#Coronavirus Lockdown UP

[coupleofdays]

A few years ago, I decided that I would make a real effort to become more social, instead of spending most of my free time sitting at home. I was going to find ways to socialize, byt finding local groups doing stuff I'm interested in, by visiting conventions, maybe try going to concerts or clubs. Maybe even *gasp* try dating. There's a part of me who often tries to push against these ideas, coming up with excuses to stay at home instead, but I was going to do my damndest to fight against it, argue against it, or simply ignore it, because I had a genuine longing to not just sit at home, alone.

Then the Covid pandemic started.

And now, that antisocial part of me has the perfect excuse, that I'm having a really hard time arguing against.

"Oh sure, you can join a group or go to a convention, but is it really worth the hassle? You wouldn't want to endanger anyone else, would you? You'll have to wear a mask constantly (and if you start to go out regularly, that's a whole lot of masks you gotta buy!), always make sure to wash your hands if you happen to touch it, always try to keep your distance, never letting your guard down for an instant. Oh, and try to make sure that all meetings you attend are outdoors too, because being indoors with other people increases the risk!"

"And even then, even if you do everything you can perfectly, if you take every possible precaution, you'll still have the nagging knowledge that it's not 100% safe, that you might be endangering everyone around you despite your best efforts (especially since most people around you doesn't seem to care about masking anyway, and your social anxiety makes it so you don't want to bring the mood down by arguing about it). Wouldn't it be easier to just stay home and play videogames all day, and then go to bed and fall asleep while worrying about dying alone?"

[nerdie-faerie]

Just because I've finished the assignment doesn't mean I don't still feel agitated and restless like I'm supposed to be doing something. But when no distraction is working it's at the point that I dig into the pandemic hobby box

[simply-ivanka]

A Minnesotan Sizes Up Tim Walz

During his tenure, student achievement has slipped, crime has surged, and state residents have fled.

By Scott W. Johnson - Wall Street Journal

St. Paul, Minn.

Tim Walz has such a bad record as Minnesota’s governor that I was astonished when he landed on Vice President Kamala Harris’s vice-presidential shortlist. As Minnesota’s Center of the American Experiment has documented, under Mr. Walz Minnesota has become a high-crime state. Student achievement has tumbled as spending on schools has skyrocketed. Per capita gross domestic product has fallen below the national average. Minnesotans have joined residents of New York, California and Illinois in fleeing their home state.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro—also on Ms. Harris’s shortlist—made sense to me. Pennsylvania is a key state. Mr. Shapiro seems to be a man of substance and would give liberal Jews a reason to vote for Ms. Harris without a guilty conscience. As a Jewish supporter of Israel, I worried that Mr. Shapiro would give the animus throbbing in the heart of the Democratic Party cover. Indeed, that animus drove a nasty intraparty campaign against him.

But Tim Walz? I’m a conservative Republican. I don’t completely understand Democrats’ ways. As an observer of Minnesota politics, however, I understand how Mr. Walz became governor. Having served six terms in Congress from a rural district, he challenged the endorsed DFL (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party) candidate—a liberal metro-area state senator, Erin Murphy—in the 2018 DFL primary. Ms. Murphy was also challenged by another metro-area liberal, Lori Swanson, then state attorney general. With Ms. Murphy and Ms. Swanson dividing the liberal urban vote, Mr. Walz and his far-left running mate, former state Rep. Peggy Flanagan, won the primary with 41%.

On taking office in 2019, Gov. Walz was restrained by a one-seat Republican majority in the state Senate—until Covid hit in the spring of 2020. He declared a state of emergency on March 25, 2020, and ruled by decree for 15 months. He proclaimed the emergency on the basis of an allegedly sophisticated Minnesota Model projection of the virus’s course in the state. In fact, the projection reflected a weekend’s work by graduate students at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Relying on their research, Mr. Walz presented a scenario in which an estimated 74,000 Minnesotans would perish from the virus. The following week the Star Tribune reported that with the lockdown Mr. Walz ordered, 50,000 would die. Maybe it would have been preferable to address the virus through democratic means.

Having destroyed jobs and impeded life routines, including family get-togethers and church attendance, Mr. Walz finally let his one-man rule lapse on July 1, 2021. When the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center stopped counting in March 2023, the deaths of 14,870 Minnesotans were attributed to the virus. (In 2020 I successfully sued the administration for excluding me from Health Department press briefings on Covid.)

During the state of emergency, protests broke out in Minneapolis on Memorial Day 2020 following the death of George Floyd. That Thursday, rioters burned Minneapolis’s Third Precinct police station to the ground. Mr. Walz didn’t deploy the National Guard until the weekend. Riots, arson and looting throughout the Twin Cities caused about $500 million in damage.

Minnesota leads the nation in Covid fraud. Under the auspices of the Feeding Our Future nonprofit, its founder, Aimee Bock, allegedly recruited mostly young Somali men to seek reimbursement for millions of meals supposedly served to poor students and families. According to indictments handed up by a grand jury to U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, Ms. Bock and others allegedly defrauded the state and federal government of $250 million. Ms. Bock has pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges.

Among the 70 defendants charged to date, 18 have pleaded guilty. In April the first of the cases to go to trial had seven defendants; five were convicted. The remaining cases have yet to be tried. In all, the Minnesota Department of Education oversaw the payout of $250 million to reimburse fictitious meals. The nature and scale of the fraud are staggering. Mr. Walz tried to blame state district court judge John Guthmann, who in April 2021 handled a case regarding the department’s processing of applications for reimbursements. According to Mr. Walz, Judge Guthmann ordered the state to continue payouts to the alleged perpetrators of the fraud even after the state Education Department discovered it.

In September 2022, Judge Guthmann authorized a news release titled “Correcting media reports and statements by Gov. Tim Walz concerning orders issued by the court.” The release concluded: “As the public court record and Judge Guthmann’s orders make plain, Judge Guthmann never issued an order requiring the MN Department of Education to resume food reimbursement payments to FOF. The Department of Education voluntarily resumed payments and informed the court that FOF resolved the ‘serious deficiencies’ that prompted it to suspend payments temporarily. All of the MN Department of Education food reimbursement payments to FOF were made voluntarily, without any court order.”

In November 2022 Mr. Walz was elected to a second term, and the DFL won majorities in both chambers of the Legislature. In the preceding two years the state had accumulated an $18 billion budget surplus. With the DFL in full control, Mr. Walz and the Legislature have spent the $18 billion surplus on infrastructure, education and other programs that will burden the state for years. They have also raised taxes.

Mr. Walz and his DFL colleagues have backed measures establishing Minnesota as a mecca for abortion and a “trans refuge.” The legislation prohibits enforcing out-of-state subpoenas, arrest warrants and extradition requests for people from other states who seek treatment that is legal in Minnesota. It also bars complying with court orders issued in other states to remove children from their parents’ custody for authorizing hormone treatment or surgery to alter sex characteristics.

Like so many Democrats who have kept up with the demands of the progressive agenda, Mr. Walz has “grown” in office. In his second term, he has been the most left-wing Minnesota governor since the socialist Floyd B. Olson (1931-36). I doubt that Mr. Walz could be elected to Congress in his old district, which is now represented by a Republican. The idea that he can appeal to voters who don’t already support Ms. Harris seems far-fetched.

Mr. Johnson is a retired Minneapolis attorney and contributor to the site Power Line.

[beardedmrbean]

The South Jersey business owner who defied Gov. Phil Murphy’s COVID lockdown orders by keeping his gym open, racking up dozens of court summonses, has been cleared of all charges, his attorney said Tuesday.

Ian Smith, co-owner of Atilis Gym in Bellmawr, opened his facility during the coronavirus pandemic in May 2020 in defiance of a state-ordered closing of nonessential businesses. Police arrested some gym members as they left after workouts at the facility.

Smith and co-owner Frank Trumbetti were fined more than $165,000 and faced more than 80 summonses charging them with violating a governor’s orders, operating without a mercantile license, creating a public nuisance and disturbing the peace.

At one point, the state Attorney General’s office recommended fines of up to $10,000 a day and imprisonment for the owners of Atilis if they did not shutter their business. Many of the charges also carried up to six months in jail, said Smith’s attorney, John McCann of Oakland in Bergen County.

“When you look at this, it didn’t make a lot of sense at the time. It kind of looked like they were throwing everything they could at these guys,” McCann said.

McCann said the summonses were written up by the Bellmawr Police Department, but the cases were later transferred to Winslow Township Municipal Court due to a conflict.

“Those charges hung over these guys’ heads for over four years,” McCann said.

On April 24, a judge in Winslow Township dismissed the charges but gave the prosecutors until this week to appeal.

“We didn’t get a lot of cooperation from Bellmawr with regard to discovery. The only thing we got with regard to discovery was the summonses,” McCann said Tuesday.

“You need the reports, you need a whole bunch of stuff. The judge in Winslow said Bellmawr didn’t provide their court with meaningful discovery to give to us,” McCann said. “She basically said that Bellmawr ignored the requests.”

When there was no appeal from officials in Bellmawr or the state, all charges were dropped with prejudice, meaning they cannot be filed again, according to McCann.

Bellmawr’s court clerk on Tuesday declined to comment on the case, and the court clerk in Winslow Township was not immediately available to comment.

A spokesperson for the state Attorney General’s Office did not immediately respond to a call and an email seeking comment Tuesday morning.

In an interview during the pandemic, Smith accused the state of being “very selective” about which businesses could stay open and those that could not.

“Telling people that liquor stores are essential but places they can come to work on their physical and mental health is not — it’s just not adding up. So, we decided to take matters into our own hands,” Smith said at the time.

In May 2020, the business filed a federal lawsuit against the state, accusing Murphy, along with then-Attorney General Gurbir Grewal and other New Jersey officials of violating the owners’ constitutional rights by forcing them out of business indefinitely with no timeline for when they can reopen.

McCann on Tuesday said Atilis’ owners did not make money off gym memberships during the pandemic. The facility, for that period of time, became the campaign headquarters for Republican U.S Senate candidate Rik Mehta, who challenged Democrat Cory Booker for his U.S. Senate seat.

People entering Atilis were exercising their right to volunteer for Mehta’s candidacy. If they worked out while they were there, they were not charged a membership fee, McCann said.

“There was no income coming in but for the GoFundMe money they were raising to fight the state,” McCann said. The GoFundMe raised more than $530,000 for the gym owners’ cause.

On Sunday, Smith took to social media to claim victory in the gym’s fight against the state.

“The support we received locally, nationally, and internationally for our stand is something I will be forever grateful for,” Smith said.

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 25

Josie Day was a companion of the Eighth Doctor. She was a living painting, commissioned to capture the likeness of Lady Josephine, but she was so rich in animae particles that she became alive.

The Valeyard took on the identity of Jack the Ripper. While committing the famous murders, the Valeyard used the Dark Matrix to corrupt the other Doctors.

Ace was almost the sixth Ripper victim.

The Man with the Rosette (or, the Master) gave Scarlette rings to use for her and the Doctor’s wedding. He also sat in on the wedding on the side reserved for the Doctor’s family.

The Fifth Doctor is so scared of spiders that he will freeze in place and make Peri get rid of it.

The Saxon Master thought that the sun on the Mondasian Colony Ship would look the same as the sun in the Teletubbies.

The First and Second Doctors were both colorblind, but the Doctor did not realize this until they became the Third Doctor.

The Eighth Doctor spent a lot of time during the Coronavirus lockdown baking. He eventually managed to make a banana bread that wasn't disgusting. It was quite good actually.

After getting bored of baking, he started making a lot of face masks. He superimposed people's faces on them, so they could tell who each mask belonged to. Very few people accepted them when he offered them.

Once he got bored of that and ran out of other hobbies, he ran away to go live alone in his grounded TARDIS for many months.

The Master once set up a talent show called Make a Star. It was an anagram for aka Master.

The Ninth Doctor was petrified by the Incorporation on Occasus. He tried to regenerate to escape but couldn't. The Incorporation wanted his artron energy to bring back their kind and tortured him for 89 years to do so. Even after he regained the ability to move, he continued to go through the wringer in this story.

In that same story, he got so close to dying that another consciousness - himself as a failsafe on the brink of death - spoke to him.

The laws of probability bend around Time Lords, often tipping odds in their favor.

The politically correct term for a Silurian is an Earth Reptile.

The Sword of Never is a weapon used to execute Time Lord criminals. It renders all regeneration useless.

After one of the destructions of Gallifrey, the Eighth Doctor was dying. He was vomiting black bile, falling unconscious, generally looking like death warmed over, etc. This was only cured when Sabbath ripped his second heart - his connection to his Homeworld - from his body, but the Doctor immediately started screaming when he did this.

The Doctor is known as Karshtakavaar by the Draconians. It means the Oncoming Storm.

Harry has been known to bring the Fourth Doctor jelly babies from the shop because he knows he likes them.

Ace was once betrothed to a Traveller named Jan. The Seventh Doctor sacrificed him to defeat the Hoothi, and Ace's affection for the Doctor turned to so much hatred that she left the TARDIS.

Osgood has several tattoos of the Doctor’s faces.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28

[reasonsforhope]

"During the global coronavirus pandemic, China built dozens of makeshift hospitals and state quarantine centers, some out of steel container boxes. They became closely associated with the anxiety of mass testing and the fear of sudden lockdowns.

Now, cities are turning the huge centers into affordable housing units for young workers in an attempt to revive the country's economy post-COVID...

Just over a year ago, these apartments were used very differently: for medical triage and quarantine facilities. Beijing alone built 23 of these makeshift facilities, designed to hold up to 23,000 people at a time.

"It was not very cold yet but they told me to pack my belongings," remembers Hudson Li, a Beijing resident who was quarantined in one of these facilities, called fangcang in Chinese, in October 2022...

Less than two months after Li was quarantined, Beijing lifted most of its COVID restrictions. Li says he still associates the fangcang with a feeling of helplessness and fear: "It has been over a year already, but I definitely have PTSD from the pandemic, from the fear of scarcity and having to stock up on a lot of medicine and food."

Attracting young tenants with low rents

Now the fangcang across the country are undergoing a minor transformation and turned into apartment units for young graduates like Li. The changes are an effort from local authorities, who have been tasked with restarting economic growth and supporting small businesses after nearly three years of ruinous lockdowns.

Populous cities like Beijing are also trying to bridge the housing affordability gap between high real estate prices and low salaries, on average, for young workers. In the northeast corner of the capital city, near its airport, one fangcang with more than 4,900 units has been rebranded the "Jinzhan Colorful Community" — a reference to the bright hues of paint — and now offers amenities like a canteen where residents can grab a cheap meal before or after work.

Another fangcang facility, in the northeastern city of Jinan, has been turned into 650 units for skilled workers inside an industrial park.

"Given that the current overall [COVID] epidemic situation in the country has entered a low level, revitalizing the fangcang for other housing purposes is worth learning and thinking about all over the country," Yan Yuejin, a housing analyst, told Chinese media.

The fangcang, once a symbol of containment, are now supposed to represent dynamism and growth.

"I have complex feelings about this. The facilities were built using public funds and not rented out transparently," Li says. "But I do have to say you will not get anything more affordable than these apartments. They are very price competitive."

A list of rental prices for a Beijing fangcang converted into apartments shows most rooms are Rmb1200 (USD $170) a month, low for Beijing."

-via NPR, December 9, 2023

[follow-up-news]

After the coronavirus pandemic triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies and killed millions, leaders at the World Health Organization and worldwide vowed to do better in the future. Years later, countries are still struggling to come up with an agreed-upon plan for how the world might respond to the next global outbreak. A ninth and final round of talks involving governments, advocacy groups and others to finalize a “pandemic treaty” is scheduled to end Friday. The accord’s aim: guidelines for how the WHO’s 194 member countries might stop future pandemics and better share scarce resources. But experts warn there are virtually no consequences for countries that don’t comply. WHO’s countries asked the U.N. health agency to oversee talks for a pandemic agreement in 2021. Envoys have been working long hours in recent weeks to prepare a draft ahead of a self-imposed deadline later this month: ratification of the accord at WHO’s annual meeting. But deep divisions could derail it. U.S. Republican senators wrote a letter to the Biden administration last week critical of the draft for focusing on issues like “shredding intellectual property rights” and “supercharging the WHO.” They urged Biden not to sign off.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Unvaccinated were twice as likely to die from Covid as vaccinated: Nivel - Published Sept 2, 2024

In 2021 and 2022, COVID-19 was twice as likely to be the cause of death of unvaccinated people as in vaccinated people, according to a new study by Nivel. The side-effects center believes the COVID-19 high vaccination rate prevented many deaths, especially in vulnerable groups.

Nivel studied the excess mortality in the Netherlands in pandemic years 2021 and 2022 among people who got vaccinated against the coronavirus, and those who chose not to. The researchers took account of a large number of characteristics that could be associated with death, including age, medical history, migration background, and possible vulnerability to the disease.

The mortality rate among vaccinated people was much lower than expected in the first three months and then the first twelve months after their first vaccination. “There were up to 45 percent fewer deaths than expected based on data on population characteristics and deaths from 2015 to 2018,” Nivel said. It added that other coronavirus measures, like lockdowns and social distancing, also likely played a role in this under-mortality.

These measures also played a role for unvaccinated people. However, the excess mortality in this group was massive. “There were almost three times as many deaths as expected,” Nivel said. Among unvaccinated vulnerable groups - the elderly, people with diabetes, people with COPD, and people with cardiovascular diseases - the excess mortality was up to five times higher than in vaccinated vulnerable groups.

“The observation that in the same period (2021-2022) - a period in which the same COVID-19 measures applied to everyone - there was excess mortality among unvaccinated people and under-mortality among vaccinated people suggest that the COVID-19 vaccination has worked and prevented deaths,” the side effects center said.

[darkmaga-retard]

An NHS whistleblower, who wishes to remain anonymous, has come forward with allegations that the NHS hospitals were not overwhelmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, as was reported by authorities and the mainstream media.

This individual referred to as Dr. John, has worked in minor injuries and illness centres as well as in a primary care role throughout the pandemic.

Dr. John claims that he has “seen this mess evolve from the very beginning of the pandemic” and that hospitals were actually extremely quiet and almost empty during the first lockdown.

“I used to see an average of 20 patients per day, that dropped to 1 – 2 patients during the first lockdown. I have even witnessed an elderly lady with horrific broken bones come into the hospital three weeks after her accident as she was too scared of catching coronavirus to visit the hospital sooner. In the end, the pain overcame the fear. “I have also assessed people with chest pains in their homes who would not go for further assessment as they were so scared of ‘the virus’ they would rather chance a heart attack than the infection or the loneliness of going to the hospital alone.”

NHS statistics certainly back up Dr John’s claims.

[theyknowthatweknow]

I didn't see anyone talk about this, but Sam's storyline in Ted Lasso was heavily based on things that actually happened involving the British government and Marcus Rashford and eventually, since this episode was written before it happened, was a foreshadowing of what would happen with former player and current pundit Gary Lineker (who did make an appearance as himself in S2).

Some may remember this, but during lockdown Rashford raised a lot of money for children in poverty and campaigned for free school meals for poor children whose families couldn't afford proper meals and have free school meals provided due to having to do home schooling according to coronavirus lockdown procedures. This led to a lot of right wing politicians and people telling him to 'stick to football' and like Sam did on twitter on the show, Rashford also got into a heated exchange on twitter with a right wing politician regarding this. Thankfully, because of support for him and ordinary people and small businesses supporting him and choosing to help these families with meals, the government eventually had to give what he campaigned for, which was basically just to save face. Because of this, a murial was painted in honour of Rashford.

Something that was also happening at the time was the Black Lives Matters moment - every single club had their players start to take the knee before the match. And it wasn't just because of this movement, but because of the growing number of racism black players were receiving both social media and in the stadiums. Rashford himself was subjected to a lot of it. A lot of football fans even were booing players taking the knee, especially when English players were playing against opposition from other European countries like Poland and Ukraine, such as in the Euros. But tumblr with the fake workery were more offended by English fans booing national anthems of European countries, than actual ignorance to racism. Many other international teams in the Euros like Italy who tumblr was frothing over because they had some weird fetish for Italian men even refused to take the knee, despite Italian football having far worse racism than England and also being notorious in football for the horrific racism from Italian fans. On club level, it was already bad from football fans, but what happened after the Euros final was something else.

The final went to penalties and Rashford, along with other black players who took the penalties missed them. Almost any of us who are people of colour knew what was gonna happen - which was the horrific racism they all endured not just England, but internationally. Remember the line from Sam about how he is supported till he misses a penalty kick? That was based on this and also Rashford and other black players experiences of racism when missing penalties. I remember as well tumblr and especially Italian fans here and on other social media doing their fake wokery and laughing at these players, all whilst we were trying to ask them not to, when they were getting a lot of racism. But this was probably because Italians subjected Mario Balotelli to the same racism when they lost a final years ago and have been subjecting him to many years, to the point he's been reduced to tears and severely affected his mental health. The next day, it was discovered that the murial painted for Rashford was graffitied with racism. Remember how Sam's restaurant was also graffitied? A lot of people covered them up with messages of support for Rashford, but the man who painted it went back to get it back to normal - what made this more heartbreaking is that he was also black and saw the racism on it which he said made it very hard for him to do. Remember how the players helped fix Sam's restaurant?

As this happened, a right wing politician tweeted that if Rashford 'sticked to football' this wouldn't have happened - she received a barrage of criticism so had to delete the tweet. Also remember how Sam's exchange was with the home secretary of Britain? Well the then home secretary, priti Patel - who is a brown British Indian woman of immigrant background - was criticising the players taking the knee. When the racism happened, she decided to tweet in support which led to a black English player Tyrone Mings furiously (and correctly) responding that her words like her right wing peers has enabled this to happen and that she doesn't get to be a hypocrite and now decide to support them. Because not only did she criticise them, she was also using dangerous rhetoric against refugees - much like the home secretary in Ted lasso.

But just when we thought the worst had happened... Along came suella braverman, another racist brown woman with an immigrant background. She is actually way worse than priti Patel which we never would have imagined and is trying to pass laws that go against international law along with the current right wing government of jailing or deporting people seeking asylum who didn't come from 'legal routes.' Even though they've made it so difficult for them to gain asylum. A Jewish woman actually asked her to stop using the language she has because it reminds her of how Jewish refugees were treated during the holocaust, but she refused to listen and was very offensive. So very similar to the home secretary on Ted lasso talking about sending boats back. Just recently this year Gary Lineker, who himself has housed an immigrant, asked right wing government officials like her to stop using such dangerous language and have empathy which led to him being suspended by the BBC who he does football punditry for, to keep politics out. All of his colleagues then walked out on strike in support of him, along with other people in the country supporting him, which thankfully led to him being reinstated. However sadly, the current right wing government are still using dangerous language against immigrants and refugees and trying to push legislation against them which breaches human rights and international law. Just today, the current prime minister rush sunak - who is also a brown Indian person of immigrant background that has used his immigrant story to help him reach where he is - said legal migration is TOO HIGH - the same things which let him become the British prime minister.

An episode after this one, Ted was reading a story to his son Henry about a character called Marcus - that was a book from Marcus Rashford as he is trying to help improve reading literacy amongst children. Whilst these books were being released he was doing poorly but this season he has been doing AMAZING whilst seemingly taking a step back from the activism he's done. A lot of people, many of whom supported him have said he did badly because he was doing 'too much' off the field when they are ignoring the very obvious psychological effects of continuously being racially abused just before that season, had on him. There have been some changes such as football fans in England since the Euros being overwhelmingly supportive of the taking of the knee and being more supportive of anti racism messages. But support doesn't mean the problems have gone away.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

whenever you have time and energy, please let us hear more of your thoughts on violence under capitalism

Oh, I have the time and the energy, I just didn't want to make the previous ask/answer excessively long!

I think another basic point about both anarchism and communism is that there is violence inherent in capitalism. Capitalism requires the exploitation of the workers by the bosses in order to make profit.

If we take this on a global scale, I think we're all aware of the concept of "sweat shops" in the general, but often we don't consider how unsafe these places are to work. These are factories with no, or very limited regulation- we hear about factory collapses in Bangladesh, where people die in their hundreds. We don't hear about the individuals who are injured or killed every day globally due to unsafe working practices.

Even in the UK, a country that has reasonably good health and safety legislation (of course, legislation is not always followed), in 2018-2019, 147 workers were killed by "accidents at work", as well as 92 members of the public. That's more than 4 people each week. In 2020-21, bearing in mind there were mass lockdowns and many industries stopped working for a period of time, 123 workers, and 80 members of the public were killed. (figures from HSE). These figures do not include deaths from covid-19.

In fact, part of the reason I started this blog during the coronavirus pandemic was because I was aware people were being put in dangerous situations, and covid was being spread more widely because capitalism and profit were being prioritised above people's lives.

The way we are forced to work is killing many people, and injuring huge numbers. In 2021-22, about 150,000 people in the UK sustained an injury at work which meant they were absent for more than 7 days (so potentially quite a serious injury).

Injuries can be caused by unsafe working practices or environments, but equally things like rushing because you are under pressure can lead to a trip or a fall, or people trying to carry things that are too heavy or awkward on their own, and sustaining an injury. The nature of capitalism is that time is money, so we are encourage to work fast, to work when tired, and this can cause people to get hurt.

So that's a little bit about the violence inherent in "work", but what about the violence inherent in the system?

Capitalism kills people- capitalism has always killed people. The nature of the system is that some of us have money and access to all the things we need (food, housing, medication and so on) and some of us don't. People die, or are injured or get ill all the time due to homelessness, even in so-called developed countries. People die due to lack of food, even when there might be food available. People die due to lack of medicine all the time, even in countries where this ought to be freely available, because they cannot afford it.

Whenever people criticise communism, they like to bring up the famine under Stalin. I'm not going to launch into a defense of Stalin, but when we criticise capitalism, we should therefore look at famines caused by it, or contributed to by it. Historically, the potato famine in Ireland, or the Bengal Famine in India (when it was under British rule) are just two examples. We can also look at the ongoing famine in Yemen, and increasing problems in Sudan and the surrounding area.

Many people consider these famines to be solely due to natural causes, "acts of god" if you will. But that's not the case.

If we look at the potato famine, sometimes called an Drochshaol in Gaelic, solely because that's the one I'm most familiar with, we can see that it was caused largely by a capitalist, colonialist system, and the impacts of it were made far more extreme due to capitalism.

People will tell you the potato famine was caused by the potato blight, but it's not as simple as that. There was potato blight across Europe, in the 1840s, leading to about 100,000 deaths across the whole of Europe. In Ireland, more than 1 million people died, and many more emigrated, causing a 20-25% fall in the total population.

Part of the reason for this was the reliance on a single crop. This wasn't a situation chosen by the Irish people. Instead, English landlordism pushed the poorest Irish people into a situation where they had very little land, and the only crop that could sustain them on their land was the potato. Meanwhile, much of the agricultural land was used to grow wheat or other grains, or farm meat, which was solely used for the profit of the landlords.

Arguably the greatest tragedy of the Irish famine was that there was plenty of food in Ireland. It was just all being exported, so that people could make money. And during the famine, people continued to do this, and continued to make money, even whilst people were literally starving in the streets.

And during all of this, the English landlords continued to charge rent. Even before the famine, many families in Ireland could not fully afford their rents, and were supported through relatives working abroad (usually seasonal work in Britain). During the famine, there were a huge number of evictions.

I recently watched a BBC TV show about evictions (because English landlords haven't changed at all) and one of the tenants facing eviction said something along the lines of "eviction is a really violent act"- which I believe is true. And it is even more violent in a situation where your family is starving and everyone around you is starving.

Anyway, my point is that the landlords were able to evict their tenants, in order to make more money, causing even more deaths. And all of this is was fuelled by a capitalist, colonialist system.

And in the last 170 or so years, we can see that on a surface level, things have improved somewhat in some countries. But equally, in England, we still live in a country where someone can evict you for no reason and make you street homeless if *you* can't find another house in time- yes, in some circumstances, "the council" will help house people, but the housing offered is often inadequate or limited for families- and it often doesn't exist for young, single people- so they end up sofa surfing or sleeping on the streets.

In the USA, people still die or end up in extremely difficult situations because they can't afford the medical treatment they need.

I'm sure anyone who lives in a capitalist country can point to some key injustice which leads to death or serious ill health, and is driven solely by profit and the property owning class. This is the violence inherent in the system, and it kills far more people than interpersonal violence ever could.

Again, this has become very long, and there's still more in it that I want to explore, so do keep sending me asks on these themes if you are interested.

[kiara-ish]

IDOL SOLDIER

Chapter 1

Words: 5k+

Summary: The world is changing yet again. People are turning into flesh biting monsters and with all backs to the walls, every second is a war between life and death. You expected a lot in life but never in your wildest dreams did you expect to meet Kim Seokjin in the middle of an apocalypse.

Pairing: Enlisted Soldier!Seokjin x fem!Reader

Genre: Dystopia | Romance

Rating: series rating - 18+ | chapter rating - 16+

Series Warnings: blood, gore, violence, mentions of abuse, mentions of sexual harrasment, deaths, graphic descriptions, suggestive themes.

Author's Note: This was initially supposed to be a long oneshot but after scrapping my drafts multiple times, I decided to break it into parts for easy reading and smooth writing too. Also, if I blinded you with that horrible cover, I'm really sorry me and graphics don't go well together. I'll fix it whenever I can.

m.list | next ->

Dystopia always was my favourite trope to write. There was something about hopelessness that always had me taking up the pen. I always supposed it was something rather mundane and humane – to be curious of misery and despair. Until one day when the television that I sometimes left on in the evenings when I felt extraordinarily lonely caught my attention.

"...the rapid growth of the virus Z-24 is shocking. The constant spike in the number of affected is fearsome especially because the medium of transfer is yet to be discovered. What is spreading even more terror is the worsening condition of those infected, they have shown signs of insanity and as the specialists have named it – the zombie syndrome. It is becoming very difficult to reassure the crowd of grieving and worried families outside the hospitals and quarantine. Today, we have with us…"

With the said attention having the span matching that of a goldfish, I was distracted by a ping of notification on my phone and zoned out the news. In hindsight, my listening or not listening to the news wouldn't have made much of a difference. But it might have made me prepare better, it might have allowed me to ponder more on zombie syndrome than Kim Seokjin's nearing end of military service.

Apart from the regulation of wearing masks and sanitizing, there wasn't much havoc about the virus so people took it as seriously as they did coronavirus – scared but reassured that it will be fine sooner or later. So like every other patient citizen, I lost my shit when a lockdown was declared simultaneously with a message from my manager announcing the reduction of the travel allowance because of the change in mode of work.

Going off the texts, my social media was flooded with video clips, hazy, distraught – almost like an illegally filmed video. I knew what they would show but did not want to experience the same fervent panic from the night before. I scrolled past most videos until my clumsy fingers accidentally let go of the phone and in the eager grasp of catching it, a video started playing.

A vlogger was speaking in a broken, hushed voice. His words were unclear nor did I have the motivation to be keener in my observation. He was showing pitch darkness and it intrigued me. So instead of scrolling past like I intended, I stayed and tried to scrutinize the scene but to no help — it was all dark.

"Did you hear that?"

The vlogger's voice was suddenly clearer but his question threw me off. It was unnerving. There was an unfamiliar tremor in his voice that made me feel the same fear as him. The dark screen was suddenly not still and the silhouette of a door came into view.

"The sound came from right outside. Should I open the door to see?"

Of course he shouldn't. There could be found some ten thousand horror movies that would tell him that he should not. But he did anyway. There was no foreboding creek as the door opened, some fragments of street light in the distance that looked more ominous than reassuring. It was still silent, eerily like it was a warm summer evening in the countryside where people had nothing to worry about let alone flesh biting horrors.

"There is nothing here. To appreciate my bravery don't be shy in sending gifts and whatever your heart desires at–"

It was so quick I almost missed it and had I been successful at missing it, maybe my heart would be saved.

It wasn't a grand howl and attack. It was just a blink of darkness moving, covering the lights in the distance with the shadow and as the lights became visible again, it was obvious that something had moved. There was no foreshadowing, ominously sidelining; in a wink there was a rustle of clothes and the clang of the camera falling to the floor. It was pitch darkness but the vlogger had left no stone turned in choosing his recording mic.

As the mic stayed on around his mouth, the squelching of blood resonated loudly as the infected tore his neck probably, its heavy breathing and teeth biting into flesh with a small ripping sound like that of soft muslin. A second too late, the man started gurgling on his blood. He had no time to scream, no chance to run. The gushing of blood as the infected but around until it was done was so loud that I threw my phone away without a care in the world. Yet the only sound that reached me was the low, deep gurgle of blood and the throaty groan of the infected.

No amount of gory movies and books would have prepared me for that video and the silence that rang through the apartment after that prevailed for a very long time with the only noises being my gasps and puking. The clip went viral and everyone went crazy; traffic in the streets for miles as everyone tried to flee the city, flight tickets skyrocketed and the ruckus continued. I couldn't afford the tickets and I had nowhere else to go so I tried to order as much grocery as I could while trying to hold off the anxiety of living through yet another possible pandemic.

More clips started surfacing but I watched none of it, staying off the internet unless it was for work until finally hell couldn't be contained and the internet was shut down in the whole city. The government couldn't do shit for the virus yet so they ensured what they liked best – quiet. Work was close to impossible and salaries were further reduced regardless of the increasing bills.

In all the chaos of possibly a zombie apocalypse in construction and intense inflation, there was bound for things to go wrong — very, very wrong.

--

Ripping off the fabric of a shirt from the backpack, I tied it around the long scratch on my arm. Darkness blurred my vision every time I exhaled and every inhale burned my lungs. Looking around, I realised I had run into the woods, which explained the itchy scratches everywhere on my body. But there was nowhere else to go and if I navigated in the right direction, I would arrive at the isolated military camp, which was a hopeful ray of my survival.

It wasn't supposed to happen; I was supposed to move south to downtown, where there could be a shit ton of infected but more chances of communication too. But the streets looked awfully empty as I walked and sprinted carefully. There were occasional abandoned cars that looked good as new but I did not dare peek in. Last thing I would want was an investigation after all the ruckus clears off, that too for petty theft. The cramp in my stomach was occasionally wrenching my insides but the adrenaline kept me going.

Humans are cute. Hold their hand, caress their scars and give them a warm seat and they'll think they are home. The empty roads, the quiet and the chilly breeze that brushed through my sweaty, filthy skin felt like a cold shower after enduring a heatwave. I got too comfortable so it was only right that I would get plowed to the street.

It was all in a split second. One second I was running and the next a heavy weight crashed to my side, effectively pushing me to the ground and scraping my exposed skin against the rough asphalt. But before I could cry out or even look at the force, there was a putrid stench scorching my nostrils and a growl above me.

There was a squelch of flesh being torn apart and a scream escaped my parched throat, a hoarse but disturbingly loud sound. I felt like I was floating just like I always imagined death to be except something was wrong. There was no pain. I wasn't pathetically thrashing in sheer agony of having my flesh bitten off and the infected person above me was not moving.

Lightheaded, I finally looked, really looked. Blood never looked so relieving. The makeshift spear on my hand was protruding through the neck of the infected and cold blood dripped down the puncture wound. The infected person, what looked like a young man, had his eyes stuck on me but they were vacant of any semblance of life. They were bloodshot and pupils dilated, looking like they would pop out of their sockets any moment. His body weight was crushing me and I couldn't breathe with my already throbbing head.

Pushing off the body, I rolled away, breathing in the open air. But before a complete breath, my body instinctively flipped and with wretched gags that shook my whole body, I puked again. At this point I wasn't sure what I was throwing up, probably my dying organs. The putrid stench was stronger and my gags worsened.

In the midst of that, I heard it this time. Shuffling, wheezing and groaning, footsteps. How did I forget my own scream? How was I not expecting it? My throat hurt and so did my entire body. I wanted to scream and cry with helplessness. But I knew I needed to move. I needed to get the fuck back up.

Because I might not be the main character in the whole story, but I was the main character in mine.

That's how I ended up running in a random direction, then more random directions doing anything to escape the footsteps. Every time I saw the slightest of shifts in my periphery, I changed directions. My makeshift spear remained digging into an infected person's throat and taking out any other knife would take time. I wanted to ram my head into a tree trunk for leaving behind the spear but I had to run then.

At one point, the road was deserted. The woods ran through one side and empty fields through another. There was no house around and nothing objectively obstructive of view. So I stopped but adrenaline was heavy so I stumbled to the ground and rolled on my back. Breathing. Just breathing.

The sky was clear but dusk was approaching. I didn't even want to think what would happen after nightfall so I kept breathing like it was a task. It was so silent that my head got louder again. I was hyper aware of my being, from my aching legs to my throbbing head and sinking heart. I couldn't close my eyes. Every time I gave in to the darkness, I saw a pair of bloodshot protruding eyes first, then a sensation – a cold liquid dripping down my arm and then finally, a knife lodged into a man's throat and the handle of that knife was held by-

I opened my eyes with as much life I had in me to the bright sky, unnerving quiet and my own heavy breathing. There was a nagging thought in my head that I wanted to throttle and bury but it came up again and again. To evade it, I sat up.

I took out a knife from my backpack, knowing that it wouldn't be half as useful as my spear but it was something better than nothing. I held it firmly but did not stand up. I couldn't. My legs were weak and hurt like a bitch. I had always contemplated how quickly things could go wrong but my estimation wasn't even close to what it was happening in reality. I remember basking in the warmth of my airy apartment and listening to music, laughing with my friends on call about how I was finally on the same land as BTS. But then suddenly it was chaos and now I had blood on my hands, filthy but it wasn't my own.

There was a cackling, a giggle around me and goosebumps lined my skin. I looked around for a moment when a realization hit me. It hit me so hard that I began sprinting again. Running towards the woods aimlessly, I ignored the burning of my soles and the scratches of small thin branches tearing my skin. All the while I kept thinking back to that sound.

It was me. I was laughing. I couldn't suppress the thought anymore. I was going insane.

--

Aimlessly wandering through the woods, I finally tried to breathe a little better. Stumbling through the huge trees and trying my best to navigate towards the setting sun, where a military camp should stand tall, I tried to ignore the burning pain that was spreading through my whole body.

The forest wasn't too thick. One couldn't see the other side at one glance but it wasn't complete wilderness. There were some rare trees marked by the government and some sections were fenced with wires. But all the big trees and growing tangled bines yet not one fruit caught my eye. No matter how much the infected scared me and no matter how much my whole body throbbed with a dull ache constantly, I couldn't ignore my cramped stomach and my dry mouth. But I couldn't drop my gait, not before nightfall.

The setting sun was like a halo in the distance and staring at it, as I moved forward, I felt a serenity take over me. There was nothing that was as hopeful as that constant ball of brightness in the desolate quiet of the woods, in a city filled with sick people.

So lost in the blinding light of the sun, I couldn't control my feet as they stepped on a dry branch on the ground and a loud creak echoed through the forest. The echoing felt like nature was mocking me, really laughing at me, pointing and saying, 'look at her, what a dumb bitch.'

Looking around me, I tried to confirm that nothing was going to jump on me at the next second. At least my back wouldn't be to the wall if something did pop up. At most, it would delay my navigation — or that's what I tried to assure myself. I was doing a fine job at it too, taking slow steps further towards the direction of the setting sun until I noticed it.

At some distance, there was a man walking towards my direction. He wasn't stumbling and that gave me hope that it could be another survivor. It couldn't be me all alone. But I didn't want to call out loud and attract attention. So I leaned against a thick tree, away from his sight, just the sound of his footsteps nearing me. The footsteps were steady, not haphazard. They felt conscious and they were closer than ever before.

I held my breath as I heard the footsteps just on the other side of the tree. I could see his shoes standing still. Peeking out a little more, I caught sight of him, looking straight ahead. His side profile looked completely untouched and with his completely fine posture, I was sure by then that he was indeed uninfected. A strange ray of joy sparked through me. He looked very alert and upright, probably because of the sound I made.

So I finally decided to step out from behind the bark. A step and then another until I was beside him. But he still didn't notice me, so I tried to reach out a hand and tap his shoulder. My shaking hands reached out and it was almost at his shoulder blade when I heard his breathing. He was breathing heavily which wasn't abnormal but it was followed by a deep gurgling sound – a growl.

In a beat I was ducking behind the tree again, only in time to catch his head turn in my direction; a knife was sticking out of his other eye, the sight making bile rise to my throat again as a scream threatened to erupt but at the distance he was in, one wrong move and I wouldn't be able to scream ever again. His other eye looked around keenly, heavy breathing and that same eerie gurgling groan as if he was choking on his own blood.

A few moments passed like that with me holding my breath, as he stood motionless. But after what felt like an eternity, he began walking again. Steady footsteps moving past the tree had me finally exhaling. But I couldn't waste any more time, it was already darkening. I had to get somewhere at least.

I took off in a sprint, the desire to put a distance between the infected and myself overwhelming my senses. Ducking below branches and jumping over roots, I let the air rage war on my skin as the surroundings changed to a blur. Even in all that overwhelming stimulation, I could feel it before I saw it. There was someone sprinting behind me. It was not a human. It had a protruding knife from its eye.

I wanted to scream out loud or at least cry in despair. But in lieu of all the mockery I made of characters in dystopian fictions at their obnoxious and unrealistic behaviour, even my mind was working on autopilot and instead of screaming or crying, I pushed my legs to run faster, letting the subdued animalistic urge of survival take over my senses, until I could see nothing but the peeking glimpses of the road at the distance.

My feet met the asphalt again and I let myself blink, feeling the water dripping down my cheeks. I couldn't perceive anything other than my own shoes hitting the road, slowing down with each fall to a jog then a walk and then a standstill.

I looked around the deserted road, panting. My vision was even more blurry than before but I couldn't miss the sight of a military barricade in the distance. This was the path to the military camp, where there should be people that can help me. The sun had dropped below the horizon but the bright halo remained and that too was slowly dimming.

I couldn't brush off the fact that there were probably infected around so I took quick strides to the path opposite the military barricade. A big white arrow was drawn on the road and it made me increase my pace. Soon enough a building came in my sight but it was still far and no matter how much I sped up, it felt far like a mirage.

"Help!"

I stumbled to a stop. There was a looming fear that I was going insane but I was sure I heard someone scream for help. It was coming from the darkening forest. My heart thudded loudly in my chest as I stared at the darkness.

"Help me please!"

I heard it distinct this time and closer than before. There was indeed another person. But I couldn't forget the infected person I encountered before. With the loud shouting from this person asking for help, he would definitely be following the source too. There was a person asking for help and there was an infected person probably tailing the sound.

I've never counted myself as a great person and that wasn't due to humility. I was never a great person. I always prioritized myself first and when the situation had come to a literal man-eating-man situation, I saw nothing wrong in it.

So I sprinted towards the building, ignoring the calls for help, the sound ringing in my ears like a siren.

"Help!"

"Help, please, someone!"

"HELP!"

--

It wasn't a military camp. It didn't look like one at least. It was a huge building, fenced with a huge metal gate, but empty. Deserted. Not one person was around. But I didn't want to lose hope, they could have locked themselves in somewhere.

The gate was open thankfully, so I tried to push myself in through that but ended up opening it slightly wider than before albeit soundlessly. It was dark, the halo of the sun gone. The sky was just minutes away from darkening to a void.

With quiet footsteps I walked towards the only door in sight. It was huge but opened even with a gentle push, no creaking. The place was quiet. With the staircases and the multiple hallways, it looked like the barracks. But no lights were on and nothing was in sight. There was a chill running down my spine as I slowly stepped towards the first hallway to the left.

The long, narrow passage gave way to another big door. The door was closed but through the big glasses on the door, I could well see the inside. I could barely conceal my cry when I saw numerous infected people stumbling around in what looked like the cafeteria. There was food spilled on the ground and they all looked like chefs but a few were wearing military boots too.

My last hope drowned. I could only visualise letting an infected person tear into me. The pain would be immense but it won't last too long. Muffled sobs uncontrollably poured out of me as I stared at the people inside walking around like monsters of the night, waiting for one little sound, then they would tear them down to dust.

I was subconsciously staring at the young soldier who had a huge chunk of his forearm missing. He was young, might have even enlisted recently. His buzz cut looked newly shaped. It made my heart lurch in agony. I couldn't falter the ringing of my ears, the only sound enthralling my eardrums was the cry for help that I ignored. When I closed my eyes to blink I saw a man with a knife sticking out of his throat, a knife that I stabbed him with. It was so terrifying that I wanted to never close my eyes again.

The young soldier's eyes met mine all of a sudden and I took a step back. His eyes remained on mine when I moved further and further back until I began sprinting in the opposite direction. The adrenaline got the best of me and forsaking the sense of directions, I ran up the staircase. The sound of my shoes hitting the floor hurt my own ears. I had no idea where I was running to but I couldn't stop.

Not until I was suddenly pulled back inside a room and thrown against the wall with a heavy body up against me and a hand on my mouth interrupting the scream that I was about to let out. It was dark but I could make out a tall silhouette gently closing the door with one hand while still holding me against the wall.

Tears flowed out my eyes as I heard a familiar groaning right outside the door. Squeezing my eyes shut, I pressed myself to the wall as if it would just suck me in and free me from the wall but the stranger looked unshaken, his hand remained firm on my mouth and eyes on the door. A moment or two passed like that with me holding my breath and a loud drumming of heartbeat in my ears before abnormal footsteps slowly moved past the door and somewhere further down the hall.

The stranger still showed no intent of moving and there were hundreds of thoughts running through me but I let him wait for another minute or so before he moved and let me collapse to the floor like a heap of messy laundry. I couldn't control my trembling body, letting everything over the past weeks finally take their toll on me. I couldn't even look up and catch the stranger step back until he was on the opposite wall where he slid down to the floor too.

"Are you hurt somewhere?"

There was a gentle familiarity in his voice that made my stomach clench uncomfortably. I had no idea how much time had passed since I stopped crying.

"Just some scratches."

He suddenly looked alert and stood up. It took me a few seconds to comprehend his reaction so I was quick to clear the misunderstanding, "Not by the infected people. Just tree branches. I ran through the woods."

There was a sigh heard in the room and I watched his silhouette move to the small window with the blinds down. His shoulders were broad and his physique looked intimidating from my position on the ground but it strangely did not throw me off. There was something about him that felt unnaturally familiar. I didn't know how.

He parted the blinds and let more light flood in before turning to face me. I blinked at him for a moment, my head couldn't process what was going on. The familiar kind eyes, the high nose bridge and the pouty lips were all features of one person I recognised like the back of my hand; someone I had spent years fangirling over. I couldn't mistake that countenance, never. But the only sigh of misery that left me was the consequences I was seeing him in.

I wasn't ready to meet Kim Seokjin in the middle of an apocalypse.

There was utter silence in the room, only our breathing and probably my drumming heart. He had returned to his seat at the opposite wall while I remained fixated to my side. I had so many questions, so many things to say but moving my lips felt like a task. I had nothing on me that would get me going now that the adrenaline had run out. So we remained in an exhausting silence.

"Is the road clear?" he whispered.

"Barely. The woods are not clear so I doubt the road will stay safe too long."

He didn't reply and I couldn't resist the urge so I asked him, "How are you here?"

"I was supposed to be discharged the next day when all this happened. I was in my room packing up when I heard some commotion downstairs."

I didn't need to know what commotions nor did he feel it to be said. Silence prevailed when I couldn't come up with a reply but there was something shifting in me. I was breathing a little easier.

"I'm not going to be here anymore though."

I watched him stand up and move to the bed in the corner and there was a slightly coarse sound of a wrapper being torn, of a small protein bar when it was brought before my eyes. I looked up at Jin who held the bar in front of me, another small water bottle with some water in it.

I was confused. Why was he showing it to me? Was he giving it to me? He couldn't be that stupid. Who would share food and water in this scarcity? I kept staring at the protein bar letting my mouth water and my stomach groan loudly. But I didn't take it from his hand.

It must have been frustrating for him because he suddenly dropped to the floor right in front of me and shoved the bar in my hand and placed the water bottle before me. When my limp hand finally fisted around the bar, he brought my hand to my mouth and shoved it in.

I could have cried as the taste of the melting bar sent a few shudders to my body and I was gobbling it up in less than a few seconds.

"I'm sorry I'm usually more gentle. But I can't be patient right now."

Mouth full with the last bite of the bar, I reached for the water bottle watching him with keen eyes as he continued, "I can only give you this much. I'll leave tomorrow."

The water flowing down my burning throat sent another round of shudders down my body and my eyes closed in bliss. I saved a few sips for later and let the embarrassing sound of my stomach groaning be heard before I processed his words.

"To where? It's hell out there."

"My brothers. They are in the main camp."

I didn't agree with him wholeheartedly but I understood him. The moment my brain registered that it was Kim Seokjin, my mind went to the other six members. The exhaustion had gotten overwhelming and the thought had left me. Hearing it from him was a different feeling. He was the eldest, his sense of responsibility had to be peaking.

I had no idea when I fell asleep but when I woke up it was day again. Lights poured in through the windows with the blinds pushed up. A rustle of fabric made me jump up to a stand still when I remembered I wasn't alone.

Jin was walking around the room, randomly checking drawers and tables. I felt my thoughts to be more organised than last night so I could finally process a lot of things; first being the fact that I wasn't dead or infected yet and I somehow met Kim Seokjin and the second, he is ethereal.

He looked like an angel with the sun beaming on his face, as he looked out. What were the odds of me ending up with him of all people? But before I could further contemplate the odds, he turned to me with a small grimace for a smile but I swooned nonetheless.

"Slept well? You should keep your guards up now. I'll get going."

It all came back to me in an instant. He did talk about leaving to look for the other members and I didn't remember what I replied back.

"Have you been outside? It's hell."

"I know, you've told me before."

"How do you plan to make it there?"

He looked at me with his backpack in hand, "I'm not sure. I don't have much with me, just some scraps for snacks and a bottle of water or two."

I couldn't help the quake of my body when I recalled the infected people I had encountered on my way. At least I had a knife, it looked like he was charging in without anything.

I noticed my own backpack lying abandoned so I picked it up and took out one of the knives from in there.

"There you go," I held it out to him as he continued staring with an unreadable expression, "you will need some kind of protection. I suppose you happen to not have a gun, right?"

He stared at the knife for a moment and I was about to take it back, afraid of his widening eyes but instead he suddenly spoke up, "Guns! There are guns here somewhere-"

"In this room?"

"No, maybe in the gym."

I had no idea what to do with this piece of information so I waited for his mind to continue turning the gears.

"I'm going to try and look for one before I leave."

He didn't wait for any affirmation from my side, immediately moving towards the door when an uncomfortable feeling began sinking in my stomach. He was really leaving like that. Hand on the doorknob, he was about to pull it open when I was pulling his arm back.

Wide eyed he stared as if I had grown two heads, "what are you doing?"

"I'll go with you."

[blueiscoool]

Stolen van Gogh Painting Worth Millions Returned in a Ikea Bag

The painting was stolen in March 2020 from the Singer Laren Museum.

A Dutch art detective has helped recover a missing Vincent van Gogh painting that was stolen from the Singer Laren Museum, east of Amsterdam, in March 2020.

The "Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring," painted in 1884, was stolen from the famous Dutch museum in a daring overnight smash-and-grab heist during the coronavirus lockdown.

Dutch art crime detective Arthur Brand, who has spent decades tracking down some of the world's greatest masterpieces, announced on Tuesday he had recovered the stolen masterpiece.

In a video posted on Brand's Instagram, the detective can be seen unwrapping the coveted artwork, holding it up as he poses for the camera.

"So here it is! The Spring Garden by Vincent van Gogh which was stolen three and a half years ago on Van Gogh's birthday from a museum in the Netherlands. We have searched for it for more than three and a half years," he said.

Brand said he was able to recover the famous artwork in "close coordination" with Dutch police, deeming it a "great day for all Van Gogh lovers worldwide."

The painting -- estimated to be worth between about $3.2 million to $6.4 million -- was handed to Brand by an unnamed man in a blue Ikea bag at his Amsterdam home, he said.

"Finally, it's here, it's back," said Brand, announcing he is set to return it today to the Singer Laren Museum director.

The recovery followed the emergence of "proof-of-life" photos of the painting circulating in online Mafia circles in June 2020, three months after the dramatic heist. One of the images showed the multimillion-dollar artwork -- which measures 25-by-57 centimeter -- flanked alongside a copy of The New York Times international edition and a book about a famous art thief.

In April 2021, Dutch police spokesperson Maren Wonder announced in a video statement that a 58-year-old man, named only as Nils M, was arrested in Baarn, Netherlands, on suspicion of stealing paintings by van Gogh and Frans Hals with an accumulative value of £18 million, or about $22.4 million.

"This arrest is an important step in the investigation," Wonder announced at the time. "Both paintings have not yet resurfaced with this arrest. The search continues unabated."

In a statement sent Tuesday, Dutch Police confirmed that the perpetrator was in custody and that the famous painting has been recovered, soon to be ready to be viewed by the public.

"The perpetrator is in custody and the painting is back. We are very happy with that result," said Richard Bronswijk, of the Dutch Police's Art Crime Unit.

"We know hat these types of items are used as collateral within organized crime. Intercepted messages have given us good insight into the criminal trade in these types of valuable objects."

The penalty for stealing a painting is imprisonment of 8 years.

"The search for Frans Hals' painting continued unabated."

By Emma Ogao.

[amberjazmyn]

happy birthday dad!

𝓲𝓶𝓪𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓮 - happy birthday dad!

𝔀𝓪𝓻𝓷𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 - dad x jared, an emotional reunion between father and daughter, happy tears

𝓭𝓮𝓼𝓬𝓻𝓲𝓹𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 - jared padalecki's eldest daughter, pressley padalecki had been away at university in australia for the last three years and only now, three years later, was able to come home due to covid restrictions. and it was also her dad's birthday so, there was no way she'd miss out on surprising her old man for his 40th birthday. 

𝓪𝓾𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓻'𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓮 - the one-shot will be written in lowercase and flashbacks, if any, will be written in italics. 

masterlist

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𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐫  | 19th july 2022 | brisbane, queensland 

pressley padalecki was tearful, in an emotion she wasn't sure was joy, relief or sadness. joy, because she was finally able to get on that goddamn three-hour delayed delta flight back home to her home state of austin, texas specifically, from brisbane, queensland australia after four whole years, two of them being stuck there due to coronavirus (in 2020 and 2021). relief, because she was able to spend her father's birthday with him at home during a brief break from filming for his cw show walker and sadness because she felt awful that she had become so close to her roommates back at the university of queensland that she felt sick to her stomach that she was one of the very few international university students who were able to travel back home after the whole coronavirus, lockdown situation that the world had been circumnavigating the last couple of years after they had all graduated. however, the moment she finally sat down, alongside her best friend, alania, a fellow international student of the university of queensland in their first-class seats as pressley wore her old oversized supernatural cast hoodie that was for sure first given to her when she was just a wee toddler paired with white flared jeans and fluffy slides. she sighed in relief, with a smidge of joy and a smidge of sadness as she rested her head against the side of the first class cabin she and alania purchased as both girls listened intently to the aeroplanes safety instructions even though they knew nothing bad was actually going to happen. 

after all the safety instructions and usual announcements had been made, both girls settled back down in their seats, pressley reached for her wired earphones even though it wasn't totally illegal for her to use her airpods, and plugged them into her iphone and immediately went into her spotify premium.  pressing shuffle on her playlist, carry on wayward son by kansas and then drowning by her uncle jensen's band radio company and other songs that reminded pressley of her family back home in texas played in her earphones. whilst those songs would always make her cry (and absolutely, positively did on this flight) it also made her smile and be extremely grateful that the flight, although it was delayed by three hours and was an entire twenty-four-hour flight, they were finally on the plane and on their way home on american soil in texas. the overly exhausted texan girl seemed to fall asleep within minutes and it seemed to stay that way for the entire flight. even her fellow uni best friend, alania callahan, didn't want to disturb her twenty-year-old best friend as it seemed obvious from the tear stains on the padalecki girl's face, the slightly distressed wrinkles and scrunched-up nose that she shared with her dad that it revealed to the flight attendants as well as alania that this sleep was extremely needed. especially because she'd be surprising not just her dad for his birthday but also everyone else so, no one disturbed her until alania had to when the plane landed back home in austin, texas. 

pressley was in the deepest sleep, her earphones blasting jason manns, jensen ackles, rob benedict's version of the band's hit song wagon wheel when she felt herself being shaken awake. the girl jolted awake but softly fluttered her eyes open to see the prettiest female eyes, they were the blue eyes of her bestie, alania. rushing to take out her earphones, alania gestured for the girl to breathe and go slow as pressley listened and she took her time before alania spoke up. with the slightly exhausted smile from the blonde, alania took that cue to speak up so, she did. 

"hey little miss sleepy, sorry to wake you up honey but the flight attendants were wanting me to let you know that we've finally arrived back home in austin..." alania smiled at her bestie as that seemed to make pressley teary-eyed and on the verge of tears 

alania wasn't bothered by her bestie's emotional reaction since, it was quite normal for pressley to cry. and, it was also clear to alania that pressley had been waiting for the moment of hearing that she was finally home after being away from it for what had felt like an eternity, just like alania. 

alania let her best friend compose herself before pressley spoke up, "...we're home, alania?" pressley whimpered out as alania sweetly smiled 

"yeah, we're home press. we touched down around ten/fifteen minutes ago, we are currently the last ones from first class to deboard but the flight attendants are still waiting to deboard business and economy classes. so, the flight attendants said to me before waking you up that they aren't really in a rush to get us off but...wait, you never told me whos picking you up..." alania was knee deep in repeating what she was told to pressley when she remembered that she was never told who was picking pressley up as pressley smiled and giggled slightly through her tears

"...oh, yeah, sorry, i...um, i'm surprising my family, but my dad especially for his birthday. it's his 40th birthday today and walker is on a small break from filming before returning back for their newest season..." pressley giggled, smiling as she just imagined the reactions of her dad jared and her brothers and sister, tom, shep and odette along with the reactions from the rest of her walker family, colby, violet, keegan, kale, odette, jeff as well as her mom's reaction as well

seeing pressley's smile at what alania knew was her best friend's imaginings of how the padalecki girl's family would react to the surprise made alania smile even more. she had been friends with pressley and her family since they were basically in diapers after their parents met at an event for pressley's grandfather, gerald padalecki, who was the tax accountant at the same workplace as her grandfathe's at the time and since then, the padalecki's and callahan's had been the best of friends, that friendship continuing on in their children. 

"...so, if you're surprising the whole family, who's picking you up then?" alania giggled as the two girls grabbed their carry-on luggage and awkwardly shimmied out of the plane so they could then leave and truly be back on solid ground, not a plane's ground after what felt like a whole year of being in one 

"no one, alania, did you forget that we drove here and left my car in the parking garage the whole four years..." pressley trailed off as alania suddenly face palmed, remembering all of a sudden as the two girls giggled - glad that they had faith in the undercover parking at austin airport 

"...how did i forget that? we came together cause i stayed at your house overnight--i'm a fucking idiot!" alania chuckled as pressley shook her head and giggled at her childhood best friend

"come on alania! let's go home, it's time for us to surprise our families!" pressley smiled, holding her hand out for her best friend to grab which she did as the fellow blonde girl nodded her head with a smile and took her best friends hand with hers 

𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 | 19th july 2022 | dublin, ireland

pressley had just helped alania surprise her family and, it was the sweetest moment ever, especially when alania's parents gina and alexander basically pulled her into joining the family group hug and it only made her even more excited to surprise her own family, her dad most especially. with gina and alexander callahan's help and the help of alania, it was pressley's time to surprise her own family. and the first person to be surprised was genevieve, pressley's mum. 

so, after a couple of moments of gina, alania's mum, convincing genevieve to come outside to the front of the house on her own, gen made her way outside. and the look on both gen and pressley's faces when they saw each other was the sweetest in the world. 

alania filmed as pressley waited in anxious wait for her mum to come outside to the front of the house after gina sent what could be perceived as a suspicious text. pressley had just turned around to smile at alania and her phone when she heard her mum's voice...

"...pressley? what...what are you doing home?" genevieve's voice was shaky and tearful as pressley turned around and only just opened her arms for a hug when gen rushed over to pull her eldest daughter in for a hug 

"surprise mom!" pressley whispered as she started to giggle as she felt herself breathing properly again as she smiled into her mum's shoulder 

genevieve held her heart tightly as she moved out of the hug, one of her hands still holding pressley's, "you didn't tell us you'd be home for your dad's birthday!" she whispered, having an inkling as to that being the entire reason why pressley was surprising her whole family rather than just jared 

"because i wanted to surprise all of you, not just dad. he isn't that subtle when asking for birthday wishes mom," pressley giggles as does genevieve, alania, alexander and gina who are all filming from different angles because, you know, angles

"of course he isn't, he's never been subtle. oh, i'm so glad you're home, press! it's been way too long!" genevieve whispered, hugging her eldest child again 

"it really has! i'm just glad that alania and i had the opportunity to come home because so many other international, especially american, students at the uni are still stuck back in brisbane!" pressley explained as genevieve looked shocked as alania nodded her head in agreement, the girl stopped filming a moments earlier 

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a few minutes went by when, with the help of genevieve, alania, gina and alexander, pressley surprised her brothers, tom and shep at their soccer game that weirdly enough, their dad, who was sport crazy, wasn't attending because he was celebrating his birthday with his walker and supernatural family.

thankfully, the soccer coaches for tom and shep, another set of good friends of the padaecki family, recognised the surprise and that pressley had returned home and gave subtle head nods, letting the older sister know that she could surprise tom and shep. however, it seemed as if tom, the older of the two brothers, had noticed pressley just a minute or two quicker. 

"...pressley!" tom squeaked out, jumping from the wired fence he was sitting atop and rushing over to the other side of the soccer pitch to his older sister who stood smiling 

her speed picked up as she noticed the look on her brother's face, he was seconds from crying and as though his feet couldn't run fast enough to reach her so, she started to run towards him as well. finally, after what felt like the brother and sister had been running forever, they finally reached each other and tom and pressley padalecki collided with each other. 

jumping into his sister's arms, even though he was coming up to the age of being a teenager, at ten, he didn't care as it had been at least four or so years since he had last seen her that wasn't over the phone on facetime. 

"what are you doing home?" he sniffled with a small giggle as pressley smiled, pulling away and giving her brother a sweet kiss on the head 

"me and alania got lucky as two of very few international students who were able to come home and also, i couldn't resist surprising dad for his birthday, of course!" pressley giggled at the end, making tom giggle too, even with the tears dripping down his cheeks 

"do you need to go back to graduate?" tom then questioned as the laughter from the soccer team started occurring out of the blue - shep had finally realised where his older brother was and that his older sister was home

and, that was when another screech of pressley's name was heard, "pressley!" her heart almost exploded at how her younger brothers always got so excited and emotional when she came home as she turned around, waiting for her brother to run over to her 

similar to tom, shep started getting teary eyed as he ran because he felt like he couldn't run quick enough so, like she did with tom, pressley started to run over to shep.  thankfully though, pressley and shep didn't stray too far from tom who seemed like he was still in shock from this whole reunion thing. after shep and pressley hugged, they immediately pulled tom in as they had a group hug. 

"what are you doing here? i thought you couldn't get home because of covid?" shep chuckled, wiping off a tear from his cheek as pressley smiled, shaking her head 

"no, i was lucky, as was alania--" 

"--alania's home as well?!" shep squealed in even more excitement as pressley and tom giggled, pressley nodding her head 

"yes, she is! she's actually filming this whole thing!" pressley giggled as alania rushed over from a little bush that she had been filming behind, the brothers smiling as they rushed to give the girl a hug 

after the twins reunited with alania, they then chatted with their older sister a little bit more, wondering if odette, their younger sister and their dad knew only to find out pressley was surprising the whole family. 

.·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·.

now that mom, tom and shep were surprised, the only two people that needed to be surprised were little sister odette and their dad jared. however, usually, dad would be the person to pick odette up after dancing, however, genevieve managed to convince her husband that she was going to pick up odette when really, it was actually going to be pressley and alania that were going to be picking odette up. thankfully, the dance studio that five-year-old gia danced at was the very same one that pressley and alania danced at so, they would be allowed to pick up odette instead of jared or genevieve since the two girls were very well known at the dance studio. 

and once again, alania was filming as the girls walked into the dance studio to pick up odette, who was around three when pressley first left for uni and was now five years old, nearly six. you would think that a young girl of odette's age, who hadn't seen their older sister since they were three, wouldn't remember them but, that couldn't be said for little odette padalecki...

...pressley had barely walked in when little odette screamed at the top of her lungs and ran over to her older sister. 

"pressley!!!" odette screamed, not even wanting to say goodbye to her dance teacher who smiled as they saw the reason why odette was screaming after they had registered the name that the girl had screamed out 

kneeling down to the ground with her arms wide open, pressley waited for her little sister to jump into her arms so she could pick her up and twirl her around, "odette!!!" pressley cheered, matching her sister's enthusiasm and excitement as she hugged odette as tightly as possible 

then, what odette said next made everyone coo in adorableness, "i missed you, pressley!" odette couldn't have been happier at the end of her dancing lesson, not so upset that it wasn't her daddy picking her up since she would see him later since she could tell that pressley wouldn't just surprise one person in the family 

"i missed you too, odette! you've gotten so big! when i last saw you, you were like, three! now you're five years old! in fact, you're nearly six!" pressley giggled as odette nodded her head in excitement, happy as ever that pressley remembered that she was no longer a little girl anymore but a big girl 

"i know! i'm glad you're home though, because it's daddy's birthday today! he's been wanting you to come home for agesss!" odette drawn out at the end as that got everyone giggling, including alania, who odette noticed shortly after 

"alania!" odette rushed over to the other brunette girl and gave her a hug 

and then, it was time for the all-important surprise. the main surprise, her dad jared! 

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it had been quickly decided that geneveive would tell the wives and husband of the other cast members from walker and supernatural, including misha, jeff pierre, violet brinson, danneel and jensen ackles, keegan allen, odette anable, molly hagan, kale culley, ashley reyes, alexander calvert, mitch pileggi and a few others. just so they knew that pressley was home surprising jared and that they could tell their kids as well. and this was so the last surprise was jared and then pressley's uncles and aunties. 

and, it worked out because they decided to go out to dinner for jared's birthday and immediately, genevieve wanted to take some group shots, some family shots and then during the shots of jared with his supernatural and walker castmates, pressley quickly slid in standing behind her dad with her arms around him. and this was the funniest thing because, jared just smiled, not hesitating to rest his hands over the top of the hands that were his daughter's, not that he knew that. which made genevieve giggle but managed to keep it quiet enough that jared didn't question it and the photos continued. that was until gen showed jared and the two tv show casts the photos. it didn't take the others long to realise that pressley had joined them for the photo and was the person with their arms around jared but kept quiet so their best friend could get surprised without it being ruined. 

and it wasn't because moments later, jared looked at the photo again. his eyes wide and then turned around to see his eldest daughter, pressley standing right behind him, with her best friend alania behind her filming the reunion. 

"pressley?! what on earth are you doing here?!" nicky's voice shook as he staggered up out of his seat at the restaurant and pulled his eldest in for a hug as pressley giggled 

"you aren't as subtle with your birthday wishes, like always!" pressley simply said as she hugged her dad as tightly as she could, feeling like she could finally breathe properly now that she was finally reunited with her whole family again 

pressley made everyone laugh with her comment as jared couldn't help but laugh at it either as he nodded his head in agreement, "i'm never subtle, pressley!" he mumbled as it was obvious to pressley that her dad could breathe properly again now that his family was back together again 

after one more tight squeeze, pressley then moved to her supernatural and walker families to give them hugs since it was clear they were also surprised, even though they noticed her in the background first. 

after jared had composed himself from the shock that was the surprise of his eldest daughter coming home after four years away in australia, he felt like he was ready to have an actual conversation with his daughter again. 

hugging her again, jared spoke up, "did you just get home today?" jared chuckled, wiping away a tear as pressley giggled 

"yeah, me and alania landed today, we were just two of very few that were allowed to leave, we'll still have to go back at some point for our graduation but, hopefully by then it'll be less restricted," pressley explained as jared nodded his head in understanding as he smiled at alania who he then stood up to give a hug to as she still filmed 

alania smiled, "hey jared, happy birthday!" jared gave her a kiss on the head which made alania blush slightly 

"hey alania, welcome back darlin' and thank you, it is a happy birthday," jared chuckled as alania smiled back with a head nod, understanding that it was easily his best birthday with all of his children home with him 

after a few more photos that had been taken outside of the father and daughter and everyone else, their group had finally picked out what they wanted to eat and ordered it. 

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after the fantastic birthday dinner and even more fantastic birthday cake for jared, videos and photos from the birthday was posted everywhere. including posts from her parents and uncles but, she still hadn't posted any but, because they had just come back home, pressley finally posted for her dad's birthday. just so those who didn't know the girl had come home (not that anyone did), wouldn't freak out thinking the girl had forgotten to post or acknowledge her father's 40th birthday.

liked by jaredpadalecki, genpadalecki, jensenackles, keeoone, alaniacallahan and 777k others

pressleypadalecki happy 40 daddy, you still look absolutely fire even though you're no longer in your twenties 🤍

view all 66k comments

jaredpadalecki you are never gonna let me live this down are you? 

jaredpadalecki seriously though pressley, thank you so much, this was the best birthday i could have ever dreamt of having 🤍

pressleypadalecki jaredpadalecki it was my pleasure dad, i'm glad i could give you your birthday wish 🤍

genpadaleckithe look on your father's face when he realised it was you in the photo, and not just some random person with their arms around him is always going to be priceless

pressleypadalecki genpadalecki i know! that was my fear as well that he'd turn around to tell me to get the heck off him but, he didn't! 

jensenackles i have to say pressley, how on earth are you going to top this birthday present? in all seriousness though, jared's reaction was priceless! 

pressleypadalecki jensenackles honestly uncle jensen, i have got no clue whatsoever so, i think i may need some help for the first time in forever! and, i know, i can't stop watching the video! 

keeoone i've never seen your dad so shocked before! you are for sure the queen of surprising people for their birthdays, lemme tell you that, pressley! 

pressleypadalecki keeoone thanks uncle keegs, i honestly haven't either! and thank you, thank you, however, i think i may start asking for help after this year! 

alaniacallahan lol, "you still look fire even though you're no longer in your twenties", what a slow burn that is for your old man, press! 

pressleypadalecki alaniacallahan hahaha, you know i had to do it, alania! 

misha jared's reaction was the best i had ever seen in ages! 

pressleypadalecki misha it really was! he was not expecting it at all! 

danneelackles512 your old man's reaction to you being home was the sweetest in the world! 

pressleypadalecki danneelackles512 i know, it was so adorable! 

violetbrinson what the fuck are you going to do for your dad's 41st next year?! there is no way you could top this! 

pressleypadalecki violetbrinson i have got no idea! and i agree, i don't know if i am able to top this! 

realashleyreyes the fbi couldn't have planned this any better and neither could the texas rangers!

pressleypadalecki realashleyreyes i agree aunty ash! 

padaleckifanalecki omg i'm gonna cry! i was so worried you had forgotten about your dad's birthday, press! you were just on your way to surprise him, i'm gonna cry! 

pressleypadalecki padaleckifanalecki don't cry, you'll make me cry! and don't worry, i'd never forget my dad's birthday because i was just on my way to surprise him! 

just as pressley thought she had the most perfect day surprising her dad and family for her dad's birthday, she never imagined she'd be talked about in an ew article about how she surprised her dad. but, she did and it happened and it was posted and she was obsessed over it for the next couple of days.

ew!

PRESSLEY PADALECKI, DAUGHTER OF SUPERNATURAL AND WALKER ACTOR JARED PADALECKI HAS COME HOME FROM UNIVERSITY IN QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA AFTER FOUR YEARS TO SURPRISE HER DAD FOR HIS 40th BIRTHDAY AT BIRTHDAY DINNER

SAMANTHA HIGHFIELD | EDITOR JULY 19, 2022 

pressley padalecki, the eldest daughter of supernatural and walker actor jared padalecki and wife geneveive padalecki, gave her father the biggest surprise and ultimately, the best birthday present ever for his 40th birthday. she surprised him during a birthday dinner for his birthday as the walker cast has a small break in the middle of their newest season. 

the twenty-year-old is a university student studying for a bachelor's degree in film and television all the way in brisbane, queensland, australia where she had been the last four years, two of them due to the coronavirus pandemic. it was mentioned in a video taken by pressley's family friend, alania callahan, who is a fellow film and television university student with pressley, that the two girls were two of very few given permission to fly home by the university of queensland for her dad's birthday which is what inspired her to surprise her father for this 40th birthday. 

pressley padalecki and her childhood best friend, alania callahan in brisbane, australia | pic: instagram/pressleypadalecki 

in pressley's instagram post for her dad's 40th birthday, she posts three photos. one of her with her father at a restaurant, a photo of her all dressed up for the dinner and then another photo of her at the airport, taken by alania callahan, who is a very well known friend to the entire padalecki family, not just pressley. and this is due to the relationship alania's parents has with pressley's grandfather, gerald padalecki, former tax accountant. 

her caption reads: "happy 40 daddy, you still look absolutely fire even though you're no longer in your twenties 🤍" which is a very simple caption for the padalecki girl as she is usually the one to write paragraphs for occasions like her family members' birthdays and days like mothers and fathers day. however, the eldest padalecki daughter didn't forget the little slow burn that she always gives her dad for every birthday post. this year mentioning that he is no longer in his twenties but still looks absolutely fire. but, it seems as though she wanted to keep it short, sweet and simple since she did surprise him at dinner in front of so many people after it was shown she had surprised the rest of her family. 

pressley violet padalecki is the eldest daughter of jared and genevieve padalecki, born in 2003. however, jared and genevieve didn't meet until season four of supernatural and pressley was actually the daughter of padalecki's former partner before he met genevieve. genevieve then shortly after adopted pressley just as the two married in 2010. pressley is the older sister to jared and genevieve's three other children, thomas colton, austin sheppard "shep" and odette elliot. at the beginning of little pressley's life, there were tons of rumours about how people had no idea that jared already had a child before meeting his now-wife. however, thankfully those rumours never lasted long to cause too much harm to the family. causing only a mild controversy, everyone cheered in the excitement that jared was already a father. then, when pressley was first introduced, everyone rejoiced that little pressley violet was healthy and then in 2010, pressley's parents got married in sun valley, idaho when she was only a few months old. 

pressley padalecki | pic: instagram/pressleypadalecki 

it had been four years since jared, genevieve, tom, shep and odette had seen their daughter and older sister and since the rest of the supernatural and walker family had seen their niece and cousin. as previously mentioned, pressley had been in queensland, australia studying at their university for a degree in film and television because she had always loved acting and performing. the university of queensland is also where her childhood best friend alania callahan studied with her. 

alania, who gave me permission to talk with her, said that she's been friends with pressley and the entire padalecki family ever since she could remember. because one day, during an event that gerald padalecki was hosting, both alania and pressley's parents were attending the event and met, hitting it off straight away with each other. so, since that day the padalecki's and callahan's met, the friendship continued and then moved on to their children, which is how pressley and alania's friendship became so strong. alania was also not one to hide or shy away from her love for her best friend's dad and his tv shows, supernatural and walker when i questioned her on their friendship and the families relationship. she explained that being friends with jared and genevieve padalecki feels like she has an extra set of parents, especially considering that jared and genevieve are the godparents of alania and alania's parents, gina and alexander callahan are the godparents of pressley, it only makes sense for alania to mention that to us in our conversation with her. 

in the comments of pressley's post for her dad's birthday, alania said quote, "lol, "you still look fire even though you're no longer in your twenties", what a slow burn that is for your old man, press!" which clearly indicates the love that alania not only has for her best friend pressley but also for her best friends dad jared. and pressley responded back saying quote, "hahaha, you know i had to do it, alania!" which clearly states that it's now become a tradition for pressley to roast her dad at least once during her birthday posts for her dad. which is the way that pressley shows love to her dad that's just special to the father and daughter. 

talking further with alania, she talked about her first memory with pressley padalecki at a supernatural convention back in 2012, in toronto, canada, saying quote: "i remember the first ever time i was present at a supernatural convention, it was back in 2012 in toronto, canda. it was near the end of the convention so some tears had been shed but a lot of laughs had occured and were being continued. the fan for the final question had been called up and suddenly, i just remembered bawling my eyes out. the fan had asked a question about asking for help but not knowing how and i just remember being so young [...] we, pressley and i, were seven and i remember just crying because someone who was so much older than me didn't know how to ask for help when i asked my own parents for help every single day...i then turned to my right and noticed that pressley was getting teary-eyed because she saw the way her dad reacted and of course, because her dad is jared padalecki and he's known to be an emotional person, pressley is also got that personality trait..."

continuing with a giggle, thinking she sounds insane which, i immediately tell her she doesn't, "...she's also crying and she just hugs me as we watch her dad and jensen just help this clearly nervous and troubled fan. telling them that they just did the very first thing but also the hardest thing. and that was acknowledging that they wanted help but didn't know how to ask for it. they then continued this answer for a little while longer and we were just sitting in our seats completely exhausted by the end of it because of how much little seven-year-old us had been crying. because whilst we were young we still had some understanding to why we were crying. i could tell how much this question had meant to both jared and pressley."

pressley padalecki and alania callahan in brisbane, australia | pic: instagram/pressleypadalecki 

alania then talked to me more about her friendship with pressley and the padalecki's which, if you guys are lucky, will be released publically soon. also mentioning that she is excited to go back to brisbane, queensland with pressley so they can graduate together and then come back home to focus on some musical auditions. she also mentioned however that she's glad to be coming back home with her best friend and glad to be spending time with her best friend's family after being away for so long due to the coronavirus pandemic. in which kept them from coming home a year earlier like supposed to, having to rely on facetime and phone calls to keep in touch. 

welcome home pressley and alania, congratulations on finishing your bachelor's degrees and we cannot wait to see you guys performing on stage very soon! 

and, of course, we cannot forget, the happiest 40th birthday to jared padalecki, we hope you had the best birthday ever and hope you enjoy the rest of the newest season of walker. 

for those wanting to catch-up on walker, check out the cw app or stan for this new upcoming season and the other seasons.  

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rewriting this was so much fun even though i know i could have done it better lol! i'm just glad to have written another thing after what feels like forever since the last one-shot. 

ok ily bye xx

wc; 5870

[outsideratheart]

129 with athenea del Castillo

129 “i told you i’d come home to you.”

When coronavirus hit you were at a national camp in France. The whole team watched the news as if it was the latest drama on Netflix. You remember the heaviness of your heart when you heard that Spain was closing its border. It meant that you wouldn’t be able to return to your club, Real Madrid, and you wouldn’t be able to see your girlfriend for god knows how long.

Whilst the lockdown lasted months, you had managed to find a loophole and were able to travel back to Madrid for work reasons.

The residents of Spain had to stay indoors except from the 1 hour exercise allowance. This meant that you knew Athenea would be home.

You enter your shared apartment hoping to be welcomed by your girlfriend but she is nowhere to be found. You drop your bag by the door and put your keys in the dish before venturing into your bedroom.

There she stands, well dances, with her headphones in. She is completely oblivious to hear surroundings and it gives you to chance to observe her. The past few months have really put your life into perspective. Being forced to be separated from Athenea made you release just how much you loved her.

She really was putting a show on for you. The way she swayed her hips whilst no doubt listening to some Reggaeton music.

When she sees you, she freezes in place. You can tell that she is trying to work out if you are actually there or if you are a figure of her imagination.

“Bonjour Ma chérie” the words you have said countless times over FaceTime sound completely different now that you are saying them in person.

“You’re here” Athenea runs and jumps into your arms knowing full well that you would catch her.

You hold her tightly fearing that you would lose her if you let go.

“Are you crying?“ you ask when you feel tears on the place where Athenea has buried her face in your neck.

“I can’t believe your here. I didn’t know when you would be able to come to Madrid”

“I told you i’d come home to you.”

Athenea unhooks her legs, now standing in front of you with her arms wraps around your torso you. She looks up at you, your words held more meaning than you realised.

“You see Madrid as home?” she asks you.

You had moved to Madrid to be part of the inaugural Real Madrid team and from the first day you met Athenea she went above and beyond to make you feel welcome in the Spanish capital.

“No” your reply.

Athenea’s face drops at your admission. She is slightly thrown off as she thought the two of you were on the same page. In her eyes there isn’t much more she can do.

“You are” you admit.

“Que?”

“Madrid isn’t my home and I realised over past few months that France isn’t either. “

“I’m confused” your girlfriend admits.

“You are my home Athenea”

[apureniallsource]

Niall Horan is more than Mr Nice Guy

Three years after his last release, the 29-year-old singer has jumped feet first into the spotlight to promote third album The Show, which lands on 9th June.

“I’m more excited than I thought I would be,” Horan says of his return, a quiet confidence lingering. With outstretched legs, the double-denim-clad singer lounges in his chair, decanting still water from a glass bottle, as we settle in for our chat in his luxury London hotel suite. A high-pitched giggle ripples through him when two builders, dawdling on a pulley lift, nab his attention through the window, before he apologises for losing eye contact. “I’m revved up, but I’m nervous. I hope I didn’t waste 18 months writing something for people not to like it.”

Those 18 months in question were spent, in part, during the coronavirus lockdown, which acts as inspiration for many of the introspective lyrics on The Show. It was the first time in a decade that the singer had, well, nothing in his schedule, allowing time to contemplate his meteoric rise to fame. “There’s no heartbreak stuff [on this album], so there needed to be a new concept. The only good part of the pandemic for me was that I was actually happy being still. I had time to breathe; I realised it doesn’t have to be a thousand miles an hour all the time.”

For the uninitiated, the first six years of Horan’s career were spent in the extraordinarily successful band, One Direction. Originally from Mullingar, Ireland, Horan auditioned for X Factor as a solo artist in 2010, later forming a five-piece alongside Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik. What followed was unparalleled success, multiple award wins and huge stadium gigs. “I loved touring, but it was fucking crazy,” Horan muses now. “We’d go to countries and never see a second of it - it was hotel, venue, plane, same again. We couldn’t get out the [hotel] door. If you went out in the car, you’d be seen and chased [by fans]. I understand why it was going on, but it gave me a thing where, when I came back to London, I would be afraid to go out. There was a period where I actually couldn’t.”

1D announced their hiatus in 2016, and Horan released his first solo album, Flicker, the following year. His second, Heartbreak Weather, came in 2020. Three years later in February, he dropped The Show’s sparkling lead single, ‘Heaven’, taking to social media to celebrate.

“I was lying in bed when management texted to say the song was out, so I checked Twitter. The numbers were fucking nuts. I was up for hours seeing what people were saying.” Horan generally views social platforms as a tool for fun, and mainly use them to engage with followers. “Sometimes I type my name in to see tweets I’m not tagged in. If I see the fans talking about me without tagging me, I’ll reply. [My TikTok ‘For You Page’] is full of people doing dances to my songs, golf, and mid-century modern furniture. I like winding people that don’t like me up. I get such a laugh. I also try to reply to people who ask genuine questions about the music, or what I’m up to.”

With 14 years in the public eye under his belt, Horan has also seen a darker side of the internet. “I’ve [read that I’ve] been in car crashes that I wasn’t in. I’ve been in three or four fake ‘PR stunted’ relationships. What’s the old phrase? It’s tomorrow’s chip paper. I care about what the fans think, but there’s always going to be people… who would never say a thing like that to your face, because they’re cowards.”

As our time together rolls on (me looking at Horan, Horan looking at the procrastinating builders), his genuine charm reverberates around the giant hotel room. A chatty openness takes the conversation from his favourite true crime documentary (The Jinx) to tips for long haul flights (green noise) and best skincare advice (facial steaming). It’s this endearing, positive aura that makes his Nice Guy Reputation™ legitimately easy to believe. But what’s his secret?

“Don’t be a prick?” Horan jokes. “There’s no secret to that. Just don’t be one. My Irishness? My humble upbringing? This is like some kind of questionnaire. A combination of a few things. Carefree attitude?”

Horan laughs off the suggestion that he’s going to dinner parties with groups of celebrities, instead insisting he has “two really good [industry] friends, and a tight circle of old mates. People have this idea that all famous people are friends. But you’re not friends with everyone in your office, are you? I remember seeing Channing Tatum on a plane. I’d never met the guy in real life, but he waved. We were laughing later. He was like, ‘I felt like I had to do the token ‘celebrity to celebrity’ kind of moment.’”

One person Horan has connected with on a deeper level is Lewis Capaldi. “He’s just a diamond geezer,” Horan says, before sharing a better-than-average imitation of a Scottish accent. “There’s not a bad bone in his body. He’s a solid friend, and he also happens to be one of the funniest fuckers you’ve ever met in your life. We’re in a lot of WhatsApp groups together.” Horan also reached out to fellow Irishman Paul Mescal, when Normal People came out. “He’s a nice fella. When he first moved to London, I talked to him a bit. But then the pandemic happened, and we never spoke again.”

The singer briefly touches on his relationship with Amelia Woolley, who he’s been with since 2020. On whether he has a romantic side, Horan says, “I think so. I wouldn't say I’m like ‘rose petals on the floor’ type of romantic, but I'm good at caring. I'm good at making dinners and the day-to-day stuff." On love languages, he adds, "I’m good at words of affirmation and I’m good at touch.”

Album release aside, 2023 also marks Horan’s 30th birthday, with the singer entering his third decade in September. “I’m excited for it - I’ve heard your 30s are the best time of your life,” Horan says, enthused. “I’ve never been one of those people to overthink timelines. I hope I don’t age too much!” On plans for the next decade, he's thoughtful for a moment. “I’d like to still be doing this, going around the world, still playing to thousands of people. I’d like to win a Grammy. I’d like to be happy. And to still have decent skin.”

Better keep at the steaming, then.