#Asked/Answered 25 March 2024 | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

meazalykov · 7 months ago

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Teammates, or lovers?

emily fox x uswntplayer!R

summary: after moving to Europe, the rumors surrounding you and your girlfriend died down. what if they come back during the gold cup?

warnings: none

Emily Fox and Y/n L/n are in a year long relationship together. The 25 and 23 year old first met when they both played for North Carolina Courage in 2023. Since then, Emily moved to London and Y/n L/n moved to Lyon to continue their football careers. So, their relationship turned into a long distance relationship.

The two lovers were sad about it, and the first two months were pretty hard to adjust to. However, they both moved to the same continent so it was easier to see each other during small breaks in their careers. Y/n made the effort to visit London to see Emily, even if it's only a day trip. Emily made the same efforts as well, coming to Lyon to watch Y/n play with their USWNT teammate Lindsey Horan whenever it's possible.

You remembered the night in North Carolina when you cried to Emily about your career. For a while, you lost your passion and struggled to find a challenge in the sport. Everyone involved in the NWSL knew that you were one of the best left wingers out there. You moved to North Carolina from the Chicago Red Stars to see if the team was the problem, it wasn’t.

Emily understands your feelings completely. She cried with you as well since your feelings with the sport related with hers.

The next day, Y/n’s agent told her that Olympique Lyon wanted to offer her a contract. The girl’s jaw dropped at the news. Lyon is one of the most developed clubs in the world, in terms of women’s soccer. She knew Lindsey Horan, her friend and USWNT teammate, transferred there after a year long loan deal. Y/n accepted the offer, hoping that Lyon would give her the passion she wanted back.

“Emily, I have to tell you something.” Y/n sat down beside Emily as she held her hands. The brunette swallowed in nervousness, wondering if her girlfriend saw the rumors about her on instagram.

“I am transferring clubs–” Y/n confessed, before Emily had the chance to talk, the left winger cut her off.

“Not a NWSL club.. Um.. I signed a contract and I’m moving to Europe—-France specifically.” Y/n frowned. She looked at Emily and saw a look… of relief??

“Em what's the matter?” Y/n questioned Emily’s expression.

“Nothing n/n. I was going to tell you this soon but maybe I'll tell you now too– but I am moving to Europe as well. A club offered me a contract and I signed a few days ago.” Emily confessed.

Y/n raised her eyebrows, she knew Emily wanted to transfer clubs, but wondered which lucky club signed Emily.

“Where?” Y/n asked.

“England...well London to be exact.” Emily answered. Y/n smiled and the two girls embraced each other in a hug.

When Emily and Y/n played at Courage, many fans started to suspect that they’re a couple. Many WOSO fanpages shipped the duo due to their close proximity at events. The girls decided that they didn’t want to go public with their relationship until a few years in, since they’d be established enough to not let external factors affect them.

As the two girls moved to Europe, they found their love for the sport back. Y/n fits into Lyon perfectly, being the highest goalscorer in France and in the Women’s Champions League. Emily is considered to be one of the best defenders in England since her transfer. The “rumors” about their relationship died down completely, but some fans do miss the duo at Courage.

Now it's March 2024, the USWNT faces off Brazil in the 2024 CONCACAF Gold Cup final. Y/n L/n and Emily Fox were both on the roster for the tournament which excited the couple. The couple excited the fans too, as Emily and Y/n’s pictures together during training practices excited the fanbase.

At halftime, the score is up 1-0. Y/n’s Lyon teammate Lindsey Horan scores a header that gives the United States the lead. Emily started the match but Y/n didn’t, but the forward subbed on and replaced Trinity Rodman in the 61st minute.

In the 79th minute, Emily fox gained possession of the ball after an error caused by a Brazilian midfielder. She passes the ball to Sophia Smith, seeing the striker in a nice path free from the opposition.

Sophia Smith struggles with keeping control of the ball when she found contact with a Brazilian defender, so she looks forward seeing Y/n L/n onside and free to receive a pass.

Y/n L/n is known for her dribbling and perfect finishes when she shoots from outside the box. The crowd knew this, so the screams got louder as y/n moved the ball to her left. She looks up to see that the Brazilian defender in front of her didn’t move quick enough at her move, so she goes to take a shot.

The soccer ball goes up high in the air and curves, the Brazilian goalkeeper jumps up and the ball barely grazes her fingers before it lands in the net. Goal!

Y/n jumps in excitement before she runs to the corner of the pitch, the crowd erupts and y/n has her arms spread out in celebration.

USWNT 2-0.

The forward turned around and saw Lindsey Horan running to her, y/n jumped up on the blonde girl in excitement. The rest of the team on the pitch gathered around the girls as they’re guaranteed to win, unless Brazil had a miracle.

As the group disbanded from the celebration, y/n saw her girlfriend who smiled brightly. Not caring about the amount of photographers that could capture the moment and the crowd as witnesses, the forward hugs the defender in a tight embrace. Emily accepted it, naturally putting her head on y/n’s shoulder for a few seconds before letting go and tapping her on the lower back in praise.

Twenty minutes later, the game ended 2-0. The USWNT wins the first women’s CONCACAF Gold Cup. Y/n and Emily run and give each other a hug. Well, y/n jumped on Emily who held her as the two celebrated their win. This didn’t go unnoticed by fans and shippers.

The team knew about their relationship, so they gave the girl’s their own moment before the whole team celebrated. This is before going up to receive the trophy and gold medals.

Emily and Y/n stayed side by side the entire night. The idea of hiding their relationship wasn’t ideal to them anymore, now they wanted the world to know about their love.

(pretend this is you in all the pictures below)

y/n.l/n

(tagged: naomi_girma, y/n.l/n, ___emilyfox)

(tagged: 100purcent, y/n.l/n)

(tagged: y/n.l/n, lindseyhoran10)

(tagged: olivia_moultrie, y/n.l/n, lindseyhoran10, emilysonnett)

liked by ___emilyfox, sophsssmith, and 33,987 others

a month of hard work ended in victory 💙 forever proud snd grateful for being with this team.

comments

alexmorgan13 🇺🇸🔥🏆

___emilyfox I love you!! ❤️

wosofan OH MY GOD???

y/n_lyonfan I CANT BELIEVE MY EYES

100purcent gold cup champs!! so proud 🥹

sophsssmith 🤍

trinity_rodman I had such a fun time! 🏆

y/n.l/n same!!

an: my first uswnt centered fic! hope you enjoyed <3

#emily fox #arsenal fc #woso appreciation #woso x reader #uswnt x reader #trinity rodman #leah williamson

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anxious-witch · 4 months ago

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Results and analysis of this survey I did few months ago about the perception of Eurovision among young people. I know some people were interested so here it is. I couldn't post it sooner so it wouldn't look like I plagarised a random tumblr account so! Here we go. These are more or less directly translated from the research part of my thesis.

I apologize for any mistakes made since the whole thing, including graphs and tables were originally in croatian, and given tumblr format, it's bound to be messy.

The age of the participants was 18+ due to ethical rules, but most of the them are young people in the age bracket 18-35, precisely because the opinion of young people who cannot physically be present at the event itself is often ignored. The research question was "How do young people perceive Eurovision?", and the goal of the research was "To see what kind of view young people have of Eurovision, and what they consider its most important aspect, entertainment, politics or something else entirely."

Considering all of the above, the participants, who were 559 in total, were asked 22 questions through an anonymous online survey that was conducted in the period from March 21, 2024 to April 5, 2024.

From this, three hypotheses were distinguished before the actual research;

H1: Young people view Eurovision more politically than the older generation.

H2: Young people focus more on the performance and the message of the song than on the quality of the vocals.

H3: Young people think that Eurovision is a competition for the audience, not for the jury, and that the winner should be decided by the audience.

For the sake of transparency, most of the data is expressed in percentages and due to the amount of data, some of the questions are additionally crossed referenced and compared to see how they interact.

Graph 1 shows the age of the participants, which was important for determining the dominant age group. As can be seen on the graph, the largest number of respondents are aged 18-24, followed by 25-35, which corresponds to the aim of the research, as the focus was on the opinion of young people about Eurovision.

Graph 2 shows the gender of the participants, in which it can be seen that the largest number of them were women, over 65%. The data on the second largest group of respondents was unexpected, as over 20% of them declared themselves non-binary. This percentage was certainly contributed by the fact that the respondents received the survey via social networks, especially Tumblr, and considering that the topic is Eurovision, which is known for its openness towards the LGBT community. Men made up less than 10% of respondents, and the Other category referred to respondents who either did not want to share information about their gender identity, or their gender identity was not part of the first three categories.

Table 2(changed it to graph here because of tumblr) shows the countries from which the participants come from, and this answer to this question was open, that is, the participants had to write it themselves. To make it easier to navigate through so many different answers, they are presented in a table.

Table 2 shows that the majority of respondents are from the UK, Finland, and Germany. USA and Croatia. The number of responses from Finnish respondents is at least partly caused by last year's competition, where their representative was the crowd favorite. As for the large number of respondents from the USA, it can be assumed that with the inclusion of voices from the rest of the world, they became more active in the Eurovision virtual spaces last year.

Graph 3 shows the answers to the question "Are you part of the LGBT community", where participants could answer with "Yes", "No" or "Other" in case they did not want to declare themselves.

As shown in Graph 3, it can be seen that the percentage of respondents who are part of the LGBT community is also influenced by the collection of data from social networks where the LGBT identity is more pronounced, but it does not deviate much from the Eurovision name "Queer Olympics". This is also important information that can be obtained through an anonymous survey, as most of the previous research was conducted on respondents from live events, so this question was often avoided due to doubts about the sincerity of the answers. Thus, over 80% of respondents identify themselves as part of the LGBT community, which confirms previous research on the importance of connecting with other queer people through ESC as an event.

Graph 4 shows the answers to the question "Do you watch Eurovision" where there were three answers; "Yes", "No" and "Ocassionally".

According to Graph 4, it can be seen that the majority of respondents (over 70%) watch Eurovision regularly, while another 23% watch it occasionally, probably depending on external factors. Only 6% of respondents do not watch Eurovision at all, which is logical in the context of solving the questionnaire about Eurovision itself.

Graph 5 shows the three associations the participants had to Eurovision. Sets of three words each were divided into positive, negative and mixed associations, and for the sake of simplicity of presentation, thus entered in the graph. It should be noted here that the majority of respondents still have positive associations related to Eurovision, while slightly less than 17% have negative associations, and only slightly less than 2% have mixed associations. It is also important to note that each association was separated before sorting, so it is possible that someone had both positive and negative associations that were added to one or the other, but if the separate ones were not in a mixed category, then they were not added.

The full question for participants was to choose from 30 songs in the last 10 years (with 3 answers offered for each year) who they thought won that year. The real winners each year are highlighted in yellow in Table 3.

Regarding the recognition of winners in the last ten years, Table 3 shows that the majority of respondents knew the winners. However, it should be taken into account that these are respondents who mostly follow Eurovision regularly, and for this reason every artist who was not the winner that year and has more than 10% of the votes is relevant. This group includes Zlata Ognevich from 2013, Dami Im from 2016, but also Sergey Lazarev from 2016 (most likely because the predictions were in favor of Russia that year, and Austria was the original audience favorite), Kristian Kostov from 2017, and Käärijä from It will be in 2023. Therefore, it is important to look at this table with the predictions of the winners for each year, and to compare it with the difference between the votes of the jury and the audience, but every passing of 10% in this survey is significant.

The full question for the participants was; Did the backstage content (i.e. preparties, interviews, socializing between contestants that is published on social networks) influence their decision on who they voted for. Answers were offered on a scale from "It had a lot of influence" to "It had no influence at all".

Considering the fact that Eurovision organizers invest a lot of money and time in the organization of content even before the competition itself, especially in their famous preparties, it is relevant to see that according to Graph 6, as many as 37% of respondents admit that watching this content directly affects who they vote for, although it is to a lesser extent. Of course, it should be taken into account that 31% of respondents are not influenced by this content at all in their decision to vote, but if we add neutral respondents and respondents who were not influenced by this content, we get about 53%. On the other hand, the total number of respondents on whom the content had an impact in general is about 47%, which means that the content is still quite relevant and good marketing for Eurovision itself, but also for the contestants.

The question for the participants was what they perceive as the main point of Eurovision. Answers to this question were offered, but respondents could also add their own answer. The responses "A mixture of more than the above" and "Political/economic gain" were written by respondents.

According to graph 7, most participants believe that the main point of Eurovision is entertainment (36.31%), and almost the same number think that the main point is for the competing countries to unite around something fun through the competition. While only about 8% of people think that the political and economic part is the main point of the competition. Considering the age of the respondents and the fact that many say that Eurovision is a very political event, it seems that most still focus on the main point as a kind of entertainment and unity between countries.

Graph 8 shows the answers to the question "What should voting look like?".

The answers confirm one of the set hypotheses, which is that young people think that deciding on the Eurovision song should have primarily been the decision of the viewers who vote, and not the jury. It should be noted that the answers offered to this question were "Only viewers should be able to vote", "It should be half-and-half", "There are different winners for the jury and the audience" and "I don't know/Neutral/On my own". In other words, the answer that both of them vote, but that the votes of the audience have more weight, is the answer that 20.57% of respondents wrote under "Other" in different forms.

The question shown in Graph 9 was what participants think the current Eurovision slogan is. There the answer was open and they had to write it themselves. Graph 9 shows that the majority of participants know the Eurovision slogan, which coincides with the number of respondents who regularly watch ESC. It is important to note that for the first time the slogan is the same as last year, which certainly contributed to the respondents' accurate recall of the slogan, which was the goal of the organizers when they decided on this move.

The question presented in Graph 10 logically follows on from the previous one, where participants had to answer which slogan they think best describes the idea/meaning of Eurovision as a brand. In Graph 10, it can be seen that the majority of respondents also agree that the current, permanent slogan of the ESC is the most suitable for representing Eurovision as a brand. Here the answers were already offered, and the slogans offered to the respondents were those that had been used in the last ten years, most of which alluded in some way to community. "United by music", however, incorporates both music and togetherness in one slogan, and it seems that it is precisely because of this that it is memorable and easy to associate with Eurovision.

In Graph 11, participants were supposed to express their general opinion about ESC. Here the answers were also offered on a scale from "Very positive" to "Very negative".

In Graph 11, it can be seen that the opinion of the respondents is mostly positive, over 50%, and even 22% of them are neutral about the view of ESC. Given that these are respondents who mostly watch Eurovision regularly, the assumption would be that their opinions are more polarized, either to one side or to the other. However, through the questionnaire, it can be seen that respondents gravitate more towards "predominantly positive/negative" when the more accurate answer would probably be "strongly positive/negative" when comparing their answers with the other associations and answers provided. When the divisions are narrowed down to positive/negative/neutral, the ratio of positive view of ESC is even more prevalent, and despite a lot of talk about political aspects and contest rigging, less than 1% of respondents have a very negative opinion about Eurovision.

In this question, participants had to answer what they consider the most important part of the contestant's performance, which is shown in Graph 12. This question touches on another hypothesis, and from the answers received, that hypothesis can neither be fully confirmed nor rejected. The answers confirm that the performance is a very important aspect, as predicted in the hypothesis, but the second most important aspect for the respondents is the melody of the song itself, which we assumed would not be so important and that the message of the song would be more important, which is not the case with the respondents . It should also be noted that the answers to this question were again only semi-structured and the respondents could write their answers. "A mixture of all of the above" and "Be a special feeling" are answers that were not offered, but were included by the respondents themselves as their answers.

Graph 13 shows participants' answers to the question of whether they prefer competitors from neighboring countries. Answers were offered on a scale from "Yes, I strongly prefer songs from neighboring countries" to "No, I never have a preference for songs from neighboring countries".

This question was relevant due to the media's frequent reference to the preferential voting of certain countries for their neighbors. The respondents show that this is a rare case, and that only about 11% of them had preferences for neighboring countries. This also coincides with the selection of the song for its performance, as most of the similarities between neighboring countries come through the melody of the song.

This question showed for how many participants the contestant changed their view of the country they represented, which is shown in Graph 14. The offered answers to this question were only "Yes" or "No". There are several studies on Eurovision as a mega-event and an event through which better diplomatic relations can be achieved. (Zahavi, Ariely, 2024) It can be seen that here the distribution of influence is more balanced, but almost 60% of respondents, most of whom regularly watch the ESC claim that their view of at least one of the countries has changed by watching their performance at the ESC. In other words, the large investment of countries in their representatives has its purpose.

This question is a continuation of the previous one, that is, if one of the contestants changed their opinion about a country, was it a positive or negative change of view. Answers are offered on a scale from "Strongly positive" to "Strongly negative".

As can be seen from the presentation on Graph 15, if the 42% of respondents who were not influenced by the competitors are put aside, the positive influence prevails again. However, it is important for which countries there are which impressions, for which reason these data were compared with the following question, which was: "If this influenced your opinion about a certain country, for which country was it?" Then we divided the countries that were repeated the most and compared the positive/negative impressions. For the sake of clarity, strongly positive/negative and mostly positive/negative are added together in the same column and put in percentages.

In Table 5, the data on the positive/negative opinion and on the countries for which the participants changed their opinion are cross-referenced. From Table 5, it can be seen that Slovenia and Finland are the countries most often cited by respondents as those whose opinion has changed to a positive one. Also, a large number of respondents left the country for which they had a positive change of opinion unspecified. It is important to add the popularity of Finnish and Slovenian competitors from last year to the very context of the analysis. As for the negative impression, it is evident that Israel is in the lead, even though 4.29% is still much lower than 11.45%, which is the biggest positive impression, that is still important data. It is an important fact that despite the large investment, Israel has such a negative level of impression, especially as the main sponsors of the ESC. However, this can be added to the hypothesis that young people still see Eurovision through its political aspect, and that the recent conflict between Israel and Palestine has only increased this negative view.

Graph 16 shows the answers to the question of how many respondents discovered a performer through Eurovision, and that they continued to listen to him after Eurovision. From Graph 16, it is clear that this was exactly the case for over 90% of respondents. The answers offered were only "Yes" or "No".

Table 6 shows which performers the participants continued to listen to after Eurovision. The answer to this question was free, and most respondents answered with more than one contractor.

These answers also confirm that positive impressions about the country are closely related to its representatives and fans who follow them even after Eurovision. Here again, you can see the huge influence of the Finnish and Slovenian representatives from last year, who greatly raised positive impressions for those countries. Måneskin also greatly raised the rating of Italy after his victory in 2021, but it should be taken into account that after a few years, fans of a band or an artist have a smaller association of them with that country. It should also be noted that many of the aforementioned artists are not winners, and many of them were not even in the top 3 at Eurovision itself. From this, it can be concluded that there is a difference in what is considered a Eurovision song, and what the interviewees consider in their everyday life to be the songs they want to listen to.

Graph 17 shows the answers to the question about what the participants think about the direct passage of the "Big Five" to the finals. Answers were offered on a scale from "Strongly positive" to "Strongly negative".

From the answers shown in Graph 17, when separating the answers into only positive and negative views about having a direct passage to the final, it is evident that about 55% of respondents have a negative opinion about it, and slightly less than 40% a neutral opinion. This confirms again that the majority of young people do not have a positive opinion about the privileged position of some countries, which is a direct influence of politics.

Graph 18 shows the answers to the question "Do you plan to boycott watching Eurovision this year" with the answers offered "Yes", "No" and "Maybe/I haven't decided yet." Here, of course, it was meant boycotting specifically because of the participation of Israel and the current conflict between them and Palestine.

The question about boycotting Eurovision was deliberately put last, so as not to affect associations and positive and negative impressions. The question could have been more properly asked in the form "Are you planning to watch Eurovision this year" as the word boycotting still came out as suggestive. As can be seen from the responses from Graph 18, more than 50% of the respondents said that they would boycott Eurovision, which does not fit in with the majority's positive impressions about the event itself, which we analyzed in the previous responses. In any case, this supports the hypothesis that young people view the ESC more politically than the older generation, as the majority of younger respondents were more inclined to answer the question about boycotting in the affirmative.

However, it was interesting to compare some of the responses with the respondents' decision to boycott. That is why in Table 5 we have combined the data of the General opinion on Eurovision presented in Graph 11 and the data from Graph 18 on boycotting watching the ESC.

Table 8 shows that almost 30% of participants with a positive opinion of Eurovision planned to boycott watching because of Israel's participation, while only slightly less than 10% of those with a negative opinion planned the same. It can be seen that this trend continues with other answers as well. The fact is that a positive opinion about Eurovision prevails among respondents, but almost 10% more of those with a positive opinion plan to boycott than those who plan to watch. For the same reason, data on respondents' viewing consistency were combined with their response on boycotting in Table 9.

Table 10 compares the age of the participants with their answers about boycotting. The percentages were taken from the number of each of the age groups, and not the total sum, as there were the most respondents in the first two groups, that is, from 18-24 and from 25-35. Nevertheless, this table is important to us because we can see a reconfirmation of our hypothesis that young people look at Eurovision more politically than the older generation.

Now, this is of course, very, very brief look into the whole thesis, without literature citation to back it up and without discussion because it's already way too long. That said, I don't wish to imply that people who said they are boycotting on the survey lied about it, I just thought it was an important look into why someone with generally good opinion on the event would decide to boycott and if age had anything to do with it.

If anyone has any questions, regardless if it has to do with smth being translated confusingly or about the data itself, please let me know! Also consider that this data, while it was overwhelming done via tumblr, also took participants via facebook and instagram and ofc people I know irl and people those people know, so this is not only tumblr mentality reflected either. Hope this satisfied everyone's curiosity!

#eurovision #survey #käärijä #joker out #putting it in the tags if anyone who saw it there the first time wants to read it #y'all!!! I am graduating on the 10th I am shaking fr

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 months ago

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Clay Jones, Claytoonz: The new GOP mantra

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 25, 2024 (Thursday)

Momentum continues to build behind Vice President Kamala Harris to become the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, and the national narrative as a whole has shifted.

Democrats appear to be generating significant enthusiasm among younger Americans. Yesterday, for the first time in their history, the March for Our Lives organization endorsed a presidential candidate: Kamala Harris. Students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, organized March for Our Lives after the shooting there in 2018. Executive director Natalie Fall said that the organization “will work to mobilize young people across the country to support Vice President Harris and other down-ballot candidates, with a particular focus on the states and races where we can make up the margin of victory—in Arizona, New York, Michigan, and Florida.”

Andrea Hailey of Vote.org announced that in the 48 hours after President Biden said he would not accept the Democratic nomination, nearly 40,000 people registered to vote. That meant a daily increase in new registrations of almost 700%.

People are turning out for Harris in impressive numbers. In the hours after she launched her campaign, Win With Black Women rallied 44,000 Black women on Zoom and raised $1.6 million. On Monday, around 20,000 Black men rallied to raise $1.2 million. Tonight, challenged to “answer the call,” 164,000 white women joined an event that “broke Zoom” and raised more than $2 million and tens of thousands of new volunteers.

Another significant endorsement for Harris came yesterday from Geoff Duncan, the Republican former lieutenant governor of Georgia, who wrote on social media: “I’m committed to beating Donald Trump. The only vehicle left for me to do that with is the Democratic Party. If that requires me to vote for, speak for, or endorse [Kamala Harris] then count me in!” Duncan’s public announcement offers permission for other Georgia Republicans to make a similar shift. In 1964, South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond similarly paved the way for southern Democrats to vote for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

Harris’s appearances are generating such enthusiasm from audiences that when she delivered the keynote address this morning at the convention of the American Federation of Teachers in Houston, Texas, the applause delayed her ability to begin. After a speech defending education and calling out the cuts to it in Project 2025, Harris ended by demonstrating that after decades of Democrats being accused of being anti-American, Trump’s denigration of the country has enabled the party to claim the position of being America’s defenders.

“When we vote, we make our voices heard,” Harris said. “So today, I ask you, AFT, are you ready to make your voices heard? Do we believe in freedom? Do we believe in opportunity? Do we believe in the promise of America? And are we ready to fight for it? And when we fight, we win! God bless you and God bless the United States of America.”

Today the Commerce Department reported that economic growth in the second quarter was higher than expected, coming in at 2.8%, thanks to higher spending driven by higher wages. The country’s changing momentum is showing in media stories hyping the booming economy Biden’s team tried for years to get traction on. “Full Employment is Joe Biden’s True Legacy” was the title of a story by Zachary Carter that appeared yesterday in Slate; CNN responded to today’s good economic news with an article by Bryan Mena titled: “The US economy is pulling off something historic.”

With Harris appearing to have sewn up the nomination, the question has turned to her vice presidential pick. That question is fueling the sense of excitement as potential choices are in front of cameras and on social media advocating Democratic positions and defending the United States from Trump’s denigration. Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro listed the economic gains of the past years, and said: “Trump, you’ve got to stop sh*t talking America. We’ve got to start standing tall and being patriotic and showing how much we love this amazing nation.”

The vice presidential hopefuls appear to be having some fun with showcasing their personalities, as Minnesota governor Tim Walz did in his video from the Minnesota State Fair where he and his daughter went on an extreme ride. So are social media users who have dug up old videos of, for example, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explaining how he would pilot a small starfighter that had lost its auxiliary shields, or Arizona senator Mark Kelly’s identical twin brother Scott pranking a fellow astronaut on the Space Station with a gorilla suit Mark smuggled on board.

That sense of fun is an enormous relief after years of political weight, and it has spilled over into making fun of the Republican ticket, most notably with a false story that vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance wrote about—and I cannot believe I am typing this—having sex with a couch. The story is stupid, but worse are the denials of it, which have spread the story into populations that otherwise would likely not have seen it.

Just two weeks ago, Vance appeared to be the leader of the next generation of extremist MAGA Republicans, but now that calculation seems to have been hasty. Vance is a staunch opponent of abortion—the key issue in 2024—and he has been vocal in his disdain of women who have not given birth, saying in 2021, for example, that the U.S. was being run by “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too.” He went on to say that people who don’t have children “don’t really have a direct stake” in the country.

Republican commentator Meghan McCain noted that Vance’s “comments are activating women across all sides, including my most conservative Trump supporting friends. These comments have caused real pain and are just innately unchristian.” Actor Jennifer Aniston, who tends to stay out of politics, posted: “I truly can’t believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States.” Vance had called out Harris by name in those 2021 comments, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s ex-wife Kerstin Emhoff took to social media to defend Harris from Vance’s attacks on her as “childless,” calling her “a co-parent with Doug and I. She is loving, nurturing, fiercely protective and always present. I love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it.” Harris’s stepdaughter chimed in: “I love my three parents.”

Vance also ties the Republican ticket firmly to Project 2025. The Trump camp has worked to distance itself from Project 2025—not convincingly, since the two are obviously closely tied, but it turns out that Vance wrote the introduction for a forthcoming book by Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts, who was the lead author of Project 2025. The book appears to popularize that plan, right down to its endorsement of a “Second American Revolution,” and according to the book deal report, proceeds from the book will go to the Heritage Foundation “and aligned nonprofits.”

Now Vance’s words praising Project 2025 will be in print, just in time for the election. Yesterday, Trump posted: “I have nothing to do with, and know nothing about, Project 25 [sic]. The fact that I do is merely disinformation put out by the Radical Left Democrat Thugs. Do not believe them!”

Trump is clearly aware of, and concerned about, the changing narrative. This morning, he called in to Fox & Friends, saying, “We don’t need the votes. I have so many votes. I’m in Florida now…and every house has a Trump-Vance sign on it. Every single house…. It’s amazing the spirit…. This election has more spirit than I’ve ever seen ever before.” Tonight the Trump campaign proved their worry by backing out of debates with Harris, saying debates can’t be scheduled until she is the official nominee, although Biden was not the official nominee when they met in June.

The larger narrative shift has affected the media approach to Trump, who is accustomed to shaping perceptions as he wishes. Now, 12 days after the mass shooting at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, there is increasing media attention to the fact that there has still been no medical report on Trump’s injuries, although he wore a large bandage on his ear at the Republican National Convention and said at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Saturday that he “took a bullet for democracy.”

Yesterday, FBI director Christopher Wray told Congress that it is not clear whether Trump was “grazed” by a bullet or by shrapnel, words that former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance called “FBI speak for, ‘it’s unlikely it was a bullet.’”

CNN chief medical consultant Dr. Sanjay Gupta noted last week that the people need a real medical evaluation of Trump’s injuries, explaining that “gunshot blasts near the head can cause injuries that aren’t immediately noticeable, such as bleeding in or on the brain, damage to the inner ear or even psychological trauma.” But, as Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo has noted, much of the press has kept mum about the story.

Media outlets have reported Wray’s testimony, though, and in a social media post today, Trump called on Wray, whom he appointed to head the FBI, to resign from his post for “LYING TO CONGRESS.” Tonight, he reiterated that “it was…a bullet that hit my ear, and hit it hard.”

Perhaps eager to get back to their districts, House Republicans canceled their expected votes on appropriations bills scheduled for next week and left town today for their August recess. The House will not reconvene until early September. The government’s fiscal year 2025 begins on October 1.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Clay Jones #GOP mantra #political cartoon #DEI hire #Heather Cox Richardson #Letters From An American #Rise #Kamala Harris #election 2024 #momentum

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thepromptfoundry · 9 months ago

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The prompt theme for March 2024 is March Magic!

Come pull up a chair, bring your spellbook and your crystal ball, join your fellow witches, wizards, sorcerers, and other magic lovers!

If you use this list, please tag me here @thepromptfoundry, I’d love to see your writing and art!

Feel free to combine different days' prompts with each other, or combine them with other seasonal events! Use your OCs, your favorite characters from media, whatever tickles your fancy.

Respond to as many prompts as you want or as interest you, don’t worry about missing or skipping any. Remember, this is supposed to be fun!

If you have any questions or musings, check our FAQ, and if you don't find your answer, shoot me an ask.

Plain text list below the cut, includes definitions for some terms:

1 Witches 2 Spellbooks 3 Elemental Magic 4 Candles 5 Magic Words 6 Faeries 7 Augury (divination by the behavior of birds) 8 Dragons 9 Magicians 10 Accidental Magic 11 Spell Circles 12 Nature Spirits 13 Magic Wands 14 Potions 15 Magic Bloodlines 16 Transmutation 17 Cartomancy (divination by use of cards, magic enacted using cards) 18 Anthomancy (flower magic, divination by flowers) 19 Unicorns 20 Wizards 21 Necormancy 22 Familiars 23 Magical Cleaning 24 Bones 25 Crystal Balls 26 Magic School 27 Alchemy 28 Sorcerers 29 Stars 30 Curses 31 Remnants of Magic

#the prompt foundry #March Magic 2024 #prompt list #writing prompt #writing challenge #art prompt #art challenge #magic #witches #witchcraft #witchcore #wizard #wizardcore #magiccore

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becauseicantthinkwritings · 11 months ago

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I thought it would be cool to share a list of important events and things I released this year, as 2023 winds down to a close.

#1: An Altar for our Sins part 7 (Jan 1st)

#2: Never Quite Enough Part 4 (Jan 4th)

#3: In Sickness and In Health (part 6) (Jan 8th)

#4: Valentine's Day in the AOP universe (Feb 16th)

#5: Siren! Billy Drabble (Feb 16th)

#6: Crime boss!Reader Drabble (Feb 16th)

#7: Vampire Club Owner! Billy (Feb 17th)

#8: Venomous 5 (Feb 20th)

#9: Some really amazing Siren!Billy art (March 10th)

#10: Teeth Part 2 (Mar 15th)

#11: JESS?!?!?!?! (Mar 18th)

#12: Teeth Part 3 (Mar 18th)

#13: Teeth Part 4 (Mar 18th)

#14: Teeth Part 5 (Mar 20th)

#15: Teeth Part 6 (Mar 21st)

#16: Oh my god this mafia Billy (Mar 27th)

#17: Teeth Part 7 (April 1st)

#18: Teeth Part 8 (April 3rd)

#19: Teeth Part 9 (April 5th)

#20: Teeth Part 10 (April 11th)

#21: Teeth Part 11 (April 14th)

#22: Teeth Part 12 (April 16th)

#23: Teeth Part 13 (April 22nd)

#24: WEREPANTHER ART (April 23rd)

#25: Teeth Part 14 (April 30th)

#26: With All That I Am Part 7 (May 23rd)

#27: Teeth Part 15 (June 6th)

#28: Teeth Part 16 (June 19th)

#29: Teeth Part 17 (Aug 7th)

#30: I got covid for the first time (Aug 29th)

#31: Never Quite Enough Part 5 (Sep 25th)

#32: Nightfall 3 (Oct 22nd)

#34: Nightfall 4 (Oct 31st)

#35: Teeth Part 18 (Nov 9th)

#36: Objects In Motion (Nov 16th)

#37: Teeth Part 19 (Nov 18th)

#38: An Altar For Our Sins Part 8 (Dec 5th)

#39: And All That I Have Part 8 (Dec 26th)

And that's it!

Wow, I had no idea I released so much. It was so much fun to relive all of that while I was making this.

This year was very harsh on me, I lost a couple of family members and I also almost lost my job as well, so if you were wondering about the sudden decline, that's your answer.

Special shoutout to the artists that made fan art of my work, they mean so much to me.

And a very special thank you to the people that left comments, wrote reviews and sent asks, they are not overlooked, and they fuel me to keep going.

Being inspired to write is hard, finding that spark of myself I want to add to my work is rough, but when I'm standing alone in the dark, it's you that hold the torch that lights my way out.

Cheesy, I know.

Anyway, Thank You everyone, I'll see you in 2024 with more smut and more angst.

Sincerely,

becauseicantthinkwritings.

#my writings #fics released this year #2023

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theindescribable1 · 8 months ago

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Im testing something real quick..

Sent on march 25, 2024

answered on April 1st, 2024

You were trying to see how long it takes me to answer, huh? Well...Eh....I still have asks from 2022 😔

(I'm sorry)

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ninjago-drabbles · 9 months ago

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Bruiseshipping Exchange 2024! (Sign-up, how-to, and rules)

I've gotten a good few people that say they're interested in reblogs and DMs so I decided to go ahead an get the ball rolling with the sign-ups! (We'll see how the turn-out is and go from there.) Fill out this below to join as an author or (multimedia) artist! (What is an exchange? What's the schedule? See the read more below!)

An exchange is a fun opportunity to put more content into the world for our favorite ship! In the sign-up form, you'll put a few prompts (of any level of description) for fic/art you'd like to receive, and then describe some things that you'll be willing to create yourself. I'll go through the entries and match people based on compatibility, and you'll soon be emailed with the "wishlist" of a fellow bruiseshipper! These will be your guidelines to create either your art or fic. On May 25th, you'll post your work and reveal who you are to your giftee!

Rules:

Fic: Minimum will be 1,000 words, as of now. (If you want to join but are unsure if you can meet this in the time frame, please reach out! We can work something out.) No maximum limit! Make sure to tag properly and reach out to me if you have any questions about content.

Art: Digital and traditional pieces of course, and if you want to join with something such as edits or any other kind of media that's not mentioned, please mention so on your sign-up! This exchange is to simply put more bruise into the world, so we don't want to limit what kind of creativity that takes the shape of. Finished drawings must be colored and lined. Videos must be at least 30 seconds. For visual edits such as moodboards, gifsets, etc., I'm roughly putting the minimum at 2. It will be case by case (email to talk about specifics if this applies to you!)

Anything goes as far as content, as long as you meet the criteria provided by your giftee (you will be emailed all this information once you've been matched!) If you want to use any tropes/ratings/etc. that you're unsure of, please reach out to me (NOT your giftee) to act as a liaison to double-check.

Don't tell your giftee that you have them! We'll be operating secretly to add a little extra fun to the exchange, so wait until the posting date to let your person know who you are!

Communication is welcome, so please feel free to send a message or ask if you have any questions or things to say :)

See previously asked questions here

Schedule:

✅ Sign-ups: thru March 1

✅ Giftee info sent out: March 4th

✅ Check-in

Gift reveal: May 25 (Bruise Day!)

Take all of this with grain of salt, as if not enough people sign-up I might switch this over to a Bruise Week or something like that. Anything to bring this fun ship fandom together and spur more fanwork <3 No worries if this is the case, we are an old fandom after all! (We're all a go for an exchange, y'all are wonderful!)😊

-Arella

#bruiseshipping #bruiseexchange2024 #ninjago #lego ninjago #cole x jay #jay walker #cole brookstone #cole hence

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gallawitchxx · 2 years ago

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🔮💨 WE'RE BACK BABY 🔮💨

hi buds! i'm writing this au 100 words at a time per the weekly prompts from @galladrabbles. prompted words are in PURPLE & there’s a 🔮💨 to note where each installment ends. thanks for reading! xx

the latest installment is #26: jello for the week of march 25, 2024

✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺

If you’d have told Mickey Milkovich that by eighteen, he’d be Terry-free and running a drug-fueled, fortune-telling business out of the spare room, he would’ve said, “fuck off and eat shit.”

But here he is.

And here’s Ian Gallagher: lanky, alien-lookin’, and back for the third time to ask about his bootlicking future.

Mickey settles in, the snick of the lighter flooding his body with endorphins, and takes a hit. Breathes in deep, blows out slow. Avoids glowing green eyes that remind him just how big of a gamble this whole thing is.

“See anything yet?”

🔮💨

Fuck, his voice is so hopeful. Curious, in a way that sends Mickey’s blood both north and south. Makes him sway in his chair, lightheaded. Floating. High.

Until the flood came.

A breeze that nips the nose. Rosy cheeks, wide grin, a warm, open laugh. Lips press in a quick, familiar kiss. “Betcha I can still beat you back, Mick.” The playful smack of a big, freckled paw. A slight wince. A weariness. Creaky knees, an ache in the low back. Determination. Something that feels like there ain’t a right word for it in any language. “In your dreams, Gallagher.”

🔮💨

What in the fresh hell…

Mickey blinks—once, twice, three times—trying to harness whatever clarity might still be available to him between the weed and the horrifying scene still playing behind his eyelids.

He’s seen some shit before, doing this kinda work. Shit that’s freaked him out, confused both him and the clients desperate for information. Visions of blood, bile and beady red eyes.

But never before has he himself shown up in anyone’s future.

“Didja see something?” Gallagher questions, scanning Mickey’s face with an intensity that flips his belly.

“Ask me again, I’ll cut your fuckin’ tongue out.”

🔮💨

Pink-tinged shame creeps up freckled cheeks, and Mickey’s instantly regretful. Gallagher’s a paying client, even if he does keep his cash in a dorky ass velcro wallet.

Their first two sessions had been fruitful, but incomplete.

Boot camp fatigues.

Helicopter blades.

A set of dog tags that read Phillip Gallagher, instead of Ian.

No wonder he’d shown up again, eager for answers.

Still, old habits die hard. Feelings are a luxury afforded to people a whole lot richer than a Milkovich. It’s easier to lie and be safe.

“Sorry, man. Nothin’ today.”

His chest clenches as Gallagher’s face falls.

🔮💨

The fuck is Mickey supposed to do? Tell him that desperate as he is to get blown to bits in some godforsaken desert, what just came through was nothing more than a couple of sore, old queens chasing each other in the snow? Even worse, try to explain that those frosted fairies are somehow them?

No fucking way.

Gallagher leans back in the rusted metal folding chair. He crosses his arms, his shirt riding up, revealing soft hair and sharp hips.

Heat licks at Mickey’s neck, along with the desire to wrap his legs around him and hold on tight.

🔮💨

“Okay… That’s okay,” he mumbles unconvincingly as he sits up again, his long fingers coming to rest on camo-clad thighs. Then, clearer, “Didn’t mean to pressure you or anything. Don’t really know how this shit works.”

“That makes two of us,” Mickey says before he can stop himself.

Pouty pink lips part, then tick upwards into a small smirk.

The moment lingers a bit too long, but Mickey’s now sufficiently stoned and ridiculously distracted by the deepening dimple in Gallagher’s chin to break it.

Something flickers between them. Cautious, curious, yet undeniably there.

“So, uh… what’s it feel like?”

🔮💨

“What’s what feel like?” Mickey asks, still dazed.

“You know… seeing shit.”

Oh. That.

Mickey mulls it over. He could tell him what it doesn’t feel like — a fucking gift. Or whatever people call bullshit abilities like getting so blitzed that you catch sight of what’s still to come. It’s a burden. A plight. If it didn’t make him cash money, he’d honestly consider going off weed altogether. Simply stick to the sauce.

But then again, he wouldn’t have Gallagher in his house, looking at him like he’s gonna say something stupid like, I’d rather have you, cursed or not.

🔮💨

Mickey battles between being benevolent and brash; nature versus nurture at near-constant war within him. But before he can bark out anything at all, he feels another wave pulling him under.

“Turn this chick shit off, man.” Flexed fingers separate his own, sneaking between them and holding on tight. Strong shoulders shrug. “Think it’s kinda like us.” A belly full of butterflies. A pair of flushed faces. “You’re still into me, huh?” A nod, sure and steady. “Always gonna be into you, Mickey.”

That last line takes him longer to shake, and goddammit, there’s no way Gallagher didn’t notice.

🔮💨

“Did you—” he starts predictably. Then, he quickly snaps his jaw shut, trapping the question within.

Mickey sniffs, fiddles with the zipper of his cut-off hoodie, trying to kill time. Keep his hands busy so he doesn’t do something dumb. But there’s really only one way this is gonna go, and he knows it. If Gallagher has even a lick of self-preservation underneath that buzzcut, he should too.

“It feels like you should stop asking stupid fuckin’ questions.” He swallows any stray pangs of conscience as he shoves crumpled bills across the crooked card table that separates them.

🔮💨

He watches Gallagher’s eyes snap to the money. It’s today’s fee returned, plus a little extra; whatever else was in Mickey’s pocket now collateral for his cowardice.

But he doesn’t take it. He doesn’t move at all.

“You fuckin’ deaf or somethin’?” Mickey shouts. Agitated. “In case you didn’t notice, we’re done here.”

Gallagher looks up. Stares straight into his goddamn soul. It’s terrifying—electrifying—and doesn’t hold a candle to the turmoil that rolls through him when that contact is suddenly gone, his gaze dropping to Mickey’s lips.

He fixates like he thinks they’ve already agreed to a truce.

🔮💨

“I know you saw something,” Gallagher whispers, stepping forward like a dead man on a mission.

Mickey winces. Wills himself back into his body, his eyes drifting shut as he calls to the scattered bits of his blissed out brain.

The time has come to fold.

“Yeah…”

The chaos spreads the room as Gallagher shifts again. Mickey’s pulse races, relying on sound and vibration to track his movements.

“I just need to know one thing.”

Mickey peeks, curious, then breathless at their newfound proximity.

They lock in eye to eye as Gallagher rips them apart:

“Do I make it through?”

🔮💨

The realization that his silence has been interpreted as some kind of personal tragedy makes Mickey want to punch something.

Hard.

Jesus Christ, it breaks his heart.

With fated versions of them swimming around his psyche, Mickey lets himself wonder if Gallagher might feel the way he does—worries he’s too broken, too disenfranchised, too fucked for life for anyone to be insane enough to love him.

He can almost hear their future selves asking, do you still love me even though I’m flawed? Can almost hear their whispered answers, yes, yes, always yes.

“Yeah, man,” he assures. “You do.”

🔮💨

The relief is clear as day for both the out-of-his-depth diviner and his confused client.

“Thanks,” Gallagher sniffs, eyes wide and wet. Everything feels fragile, like spun glass and cotton candy. Past their prime dandelions when a summer breeze kicks up. Not at all the way Mickey likes to feel—in his place of business, his own fucking home, his body… “See you next time?”

There is no next time with what Mickey now knows. Only half-truths and keeping his story straight.

Gallagher turns.

If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.

“Don’t—”

🔮💨

There’s an old poem about hollow men. Stuffed men. Men without sight; shape without form. Line after line of war and faith and shadows. Mickey’s not sure why he knows it. Doesn’t fully understand how it’s come to live in his brain and his bones. But here it is now:

This is the way the world ends.

Gallagher turns, his gaze a challenge. “Don’t what?”

This is the way the world ends.

“Just…”

This is the way the world ends.

Mickey’s breath catches in his throat.

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Gallagher’s lips twitch, but he stays put.

🔮💨

Maybe if those empty men were born in a different time, to other people, and raised under disparate circumstances, they would’ve been able to muster the courage to scream. To cry out their wants. Give voice to their needs.

(Could a couple of doped-up visions really create a need?)

As Gallagher continues to wait—not patiently, per se, but it’s perseverance nonetheless—it dawns on Mickey while he might have been born a worthless man, he doesn’t have to carry on that way.

His situation ain’t what it used to be.

“Can’t tell you what I saw,” he manages.

🔮💨

Gallagher’s hands flex at his sides, and it’s like Mickey’s noticing them for the first time. He ogles at how big they are, how speckled, how good they’d felt around his own hands in that last vision, how much he wants to feel them around his waist, his throat, his dick…

Flushed, and desperate to end this fucked up double date they’re on with their future selves, Mickey looks down at the soiled carpet.

“But I’m alive?” Gallagher asks.

“Very,” Mickey confirms, eyes lifting again. “Look happy.”

Gallagher’s grin sends sunlight streaming through a house once destined for eternal darkness.

🔮💨

“Thanks Mick.”

The nickname zigzags its way beneath Mickey’s skin like he’s a human pinball machine.

“Betcha I can still beat you back, Mick,” echoes an Ian who’s yet to be made real.

Mickey rubs at his bottom lip, hiding the smile that’s threatening to slip. Tries to play it off as a grimace. But Gallagher sees him—really sees him—and beams. A dream, how his smile implies that he’ll wait for Mickey to get there too.

And he will.

Mickey’s seen it.

Which gives him the confidence to say, “Come back. Next week. Or whenever. Try this again.”

🔮💨

The Universe takes “whenever” seriously, and in the days that follow, seizes full control of Mickey’s highs:

A broad chest pressed to his back. Arms wrapped around his neck.“Love is a battlefield!” Hoarse throats. Wide smiles. Two hearts near bursting.

Full-bodied wine. Pasta sauce on the stove. Tight jeans. Tighter tank. “You look good enough to eat, Mr. Milkovich.” “Bon appetite, Mr. Gallagher.”

“I love you, baby.” “Love you, Ian.”

Having waited the full week, Ian finally arrives on the Milkovich steps, dressed down in a striped shirt that makes Mickey’s mouth dry.

He hopes it’s cotton mouth…

✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺

🔮💨 CHAPTER TWO 🔮💨

✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺ | ✺

Ian’s knuckles pulse from the pert pace at which he raps on the Milkovich door.

It’s torture to just stand there and wait, held captive and stripped bare, nerves torn to pieces and praying for a little compassion.

He hopes Mickey’s home. They never confirmed his appointment. Ian’s just going off of his final words—Come back. Next week. Or whenever. Try this again.—before he turned away to find another cigarette.

Ian’s watched the entirety of their last encounter on a loop ever since, like a fucked up foreign film. No subtitles, just mixed (smoke) signals, confusion, and Mickey.

🔮💨

His whole experience with Mickey Milkovich, Southside’s Supreme Stoner Psychic, has been baffling to say the least.

At first, Ian wasn’t buying it. It’s gotta be some kind of scam! But Mickey’s built a solid reputation for being accurate and to the point. Besides, Ian’s always had a little bit of a crush. A death wish, too. So he paid Mickey his money and left with some fragments of his fated future.

He also left with a hunch that his feelings might not be so one-sided... Mickey didn’t hand over a Valentine’s card, but Ian saw the way he’d stared.

🔮💨

He’s still picturing it when Mickey swings open the door and crosses his arms over his chest, tugging at the buttons of his black dress shirt.

Okay, formal, Ian thinks, taking in Mickey’s slicked back hair and the smoke of his cologne.

Ian regrets his tee and jeans, missing the authority and confidence of his uniform. But Mickey doesn’t seem to mind—there’s hunger in his gaze again, twin storm clouds rolling in over a calm sea.

For a moment, they both look their fill.

Ian opens his mouth to speak, but fails.

Mickey smirks. “Comin’ in or what, Mushmouth?”

🔮💨

He steps back, giving Ian space to cross over the threshold; inviting him to close the distance between them, and commit to finding out what comes next.

Ian obeys every silent order. His feet move of their own volition, as if they’re attached to a ratchet wrench that pulls him forward in one direction, and one direction only: towards Mickey.

The electric current that runs between them had felt innocent enough last week, and then again, today, in the fresh air of the porch.

But when Mickey shuts the door to behind them, Ian realizes he’s caught in a trap.

🔮💨

The house smells different. Good, even? Like something's cooking in an oven that hasn’t been used in years. It’s familiar in a way that tickles at Ian’s memory and further drops his defenses.

Mickey doesn’t mention it. He just brushes past Ian, leading them towards the room he’s been using for business.

On the table, next to Mickey’s bong, is a platter of pizza rolls. Ian’s mouth waters.

Mickey thumbs at his nose. “You’ve lost your way, you think your life is wrecked,” he says, taking his seat. “Well, let me just say you're correct.”

Ian blinks twice. “Wait, what?”

🔮💨

Mickey’s eerie silence pulls the moisture from his mouth until he’s nothing more than a shriveled sack of dust. A tumbleweed in the desert, crawling towards an oasis that might not be real.

What Ian wouldn’t give for Mickey to pick up his piece and press his worries into the earth; bury them in the plush of ground weed. He wants to watch the water swirl beneath colored glass, wants to watch the fire turn into steam and smoke. Needs to see the air fill Mickey’s chest, raise his shoulders and bloat his lungs.

Finally:

“I know your secret, Gallagher.”

🔮💨

Ian’s heart kicks in his chest, a jolt of fear spiking through him, and his head swims. It’s like he’s back inside the dark theatre he’d been in all week. Mickey’s words are nothing but unfamiliar sounds.

If he’s gonna go to the movies, he might as well get a snack.

He grabs a pizza roll from the plate in front of him and pops it in his mouth. But when he bites down, the inevitable happens.

“Fuck,” he garbles, the sauce piping hot and burning his mouth.

Ian doubles over, in pain and embarrassed. He really should’ve known better.

🔮💨

“Jesus Christ,” Mickey huffs, standing up and leaving the room.

Ian opens his inferno of a mouth, hoping the air of the room will cool down the masticated snack. Thankfully, by the time he hears the familiar sound of a beer cap being popped off, he’s able to swallow.

Mickey returns, bottle in hand. He offers it to Ian. “S’all we got.”

Ian takes it, grateful as the icy liquid chills his charred throat. “All you got, huh? Even juvie’s got jello.”

“What d’you know about juvie, Gallagher?”

Mickey’s squint makes Ian’s chest constrict.

“What d’you know about me, Milkovich?”

#we love a master post moment!#updates weekly babes 🔮💨#crystal ball weed bong mickey ily #bright eyed bootlicker ian you are so precious #shameless #shameless fanfiction #galladrabbles #ian gallagher #mickey milkovich #ian x mickey #bee writes 🐝 ✍🏼

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koku-shibou · 2 years ago

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Introduction

Updated 2024 March. Please read before interacting.

Kokushibo as well as his mod are both 25+. If you are a minor or are roleplaying minor characters, do not interact with NSFW-related posts or make NSFW asks to Kokushibo.

If you want to compliment or flirt with Kokushibo, have some dignity and creativity than sending random explicit messages like "can we fck".

SFW roleplaying with minor OCs or canon characters is welcome.

Kokushibo reserves the right not to respond or participate with roleplay or asks that he finds to be inappropriate or uncomfortable.

Do not interact if you are racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or a pedophile.

Do not interact with Kokushibo with the intention of harming him. Any asks or reblogs that attempt to unalive (or near unalive), severely injure, torture, or bully my muse will not be answered. Repeated offenses will result in a block. Casual banter and mild insults are fine, and Kokushibo or mod will express it if a line is crossed.

Ended roleplay interactions are ended. If personal issues or issues between muses result in a roleplay relation between characters to come to an end, it is finished and a clean slate will be left behind. There is no "history" once a roleplay interaction has been ended for good between Kokushibo and other muses. Please do not hang onto "baggage", past interactions, drama, etc with Kokushibo once an interaction relationship is closed. Kokushibo will do the same.

#mod speaks #kokushibou rp #kny rp #upper moon 1 #kokushibo #kokushibo rp #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer rp #demon slayer kokushibo

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treasureyourfire · 8 months ago

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Tarot in the shadow of Anxiety

-Long Vent post-

(English is not my mother language, sorry for the mistakes.)

I am currently in such a state that my faith in myself and in the Tarot has been greatly shaken.

If anyone else has experienced something similar, I'd appreciate some advice.

Anxiety and panic make it difficult to read -especially- to myself. I've always struggled with self-confidence, I can't fully trust my intuition either, it's hard for me to hear it. I try to meditate daily (but yeah, there are small or large breaks), try to connect to the right channel with breathing techniques and self-calming before reading, but there are situations when it's very difficult for me to find and maintain my inner peace. I get thrown off balance easily. I've been fine in recent months, although in general I get a milder anxiety when I sit down to read tarot, which I overcome sometimes quickly, sometimes more slowly. I think this originates from lack of self-confidence and maximalism, perfectionism.

However, recently I had a day where I went into overdrive, when I couldn't keep my patience and sanity.

I have been harassed in nearly a week by a hidden phone number that I did not answer. I usually don't answer if it's encrypted or if a displayed number isn't in my contact list.

I asked cards for it and interesting things came out of the caller, what kind of person it might be.

Since when I've started practice tarot, this was my first YES or NO question :

Do I know the person personally?

I got the Five of Swords, which I took as a definite NO, so I didn't deal with it any further.

Then, early in the morning on Monday this week (March 25, 2024), my phone vibrated again, twice in a row, this time with an actual phone number. On the first call, it "rang" persistently and for a long time, the second call was shorter, lasted about half a minute. It wasn't in my phonebook and I wasn't expecting a call from anywhere or anyone, I didn't make new acquaintances recently, so I didn't pick it up either.

But an avalanche of catastrophizing started in me... Could it be a doctor? Ambulance? Police? (I had reason to assume these possibilities due to certain events in my life.)

I didn't dare to call it back for several reasons.

I asked a card.

Why did this number call me?

Ten of Swords

I immediately panicked, especially after looking up the general meaning of the card. I feared the worst.

I asked another YES or NO question;

Should I call it back?

Strenght in Reverse

I took it as a NO.

This was where I first panicked and I was unable to ask the cards for clarification.

After I stopped asking, it was interesting that for some reason I always wanted to say or thought of Nine of Swords instead of Ten of Swords... I wondered what if that meant that my own negative mental state had produced this Ten of Swords and I didn't got the true message.

After making sure everyone is all right in the family, a big stone rolled off my chest. This time, however, I didn't leave it at that and called the helpline with that I might be a victim of telephone harassment and gave them the new number. After the family's and my own private investigation, it turned out that the number, which was not encrypted, was probably a wrong number and was not the same person who had been calling me from the hidden number. We laughed about it.

But next, the guilt and overthinking hit me... Why did I act... I rushed it... I want to stand up for myself "for once", but I still feel guilty, what if I send the police on an innocent person. As long as they deal with the matter... (I am writing this post on Wednesday. The police haven't contacted with me since then, and I expect that (even though it's their job to see about it) they let it go.)

After getting into a "calmer" state of mind, I sat down again that day to ask for clarification.

For the Ten of Swords (Why did this number call me?) I received the following cards;

Six of Pentacles

Seven of Cups

Five of Swords

Queen of Cups (I felt that this card represented me, but even though it was an upright card, in this situation it did not indicate its positive/healthy state.)

I read a negative message from it.

I asked it differently.

What was the caller's intention? ;

Ten of Pentacles

Four of Cups

This was where the complete confusion finally came.

This sentence comes out of my mouth many times during some readings; "I wish I hadn't asked."

I felt that the first and second half of the message were completely opposite to each other. First I thought of negative intention, then positive intention. Of course, I don't know the other side, and it seems I won't know what the caller's true motivation was.

Maybe the cards were showing my own confusion? That I thought of several possibilities regarding the case?

I haven't known the meaning of each card comprehensively, so it's difficult for me to interpret and read them together, especially when several cards pop out at the same time (I prefer to work with pop-out cards rather than drawing), and I know that negative emotions and thoughts can take me in the wrong direction, no matter how hard I try to ground myself.

Maybe I wanted to analyze a too complicated case (or I made it too complicated for myself) with too many cards and questions, because in the end it all felt like a big, self-contradictory mess. I tortured myself emotionally too much. I had enough and didn't want to continue to force myself to calm down, and to translate the messages more deeply and soberly.

Last I asked advice:

What to do next to make it the best for both sides:

The Magician

This was the point, when I had finally had enough for the day. For me, the Magician seemed to "scream": "Create, act!" And I was just... What should I do? Should I call the helpline again to ask to forget my call from earlier? Should I worsen the situation or my own mental well-being? No! It was enough! I just wanted to run away and break away.

My second intuition was that the Magician indicated that I should continue to deal with my own things (this card has shown itself to me many times in the nearly past), to look at the big picture, my whole life, not just this one day, as it was the only Major Arcana in the reading. However, I wouldn't consider The Magician as a "Let it go and move on" card. Or do I should?

In hindsight, under action and creation it might be referring to bringing my thoughts down to earth level, and with this post I just have done that.

In any case, my self-confidence went under the frog's butt after the incident, and maybe I'm even more anxious to take the Tarot in my hands... I'm afraid of new emotional turbulences (I hated them always), of being overwhelmed. Supposedly there is NO such thing as a WRONG READING (but maybe wrong channel), yet I am afraid that I am not doing it right… I am afraid of another meltdown and disappointment. If it turns out that Tarot is not my path either, then I have no idea what it could be...

I'm still very much a beginner, there are pitfalls with this, I shouldn't take it to heart, but it's always been difficult for me.

Do you have any advice for me about this spread?

What would you have read from these cards?

Looking at my situation through the eyes of an outsider, maybe would help me to be more enlightened.

I've tried to research the following topics before to become a better reader, but I'm grateful for any advice you guys can give me. <3

What techniques do you recommend to read card combinations?

Do you have any other tips for dealing with my "tarot-anxiety"?

advice on how to manage my relationship with Tarot,

advice on how to strengthen the connection with my intuition

advice on how to strengthen the connection with my spirit guides?

When does the mind (knowledge or ego) speak and when does intuition speak?

If you're still here and read all the way through, thank you very much!

We never know what someone has to experience and learn on their own path, there may be low points, but I hope that I will not create more posts with such a desperate and tormented state of mind.

Take care of yourselves. <3

#tarot #tarot journal #tarot reading #tarotblr #tarot community #tarot card reading #tarot cards #hungarian #vent post

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missgryffin · 11 months ago

Note

11,12,17,39 for the fanfic asks

Thanks Mia! 🫶

11. What work took you the longest to write?

I have to say ES, considering it's still in progress. I believe it was March of this year that I dedicated the whole month to refining an outline for Book 1. Rewriting has been an overall slower process than I'd anticipated, but I'm chipping away!

12. How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year?

So I have like 25 wips total 🙃 but my goal for 2024 is to finally finish as many of the fics that I've already started/shared as I can, which I think is like 5 or 6 wips? We'll see how it goes!

17. Your favorite character to write this year?

Overall it was more of a Lily year!

(Unsure if you meant to ask for 29 or 30 — but both are in my inbox so I'll answer them there!)

#ask #ao3 wrapped

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xtruss · 9 months ago

Text

Pro-Palestine demonstrators gather during a vigil for U.S. Airman Aaron Bushnell outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, on Feb. 26, 2024. Photo: Tom Brenner for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Aaron Bushnell, Who Self-Immolated For Palestine 🇵🇸, Had Grown Deeply Disillusioned With The Military! “I have Been Complicit in The Violent Domination of The World And I Will Never Get The Blood 🩸 🩸🩸 Off My Hands.”

— By Nikita Mazurov | February 28 2024

Aaron Bushnell, the active-duty U.S. Air Force Airman who set himself on fire Sunday to protest Israel’s war on Gaza, appears to have grown disillusioned with the U.S. military and his own role as a service member, according to posts on the online forum Reddit under a handle matching one used by Bushnell.

Bushnell, 25, made international news when he professed that he would “no longer be complicit in genocide” and recorded himself shouting “Free Palestine!” as he burned to death in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Sunday. “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest,” Bushnell had announced on a livestream before his self-immolation, “but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers is not extreme at all.”

The Reddit posts, by a user named acebush1 and mostly from the past four years, chronicle a young person’s experience struggling with money as the pandemic took hold. The Reddit poster turned to the military and was initially enamored with the Air Force, but quickly came to denounce it.

In the months leading up to Bushnell’s act of self-immolation, several of acebush1’s posts showed how sharply their view of the military had shifted. On the r/Airforce subreddit, a user asked veterans whether, in hindsight, they would still choose to join the military. Acebush1 answered, “Absolutely not.”

“I have been complicit in the violent domination of the world,” they said, “and I will never get the blood off my hands.”

The Intercept analysis linked the acebush1 Reddit account to Bushnell by analyzing his social media activity. In a post on Facebook the same day as his self-immolation, Bushnell had posted a link to the video streaming platform Twitch with the username LillyAnarKitty. Using a Twitch username history tool that identifies a user’s prior account names, The Intercept found that the same Twitch User ID number used by LillyAnarKitty previously employed the handle acebush1.

A Reddit user with the same username — acebush1 — posted over a thousand times since 2014. The Reddit posts mention details that align closely with Bushnell’s life, including being in the Air Force, having a friend who was a conscientious objector, and studying computer science.

As this story was being drafted, acebush1’s posts started to be removed from Reddit. The posts were archived and, though Reddit instantly deletes posts from their new interface, visiting the old-style Reddit user profile page reveals their recently deleted posts.

“A Regret I Will Carry”

The acebush1 Reddit user joined the military soon after posting about their financial struggles at the beginning of the pandemic. On March 19, 2020, acebush1 inquired about becoming an Uber Eats driver. The following month they posted asking for financial help: “HELP – Can’t get stimulus or unemployment benefits, about to run out of money.”

In May, acebush1 posted a photo with the caption “My Dad getting suited up to give me a goodbye? hug before I leave for BMT” — basic military training. According to Bushnell’s LinkedIn page, he enrolled in “Basic & Technical Training” in the Air Force in May 2020.

Several months into enrollment, acebush1 appeared excited by the Air Force, reposting a video of a military aircraft in August 2020 and giving it a heading that said: “Man, the Air Force does some cool-ass shit.”

Acebush1 also regularly posted in various video game Reddit communities, including one dedicated to the video game “Valheim.” In Bushnell’s self-immolation livestream, the liquid container he is carrying has a sticker with the slogan ‘the bees are happy,’ a meme from “Valheim.”

In November 2021, acebush1 made multiple posts asking about advice in pursuing a computer science degree. Bushnell’s LinkedIn profile, which has been memorialized “as a tribute to Aaron Bushnell’s professional legacy,” lists him as having been in the process of pursuing a bachelor’s degree in computer software engineering.

Nearly a year later, acebush1’s posts shifted from largely video game-based content to posts with titles like “Solidarity with Prisoners!” with a link to a Guardian article about an Alabama prison strike, and to reposting a meme image of anarchist philosopher Max Stirner. In 2023, acebush1 made a post with the title “Free Palestine!” and linked to a video of an activist takeover of UAV Tactical Systems, a drone company operated in part by the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems.

“I Didn’t Realize What A Huge Mistake It Was Until I Was More Than Halfway Through.”

Shortly after the pro-Palestine post, in June 2023, acebush1 wrote, “I’m sticking it out to the end of my contract as I didn’t realize what a huge mistake it was until I was more than halfway through, and I only have a year left at this point. However it is a regret I will carry the rest of my life.”

The poster mentioned a friend who left the armed services on the basis of conscientious objection; Bushnell’s friend Levi Pierpont, according to the Washington Post, objected and left the military.

Acebush1’s posts became more stridently pro-Palestinian as Israel’s war in Gaza got underway. In one, they denounce Israel as a “settler colonialist apartheid state,” and exclaim that there are no Israeli “civilians” because the entire country is engaged in oppression. They refuse on several occasion to denounce armed Palestinian resistance, saying in the apartheid post that they “work for the air force and would also have no right to complain about violent resistance against my actions.”

In November 2023, acebush1 made another post describing “the moral necessity of getting out.”

In the last few months, acebush1 accelerated their posting across various anarchism-related Reddit communities, as well as on other various communities. “Piracy is always ethical,” acebush1 posted. “If you think that you’re making a difference with who you do and don’t choose to give your money to, you don’t understand how markets work.”

Acebush1’s last Reddit post was on February 24, expounding on how “whiteness erases culture” — a day before Bushnell’s self-immolating direct action. In an earlier post, acebush1 had written, “I’ve never been one for bullshit.”

#Aaron Bushnell #An Ultimate Sacrifice #Self-Immolation | Palestine 🇵🇸#No More Complicit #No More Violent Domination #Gaza #Gaza Genocide #War Crimes | Genocide #Illegal Occupation #Crimes of the Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐗 Cunts #U.S. Air Force Airman #Illegal Regime of the God’s Cursed Terrorist 🐖 🐷 🐗#The Intercept #Nikita Mazurov

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houseofbrat · 8 months ago

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How I landed BBC's car-crash Prince Andrew scoop - and now Billie Piper is playing me on Netflix, by SAM McALISTER

By Sam Mcalister

Published: 21:43 EDT, 25 March 2024

Thursday, November 14, 2019, and I’m in the South Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace, with the back of Prince Andrew’s head to the left of my line of sight, and the presenter and interviewer Emily Maitlis — pen in hand, wearing a green khaki military jacket, black trousers and open-toe heeled boots — directly opposite me.

I’m a 46-year-old junior TV producer and this is about to become one of the most analysed and talked about broadcast moments ever.

I can barely breathe. It’s taken 13 months of painstaking negotiation, many conversations and meetings to make this moment happen — to convince Andrew to give his first ever sit-down interview about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. And to do it with the BBC’s Newsnight.

As the interview unfolds, each answer is more excruciating than the last. There are long periods where I just stare at the ornate carpet of that splendid room, desperate to collect myself and not react to what I am hearing.

Because it’s explosive stuff.

Today, Andrew’s answers have passed into comedic folklore and launched a thousand memes, but back then they are freshly shocking. When Emily presses him on the nature of the birthday party he’d hosted at Sandringham for Jeffrey Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell — currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for trafficking the women and girls Epstein sexually abused — the Prince replies that it was ‘a straightforward shooting weekend’.

And asked where he was on March 10, 2001, when Virginia Giuffre claimed he danced with her at Tramp nightclub in London’s Mayfair, then slept with her at Maxwell’s house in Belgravia, Andrew answers: ‘Pizza Express in Woking’.

‘I didn’t sweat at the time’, is his response to the suggestion that Giuffre remembered him perspiring profusely that night.

Every answer propels the interview into a new sphere of absurdity. Every answer convinces me this is the scoop of the year. By the end, I’m pretty sure it’s the scoop of the century.

The atmosphere as the cameras stop rolling is electric. All of the Newsnight team (from the Deputy Editor, Stewart Maclean, to the make-up woman, Cat Crawford) look shellshocked. I don’t know what to do with myself.

Surely Prince Andrew’s face will be ashen? He will be devastated by the experience...

On the contrary. As my eyes survey the room, I can see his beaming smile. It’s patently clear that not only does he think it’s gone well, he thinks he’s aced it.

So confident is he that he takes Emily on a tour of the palace. I decline, keen to get back to the office and the calming presence of Newsnight editor Esme Wren.

Those iconic shots of Emily and HRH striding down the Palace Hall were taken after the interview had ended. Zoom in on Andrew’s face: see how pleased he is with his performance.

It wasn’t long, however, before the slew of national and global headlines that pilloried him burst his bubble. Not one piece of coverage was positive.

Commentators, newspapers and broadcasters across the world were united in a single thought: the Duke of York had made an appalling mistake. He had gone from being a largely forgotten man to a global pariah. And he was about to be unceremoniously put out in the cold.

On November 20, 2019, just four days after the Newsnight interview had aired, the announcement came: Andrew was to ‘step back from public duties for the foreseeable future’. The Queen’s favourite son had effectively been sacked by his own mother.

Although Andrew has never faced a criminal court, the court of public opinion has drawn its own conclusions.

Before becoming a TV producer, I trained and worked as a criminal barrister, and believe me, that interview was a prosecutor’s dream. There were just so many details that, if untrue, could be fact-checked and disproved.

Today, the Prince still vehemently denies he was involved in any wrongdoing. In 2022, however, he made a civil settlement, reportedly of around £12million with Virginia Giuffre, who has said that he sexually assaulted her on three separate occasions. The out-of-court settlement was reached on the basis that the Prince accepted no liability.

So our Newsnight interview certainly had very expensive consequences: it probably hastened that settlement with Giuffre.

For me, too, there have been consequences. The day after we recorded the interview, Esme, tweeted, ‘Full credit to our indefatigable interview producer @SamMcAlister1 for securing this world exclusive’.

Giving producers credit is a rarity in our industry, and the Press picked it up. I got my 15 seconds of recognition, then it was just back to work as usual.

Of course, I asked for a pay rise after the interview, but I didn’t get one. As a part-time junior producer whose job it was to negotiate interviews with everyone from tech billionaire Elon Musk to actress Amy Schumer, I was never on more than ten per cent of the presenter’s salary.

That didn’t change. I worked behind the scenes and didn’t expect to be given a share of the limelight. Admittedly I had never really played the BBC game — I didn’t know the right people, I didn’t toe the line.

And, in my leather trousers and snakeskin boots, I certainly didn’t dress the way most people at the BBC dressed. Then there was also my need to be home to care for my son, who was only three when I started at Newsnight.

All of which probably contributed to the fact that, even though I’d been on the team for ten years, I never really progressed professionally before the Prince Andrew interview. However, I did not progress afterwards either, and that didn’t feel right.

For the next few years, I got through Covid — which meant a prolonged period of sickness and the long days of homeschooling — and returned to work when the world re-opened.

Although a pay rise and promotion were still not forthcoming, everywhere I went, people told me: ‘You should write a book about what happened!’

Eventually, I decided to do just that. It was my hope that, like many correspondents and presenters, I could write it while still working at the BBC, but it was made clear that wasn’t an option. So I managed to find a literary agent, gave up my staff job and risked it all. I took a chance on people being interested in what I had to say — the story of an ordinary woman in an extraordinary situation.

I secured a little advance, tapped away on my laptop on the sofa late at night, and called my book Scoops. I hoped a few people would buy it. It was the best decision I have ever made.

The book was serialised in the Mail. I held my breath. I was trepidatious that the Palace and the BBC might cause some issues. They were both Goliath to my tiny David, but somewhat surprisingly, I didn’t hear anything.

There was, however, a flurry of interest elsewhere — a Channel 4 documentary, some media appearances, a few articles, all culminating in the dream of any author: the offer to have your book turned into a Netflix movie, with me as executive producer.

Which is how I came to find myself explaining the exact process by which the interview occurred to top TV screenwriter Peter Moffat, of Silk and Your Honour fame. How, in the beginning, the BBC had turned Prince Andrew down.

In October 2018, a PR company working with Andrew sent me the offer of an interview with him about his charitable pursuits. A ‘puff piece’, where you basically spend time with the subject but don’t get to ask any real questions. We didn’t do those on Newsnight, so I declined, but kept the conversation going.

Months passed, and then came an invite for me to go to Buckingham Palace to meet his chief of staff, Amanda Thirsk (who is played by Keeley Hawes in the movie).

I took the bus to the palace, and didn’t even tell my boss I was going, I was so certain nothing would come of it. I took a few selfies in the waiting room (irresistible when left alone with a phone) and talked to Amanda for hours.

But then came a red line. Prince Andrew’s association with the businessman Jeffrey Epstein, then a free man, but with a past conviction for procuring a child for prostitution, was considered a no-go area. And so, again, we declined.

Then things got frenzied. Epstein was finally re-arrested in July 2019. He was charged and awaiting trial for sex trafficking of minors when suddenly in August came news of his death, apparently by his own hand.

Ghislaine Maxwell, at large for many years, was tracked down in 2020, arrested and charged, too. The FBI was very interested in speaking with Prince Andrew. Virginia Giuffre announced she was bringing a new lawsuit, and doing interviews, and the pressure on Andrew became intense.

I kept trying for the interview, week after week, month after month. Finally, in October 2019, came an invitation to return to see Amanda, and a face-to-face with Prince Andrew himself in November.

It was the first time I had ever met him and he was exactly as I had imagined from my research — a high-energy man, full of confidence and sporadic laughter. He was surprisingly congenial and open given the circumstances.

Rammed into a tiny room in Buckingham Palace, the three Newsnighters (me, Emily and Deputy Editor Stewart) faced Andrew, Amanda and a very unexpected guest — his elder daughter, Princess Beatrice.

She was dressed in navy blue, asked sensible questions about the possible logistics, and it was clear, she was close to her father and concerned for his welfare. The discussion was frank, firm, sometimes funny.

My background — I am from a family of East End market traders, coupled with my legal training — seemed to work a charm.

The argument was simple: the country probably mostly considered him guilty, and the solution was to give an account of himself. I’m not sure how Emily and Stewart felt when I mentioned his ‘Randy Andy’ nickname, but he laughed and I hoped against hope that we had convinced him.

Less than 24 hours later we received a ‘yes’ and just three days later we were back at the palace, armed with the cameras.

Two days later, I watched it go out in a special Saturday edition of Newsnight. I was at my boyfriend’s house in East London, where I was too nervous even to sit down. At last, all my work was paying off, and spectacularly.

What I hadn’t expected was that one interview would take over the next five years of my life.

This time last year I was on a film set watching myself being played by Billie Piper for Scoop — the Netflix dramatisation of the story.

The first time Billie and I met, we went for dinner and she thoroughly grilled me — about my job, my family and my life. She hadn’t played a real person before and said she wanted to do me justice.

Watching her on set was uncanny. She had perfected my bouncy walk to match my bouncy curls, even accepting my need to be decked head-to-toe in black with lashings of lip-gloss, those snakeskin boots and sunglasses.

In fact, costume and make-up on the film did such a stellar job that some of the crew members couldn’t tell us apart.

The day filming outside the BBC was particularly memorable. It was the first time in a couple of years that I’d been back to my old office. Who would have thought I’d return to shoot a film about my time there? It was next level surreal.

I’m not embarrassed to admit that I shed a tear watching Billie that day. One minute the actress was playing me outside the BBC offices, the next she was chatting with my fake mum and having a kebab with my fake son (played by an adorable boy called Zach Colton).

My real-life son is proud but, like most teens, declined to come on set and be fussed over.

My mum, Netta, came to meet her alter ego, Amanda Redman, who was absolutely wonderful to her. The happiness and pride Mum felt for me that day was very special to see. Without her help in caring for my son when I worked at the BBC, I don’t know how I would ever have managed.

As for Prince Andrew, I was 15ft behind him again. But this time, he was being played by the actor Rufus Sewell — his handsome features covered in swathes of prosthetics — and a new Emily, played by Gillian Anderson. The same clothes, same words, same steely determination, same gaze.

And that’s my film. But what of the other dramatic rendering of the interview? There’s been a lot of speculation about rival versions, with Emily Maitlis also an executive producer on a series called A Very Royal Scandal, which will come out later this year on Amazon Prime, starring Michael Sheen as Prince Andrew.

I heard about it first in the news last year. We had already started filming Scoop at the time.

Some newspapers like to talk of an enmity between us, a ‘Battle of the Blondes’, but I’m sorry to disappoint — I wish Emily nothing but happiness and success, and can’t wait to see if someone is playing ‘me’.

Now it feels as though my life is on the cusp of something new. There’s uncertainty and excitement. Friends and strangers are wishing me tons of luck, although no doubt some quarters won’t like the fact I’m speaking out about the story again.

I’ve had to grow a thicker skin. My plan is to concentrate on enjoying every magical moment. Appreciate it all. Enjoy my second 15 seconds of glamorous parties, film premieres, photo-shoots, martinis at posh bars...

Then it will be back to normal life, hustling for work, keynote-speaking, chatting with my new students at the LSE, where I’m a visiting senior fellow in the law department.

And then back on the bus, lashings of lip-gloss, off for a kebab, with a big smile on my face.

#Daily Mail #Sam McAlister #bbc #media #movies #netflix #the disgusting one doesn't get his name in a tag #british royal family #princess beatrice #epstein shit #my gif

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