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traitorca · 8 months

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My Iron Lung - The Walking Dead

Daryl Dixon x Grimes!Reader - 5

Masterlist

hey guys!! orca here- todays a SUPER short chapter! I wrote this while on a plane so I just thought some more- in depth character explanation would be fun? So!! Chapter 5!!

tw: vomiting? daryl makes a semi sexist ed comment. reader does not have an ed.

The past few days seem to fly by pretty fast, the awkward feeling in camp became less tense now that you and Shane had made amends.

To your dismay, you hadn’t done much to improve the relationship (if you could call it that) you had started with Daryl. You had short conversations here and there, most of them ending with a curt way of saying “piss off”. Of course, saying he did it curtly was your way of saying that he was such an asshole about it- but you preferred to see the best in people sometimes.

He did- however, seem to humor the idea of teaching you how to track. That excited you more than clean laundry, and that was saying a lot, considering that was something you imagine most people would kill for. Thankfully for your group at the quarry, you had access to fresh, semi-clean water. The women at camp seemed to be the default choice to wash it however, which is something you highly questioned- but as of now, you’ve never been asked to assist. You knew it was because to everyone else, you were held higher in importance; You were included in Shane’s decision making, clearly making you a leader and vital number to the group.

But you wondered if that’s all you were to them. A number. A long shot in the dark to finding a cure.

You knew, deep down, something about that patient of yours in the hospital was unorthodox. Even though the body had no pulse, even though there was no blood flow- there was brain activity. As if the body was on auto pilot. They weren’t alive, nor acted like it. The body was a cadaver, nothing more, nothing less.

Or was it.

Could you be to blame? Was your subject of study the cause? The catalyst to something this extreme? If you hadn’t been called, if you hadn’t left the UK- could you have stopped it?

If Rick hadn’t been shot, would you have been killed instead?

These thoughts weren’t healthy, nor normal- but something in you crawled, burying itself in your gut. You were going to be sick.

You stumbled into the woods, hand covering your mouth as you hurriedly made your way to a bush. Bile rose to your throat in the form of claws, tearing at your esophagus. Flashes of teeth, eyes- blood. Red. Red. Red.

RED.

You threw up. The guilt of your brothers abandoned body in a hospital bed breathing down your neck. You held your own hair to the side of your shoulder, other hand bracing your weight on your knee.

You threw up again. This time, you could feel the guilt of your job- something you failed to do, weigh across the blades of your shoulders. You coughed, blinking as black dots seemed to vanish from view, revealing the world again.

There was no red, there were no teeth, there were no claws- just a bush that had unfortunately felt the wrath of your weak stomach.

How embarrassing.

But, for once…the world was quiet, save for the birds that calmly sung through the trees. It was all… surreal. Everything seemed normal. A brief glimpse of your childhood, your parents, your brother.

You missed it, honestly. The life before you grew up. You’d give anything to go bac-

“Hey-! The hell you doin’?” Daryl approached, cross bow slung over his shoulder as he had a cig in his mouth. He had seen you run from camp.

You jerked, wiping your mouth and clearing your throat. “N-Nothing-! I just-“ there was no point in lying. “I felt sick. Don’t look in the bush. Seriously.”

He irked at that, nose scrunching up in disgust. “Didn’t take you for someone with a weak stomach. You sick or sumin’?”

“Awe, you care?”

“As if. S’ wonderin’ if I need to stay further away from ya’ is all.” He spat, eyes looking at the floor.

“I’m not sick. Just- felt like… throwing up?”

“You one of those girls?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“You purge yourself or sum’ shit? Woulda figured that disorder shit disappeared with the rest of this shit-“

“No- no! I just- got really upset. It made me sick.”

“Hm. Sounds like bullshit.”

“Get your hearing checked, then, asshole.”

“Maybe if you made any damn sense, I would understand.”

“Read a book, Dixon.”

“Learn to shoot, Grimes.”

“I CAN shoot-“

“Bullshit.”

“Then teach me. If you don’t believe I can shoot, teach me. I’ll prove you wrong.”

He went quiet there.

“Ahah!” You cheered in victiry “got you, smartass.”

“I’ll do it.”

“Huh-?”

“Before dawn. Wake your ass up or I’ll leave ya. We’ll go hunt.”

taglist:🏷️:

@poubxlle @kovieky @fallenkitten @dixonsboy19 @gamingfeline

#the walking dead #daryl dixon x reader #the walking dead x reader #daryl dixon #daryl dixon x grimes reader #daryl dixon x you #grimes reader #my iron lung #lori grimes #rick grimes

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maaarine · 2 months

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Menopause was a French invention at a time of revolution (Alison M Downham Moore, Psyche, July 30 2024)

"Have women in all historical and present cultures suffered the ailments of menopause we know about today?

Studies in medical history and anthropology, and cross-cultural medical surveys, indicate wide variability in how women have experienced it globally.

Japanese women interviewed in the 1990s described their primary complaint of midlife as shoulder stiffness – not hot flushes.

And a 2015 study of British Pakistani women found that those raised in Pakistan were more likely to believe the menopause caused a cough and sore throat, while those raised in the UK were more likely to see it in a range of emotional symptoms.

No concept like ‘menopause’ is found in any world health or medical tradition, except in Western biomedicine.

And, even in the West, neither physicians nor midwives had much to say about the final cessation of menses before about 1780.

So how did the concept originate?

Menopause was first defined by young male university students and their medical professors at the universities of Montpellier and Paris from the end of the 1700s.

It was a major topic in France throughout the 19th century, with several hundred books written about it in the emerging new specialisms of hygiene (preventive health), psychiatry, gynaecology, sexology and endocrinology.

No other culture was anywhere near as interested in this topic as the French, and even those very few works on menopause appearing in Germany, England and the US during the 19th century borrowed heavily from them.

Why were the French in particular so fascinated by menopause?

Menopause was likely invented by the French because of its association with three categories of nervous pathologies that had flourished in medical writing there from the end of the 1600s into the 1800s: the vapours, hysteria, and hypochondria.

Nervous diseases, it was thought, were a product of luxury and civilisation: urban life, stale air, sedentary lifeways, overeating, exotic foods and beverages, licentiousness, and corporeal laziness were all to blame.

A medical view emerged of urban elite women in modern France as generally more prone to nervous diseases during times of uterine change, including around the final cessation of menses, via ‘sympathies’ of the uterus with the nervous system and the brain. (…)

When French physicians queried older peasant women about their cessation of menses, they were met with blank looks or laughter, since the very idea that simply being old enough to gain relief from menstruation and childbirth made one sick was completely alien and nonsensical to them.

Medical theses produced between 1799 and 1840 developed a rich ‘hygienic’ discourse, advising urban women to mimic peasant diets and lifeways to avoid the ravages of menopause and enjoy a healthy ageing. (…)

In the early 20th century, women conducted research studies on the diseases of women’s ageing, after they were permitted to enter the medical profession.

There was a distinctly less catastrophising and generalising tone.

They addressed serious diseases such as uterine cancer, or worrying symptoms such as haemorrhagic bleeding, but did not see these as problems for all women whose menses was ceasing.

Sage voices had long criticised the practice of lumping all women’s experiences of midlife and old age into the container of menopause.

Some women doctors argued that the concept of menopause was itself a risk to women’s health, producing an ‘auto-suggestion’, or nocebo effect that they would be better to avoid and simply take good care of their minds and bodies, or even embark on a quest for spiritual insight instead. (…)

The concept of menopause did not come from women themselves but rather from medical men for whom it served as a useful and generative case-example.

It was a tool for biomedical reformulations of treatment practices and for the conceptual separation of morbidity from mortality; it was a teaching device for male medical students learning the new mechanistic approach to women’s health; it was a weapon with which to fight other doctors, medical faculties and rival health traditions, as well as a pathway for new medical disciplines such as hygiene, psychiatry, gynaecological surgery and emergent endocrinology – to expand patient markets, develop theoretical precepts and refine clinical skills. (…)

The French pathologisation of menopause informed the 20th-century view of women as too different to include in clinical trials on account of their uterine exceptionalism, which continues to hamper current scientific knowledge of gendered diseases and drug responses.

More women than ever now live to an age when they will see their menses cease, so there is increased interest in menopause and new forms of representation about it.

But there is also a massive growth in the marketing of products and services designed to extract profits from women in midlife by promoting worry about their ageing and promising false remedies for all their life challenges.

Just like French doctors in the 19th century, commercial entities today hold a vested interest in the idea that menopause is a time of crisis and revolution – something we necessarily need to treat through specific interventions that target it."

#article #health #weaker sex

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justinspoliticalcorner · 1 month

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Aaron Gell at The Guardian:

Rarely has a head of state received a more hostile welcome than that which met the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, when he arrived in Washington DC to speak before a joint session of Congress last month. While no senior US officials turned up to greet him on the tarmac, thousands of demonstrators marched in protest of his speech, including 200 from the group Jewish Voice for Peace who were arrested during an occupation on Capitol Hill, and others who burned him in effigy and replaced the American flag flying in front of Union Station with a Palestinian flag.

Perhaps more telling was the decision of roughly half of congressional Democrats to boycott the address altogether. “A dozen years ago, that would have been unthinkable,” noted Peter Frey, board chair of J Street, a Jewish lobbying group that supports Israeli security as well as a Palestinian state. One lawmaker who did attend, the representative Rashida Tlaib, wore a keffiyeh and held a sign calling Netanyahu a “war criminal” who was “guilty of genocide”. Meanwhile, a number of labor unions, including the National Education Association, the Service Employees International Union and United Auto Workers sent a letter to Joe Biden calling for an end to US support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Polling shows that some 70% of Democrats and 35% of Republicans favor conditions on military aid to Israel, but with each day, the disconnect between what voters want and what the Biden administration does seems to widen. One consequence is that citizens’ already flagging trust in their government is steadily eroded. “It’s a battle for the soul of the political system on this issue,” Frey said. “And it’s playing out in real time in front of us. It is not healthy. It’s not good for Israel.” And to the extent that Americans care about foreign policy, he added, “I think it does in the long run maybe undermine confidence in the political system.”

That disconnect will be on display next week at the Democratic national convention, where supporters of Palestinian human rights plan to pressure the party to include the call for an immediate ceasefire and a weapons embargo of Israel as planks of its platform. “This is not just a policy stance, it’s a moral imperative,” said Layla Elabed, an activist with the Uncommitted National Movement (who happens to be Tlaib’s sister), on a recent organizing call.

It is a tall order, but for many in the movement, it seems within reach. Months before Biden’s disastrous debate performance; before the drumbeat of marquee defections; before the flash of Nancy Pelosi’s shank on Morning Joe, the candidacy suffered its first major blow courtesy of these same activists. By persuading more than 100,000 Michigan Democrats to cast their primary ballots for “uncommitted”, rather than back the man who they believed was enabling a genocide, they had sent the Democratic establishment a forceful message: one of the most critical swing states in the 2024 election was at risk. Eventually, more than 700,000 primary voters in 23 states would vote the same way – a signal that support for Israel’s actions in Gaza could become a political liability for centrist Democrats, as it recently did for their counterparts in France and the UK. Due to its strong showing, the group won 30 delegates to the DNC. The protest vote provided another piece of evidence that, at least among liberals, a longstanding affinity for Israel was quickly eroding, one more casualty of a brutal 10-month conflict that shows no sign of ending and may well escalate into a full-on regional war. In addition to killing more than 40,000 Palestinians (and probably many more indirectly), displacing millions and destroying more than half the area’s buildings, the Gaza war appears to have damaged, perhaps irreparably, Israel’s “special relationship” with its most important champion. Meanwhile, Biden’s stubborn support for the onslaught, despite its apparent failure to meet its stated goals of destroying Hamas and freeing the hostages, has done more than threaten the Democratic coalition. It has stoked a sharp generational divide, with younger Americans nearly twice as likely to express support for the Palestinian cause as their parents – fomenting wrenching generational disagreements, especially within Jewish families. It has riven campuses, leading venerable institutions supposedly dedicated to free inquiry and critical thinking to respond with police violence to the mostly peaceful activism of their own students. And perhaps most alarmingly, it has given many Americans cause to doubt our nation’s commitment to free speech, human rights and the rule of law – to wonder, in short, just what America stands for.

‘Thehypocrisyisripe’

Among those most unsettled by the new dynamic are left-leaning Jewish students, many of whom maintain a broad devotion to Israel even as they decry its current policies. Now, many of them find themselves increasingly isolated from longtime political allies. While troubled by the strident rhetoric heard at some protests they otherwise support, they are nonetheless distressed by the efforts of pro-Israel advocacy groups, establishment politicians and college administrators to paint all anti-war demonstrations as antisemitic. [...] As Israel continues its assault, decimating Gaza and killing civilians and militants alike with US supplied weapons, such equivocations strike many Americans as deeply hollow. With thousands of anti-war protesters descending on Chicago to protest against the DNC, and dozens of uncommitted delegates making their case inside the hall, the question of America’s role in what many experts have called a genocide will figure prominently at the convention. Harris’s answer will have far-reaching implications – not only for her candidacy, the prospect of peace in the Middle East, and the beleaguered civilians rushing from one “safe zone” to the next as bombs explode around them, but for the US’s global standing and its citizens’ faith in its reputation as a force for good in the world.

The Guardian does a deep dive on the Gaza Genocide and the US/Israel relationship and how opinions of it split America.

#National Politics #United States #Foreign Policy #Israel #Gaza #Palestine #Israel/Hamas War #Gaza Genocide #Israel Apartheid #Joe Biden #2024 Presidential Election #2024 Elections #2024 DNC #Jewish Voice For Peace #J Street #US/Israel Relations

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zot3-flopped · 4 months

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i think travis is gonna join for some shows in the uk i believe. It is funny because if somebody really cares about you, they would follow you to any place, specially since rn he has no games and taylor always went to his game after every show (if it was possible). Funny how they called joe an awful boyfriend for only ever joinging some rep shows (he had movies to shoot) but travis isn‘t being called out (he has nothing to do). I feel like travis also is too stupid and ignorant for europe. Something tells me he isn‘t into anything other than party- so no museum dates or city sightseeing in the different cultures of europe, not even zoo visits after that one in australia. Hm what are they talking about all day? Oh yeah, about touching while his friends are playing grand theft auto… that sounds mentally so thrilling and intellectually stimulating 😐

Maybe he'll show up in Edinburgh this weekend. Rain is forecast!

#anti taylor swift #travis kelce

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things-about-cars-in-posts · 11 months

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Thanks for answering! Your advice is actually really helpful and now I'm pretty sold on a Toyota.

I do wonder though, I was one phonecall away from buying a 2019 yellow fiat panda cross but a sudden and dramatic financial change meant that I had to stick with my corsa. What's your opinion on this lil guy? The safety rating is abysmal but it definitely looks and feels like a rollercoaster to drive which was super fun! I'm still sad I couldn't have this car months later!

I've also heard the Pandas are fantastic little workhorses. Is this true?

I guess it is time to talk about the Panda, isn't it.

Fantastic little workhorses they most definitely are! The original Panda (which prevailing opinion sees as the only one to refer to by the nickname "Pandino") was produced pretty much unchanged from 1980 to 2003, and you most definitely see them all the time around here even after all these years. And in their prime? Forget it! Everyone has a story that involves a Pandino. My father's is my grandpa was teaching him to drive in one and the shifter came clean off and grandpa covered his eyes. Mine involves my ex's family which has a 4x4 Panda they only ever use to navigate the road between their little mountain town and their house, best described as five "there is actually no way we're not there yet"s up its side. I drove it, once, and recorded my thoughts. Here's a loose retelling:

In the phrase "The cabin is spartan" the most unfair word is "cabin". Although you do get a free rocking chair, in the form of the driver's seat. It's not like driving an 80s car, I own an 80s car, it's like driving an excavator - the steering wheel is super far away and the pedals are super close. If you long for that sensation of feeling the underside of a desk and stumbling into old gum, the steering wheel and shift knob will definitely do something for ya. Wiggling the shifter feels like you're making it come apart and slotting it into gear feels like sheer luck - to find something that engages more reluctantly than this reverse you've gotta look into child marriages. When you push the brake pedal, while you definitely get the impression that you are doing something to decrease the speed of the car, it feels like you're using the pedal wrong, the brakes feel like they're asking if you're really sure. The wiper, being a single wiper for the whole windshield, at anything past a drizzle moves in an endearingly hilarious frenzy. Dear God is it a deathtrap. It feels about as stable as our government. I defined it 'dynamic in its stillness' because it sure ain't shifting and yet it's in a constant state of falling apart, like the ISS orbit. It exudes the optimism and hopefulness for the future that defined the 80s. The optimism of designing a car with such care and then handing that design to Fiat. The optimism of pulling that handbrake on a hill. It's like nature. Admirable and fascinating in its design, but clearly fragile and unwelcoming.

And if you're wondering if the ex that supplied the Panda for the review is at all cool with my slander, yes, they were riding with and seconded most of it. The only thing they seemed upset by was my thoughts on the horn.

Follows the exchange "It's like a wounded dog" "You're a wounded dog" "I mean, the Panda is a wounded dog. Let's admit that."

Now, was it good to drive? I think we established otherwise. Was it good at not fogging up? No, as I was driving they had to keep slapping a rug against the windshield to clean it up. Was its metal good at staying undissolved enough for their use of the car to have any semblance of legality? Well why do you think they only use it in a stretch of road cops don't visit. But it keeps moving to this day. Because that's what Pandas are good at - keeping on moving. And that's what people buy Pandas for. You want a Panda because, whether you need to head years into the future, up a volcano, or both, the Panda will Just Fucken Go there. That's why you still see so many. Because there's still that many people in this country that just need to keep going, and the Panda has never stopped delivering on that front. That's what they mean by "fantastic little workhorses", and that's what I mean when I second that.

And I know in my heart that goes for the latest Panda too (seen here atop a volcano because indeed I was not joking) which I also drove (you know how they say that when Germans say "3" they mean "3:00" and when Italians say "3" they mean "3-ish"? Yeah the Panda's shifter definitely has the latter attitude towards gears. It out-vagues my 42yo Golf on 42yo shifter bushings.). In fact, if you look up "Is the Fiat Panda reliable?" the common consensus is that despite Fiat's... less than stellar reputation reliability-wise the Panda's not bad, but hilariously rather than because the things that normally break in other cars don't break or break less it seems to be because they just aren't there in the first place.

But don't get me twisted: the Panda's a good car. In a way, it's too entrenched in my country's identity, and by proxy my own, not to be. Nothing sums it up more succinctly than a saying of ours, "Italians good people". Of course - could we ever bring ourselves to believe otherwise? And no, beyond the blindness of national pride, the Panda genuinely has great efficiency -it's the bread of cars: basic, unimpressive, but boy do you ever get a lot for the ingredients- and as noted above It Just Keeps Going.

And at the end of the day, you know, I can harp about how it's not a nice car, how it feels cheap and unsubstantial, but anyone interested in a Panda is bound to know that going in, right? And at the end of the day, while it's easy to say for someone whose car's been doing fine, it's about what you like. After all, I sure didn't get myself the most reliable car I could find for my money. I got myself something that I liked.

And that I could afford, of course. Because you can't exactly get yourself a McLaren F1, can you.

I mean, you can't, right? I've been assuming your budget is within seven digits, but it's not like I have your tax returns, so what do I know.

Well actually I do know one thing: how we can combine the three. Because when friend of our blog Gordon Murray, a man so obsessed with lightness that he literally has an entire car collection and still owns no car over 2500lbs (~1130kg), was designing the greatest driver's car there had ever been (and 'accidentally' fastest production car for the following decade) with such care for low weight he would task Kenwood with developing a lighter sound system for it, he saw his neighbor's car and decided "That is too fucking cool, I don't care if it weighs more I've gotta do something like that with the F1." Which results in what you see above, a less cool version of what he saw that day.

And what did he see that day?

A four seat Toyota.

And if you've not yet spotted the part where this is cooler than the McLaren F1, well, look back at the F1's doors. Notice how their roof is plebeian, opaque metal? Pfft. Get outta here with that working class stuff and look at how the big kids do it.

Do I need to add further comment? I don't think I do.

And yes, one of these is for sale in England for under 5k.

And it has the pretty important roof shades, the rare super funky sound system and the floormats. Now, normally, I'd make the mistake of wondering who gives a shit about the floormats, but in the case of the Sera...

So, what are you waiting for? These come and go, so act quickly and impulsively!

#am I trying to manipulate my audience into buying cars I think are cool? yes #making people purchase cars I like is the second best thing behind buying those cars myself #and i currently only have the money to do one of the two #fiat panda #mclaren f1 #toyota sera

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galadhir · 1 month

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Well, I didn't expect getting a sword for sword dancing to be so hard.

I really wanted a sword like this A sword that looked like a sword - like you could sharpen it and then it would be a weapon.

Unfortunately the only sword that was in my price range and was available in the UK is aluminium with a paint coating. But I thought I could live with it, and the lightness of aluminium was a bonus considering my fibromyalgia. See the grey sword here.

So I ordered it and waited what felt like months for it to arrive. The receipt said that within 3-4 days I would get an email with a tracking code, but I did not get such an email. I waited for ten days, then I went on the website to see if there was a contact number and found their chat.

Someone on the chat told me that he would find my tracking number and that the sword would undoubtedly be with me soon. I waited a couple of days to see if it would arrive.

Then I checked the tracking code and found that the tracking number was linked to a Mr Ahmed Hussain in an entirely different county from me.

I tried to get back on the chat only to find that the chat box had disappeared.

This was beginning to feel suspicious.

Then I went on holiday with my family, and my son - on hearing the saga so far - dug around in the trustpilot ratings for this website (the only one that still had swords available out of every other sword retailer I had found.) He said that their ratings were abysmal and most people reported either getting broken swords or not receiving anything at all.

He then found a new sword on a site I had not discovered. It was 40" long and made of iron, which would have been very long and heavy, but what was I to do?

Their website said it would arrive in 3-4 days, and by now I was desperate. I figured I could stop the payment on the first sword, so I bought the new sword.

I got home from the holiday and the first sword was there on the doorstep.

Two swords! I thought. I suppose I can sell one of them on Ebay. Other belly dancers must also be desperate in the face of this sword shortage.

Then - while I waited for the real sword to arrive - I practiced with my horrible grey sword and developed something of an emotional bond to it.

It is in fact exactly the right size for me, and easy to balance, and relatively light on the head. I liked it, apart from the paint job.

So, more than four days passed. Eventually I began to wonder where the other sword was, and I went to look on the receipt for that too. With a more careful reading, I realized that it said that it would arrive 3-4 days after posting - with no promises about how long it would take them to post it. The receipt also said that they would send me an email to confirm when they sent it.

They had not sent me an email. Therefore they had not even put it in the post yet.

I leapt to my computer and sent them an email asking if I could cancel the order, and they replied the same day, re-listed the sword on their website and refunded me the price.

Good! I finally had a sword, and only one sword.

But the more I practiced with it, the more I came to hate the fact that it was silver like a silver car. There were even metallic sparkles in the paint just like metallic-finish auto paint. And the hilt was the same colour as the blade, as though the blade was part of the hilt fittings.

I wondered if I could paint over the blade with chrome effect paint, but further research suggested that there just isn't a paint that looks like metal. It's all going to be disappointingly matte.

Time to break out the gold leaf

I bought a gilding kit, a book of gold leaf and a book of silver leaf and did a hack job of covering both blade and hilt with thin layers of metal.

Result - behold the shiny sword!

This will certainly catch the light and flash as I dance. It isn't the sword that I wanted, but it is now a sword that I think I can love. And I bet no one else will have one like this :)

#belly dancing #sword dancing

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deadcactuswalking · 4 months

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 01/06/2024 (Central Cee & Lil Baby, Bring Me the Horizon's POST HUMAN: NEX GEN, Zach Bryan)

Sabrina Carpenter’s still dominant on the UK Singles Chart as “Espresso” spends a fifth week at the top - welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

content warning: language, discussions of death, trauma, drug addiction

Rundown

As always, we start with our notable dropouts, songs exiting the UK Top 75 - which is what I cover - after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we bid adios to Eurovision tracks like “Europapa” by Joost and “The Code” by Nemo, as well as “Family Matters” by Drake (telling that these three couldn’t make five weeks), “Outside of Love” by Becky Hill, “Jump” by Tyla, Gunna and Skilibeng, “Home” by Good Neighbours (Good riddance) and finally, “Back to Black” by the late Amy Winehouse.

We see one big return with Katy Perry’s catalogue streams rising thanks to some American Idol news or something - I don’t care, I imagine the catalogue sales for her biggest records are high enough anyway. This does mean “Teenage Dream” - the title track - is back at #72. It peaked and debuted at #2 for two weeks in 2010, being blocked by Olly Murs’ “Please Don’t Let Me Go” and Alexandra Burke’s “Start Without You” respectively, though I think we can agree which one of these three have actually managed to pass the test of time. To be thorough, the Glee cover peaked at #36 the next year. As for our gains, we have a small but notable batch of boosts for “Never Lose Me” by Flo Milli at #61, “Right Here” by Becky Hill at #60, “Smalltown Boy” by Bronski Beat at #55, “Miles on It” by Kane Brown and Marshmello at #47, “The Man Who Can’t be Moved” by The Script at #38, “The Door” by Teddy Swims at #35 and finally, all the way up in the top 10 for the first time, Myles Smith with “Stargazing” at #9.

The UK Singles Chart’s top five this week consists of Billie Eilish’s “BIRDS OF A FEATHER” spiking off of the debut up to #5, whilst Central Cee and Lil Baby debut right at #4 with their new track “BAND4BAND”. Following them up is the top three staying the same as last week’s: Shaboozey at #3 with “A Bar Song (Tipsy)”, Eilish again with “LUNCH” at #2 and of course, “Espresso” at #1. Now for what ended up debuting in the lower realms of the chart this week.

New Entries

#73 - “Fall Back” - Lithe

Produced by Lithe

Do I pronounce this “life” or “live”? It doesn’t matter, this is a blog. However you pronounce it, Lithe is from Melbourne and this is his viral breakout hit for an otherwise underground artist who seems to have produced and released this all by himself. This may explain why it’s garbage. Lithe strikes me as the kind of person who would make for a great additional vocalist on a maximalist project by, say, a Travis Scott type, because his vocals, which are very Travis as well, lure you into a mumbling Auto-Tuned atmosphere very effortlessly due to the layering of murmured ad-libs. The problem here is the utter shit production, consisting of rote trap presets in such a static and typical pattern that it almost stands out how frozen and dull trap beats can be because of one weird snare choice that sounds way too loud and mechanical. I know this is very nit-picky but there’s so little to this song, which relies entirely on Lithe for its melodic element considering the blank grey synths that practically could be completely absent under the looming trap dirge. Don’t ask about the lyrics, it’s bottom-of-the-barrel flexing, but at least this song is very uniquely terrible. It uses basic trap tropes, for sure, but Lithe is taking his own approach to things and creates a bad song that is bad in ways more established artists probably couldn’t pull off. That’s a compliment, genuinely.

#66 - “The Craving” - Twenty One Pilots

Produced by Tyler Joseph and Paul Meany

I think it’s somewhat telling that Bring Me the Horizon nabbed three debuts this week, but the usually more accessible Twenty One Pilots, with a higher-peaking album at #2, could only snatch one at #66. I usually care at least a little to check out these guys’ records but the lore aspect has always somewhat bothered me in that I know without fully emerging into it, I’ll never get the full intended effect and relationship with the music that they intend. This week’s effort, Clancy, was one I just straight-up didn’t bother listening to, especially on the grounds of not liking those singles at all. I was thinking that hopefully this could give me some reason to check it out, and, well, there is something to this one.

“The Craving” is available in two versions, with the version on the album being subtitled “(Jenna’s Version)”, referring to his wife Jenna and… yeah, the stripped-back, ukulele rendition on the record is pretty devastating. Starting with a static that obscures Jenna’s voice lamenting the fact their relationship may be deteroriating or stalling out as she grows older, the song is a ballad expressing Tyler’s inability to communicate and express the simple gestures that he loves her. It’s a pretty simple song compositionally but that makes complete sense as it feels like a song he can only sing improvisationally in her presence, but not with her listening. This may be a stretch, but I’m imagining “(Jenna’s version)” refers here not to dedicating the song and playing it to her but her being the muse for this version, which sounds like it could have been written very quickly in a night where he can’t fall asleep thinking about the subject matter whilst she’s fast asleep. The song explains that he can’t communicate this to her, and the visual it gives is Tyler playing the song quietly to himself as to not wake her up but knowing fully that he won’t be able to sleep for the rest of the night without it being expressed. The final chorus ends with an utmost declaration of his dedication to the marriage, complete with a voice crack, but that outro simply writes it off: once she’s awake, the promises mean nothing, and he can’t bring himself to all he promised: the simple act of reminding her that she’s loved. I will be 100% honest: this song kind of fucking broke me, and the imagery surrounding those choruses being one of waiting until demise, wherein the “she” who looks for Tyler as he lays down and tries to sleep could be both Jenna and God, made this a very affecting listen for me, or rather, several listens. I never know exactly what to expect from TOP, but I didn’t expect to be crying.

The single remix, co-produced with Spencer Stewart, is much lighter and breezier with its folk-pop production that’s reverbed to Hell and back and covers some of Tyler’s vocal faults with harmonies and whistling that makes it a bit too saccharine for my taste. I still think it’s a brilliant song but as a performance and production, not so much, and this puts me in a weird position because as far as OCC is concerned, these are both the charting song, I just happen to prefer the very slightly less streamed acoustic version a lot more. Personally, I think adding drums to “The Craving” may be an inspired touch because it takes that fear of death and adds a frolicking carpe diem feel to it but it also touches my soul a bit less by detaching Tyler further from reality: the problem isn’t that he’s separated from his wife, it’s nearly the opposite, with her continued presence acting as both why the song exists and why the emotion is so palpable. Regardless, if more of the album is this personal and honest, less lore-focused as the lead single really scared me off with, maybe I’ll find more to like on it because this acoustic version is genuinely shattering, might be their best song ever.

#57 - “LiMOusIne” - Bring Me the Horizon featuring AURORA

Produced by Zakk Cervini, Oli Sykes and Dan Lancaster

Another week, another album debuting three songs that I haven’t heard. I’ll be fair and say I probably should have listened to Billie’s record before the chart week, and I have since heard and greatly enjoyed her album, but for this one, can you blame me? Firstly, look at the way the tracks are stylised, secondly: whilst I did like the first edition of this POST HUMAN series from 2020, the incessant delay and consistent flow of really mediocre singles that leads to an album that seems a bit bloated compared to the last one’s conciseness because I guess all of them needed to be included. Thirdly, they lost their keyboardist Jordan Fish, also a major songwriting contributor to the band, who now has just a few more lyrical credits on this record than BloodPop, I’m genuinely quite weary that this’ll be another disappointing mess from Bring Me the Horizon. Regardless, I’ll give them this: they always experiment, and these three next songs are going to be interesting and weird, at least in comparison to what usually charts, so it’s good we have them all lined up consecutively. BMTH’s latest, POST HUMAN: NEX GEN, debuted at #5 on the albums chart and naturally, we have three debuts as that’s all OCC’ll allow.

The first to chart, “Limousine” (I’m not doing this, guys) features Norwegian singer AURORA, who had some viral success with “Runaway” a few years back, a song I never really liked and I honestly haven’t heard much else, so maybe I’m missing something by not checking her out - I’m definitely going to be missing something with these songs given the added context of understanding the album’s theme and narrative is pretty important for what seems like a loose concept album, though BMTH records can be so eclectic that it flies out of the window. See amo for a clear demonstration. This particular track takes us into the easy and quick blast frontman Oli Sykes gets from doing hard drugs and the power, authority he feels when he’s off them, hence the “Limousine” - it’s a luxury car you’re in the back of, drugged and being driven around, but you still feel in control. It does this through grinding metal riffs and some of the most strained vocals I’ve heard from Sykes, not in the sense that he hits any insane notes or belts but more so because he stretches out these melodies beyond their need, especially in the pre-chorus, with pitch correction not doing that great of a job to cover it. That sounds like an insult, but it’s really not: when he’s refuting the need for closure and the chorus starts with a stuttered glitching of the song’s last section out of existence, his slow luxury chauffer ride to death feels particularly potent and fittingly gruelling. There’s a seductive and sinister nature to some of the lyrics, AURORA kind of blends into the background which is perfect for this as Sykes’ streams drowning out the clearer, beautiful voice of reason is thematically perfect, that bridge with the keyboards is genuinely moving before everything crashes into shit in the screeching breakdown. That breakdown, however, demonstrates the one time this song succeeds in the mixing department for me, as there’s a muddiness to everything here and an unnecessary vocal focus that seems to push the heavier and cathartic elements back, which does not serve a track like this very well, when the progression into chaos should come from something that is genuinely unnerving and inescapable. A more immersive mix could have done wonders to what is structurally a very sound track that has great performances.

#50 - “YOUtopia” - Bring Me the Horizon

Produced by Zakk Cervini, Oli Sykes, Dan Lancaster and Lee Malia

We can actually split this episode quite nicely into the two songs below the Horizon, the two songs above them, and the Horizon itself. It works out quite nicely too because according to Sykes, “Youtopia” acts as a counterpart to “Limousine”, and I can definitely tell that from the lyrics, wherein Sykes begs for the ability to give his partner the best version of himself, a “youtopia” so to speak. He desperately wants to connect himself and his partner to that utopian setting, but can’t bring himself to do the self-improvement that would enable that kind of perfect relationship, one that you can kind of tell from the imagery either doesn’t exist or has been buried so far deep into obscurity by the constant perpetuance of negativity in everyday life. To be completely honest, I was worried that Bring Me the Horizon’s lyrics would turn as basic as some of the structural songwriting had been on the singles so I’m glad I can still both get a lot out of analysis and resonate pretty heavily with their notions, it’s the most frustrating feeling wanting to be something that no-one but your own insecurity expects you to live up to, so it just seems fruitless to achieve.

As for how it sounds, well, that basic songwriting is there for sure, but oh, my God, this is an insanely nostalgic sound for me. That late-2000s early-2010s Kerrang! TV post-hardcore sound combining fuzzy electronics with the lackadaisical guitars of 2000s emo-pop and often Auto-Tuned vocals - both the clean and unclean vocals, sometimes - as well as just killer hooks and chasm-esque mixing that makes the drums go so hard once they pound into full relentless chorus mode. Of course, BMTH take it into further electronicore territory with the sampled-sounding female vocals, tiny little vocalised riff in the first verse that’s an adorable touch, the birdsong passages of ambiance that mesh so well with the cleaner guitar build, and the hip hop drums in the second verse that actually go for a 2000s R&B groove instead of the typical trap skitter, which I commend them for doing - trap metal feels way too easy and wouldn’t have fit a longing song like this. The harmonies from Sykes and the filtered Dan Lancaster in the bridge are excellent, and whilst the guitar solo is in what I like to call Weezer-meter (very obviously and shamelessly just repeating the chorus lead melody), it’s oddly brief and inessential to the song, as the final post-chorus kind of takes its place with the string swell and incredible drumming from Matt Nicholls that winds down in an industrial squirt for the outro. Apart from once again some mixing that acts as a disservice - when there’s this much going on, I understand the difficulty in making it sound that dynamic, and thematically, sometimes it just wouldn’t make sense to - this is pretty much something I’d inject to my veins any day. I know I say this every time BMTH show up because they’re the country’s biggest left-field rock act currently, but something like this charting in the top 50 in 2024 never fails to put at least a smile on my face.

#41 - “Top 10 staTues tHat CriEd bloOd” - Bring Me the Horizon

Produced by Zakk Cervini, Oli Sykes and Dan Lancaster

This final song is titled like a WatchMojo video, and is a very clear single - the lyrics and songwriting are pretty basic woes, wound up in generic metaphors that Sykes and the lads have sung before. It’s got a pessimistic chorus and a vaguely motivational bridge, and so many lyrics that vaguely allude to prior singles that I can’t tell if these are purposeful references or they’re just that far into their careers that their attempt at being an “average” BMTH track is an amalgamation of all of their other obvious singles. Those lyrical allusions definitely make it a bit more obvious and distracting that this is the case, but musically, it’s in similar territory. They have a brief, cutesy electronic intro, this time slightly hyperpop-esque, before crashing into a catchy alt-metal riff and, yeah, it’s just obvious that this is pulling the tricks of their own trade in a very typical way. Sykes performs incredibly well as he pretty much always does, you can’t take away his passion, but the screaming and sound effects may be a bit much in that second verse. They even have a stop-and-start rhythm built into the chorus melody which feels very Bring Me the Horizon to do: stopping and starting is basically their motif and songwriting approach if we boil it down to borderline offensive essentials. They have an aggressive breakdown with rapid drumming and video game samples, a trap drum pattern in the final pre-chorus, a stuttered vocal, it’s all very by-the-numbers and that’s fine. We can’t all be zingers, sometimes we need to write something accessible and given the album is assumingly a mess (all BMTH albums kind of are, it’s by nature), something like this could be particularly refreshing within its context, and they did care enough to place an atmospheric ambient outro that may contextualise it even further. This is a perfectly cromulent Bring Me the Horizon song, but a bit underwhelming to end on here.

#31 - “Pink Skies” - Zach Bryan

Produced by Zach Bryan

Country star Zach Bryan is back, presumably, he’s got a 30-song album on the way and this is his lead single. As always with Mr. Bryan, it feels wise to discuss the lyrics here in some detail, as this paints a vivid picture of the life that a mother has left for her children at the time of her funeral. The kids who came from that small town are back there to celebrate their late mother’s life, and reflecting on those lessons they learned from the mundane outskirts: appreciating the “pink skies” as a sign of youthful vitality and peace and cleaning the old house as if it were never populated (which feels stereotypical but is very much true for how parents can behave), though with the caveat that those memories remain physically as what appear to be faults in the house but are unavoidable reminders of the life lived within it. The second verse and especially the chorus sing a pretty funny ode: she’d be proud of where her kids are but would still lightheartedly mock them as “yuppies”, and he even has the snark to comment that God probably heard her coming, which I assume she means that she never shut up. For a parent, that’s a great thing to have the ability to do, and it’s reassuring to think that in the afterlife, she still cares too much about her kids’ well-being. This hits particularly close to home for me, and the fact that this song makes great use of my favourite instrument, the harmonica, does not exactly help this from not being a bit of a personal tearjerker for me. Bryan’s smoky drawl comes with his typical homegrown organic instrumentation - though with a higher focus both lyrically and instrumentally on choppier rhythm which I find interesting - and the light female vocals panned into the left channel. Sonically, you could argue it’s a bit safe or easy for Bryan to come out with something that sounds like this, but think of the content: why shouldn’t he be back at home, and invite you into that warm, comforting place as openly as his mother would have? This guy already put out some of my favourite songs of last year, some of the art that emotionally resonated with me the most from that year, and it doesn’t seem like he’s stopping this year either. I adore this.

#4 - “BAND4BAND” - Central Cee and Lil Baby

Produced by Ghana Beats, Geenero and Aasis Beats

This is just such a neat week. We begin near the very bottom with pop-trap from the Anglosphere outside of the US and book-end it near the very top with a UK rapper, whilst sandwiched in the middle are rock and alternative acts, two of which are personal ballads by slightly more mainstream and lighter in sound, closer to more accessible genres they emerged from before developing their sound, and both on either side of three Bring Me the Horizon tracks from the same album. Thiss week just makes sense systematically, damn it, and I love to see it. Also, Central Cee and Lil Baby, I guess, the song’s fine. It’s a bit undercooked because - I repeat, Central Cee and Lil Baby - but the basic rising synth loop, even if very obviously just a basic and lazy implementation of a loop, has enough tension to make way for the heavy-hitting drill rhythm, which is a lot cleaner than some other drill tracks, but also uses much louder, mechanical hats - again, something it has in common with Lithe, and the grey cover arts are just furthering it all - that give an industrial and intense feel to this beat. As for our rappers, this is much more typical: Cench’s complaining about people not being real Muslims, talking about his Lambos, using rhyme schemes that prominently implement acronyms, being distracted by big booties and most importantly, going “Alllright”. It’s almost like “Top 10 Statues that Cried Blood” because Cench feels like an amalgamation of himself on here, though this isn’t a bad thing, he still has more energy than many other rappers and it was cute for him to exchange bars with Lil Baby. Lil Baby then continues to take the song over entirely, as the beat switches up slightly with that crawling trap skitter and Baby goes for his typical frog-throat, running-off-on-the-beat flow that goes insanely hard, bizarrely, without drums, as it builds into a very well-done beat drop. He’s similarly being an amalgamation of himself and his running themes, but there’s some cold wordplay with the birthday lyric and there’s always been something compelling about his relentless approach to just going on and on regardless of what the beat actually asks of him. Overall, I know I’ve sounded nit-picky but this is good, probably great even when taking it outside of the larger context and just treating it as a banger reaching across the Atlantic. There’s a real intensity and hunger to this that there hasn’t been for either in these guys in a while, and it’s refreshing to know that those efforts paid off for a very high and very deserved top five debut.

Conclusion

Considering this is a week mostly consisting of rock acts, it makes complete sense that it’s one of the best weeks for me. Hey, I listen to everything, but some genres will hit closer to home than others. As for the Best of the Week, it is genuinely an incredibly difficult decision, but unsurprisingly, Zach Bryan takes it for “Pink Skies” and the only reason that happened is because of the second single edit of “The Craving” by Twenty One Pilots that I do not care for, because Jenna’s version would run away with Best of the Week, it’s heartbreaking from the first vocal sample of Jenna herself to that final line. Unfortunately, due to the double billing, it’ll have to take Honourable Mention, and on any other week, I would easily be giving all of this praise to a song like “YOUtopia”, which I still love, or Hell, even “BAND4BAND”. Lithe takes Worst of the Week for “Fall Back”, obviously, and I hope the next batch of songs is either just as good as this one or gives me a lot less to talk about because sheesh, this is one of our shorter weeks and I’m still maxxing this word count out. For now, thank you for reading, rest in peace to Charlie Colin, and I’ll see you next week!

#uk singles chart #pop music #song review #bring me the horizon #post human: nex gen #twenty one pilots #zach bryan #lil baby #central cee #band4band #lithe #aurora

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classicquid · 5 months

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paydayquid · 5 months

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logan-jones · 6 months

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[ kristen stewart, cis-woman she/her ] Hey, isn’t that LOGAN JONES. I thought they went away for the summer? Did you hear they might be a WEREWOLF and have a connection to the FENRIR PACK? What I do know for certain is that they’re 29, and they’re HARD-WORKING and CALCULATING. They’re originally from MANCHESTER, UK, and have been in FENRIRSWOOD for A MONTH living in FORK’S ROAD. I wonder if they still work at WIN GARAGE as a MECHANIC. Best if they stay safe for now.

note: for this character i will primarily be using gifs from kristen stewart’s movie from 2020, underwater, but due to limited resources i may occasionally use gifs from other sources. logan’s outward appearance is as depicted in the aforementioned movie.

basics

full name: logan ashley jones age: 29 date of birth: june 15th, 1994 zodiac: gemini sun, libra rising, virgo moon species: werewolf gender & pronouns: cisgender woman, she/her spoken language(s): english occupation: mechanic at win garage sexuality: lesbian

appearance

face claim: kristen stewart height: 5'5"(165.1 cm) dominant hand: left hair color: bleached blonde eye color: blue scars: tbd tattoos: none

personality

positive traits: intelligent, hard-working, honest, resourceful, tough negative traits: blunt, hot-tempered, tense, opinionated, calculating

mentality

phobias: fear of failure disorder: borderline personality disorder, autism spectrum disorder allergies: n/a

background

hometown: manchester, uk birthplace: manchester, uk education level: high school diploma, working towards a bachelor’s in engineering familial connections: amir bacchus (adopted dad) @pclymcrphcus, unnamed biological parents and unnamed younger foster sibling

headcanons

logan is a recently turned werewolf, she was bitten 9 months ago and she's very angry about it. part of the reason why she came to fenrir's wood is she knew it had a decent supernatural population and after her first few transformations, she knew she wouldn't be able to hide her lycanthropy from her family for much longer. she didn't want to hurt them, so she chose to just leave without saying anything, hoping they'd eventually forget about her. she has anger issues, which have been made much worse since she's was bitten. she finds herself getting frustrated a lot easier than she used to and if provoked, she will start a fight with someone. over her course of being in fenrir's wood she's been working towards managing this better, but she still doesn't have a great handle on it. used to be a part of fight clubs when she lived in the u.s., which were a good outlet for her anger. she was in fight clubs for years so as a result she's very good at hand-to-hand combat. no one in her family knew that she was a part of these groups and she became very good at hiding bruises or injuries she got from them.

she has an adoptive brother who’s younger than her by 8 years and she grew very close to him in her time in foster care, they maintain a close relationship despite her moving across the country. logan is generally a pretty stoic person and her soft side comes out massively when she’s around her brother. she’s fiercely protective of him and will not hesitate to defend him when necessary.

logan has a muscular build, which she maintains by working out on a regular basis. to a certain extent she feels like she has to be muscular due to working at an auto shop, but she does actually enjoy working out. she learned the basics of cars from taking shop class in high school and it led to her taking an interest, so over time she learned more and more and has been working at auto shops since the age of 18.

#logan.intro #child abuse tw #child neglect tw #foster care tw

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uefb · 2 years

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Fantastic Beasts One-Shot

The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures link

Summary

It's June 1943, and Newt Scamander and Tina Goldstein are living in Dorset with their first child while Tina heads the American Auror initiative in Europe. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Magic has just begun working with the Allies to plan for the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe through Normandy, via Dorset's neighbouring English Channel. Newt and the rest of Dumbledore's team are still on Grindelwald's radar, and news of Ministry reconnaissance employing a certain magizoologist and a kelpie ends up in the wrong hands. Newt is brought before his own department for Animal Welfare violations, but it quickly becomes clear that this isn't really about the kelpie at all: war is about subtle threats as much as it is about violence itself, and--with the weight of his daughter strapped to his back and the memories of missions gone wrong in his mind--it doesn't take much to remind him of that. // This is equal parts adorable domestic fluff and historical-based angst.

EXCERPT*

June 7, 1943 - 8:45 AM Seaside Dorset, England, UK

Newt was juggling a child under one arm and a crutch under the other when an owl carrying a bright red, Ministry-embossed envelope swooped in through the open window of their house in Dorset. He ignored the owl for several minutes in favour of heating Leora’s porridge and preparing his own tea, absentmindedly reciting the taxonomic ranks of magical and non-magical salamanders to keep his daughter entertained while he worked.

When he’d finally gotten them both settled at the table (only dropping her bottle and his crutch twice) and triggered the daily charm that gently shovelled porridge into her mouth long enough for him to read their morning post and skim the Prophet, Ghost, and muggle headlines, he was surprised to find the address on the scarlet envelope stamped with the crest of the Beasts Division, as opposed to the urgent letters he was more used to receiving from the Auror Office these days.

He glanced up at Leora and cleaned off her chin with a calloused thumb and warm smile, and then slipped on his glasses and ripped into the letter.

He immediately blinked.

The thin stack of papers was topped with his own division’s letterhead, but then typed firmly below it in the blanks of an auto-filled, enchanted department form (that he had, decades ago, designed one of the charms for):

The Committee for the Disposal of Dangerous Creatures and the Animal Welfare Office summon Newton Artemis Fido Scamander for unauthorised possession, transport, and misuse of a beast (kelpie); the endangerment of a beast (kelpie); the injury of a British citizen (wizard, civilian) by an untamable or mishandled beast (kelpie); and a Grade 5 infraction of the International Statute of Secrecy (ICW) for all of the above.

Newt stared at the page, reached down to scratch at the deep, slowly healing bite inflicted by the referenced kelpie (Moira), and then actually, truly laughed.

He was authorised (blanket-authorised to work with kelpies actually!) and the only injury—due to his own stupid mistake—had been his own.

What the hell was going on?

Sentencing: Up to and including disposal of the beast (kelpie) and/or 30 months in Azkaban (Scamander). Hearing to commence: Noon today (June 7) on Level 4 (Department for the Regulation & Control of Magical Creatures) at the Ministry of Magic, London.

Typical threats for the accusations and—though a thoroughly inconvenient timeframe (even if not an unusual one, given how often handlers tried to dispose of evidence)—he wasn’t particularly concerned by them. His work and care for the kelpie had been—even if off-the-record—assigned by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, and that should speak for itself. However, as he read through the full two pages of the summons while Leora babbled musically beside him, it became—quickly—significantly less humorous…

…and unregistered transport of a creature from Britain to an international waterway for labour-related purposes constitutes unlawful trafficking. Furthermore, use of the beast in a non-native habitat (saline and/or brackish) outside its natural biome (freshwater: inland) should be considered particularly egregious. Note: Report and recommendations prepared by Alice Abbott, junior investigator (Beasts Division - Animal Welfare). Original investigation completed by Antony Flint, senior investigator (Beasts Division - Illegal Trade).

The details in his summons—frankly—should not have been known by anyone outside of the joint wartime DMLE-Muggle Liaison task force he’d recently been brought onto, in response to the Allies’ decision to breach the Nazi’s Atlantic Wall at France, via the English Channel. [1, 2, 3] The Ministry had finally become invested in the Muggle war when it was made clear a few years before that Grindelwald and his supporters were not at all above hiding behind—and occasionally utilising—Muggle warfare and Nazi ideology to thoroughly infiltrate every crack of the continent, and entire world.

But the task force was classified. And rather highly so. Newt had barely made the cut himself. (Which, to be fair, really wasn’t that surprising.)

He flipped to the final page to review the list of all the academic references Abbott and Flint had used to justify his summons, and then he immediately found himself blinking again, before another disbelieving (and uncharacteristically loud) laugh burst forth—

“Are you kidding me!?”

Leora made a sound of mild concern at his exclamation, so Newt looked up long enough to offer a simple explanation in soothing tones. (So sorry — I know that was an unusual noise from Daddy, little light. But that’s, um - just one way humans express, er - frustrated amusement? Can you remember that? He didn’t think she really needed such explicit instruction—even at 14-months her eyes tracked faces just like Tina’s—but Newt wasn’t taking any chances.)

She opened her mouth again for the levitating spoon of porridge, so he flattened the parchment back down and hunched over to skim... *I’m sorry if you’ve already read part of this excerpt when I posted a snippet earlier -- there’s not a good choice for flow besides this one!

#my stuff #fic: committee for the disposal of dangerous creatures #fantastic beasts fanfic #newt scamander #tina goldstein #Scamander goldstein family #jewish tina goldstein #autistic newt scamander #not my best gif but lets pretend its vaguely interesting bc i'm tired and bored #newtina #oc ch: leora evangeline goldstein scamander

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