"Nellie. Nellie Nal." Brainy announced.

Lena exited the room with her just as Kara finished sending the mail to HR. She already had hers prepare in advance as well, along with a temporary replacement she was training.

"I can't believe she's here." Lena dropped her professional in control act the moment she met Kara's gaze.

"I know," Kara nodded, her eyes becoming blurry as she pulled Lena for a hug.

She held her girlfriend tightly, focusing herself on Lena's smell and touch to ground herself. They noticed Nellie's faster development early on, they hypothesised it was due to her Coluan genes, so they knew she would probably be born before the twins, but Kara couldn't help but be a little bit jealous she was here before them.

"Alright," Lena wiped away a small tear as they pulled away from the hug. "I should probably notify the hospital," she gestured to the phone and data pad in her hand.

Kara nodded, and put a small curl behind Lena’s ear.

Lena smiled and kissed her softly before walking away to make the call.

Kara filled out a couple of glasses with water and walked back in the lab, hoping the young couple had enough alone time with their daughter. Nellie was laying on top of her mother as her father prepared a bottle for her. Kara melted a bit at the sight.

Nia noticed her first, smiling as she whispered to her daughter. "Hey Nellie, do you want to meet your aunt Kara?"

And there were the tears again. Nellie was perfect indeed. Eyes closed, the little infant waved her little hand with her even tinier fingers and Kara's heart skipped a bit.

She looked at Nia dead in the eye and announced, "she is the cutest little thing ever."

Nia chuckled and agreed.

When Lena returned they did another set of small tests and sent the happy family home.

Lena pulled her closer that night and promised that they'll meet them soon. Kara couldn't wait.

Read everything in order on AO3

#we're getting to the end #are you ready?#im not #send help #supercorp #supergirl #kara danvers #lena luthor #supercorptober #supercorptober2023 #my art #my fic

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mariacallous · 1 month ago

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For the apotheosis of his entire “poisoning of the blood” campaign, Donald Trump has planned a spectacular extravaganza in Madison Square Garden on 27 October, a week before the election. When JD Vance sings Trump’s fulsome praises to introduce him, his ominous tribute will not inspire comparison to the night in the Garden of 19 May 1962, when Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday, Mr President to John F Kennedy.

Trump’s climactic rally will not be in the spirit of any past presidential event ever held there. His gathering for the great racist replacement theory will be the culmination of his spiraling descent since the Charlottesville rally in 2017 when neo-Nazis chanted, “Jews will not replace us.” “Fine people on both sides,” Trump said then. Now, at his night at the Garden, Trump will revive the memory of the infamous American Nazi mass rally held there on 20 February 1939 through his reflected Hitlerian rhetoric.

In the last week, Trump has pledged to deploy the military against “the enemy within”, domestic opponents he claims are worse than foreign adversaries – those Hitler called “Feind des Volkes”, or “enemy of the people”. Trump has threatened to destroy CBS, ABC and the New York Times. About ABC, after it conducted the debate in which he performed disastrously, he called to “take away their license”. After Kamala Harris’s 60 Minutes interview, having refused his own, he tweeted on 10 October: “TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE.” About the Times, he said on 9 October: “Wait until you see what I’m going to do with them.” He has singled out by name journalists for the Times and the New Yorker as “FAKE OBAMA LOVING ‘JOURNALISTS”. At every rally he denounces the “fake news”, a drumbeat for years, echoing Hitler’s pejorative slur, “die Lügenpresse” – “the lying press”.

Trump traveled on 11 October to Aurora, Colorado, where he claimed a Venezuelan gang had seized control, “scum” and “animals” who have “invaded and conquered” and “infected” the town, a description dismissed as false by its Republican mayor. “We have to clean out our country,” said Trump. His language represented the Nazi idea of “Rassenhygiene” – “race cleansing” that required purification, not an academic interest in genetics but a program of eugenics for designating inferior races to be isolated or eliminated.

As Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, “A people that fails to preserve the purity of its racial blood thereby destroys the unity of the soul of the nation in all its manifestations. A disintegrated national character is the inevitable consequence of a process of disintegration in the blood.”

The former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, retired general Mark Milley, according to Bob Woodward in his new book War, told the veteran journalist: “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump. Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.” Trump had stated that for Milley’s communication with his counterparts in China on January 6 to reassure them that the US military was stable, he deserved “DEATH” – to be executed.

On 14 October, retired general Mike Flynn – Trump’s former national security adviser, whom he pardoned for failing to register as a foreign agent and obstructing justice – was asked at a Christian nationalist rally for Trump whether he would preside over military tribunals in a second Trump term to “not only drain the swamp, but imprison the swamp, and on a few occasions, execute the swamp”. “Believe me,” Flynn replied, “the gates of hell – my hell – will be unleashed.”

Trump has been inevitably drawn to the Garden, in the city that made and unmade him. He is irreversibly entrapped in his endless neurotic syndrome of desperately seeking approval there that he constantly repels and success he inexorably undermines, a cycle of failure, rejection and humiliation. He wants New York to love him unreservedly, but his relationship with the city has been one long unrequited romance. His true love affair has always and only been with himself. When he does not receive the adoration he feels he deserves, he hates New York. Then, he tries to win its love again by performing a disgusting act, which, when he is predictably rejected, triggers his anger once again. And, then, he engages in gestures of infantile defiance, like holding a Nazi-esque rally. Trying to show himself triumphant over the city, he invites its scorn once again, and again, and again. He never comprehends that he is the cause of his continuing narcissistic injuries.

Trump’s rally, through the rhyme of history, will be a rebuke to the greatest campaign speech delivered by Franklin D Roosevelt, which, though given 88 years ago in the Garden on 31 October 1936, rings remarkably contemporary, a speech for “the restoration of American democracy” and its “preservation”.

“We have not come this far without a struggle and I assure you we cannot go further without a struggle,” FDR said. “We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me – and I welcome their hatred.”

Three years after FDR spoke at the Garden, another rally was held there, on 20 February 1939, under the sponsorship of the German American Bund, raising the slogan of “America First”, to advance the great replacement theory that Jews and other “inferior races” were displacing white Aryans. The Nazis claimed the mantle of true Americanism and Christian nationalism. Swastikas framed a gigantic portrait of George Washington as the backdrop to the stage. From the balcony hung a banner: “Stop Jewish Domination of Christian America.” “Wake up!” shouted the Führer of the Bund, Fritz Kuhn, “you, Aryan, Nordic and Christians, to demand that our government be returned to the people who founded it!”

Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, the Bund’s public relations director, declared that white supremacy was the essential basis of the nation. “The spirit which opened the west and built our country is the spirit of the militant white man,” he said, citing racial segregation and immigration quotas as its bulwarks. “It has then always been very much American to protect the Aryan character of this nation.”

In 2019, a seven-minute documentary about the Nazi rally of 1939, A Night at the Garden, was nominated for an Academy Award. To promote it, a 30-second TV ad was produced with the tagline: “It Can Happen Here.” The line was a reference to Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel, It Can’t Happen Here, about a populist demagogue defeating FDR and imposing a fascist regime. Lewis’s wife, the famous journalist Dorothy Thompson, a columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, who had reported on the rise of Hitler, pointedly attended the Nazi rally. “I saw an exact duplicate of it in the Berlin Sports Palast in 1931,” she wrote.

When the film distributor of A Night at the Garden sought to buy time for a spot on Fox News, its CEO, Suzanne Scott, rejected it as “not appropriate for our air”. After the 2020 election, during Trump’s ramping up to the January 6 insurrection, she ordered that Fox News suppress factchecking his lies because it was “bad for business”.

Now, in his announcement of his night at the Garden, Trump advertised a clipped version of the replacement theory, declaring that New York was “reeling” from “Kamala’s reckless open-border policies”, “flooding” the city with criminal “illegal migrants”. For nearly a $1m contribution to attend the event, the top tier, donors are promised an “Ultra MAGA Experience”, details to follow.

Trump’s Maga rally will be the first time since the 1939 Nazi rally that the same themes of the replacement theory will echo in the Garden. But his closing argument is more than Nazi cosplay. He cannot help but reveal his deepest desire to be loved and then to fling the middle finger to the city whose unconditional admiration he has sought since he first crossed the Queensboro Bridge.

Trump’s permanent physical move to Palm Beach after his failed coup in 2020 has not transformed him into a contented Florida Man. To the inveterate New Yorker, the Sunshine state is strictly for snowbirds, God’s waiting room for shuffleboarders. Mar-a-Lago, his winter escape, has become his unnatural embittering palace-in-exile. Florida represents disgrace to Trump.

Trump’s emotional journey back to the White House must travel through New York. He has nothing but contempt and indifference for Washington. He despises policy, flaunts his ignorance and detests anyone who has ever tried to temper him, from four-star generals to Republican congressional leaders. He wants the pomp without the circumstance. January 6 played out Trump’s true view of the capital.

Trump plots his night at the Garden as the climax of his comeback tour. He may have been president, but never top of the heap. Roy Cohn could tell him how to skirt the law and ingratiate himself with the mob, but Cohn was not a Virgil to guide his protege to respectability. Trump’s lowlife publicity antics, tutored by Cohn, made him into one of the revolving cast of characters populating tabloid trash. The larger the headline of the sordid story about himself, the bigger Trump’s delusion that kitsch burnished his class. He was always crestfallen when his frolics did not win his admission into the club.

Trump has only been truly comfortable strutting in his old New York, conning and threatening, greasing the palms of the mafia, stiffing his contractors and workers, while trying to buy his way into society affairs. Time and again, the city spat him out. He was ridiculed and reviled. He went bust six times. He defaulted on the Trump Shuttle. The banks denied him loans. He had to sell his yacht named for his daughter, The Princess. His brutish father, who financed his wild ventures, throwing good money after bad, had to buy chips illegally to momentarily float his sinking Atlantic City casino. He dumped two wives. He allegedly sexually assaulted dozens of women. When he tried to lowball Frank Sinatra, an idol, Ol’ Blue Eyes told him, “Go fuck yourself.”

After Trump had plunged in what seemed to be his final bankruptcy, he was rescued by a TV producer, Mark Burnett, who created the reality TV show The Apprentice, which depicted Trump as a business genius reigning over the Manhattan skyline. The sheer fiction was the veneer that enabled his grubby lucrative product placement side deals. His motive for running for president was a branding scam gone haywire.

Now, he has returned to the city on his road to redemption. Yet, so far, he has been held accountable for his vast crimes only in New York. He has been found liable for defamation and sexual assault and termed an adjudicated rapist by the judge in the E Jean Carroll case, and ordered to pay $83.3m in damages plus continuing interest; found liable of widespread financial fraud and ordered to pay $364m for ill-gotten gains plus continuing interest; and convicted of 34 felony counts of financial fraud for hush-money payments, to a porn star and Playboy model with whom he had affairs, in order to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

Once again, he intends to prove himself in the city that never sleeps, the city that will give him another shot at murdering someone on Fifth Avenue and getting away with it. A star is reborn.

These little town blues are melting away I’m gonna make a brand-new start of it in old New York And if I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere It’s up to you, New York, New York

Trump now says that if he loses he will blame the unappreciative Jews – he hasn’t been “treated right” by the Jews and their support for Democrats is a “curse”. But Trump, who has picked up a few Yiddish words, uses them unconsciously like a native New Yorker. On 2 January 2021, he displayed his proficiency in his notorious telephone call with the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in which he sought to intimidate him into committing election fraud to switch the state’s voting results.

“So look,” said Trump. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”

Raffensperger resisted Trump’s strong-arming, the Georgia outcome stood, and four days later Trump incited the assault on the Capitol in a last-ditch effort to thwart the certification of the election: “Hang Mike Pence!” Trump has since been indicted in Georgia for election fraud, a case in legal purgatory until after the 2024 election.

Twice, during his call with Raffensperger, Trump derided the Republican governor, Brian Kemp, who refused to be complicit in Trump’s scheme, by calling him a “schmuck”. Perhaps the word was lost on Trump’s listeners. According to Leo Rosten’s The Joy of Yiddish, it carries several meanings, including “penis” and “a dope, a jerk, a boob, a clumsy bumbling fellow”. Rosten wrote that “few impolite words express comparable contempt”.

Now, New Yorkers can only wonder, what kind of schmuck holds a Nazi-esque rally in Madison Square Garden?

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mightyflamethrower · 5 months ago

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California has become a test case of the suicide of the West. Never before has such a state, so rich in natural resources and endowed with such a bountiful human inheritance, self-destructed so rapidly.

How and why did California so utterly consume its unmatched natural and ancestral inheritance and end up as a warning to Western civilization of what might be in store for anyone who followed its nihilism?

The symptoms of the state’s suicide are indisputable.

Governor Gavin Newsom enjoyed a recent $98 billion budget surplus—gifted from multibillion-dollar federal COVID-19 subsidies, the highest income and gas taxes in the nation, and among the country’s steepest sales and property taxes.

Yet in a year, he turned it into a growing $45 billion budget deficit.

At a time of an over-regulated, overtaxed, and sputtering economy, Newsom spent lavishly on new entitlements, illegal immigrants, and untried and inefficient green projects.

Newsom was endowed with two of the wettest years in recent California history. Yet he and radical environmentalists squandered the water bounty—as snowmelts and runoff long designated for agricultural irrigation were drained from aqueducts and reservoirs to flow out to sea.

Newsom transferred millions of dollars designated by a voter referendum to build dams and aqueducts for water storage and instead blew up four historic dams on the Klamath River. For decades, these now-destroyed scenic lakes provided clean, green hydroelectric power, irrigation storage, flood control, and recreation.

California hosts one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients. Over a fifth of the population lives below the property line. Nearly half the nation’s homeless sleep on the streets of its major cities.

The state’s downtowns are dirty, dangerous, and increasingly abandoned by businesses—most recently Google—that cannot rely on a defunded and shackled police.

Newsom’s California has spent billions on homeless relief and subsidizing millions of new illegal migrant arrivals across the state’s porous southern border.

The result was predictably even more homeless and more illegal immigrants, all front-loaded onto the state’s already overtaxed and broken healthcare, housing, and welfare entitlements.

Newsome raised the minimum wage for fast-food workers to $22 an hour. The result was wage inflation rippling out to all service areas, unaffordable food for the poor, and massive shut-downs and bankruptcies of fast food outlets.

Twenty-seven percent of Californians were born outside of the United States. It is a minority-majority state. Yet California has long dropped unifying civic education, while the bankrupt state funds exploratory commissions to consider divisive racial reparations.

California’s universities are hotbeds of ethnic, religious, and racial chauvinism and infighting. State officials, however, did little as its campuses were plagued for months by rampant and violent anti-Semitism.

Almost nightly, the nation watches mass smash-and-grab attacks on California retail stores. Carjackers and thieves own the night. They are rarely caught, even more rarely arrested—and almost never convicted.

Currently, Newsom is fighting in the courts to stop the people’s constitutional right to place on the ballot initiatives to restore penalties for violent crime and theft.

Gas prices are the highest in the continental United States, given green mandate formulas and the nation’s highest, and still raising, gasoline taxes—and are scheduled to go well over $6 a gallon.

Yet its ossified roads and highways are among the nation’s most dangerous, as vast sums of transportation funding were siphoned off to the multibillion-dollar high-speed rail boondoggle.

The state imports almost all the costly vitals of modern life, mostly because it prohibits using California’s own vast petroleum, natural gas, timber, and mineral resources.

As California implodes, its embarrassed government turns to the irrelevant, if not ludicrous.

It now outlaws natural gas stoves in new homes. It is adding new income-based surcharges for those who dutifully pay their power bills—to help subsidize the 2.5 million Californians who simply default on their energy bill with impunity.

What happened to the once-beautiful California paradise?

Millions of productive but frustrated, overtaxed, and underserved middle-class residents have fled to low-crime, low-tax, and well-served red states in disgust

In turn, millions of illegal migrants have swarmed the state, given its sanctuary-city policies, refusal to enforce the law, and generous entitlements.

Meanwhile, a tiny coastal elite, empowered by $9 trillion in Silicon Valley market capitalization, fiddled while their state burned.

California became a medieval society of plutocratic barons, subsidized peasants, and a shrinking and fleeing middle class. It is now home to a few rich estates, subsidized apartments, and unaffordable middle-class houses.

California suffers from poorly ranked public schools—but brags about its prestigious private academies. Its highways are lethal—but it hosts the most private jets in the nation.

The fantasies of a protected enclave of Gavin Newsom, Nancy Pelosi, and the masters of the Silicon Valley universe have become the abject nightmares of everyone else.

In sum, a privileged Bay Area elite inherited a California paradise and turned it into purgatory.

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cleanwaterchronicles · 2 years ago

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Road salt, a stealthy pollutant, is damaging Michigan waters

In a dim hangar outside of Traverse City, towering piles of white crystals cast a glow in the twilight.

Salts like those stored at the Grand Traverse County Road Commission maintenance facility keep Michigan roads, parking lots, and sidewalks clear of ice in the winter, a prudent safety measure for motorists and pedestrians. The mobility benefits of salt for a car-centric society, though, have an undesirable environmental side effect that has built up over decades of use: extensive damage to ecosystems and infrastructure.

Chloride -- the catch-all term for salts -- does not discriminate. It hurts mayflies and freshwater mussels, taking out species at the base of the freshwater food chain. It acts as a chemical instigator, loosening metals and nutrients that are otherwise bound in sediment and freeing them to flow downstream, thus feeding toxic algae in troubled places like Lake Erie. As with sun on skin, excess salt accelerates infrastructure aging. The metals and concrete in bridges, roads, and cars deteriorate faster when exposed to salts.

The state issued its first water quality standards for chloride in 2019. Not written with infrastructure in mind, the standards are intended to protect fish, insects, and other freshwater species. But the state has not yet translated those standards into a plan for limiting chloride in the eight stream sections that already exceed the limit.

Developing those pollution diets takes years. In the interim, state regulators this year are directly asking municipalities with storm sewer systems to outline steps for controlling salt runoff from roads. Roads, however, are only part of the problem. Salt applied to parking lots and sidewalks also enters streams and groundwater. But regulators say that municipalities do not have the staff or budgets to oversee salt application on private property. In part, this is a consequence of state court rulings that have deterred cities from creating agencies to manage pollutants that are flushed from paved surfaces.

The best way to deal with salt pollution is to bar it entry -- not to allow it in the water in the first place. By and large, that outcome will rely on the widespread and voluntary adoption of salt-reducing practices by road agencies, shopping mall owners, apartment complex managers, and homeowners. Reducing salt use also hinges on societal shifts: public acceptance in urban areas of slower winter driving speeds and less driving in hazardous weather.

“You can think of chloride as a permanent pollutant in the water,” said Christe Alwin of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. “Once it’s there, there’s very little opportunity to treat it.”

(Photo © J. Carl Ganter/Circle of Blue)

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, the landmark federal law that intended to give new life to waterways that were fouled by all manner of chemical and bacterial pollutants. The goal was to make rivers and lakes fishable and swimmable once again. The law, part of a package of national environmental reforms in the early 1970s, was transformative. By mandating pollution controls on wastewater treatment plants and industrial facilities, it marked a new era of environmental stewardship -- an era in which rivers and lakes were viewed not as dumping grounds but as civic assets that fostered recreation, ecological rebirth, and economic development.

Despite undeniable progress, substantial impediments to clean water remain. The law did little to stanch the flow of dispersed pollution that comes from roads, lawns, and farms. More waters today are fishable and swimmable, particularly in major metropolitan regions. But many, especially streams and rivers that drain agricultural regions, still are not. The consequences are measured in toxic algal bloom dead zones, human sickness, and the rising cost of water treatment.

Urban Areas on a High-Sodium Diet

A little salt can cause a lot of harm. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends water quality standards for rivers and lakes to prevent death and damage to fish, mussels, insects, and other aquatic species. For chloride, the EPA determined the threshold at which long-term damage could occur to be 230 milligrams per liter. That equals about one teaspoon of salt in five gallons of water.

Michigan has been slow to react to the salinization of its fresh water. The Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy finalized water quality values for chloride only in 2019, three decades after the federal EPA published guidelines. Based on the numbers, EGLE determined last year that eight stream sections exceed the state threshold for chronic exposure, which is 150 milligrams per liter.

Those streams -- largely in the urban areas of southeast Michigan -- include the Shiawassee River (Genesee County), Thread Creek (Genesee County), Sashabaw Creek (Oakland County), Bishop Creek and the Upper Rouge River (Rouge River watershed), Belle River (St. Clair County), Rush Creek (Ottawa County), and County Line Drain (Arenac/Iosco County), which also exceeded the sulfate standard.

The next step for those stream sections is a regulatory tool known as a total maximum daily load, or TMDL, which caps pollution discharges. However, there is no timeline yet for developing the pollution diet for those streams, according to Kevin Goodwin, an aquatic biology specialist at EGLE.

It’s no mystery where most of the salts are coming from. Water softeners and fertilizers are sources of chloride, but the major contributor, Goodwin and others said, are the salts spread on roads, parking lots, and sidewalks to keep the pavement free from ice.

Salinization of streams is a problem across the United States, where at least 20 million tons of salt were used in 2021 for highway deicing. The U.S. Geological Survey studied 19 streams in eight states and the District of Columbia, including five Great Lakes states. The researchers found that chloride levels related to road salt increased in 84 percent of sampled streams. Increases were especially notable in urban areas with a large percentage of paved surfaces.

Those findings have been replicated at the state and local level. EGLE found chloride hot spots that align with high concentrations of highways and housing developments. The Huron River, a 900-square-mile watershed in southeast Michigan that flows through Ann Arbor, is one such area. For the last two decades the Huron River Watershed Council has tested streams for pollutants. Volunteers and staff now regularly take water samples from about 40 or 50 sites in the watershed, according to Ric Lawson, a watershed planner.

“We see that we have much higher [chloride] levels in our urban drainages,” Lawson said.

Following up on its stream samples, the Huron River Watershed Council did additional investigation at sites with abnormally high chloride levels. Were those salts coming from a particular source? Were there, as Lawson put it, any “smoking guns?”

In short, the council didn’t find any -- no leakage from a salt storage facility, no obvious surface runoff. No smoking guns. “So it does appear it’s been broad-based, long-term application,” Lawson said, referring to the salt source. “And probably, the salts moving through groundwater are how it's getting to the surface waters.”

Broad-based is the classic definition of non-point pollution. It’s the type of threat that the Clean Water Act, which focused on pollution coming from a pipe, is not at all equipped to address. The law exempts most sources of such pollution from regulation and oversight. That’s why non-point pollution is a long-term problem. Curbing it requires, in the case of salt, a voluntary change in practices.

Less Bounce, Less Scatter

Michigan’s ground transportation network is a lattice of roughly 122,000 miles of roads. To maintain these surfaces, the state’s road agencies balance three competing objectives, said Gregg Brunner, director of the Bureau of Field Services for the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT). Mobility, cost, and environmental protection.

Salt -- the sodium chloride form, in fact -- is the cheapest, most effective deicing agent available, Brunner said. On that measure it beats out magnesium chloride and potassium chloride.

A non-chloride option -- calcium magnesium acetate -- is on the market. But it costs about 40 times more than sodium chloride, which is mined locally, from deposits beneath Lake Erie.

The primary objective for MDOT and other road maintenance agencies is to use less of it. In pursuit of that goal, they participated in a work group to help EGLE develop salt management guidelines. Published in 2021, the guidelines are a compilation of voluntary “best management practices” that road agencies should strive to implement. The County Road Association of Michigan, which represents the 83 county road agencies, published a similar guide based on a survey of its members.

Read the complete article here

Source: Bridge Michigan

#pollution #protectourwaterways #friends of the rouge #clintonriverwatershed #huronriverwatershed #salt #calciummagnesiumacetate #protectourplanet #flintriverwatercoalition #cleanwater #environmentaleducation #pollution prevention

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rabbitcruiser · 2 years ago

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National Windmill Day

Drive out to windmill country, or read up about the history of windmills and how they can provide clean, sustainable energy by harnessing Earth’s natural power.

Most people love them because there’s something absolutely bucolic about their squat structures and the gentle creak of their fins as these wooden structures spin in the natural wind currents. Of course, that describes the old fashioned kind of windmill. The newer, modern versions take on some different characteristics, of course.

Windmills have been around for a very long time, since the time when people first realized it was possible to harness the power of the wind to perform work and provide energy. Ever since new innovations have been made with the ability to utilize the never-ending source of power that windmills capture.

National Windmill Day commemorates the origins of the windmill as well as how it has helped to shape technology and industry from the past and into the future. It’s time to learn about and celebrate National Windmill Day!

History of National Windmill Day

The idea of capturing the power of the wind to perform work isn’t new and, in fact, it goes back far further into history than most people would suspect. Since then, its use has sprung up in multiple cultures throughout the world.

Heron of Alexandria, who lived in the first century AD, was the earliest person known to have harnessed the energy of moving air to perform work, using a very primitive device to power, of all things, a musical instrument: the organ. The people of Persia also developed more traditional windmills, though they had a different orientation than the ones most people typically think of when hearing the word ‘windmill’.

Some historians think that the Persian models were the inspiration for the vertical models that were developed later on in the middle ages. The evidence of one of the oldest windmills that remains today can be found in Weedley, Yorkshire, England and is said to have been built in 1185. As is commonly depicted in media, these machines were used primarily to grind grain, and have been for many centuries since that time.

Recently though, at least in the last 150 years or so, there’s been a growing movement to use windmills in another fashion entirely. The power of the wind can be harnessed to turn giant wind turbines which in turn generate clean, and virtually unlimited, renewable energy.

Windmills have been around for a long long time, and while they may seem like primitive tech, they’ve moved into the world as hope for a clean future. Along with solar, bio-fuel, and fuel cells, windmills are working to save the environment.

National Windmill Day Timeline

644 AD First reference to windmills

Beginning as horizontal mills with woven reed blades that radiate from a vertical axis, these first windmills are built in Persia.

11th Century AD Windmills are used for food production

In the Middle East, windmills are used to help produce food and the ideas are then taken to Europe by merchants and crusaders.

1300s Windmills are used to drain water

The Dutch people of the Netherlands realize that the water from their low-lying areas can be drained using windmills.

1600s Windmills are introduced to the New World

When the Dutch colonize New Amsterdam (now called New York City), they bring their windmill designs with them

1887 First large scale power generating wind turbine

Charles F. Brush builds a huge 60-foot windmill with a whopping 144 blades in Cleveland, Ohio.

How to Celebrate National Windmill Day

Learn More About Windmills

Well perhaps to first thing to do is start by reading up on the topic of windmills. One of the best things that can be done to celebrate the day is to get more educated on the history of windmills, to begin learning how they’re helping us today, and even to share that information with others. As one of the fastest growing sources of energy in the world, it’s worth learning more about!

Here are some interesting facts about windmills:

The first modern version of the wind turbine was built in Vermont, USA in the 1940s. Its success was not long lived due to war shortages and the next time a windmill would rival it in size would be in 1979.

Hawaii, USA hosts the world’s largest wind turbine, which is the height of a 20 story building and its blades are the length of a football field.

Offshore wind is particularly effective. In Europe, one offshore wind turbine (located in the water) can power more than 1500 homes.

Read Don Quixote

Famous (or perhaps, infamous) for his mistake in thinking that windmills are giant monsters, Don Quixote bravely rides toward them to do battle and, of course, eventually gets knocked off his horse. This is just one of the many beloved and memorable scenes in this classic novel by Spanish author, Miquel de Cervantes, published in 1606.

Visit Holland for National Windmill Day

While not necessarily the first place to house windmills, Holland (now known as The Netherlands) has a long history with them as they were the first place to use them to move water from low lying lands. In fact, the second Saturday and Sunday in May (because one day just isn’t enough!) are celebrated in Holland as “National Mill Day”, which is called Molendag in Dutch. This is a day when 950 windmills and watermills will open their doors to the public for visitors to see their inner workings first hand and learn more about them. Plus, many of them will also host fun events for the local community and tourists alike.

Whether in Amsterdam or throughout the rest of this country filled with canals and waterways, the windmills are stunning. It’s even possible to go on a bike tour of the mills to visit some of the most beautiful, iconic and picturesque mills in the world!

Those who find other countries in Europe to be more accessible can celebrate National Windmill Day in the United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland and other countries, where it is often referred to as National Mills Day.

Watch Some Windmills

For those who happen to live in an area that has a single windmill or a whole windmill farm, it might be fun and interesting to go out and watch them turn, turn, turn… (Are we the only one hearing that song now?) More and more communities are dotting them about the landscape as a sustainable source of power. As you gaze upon and contemplate just how important these are to a bright, pollution-free future for our children, enjoy watching their soothing motion and consider their history too.

National Windmill Day FAQs

How do windmills work?

Wind turbines use their large blades to collect kinetic energy as the wind flows over the blades to create “lift”.

Do windmills make noise?

Windmills do emit a characteristic noise, mainly generated by the movement of the blades, but the noise is generally weak.

Are windmills renewable energy?

Wind is an emissions-free source of energy that has fewer effects on the environment than many other energy sources.

Do windmills create electricity?

Yes! Wind turns the propellers of the windmill around a rotor that, in turn, spins a generator to create electricity.

How much do windmills cost?

The standard windmill costs around $2-4 million with another $40-50,000 in per year in operation and maintenance.

Source

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iamazadkhan · 2 years ago

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India's Water Scarcity Expected To Get More Severe By 2050: UN Report

Pic Source: https://www.circleofblue.org/2019/india/groundwater-plummets-in-delhi-city-of-29-million/

To Start the Discussion

The nation that pumps the most groundwater has come to terms with its food and water security, which threatens to undermine political and economic stability as well as long-term public health. Circle of Blue uncovers how a nation of 1.3 billion people is inviting disease, economic suffering, and social instability by neglecting to safeguard its water in this special report, which builds on years of on-the-ground reporting. This post is included with the assumption on India's Water Scarcity Expected to Get More Severe By 2050. Have a look on the discussion for detailed information. A food supply "toxic time bomb" with global repercussions goes hand in hand with the depletion and poisoning of groundwater. Farmers use untreated wastewater that is mixed with sewage and industrial chemicals when irrigation wells run dry. The water changed from sustaining life to claiming it, as one villager put it.

A Wide Range of Issues

Delhi is making an effort to meet the demands of tens of millions of people by building new infrastructure on top of water systems that were created centuries ago, like other worldwide megacities, some of which are the size of small nations. Historically, the city relied on a network of check dams, step wells, and natural drains for its water supply. In this arrangement, rainwater was collected during the monsoon season and used all year round. Its historic network was neglected as a result of the metro area's recent decades of rapid growth, which has seen its population surpass 29 million, according to the UN. The majority of the city's natural drainage systems have been covered over or blocked by rubbish. Either lakes or other bodies of water have dried up, or they are now clogged with trash and other pollution. According to Upmanu Lall, a professor at Columbia University and the head of the Columbia Water Center, "Sewers, where they exist, release untreated or inadequately treated water," he told Circle of Blue. According to Lall, seasonal floods also disperses toxins throughout the city's water supply. "There are many places that flood when there are no sewage systems, mobilizing everything on the ground." Delhi's surface water is in poor condition as well. The Yamuna River, a tributary of the Ganges, is used by locals for drinking, bathing, and washing. However, the river is a poisonous brew of industrial chemicals, agricultural runoff, and sewage. According to a recent study, 1,500 unlicensed slums' worth of sewage and feces are dumped right into the Yamuna. The government-owned Delhi Jal Board is in charge of managing the city's water distribution system. Eighty-one percent of Delhi households have some access to piped water, though the supply—which comes from the Yamuna River and the ground—isn't always dependable or clean. The water that enters the pipes frequently leaks out. Water loss in the city might reach 40% as a result of theft and leakage. Approximately 625,000 households do not have any connection to the city pipelines, according to the 2011 Census. These homes are mostly found in slums or unofficial settlements.

Closing the Discourse

Borewells or tanker trucks are used by millions of residents who are not adequately supplied by the city's water distribution system or are excluded from it. Illegal borewells are commonplace across the city, with some of them extending more than 120 meters. According to a report from March 2018, 15 of Delhi's 27 administrative divisions "overexploit" groundwater. There are additional variables at play in Delhi's impending groundwater issue besides illegal groundwater extraction. According to Lall, the Delhi metropolitan region includes its own capital territory and is bordered by the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, both of which regularly pump considerable amounts of groundwater for domestic use. The region's water users as a whole are taking groundwater more quickly than it is naturally replenishing. Read the full article

#indianmemoir #nation

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anothanobody · 2 years ago

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Wanna see C50 Mikasa’s monologue while giving birth or after. I wanna see how happy she is because she’s close to holding her baby, but there’s of her that’s depressed since Eren’s not besides her

Drabble. Cuz i haven’t done one in a while.

Sweat fully covered her body making her thin nightgown stick to her pale skin that by each contraction became even paler.

She wanted to break down crying just as much as she wanted her baby to get here.

Historia stood by her side, the only friend she could afford to have in the countryside given the political moment they were all in and that she left behind. She held her hand tightly as the midwives tried their best to their job.

The young queen could only keep her tears in as she supported her friend who she confided everything but the plan.

She bit down her lips as she heard her friend call for the man she knew most likely wouldn’t come back, she remembered the olán they had discussed before his departure, how he’d destroy the world and she would be the successor to lead on their nation.

She wouldn’t have ever imagined that barely a month later she would have seen Mikasa come live not far from her with a swollen belly filled of Eren’s child. She wants to yield then, she wanted to make them send a letter and tell him to retreat because while she gave up on her own beloved, Mikasa and Eren still had time, unlike her and Ymir.

She wanted to tell Mikasa, but further stress couldn’t be good. Certainly not when she was in labor. So she just watched and consoled her.

I want the pain to go away, I wanted you beside me, be the first one to hold our baby with me.

Why did you have to leave me without a single explanation about us?

Why did you leave after sharing a night with me?

Would you be mad that I gave up on you because I need to care for our child first? Would you understand? How couldn’t we live differently?

We were happy, we could have eloped together, we could have had our family if you hadn’t left me suddenly.

You should’ve been here.

Mikasa could only cry and scream as the midwives encouraged her to push, she felt her life being drained from her, the blood at the hems of her nightgown didn’t help the situation either. She wanted to give up.

She didn’t want to live here, in this painful world, she couldn’t bear it.

“Push Mrs. Yeager. Push, we can see the head.”

What are you doing out there alone? What are you doing while I push our child into this life?

Are you with someone else?

Can you feel the pull on your heart at this moment?

I always imagined. We would live in a cabin far away from problems and the noisy city. We would make more than a few rooms that we would knew even silently that would be for our children.

We would have our little pond and a small garden, we would live peacefully just close to a river to get us food.

With no care in the world.

That’s what we wanted to do. Was it?

But you left me. You left us.

“Ahhh! I can’t, I can’t, I can’t, Historia. I can’t.” She sobbed, she felt numb and couldn’t bear the pain she was feeling. The woman beside her could only keep her tears in, try to be strong for the two of them.

“Just a little and it will be over, Mikasa, I promise, you can’t give up now.” She said through her cracking voice.

“Y-You know where the letter is, promise to give it to him if it is necessary.” She asked her, Historia could only nod at her last request. In that letter directed to Eren, she explained everything in the opportunity she didn’t make it after the birth.

She screamed as she pushed. She screamed till acute cries accompanied hers.

Her heart beat became frantic. Her shoulder shook as tears of happiness fell down her eyes. Her weak arms reached out at the midwife holding her baby and cleaning it.

She cried, she begged for Eren to be there with her.

For a second she felt the ghost of a pair of lips at the side of her head. She felt his honeyed voice that would whisper at her every night.

“You’ve done well, my love, I’m so proud of you, I love you with everything in me, the babe is perfect.”

She cried as she felt the her babe against her skin in her arms.

A stupid smile coming up to her face.

This is your copy Eren, from the feature to the skin. It’s perfect. Nothing could compare the joy I feel now.

I’m sorry I gave up on you but this little one needs me more, we know what it’s like to grow up without parents, I want to at least be with the babe alone rather than leaving.

I’m sorry, Eren.

I hope you understand.

But I need you to come back, I need you to see how we created this beautiful little thing. Come back to us.

Please, come back to us.

She snuggled against the little one’s face, her lips to their forehead, kissing the slight tanned skin.

Historia cried on the side, feeling relief all over her that the bad part was done and she felt the radiating happiness in her friend.

Mikasa beamed, looking at her with a look Historia never saw in her. An illuminating smile, eyes full of life and flushed cheeks, she giggled as she held out her baby to let her see. “Our babe is perfect.” She giggled.

The midwives felt relief. They continued with their work but couldn’t help but tear up at the sweet moment of mother and child.

“Hi, little one, mommy is here.” She rocked it gently. Trying to tune down the fussy babe. “Shh… mommy will never leave and papa will come back, sooner or later. We will be a little family. I love you so much.” She kissed her baby.

On the other side of the sea, Eren couldn’t help but feel a feeling of restlessness in him, he read the letters over and over again, nothing out of the normal report, there were no news or personal affairs. He was tempted to ask about her because something in his heart felt heavy and unbearable.

He cried that night. How life was unfair to them, how the weight of the world fell on his shoulders… he didn’t want it. He just wanted to stay with her.

ngl it’s not as good as i imagined. but something like this i guess would happen.

#c50 au #anothanobody’s drabbles

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trashcamell · 1 year ago

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Not to be extremely rude but fuck you. Burning man isn’t just rich wealthy people. It’s also artists, writers, engineers, scientists, emts, waste disposal professionals and thousands of other people who gather every year to built a self sufficient city in the desert, that operates an economy that doesn’t exchange money. When it comes to Nevada it provides millions in revenue to the state in travel alone and becomes the third largest city.

Burning man is a massive undertaking only possible through volunteers and people who bring large art for people to enjoy, and most burners hate the wealthy people or ‘weekenders’ who show up for just the fun and to cosplay being poor.

Here’s a photo from a friend who collects all the trash found on playa and recycles it. It takes an entire city of volunteers to put burning man together and each and every portion of it is r a k e d clean- and if your ‘address’ or where you camp exists isn’t clean- you’re asked to never come back to the burn.

Not to mention- the whole point of the burn is to actually suffer and find yourself, it’s a survivalist event every year. Intense heat, wild wind storms and sandstorms ‘whiteouts’ everything is meant to challenge your endurance and push you to the limits of what you can handle physically and mentally. I lose ten pounds every time I’m there because of how draining it is.

You can argue that it’s wasteful in a lot of ways, but not any more so then Coachella, except participants at Coachella don’t fully clean their venue and create the experience. I’m a lot of ways burning man can improve by leaps and bounds but since it’s a community driven event it’s up to the community to do so. Why aren’t climate activists at other large festivals? I’m also pretty sure what you’re saying isn’t true- because getting out to burning man without a ticket just to protest isn’t really feasible.

I’m sure maybe some people could fuck on the plane but it’s actually pretty easy to fly a Cessna and rent one for the same thing- this just sounds like sour grapes really.

I also heard from members of the org that it’s not a national emergency and FEMA wasn’t called, which makes sense because no food is sold there- you pack and bring whatever you come with to eat and drink already- why would people need FEMA? They brought all their food for that week.

I’d love it if people could not be so quick to talk about places and experiences they know nothing about- if you’ve never been you’d have no idea how many people at the burn relished the experience that happened this year.

burning man 2023 explained

burning man is a festival for rich white people who want to smoke weed and trip acid in the nevada desert and pretend they're one with the earth. it's not a music festival or anything that serves any purpose, it's just vibes

a hundred year flash flood just hit nevada, including where burning man is being held this very weekend

dry desert ground can't suddenly absorb water, let alone that much water all at once, so now burning man is a giant mud pit with THICK deep mud

nobody can get in or out, so they closed all the roads

FEMA just told the *73,000 PEOPLE* stranded at burning man to shelter in place, ration food and water, and essentially "you're on your own, good luck"

the port-o-potties are overflowing into the mud they're all walking around in

the official CDC twitter account tweeted (and then deleted) that there's a confirmed ebola outbreak at burning man, but people are pretty sure it's just trench illnesses. like actual WWI trench illnesses

earlier this week, climate activists protested against burning man, and all the attendees drove right past them (and yelled at them, and tried to get them arrested, etc)

there's a private jet at burning man where people can join the mile high club. it just takes off and lands all day and lets people fuck in it. no word yet on the fuck plane's current status/location

and lastly: when the ground here gets wet, the sea monkeys hatch

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ecostardisposal · 20 days ago

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Benefits And Importance of Garbage Containers

If trash cans are effective, garbage containers reach the next level thanks to their usefulness in transporting large quantities of recyclable materials due to their optimal storage proportions. Brantford has not been oblivious to these products, and currently two types are handled within the national market for the benefit of the environment. Which ones is it talking about? Do they promote any benefit? These and other questions will be answered in the following article that for you.

Benefits of garbage containers

There are several benefits to using Garbage Containers for Rent in Brantford in both the domestic and industrial spheres. The analysis carried out on the conditions of rain, humidity and heat that vary greatly in a country like Brantford, requires companies to choose containers made of a resistant material, capable of facing these conditions and with a longer lifespan than a metal one, as it is not as vulnerable to corrosion.

Therefore, some of the first benefits are highlighted here:

Long service life

Since they are exposed to the elements most of the time, the so-called landfills can have a useful life of no less than 10 years depending on the thickness, composition and size of each container.

A healthier society

By not being exposed to garbage or in contact with animals, the sources of infection of viral diseases in a more social sector are reduced. In addition to this, proper garbage collection also promotes more orderly streets and avenues, giving the districts a visual appearance that they have never achieved before.

Favourable urban image

Continuing with the previous idea, using garbage containers correctly helps to keep the city cleaner. By not having garbage on the streets, it is prevented from being carried by the wind and rain and blocking drains or dirtying other avenues.

Dignity for the collectors

Using garbage bins reduces the risk to staff and prevents possible illnesses. What does this mean? It means that they are dignified for their effort, a job that makes them vulnerable by working and coming into direct contact with garbage. Sorting it will make their lives easier and will also make recycling tasks more immediate.

What is its importance?

Storing garbage is not just about throwing away waste. If you are part of a business group that cares about the environment, then you should do some training for your team to instil in them this responsibility. The bins must be sorted; mixing them will not only make their lifespan shorter, but you can also unintentionally spread all kinds of diseases due to poor maintenance. Cleaning them, then, is the central point for care.

Taking this into account, making use of your garbage containers will be a smart decision for environmental care, since their contribution is immense by the simple fact of organizing waste. That is why it is been said that containing garbage is not as easy as it is believed, because it is a fundamental step to reduce the consumption of natural resources. What makes it a key commodity over its smaller counterparts, having in its favor a point that makes the difference: its durability.

Quality containers If you want to get quality Garbage Containers for Rent in Brantford, then do not hesitate. Visit Ecostar Disposal website now. Find the best prices on the market with the seal of quality, punctuality and responsibility that only Ecostar Disposal can offer you. Ecostar Disposal can adapt all your needs.

#trash bin rental in Hamilton #rental of a dumpster in Hamilton #dumpster rental in Hamilton #dump bin rental in Hamilton #dumpster bin rental in Hamilton

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digitosispvtltd · 2 months ago

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Maximize Your Laptop's Performance: Essential Service and Maintenance Tips for Bangalorians

Living in Bangalore, where tech is a part of daily life, maximizing your laptop’s performance is essential for both work and play. Whether you’re working from home, studying at one of the city’s renowned colleges, or gaming with friends, a well-maintained laptop can make all the difference in your experience. With a mix of proper service, maintenance tips, and a few expert tricks, you can keep your device running smoothly and efficiently.

The Importance of Regular Maintenance

Statistics from a 2024 survey by TechJury show that about 62% of laptop users in urban areas like Bangalore experience performance issues at least once a year. Regular maintenance is crucial to avoid becoming part of that statistic. Not only does it enhance your laptop’s performance, but it also extends its lifespan, saving you money on repairs and replacements.

As Elon Musk once said “Any product that needs a manual to work is broken. But every electronic device needs regular care to keep working like new.”

Keep Your Software Updated

Keeping your operating system and software up-to-date is one of the simplest yet most effective ways to boost your laptop’s performance. Recent studies indicate that 54% of users delay updates, exposing themselves to vulnerabilities and bugs that can slow down their devices.

In Bangalore, where tech-savvy individuals frequently depend on their devices, automatic updates can help maintain optimal functionality. Always enable auto-updates to ensure your laptop is running the latest software version, providing security patches and performance improvements.

Clean Your Hardware Regularly

A clean laptop runs better. Dust can accumulate inside your laptop, obstructing airflow and leading to overheating. According to a 2023 report by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, overheating is responsible for approximately 35% of hardware failures.

In a city like Bangalore, where dust can be a common issue, make it a habit to clean your laptop’s exterior and keyboard regularly. Use a microfiber cloth and compressed air to blow out dust from the vents. If you notice your laptop heating up frequently, consider visiting the top rated Laptop Service Center in Bangalore, where professionals can help clean the internal components.

Manage Your Storage Wisely

Many users overlook storage management, which can significantly impact a laptop’s performance. A survey by IDC in 2024 found that 43% of laptop users in India run out of storage space, directly affecting their device’s speed. Regularly deleting unnecessary files and uninstalling unused applications can free up space and enhance performance.

Consider upgrading to an SSD if your laptop still has a traditional hard drive. SSDs are faster and more efficient, making them a popular choice among Bangalore’s tech enthusiasts.

Optimize Battery Health

Battery performance is essential for overall laptop functionality. According to a 2024 survey by Battery University, around 60% of laptop users report battery issues, which can lead to decreased productivity.

To prolong your battery’s life, avoid letting it drain completely and avoid overcharging. Utilizing power-saving modes when not plugged in can also help. Remember, in a bustling city like Bangalore, where commuting and working remotely are common, battery health can make or break your productivity.

Utilize Performance-Enhancing Software

There are numerous performance-enhancing tools available that can help you optimize your laptop. Built-in options like Disk Cleanup and Defragmenter are effective for Windows users. Third-party tools, such as CCleaner, can help remove junk files and optimize system performance.

Recent data from Gartner shows that 55% of users saw a noticeable performance boost after using optimization tools. For Bangalore residents who rely on their laptops for both work and entertainment, leveraging these tools can make a significant difference.

Regular Professional Servicing

While DIY maintenance is essential, professional servicing should not be overlooked. For residents in Bangalore, visiting a reliable service center is crucial. Look for the top most rated HP Laptop Service Center in Bangalore, top Lenovo Laptop Service Center in Bangalore, or the best Dell Laptop Service Center in Bangalore to ensure quality service. Professional technicians can address issues you might miss, such as hardware malfunctions or internal dust buildup.

Regular check-ups can identify potential problems before they escalate. A study by the Consumer Electronics Association noted that 75% of laptop failures could be prevented with routine professional maintenance.

Monitor Performance Metrics

Keeping an eye on your laptop’s performance can help you catch issues before they become serious problems. Windows Task Manager and macOS Activity Monitor are excellent tools for tracking CPU and memory usage.

According to Forrester Research, monitoring tools can lead to a 40% reduction in unexpected performance-related disruptions. In Bangalore’s fast-paced environment, being proactive can keep you ahead of the game.

Backup Your Data

Backing up your data is a non-negotiable part of laptop maintenance. A survey by Backblaze in 2024 revealed that 70% of laptop users have lost important data due to hardware failures. Utilizing cloud services like Google Drive or Dropbox can protect your files from loss and ensure your workflow is uninterrupted.

Conclusion

By following these essential tips, you can maximize your laptop’s performance and ensure it serves you well for years to come. Regular maintenance, software updates, and professional servicing play crucial roles in keeping your device in optimal condition. For those in Bangalore, make sure to visit Lapserve for expert assistance in maintaining your laptop’s performance. With the right care, your laptop can continue to meet the demands of your daily life, whether you're working hard or relaxing with your favourite show.

#top HP laptop service center in Bangalore #Top Lenovo laptop service center in Bangalore #Best Dell laptop service center in Bangalore #Top rated HP laptop service center in Bangalore #Top rated HP Service center in Bangalore #Top Lenovo service center in Bangalore #best Dell service center in Bangalore

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muiltifandomnerd · 4 months ago

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Robert F Kennedy Jr Policies

As president, one of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s top priorities will be to dissolve the corrupt merger of state and corporate power. That means freeing government agencies from the control of big corporations.

Install honest, competent leadership throughout the federal bureaucracy, agency by agency

Root out corruption and replace corporate-friendly agency leaders with reformers and whistleblowers dedicated to the national interest.

Shut the revolving door by executive order with a five year ban on administration officials lobbying their former government agency.

Make the agencies transparent to public view, so that the American people can once again have faith that their government works for them — not big corporations.

Raise the minimum wage to $15, which is the equivalent to its 1967 level.

Prosecute union-busting corporations so that labor can organize and negotiate fair wages.

Expand free childcare to millions of families with programs like that pioneered by the state of New Mexico.

Drop housing costs by $1000 per family and make home ownership affordable by backing 3% home mortgages with tax-free bonds.

Cut energy prices by restricting natural gas exports.

Support small businesses by redirecting regulatory scrutiny onto large corporations.

Secure the border and bring illegal immigration to a halt, so that undocumented migrants won’t undercut wages.

Negotiate trade deals that prevent low-wage countries from competing with American workers in a “race to the bottom.”

Rein in military spending and use the resources to fund infrastructure, health care, higher education, child care, and domestic prosperity.

Reverse the chronic disease epidemic that is a $3.7 trillion drag on families and the American economy.

Clean out the corruption in Washington, D.C., which funnels so much of our nation’s wealth to giant corporations and billionaires.

Establish addiction healing centers on organic farms across the country.

Make student debt dischargeable in bankruptcy and cut interest rates on student loans to zero.

Cut drug costs by half to bring them in line with other nations.

Tax-free 3% government-backed mortgage bonds, to bring the mortgage interest rate back to 2019 levels and even lower

Bring derelict land and buildings back online. Many cities have thousands of vacant lots and buildings that have been seized for tax arrears or other reasons. The Kennedy administration will incentivize local governments to bring city-owned land and buildings back onto the market.

As President, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will start the process of unwinding empire. We will bring the troops home. We will stop racking up unpayable debt to fight one war after another. The military will return to its proper role of defending our country. We will end the proxy wars, bombing campaigns, covert operations, coups, paramilitaries, and everything else that has become so normal most people don’t know it’s happening. But it is happening, a constant drain on our strength. It’s time to come home and restore this country.

In Ukraine, the most important priority is to end the suffering of the Ukrainian people, victims of a brutal Russian invasion, and also victims of American geopolitical machinations going back at least to 2014. We must first get clear: Is our mission to help the brave Ukrainians defend their sovereignty? Or is it to use Ukraine as a pawn to weaken Russia? Kennedy will choose the first. He will find a diplomatic solution that brings peace to Ukraine and brings our resources back where they belong. We will offer to withdraw our troops and nuclear-capable missiles from Russia's borders. Russia will withdraw its troops from Ukraine and guarantee its freedom and independence. UN peacekeepers will guarantee peace to the Russian-speaking eastern regions. We will put an end to this war. We will put an end to the suffering of the Ukrainian people. That will be the start of a broader program of demilitarization of all countries.

We have to stop seeing the world in terms of enemies and adversaries. As John Quincy Adams wrote, “Americans go not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” Kennedy will revive a lost thread of American foreign policy thinking, the one championed by his uncle, John F. Kennedy who, over his 1000 days in office, had become a firm anti-imperialist. He wanted to exit Vietnam. He defied the Joint Chiefs of Staff and refused to bomb Cuba, thus saving us from nuclear Armageddon. He wanted to reverse the imperialistic policies of Truman and Eisenhower, rein in the CIA, and support freedom movements around the world. He wanted to revive Roosevelt’s impulse to dissolve the British empire rather than take it over.

John F. Kennedy’s vision was tragically cut short by an assassin’s bullet. But now we have another chance. The country is ailing, yes, but underneath there is vitality still. America is a land rich in resources, creativity, and intelligence. We just need to get serious about healing our society, to become strong again from the inside.

America was once an inspiration to the world, a beacon of freedom and democracy. Our priority will be nothing less than to restore our moral leadership. We will lead by example. When a warlike imperial nation disarms of its own accord, it sets a template for peace everywhere. It is not too late for us to voluntarily let go of empire and serve peace instead, as a strong and healthy nation.

Zoning changes. We will encourage municipalities to change zoning laws to allow ancillary dwelling units (granny flats) on more properties, to make housing available, bring families together, and provide homeowners with rental income. More supply means lower prices.

Tax code changes. Small changes to the tax code can make corporate investments in single-family homes uneconomic. For example, we can change business depreciation rules and reform the “enterprise zones” that have contributed so much to gentrification.

control over the border. We will use technology that was installed at the border then dismantled by the Biden administration, such as cameras, lights, and motion detectors, coupled with physical barriers in key areas (there is no need to build a wall across the entire 2,000-mile border). We have the technology to prevent people from getting through undetected. We can control the border. We have the technology. We can deploy the personnel. All we need is the will. 

Get on top of asylum claims. We have to fully fund courts, services, and border agencies to allow lawful immigration in accordance with U.S. law and deny non-compliant access, and appoint more judges to handle asylum cases. There are woefully few asylum judges to process even the legitimate claims of political refugees. If claimants of political asylum knew their case would be heard swiftly, and that specious claims would be met with swift deportation, the cartels’ business model would fail.

Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in American politics. We’ve been offered two positions — pro-life and pro-choice — with hardly any room between or outside them. This wedge issue keeps Americans fighting with each other and destroys our most promising alliances. Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s policy won’t end the debate, but it offers a way forward that most Americans can support. It is called “More Choices, More Life.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is a medical freedom advocate and supports a woman’s right to choose until a fetus is viable. At the same time, Kennedy’s policy will dramatically reduce abortion in our country, and it will do so by offering more choices for women and families, not less.

Mr. Kennedy will defend these worker’s rights:The right to organize.The right to collective bargaining.The right to strike.The right to meaningful wages and benefits, which includes a significant increase to the minimum wage .The right to a healthy and safe workplace with appropriate working conditions.The right to compensation if injured on the job.The right to a dignified and secure retirement.

Global Leadership: Keep America a world leader in blockchain development by ending unjust legal prosecution against developers of open-source software.

Right to Privacy: Guarantee financial freedom including the right to self-custody, peer-to-peer transactions, and freedom from financial surveillance or censorship.

Thoughtful Regulation: End the politically motivated regulatory assault on financial services providers seeking to operate in the crypto-sector and create a regulatory environment designed to expand, not limit, the adoption of blockchain technologies.

Incentivizing Development: Encourage and normalize the adoption of bitcoin as a free-market, rules-based collaboration network that promotes voluntary exchange and global economic development.

Promote Peace: Recognize that bitcoin is a helpful tool for diminishing the power of the military industrial complex and can serve as an ambassador for American values like free speech, strong property rights and open capital markets all over the world.

Keeping Government Honest: Promote transparency and reign in public corruption by implementing a blockchain-based solution to track and monitor all federal budget expenditures.

Building a Strategic Reserve: Stop liquidating all bitcoin held by the U.S. Government and instead continue building a strategic reserve that can be used to back the U.S. Dollar and curtail the inflationary impact of fiat money printing.

Incentivizing Clean Energy: Create incentives for bitcoin miners who operate using renewable energy sources or who can mitigate methane emissions.

Fixing Unfair Tax Regimes: Recognize cryptocurrency as a currency, not an asset. End the treatment of de-minimis Bitcoin transactions as taxable events.

Preventing a CBDC: Never allow the U.S. to adopt a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency), which can be used as an instrument of totalitarian control over the American people.

Uproot the influence of Big Pharma and Wall Street firms that are heavily invested in the medical industry from medical regulatory agencies.

Transition from a toxic, degenerative industrial food system to an organic, regenerative system of agriculture.

Start a national fitness program like the one his uncle, JFK, implemented.

End the corporate capture of environmental regulatory agencies, including the EPA, USDA, DOI, DOE, USFWS, and USFS.

Reduce toxic chemical pollution and plastic waste.

Protect forests, rivers, fisheries, and wildlife habitats from corporate abuse.

Adopt a wildfire management plan to keep forests resilient and communities safe.

Stop big corporations and corrupt government officials who are using the environment as an excuse for profit-making schemes and power grabs.

All of his policies are in this link: https://www.kennedy24.com/policies

Robert Kennedy Jr is the only candidate who is willing to fight the system and end this nation divide. He has a huge chance of winning the election id we can get out of the whole ‘spoils candidate’ since most people are independent.

Kennedy 2024 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

#AmericaStrong

Down with the Two Party System, both parties failed us.

#robert kennedy jr #kennedy 2024 #AmericaStrong

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sri-balaji-packers-and-movers · 5 months ago

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The Ultimate Guide to Bike Relocation Services: Moving Your Ride Safely and Efficiently

Moving your valuable items might make a difficult chore. Motorcyclists first concern is making sure their bike reaches its destination without incident. A bike relocation service may be a lifesaver whether your travel is to a rally, a new city, or a bike sale to someone living far across the nation. This book will cover everything you need knowledge about bike moving services, thus guaranteeing the finest treatment of your ride under professionalism and care.

Why Use a Bike Relocation Service?

1. Specialized Handling: Motorcycles require special handling and transport methods. Professional bike relocation services are equipped with the right tools and expertise to handle your bike, ensuring it is securely fastened and protected during transit.

2. Safety and Security: A dedicated bike relocation service minimizes the risk of damage. From enclosed trailers to specialized crating, these services offer a variety of options to keep your bike safe from weather elements and road debris.

3. Convenience: Transporting a bike yourself can be a hassle, especially if you’re moving long distances. Hiring a professional service allows you to focus on other aspects of your move while experts take care of your bike.

4. Insurance Coverage: Reputable bike relocation services offer insurance coverage, providing peace of mind that your bike is protected against unforeseen events during transit.

How to Choose the Right Bike Relocation Service

1. Research and Reviews: Start by researching different bike relocation companies. Look for reviews and testimonials from other bike owners. Pay attention to feedback regarding punctuality, handling, and overall satisfaction.

2. Services Offered: Check if the company offers the specific services you need. Some may offer door-to-door service, while others might require you to drop off and pick up your bike from designated locations.

3. Insurance and Liability: Ensure that the company provides adequate insurance coverage. Ask for details about their liability policies and what is covered in case of damage or loss.

4. Pricing: Get quotes from multiple companies and compare their prices. Be wary of prices that seem too good to be true, as they might come with hidden costs or subpar service.

5. Customer Support: Choose a company with excellent customer support. They should be responsive to your inquiries and provide clear information about the relocation process.

Preparing Your Bike for Relocation

1. Clean Your Bike: Give your bike a thorough cleaning to remove any dirt and debris. This makes it easier to inspect for pre-existing damage and ensures it’s in good condition upon arrival.

2. Document Its Condition: Take detailed photos of your bike from all angles. Note any existing scratches, dents, or other damages. This documentation will be useful if you need to file an insurance claim.

3. Remove Personal Items: Remove any personal items from your bike, including saddlebags, GPS units, and other accessories. This reduces the risk of loss or damage during transit.

4. Check Fluids and Tires: Ensure your bike’s fluids are at appropriate levels and that the tires are properly inflated. Some companies may require you to drain the fuel tank to a certain level for safety reasons.

5. Secure Loose Parts: Make sure any loose parts, such as mirrors or antennas, are securely fastened or removed to prevent damage during transport.

During the Relocation Process

1. Stay Informed: Keep in touch with the relocation company throughout the process. They should provide updates on the status of your bike and its estimated arrival time.

2. Inspect Upon Arrival: Once your bike arrives, carefully inspect it for any damages. Compare its condition to the photos you took before the move. If you notice any issues, report them to the relocation company immediately.

3. Take a Test Ride: After ensuring everything is in order, take your bike for a short test ride to confirm it’s running smoothly.

Conclusion

Using Sri Balaji Packers and Movers in Kelambakkam excellent bike relocation service makes moving your bike simpler than ever. We make sure your bike is safe and secure as we know both its financial and emotional worth. From delivery to packing, our expert crew makes sure your bike gets to its target without a damage. Our service is dependable and quick whether your relocation is to another state or across the city. We employ cutting-edge tracking technology so you may keep real-time view of the path your bike takes. Count on us for a quick, safe, hassle-free bike transfer fit for your requirements. Happy riding!

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